June 04, 2007

5 Reasons DRM Will Die within 5 Years...And 5 Things You Can Do To Make Sure it Does

Just spent the last few days out at the National Book Expo and had a lot of conversations with major publishers about DRM. The general consensus among most people is that DRM is on the way out. Apple.com's homepage is featuring DRM-free music. Top articles talking about the demise of DRM (such as this one I wrote back in November) regularly are featured on popular media sites like Digg and TechCrunch. However, there is still a lot of resistance from big content companies (e.g., record labels, publishers, etc.) to put content out there DRM-free.

In this article I'll give five reasons why you won't see DRM (at least not audio-based DRM) five years from now. Hopefully this article will help (at least in a small way) to convince big content companies to move away from DRM sooner rather than later. I'll also give five suggestions for things you can do to speed DRM's demise.

Reason #1 - The mobile media market. According to projections within five years there will be more than four billion media-enabled mobile phones on the market. That's an incredibly huge opportunity for content providers (witness what happened in the ringtone market a few years back and you'll have a sense of the upcoming explosion in mobile audio content). However, mobile content companies and carriers don't want to deal with a variety of proprietary file types. They'll instead want to focus on a limited number of non-proprietary file types like MP3 and AAC. In and of itself this trend is very likely to put an end to audio DRM.

Reason #2 - EMI. The fact that the world's fourth largest record label was willing and able to make their entire catalog available DRM-free is testament to how far we've come. Getting the sign-off to do this was no insignificant thing as it meant convincing artists, agents and many others in the music industry that this was a good thing. If EMI was able to do it then it's only a matter of time before others will follow (assuming that EMI has reasonable success with their strategy). Up until a month ago many people assumed that convincing major content providers to go DRM-free was just too hard. EMI has helped to show that while it isn't easy, it is achievable.

Reason #3 - Amazon. Amazon recently announced they were launching a DRM-free music store. Amazon is already one of the Top 5 sellers of music depsite never having sold a single music downloand. Their entrance into the market wiill have a huge impact and as labels and publishers realize the huge amount of the money they are missing by not being DRM-free and not being included in Amazon's digital catalog most of them likely will make the switch.

Reason #4 - Growing customer awareness. The infamous Steve Jobs memo and other news of late has helped bring DRM to the forefront of customer awareness. Although many people still don't know what DRM is that is gradually changing. And as customer's perceptions change they'll start to demand that they can do what they want with their media uncumbered from DRM. That will help lift sales of DRM-free content and convince more content onwers to make the switch. That'll be one helluva virtuous cycle.

Reason #5 - Increasing complexity. We live in a world that is moving incredibly fast. There are more devices being produced than ever, more websites selling content and more consumers. The challenge with any proprietary, DRM-infected platform is that it has to do so much more work to adapt to the changing world. For instance, our main competitor Audible.com has to work diligently to ensure that mobile handsets supports its ".aa" files (Hint: Most don't). We just need to make sure that mobile handsets support MP3 and AAC files (Hint: Most do and in the future it's a pretty safe bet that they all will.). Makes our job a whole lot easier.

For these five reasons I think you'll see a complete end to DRM as early as the end of this decade. Want to speed the process? Take the five steps below:

#1 - Support Apple/EMI. One of the first things I'm doing this week is buying a bunch of iTunes DRM-free content. First of all, it makes sense to me to do this now that it isn't crippled content that I might not be able to play a few years from now. Second, I'm voting with my dollars. If Apple and EMI report great sales it'll help the other record labels to follow suit.

#2 - Support other people selling DRM-free content. A while back I posted a round-up of other DRM-free providers of audio content. I encourage you to patronize these sites. Sure this is self-serving but I truly believe that by spending the vast majority of your money on DRM-free content you'll send a clear message to content owners.

#3 - Support organizations that are fighting against DRM. DefectivebyDesign.org is probably the best place to start. Donate money to them and see how else you can help them out. These guys have been fighting the fight for a long time and the tide is starting to turn in no small part due to the efforts of people like Corey Doctorow, Jason Calacanis and others who've railed against DRM in the past.

#4 - Spread the word about DRM. The next time you see a friend downloading DRM-infected songs off iTunes ask them if they know about DRM. Explain to them that they might want to think twice about buying a song they may not be able to play in a few years. You'll be doing them a favor and at the same time you'll be helping spread awareness.

#5 - Digg, Furl, del.icio.us, etc. this article. :)

We're getting really close to a DRM-free world and if we band together on this one we can move into a world where the power shifts back into the hands of the consumer and messages like "not authorized to play" are a thing of the past.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

April 02, 2007

The Death Knell for DRM

Another nail in the coffin. Major kudos to the guys at EMI and Apple for making this happen.

EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

February 13, 2007

One more nail in the coffin of DRM

Yahoo and Monster Cable throw their support behind Steve Jobs and Apple in advocating the death of DRM.

Jobs gains support from Yahoo, Monster on DRM issue

We're almost there.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

February 06, 2007

I Love Steve Jobs

I've spent most of the last couple of years in a love-hate relationship with Apple. I love them because they make slick devices, have done much to promote podcasting and have user interfaces that just plain work. I hate them because they make Fairplay-content incompatible with any devices other than iPods and won't allow other forms of DRM'ed content to work on the iPod.

However I just read something Steve Jobs wrote that was posted today on Apple's website:

Thoughts on Music

I whole-heartedly agree with everything he says in here and I'm officially changing my tune on Apple (in addition to upping my timeframe for running out to buy a Powerbook).

The point is simple. DRM for music and audiobooks doesn't work and never has. One of these days the Emperors (the record labels and major publishing houses) will realize they aren't wearing any clothes and they start selling DRM-free content. That will be a very, very good day.

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 27, 2007

The Promise of Education in Africa

I'm in the process of filling out an application to attend TED Global this June in Tanzania. For those of you who aren't familiar with TED it's an annual conference that brings together cutting-edge thinkers in the arts, business, science and social activism. I'd be thrilled and honored to be able to attend. Below is a list of some of the previous blog entries I've written about opportunities related to education in Africa. I'm looking forward to writing more soon as we prepare to launch Education Revolution later this year.

Within a generation we'll have an opportunity to bring a world-class education to Africa and other developing nations. That opportunity has never existed within the entirety of humanity until now. And I count my blessings every day that I live in age where we can help to make that happen.

Some of my writings on Africa and Education

What if a mobile phone could make your life better?
My Goal? To Bring TED to You
More Reasons for Being
Five Things That Make It Easy To Get Up In the Morning
The "Tepping" Point Here at Home
The "Tepping" Point and The End of Poverty

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

January 22, 2007

The Mirage of DRM is Evaporating...

