iTunes DRM-free Songs. At What Cost?

Posted January 8th, 2009 by Albert Banks

Apple recently announced they will offer DRM-free versions of all songs in their library by the end of the quarter. For now, about 80% of the library will be available without DRM. Apple struck a deal with the four major labels and multiple independent labels – with a catch.

The catch is they must allow for $.69 and $1.29 song pricing in addition to the previously standard $.99 price. Not that big a deal until you look more closely.

1. Most new music will now be priced at $1.29 versus $.99.
2. To get the DRM-free version of a $.69 song, you have to pay a 30 cent premium ($.99)
3. The DRM-free versions are still AAC format, meaning they are still are tied to Apple software and devices.

This deal is great for the music labels, as they get a revised pricing stucture. Apple wins by publicly fighting and “defeating” DRM.

But, consumers are a big fat loser with this change. They will pay more for new and DRM-free music, and those files will still be in Apple’s format. Until Apple starts offering only DRM-free (or same priced) music in the standard MP3 format, iTunes will continue to be a sub-standard provider of digital music.

Good Ideas in 2009

Posted January 8th, 2009 by Lindsey Reminga

2009 is here – and we’re all wondering what new technologies and ideas will emerge in the new year. The creative forecast, I’m sure, will shine even through the hard economic times. There’s a passion and politics found in creative and marketing agencies all over the globe, and it’s going to take alot more than the economy to bring us down. Hell, I’ve seen some great ideas come to life with scrap paper and a pen.

So, encouragement aside- it never hurts to saturate your brain with other people’s ideas and strategies to make yours better. Scrap paper and a pen may get you ideas, but the ever-important ‘zing’ of your campaign comes with intense strategy and development. I get a number of articles and journals sent to my email on a daily basis to make sure I’m up-to-date with what other creatives are doing. One of these newsletters is by PSFK, a website dedicated to consumer and creative trends.

The PSFK company is a collaborative insight and ideas company run from New York with a team of future-thinkers from around the globe. It began with two friends emailing each other pieces of trend and idea news between New York and London and it eventually blossomed into the popular website it is today. Now, you can read news from their offices in New York, London, Hamburg, Sao Paulo, and Shanghai.

‘Good Ideas in 2009‘ is PSFA’s new book that goes through the ideas and innovations PSFA feels are important for the new year.

The Slow Death of Physical Media

Posted November 26th, 2008 by Albert Banks

From the moment digital downloads of music became (legally) available, the writing has been on the wall. Physical media, in this case music CDs, vinyl and cassettes, is facing extinction. According tho the RIAA, digital downloads of music surpassed physical media in terms of units shipped in 2007.

However, in terms of dollar value digital still lags behind. This may be due to the discounted rate of digital. Paying $9.99 on iTunes for an album verses $14.99 at Best Buy for a CD would certainly indicate a price disparity. It is also easier to download a song from a computer than trek to a retail store.

Now a major landmark has been reached. Atlantic recently reached a milestone that no other major record label has hit. More than half of its music sales in the United States are now from digital downloads.

The music industry is seeing, and to some degree accepting reality. Let’s hope the movie industry follows suit – and fast. Blu-ray player and media sales continue to fall short. Price may be the major factor for consumers, but convenience also plays a part. Hmm, this situation sounds very familiar…

Myjive Word Cloud

Posted November 14th, 2008 by Albert Banks

Here’s a word cloud of terms we use on our website (www.myjive.net) courtesy of Wordle. Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text or a url that you provide.

Teaching Form-Givers to be Strategists

Posted October 8th, 2008 by Ron Edelen

The current issue of Fast Company is chalked full of design topics. In particular, there is a brief article providing insight into how MIT professor John Maeda could potentially spin the Rhode Island School of Design into an art+business philosophy. As Maeda puts it, RISD is essentially a right-brain MIT. It is interesting to see phrases like “creativity and pragmatism,” and “uniqueness and mass-marketability” woven into a traditional (analog) fine art institution. The fundamental problem is that RISD, an institution that has produced the Heros of my generation, is heavily right-brain. This is a universal struggle for design education. Although there are some innovative schools taking risky leaps, the general consensus is that the current academic model maintains a curriculum that does not nurture cross-disciplinary thinking – more specifically how to think within today’s digital economy.

