QR codes—squares of black-and-white patterns—have much to recommend them. They store far more information than plain, old bar codes. For example, they can fit in web addresses and logos. And they are cheap. They have been popular in Japan for years, but elsewhere have for a while been touted as the next big thing.
Over the past year, QR codes have quietly slipped into the marketing mainstream. Three-quarters of American online retailers surveyed by Forrester, a research firm, use them.
Scanlife, a provider of QR code services, saw the number of unique users scanning codes through its system triple in the year to March.
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Thursday, June 21
Is there money in digital radio?
On June 5th Clear Channel Communications, America’s largest radio broadcaster, announced a deal with Big Machine, a country-music label, to pay performance royalties on all its radio channels, terrestrial (ie, over the air) and digital. The agreement indicates that Clear Channel plans to invest more in digital radio, the part of the industry that is growing. But unlike terrestrial broadcasters, digital stations are obliged by a 1998 law to pay fees to artists whenever a song is played. This skewed system has made life painful for digital platforms trying to build an audience, such as Pandora, which pays out more than half of its revenue in music royalties.
Only 2% of Clear Channel’s listeners are digital and 98% terrestrial, so the deal looks costly. The idea is to see what this does to the bottom line before negotiating with other labels.
All eyes are now watching to see whether Clear Channel can make money from digital radio. It already has iHeartRadio, an internet network launched in 2008, which relies on ads rather than subscriptions.
Second only to television in its reach, terrestrial radio does not face much of a threat from digital, especially given the royalty burden on digital providers. Air-wave radio has held on to listeners, because it remains free and convenient, particularly for car-bound commuters. Though carmakers are starting to integrate digital-radio platforms, streaming audio can eat up most mobile data plans. It is not expected to steal many listeners soon.
Read more here
Only 2% of Clear Channel’s listeners are digital and 98% terrestrial, so the deal looks costly. The idea is to see what this does to the bottom line before negotiating with other labels.
All eyes are now watching to see whether Clear Channel can make money from digital radio. It already has iHeartRadio, an internet network launched in 2008, which relies on ads rather than subscriptions.
Second only to television in its reach, terrestrial radio does not face much of a threat from digital, especially given the royalty burden on digital providers. Air-wave radio has held on to listeners, because it remains free and convenient, particularly for car-bound commuters. Though carmakers are starting to integrate digital-radio platforms, streaming audio can eat up most mobile data plans. It is not expected to steal many listeners soon.
Read more here
small sums of money to finance young companies
Crowdfunding is booming. A report by Massolution, a research firm, forecasts that $2.8 billion will be raised worldwide this year, up from $1.5 billion in 2011 and only $530m in 2009 (see chart 2). There are over 450 “crowdfunding platforms”, including four in China, up from under 100 in 2007, with Kickstarter America’s largest. This month Indiegogo, its closest rival (though global and with a broader mix of projects), secured the biggest chunk of venture capital so far for crowdfunding.
The effect of this has perhaps been most marked in the creative arts: around 10% of the films shown at the Sundance and Cannes festivals this year were crowdfunded, says Mr Strickler.
Projects that can raise 20-40% of their target amount from online “friends and family” do far better at getting strangers to contribute, says Mr Rubin. Videos also help. Campaigns with them raise over twice as much as those without.
Read more here
The effect of this has perhaps been most marked in the creative arts: around 10% of the films shown at the Sundance and Cannes festivals this year were crowdfunded, says Mr Strickler.
Projects that can raise 20-40% of their target amount from online “friends and family” do far better at getting strangers to contribute, says Mr Rubin. Videos also help. Campaigns with them raise over twice as much as those without.
Read more here
Tuesday, June 19
More Than 10 Billion Video Ads Delivered In May
The number of video ads served surged from nearly 9.5 billion in April to just over 10 billion in May, according to the latest online video rankings from comScore. That’s a month-over-month increase of around 6 percent and a record total, which is great news for the online video industry. Once again, the streaming TV/video service Hulu led the way.
Read more here
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Knight News Challenge
The Knight Foundation announced the winners of the first round of its Knight News Challenge on Monday in Massachusetts — a contest aimed at funding the next generation of news entrepreneurs.
Two of the winners focus specifically on video:
Peepol.tv –- The Knight Foundation describes this startup as “leveraging streaming networks like Ustream and TweetCaster” to aggregate live, mobile video streams of breaking news events and present them on a world map so that viewers can see live video of events as they unfold.
Watchup –- Founded by Adriano Farano, a former Knight Fellow at Stanford University and founder of a European “crowdsourced journalism” community called CafeBabel.com, this startup is developing an iPad app that will allow users to create their own on-the-fly video channels from different news sources. Farano has described it as “Hulu for news.”
Read more here
Two of the winners focus specifically on video:
Peepol.tv –- The Knight Foundation describes this startup as “leveraging streaming networks like Ustream and TweetCaster” to aggregate live, mobile video streams of breaking news events and present them on a world map so that viewers can see live video of events as they unfold.
Watchup –- Founded by Adriano Farano, a former Knight Fellow at Stanford University and founder of a European “crowdsourced journalism” community called CafeBabel.com, this startup is developing an iPad app that will allow users to create their own on-the-fly video channels from different news sources. Farano has described it as “Hulu for news.”
Read more here
Sunday, June 17
Recruiting Gamers to Fight Disease
In August, (Foldit) will unveil a game that will teach players to build tiny
machines made out of DNA. Players will be able to create
structures that can sniff out and eliminate cancer cells while leaving
healthy cells intact. Another game in the works will turn
players into investigative journalists.
Read more here
Read more here
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