My prediction = At least one major music label will decide to go DRM-free by the end of the year. They are almost don't have a choice here unless they are willing to turn their entire business over to Apple going forward.

Record labels rethink digital rights management at Midem

Posted by jbischke | Permalink

December 14, 2006

We're Getting Closer...

Article in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer about major labels starting to sell music in unprotected formats

I'm excited to see that the music labels are finally waking up to the fact that DRM makes no sense.

Now we just need to wait until publishing companies figure this out. Given that the publishing industry tends to trail the music industry by at least several years it could be a while. So in the meantime you'll have to peruse the largest selection of DRM-free audiobooks on the Internet.

By the way, you'll love all of the new titles that we're going to make available for you in 2007! :)

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November 18, 2006

The Top 10 Arguments Against DRM

One question we get a lot here at LearnOutLoud is why we've chosen to go DRM-free with our digital downloads. I've explained it to a number of people and written a number of posts about it but I've never summarized our reasons for going the DRM-free route in one post before. So here goes... (And if you have no idea what I'm talking about or what DRM is please click here.)

1. DRM doesn't prevent illegal use of files, it just makes it a bit more difficult to access them. A lot of publishers are under the impression that once you put DRM on a file nothing bad will happen to that file ever. It just ain't so. There are a multitude of tools out there that allow you to strip DRM off of files relatively easily. So while DRM might make illegal sharing a bit more difficult if someone really wants an unprotected/unencrypted version of the file it's not very hard to do this. This is an important point because...

2. All it takes is one person to crack the file and it can be made available to everyone. Most illegal trading of files happens over P2P networks. The thing with P2P networks is that it only takes one copy of a file to be unencrypted/unprotected to have that file be available to all. Check any P2P search engine and you'll find a multitude of titles that are supposed to only be available for sale online as protected files. Of course, there is one other possibility...

3. Anyone selling content on CD is already selling unprotected files anyway. With the exception of debacles like the Sony rootkit, 99+% of all CDs sold contain unencrypted files. This means that anyone who sells content on CDs is making unprotected content available and that putting those files online is as easy as ripping them to MP3 files, a pretty simple task these days. What boggles my mind is record companies and publishers who are willing to make content available unprotected on CD but for some reason insist on copy protection for digitally downloaded files. Especially considering that...

4. DRM adds a lot of costs for content producers - Implementing DRM isn't free of course. The costs to develop and/or license DRM technology, encode media files and deal with a multitude of DRM-related customer service complaints are usually passed on from the retailers to the content producers. What this means is that content producers make significantly less money selling DRM "protected" content than they do selling DRM-free content. Royalty rates offered to many content producers from online retailers are often pitifully low and DRM is typically used as a main reason why this is so. That's a shame. Of course that's not the only cost...

5. There's a huge hidden cost in trying to sell DRM'ed content - In addition to the many costs of implementing DRM for content there's a cost that is often overlooked: The sales you lose because people don't want to buy DRM'ed content or have incompatible players. This is huge. There is a growing number of people who won't buy any content that has DRM. In addition, because there is no universally compatible DRM standard, many people can't buy your content if they don't have a compatible player. For instance, if you only sell your content with Apple's Fairplay DRM all of the people getting Zunes during the holidays won't buy you content because it won't play on your player (and vice versa of course). So by implementing DRM you are losing out on a significant (and unknown) amount of revenue.

So those are five good reasons why content producers shouldn't implement DRM. Let's take a look at five good reasons why DRM hurts consumers...

6. Often the costs of the DRM are passed along to the consumer as well. Since DRM isn't free someone has to pay for it. Sometimes it's the content producer in the form of reduced royalties. Other times it's the consumer. Take the example of eMusic and Apple iTunes. iTunes tracks sell for 99 cents while eMusic tracks sell for 25 cents. One of the reasons why eMusic can sell its music for so much cheaper is that it isn't spending tons of money implementing a DRM system and dealing with customers who are having DRM issues. So it is able to offer a technically superior product for a significantly lower price. Which is good and even better when you consider that...

7. DRM-free content will play on your device of today and your device of tomorrow - It'll be a little shocker for some people in a few weeks when they get the new Zune device from Microsoft and try to load all of their Rhapsody or MSN Music tunes on it only to find that they won't work. Why? Because Microsoft's previous DRM (PlaysForSure) isn't compatible with the new Zune DRM. And that's an example of one of the biggest problems with DRM. It locks you into a specific player from a specific company. While that might be good for a hardware manufacturer like Microsoft or Apple it's not good for you the consumer. Want another reason? Consider that...

8. Your media devices of the future will be significantly different than your media devices of the present. I discussed this point at length in my post The 5 Dangers of Buying DRM'ed Media. There's a really good chance that your next media player won't be an iPod and that in the not-too-distant future it'll probably be your cellphone. If that's the case then you need to be aware that any DRM-encoded content that you buy probably won't work for you anymore. While millions of cellphones are currently shipping that play MP3 files, very few of them will play songs from iTunes or audiobooks from Audible.com. So if you're at all interested in being able to play your content (the stuff you paid hard-earned money for) in the future you should think twice before buying anything infected with DRM. Furthermore...

9. DRM fundamentally changes who is control of your media. This might be the most esoteric of the arguments and is a bit difficult to explain but in a nutshell, when you buy DRM content for the first time in history, someone else is dictating to you what you can do with something that you've legally purchased. Watch this short video from the great folks over at DefectiveByDesign which illustrates this point nicely:

Finally, it's really important to understand that...

10. Whenever you buy DRM'ed content you support the system of DRM - I buy DRM'ed content from time to time like most of you. However, I have realized that with each purchase of DRM'ed content I help to perpetuate a system in which DRM is acceptable. And at the same time, whenever I frequent a site that offers DRM-free content I'm helping to support a system in which DRM is viewed as unacceptable and a bad business practice. There are a ton of good sites out that offer DRM-free content (here's another great list) and they could use your support. By rallying around these sites we can help to tip the balance and make this a world where the power is in the hands of people who produce content and legally purchase it.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to me ramble and I hope you now have a better understanding of why this issue is important and what you can do to help make this world a better for place for content producer and content consumers.

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October 26, 2006

The Economics of Abundance and Why Most People Don't Get It

Chris Anderson (author of the Long Tail and editor of Wired Magazine) recently spoke at PopTech on the subject of The Economics of Abundance. I'll let you click the link for more information but to make a long story short, the economics of abundance are directly opposed to the economics of scarity. You remember scarcity right? After all it is in the basic definition of economics itself:

Economics, as a social science, studies human choice behavior and how it affects the production, distribution, and consumption of scarce resources.

