Month: July 2009

Editorial: Response to RIAA's file sharing case in Boston

I just came across this blog post on Boston.com's Metro Desk: Defendant's lawyer puts on a show in illegal downloading case.

Globe staff writer, Jonathan Salzman describes the courtroom antics of "Charles Nesson, the flamboyant Harvard Law School professor defending a college student accused of illegally downloading and sharing music online," has used to make the case that his client is not responsible for copyright infringement. At the time of this post, there were over 40 comments to the post. I wanted to share my two cents on the subject, which I posted in the comments section earlier tonight.

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DubSpot Summer 2009 Class Registration – Last Call

If you don't know Dubspot, the music production and DJ school has quickly entrenched itself as the defacto spot to learn the tools, tips and techniques for the DJ trade. Whether it's making music with Ableton Live, scratch classes using Serato, or DJing with the Pioneer DVJ mixing console using DVD's, the school has a class for you.

Dubspot's 2009 Summer registration is under way and you'll need to jump on it quick, because I hear that classes are filling up. According to a recent NYTimes article about DJing in the dowturn, Dubspot enrollment has doubled to 300 since last year. Since the economy took a turn for the worse, it's always good to use the time to pick up a new skill. While some are transitioning to nursing and health care or other sectors, you might be thinking about leaving the corporate carer behind to do something infinitely more creative than crunching spreadsheets and building Power Point presentations.

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Moderate your Twitter feed using TweetRiver or TidyTweet

Tweet RiverOkay, we all know the power Twitter now wields over unfettered thought on the web. However, if you’re a company who has set up their first Twitter feed, only to find that competitors and those who either hate you or want to see you fail start posting things you might not want your mother to see, then check out two new services that will allow you to moderate Tweets before they hit your feed.

TweetRiver.com recently provided moderation services for the first Twitter conference, TWTRCON, in San Francisco. A few bloggers are already talking about the service.

From their web site:

TweetRiver delivers innovative and exciting solutions for a broad spectrum of companies and organizations. Some customers are simply trying to get a moderated Twitter stream onto their website. Some are trying to redefine how they engage customers from first-touch through customer support.

We know that each of our customers has individual needs. What solution can we deliver for you?

News & Media

  • Publish a moderated news feed on your website
  • Interact with an online community or fan group
  • Curate tweets (or links in tweets) about news and events
  • Aggregate tweets from multiple personalities into a single stream

Technology

  • Notify customers and prospects of news or events
  • Publish a moderated product feed on your website
  • Respond to customer support issues
  • Capture product, service, or company recommendations
  • Power digital signage with tweets from customers or about your market

Large Enterprise

  • Personalize a brand with tweets from key employees or executives
  • Drive thought leadership about products or solutions
  • Augment the call center with the crowd conversation
  • Enable customers to collaborate via social media

Retail

  • Cross-promote links and keywords from tweets to your website
  • Publish buzz about new products or events
  • Feature tweets from key influencers on your website
  • Respond to local product and service requests

TidyTweet.com Not to be outdone, there’s a newbie on the block. TidyTweet.com promises to do the following:

  • Automatic or Manual Approval of Tweets
  • Custom Bad Word Filtering
  • Whitelist or Blacklist Twitter Users
  • Auto-rejection of Tweets from New Accounts
  • Auto-rejection of Tweets with Multiple Trending Topics

TidyTweet is currently in private beta. Sign up for an account to test it out. It looks like it will be free for personal users. Business customers will have to fork over the toll.


Social Influence and the SIM Score

A recent report from Razorfish released today indicates that about 33 percent of consumers are not connecting with brands on social networks. There are of course two ways to look at this. One, it could be that this large untapped audience presents a terrific opportunity for marketers. The second scenario is that brands are avoiding social media.

Michael Jackson Sells 1.1 Million Albums In One Week

The King of Pop dominates the Nielsen SoundScan and Billboard charts yet again.


Electric Zoo Festival announced Francois K, Ben Watt, Cassy, Jason Jollins and more.

We've posted about this a few times already this summer. Sorry for the repetitive info, but Made Events keep announcing new acts for its huge, Electric Zoo Festival, an open air music festival taking place on Randall's Island Park over Labor Day weekend: Saturday, September 5th and Sunday, September 6th, 2009 - 12 noon to 11 pm both days!

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Rakim Ready To Release 'The Seventh Seal'

“The Seventh Seal,” the long-anticipated album by rap legend Rakim, is slated for release in the fall, Billboard has learned exclusively. The project’s first single, “Holy Are You,” will drop July 28.


Lady GaGa Makes Mainstream Top 40 History

Lady GaGa becomes just the third artist in the 16-year history of the Mainstream Top 40 airplay chart to collect three No. 1 songs from a debut album.


Michael Jackson's Estate Open For Business

Two weeks after Michael Jackson’s death, administrators of his estate are temporarily authorized to reopen for business and negotiate, among other things, agreements relating to the singer’s ill-fated “This Is It” concert tour.