Aztec Media

I started a new media/advertising tracking side project over on Twitter with a new account called adwatch.

I'm going to tweet references to content providers and their advertisements that I find interesting from the media that gets into my attention stream. 

If you want to participate you can send me a link @adwatch, RT a post you find interesting, or you can just add your own by tagging #adwatch in your related tweets.  The search stream for  #adwatch is the feed I'm going to be interested in.

I've had this idea for a while to see where and how advertisers and new media content creators are coming together, and this seemed like the easiest way to get started.  Plus, it is as open as possible and not something that is closed like other services.

If you have any other thoughts or ideas, please either add a comment to this post or drop me a message via adwatch @ Twitter.

Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott have a great Windows Weekly interview with Rob Greenlee from Microsoft. 

They cover the latest in Microsoft Zune news, update folks on the state of podcasting, and outline a lot of opportunities in new media like download, streaming, live video, etc.

If you have a Windows PC you should take a moment and download the latest Zune client.  I have it running on all my PCs (XP, Vista, Win7beta) and I find it to be a great content player.

It is rough times for most everyone with the world-wide economic downturn and uncertainly.

In the podcasting world, Podango has announced potential shutdown plans.  For the digital picture world, the wonderful magazine & online site JPG has also announced plans to shutdown. Even "big media newspapers" are reportedly on their way to Washington DC for potential handouts.

In situations like this, I think turning back to fundamentals is key.  Here are my three suggestions:

1. Do what you do best and do that better.  If you offer three services, pick one, and focus all your energy on that one service making it the absolute best.
   
2. Focus on key partnerships that are mutually beneficial. Going it alone is miserable.  Branch out and find a partner that makes your one focus area shine for both you and them.
3. Plan for investments.  If you haven't, then you need to start.  Even with cost cutting, you need to make sure you are devoting a good percentage of your available resources into future research & development (R&D) to "catapult" you forward when the market turns positive.

I'm pretty sure there are other great suggestions out there.  If you have one or many, then please let me know what they are by commenting below.

NOTE: I would be remiss if I didn't point out a great discussion thread by Michael Geoghegan on the "Podango" annoucment on his MWBlog.

This afternoon I was trying to find a potential project to do with my two boys this weekend, and ran into an article that I had bookmarked in MAKE:12 but forgot to blog about.

The article was by Kevin Kelly and it was entitled "Book Yourself: Innovative options enable you to publish your own text and pictures."  It is a great DIY how-to on publishing your own book either by doing batch printing or print on demand.

If you are interested in batch printing (~250+ copies) check out:

• Xerox DocuTech (the enabling technology that many are using to do this)
• Deharts.com
• Commercial Communications

And if you are looking for a print on demand publishing model, then you should check out:

• iUniverse.com
• VirtualBookworm.com
• WingSpanPress.com
• Lulu.com
• Blurb.com

The article also mentioned the option of ebook publishing using the site PayLoadz.com. They provide a service to sell downloadable items such as: ebooks, software, music, movies, digital art, manuals, articles, certificates, forms, files, etc.

The most interesting thing about the article was that Kevin did a little test where he wanted to make $1.50 a purchase no matter what medium or method.  He sold them on Amazon for $9 (using B&W batch printing), then on Lulu for $27 (color print on demand), and then as a $2 PDF version on PayLoadz.com.  In the end he sold 10x the number via digital than print, but still made the same amount per transaction.  Neat!

PodcastFreeAmerica.com reports that eMarketer is has published a new report that the United States (US) podcast listening audience has reach 185 million in 2007, and that advertisers are increasing the use of podcasts to reach audiences.

I am not sure how this really fits into individual podcast producers other than it looks promising that their shows could be potential advertising avenues if that is something they are interested in. 

It is also good news for the medium in that is appears that more and more people are tuning in with their attention and time to new media vs. traditional media options.

More information and analysis at: mashable.com & howardowens.com.

The recent This Week In Tech (TWIT) #126 podcast with Leo Laporte had an interesting snide comment at around 18 minutes in by Podshow's John C. Dvorak about Revision3's long list of new talent (including the recent Rodger Chang), and how quickly the are now going to run through their venture capital (VC) money. 

The same could be said about Podshow's spending rate, business plans, or financial status which little is known publicly.  One good thing is that they appear to still be hiring.  And they continue to have the annoying pre-roll advertisements on many podcasts on their network.

Given the apparent implosion at PodTech.net there is a lot of uncertainty in the technology new media arena as we close out 2007.

It will be interesting to watch how TWIT, Podshow, and Revision3 play out their relationships in 2008.

Back in 2006, the Eurythmics posted four podcasts that highlighted the musicians perspective around many of the songs that they had produced and released in the past.

Elvis Costello recently did the same thing with a 10 segment podcast series.  If you are an Elvis Costello fan you'll definitely enjoy the history and reflections.

There is now news from antiMusic.com that Stevie Ray Vaughan has embarced on his on podcast series to promote his new  'SOLOS, SESSIONS & ENCORES'.

UPDATE (12/26/2007): Apparently New Order has done this also but is selling the reflections and thoughts bundled around an album posted to iTunes.

There is a new mobile device coming out that lets users listen to streaming media while not connected to a network.  The device is called the Slacker Digital Player and Walt Mossberg @ WSJ.com recently did a review.  There are also some recent pictures posted to Gizmodo.

I think the device would be ideal for distributing traditional podcast material using a 'station' format based on topics or music.  An indie music channel seems like a natural.  Maybe a technology talk & news channel would be another logical topic cluster.

There seems to be a lot of stuff going on, so I thought I'd do a quick list of things I'm tracking:

1. Treedia Labs has started a beta of Podcast.com.
2. Quick review at Gizmodo on the Elgato Turbo.264 Hardware H.264 Encoder.
3. Amazon MP3 has DRM free music for purchase.
4. Lifehacker on Gmail Mobile 1.5.
5. Bias has released Peak Pro XT audio production suite which includes SoundSoap Pro and Master Perfection Suite.
6. Sound Ideas has released a new version of their Podcasting Production Toolkit 2 with over 500 audio elements, music, and sound effects.
7. The October 2007 edition of Blogger & Podcaster magazine is out.

I think #1 is important because if the domain becomes a popular user site then it will be a great site to promote material.

I am interested in #2 because it could save time in post production for any video podcasts.

#3 is cool because I hate DRM solutions for most of new media.

I think #4 should be tracked to see what effect the new version has on consumption of new media products as they move from the web to email.  What does your content look like from RSS reader to a forwarded email that ends up on Gmail mobile?  Could you make it better?

I added #5 because not everyone is happy with Audacity.  Here is an option that might fit your style better.

The pointer to #6 is because you might want some new sounds in your library.

And you should check out #7 because it is full of great information.

Here is a first round of post New Media Expo (NME) 2007 pointers:

• Technorama's "Remember When Segment" from Computer History Museum
• Chuck Tomasi will co-write the 2nd edition of Podcasting For Dummies [video, farpoint media]
• Steve Riekeberg @ GeekCred is now a member of FriendsInTech.com
• Flickr Photos
• Friends In Tech Roundtable: audio and/or video