But here's the problem...in a digital world resources are no longer necessarily scarce. A file can be replicated an unlimited number of times at virtually no cost. So in a world in which resources are increasingly abundant rather than scarce everything changes. (For a further elaboration on what is changing, check out this *excellent* series of posts on Media 2.Uh-Oh.)

Yet, most people don't understand what is shifting. Which is why you see Tower Records shutting its doors. It's why you see NBC laying off 700+ employees. Because too many people are blind to the economics of abundance and have no clue how to operate in world that is no longer defined solely by scarce resources. And so rather than change they'd prefer to stick to existing business models that worked in the past.

It's sad to me. Because I have conversations with people in the media world (like one I had this very morning) who want to keep their businesses closed off to the rest of the world. Who don't want to embrace the new channels of distribution that are available. Who'd rather spend their time and energy protecting their existing turf rather than going out and innovating and taking advantage of all of the new markets that are opening up.

And it's a shame because for most of these businesses they won't realize it until it's too late. By the time it becomes painfully obvious what the answer is they are filing for Chapter 11 and laying off the majority of their staff. Because they forgot to read The Long Tail or The Wealth of Networks.

Or more likely, because they didn't know those books existed in the first place.

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October 05, 2006

Sheer "Zune-acy" a.k.a. How the Zune will destroy businesses and confuse customers

So we're a few weeks away from the much bally-hooed launch of the Microsoft Zune. And while a lot of people are talking about the wireless capabilities or the questionable choice of brown for colors, no one seems to be discussing the most important impact of the Zune...the lack of backwards compatibility with the PlaysForSure DRM.

I understand what Microsoft is trying to do here. They're building an integrated stack (read: MSFT has full control over the player, the DRM and the content store). This is what has worked for Apple so well and indeed the lack of an integrated stack (read: the general yuckiness of slapping Microsoft DRM on content from Yahoo/Rhapsody/Napster and then trying to play it on a device from Creative or iRiver) is what has caused Microsoft to lag in the media world over the last few years. And if the crew in Redmond wants to truly have an integrated stack then they can't support anything outside of that stack which means they have no choice but to drop compatibility with PlaysForSure.

But the implications of not supporting PlaysForSure are huge. Let's assume for a second that the Zune is relatively successful in the market (it takes more than a 15% market share in the next couple of years). If that's the case then that will likely mean the following:

1. Companies that are supporting PlaysForSure content are screwed. There are hundreds of companies out there selling PlaysForSure content, the most famous of them being the music services listed above. A good chunk of Zune's market share will come at the expense of other PlaysForSure devices which means that the number of devices that can play content from those services will dwindle.

2. Companies that are supporting PlaysForSure content are screwed twice. So the easy solution seems to be for the companies selling PlaysForSure content to encode their content with the Zune DRM and either sell Zune content exclusively or sell both formats. Except for the fact that this won't work. Microsoft won't allow companies to sell Zune-DRM-laced content because that destroys the integrated stack model. So your only hope for getting on the Zune will be to work directly with Microsoft to get your content into their store. And that pretty much destroys the market for the middlemen (all retailers currently selling WMA DRM content).

3. Companies selling PlaysForSure devices are screwed. I hadn't planned to use the word "screwed" so much in this blog post but I couldn't help it because a lot of people are getting...well, screwed. Creative and Samsung and iRiver and all the other companies trying to compete with Apple get screwed twice as well. On one hand, they now have another device to compete with (and one that will no doubt have tons of marketing muscle behind it). On the other hand, the services they are so dependent upon (e.g., I bought my Zen almost exclusively because of the Rhapsody-To-Go service) will lose ground and may even shut down if they can't gain traction in a post-Zune world.

Yikes, not pretty. So that's what could/will happen if Zune takes off. What if it doesn't?

Well, if it doesn't then the situation isn't necessarily any brighter. What you'll have is a lot of customer confusion as people rush out to buy Zune devices and can't figure out why they won't work with Rhapsody or buy a Creative/iRiver/Samsung player and are at a loss to understand with they can't load content from Microsoft's store on it. Let's face it...DRM is already causing a fair amount of confusion on the part of customers. The launch of the Zune will likely more than double that confusion.

The funniest thing is that I've yet to see anyone talk about this all that much. Several of the content retailers I've talked about (people selling PlaysForSure content) didn't even seem to be aware of the situation. That's kinda scary when you think about it because there's a good chance that their businesses will change drastically in the coming months and years. Bloggers seems to be talking about everything else related to the Zune but not this. It's kinda eerie...

So is there a silver lining in this cloud? Perhaps. My hope is that customers get so sick of this DRM-nonsense that they start gravitating towards DRM-free audio and stop buying content that will someday be viewed as the 8-track tapes of the digital world. If the Zune accomplishes that then I'll applaud Microsoft for doing this...not because they made the right decision but rather because they made this thing such a mess that people looked for more sensible choices elsewhere.

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October 04, 2006

DRM: Think about it...

Here's a great short video from the folks at Defective by Design that'll make you think twice about the implications of DRM (the copy protection schemes implemented by most retailers of downloadable goods):

We're incredibly proud that all of the 500+ titles we have for download on LearnOutLoud are DRM-free. This means we don't decide where you can play the audiobooks you purchased from us. You do. And that's the way it should be right?

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August 20, 2006

The 5 Dangers of Buying DRM'ed Media

A generation of people are being mislead by some glitzy marketing. They are buying music and other media off of services like iTunes thinking that they "own" this media. But unlike the generation before them was able to do with all those CDs they purchased, this new generation probably won't be able to enjoy their music and other media for many years to come. Instead, they're making a purchase today that will likely become worthless to them, and perhaps much sooner than they think. As I've heard Ian Rogers over at Yahoo! Music state several times, the iTunes music file is the equivalent of the 8-track cassette for this generation. So with that said let me present 5 very real dangers associated with buying DRM media:

1. Your next media player might not be an iPod - Right now everyone is in love with the iPod and for good reason. It's by far the superior device and experience for personal media. However, history tends to repeat itself and one thing we know from history is the gadgets that are dominant rarely stay on top for long. Microsoft is going to launch its new Zune soon and it may or may not be the coolest thing since sliced bread. Knowing Microsoft it probably won't be but other companies are going to launch other players and eventually there is probably going to be something out there that's cooler than the iPod. If all of your media was purchased from the iTunes Music Store (or any other place selling content in a proprietary format) you've pretty much locked yourself in to buying a particular type of device in the future. I'm not sure about you but that's not what I want to do. And besides, it's possible that your next MP3 player might not even be a dedicated MP3 player. Instead, it's quite possible that...

