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Presentation on Social Media | Soundstream Conference

I recently presented at Soundstreams’ “New Models for Distribution” Conference.

Below is the presentation I gave (sans notes)

Soundstreams Presentation by Jaki Levy

Here are a few notes from the first day of the conference:

Presenters included IP and copyright lawyers such as Howard Knopf, and marketers like
Sean Howard from Lift Communications & Max Valiquette from Youthography who examined the world of social media.

The keynote was delievered by Paul Hoffert, CEO of Noank Media.

I’ve pulled some relevant thoughts from today’s presentations:

The term “Global Village” coined by Marshall McLuhan (coincidentally a Canadian who taught at Toronto University) assumes we will have harmonized (and similar) products, services, and programs. These products, services, and programs will exist across territorial, political, and cultural boundaries.

In fact, what we are seeing is that the information age is local – infrastructure is global, but content and culture is local

We think global, but act local. Generally, we trust only 20 people (family, sports teams), can track 150 people, and recognize 1000 people (via email+social networks).

The 21st century model looks to monetize experience, is user centric, and assumes there is viral distribution – Peer-2-Peer. This is a DISTRIBUTED network, and distributed tasks.

Max Valiquette spoke on best practices for social media marketing.
He asks: What are best practices for increased impact?

1. Be where they are – The “If you build, they will come” strategy won’t always work. Make it easy for them. TripAdvisor: Travel Map “Where have you traveled?” Generate post-event content.

2. Be flexible

3. Be interactive – social media cannot be treated as advertising or a media buy. It’s an opportunity for engagement. Be responsive, and proactive. A one-time media buy just doesn’t work in these spaces. Be prepared to listen and talk back. There is a trend towards single spaces that allow you to do everything: blog, email, chat, share photos/music/videos, keep track of birthdays and events.

4. Be Real. Be transparent. Be a person.

The distributed social web flattens the marketing world – theaters, companies, and artists are all brands and everyone else is a brand, so organizations must compete with individuals.

By participating in dialogue and facilitating conversations, we enrich not only our lives, but the lives of others, both online and offline.

The Economy of Free

By producing and promoting your work online, you must develop a strategy for free. I learned this from Chris Anderson who popularized the term, “The Long Tail.” He is now writing a book about the economy of free.

This year, we saw Radiohead lead the way in free by “giving away” their music. By allowing fans to set the price tag, or even download the work for free, Radiohead made a statement about the distribution of art. On the internet, distribution is essentially free. With a good strategy, you can post and distribute with greater ease. And people might or might not pay for it. And why should they?

Recently, Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails followed suit by offering free downloads of his music. Before this initiative, he has actively encouraged his fans during shows to download his music for free: Wendy Davis writes, “Last year, at a concert in Australia, he urged fans to download his group’s tracks from file-sharing sites rather than pay what his label charged instead of paying for it on CD.”

Trent Reznor also produced Saul Williams’ album “Niggy Tardust,” and offered the fans a pay-what-you-want system. According to Wendy Davis’ article, the results were mixed. Only 18% of people who downloaded the album paid anything.

However, it greatly increased Saul Williams exposure. His last album sold 34,000 copies, while “Niggy Tardust” sold 28,000. On the other hand, there were a total of 154,000 downloads accounted. That’s five times the number of his past album. Considering Saul’s label took a cut of the 34,000 albums sold, Saul actually made more money on his new album.

Perhaps Free ain’t so bad, afterall.

Buddy Ebsen Hackett and The Defibulators

Buddy Ebsen Hackett is The Defibulators marketing “arm” for The Defibulators, a brooklyn based musical act. Who-ee! This is the first version of a promo video for The Defibulators‘ new album.

All songs by The Defibulators
thedefibulators.com



Buddy Hackett introduces: The New Album by the Defibulators from Jaki Levy on Vimeo.

playful disclaimer: titles of songs appearing in this video may or may not actually be on the upcoming album

We produced and edited this version in 1 very fun night.
The fire in the fireplace was real and made the entire Brooklyn apartment very, very smokey.

Rounded Corners in Photoshop

How do you take a regular square image, and give it rounded corners?
I’ve been using Photoshop for some time, but have never really figured out an easy way to do this.

For those looking how to do it . . . check out this tutorial.

