Freelance Projects, Design and Programming Tutorials
Jamaican police launch an assault on the stronghold of alleged drugs lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke in Kingston.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Two American tourists are kidnapped by armed tribesmen near Yemen’s capital Sanaa, officials say.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Partial results show the governing party of Meles Zenawi is heading for a win after Sunday’s national elections, officials say.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Thanks to the dawn of “The eBook Era,” reading is becoming more accessible (if not necessarily more popular – thanks still to television). If you have an iPad or Kindle (or one of the many eReaders in the marketplace) or simply use another mobile device, ebooks are literally in the palm of your hands. These devices allow the user to carry a catalog of books that would fill a backpack (and then some!), making it easy to carry around whatever books you’d like to have at your disposal.
But what about audiobooks?
Formerly known as “books on tape” these are still popular in that you can absorb the story while driving or commuting in some other fashion. If you’re exercising you can have them at the ready on your MP3 player of choice. Basically, they fill a similar gap as podcasts – only they’re a “tad” longer.
Productivity and self-development books are massively popular in both formats. You can even buy them in (gasp!) actual printed book form should you choose to. In terms of brushing up on these skills and systems, which do you prefer – reading or listening…or a combination of all formats?
In this 2 Part, 45 minute tutorial we’ll go over the process involved with compositing a jet, helicopter, or even a UFO into your live actions scenes. You can watch Part One over on CGtuts+ before you watch Part Two below.
Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Premium for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.
File size 192MB
From the very first Phoenician alphabet, through Chinese calligraphy, to illuminated manuscripts, and to desktop publishing, the written word has been one of our primary means of communication. Not content with plain text on a blank background, artists through the centuries have created beautiful, awe-inspiring designs with type. Whether its purpose is to inspire or identify, illustrative lettering communicates to the heart as well as the head.
Continue reading “Inspiration: 45 Examples of Illustrative Lettering in Vector”
In this tutorial we will use Adobe Illustrator to create the ideal proportions of a female figure. Factors such as race, sex and personality do not allow us to apply strict rules concerning proportions. By learning the skills in this tutorial you will be well on your way to drawing any shape and size of body. Let’s get started!
Continue reading “Modeling the Human Body in Adobe Illustrator”
Interested in working in audio? Do you love music and wish you could work with sound? Did you go to audio production school because you thought it was cool, only to find out that you had no idea where to start looking for a job when you graduated?
Audio and sound related careers are varied and diverse, with many different industries needing qualified (or at least interested) sound engineers. This ranges from the obvious recording studio work to lesser thought of sound design, foley recorders and game design. In the next few posts I’ll guide you through the different careers you can hope to achieve with your audio enthusiasm, from big commercial studio work, entrepreneurial business endeavors to creating sound effects for video games.
The most popular place for many audio engineers is to work in music. Everybody wants to have their hands in the next hit, and there are certainly many positions to be had in a big recording studio.
The various phases of a production can be broken down into their respective job titles. As you may well know, there are different stages of a production, the recording and production phase, where tracks get recorded and music gets produced, the mixing session where the multi-tracks get mixed together into one cohesive and well blended mix and then finally a mastering session where the mix gets finalized. Therefore, there are dedicated audio engineers that like to specialize in a certain aspect of the production process.
Do you like mics? Do you like the technical aspect of the production process, all the various sounds you can get by finding the correct pre-amp, the right microphone and the perfect position? Then being a recording engineer is definitely up your alley. Experimenting with various recording equipment and getting a great source sound is the pride of the recording engineer, and is great for those who like working around musicians and artists in the studio.
However, the downside of being a recording engineer can be odd hours and tedious recording work as you try to punch in that last vocal phrase for the fiftieth time at two o’clock in the morning. The payoff of witnessing an amazing performance from a brilliant artist may outweigh the cons of working weird hours, and might not even be considered a bad thing if you are a B person who likes working nights anyway.
When the production process has been finished, every instrument has been recorded and all the musicians have gone home it’s time for the multi-track to be mixed. If we take a typical multi-tracked recording that’s been recorded over the span of a few weeks or months (or God forbid years!), there can be severe inconsistencies in levels and sounds that each particular instrument has.