2. Your phone will be your next media player - Almost all of the new phones coming out right now have media playing capabilities built-in. For a while you'll probably find that whatever you're doing with your iPod is going to be superior to the experience on your phone. However, over time that will change and within a few years your phone will provide an iPod-like experience and eliminate the need for you to carry to devices everywhere (heck, the Nokia N91 is almost there today). So if you've bought a bunch of music in a proprietary file format (such as the iTunes Music Store) you really need to ask yourself the question "Am I prepared to not be able to listen to stuff on my phone in the future?" Sure, Apple will launch an iPhone sometime and it'll probably be cool but the fact of the matter you'll probably want to keep your options open for a while.

3. You have no idea how you might want to share your media in the future - Oh my gosh are there a lot of cool new media-sharing devices and technologies these days. Slingbox. Sonos. Roku. Bluetooth. Some of these work well with DRM'ed content and some don't. And who knows how the media-sharing devices of the future will respond to all of these proprietary file formats. The bottom line is that if you want to keep your options open and be able to use all of the kick-ass devcies that are on the horizon you'd be well-advised to have most or all of your media stored in an open, non-proprietary file format like MP3. Otherwise, you just might be SOL...

4. You might decide you want to get a new computer in the future - Yes, it's quite possible that the computer you are on right now might not be the same computer you'll be using a few years in the future. I'll go out on a limb and say that you'll likely want a little more memory and processing power down the road which will mean you'll have to upgrade. Will your music and other DRM'ed media go with you? Maybe... Music services such as iTunes/Rhapsody/etc. have ways you to authorize new computers and de-authorize computers you are no longer using. But can they guarantee that it won't be a pain in the ass? Nope, many people who have to do spend many hours of frustration dealing with this. And an unsettling number of people can't their media to work at all with their new computer.

5. Two words "Sony Rootkit" - Everyone knows about the Sony rootkit fiasco. That only affected people that had bought DRM-infected CDs. However, there's nothing to guarantee that something similar won't affect digitally downloaded files in the future. After all, DRM protection is always changing. For example, a while back Apple modified its firmware to make it incompatible with Real Networks music track. Now, it's important to point out that there hasn't been a case where DRM'ed files have rendered someone's computer inoperable. Having said that, I'd be very surprised if there weren't a scandal similar to the Sony rookit one that does affect downloadable content in the future. Given the ever-changing nature of DRM and the lengths to which some content providers will go to try to protect their works it could quite easily happen. And I don't want to be there when it does.

There are no doubt many other reasons not to buy DRM'ed media (including the very important one that you are supporting DRM with every DRM-laden purchase) but I think these five give a pretty compelling reason to avoid purchasing this type of content in the future. Now, I'm not adamantly against all shapes and forms of DRM. Sometimes it does make sense. For instance, it would be pretty hard to pull off an "all-you-can-eat" music service like Rhapsody/Yahoo Music/Napster without DRM. So in this case I'm not against DRM (I personally LOVE Rhapsody).

But the bigger problem is people (mostly unsuspecting teenagers and 20-somethings) buying DRM-laden media and thinking that they will be able to play that media ten or twenty years down the road (just like the generation before was able to enjoy CDs many years later). That almost assuredly will not be the case. Unless you're interested spending tons of time on the tedious (and potentially illegal depending on how you interpret the DMCA) task of removing the DRM from your media.

So where do you go to find DRM-free media? A while back I wrote a post entitled A Guide to DRM-Free Audio and that's a great place to start. Music services like eMusic and Audio Lunchbox rock and will only get better with time (especially as we lend them more support). And you can get a ton of spoken word content (audiobooks, podcasts, etc.) DRM-free as well.

If you still want to go out an buy DRM'ed content that's totally cool. Just don't say you weren't warned about what might happen. :)

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July 27, 2006

The "Not-So-Bright" Future for Media

So I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the future of media. No doubt some of this has been spurred by all of the discussion of Chris Anderson's new book The Long Tail (which you must read if you're at all interested in where media is headed). The question on my mind these days is what exactly is the future of media?

Media disruption is happening at a ridiculously fast rate. The best example of this is YouTube. I was walking back from lunch yesterday with my brother and was mentioning that YouTube was disrupting media consumption even more than TiVo did. You see with TiVo you still had to know when something was going to be on and decide whether it was good and TiVo-worthy. With YouTube you no longer need to worry about that. Just wait for everything to air and then wait for something like Digg videos to let you know if it was worth watching (like this awesome Colbert clip).

Then there's music. The fact that Yahoo is pushing hard to make music available DRM-free (as discussed here) speaks volumes about how far we've come in the last few years. More and more companies are getting the fact that DRM doesn't help anyone and they are willing to roll the dice on business models that don't assume that DRM offers the protections it pretends to.

And then there's this whole Long Tail thing which is pushing content to the edges. Your media discovery no longer comes from the aisles at Sam Goody or Blockbuster. It comes from your friend's MySpace page and some blogger's del.icio.us account. You use Pandora instead of Rolling Stone to find new music and can't even remember what network your favorite television show is on because that doesn't even matter anymore.

Lots of big media companies are frightened by this scenario. And they should be. The gatekeeper mentality toward media is rapidly eroding. It's being replaced by user-generated content, disintermediation of publishers and AI-like discovery and personalization tools. I'm not saying anything new here. Just making some observations of what I'm seeing and what others are talking and blogging about.

But what does this mean?

It means that if you're stuck in a 20th-century model for media distribution then you're toast. Sure, maybe not now...maybe in a few years or maybe you'll hang around even longer. But you'll eventually be moved out of the way (sometimes not so subtly) but what's coming down the pipeline. By the kid in the garage who just invented the next-generation media app that makes your content ridiculously easy to get. By the media discovery device that can't reach your content and therefore can't share it with people who are looking for it.

So what do you do?

First, you deliver incredible value to your consumer. You make it so easy to buy your content at a reasonable price that dealing with Bit Torrent or something else of that nature isn't worth it. You deliver the files in a non-crippled format that is at least the equivalent of what people can find on the Net for free. You make user experience paramount. You make consumption of your media incredibly painless.

Second, you build community around your media. You create passionate fans of your stuff who want to pay you for your stuff (even if they could get it for free elsewhere). Our buddies over at Integral Naked have done this. People pay them money because of the content but it's not just that. It's also about the community that forms around the content. Accessing that is just as important for many subscribers as the media itself.

Third, you are willing to innovate and understand that your revenue model is going to change. Hanging on to the way you made money in the past is, to throw out a bad cliche, like polishing the brass on the Titanic. The ship is going down and while you might make some money in the short-term by doing this you do so at the risk of the future of your company. We're moving to an all-digital world really, really fast and if you're not prepared for that you're putting your entire company at risk.

