I moderated a panel for the Los Angeles County Tech Week: “Funding or Marketing: Fish and Bait?” This event included venture capitalists, PR expertise in pre-IPO companies, and other marketing experts…. Learn more about LA County Tech Week.
Andrea Belz said, “It’s very hard to get people to pay for things they’re used to getting for free…. Very early on, companies need to decide on either an advertising or a subscription model. You have to provide a whole lot of value to justify subscriptions….” Read more in the LA Business Journal.
“The publishing industry is finally following in the footsteps of the music industry and the broader world of copyrighted works, where publishers serve as marketing entities rather than distributors. The inventory and distribution costs associated with digital distribution are almost negligible and thus prices are likely to stay rather flat…..” Read more at E-Commerce Times.
The Protestant Reformation shifted power from the Pope and priesthood to the lay leadership, empowered with newly available Bibles printed in local languages. Similarly, the Googleist Reformation represents the movement of power from advertising and marketing executives to the lowly customers, who suddenly have access to information generated by other users in the shared dialect of the 140-character Twitter feed…. Read more at the USA Today blog.
I enjoyed serving on the Titans of Media Tech panel with Sandy Barger, formerly of Walt Disney Studios; Hilary DeCesare, C0-Founder and CEO of Everloop; Michele Martell, COO of Cinidigm Entertainment Group, and Dana Settle, Partner of Greycroft. The panel, moderated by Megan Jones, was hosted by Broads Circle.
It might be easier than ever to self-publish, but without a filtering agent, it’s not so easy to sell. The information avalanche forces us to trust our favorites even more than before, and yet we jump ship easily if we don’t get what we want. We have all turned into young children, absolutely dependent on a couple of parents and switching friendships on a moment’s notice. Publishers will thrive in this new economy…. Read more at E-Commerce Times.
Amazon is beginning to discover that selling e-books is not going to be the same as selling music online. The company may have thought it could bolster its Kindle by taking a loss on e-book titles, iTunes-style. However, with the launch of its iPad, Apple is taking a very different tack, giving publishers sweet deals and forcing Amazon to knuckle under…. Read more at E-Commerce Times.
Hollywood is undergoing a transformation that could bring the current system of content production to a halt — or, at least, relocate the nexus of activity. That’s because the creative focus now is on developing new business models that take into account the democratization of the entertainment industry — and that has little to do with content…. Read more at E-Commerce Times.
That tinny ring you’re hearing whenever the Comcast-NBC deal is mentioned is the echo of AOL Time Warner’s ghost. If Comcast’s aspirations to become both a content producer and a distribution network are realized, its success will hinge largely on Apple’s next move. The iTunes business model is already greased and loaded, with 100 million customers ready to flock to the Apple channel…. Read more at E-Commerce Times.
“The traditional entertainment industry is rapidly disaggregating,” Andrea Belz told MacNewsWorld. “This type of service is the next step in moving the entertainment center away from Hollywood, with distribution relocating to Silicon Valley,” she suggested….. Read more at MacNewsWorld.