We can’t go and put all the faders level with each other can call a track mixed, since the instruments were all recorded at different levels. Some instruments that were meant to be in the background might have been recorded much hotter than a lead element therefore dominating the mix. So it’s the mixing engineer’s job to square off these tracks and create a consistent and exciting mix out of the recorded multi-tracks he gets from the recording engineer.
Whereas the recording engineer’s job was to capture the most beautiful and full sound out of every instrument, it’s the mixing engineer’s job to trim the fat from every instrument, making sure all the instruments can be heard and appreciated. So although the recording engineer recorded a beautiful and full bodied guitar part during the recording process, it might end up heavily filtered and processed to fit the song at the end of the mixing process.
If you like working with pre-recorded music, and like fiddling around with EQ and compression alongside effects processors and reverb, being a mixing engineer can be a great vocation. It can be nice to immerse yourself in a mix without having to deal with the actual artists until the mix is done. It enables you to work the hours you want and it can also get very inspirational and creative trying to mold a consistent and flowing mix out of randomly recorded tracks. So when you’ve finally drained your creative spirits and ended up with an amazing mix, you can call in the artists to get their final comments and ultimate approval.
The final link in the production chain is the mastering process. Working as mastering engineers, it’s our duty to make the master sound better than the mix, and also make multiple songs sound like a complete whole.
Ever wondered how CDs that were recorded in 10 different studios can be made to sound similar to one another? A lot of it has to do with the mastering process, as the mastering engineer goes over every track that the artist has recorded and tries to make it sound like a complete package.
With subtle compression and EQs, a mastering engineer shapes a mix into an exciting an aurally dynamic package. If you like using subtle compression, EQ and limiting to put the final touches to an already great sounding mix, but making it sound better, then being a mastering engineer can be a good idea for you. It’s their job to take an exciting mix that might be too dynamic or needing a repairs in specific frequency regions and really make it shine.
Barring the fact that you just create your own studio and become a no holds barred jack of all trades, recording, mixing and mastering everything yourself, you’re probably not going to start your career in a big studio being the big muscle mixing engineer. Starting as an assistant or an intern is usually the way to go.
Assisting under skilled and professional engineers, regardless of which facet of the production process they work in, can be an invaluable learning experience. Learning the trade first-hand from someone with plentiful experience can be a quicker way to learn the craft since you can tap into the wisdom and experience of someone who has gone through hundreds of songs and recordings.
I highly recommend interning or assisting for experienced engineers as they can give you quick productive answers based on experience in a heartbeat as opposed to you leafing through hundreds of pages of books, blogs or forums to get a trustworthy answer to audio related questions. Experienced engineers can be a pool of knowledge and experience, and the payoff of taking a minimal, or non-paying job working for them is the immediate access to experience that can help you in the long run.
The music industry is a popular one. Many of those who dive into the world of audio engineering do so with the intent of wanting to work with music. It’s the industry that first pops into our heads and is one of the more exciting and glamorous ones to work in, with the Lady Gagas and Justin Timberlakes of the world. Who doesn’t want to have “Recent clients include Lady Gaga” on their resume? C’mon! Don’t lie! The fact is that the amount of artistic and creative juice flowing in the music industry is contagious, and everybody wants a piece of the cake. So if you can handle the incredibly competitive nature of the music industry and have the talent to make a name for yourself, you could do worse things than putting your passion for audio into the music industry.
What’s your career in the music industry? Do you currently work as one of these, or are you planning on pursuing a career as an audio engineer in music? Stay tuned for the next installments of careers in audio as we talk about broadcast and film work, recording foley, supervising radio broadcasts or mixing film scores.
Vexel is a form of pixel-based raster art that imitates the appearance of what we know as vector graphics; smooth, sharp-edged illustrations that can be scaled up and down. Vexel art, however, is created using pixel-based shapes that are layered upon each other to create stepped but gradual color transitions. Gradients are sometimes used to give the artwork a more detailed and smooth look, but at the end of the day, no matter what technique has been used, the final outcome is a rasterized image that can’t be scaled. This technique is typically used by those who are more comfortable with programs like Photoshop, rather than alternative vector-based apps.