How do you innovate? You take chances. You try new things. You realize that some of the things you do won't make any sense in the short-term but will return you millions of dollars in the long term. You embrace the youth because their behavior will be indicative of what everyone will be doing in a few years. You watch how people are consuming media and let them dictate to you how they want to consume media vs. the other way around.

What does this have to do with LearnOutLoud? Nothing...and everything. We're trying to forge new ground with media delivery and consumption. And we're working with a range of people, some of whom really get it and some of whom don't (note: we prefer the former). And as much as this rant seems like it's focused on content producers it's equally important to consumers. Your world is shifting too and you have an opportunity to help forge this new future by voting your time, attention and hard-earned dollars towards the companies that are willing to take chances on new business models.

So maybe the future is bright after all. At least for those willing to embrace the tidal wave of change that has just started. A year ago nobody knew what YouTube was. Three years ago nobody knew what MySpace was. Six months from now there's going to be a new company that everyone will have heard of that no one has today and that company will be disrupting things all over again.

Bottom line = pay attention. Media shapes our lives and we're at a very cool point in history where we have the opportunity to really shape media. Just a little something to be conscious of...ok, back to your regularly scheduled, er, time-shifted programming...

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July 20, 2006

LearnOutLoud/Loomia featured on CNET

Ken (one of the co-founders of Loomia, the company we use for our super-cool recommendations service) just dropped me a line to let me know that Loomia and LearnOutLoud were recently featured on Alpha, the CNET blog. Here's the link. Pretty cool write-up...

If you haven't used our recommendations service yet definitely give it a try. Log in to the site (or register if you haven't already), rate a few titles (the more the better!) and then click the Recommendations link in the upper-right corner of any page on the site for your own personalized recommendations. LearnOutLoud is the only spoken word audio site currently offering custom recommendations and we think you'll really like this feature.

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July 19, 2006

DRM-free MP3s from Y! Music???

Very cool blog post from Ian Rogers over at Yahoo! Music about their desire to sell content as DRM-free MP3s rather than protected WMA files (which among other things do not play on iPods). Ian makes the great point that music companies are already selling DRM-free content whenever they sell a CD. Sure there's an extra step involved of ripping that track to mp3 but what high school/college student doesn't know how to do that these days?

I've been making a similar point to publishers for a while now. At LearnOutLoud we currently have the largest selection of DRM-free spoken word audio content of any site on the Net. And our selection is set to triple or quadruple by year's end (stay tuned!). We're able to pay the publishers we work with a whole heck of a lot more because we don't have the costs associated with implementing and servicing DRM'ed content. And our customers benefit because they don't have to worry about tedious stuff like authorizing computers or devices, not being able to listen to their stuff both at home and at the office, etc.

I was interviewed last week by someone writing a paper on DRM and they asked what I thought the future of DRM would be in five years. I said (and it was indeed Ian who I first heard this from) that either we'll see no DRM whatsoever or the DRM that will be there will be so transparent that it won't bother you and you won't even know that it's there.

Sadly, that's not the case today. I'm a huge fan of the Rhapsody music service but there are times when I've driving and trying to listen to my Rhapsody music and DRM issues make me want to toss my Zen player onto the 405. Customers are becoming increasingly wary of this and so unless things get better soon I think you're going to see more people moving to DRM free audio services in the future.

Hopefully Yahoo! Music can pull a DRM-free service off. I'm definitely rooting for them.

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June 18, 2006

A Guide to DRM-Free Audio

Let's face it. The DRM (if you're unfamiliar with the term DRM, click here for an overview) debate is probably never going to be resolved. On one hand, you have consumers (and consumer advocates) who hate having media they legally purchased crippled by what are sometimes ridiculous restrictions. On the other hand, you've got content producers who feel that distributing DRM-free media will result in rapidly declining business as people opt for sharing content with others rather than actually purchasing. I have no intention to get into that debate but do want to offer up something that I feel pretty strongly:

If you are opposed to DRM and want to see more DRM-free content made available the best thing you can do is support the companies that are distributing DRM-free media.

It's not easy to run a company selling DRM-free media. A large number of content producers won't do business with you because they feel that their content isn't being protected adequately (even though many of these same content producers sell the same content on CD witih no DRM). So many DRM-free companies are forced to sell whatever they can and may not have the most popular artists or latest releases. However, if we're ever hoping to live in a world where DRM doesn't exist or has a much smaller impact I think it's important to do our best to support these companies.

To help in that regard I've compiled a list of companies that sell DRM-free audio (both music and spoken word). After all, the first step in the process is knowing which companies sell content with no DRM restrictions. I feel that the best way to fight DRM is to do what we can to support them (and I'll admit upfront that there is at least a little bit of selfishness here as we do have DRM-free spoken word audio on our site). If we do then maybe, just maybe, we'll live in a DRM-free world one day (or at least in a world where there are more options for people who want legal content without DRM restrictions).

A couple of notes: I've tried to stick with reviewing companies whose legality isn't in question. There are a number of companies (the most notable being allofmp3.com) who sell DRM-free media but where it is not certain if they are paying proper royalties to artists. Since this represents a bit of a grey market I haven't reviewed them. Also, I have no doubt that I've left some good and worthwhile companies off this list. I've tried to stick with the larger companies with the biggest selections. If I've missed anyone worthy of mention, please feel free to leave a post in the forums or drop me an e-mail at jon at learnoutloud dot com.

DRM-Free Music Sites

eMusic - The best-known and most popular DRM-free music site. I love what these guys are doing. First of all they're cheap ($0.25 a download). They've got a large selection (over a million songs) and they are bringing on an increasing number of well-known artists (e.g., Ray Charles, Bob Marley, Coldplay, Johnny Cash). They certainly don't have as much of the latest and greatest as iTunes or Rhapsody but what they've amassed is pretty impressive. I'd love to see eMusic get even more popular and give the big boys a run for their money.

Pros: Great selection, low prices, increasing selection of popular artists

Cons: No rollover on their monthly plans (either use your monthly downloads or you lose them), no a la carte sales

Audio Lunchbox - This is a great site for independent music. They have a number of plans ranging from monthly to a "Platinum" plan which offers over a thousand downloads for $250/year. While eMusic might have a wider selection and better prices on many titles, ALB does have a lot of music that eMusic doesn't.

