Totally going to watch this. Swoon.
Category Archives: Entertainment
Celebrity Run-Ins
There is this concept that you should act cool when you run into a celebrity while out and about. You don’t want to freak out the person, or come out crazy.
I always keep this in mind when I run into some famous. But, I’m starting to question whether this is the correct tact. Often, in my efforts to not come off like a fan, I come off aloof or just odd instead.
When I was an intern back in 2009, I ran into Seth Rogen on the studio lot. Almost literally. I was walking and saw Seth and his entourage walking toward me. I was trying to be “cool” so I didn’t stare and didn’t suddenly leap out of the way. The result was that I came very close to actually walking right into Mr. Rogen.
Today, I found myself waiting to eat at the same restaurant as iJustine. I did muster the courage to say hi and introduce myself, but instead of saying I was a fan and how cool it was to meet her after just moving to Los Angeles, I just kind of muttered cool and kept waiting. Probably came off as a weirdo. But, I didn’t want to come off as some crazed fan.
What do you think a good balance is? Would most celebrities be honored that you are a big fan? Or, are they tired and just want to be left alone?
Analyzing Netflix’s Price Increase
Netflix recently announced an upcoming price change for their DVD delivery rental service. Their old plan stood at 9.99 per month for 1 dvd out at a time, along with unlimited streaming. You had the option of going streaming only for 7.99. Netflix is now splitting apart the dvd and streaming plans, making the DVD only plan also 7.99. While this means if all you use is DVDs, you will be paying slightly less, but for those who want to keep their old DVD and streaming plan, they are now paying 60% more.
The question is why the sudden drastic increase? As they are still making a lot of profit, it is hard to say it is greed alone. Instead, I think there are a few reasonable theories.
Development
One theory is that Netflix is going to shift from simply being a content deliverer, to a content producer. In fact, they are already doing this, as they recently bought their first show that will be produced by them alone, and distributed only on Netflix. Alternatively, they might want to buy content to distribute exclusively on Netflix, eliminating competition from Hulu, iTunes, YouTube and others.
You can see evidence of this already. See this and this.
With other content distributors seeing them more and more as real competition, it makes sense to produce your own content in case a movie studio chooses to not give you a deal. Further, if the content is compelling, Netflix could be the next HBO, convincing people to pay just to watch the original content.
And they just recently added Mad Men streaming. This all costs money to purchase rights for.
Kill DVDs
Another theory making the rounds is that Netflix is looking ahead to the future. In a very Apple like move, they realize that physical media is dead, so they are making it less desirable to receive it.
It costs more each year for Netflix to ship those discs to your house. They also have to buy the physical copies. Streaming on the other hand, costs little in physical media after the rights are acquired. Netflix has done a great job getting their software and brand on blu-ray players, TVs, cell phones, and video game consoles everywhere. They are invested in having you be able to access their movies on almost any device. Now, they want to focus on that shift.
The CEO even admitted as such:
The reason we felt confident about doing it now is the strength of streaming-only. We got convinced can that we can thrive on streaming-only, the best timing was now.
I believe the company also realizes that they if they want growth outside of the US, streaming is the way to go. Cheap, reliable, expedient mail isn’t available everywhere. But if you can get internet access, you are a potential customer.
Accounting
Finally, there is a theory floating that is a little more interesting. Netflix has to make deals for each film they put on Netflix. While the terms of these contracts aren’t known, it can be speculated based on how these deals are made in other media that studios are charging per potential viewer. Therefore, the more Netflix streaming users, the more Netflix has to pay per film.
Under the old plan, everyone who got a DVD got streaming in addition. I am positive many people who watch the DVDs rarely, if ever, stream. Many people use the DVDs and aren’t even aware of the streaming option. But, Netflix is paying for their potential eyeballs. By offering an option to switch to just DVDs, they can make sure they are only counting real streaming users.
In my opinion, Hollywood should be mighty grateful for Netflix. I believe that easy access to content discourages piracy. iTunes gave an easy alternative to searching for MP3s that might have viruses, be incorrect links, etc. Netflix is a great tool in the fight against illegal downloads.
Hopefully, the studios have taken notes of what happened to the music industry and aren’t destined to make the same mistakes. Even if they charge a little less per viewer, that is income that won’t be there if you drive users to illicit methods. The problem of course is that the value of the media is being lowered. Again, using an iTunes analogy, everyone now would never pay more than .99c for a song. You have reduced the value of a song tremendously. Hollywood is scared to death movies will go down this path when people are used to paying 9.99 a month for unlimited movies. Will be interesting to see where this lands.