Due to the amount of detail that can be put into an image using the vexel technique, it is a great process to use if you want to replicate images of both humans and animals, as well as landscapes. It can also be used to create illustrations like those we see being produced in vector-based applications like Illustrator. This post showcases 45 wonderful examples of vexel artwork for your inspiration. What’s your favorite?
A great vector-style illustration that demonstrates that no matter how colorful and happy the world is, there will always be someone bigger than you willing to eat you up!
A very impressive and detailed vexel piece by Amanda Schubert, just imagine how many layers were in this PSD file!
An incredibly cute vexel print piece of two squirrels in love. The main shapes of the design were produced in illustrator, and once rasterized were colored in Photoshop, making it fit into the vexel category.
This piece falls under the subcategory ‘Lineart Vexel’, using pixel-based applications to produce complicated lines to form an image.
A great vexel piece of the great thriller/action movie starring Angelina Jolie, ‘Wanted’.
A beautiful vexel piece of a musician called Magdalene Veen. Be sure to click through to view the full size image so you can see the detail in the transition of the different colors.
A robotic sci-fi style vexel image. When viewed at full size, this image demonstrates the differences between vector and vexel images well, as you can see the pixels on diagonal lines.
A warm fiery color palette combined with intricate details make this piece stunning to look at. It was mainly produced in Illustrator, and was finished off using Photoshop to drop it into the vexel category.
A pretty immense, colorful abstract vexel piece by a psychedelic artist known as SaltyShadow.
Fear La uses a lovely varied color scheme and swirly patterns in the ocean to grab the viewers attention. This great piece of vexel art is very powerful and can be interpreted and enjoyed in many different ways!
Yet another colorful and gorgeous piece, with an abstract watercolor look to it. This is enough to make anyone wish for summer!
The combination of animals and landscape/scenery in vexel art is quite rare. This piece however, tackles the common problems spectacularly well and gives us, the viewers, something great to look at.
This vexel piece makes use of a monochromatic color palette to create a real gloomy and scary mood. The detail of the sky/water and the simplicity of the building creates an interesting combination and is pulled off very well.
A hilarious washed-out vexel that makes use of texture to add a completely different feel to the design.
An amazing portrait that was completed to improve the artists hair vexeling skills. The pink tones and hair work is just incredible, and it’s hard to imagine how many hours this took!
A much simpler piece of vexel art compared to most others in this showcase, but still very impressive nonetheless!
Yet another beautiful vexel portrait piece, proving that the color combination of greyscale/b&w and red go tremendously well together.
This image has so much depth and quality that without close inspection it appears to be a photograph, especially if you’re only glancing!
The popular rockstar Hayley Williams in vexel format, another piece that looks just like a photograph, although upon close inspection in full size you’ll notice that it is entirely made up from hundreds of shapes.
This lovely colorful geisha piece of vexel artwork is enough to blow everyone away with the excellent details and shading.
Another portrait piece that could easily be mistaken for a glamour photograph.
This experimental and very colorful piece is one of the most detailed pieces in this showcase. When viewed at full size (over 1600 pixels wide) you’ll really appreciate the detail, especially the eyes and eyelashes.
Some would say getting an early start on the day is the best way to go. You have the opportunity to get focused early on and tackle the day’s tasks and projects with little to no distractions. Then, when the rest of the world wakes up, you’re already a few hours ahead of the game.
Others profess that tackling the “have to’s” early on in the day allows you to do the “get-to’s” as the day draws to a close. Many people have had the day to allow ideas and strategies to percolate throughout the day and spend the wee hours making those ideas happen. In essence, they’re getting a head start as well – just really late the night (or early morning) beforehand.
Then there’s the ever-present question of when you need to be available to others, such as family, friends and colleagues. That plays into how you tackle your day just as much as anything else.
So, WorkAwesome readers, are you an efficient early riser or do you find you work better as a night owl? We’d love to hear from you!
BREAKING: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is joining Khosla Ventures, the VC firm. He will join as a senior adviser. Khosla is putting about $1.1 billion into clean technology companies and and tech companies right now.
One of the companies is Calera, a UK company which has a process to sequestrate carbon emissions in cement, while another, Kior, turns wood chips into biofuels.