Pros: Diverse selection of independent music, low prices, can purchase a la carte, RSS feed available for new additions

Cons: Like eMusic your monthly credits do not roll over, credit system can be a bit confusing

Magnatune - I love what John Buckman has done at Magnatune. One of the coolest things is that CDs on Magnatune sell for a minimum price of $5 but you can choose to pay whatever you want. The cool thing is that the average selling price is $8.93. And Magnatune splits all royalties with its artists so when you buy anything on the site you know exactly how much the artist is getting paid. Magnatune might not have as many names that you've heard of but there's a heck of a lot of good music there and given the general "goodness" of their business model this is a company definitely worth supporting.

Pros: Multiple DRM-free formats (even WAV files!), listen to albums in their entirety before buying, give 3 copies of music you buy to friends, their motto ("We are not Evil")

Cons: Not many artists that you've previously heard of

betterPropaganda - A sweet site for indie music with free MP3 downloads. Most of the artists are up-and-coming ones although artists like Brian Eno, Snow Patrol and Belle and Sebastian are featured (however, many artists have a limited number of tracks available). betterPropaganda has done a lot with playlists and podcasts and has a cool recommendations service from Loomia (the same company we use for our recommendations service). Definitely a site to keep an eye on.

Pros: FREE MP3 downloads, Nice mix of up-and-coming independent artists and more established ones, playlists, podcasts and recommendations

Cons: Limited number of tracks from more popular artists

Others: Bleep | CommonTunes | Epitonic | Garage Band | Insound

DRM-Free Audiobook Sites

Telltale Weekly - Telltale Weekly and its sister site, The Spoken Alexandria Project, have a number of free and low-cost public domain audiobooks. A glance at their bestsellers list produces titles from authors like Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe and H.G. Wells (of The War of the Worlds fame). Telltale's prices are very low and they have made a commitment to releasing recordings under the Creative Commons License in the future. In addition, they give 7% of gross revenues to worthy charities such as Project Gutenberg and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Pros: Low prices and many free titles, Multiple file formats (MP3, AAC and Ogg Vorbis), Charitable giving

Cons: Selection consists only of public domain titles, many titles are fairly short in length

Librivox - Librivox has an interesting take on audiobooks. They gathered an army of volunteers to read public domain audiobooks a chapter at a time. The upside is that they are producing a ton of content to listen to. The downside is that they chapter-by-chapter approach leads to some big inconsistencies in quality (although this does appear to be getting over time). And since these titles are all available for free it's tough to complain.

Pros: All audiobooks are free to download, large and growing selection of classical literature

Cons: Selection consists only of public domain titles, inconsistency both among and within titles

LearnOutLoud - We're doing the DRM-free thing as well and while our selection is still pretty small (approx. 400 titles) it's growing pretty quickly. A number of our titles are public domain but most are not including titles like Think and Grow Rich and content from authors like Bodhipaksa and Sir John Templeton. We're heavy on self-improvement titles but working hard to expand our selection in other areas as well. In addition, we give away one free full-length audiobook each month.

Pros: DRM-free non-public domain audiobooks, Multiple file formats (MP3 and bookmarkable MPEG-4), Personalized recommendations

Cons: Selection is still somewhat small and focused primarily on self-improvement titles

Others: AudioBooksForFree.com | Christian Audio | iAmplify | LiteralSystems.org | Project Gutenberg

DRM-Free Podcast Sites

No discussion of DRM-free audio would be complete without a nod to the podcasting community. I'm not going to review all of them but the best directories I've seen are Yahoo! Podcasts, iTunes, ODEO, Podcast Pickle, Podcast Alley and the directory here at LearnOutLoud.

So that's a round-up of what we've found. Like I said, I'm sure we've missed some. If you happen to know of any other sites that should be included or of any information that's incorrect drop me a line at jon at learnoutloud dot com or make a post in the forums and I'll update this blog post. We're big fans of all of the sites listed here, as much for what they are trying to do in terms of making DRM-free audio available as for where they are today. If enough of us do our best to support these site I feel we can tip the balance in favor of DRM-free media in the future. It won't happen overnight but I think it's a worthy goal.

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June 02, 2006

2006 Audie Award Winners

For those of you unaware, the Audie Awards are sort of the Oscars for audio books and they were held May 19th in Washington, D.C. They are run by the Audio Publishers Association. Hopefully next year a LearnOutLoud.com audio book will be up for an Audie but until then we applaud the winners of the 2006 Audies. Here's the winners that apply to audio learning in general and we feature on our site:

Audiobook of the Year
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America and The Audio Partners Publishing
Company
Author: Douglas Adams
Narrator: BBC Radio

Classics
Around the World in 80 Days
Publisher: Listening Library
Author: Jules Verne
Narrator: Jim Dale

Non-Fiction, Abridged
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Author: Jonathan Eig
Narrator: Ed Herrmann

Personal Development/Motivational
The Five Love Languages
Publisher: Oasis Audio
Author: Dr. Gary Chapman
Narrator: Dr. Gary Chapman

Biography/Memoir
Garlic and Sapphires
Publisher: Random House Audio
Author: Ruth Reichl
Narrator: Ruth Reichl

Business Information/Educational
Good to Great
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Author: Jim Collins
Narrator: Jim Collins

Inspirational/Spiritual
Finding God in Unexpected Places
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Author: Philip Yancey
Narrator: Mel Foster

Humor
The Truth (With Jokes)
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Author: Al Franken
Narrator: Al Franken

Original Work
Famous Composers
Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks Ltd.
Author: Darren Henley
Narrator: Marin Alsop recorded at Room With a View

Solo Narration – Male
Moby-Dick
Publisher: Naxos AudioBooks Ltd.
Author: Herman Melville
Narrator: William Hootkins

Narration by Author or Authors
The Tender Bar
Publisher: Hyperion AudioBooks
Author: J.R. Moehringer
Narrator: J.R. Moehringer

Audiobook Adapted From Another Medium
Hidden Kitchens: Stories and More from NPR's the Kitchen Sisters
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Author: Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva
Narrators: Frances McDormand, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva

Posted by LOLDavid | Permalink

May 25, 2006

It's Been a While...

Boy, a couple of weeks on the road and I'm out of the blog habit. Lots going on our end though so make sure to sign up for our newsletter if you haven't already. Our next update will be going out early next week (plus a brand new free audiobook is on the way soon!).

In the meantime, just a few things in the audio world I thought I'd point you too:

1. Dr. Daniel Amen - Recently listened to a presentation that he gave and was fascinated by what's happening in the world of brain science. It is really remarakable that although we have sophisticated technique to scan other body parts until just recently we haven't had anything to scan our more important body part (the brain). By the way, we have a number of Dr. Amen's titles available here.