Streaming Music Services
Some of you may have heard about this new service Spotify that just launched. Here is a quick announcement video:
So, just what the heck is it? I already use iTunes – do I need another music service? I’m going to break down what type of service Spotify (and its competitors) is, as well as how it compares to current music services – and even give you an insight into costs and features, so you can make a decision.
If you are still looking for a Spotify invitation, Klout is giving me a few invites to give away. Click Here. First come, first serve until they run out!
What is it?
Spotify just launched in the US this week. Before that it has been a Europe only, very popular, streaming subscription music service. Other streaming subscription music services are MOG, Rdio, Rhapsody, and Napster. Strangely, the last two seem to be forgotten lately. I don’t know if they simply don’t have all the features people are looking for, or perhaps they are stuck with a bad image due to being associated with the by-gone era of Napster and Realplayer. Grooveshark is similar to these, but offers its services completely free. How does it get away with it – basically by being quasi-legal. Grooveshark relies on users to upload media, like YouTube does with videos. Then when the music copyright holders come yelling, Grooveshark can limit liability and just delete that user and their uploads. This method allows for the service to be free, but also creates havoc when trying to find a particular track.
These services are similar to, but definitely NOT streaming radio services like Pandora of Last.fm. Those two services, while great (and free) are radio style services. You do not get to choose what you want to specifically want to play. Like the radio, you can choose a genre or similar artists – but if you want to play a specific song right this moment, you are out of luck.
Also, these new streaming music subscription music services are NOT storage lockers like Google Music of Amazon Cloud Player. With both of those services, you take music you have already downloaded, upload it to Google or Amazon’s service (a task that if you have a lot of music like me takes DAYS). Then you can log in from any computer and stream the music down to that device. (iTunes cloud service is even more differentiated. It won’t let you play via stream at all. You will be able to download copies of songs you already have to another device, but essentially you are doing just that downloading another copy, not streaming.)
To explain streaming music subscription services like MOG, Rdio and Spotify – think of these services like iTunes, but you don’t have to pay to purchase each individual song. You pay a monthly subscription fee, and you then get to stream whatever songs you want, whenever you want, for as long as you want. Its like you were given an iTunes gift card that never ends. this makes it decidedly different from streaming radio like Pandora.
The other key difference, is that you never actually download any music files to store on your computer (later I’ll explain this is kind of untrue in certain circumstances, but for the most part a very real consideration). This makes it different from Google Music storage locker type services, and iTunes download type services because you never actually buy or own the songs. You subscribe to access them. They are not stored anywhere on your computer.
The downside of this is that if you travel on a plane or are somewhere without internet access you can’t get to any music. Alternatively, if you stop paying the monthly fee, you obviously can’t access them. Or, if the company goes out of business, again you lost access to all that music. The upside to this? For one, its much more cost effective. Each track on iTunes is $1.29, on amazon .99c. Around 7-9 per album. Most of these services allow you to stream to your computer, unlimited music for $5 per month. So for the cost of an album you get all the music you want. Second, it also saves space. If you stream to your iphone instead of saving the music you don’t eat up all those GBs for music, meaning you can start shooting more video or downloading more apps.
Google Music
Today Google announced a new music service. While last year they boldly pronounced they would be soon launching a music purchasing service to compete with iTunes, it seems that was a bit too ambitious. What they have launched is more of a competitor to Amazon’s Cloud Music service.
So, what exactly is it? Watch the video:
Basically, imagine instead of storing your music on your computer and your iPod, you stored it online. Therefore, you don’t need to be in front of your computer to listen to your music. You don’t need to worry about running out of space or having your iPod synced. Instead, you access your music from any computer or device that has internet access.
A good analogy is that it is like Pandora, except you get your music library to go. So, you can make playlists and choose exactly what you want to listen to instead of a radio stream. I only hope that as an iPhone user, they either release an iPhone app, or Apple launches their own competitor.
If you want to sign up for it, you can here. It’s a limited beta, so you need an invite.
Addie’s Blog
One of my friend’s from high school has gone abroad to the Australia region to live. She packed up her life and left without a job offer or idea of what she would do when she got there.
I still haven’t decided if she is incredibly brave or crazy. However, if you are interested in her adventures you can read her blog!
