What's Out Next

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May 31, 2006

First, There Is A Moutain!

In 1969 at the ripe of 12 years of age, I remember my Dad bringing this record into Marty's Music. Donavan: the man, the legend! This guy sounds as cool in 2005 as in did in 1965. The guy is a legend and according to John Lennon, "Donovan is as important and influential as Bob Dylan and we are ... listen, the man's a poet."

With all the changes going on the music business, all I can say is that first there is a business model and then there isn't! Everyone is scrambling for the final answer. Who will win? I think the consumer....because when we want our music we want it now and we won't wait! For us at What's Out Next our take is There is a mountain!

Posted by mitchsantell at 06:04 PM

May 24, 2006

Paul and Linda McCartney!

Over the past few days I must admit a certain saddness when I think about Paul McCartney. On June 8th of this year my wife and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary and yes we have known each other for over 21+ years. Now think back to when you first saw Paul and Linda McCartney together. Do you remember it? If you were a hard core Beatles fan, you were upset about the union. To be blunt, I never was. In my world I watched my Mom and Dad who were married for 48 years.

For a man and a woman to find love, to have children and to build a life together is a great gift. I remember watching Paul age as his precious Linda passed away in 1998 of complications from breast cancer. The cancer had spread to her liver and as a result of complications she died in Arizona on the McCartney Ranch.

Family life was very important to Paul and LInda and they happily raised 4 children during their marriage and took them on the road many many times.

Yeah, I saw Paul and LInda McCartney perform in Los Angeles in the early 1990's when Flowers In The Dirt came out. Of course Flaming Pie is still a favorite. In fact, on that record you can tell just how happy Paul was in those days.

When Linda passed on, I remember how sad Paul looked. I also remember this talented and deeply troubled man going into seclusion for over a year.

Keep your chin up mate, it's going to be okay! For us at What's Out Next our take is to just give Paul some space man!

Posted by mitchsantell at 09:20 PM

May 23, 2006

Podcast Interview With Norman Ellis-Flint! - Part Two

Norman Ellis-Flint has played an important and fascinating role in the evolution and development of modern radio and radio advertising. Norman was one of the pioneers in the development of several major rock stations across the United States and then became a leader and innovator in developing some of the most powerful marketing concepts used by companies that advertised on radio.

Working as a young man in San Francisco during the famous “Summer of Love,” Norman helped develop KMPX-FM: one of the first true rock stations in America. The format Norman developed was quickly picked up by KSJO-FM in San Jose and many other stations across the United States. In less than 18 months, CBS took notice of Norman’s and his partner Lou Waters’ success and influence and brought him to New York City, to help turnaround and revitalize WCBS-FM.

Norman was later lured away from WCBS to work with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Kharma Productions in Toronto, Canada. Norman was hired to be their Director of Creative and Media Relations. It was here that Norman gained so much of his in-depth understanding of business, marketing and advertising.

We had a wonderful time with Norman during our interview and afterward. We won't give about the story here in this post, however, we invite you to click on the podcast logo below and check out Part One. You can also check out Norman on the internet too!

Norman welcomes your questions, comments or insights at: norman@normanellisflint.com

Part Two of the Norman Ellis-Flint - Show # 2 for 2006! (19 Minutes).

Posted by mitchsantell at 08:07 PM

May 11, 2006

Warner Brothers & BitTorrent To Disribute Movies!

According to our dear friends at the Associated Press, it is official so hold onto your film cans: Warner Bros. will become the first major studio to distribute its films and TV shows over the Internet using peer-to-peer technology developed by BitTorrent Inc., the home of a popular tool for trading pirated copies of movies.

The companies did not specify a date but said the service will be offered starting this summer. Pricing is also undetermined, although individual TV shows could be priced as low as $1 and movies will be sold for about the price of buying a DVD, BitTorrent said.

Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner Inc., said it will use BitTorrent's ability to speed the downloading of large computer files to rent and sell its films the same day the movies become available on DVD.

The studio also will sell permanent copies of films and TV shows online that can be burned to a backup DVD, although the copy will only play on the computer used to download the film and not on standard DVD players.

The deal is aimed at converting some of the file-sharing users who regularly seek illegal copies of films and TV shows by offering them a reliable experience at a reasonable price on the same system used by online pirates.

"If we can convert 5, 10, 15 percent of the peer-to-peer users that have been obtaining our product from illegitimate sources to becoming legitimate buyers of our product, that has the potential of a huge impact on our industry and our economics," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

BitTorrent uses a technique called "file swarming" to distribute large files. Rather than download a single large file from one central computer, BitTorrent assembles files from separate bits of data downloaded from other computer users across the Internet.

Studios have been discussing such deals with BitTorrent since last November, when they reached a settlement with the company aimed at reducing illegal traffic in online films.

Last year, BitTorrent agreed to remove links to pirated versions of movies from its Web site and remove online links leading to illegal content owned by the seven studios that are members of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Studios believe that offering reasonably priced legal alternatives will be preferable to downloading files that could contain viruses or poor quality copies of films.

"Those are the kinds of baby steps to offer users a good trade off, a good alternative to doing things the wrong way," said Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent.

The speed of downloading a large movie file will depend on how many individual computers in the network have the file. The more computers, the faster the process.

Ideally, once a particular movie has been "seeded" on the system, Warner Bros. estimates a download could take as little as 10 minutes. TV shows could take even less time to download because the files are much smaller.

It's time of the season to watch movies when we want!

Posted by mitchsantell at 11:02 PM

May 08, 2006

Warner Brothers Vs. EMI

For those of you following the story, EMI has been trying to purchase Warner Brothers Records. Both companies are great and both companies have legendary artists.

The biggest challenge here is two fold, one is that the corporate culture of the two companies is substantially different. The second issue from my view is that Warner Brothers does a better job of discovering new talent and sticking with them.

While both companies are household names at our house, they don't hold the clout they used to so that is why many see the reason for the transaction.

Of course you can see why EMI wants them right? For those who aren't familiar with the company, Warner Music Group is one of the premier names in the business of recording and publishing music.

Under its Recorded Music segment (83% of revenue), the company records an artist's music, then licenses and sells it in physical format (mostly CDs and DVDs) or purely digital format through distributors to mass merchants, record stores and online retailers, which include digital distributors such as iTunes by Apple.

Its Music Publishing segment (17% of revenue) licenses and acquires rights to musical compositions from songwriters and composers and receives royalties and fees for their use.

Warner Music Group owns a large music catalog, including a roster of 38,000 artists and 27 of the top 100 U.S. best-selling albums of all time. Among the artists Warner Music has courted into its music empire are the Eagles, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac and Sean "P Diddy" Combs.

So now what? Well now EMI is talking about raising capital with investors to make the purchase.

What's our take at WHATSOUTNEXT? We say that hopefully most people will Listen to the Music of Warner Brothers, otherwise, we'll all end up moving to Mexico!

Posted by mitchsantell at 08:58 PM