2. Red Business - I had a chance to meet the people behind this at last week's Audio Publisher's Conference. I really like what they're doing and they've done some cool interviews with a number of big names (e.g., Tom Peters). Plus they recently put a title on TeachOutLoud!

3. Moneyball - I had a chance to listen to about half of Moneyball on the trip out to D.C. Very enjoyable! I've always liked Lewis' writing and if you're a baseball fan you're in for a treat with this one.

4. Pema Chodron - I've started listening to Pema Chodron and have been getting a lot out of it. I think there's a tremendous amount of benefit to be gained from merging the best wisdom from the Eastern and Western religious and spiritual traditions. Pema's treaching can providing the Eastern component of that equation.

So much more to say but I'll leave it at that for now. More to come soon!

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April 27, 2006

Take a look at TeachOutLoud

It's been flying under the radar for a while but I finally decided I should blog about our new service TeachOutLoud. When we started LearnOutLoud we were impressed by the number of good audiobooks and podcasts that were out there. At the same time, we compared that with the total amount of high-quality audio content that is generated on a daily basis around the world. We're talking about literally hundreds of speeches, lectures, presentations, classes, etc. that are delivered every day and of which far less than 1% are ever recorded and made available on the Internet.

One of the reasons why we felt that people didn't bother to record this content is that there wasn't an easy way to distribute it. You'd have to set up your own site, upload the content, deal with people who couldn't figure out how to download it or play it, etc. Not rocket science perhaps but certainly a bit of a hassle. And that assumes that you're giving the content away. If you wanted to charge for it then there's even more involved in terms of e-commerce, secure downloading, etc.

We wanted to make it a lot easier.

In fact, we wanted to make it so easy that if you had an MP3 recording of a live event or audiobook then you could have that audio available for people to download within minutes, complete with a professional looking product page and the capability to charge for the content if you so chose.

With TeachOutLoud that possibility is now a reality.

TeachOutLoud provides you with all of the services that you need to distribute and sell your audio content online. It allows you to focus on what you're really good at: Creating great content. Our vision for TeachOutLoud is a day when anyone and everyone can take a lecture they've just given, a class they've just taught or an audio book they've just recorded and easily make it available through LearnOutLoud.com.

No need to understand RSS or XML or any of that stuff. No worries about a proprietary file format that won't work with certain players (all files are distributed as MP3 files). No hassle in setting up hosting, customer service, e-commerce. Just an opportunity to record educational and inspirational content and make it available to anyone around the world (Note: We support international payment as well as Paypal).

In the last few weeks since we've done a soft launch of TeachOutLoud we've already had 50+ titles uploaded through the TeachOutLoud system. Here is a sampling of what you can find there:

John Selby - A best-selling author and noted teacher, John has posted a half-dozen courses on self-development and spirituality on TeachOutLoud.

The Work of Ratanjit Sondhe - Discoverhelp is a company dedicated to help you reaching your potential. They've posted a number of discussions with Ratanjit Sondhe that you will enjoy.

Trish Dennison - Dave Trager, the Founder of Feel Good Vibes, introduced us to Trish and we're proud to be hosting her content.

Sounds for Sights - Audio walking tours are a great way to enjoy a new city. The folks at Sounds for Sights have posted several titles through TeachOutLoud and even have made a free walking tour of Rockefeller Center and the Diamond District available for download.

This is just a start as we hope to have hundreds, if not thousands, of titles added to TeachOutLoud in coming months. The best part is that your title could be next. Do you have something you would like to teach the world about? Just head on over to http://www.teachoutloud.com and see how easy it is to get your audio content up so that others can learn from what you have to say.

Thanks to everyone who has been instrumental in bringing TeachOutLoud to life!

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April 24, 2006

More Content 2.0

OK, so I've been bitten by this Content 2.0 thing. In fact I think I'm going to start a whole new category for blog posts on the subject. It might not seem like it has anything to do with LearnOutLoud but I beg to differ.

It has everything to do with how we'll consume content/media in the future.

The graph above is the Alexa traffic chart for YouTube. If you haven't been already you really owe it to yourself to go. In less than a year and with virtually no marketing YouTube has grown to one of the Top 50 sites on the Net. By year's end I'm pretty sure it will be one of the Top 10. I think the reason for this is that it pretty much embodies what Content 2.0 is all about. What are those elements?

1. Brevity - Shorter content is perfect for our ADD-ish culture. While I'm definitely not saying that the three-hour epic movie is going away anytime soon I do think you'll see a trend to shorter and shorter forms on content in coming years. And one of the main reasons for that is...

2. Portable - A cool thing about YouTube is that I can watch stuff on YouTube or I can post it on my blog. With a little doing I can even download the content. Content 1.0 resides in a certain place (e.g., your television). Content 2.0 is a nomad and shows up wherever you want it to.

3. Personal - One of the neat things about Content 2.0 is that is remarkably personal. It's not the super-polished stuff you see coming out of television networks and movie studios. It's more rough. It's raw like AskANinja
or the Gillmor Gang. It's Blair Witch...not Blair Witch 2. Clerks vs. Clerks 2. In fact, often times the more money you throw at it the worse it gets.

4. Efficient - Look, we're all busy. I'd love to sit down and read all of the great books ever written and watch all the movies and the "cool" TV shows. But I don't have time. Very few of us do. So if you can give me 90% of the benefit and enjoyment of the full-length content in a condensed version I will be very appreciative. That was sort of my point in yesterday's post. If your 350 page book can be condensed down to a cool 50 pages then I can read 7 different books in the time it would have taken me to read your book.

Again, I'm not talking about Cliff Notes or executive summaries. I'm talking about a new form of content that is concise, personal, relevant and highly entertaining. A form of content that respects my time and at the same time appeals to my desire to gain a richer understanding of the world and learn the stuff I need to to improve my life and reach my goals.

That's what Content 2.0 is all about. YouTube gets it. Some podcasters get it (most don't). It'll be interesting to see who else gets it in the coming months and years.

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Posted by jbischke | Permalink

April 07, 2006

5,000 Registered Members

I promised myself I'd blog about these milestones a little less frequently but was excited to see that sometime in the last 24 hours we passed over the 5,000 registered member threshold. It's a lot of fun to watch the growth of the site and to see all of the people who are downloading audio books and podcasts.

Thanks to all of you who have joined the site. We've got lots more coming down the pipeline which we're very excited to share with you. Have a great weekend everyone and keep learning out loud!

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Paypal and International Payments

We've recently a couple of things to make it easier to purchase audio learning titles.

Pay with Paypal - If you're one of the 100 million+ people with a Paypal account you can now purchase audio books and video with Paypal. It's nice to make a purchase and not have to enter in your credit card. Your Paypal information (username and password) is entered directly on the Paypal website ensuring a safe shopping experience. Just look for the Paypal button above when you're making your purchase. It's really easy.

