heute:pop:blog.  

So the Amazon Kindle is out. How exciting.

I had a Sony Reader in my hand the other day which uses the e-ink technology (which is the same one that the Amazon Kindle is using as far as I understand). It is pretty amazing. It read just like a book and you need light to actually read it as it is not like a computer screen. It seems to be ’softer’ on the eyes plus the battery live is lasting for ages because the only time it uses the battery is when you ‘turn’ the page.

Now what I’m more interested in (other than the geeky gadget talk) is what this will do to the way books, magazines and newspapers are being consumed in the future. OK, lets say the Kindle is kicking off the way the iPod has kicked off for digital music what does that do to the way of distribution of written media? And of course will there be free written media widely available the way it is for music through peer-to-peer networks?

I’m not pretending that I will be able to answer those questions but these are a few thoughts.

Lets start with magazines. Now print magazines and newspapers are mainly advertising funded so even if all print magazines and newspapers are suddenly being distributed digitally they could (in theory) just take the advertising clients with them and of course sharing of those magazine through p2p networks will not be a problem at all as it will actually increase the circulation and be beneficial for the ad clients and therefore for the publishers. I think it just makes sense for those kind of publications to go 100% digital anyway but until now people just did not want to read their paper on a computer screen, sitting on the sofa with a laptop on your lap is just not the same as having the paper in your hand. The Kindle, the Sony Reader and E-Ink might change that.

Now for books we have a different issue. First of all they are not advertising funded (yet?) so sharing and copying without compensation for the rights owner (some people call that piracy) could be an issue. Since the file size for a book is extremely small it will be very easy to share it even on mobile phone networks. In fact I’m sure you can already find plenty of books illegal on the internet but I never bothered to download one. I know I will never read the whole book on my screen. On the Kindle I would. Now I’m not convinced that online file sharing is actually effecting the number of sales in the way that the music industry is claiming (there are even studies that suggest it acts as a promotional tool) but it has an effect, even if it’s just in the mind set of people.

One thing we have to keep in mind though is that many books are cheap. Retailers like Amazon are giving us printed books in a wide choice and at the same time made them very affordable so for many people there is little incentive to go out and download a pirated copy of a book instead of buying a printed copy. This goes for the paperbacks and bestsellers that you can buy for up to £20. There is a different interesting book market though which you might not find in the Amazon Top 100. The educational and specialist books you might have to spend several hundreds pounds on. I’m not an expert on this but there is a whole ecosystem of books needed for university courses which you might only need for one term and a second hand market that comes with it. If you think about students and make a big generalization that they are tech-savvy and would know how to get a free copy of their ‘Blackstone’s Criminal Practice’ (normally about £155) and how to load it on their Kindle, this could have a real effect on that industry.

The music business has been heavily effected by the digitalization (and by that I don’t just mean file sharing but also the effect of the internet as a legal music consumption platform) but high value products could never been replaced by digital copies. Collectors items always have to be physical whereby certain high value book products can be replaced by digital copies. Lets see how the book industry is handling the change that’s coming their way.

So I’ve been talking to my friend who works (worked) at Amato Distribution and he told me that the administrator will come in next Monday so that seems to be the last day for most people at Amato. It was also reported in the press today.

In addition to the closing of Amato being very difficult to all employees of the company it has also very big effects on the labels it was distributing. Like when the likes of 3MV went bust there are large sums of money outstanding to the labels and this is probably money that those labels will never see. So if you are a small dance label and Amato was your exclusive distributor there was very slim chances to see any money any time soon. Lets just hope that everyone can get their stock (as in their CDs and records) back as soon as possible so all labels can get back to work as soon as possible.

From what I’ve heard the company has not been 100% honest to the employees about the financial situation so this bankruptcy has come as a surprise to everyone. It looks like everyone was fairly optimistic after Unique has bought Amato and the office moved to East London.

But no one is really surprised about news like this in this changing music industry.

first time I’m posting something from my iPhone (I’m on the bus right now): word has just reached me that amato distribution went into administration today. big shame that is. more tomorrow.