Mr Blair said: “I am increasingly and crucially aware of the fact that the answer to these twin challenges — climate change and energy security — lies in developing the technological solutions of the future.”
It’s clearly a win for Khosla which will now get access to his significant global network.
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, Michael Arrington is sitting down with MySpace’s co-Presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones to talk about the status of the evolving site and what it will look like in the future. My notes on the talk are below.
Mike: MySpace is in such a transformative stage it’s important for everyone to question it. We have 120 million unique visitors worldwide. US numbers have been fairly flat. Page views are down… substantially by design. MySpace used to have processes that took 10 page views that should have taken 1.
Arrington: Let’s talk about product. What is MS better at than anyone else?
Jason: Discovery. You go to meet people that are interested in the things you’re interested in. It’s about who you are through the things that you’re into. You till have basic social network functions.
Mike: When MySpace was a communication tool people may come back 30-40 times a month. We expect consumption mode for discovery to be less. Over 30% of audience comes in mobile. We expect mobile to continue growth. It’s a change in product, usage patterns, and way people actually use them.
Jason: Specially to the younger audience we focus on. Mobile is the focal point of their lives.
Arrington: How important is music to these goals?
Jason: It’s incredibly important. The pedigree of MySpace is around musicians. Fre streaming access from record labels. We’re building out all sorts of tools for musicians. Dashboards, presence management. It’s a big part of our brand. We are a very big social network.
Arrington: How much offer will you be able to offer music for fee?
Mike: We’re in consistent talks with labels. As of now we believe for a while. We’re creating a whole level of discovery around artists.
Arrington: Jon Miller has said that decision is still being made but if you do move away from free it will be this year.
Mike: At the end of the day it’s very much in the hands of the labels. MySpace allows this level of discovery. I think consumption is important.. I think it’s sustainable.
Arrington: Report is that you lose 10 million a month on music.
Hirshhorn: That’s not correct. The model works for us. At some point, we look at all different kinds of models. There will always bee free music on MySpace. Where we came from majority of music came from indy bands. Record labels control those rights. The Music experience isn’t predicated on just free streaming.
Mike: There’s two ways that I look at the music deal. We work with artists to monetize. We want to work with creative leads, express and monetize. Second, we pay for content. We pay to stream free music.
Arrington: In your view, you talk about turnaround. Is it possible to do that under any corporate parent let alone News Corp. Or do you think you’d be better as an independent entity.
Jason: Code advisors was not shopping for us. I’ve worked in a couple media corp. before and they had their issues. But News Corp has been so good to us. There hasn’t been anything we asked for that we said no to.. Because of Murdoch it truly is a small big company. He really is engaged. We don’t feel like they don’t get it if we went and asked for something. When people ask if we would spin out. What does that do for us?
Arrington: Provides incentive system because they can get stock options.
Mike: We’ve talked about that. We’re looking into it. I think there are other ways we can do that.
Jason: It’s a fair point. When you have that equity it is a shot at the dream.
Arrington: Co-president is a unique and interesting thing. Is it possible in the long term?
Jason: Normally it doesn’t work. Warner had co-pres. for 25 years. We had disagreements when we got there. It was never personal. You also have to get over ego, it’s for the betterment of the company. Am I going to be at MySpace in 5-10 years? Probably not, I’m an entrepreneur.
Arrington: How would you grade your performance?
Jason: I’d give myself a B+. In early days of MS the traffic grew fast so it wouldn’t go fast .They built something that would scale but made it hard to develop new things… MySpace always had a great functionality but the way they put it together… We’re going to take a look at changing the logo.
Well, that just happened.
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz took the stage for a fireside chat with our own Michael Arrington. It took about 15 minutes, but Mike got her to tell him to “fuck off.”
That’s not all she had to say. When Mike pressed her about Yahoo outsourcing the social graph to Facebook. Bartz admitted that if she could own it (as Facebook does), she’d love to. “Oh, I’d love to own it — shit, why not?,” she said. She said also that “I’d love to be Queen Poobah – but I’m not.”
I highly suggest you read the notes below. She had plenty of interesting things to say. Not just about the new Nokia and Match.com deals, but about Apple, Google, Facebook, and yes, even TechCrunch.