This nice visual tutorial will help you give your images rounded corners and make everyone happy, apparently.

After doing this for some time, I’d like to figure out – how to do this repeatedly using photoshops actions and batch processor.

Any takers? Links? Tips?

Setup a photo Slideshow

Flickr is great for managing your photos on your site. I use flickr to keep in touch with friends, posting new content to my site, and even email marketing. If you’re using flickr for the first time, you can read Getting the Most Out of Flickr. Otherwise, I’ve listed a few tools and links below.

After setting up a flickr account, you can upload your photos via the web, through flickr’s batch uploader, or even your celll phone. You can read all about setting up a Moblog (uploading photos to your blog via your cell phone). If you’re having a performance or event, read this to help you organize your photos and collections.

Flickr will only show your most recent 200 photos, so you will definitely want to upgrade to a Pro account ($24.95/yr).

Create a slideshow with your flickr photos

You can use any one of these sites to create a slideshow using your photos’ tags and sets. As you upload new photos, your slideshow will automatically update on your site. Check out these great tools!

Check out Quick Online Tips for a full and comprehensive list of flickr tools and tips.

Artists on the Web | Learning to Love You More

 I was thinking about how artists translate their work online and came across this great article on Creative Capital.org.

The article looks at interesting web projects that artists put together as an extension of their work. I remember seeing (and loving) one of the projects, Learning to Love You More by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. The project asks user to complete “homework assignments” – and the results are often heartfelt, hysterical or both. The artists say, “We spend hours drifting through the site…reading your life stories, watching your videos, listening and looking. It is one of our favorite things to do, and we know that thousands of other people feel the same way.”

I wonder how this kind of project can be developed within the performing arts community. . . . What will it take?

Strategies for Online Outreach at The Field | Spring 2008

This month, I am leading a workshop at The Field called Strategies for Online Outreach.

In addition to looking at online marketing, I am hoping that the working artists in this workshop will begin developing interesting online projects. I was thinking about how artists translate their work online and came across this great article on Creative Capital.org.

The article looks at interesting web projects that artists put together as an extension of their work. I remember seeing (and loving) one of the projects, Learning to Love You More by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. The project asks user to complete “homework assignments” – and the results are often heartfelt, hysterical or both. The artists say, “We spend hours drifting through the site…reading your life stories, watching your videos, listening and looking. It is one of our favorite things to do, and we know that thousands of other people feel the same way.”

I wonder how this kind of project can be developed within the performing arts community. . . . What will it take?

Reality is a Lie

Photoshop remixing reality – this ain’t news. But…there’s been an evolution. Now users can “stretch the truth” even more. with this awesome piece of software, developed by a neuroscientist.

Some of the new tools for removing tourists from photos, stretching pictures without distorting faces and making reality flexible are free and online.

Mr. Baldassi’s photo-editing tool can be downloaded from his Web site, liquidrescale.wikidot.com, and used as a plug-in with a popular open-source image-editing tool known as the GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP.

Check out this fascinating article on NYTimes.com…

(text below taken directly from article)

“We spend about 10 percent our waking life with our eyes closed by blinking,” said Michael F. Cohen, a principal researcher at Microsoft’s research division in Redmond, Wash. “If you want to take a picture of 10 people with their eyes open, you’re out of luck.”

So he and researchers at Microsoft built a tool called Group Shot, which can be found atresearch.microsoft.com/projects/GroupShot. The tool lets users identify the best parts of a sequence of pictures and merge them. It can correct for small changes caused by movement or changes in the lighting. Adobe just introduced a similar feature in the latest version of Photoshop Elements 6, which sells for about $100.

Mr. Cohen said his tool would produce photos that were closer to the reality that we perceive than a photograph.

“We’re assembling what’s really there — just not from one-hundredth of a second, but longer,” he said.

“Think of an axis from the purely objective to the purely subjective,” he said. “At one end is a photograph, a recording of what really took place. At the other end is our internal experience of an external event. There’s some place that is a little bit subjective. It’s not quite real. But if you and I looked at it, we would agree on it.”