Today at lunch time we had a small gig on the roof top of the Last.fm HQ. Broadcast 2000 and Lucky Soul were playing a few songs as part of our Xmas Chart Attack initiative (http://www.last.fm/group/xmaschartattack). We had Channel 4 down to film it, there was mulled wine, the weather was amazing (as you can see on the picture below) and even the bands were really good. Everyone was thrilled. More pictures here: www.flickr.com/photos/russss/sets/72157603194395347/ (Russ, I always liked the pictures you’re taking.)

EDIT: you can watch some footage here: http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/player.jsp?showId=10140# 

Check out the background noises. Lovely:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=pj66XgK3NvE]

Just came back from Cologne and I had an interesting conversation with my friend (who I was staying with) which stuck in my mind for the last few days. I am often surrounded by people who work in the internet business and in Cologne I met plenty of people who are from a totally different backgrounds (mainly students) and therefore can give a different perspective on things.

So we were sitting in a cafe in Cologne and as often the conversation went on to facebook and how we interact with people through it. Just top explain, in Germany facebook is not (yet?) as popular as in the US or UK for example, StudiVZ is the local equivalent (although it’s currently only available to students, like facebook used to be). The conversation then moved to how we show our lives to people on the internet and how companies can use this information to target internet users with personalized advertising these days. For my friend this was a scary idea that corporations would know our behaviour, interests and social connections and based on that offer products to us. For me that is not only normal, in fact I don’t see a problem with that – I only want products to be advertised to me that might be of interest to me.

Just as a quick explanation, many websites out there use personal data we might submit to advertise products to us based on that data. Google ads you might see on certain sites are always relevant on the content you see on that site, social networks (such as MySpace, facebook and even Last.fm who I work for) will use information you have entered for personalized ads and retailers like Amazon will ‘recommend’ products to you based on your past purchases.

Now Germany has always (well ever since I can remember) been a bit ‘touchy’ about data protection issues, the last time a Volkszaehlung (population census) was planed many people were protesting against it as this was seen as a unnecessary collection of personal data. Just from personal experience, people from Germany are more skeptical about data protection than people from the UK or US.

The obvious pros for making your personal data ‘available’ to companies that they can then advertise products to you that actually interest you. When I’m watching TV and see all the ads for cars and nappies (I don’t need a car in London and I don’t have a baby) I just think it’s a waste of money – money that could be invested in making the products better. If I want to buy a new, say, fridge I would be happy to get lots of fridge ads on TV as I want to know what available on the market.

I feel that the only and most important thing about your personal data and how and to whom you make is available to is that you have to be able to keep control over it. I’m happy to give information to facebook and then get personalized advertising but if and when I want to delete that information I want to be sure that this has been deleted entirely. If I want to make only certain information available openly I want to make sure that the rest is properly hidden. The problem with all collection of personal data by the Government is that it’s often compulsory (an example is the information that the US Government collects when entering the country – credit card, fingerprint, DOB, etc) and we have no control over what is being done with it and how long it will be kept for. In fairness we don’t know that either when dealing with corporations but at least there are rules for it (may it be laws or self opposed rules i.e. T&Cs) so one just have to make sure that they are being enforced.

Big subject this one (this post could fill a whole book), it will surly be more and more relevant in my job as well as me as an internet user (and media consumer).

PS: some pictures from Cologne: www.flickr.com/photos/pete_bug/sets/72157603078365128/

Thought I’m going to Cologne for a few days to get my head cleared up. Lots of things happening these days so need some time off. Just came back from pre-recording a ‘Top 5 tracks of 2007′ for the University radio ‘Koeln Campus’ (I don’t think I’m suppose to tell, they going to pretend I’m live in the studio in December). Was a lot of fun actually, a good friend of mine was interviewing me and we ended up talking about Last.fm (as always).

I still think ‘traditional’ radio is a very interesting medium. I’m not just saying that because I’m doing a show myself but the personal connection between the listener and the presenter/track selector can be closer and it will be difficult to find that kind of ‘relationship’ between and listener and a recommendation engine. DJ led radio shows are surly not the most efficient way of recommending music but the personal aspect cannot be underestimated.

Now that there are so many ‘traditional’ radio show available out there (through podcasts, webstreams, digital radio, FM, etc) the problem is again how to find the right shows for your taste. Filters are needed to find the right filters. Maybe there are some around already, need to do some research.

Anyway, just a thought while I’m sitting in the Cafe Duddel. Oh I have a picture actually; I left my camera at home but this is from my iPhone: