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."

A computer virus from your digital picture frame? Yep

Watch out for viruses if you buy a digital picture frame that can talk to your PC, or pretty much any other gizmo. Yikes.

Beatles music coming to iTunes soon?

Will The Beatles songs finally be coming to iTunes? Sure sounds like things are moving along for an announcement this year. UPDATE 3/11/08: Or... maybe NOT.

Digital camera coming with High-Speed Video, HD, and a lot more

Whoa! A digital camera that can shoot VIDEO at 1,200 frames a SECOND (check out the card shuffle video comparisons)! And 12x Zoom too.

And HD video. Plus a 60 frames a second photo burst mode.

The Exilim site says under a thousand bucks. Wow.

Disney to post classic TV shows online

Add Disney to the list that includes NBC and CBS in streaming classic shows online (though I just checked and didn't see aren't any there yet). Disney already has current Disney Channel episodes online.

Business push e-mail coming in the next iPhone update

On my recent business trip to Nashville I ran in to plenty of iPhone users, and every one of them LOVED their iPhone. The only real complaint I heard was the inability to use push e-mail from their company, like BlackBerry users can. Sounds like the upcoming June iPhone 2.0 update will fix that.

Live video coming to YouTube in 2008?

Sure sounds like it from this scoop from Sarah Meyers as reported by CNET's tech news blog. Don't you think live video will explode then?

There are sites where you can do live streaming video now, but none with the reach and brand name of YouTube.

Seems like a real game changer. And will the Internet be able to take the surge in bandwidth demand?

Guitar Hero 3 comes to AT&T Phones

First it was Verizon, and now CNET reports that AT&T phone customers will be able to play Guitar Hero 3 on their phones. Let's just not hear of someone trying to drive while trying to keep up with the insanely fast GH3 version of "Devil Went To Georgia," 'keh!?

Are digital music sales already 40% of revenue at some majors?

Digital Music News reports that at the recent Digital Music Forum in New York, some surprisingly high digital sales numbers were revealed.

Disney Games coming with "Ultimate Band" for Wii, DS

Another entry is coming in the video game music space, currently dominated by Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Disney Interactive Studios is coming with "Ultimate Band" for the Nintendo Wii and DS. No add-on controllers. "Songs already confirmed for "Ultimate Band" include "Steady as She Goes" by the Raconteurs, the Who's "My Generation" and "Fell in Love With a Girl" by the White Stripes, all of which will be covers."

HTML Code Tutorial

That's the name of the site: HTML Code Tutorial. Looks like a handy reference (I needed to check how to strike out text). Do you have another favorite HTML reference site?