Just wow.
Below find my live notes (paraphrased):
MA: So how the fuck are you?
CB: Is that all you got?
MA: So my last two posts were critical.
CB: Were they?
MA: You don’t read TechCrunch? I can show you how. It’s weird, I talked to you backstage, you’re a human being. You took the time to talk to us.
Okay let’s go. What is Yahoo?
CB: (her mic cuts off) What is Yahoo? Yahoo is a company that is very strong in content. It’s moving towards the web of one. We have 32,000 variations on our front page module. We serve a million of those a day. It’s all customized. Our click-through rate went up twice since we started customizing this. People come to check the things they like. “You can just get it together.” Yahoo is one site people always stop at.
MA: You had two pieces of news. One is a partnership with Match.com. Why abandon personals?
CB: It wasn’t in the sweet spot of what we do. It was the same with HotJobs. It’s just not about in line with we do anymore. I was trying to think about if I should fly with the volcano cloud, I checked the AP, it was 17 hours old info. We need live content feeds.
MA: Are there any other of the big Yahoo properties you’re killing?
CB: No. We’re focused now.
MA: What was the other one?
CB: We had an announcement with Nokia. Co-branded.
MA: How important is mobile to Yahoo going forward?
CB: We’re on 37 million of the 82 million mobile devices in the US. We have half the US market. People don’t think that’s true, but it is. And we’re huge in the emerging world. It was important to get to the dominant partner outside the market.
MA: So is the focus not on the smartphones?
CB: We still do them too. We have an iPhone app, for example. We have alliances with 100 OEMs. We’re on 2,300 different handsets. I have a BlackBerry and an iPhone.
MA: No Android?
CB: No.
MA: Let’s talk about the product perspective. You’ve made some changes and there have been departures. The new blood is Blake Irving. Does he run product at Yahoo now?
CB: Absolutely.
MA: Is there a product Czar? Does he answer to you? Think about how Steve Jobs acts, he’s in charge. Is that Blake?
CB: You can’t find anyone like a VP that compares to Steve Jobs so that’s not fair. Blake reports to me — under him there are three segments. We have one of the largest private clouds in the world. We serve 10 billion ads a day — that’s a huge technical effort. There’s no one strategy at Yahoo. We do a lot of things.
CB: We know that men have banner blindness but will look at them in certain areas. Women will look at them in other areas. Men are odd.
MA: What about the iPad?
CB: With the iPad, Apple is a hardware and software company. It’s an evolution — not revolution. These days if you’re not coming out with some device, you’re not innovating, apparently. But that’s not true. There’s a soul to our product. Absent Steve Jobs, who’s the product soul in big companies? It’s a lot of people who have to do it.
MA: You ever hear the saying, “a camel is a horse designed by committee”?
CB: That’s true but you implement with several people. I can imagine that a lot of concepts are brought to Jobs too — there are people involved. It’s naive to think there’s not.
MA: Why Blake? He was a professor at Pepperdine. Before that he was at Microsoft.
CB: Well he was taking a two year break from Microsoft.
MA: Fair enough. How important is social to Yahoo?
CB: Back when social had a broad definition, you could almost say that Yahoo Finance chat was the first social product. We have a million comments a day now. We had 85,000 comments on day one at Yahoo News. And we’re merging in some of the big products like Twitter, etc. We’re doing some new cool things with Mail next month too. It’s about finding out the new things about people.
MA: Facebook would say the social graph is key. Is that important to you? Are you comfortable not owning that?
CB: I don’t know if anyone really owns it. They share it with partners. It’s just about getting the information. Building a better user experience.
“Oh, I’d love to own it — shit, why not?” “I’d love to be Queen Bubah — but I’m not.”
MA: In 2008 you said Jerry Yang first approached you about the job. You said you weren’t the right person for the job. Are you now?
CB: I’m one of many. Many people could do this job. There’s no one special person for any job. That’s the beauty of it.
MA: You’ve asked bloggers to tone down some of the critiques and advice. But you made a statement earlier this year that Google has some problems.
CB: Did you see the interview? I said Google needs to grow a Yahoo every year — just go into a lot of businesses. They have to be a 20% grower. It’s not so bad to say.