Dance/USA Winter Conference | Day 2

This weekend, Kristin Sloan from The Winger, Chris Elam, and myself (Jaki Levy) led a workshop at the annual Dance / USA winter forum in Los Angeles on Recording, Producing, and Sharing Online Video. The workshop was well attended by the dance company executive / managing directors, development and outreach staff, and the attendees had some good questions. One particular participant asked if there was a way to track who is viewing your video, and what age are they are.  For performing arts organizations, this data can be very valuable for building your audiences.

With a bit of work, you can certainly get a sense of what your viewership is. While you may not have quick access to this information, you can certainly look at who is subscribing to your videos, and leaving comments. YouTube users are fairly open and usually post their age on their profiles. You just have to go and get this data – there is not automatic way to do this – yet.

In addition to answering these kinds of questions, we also suggested a few ideas for kinds of segments that would make sense for any dance organization. 

For larger organizations, copyright and licensing is a significant issue. Choreographers, Dancers, Union members, and Musicians all have licensing fees, so producing a video segment can be tricky. We suggested considering Behind-the-scenes or Dance Education videos. To avoid the up-front cost of licensing, video segments about your company members might also be a possibility. However, this is a growing issue and must be dealt with.

Another possibility is streaming rehearsal video. With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation’s New York City Innovation Fund, Merce Cunningham will begin doing this in February 2008 in a series called Mondays with Merce. 

Overall, the conference provided a valuable opportunity to get a sense of where things are going. Dance/USA did a wonderful job in organizing everything. I trust there will be a very positive impact as a result of everyone’s participation.

Dance USA Winter Conference | Broadening, Deepening, Diversifying

This weekend, Chris Elam, Kristin Sloan, and myself are at Dance USA’s Winter Forum. Together, we’re leading a workshop for dance organizations, helping them develop strategies for video.Â

To open  the conference, Jerry Yoshitomi led two workshops. The first workshop dealt with developing a plan for audience research. Both workshops were very informative. This post will cover the second workshop which focused on the question of broadening, deepening and diversifying your audience.
electric lodge friday check in

Deepening involves communicating with your existing base in new ways.

Broadening entails reaching new audience members who are similar to your current audience.
Diversifying means developing an entirely new base.

Traditional marketing tells us that diversifying your audience, or reaching new customers, takes 6 times as many resources than broadening or deepening. Nevertheless, this is an invaluable opportunity.
BROADENING, DEEPENING, DIVERSIFYING
So you want to diversify your audience. How do you do this? Does your organization reflect the kind of diversity you are looking to view your work?
Jerry Yoshitomi mentioned U2’s Text Message Campaign. NexGen audiences are more likely to send text messages than communicate by email. U2 recently launched a txt2screen program, where fans could send text message to the projection screens during the concert. After the show, Bono sent a text message to all the fans, thanking them for coming to the show.
Green Day did something similar where fans could send picture messages during the concert, viewable by fans during the show.  What would a dance performance look like if audience members could leave their phones on, putting them on vibrate? Â
If this number was publicized before the show, audiences around the world could send messages to the live audience without actually being there.Â
Golan Levin, a multimedia artist also created an interesting cell phone performance, called DialTone – A Cell Phone Symphony, where audience members left their phones on. During the performance, different sections of the audience received phone calls, generating a sea of rings.
Let us know if you have seen any other interesting methods that have successfully broadened, deepened, or diversified your audience!

Video Solutions

As lots of videoBloggers know, YouTube is great because of the large audience. However, the quality lacks, and users can’t download any of your videos directly from the site.

(You can however use a service called DownloadYouTubeVideos to do this – but the quality is still poor)

So, what else is out there? I’ve briefly reviewed some good video solutions that I personally use. If you see something missing, or have a question, please let me know + leave a comment. My goal is to compile a comprehensive resource for content producers, hosts, designers, and curators of video content. Hope this list helps!

Vimeo
Great for programmers, developers, bloggers, and others who want their videos downloadable. Nice design + social networking capabilities. The nicest feature I like is the friend updates. Whenever a friend of yours leaves a comment, or gives some ‘net love to another video, you’ll see the instant feedback on your account. Good way to discover new video.

BrightCove
A Great solution for internet television, but not so great for video bloggers. Allows you to create your own custom channel. Here’s an example.

Another great feature is the customizable upload forms. You can create these custom upload forms and embed the form into your site. This way, visitors can upload videos to your custom channel without leaving your webpage.

