Charlie Rose tries to connect with...

Ha - well done, funny, and a bit haunting... You get that Charlie really wants to connect with...Charlie

How People Are Getting Their Music

The slice of dark blue (CDs) in the chart is shrinking fast. A good overview of what's up in the fast-changing music market. In this survey paid downloads are growing, but here's the tough nugget for record companies:

"... the biggest source of music for people is their friends — either burning CDs or ripping files ..."

Online Video Viewing Way Up

No surprise - online video viewing is way up, 66% more videos watched in February than a year ago. YouTube had almost a third of the traffic. No one else was even close.

No doubt demonstrations of mad skills on the mike from folks like Chris from the Valory Music Company (below) have been driving traffic... :o

US Video Game Software Sales over a $$ BILLION $$ in March

Recession? What recession?

YouTube videos now playing on Google Maps

Here's a neat bit of news for small business owners from Google Maps.

Change a single note in a recorded CHORD (!) - and much more

Wow, the creative musical possibilities shown here in Melodyne's new software are limitless. Maybe even a little scary.

Note: I first thought the narrator in the video was saying "meaty," but it's how he pronounces "Midi."

And much like how digital image editing has challenged us in how we look at any kind of visual, this shows that going forward you'll never really be able to know what the original source of an audio recording was.

All Disney Animation will also open in 3D

And perhaps the best news in the statement about 3D and Disney's upcoming slate of animated movies is that Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are confirmed for Toy Story 3. All is right with the world.

Microsoft coming with its own Wii-mote?

Seems Xbox might get a motion controller by year's end. Will that be a threat to Nintendo, or a sign that the Wii has knocked Xbox off its game?

iTunes claims to be the #1 US Music Seller

It only took about 4 years for Apple to become the biggest music seller in the US.

The news came on the same day as the announcement of 3 of the 4 big music companies making a deal with MySpace.

Jay-Z goes with Live Nation for Mega $$

Will Live Nation's signing of Jay-Z give the "partner with the promoter, not the label" idea a whole lot more traction? Besides the big up-front money (about $80 Mill!), it takes the pressure off of Jay-Z for a radio hit:

“In a way I want to operate like an indie band,” he said. “Play the music on tour instead of relying on radio. Hopefully we’ll get some hits out of there and radio will pick it up, but we won’t make it with that in mind.”

The path to small success with 1,000 "True Fans"

What if you could find and bond with 1,000 "true fans" who would spend $100 a year on your works? Interesting look at how an artist or content creator might not have to become a mass-appeal star to make a living. From Kevin Kelly's blog (thanks to the9513.com for bringing it to my attention).

Taylor Swift - online and clued in

Nice piece in Billboard with Taylor Swift.

How's this for an artist being in touch with fans:

"I spend so much time on MySpace. It's the best way to figure out what your fans and what your friends and these people that helped you get where you are, what they're going through and what they want to hear from you, what they're liking, what they're not. My MySpace is something that I made. The background that you see on there, I went to a Web site and copied the code and copy-and-pasted my "about me" section. I upload all the pictures, I check the comments, I am in charge of everything on that page."

Taylor knows who she is and LOVES her fans. They feel it, and big things continue to happen for her.

Are you experienced? If so, does that mean you're good?

This story from Time magazine is as inspirational as anything I've seen on why we can never coast. The piece talks about how experience alone doesn't make someone good at something:

"...rather than mere experience or even raw talent, it is dedicated, slogging, generally solitary exertion — repeatedly practicing the most difficult physical tasks for an athlete, repeatedly performing new and highly intricate computations for a mathematician — that leads to first-rate performance. And it should never get easier; if it does, you are coasting, not improving."

Guess that means I should fire up Brain Age on the DS again (the activity in the the first edition of the game where you quickly count people running in and out of a house makes my head hurt just thinking about it).

So there it is - the "secret" to success. Work on the hard stuff.

A new appreciation of Left-Brain / Right-Brain

Thanks to my wife Linda Thomas for alerting me to Jill Bolte Taylor's truly unique presentation from the TED conference. A tour of our gray matter from brain researcher who survived a stroke. Profound.

Now a portable version of Guitar Hero for DS

Clearly, it's a Guitar Hero world and we just live in it. I think the interesting tidbit here is that 80% of the songs on the portable version will be master recordings...

Yes, what about a Country version of Guitar Hero?

I'm in sync with this comment on a CMT blog about how a country version of Guitar Hero would uh, rock. Providing that the franchise can get past the legal challenges that have come up.

Will Apple share Hardware $$ with the music labels?

Here's a good overview from CNET about Apple's possible "all you can eat" music deal.

Beatles coming to Guitar Hero?

Yet again it's Guitar Hero bringing buzz to the music biz. Won't the media will go crazy if a Beatles version of "Guitar Hero" really happens?

Google says a "watershed moment" for mobile Internet use

Google knows a whole lot of stuff from all the data it sees daily, and is revealing "We are seeing that mobile Internet use is in fact accelerating."

Google says their new phone search app has increased mobile searches by 20%.

Google's Android platform for mobile phones is coming later this year, and perhaps mobile phones are just the beginning...

Super Smash Brothers debuts with a big punch

Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii has broken Nintendo sales records and pulled in over over $50 Million in first-week sales: "The Puget Sound Business Journal reported that the game has had an overall sales record if 1.4 million units, with 874,000 sold on March 9."