Laugh all you want to Universal and Rolling Stone for making weird moves in the world of marketing but they might have the last laugh in the end.  Starting with RS, this Women’s Wear Daily article tells that the ol’ magazine is rolling out a line of T-shirts and soon will have handbags and other fashion accessories.  Note that the WWD article makes fun of RS and its fogey status but the fact of the matter is that RS happens to still have a huge circulation, maybe one of the (if not THE) best for a music magazine.  With mag sales constantly dropping, the news biz (much like the record biz) is looking for ways to shore up their bottom line.  Branding, especially when you have a well-known name that’s still respected in some quarters (they have a seven figure circulation after all), is a smart idea for a mag to keep money flowing in.  Even if you don’t happen to be a fan of RS, it happens to be a good idea and one that you’ll see other smart pubs follow.  You also have to wonder if ideas like this might have helped to shore up mags like No Depression which recently went under.  I don’t think selling T-shirts by itself would have saved them but it could have been part of an overall plan/solution.

As for Universal, their plan is to start a series on the Bebo social network where an imaginary employee starts his own label and signs bands.  They’re letting users go in to rate them and to suggest groups to them too.  I don’t see a rosy scenario for this but the idea’s kinda intriguing.  The problem is that Universal doesn’t have a brand name like smaller labels do (say Sub Pop or Thrill Jockey or Def Jux)- I mean, who the hell is going to follow releases just because Universal puts them out?  But partnering with Bebo was a smart move on the part of Universal and the idea of an ongoing story (like a TV series) isn’t a bad idea if you happen to have some interesting scripts and worthwhile music.  Again, like the RS plan, even if you’re not a fan of anyone involved in the project, the idea has potential and shouldn’t be blown off- it might evolve into a better model elsewhere and turn some heads.

—Jason Gross

“The Pied Piper of R&B” is off the hook in his trial but Jim DeRogatis has good reason to fear for his own freedom in the trial, as detailed well in this Chicago Reader story about the case and his involvement.  It turns out that despite the court’s assurances, taking the 5th was a wise move in the murky waters of the legal matters involved.  Other writers/reporters, and not just in the music field, can rest easy for now that he handled things so deftly.  Rest assured, when another high profile case comes up and some high-paid lawyers grill another writer, the outcome might not be so peachy-creamy.

—Jason Gross

I don’t often cross-post but I’ll make an exception with Blurt Magazine here.  See my Ye Wei blog for details about the magazine launch.  Yep, I write for ‘em and yes, I’d be a fan anyway even if I didn’t.

—Jason Gross

Two fine articles clear away some stinkin’ thinking about recent technology.  First up is this CNet article that goes against all of the sweaty love and worship of Apple’s launch of the iPhone, providing a much needed reality check about the hoopla.  Amazing how many news org’s kiss Steve Jobs’ feet again and again as if he’s Midas.  He did corner the market on digital media players but he’s got a long way to go to conquer the phone market, even with all the bells and whistles he adds to his gadget.  Then there’s this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article where Bill Virgin pushes back against Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, who’s telling people to dig graves for newspapers.  Virgin rightfully asks “Isn’t it Microsoft that should be more worried about their future...?”

—Jason Gross

Eh, not quite… I just got the e-mail saying that I have the privilege to test out the beta version of the Filter.  After a few serious browser crashes on Firefox and Safari that made me shut down my computer, I finally got to run it.  And I’ll give them this- it’s not too mediocre.

I spent a while rating some of my favorite movies and music and it was able to give me back some modestly interesting recommendations but nothing that I hadn’t thought of before- I already told them I liked Sonic Youth and Earth, Wind and Fire so why just point me to more of their albums instead of other bands?  There was a function to carry over my picks from Last.fm (which has a much better, interesting, eye-opening recommendation service) and that did help a little but again, nothing startling that made me want to plow through the Filter service much more.  Also, they only let you play 30 second clips (like iTunes) instead of the full songs, which you can do again on Last.fm or Napster. 

For movies, it wasn’t much better.  You can go ahead and rate a bunch of movies in different genres and they can come back with you with similar picks but again, it’s nothing that you couldn’t have figured out for yourself.  Even worse, when they did come up with a recommendation for the Polish film A Short Film About Love and offered to show you a trailer, you instead got a YouTube clip of the upcoming comedy The Love Guru, which you’ve probably already seen enough commercials for.  I didn’t have the stomach to sit through the clip to see if the original movie I wanted was going to come up.

As for the TV component, it’s not there yet.  I guess they just want to tease us since the other two parts work so well.

If you want to improve your recommendations even more, they also offer a download of their own software which hooks up to iTunes, sees what you’ve downloaded and listened to there and then… probably doesn’t do much better for you.  I’m sorry but after such lack-luster results before, I can’t waste any more download time and space on my hard drive for more of their lame recommendations.  If it is that great, let me know I’m wrong but otherwise, I’d say that you’re better off sticking with Last.fm, even if Warner Bros did yank their catalog from them recently.

Normally, I’d leave it at that but the person behind this service is Peter Gabriel, a musician who seems to get the potential of the Net and what can be done there.  I honestly hope that they do improve the service but until then, I can’t say that it’s worth your time.

—Jason Gross

Where he once sounded like a crank, U2 manager Paul McGuinness now sounds prescient when he rails against Internet Service Provides (ISPs) and their adverse effect on the music business.  He has his own reasons for being mad at them but now there’s yet another reason.  That’s because Time Warner is starting to test out a new system which will charge consumers extra when they go over a certain download limit.  If they can get away with it in the first market they’re testing it in, they’re likely to bring the system nationwide and then other ISPs will follow- see this Yahoo/AP report for details. 

So why should you care?  Normal websites’ pictures and text don’t add up to anything but if you’re used to streaming music all day (through an online station or a service like Napster or LastFM), you might get stung by the extra charges.  Similarly, if you’re a video buff who likes to watch YouTube a lot or stream movies through a service like Netflix (which I do), you’ll probably gonna get stuck with an extra bill too.  Admittedly, you’d have to stay on for about 5-10 hours to incur the charges but do you really want to time yourself daily on Net use (though you do need to step away from your computer now and then)?

The end result could then be that web users may shun these services or cut back on their use of them.  That means that these services would also lose money and have a harder time staying in business if they start losing their audiences.  If they were smart, these companies would team up to make the public aware of this coming storm and get them made enough to complain to Time Warner and any other company that tries to stick consumers with higher rates for Net access.  Otherwise, you could have less and less choices for online entertainment…

And don’t think it’s just Time Warner who’s going to be watching your Net use and leaning on you if they think it’s too excessive.  Comcast now seems to be going after ‘Net hogs,’ seeming to go after users who access streaming videos (i.e. YouTube).

—Jason Gross