BrightCove offers desktop software to help you manage your online media. Part of the software includes a batch uploader which allows you to upload multiple files at once.

Revver
Revver is also popular but I do not use it. They allow visitors to download video, but I don’t really know enough about Revver to be writing about it.

Blip.Tv
Blip.Tv is probably one of my favorites. They offer visitors and content producers high quality video, downloadable content, and the ability to create iTunes podcasts. They also offer content producers the ability to create a custom channel. Here is an example I created a while back.

Blip.Tv helps your content go beyond the web. The site helps you convert your videos for viewing on cell phones, video iPods, and many other formats.

Like Brightcove, Blip.Tv also offers a batch uploader, so you can upload many files at once, saving content producers and publishers LOTS of time.

I’ve embedded a video to give you a taste of the quality :

 

Pando
What if you just want to send video back and forth without hosting it publicly?
Use Pando. Pando allows you to send 1GB files & folders via any email or IM.
Think of it like YouSendIt, but for video and way cooler.

Interactive Ads on…Television?

NBC Universal and TiVo are two companies making television history. The two companies recently struck a deal that would create CLICKABLE ADVERTISEMENTS. From the NYTimes

“With proliferating media options and changing consumer behavior, our clients are asking for new ideas, better metrics, and more accountability,” Mike Pilot, president, NBC Universal Sales and Marketing, said in a statement.

The agreement with TiVo covers NBC Universal’s 14 television networks — including NBC, Telemundo and Bravo — as well as its 10 NBC-owned TV stations. NBC Universal is a unit of General Electric Co.

Television can become a new platform for advertising. Imagine a TV Guide channel that is clickable and searchable. It already exists on our computers under the cloak of YouTube. However, when our televisions become truly interactive, television advertising can adopt Google’s popular pay-per-click model on our laptops and desktops. TiVo and NBC recently partnered to make this a reality: “…[advertisers] can insert TiVo ‘tags’ into television commercials that let viewers click on an icon when watching an ad to obtain more information about a product.”

As of this writing, there are close to 10 million TiVo users. What will occur when this becomes the status-quo?

Small business owners who were once priced out of advertising on television or never considered television a viable advertising medium will be able to afford to advertise on this new interactive medium.

The impact will produce tremors across the board. Broadcast networks can take note. Instead of pandering to the least common denominator and generating “the next big hit,” television will be able to focus on producing original quality content. Chris Anderson observes,

Hit-driven economics is a creation of an age without enough room to carry everything for everybody. Not enough channels to broadcast all the TV programs, not enough radio waves to play all the music created, and not enough hours in the day to squeeze everything out through either of those sets of slots…This is the world of scarcity. Now, with online distribution and retail, we are entering a world of abundance. And the differences are profound.

With all these small players in the field, THE IMPACT FOR NICHE CONTENT will be tremendous. Just as blogs and websites generate revenue through Google’s affiliate networks, these independent content creators and providers will reap the benefits of this new economy. With a growing demand for advertising space, niche channels can easily develop. An entire channel devoted to modern dance would not be out of the question. With an increase in original content, we will see an overall growth in cultural capital.

For additional coverage:
Adweek

Media Madness at The Kitchen

Darian Dauchan’s Media Madness directed by Margaret Perry premiered at The Kitchen’s Counter Culture series. The show features live video and pre-rendered video pieces and is a “multi-media” extravaganza.

 
media madness
 

You can read an in-depth interview with Darian in The Ithaca Times or check out this great interview in The Ithacan.

I’ve been working on the show as the video designer. It’s been quite rewarding working with Margaret and Darian. Right now, we’re using the following equipment for the video setup:

  • 2 TV’s
  • 1 projector
  • A Camera for the Live Feed
  • A Video Amplifier and an A/B Video Switcher
  • Surprisingly, Keynote is running it all.

In the next production, I’d like to incorporate more interactivity into the piece using either Isadora or Max/MSP Jitter so I can create custom titles during the live feed. For example, there is a scene for a press conference (picture above). I’d like to have graphics and lower thirds appear that say “LIVE,” to give it a sense that it’s a media circus in a fictional place by creating custom titles.

However, I’ve found the delay and pixelation in these software platforms to be problematic.