There is huge potential to flourish in a model based on absolute synergy between form-givers (arts/engineers) and strategists (business thinkers). In order to achieve this, academic labeling and degree classification has to evolve into a more fluid cross-pollinating model–freeing students and faculty from being trapped inside single-disciplinary ideologies. It will be exciting to see where Maeda takes RISD. Through all the skepticism, I wouldn’t be surprised if RISD’s new formula becomes a model of great envy for other art and design Institutions.

Reference:
Digital Thinking at Rhode Island School of Design, by Linda Tischler
–> http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/129/the-double-vision-of-john-maeda.html

John Maeda is RISD’s 16th President, AIGA Video
–> http://www.aiga.org/resources/content/4/4/7/1/documents/john_maeda_risd.mov 

Give Your Comment a Gravatar

Posted October 3rd, 2008 by Albert Banks

Many of us peruse blogs across the Interweb. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the need to comment on a post or comment.

When that urge hits you, don’t be caught unprepared. Make sure your gravatar is ready.

What the heck is a gravatar? From the gravatar.com website: “A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?” Your gravatar is tied to the email address you provide when commenting.

Sign up is easy. All you need is an email address and password. Once your account is active, you can setup multiple personalities email addresses and a different image for each.

Get yours today »

Adobe Air for Noobs

Posted September 15th, 2008 by Ron Edelen

I am a noob to Air. On top of this, it is also important to recognize that I am a slow adopter of Flash AS3. I have tunnel vision formed by habitual attachments to AS2 methods and it keeps me in a frustrated state of mind. Fortunately I have a few OOP-savvy cohorts that spoon-feed insightful ways of thinking. I am picking up on the basics quickly, but I am finding little resources that speak to those non-programming-centric designers.

Continue Reading Post »

Ron and Teammates are Vicious and Delicious

Posted September 15th, 2008 by Ron Edelen

 It all started with a friend asking if anyone in the room was a runner. Ignorant to the details, I raised my hand. Without fully understanding the challenge, I had committed myself to run a 208-mile relay through the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains. With the support of 11 killer teammates, the event turned out to be a beautiful experience wrapped in my own physical humility. Continue Reading Post »

Remove the iTunes 8 Store Arrows

Posted September 10th, 2008 by Albert Banks

Just when you thought it was safe to upgrade, Apple’s new version of iTunes turns on one of it’s most annoying features – and removes the option of disabling it. Yep, I’m talking about those nasty gray icons in your song list linked to the iTunes Store.

You used to be able to uncheck “Show Links to Music Store” under Preferences -> General. I guess Apple really really wants you to buy buy buy!

After a few Google searches I discovered threads about removing this “feature.”

MAC: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080909130752871
Windows: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8049293#8049293

It’s a shame that must revert to these kind of fixes to customize the user experience…

Dreamweaver FTP Frustrations

Posted August 20th, 2008 by Albert Banks

Here at Myjive we utilize and for the most part enjoy Adobe’s Creative Suite. We have used the various versions for years. In fact, I originally started with Dreamweaver 3 back in the day.

Dreamweaver is great for coding, visualization and design previews. But what continues to frustrate us is the FTP functionality of the program. We are currently using CS3, but this goes for past versions as well.

We are often plagued by “timeouts” and “unable to connect” errors. It doesn’t matter the location, IP or operating system of the server we’re connecting to. I’ve even had problems setting file permissions. We’ve tried all the tips, increasing the timeout to 40+ seconds, using Passive FTP, etc. But the program continues to have issues.

At some points we are forced to use Filezilla or Fetch – and they have no problems. Each new version of Dreamweaver we keep hoping Adobe will make the effort to improve the FTP functionality. Maybe next time… CS4 anyone?