International Payments - Based on the many requests we've had we've now opened up our site for international purchases. If you don't live in the U.S. you can now purchase any of our downloadable titles with your credit card or via Paypal. We're very excited about being able to take the Audio Learning Revolution global. (Note: Our distributor only ships CDs and cassettes on the U.S. so, for now at least, the only titles that can be ordered internationally are downloadable titles.)

We're always interested in doing anything that we can to make it easier for you to find and order great audio learning titles. If there is anything we can do don't hesitate to let us know by sending an e-mail to suggestions@learnoutloud.com.

Thanks!

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April 06, 2006

David Allen and GTD

Recently I had an illuminating day attending a David Allen Roadmap Seminar in Santa Monica. Jon has written in the past about Allen, and I’d like to share some of my thoughts on Allen's system and philosophy as well.

David Allen, in case you were wondering is a human productivity black belt and author of the best-selling book, Getting Things Done. His system, now labeled GTD for short is a series of structured productivity schemes you can apply to your life in every way. On a surface level it comes across as a rigorous form of list making: you write down every single thing you wish to accomplish in your life, from the most mundane to the most profound; whatever has your attention at that moment. From there, you continue writing down things you wish to remember for the future the moment they come to you. These can be projects in the garden, goals for your next sales quarter, remembering phone calls, whatever. The overarching point here is that your brain is not something that was meant to store information. In fact, the more information you are constantly trying to remember, the more stress you have in your life because of the strain involved in making sure you have everything accounted for. This rings incredibly true to me, and indeed, another phrase Allen uses to describe GTD is "advanced common sense".

This isn't a system that Allen wants you to use solely as way of getting more projects done at work, despite the fact that most of the people attending the session with me were business professionals. On the contrary, while his system is acutely useful in the business world, Allen's ambition with GTD goes farther. Throughout the day he convincingly applied it to the accomplishment of goals at home, in personal relationships, hobbies, (i.e. planning what audio books you want to listen to) and the establishment of lifetime goals. You are also asked to reflect upon what you’ve done every week so that you are constantly keeping up and in focus on what you are trying to do and what underpins what you are trying to do.

I have since begun implementing some of GTD into my life and it has relieved the pressure I've attached to what I do in almost every way. You wouldn't believe how good it feels to write down everything you think about in a given day. When you see it, you can break it down into the actions it takes to get it done, and once you have all of that figured out, it simply isn't taxing you any longer. Imagine being able to rid yourself of the daily torture that comes from not knowing if you're doing exactly what you could be doing to reach your potential. I'm not saying I'm a yellow belt with this GTD stuff or even that I will follow everything talked about in the seminar to the letter. I don’t think Allen is pushing strict adherence; instead he is providing a model of task assessment that can filter out any associated anxiety. It is a very durable framework and you can find many different ways to work it into your routine.

As I said earlier, David Allen's primary book on the subject is Getting Things Done. He also has a second book which is available through us called Ready for Anything. Take a look, I honestly think you'll find something valuable here.

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March 13, 2006

French look to open iTunes to other music players

France is pushing through a law that would force Apple Computer to open its iTunes online music store and enable consumers to download songs onto devices other than the computer maker's popular iPod player.

Read more

The reason that stuff like this is important is that closed systems almost always stifle innovation. Currently you can only listen to songs (and audiobooks, podcasts, etc.) that you've put in iTunes if you have an iPod. By opening up iTunes to other devices there would likely be increased competition in the device player market which would lead to technological advances and drops in pricing.

Apple no doubt feels that by controlling both the software (iTunes) and the hardware (the iPod) that they can provide a superior user experience. To a certain extent that's been true to date. If you've had a chance to compare the iPod/iTunes/Fairplay DRM package to the alternatives you'll likely agree.

But to move forward these systems must become more open. I had a chance to watch a great presentation a week ago on the subject of the future of media and a great quote from Rob Lord was included:

“What if Internet Explorer only went to Microsoft’s site?”

If that was the case we would be back in the dark ages in terms of web development. Fortunately Microsoft allowed users of Internet Explorer to go other places besides microsoft.com. Let's hope that Apple does something similar and opens up iTunes and the iPod to competing music and spoken word services and players. That's something that would be in the best interest of everyone.

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February 09, 2006

Barack Obama takes home Best Spoken Word Album Grammy

Beating out the likes of actors and comedians such as Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, George Carlin, and Sean Penn, Illinois Senator Barack Obama took home the Best Spoken Word Album Grammy last night for his audio book Dreams from My Father which he authored and narrated. Mr. Obama joked in a recent podcast that he was going to now change his name to The Artist Formerly Known as Barack.

I haven't listened to the audio book yet but I plan to very soon. It's a memoir of Mr. Obama's search for the truth about his father and his familial roots in Africa, after his father died in car crash.

I've been a subscriber to the Barack Obama Podcast since it's inception. Regardless of political affiliation, I think Mr. Obama is an excellent speaker and his podcasts are very entertaining and informative. And he mixes up the format of how they are delivered as well. Sometimes he's at his home in Chicago, sometimes it's a speech he gave, sometimes it's him on a cell phone from the Middle East (which he recently traveled to), and there's also one of him on the Al Franken show. Mr. Obama is no dry, square politician and he's not always talking politics. He frequently talked about the Chicago White Sox as they were approaching the World Series.

So it was not surprising to me that his audio book and his narration were Grammy worthy. With this win, I'll have to make his audio book my next purchase.

Posted by LOLDavid | Permalink

January 30, 2006

Monday Round-up

Wow, tomorrow's the last day of January already? This month has flown by...

1. We crossed the 2,000 member mark last weekend. It took us about 11 months to get our first thousand members...and only 45 days to get our next thousand. Fun to see the growth. Thanks to all of you who just recently signed on!

2. Saw some cool buzz over the weekend about our Free Audiobook of the Month club. Several people blogged about it and I wanted to say thanks to Wynn, Phil, BK and Gary for the mentions (as well as anyone else out there who's linked to us). We appreciate it!

3. Our 1st Anniversary promotion ends at the end of the day tomorrow. If you didn't catch it in this blog post, we're giving away $12 gift certificates to promote our first twelve months in business. So if you've been itching to buy an audio book or two there's no time like the present. :)

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January 28, 2006

History in the making...

A little off-topic perhaps (or maybe not!) but I thought I'd post the link nonetheless:

http://jon.zaadz.com/blog/2006/1/history_in_the_making

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January 26, 2006

Our First Anniversary!

It's hard to believe tha