MA: You said they were so reliant on search advertising.
CB: Is that wrong?
MA: No but you said it’s not a good trick to have.
CB: I would love to have that! Like the social graph. What I said has to be true. I’m just saying they need to grow a company the size of us every year. They have to do other things.
MA: Are you being a hypocrite by giving them advice when you say you don’t want advice?
CB: I gave them my opinion. You do that all the time. “I’ve never had a bong in my life if that means anything to you.”
MA: Is your pitch kind of BS though?
CB: Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 — the iPod came out 4 years later. 3 years after that is the first time his market cap grew. It took 7 years. I’ve been here a few months. Give me a break. You are involved in a very tiny company.
MA: Very tiny.
CB: It probably takes you a long time just to convince yourself what to do. “So fuck off!”
MA: Are you a search company or not?
CB: Half of our revenue is from search. The fact that you can crawl the web is a commodity. We’re about search, but we’re not a search company. We do a lot of things.
We told you Comcast was introducing something fresh and exciting at TechCrunch Disrupt this year. Say hello to Tunerfish, incubated by the Plaxo team (Comcast acquired Plaxo in 2008) and led by former Plaxo VP of Marketing John McCrea.
Tunerfish is driven by people’s passion for TV shows, and revolves around the ability for people to share what they are watching in real time. Launching in the near future, McCrea billed Tunerfish as a ‘social discovery engine’ for video content.
Essentially, the product enables people to share with a single click what they are watching, on their social network(s) of choice in real time. Much like Twitter does for tweets, Tunerfish also displays which TV shows are trending among your friends (in the last hour, 24 hours, etc.), which gives users a way to discover shows they are not yet familiar with.
McCrea says Tunerfish isn’t limited to television, as you can also use the product to share what you’re watching on YouTube, Vimeo and other video sharing platforms.
Interestingly, Tunerfish also rewards people who share what they are watching. This rewards system, based on game mechanics, is key to the Tunerfish experience, but unfortunately McCrea decided not to share the details of the system today.
He did add that Tunerfish will not only be a website, but also a native iPhone and iPad application, and that the service is also aimed to surface directly on TV screens.
The public beta of the service will be live in the next two weeks.
TechCrunch Disrupt kicked off this morning, with interviews with Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr and DST’s Yuri Milner. Next up, we’re discussing the future of music, TV, games and publishing. Michael Wolf, Founder and Managing Director, Activate is leading the discussion with Sarah Chubb, President, Conde Nast Digital; Fred Davis, Founding Partner, CODE Advisors; John Hagel, Co-Chairman, Center for the Edge, Deloitte; and Avner Ronen, CEO, Boxee.
Wolf highlighted the newly announced Google TV as being disruptive to the media space. Ronen’s Boxee, which also streams media from your computer to a TV, says that he thinks the Android-based platform could be complimentary to his application.
The iPad is also a disruptive application for media, but companies are quick to show that they are evolving their content with the new device and seeing positive results Epicurious is seeing 75 percent of users on the iPad, with a million downloads of the new iPad app, says Chubbs. “We see the iPad as an additive experience,” she says, adding that GQ and Vanity Fair have also seen considerable traffic on their apps. Media and entertainment generally is moving towards “an access model vs. an ownership model.”
Wolf also addressed the issue of music and the evolution of the way music is being consumed on the web. Davis expressed his strong concern for piracy on the web, including music and movies. See our paraphrased notes of the conversation below:
Wolf: Media and technology is reshaping content, from the iPad to Google TV to Avatar.
Ronen:Wolf: Does Google TV change Boxee’s outlook or enhance it?
Ronen: We’re not sure yet. Bottom line if Android finds its way into the living room, that’s great. It could be complimentary but it could be dangerous if they start to do what we do. In most cases, the TV screen is not a great browsing device. Also, the TV is a social space, you watch it with friends and family Browsing is more of a personal action.
Wolf: Sarah, what do you see is happening with user engagement?
Chubb: With the ipad, what we’re seeing is incredibly exciting. Epicurious is on the iPad and we’re seeing browsing of the site, which gets 7 million women a month, is seeing 75 percent of users on the iPad. A million downloads of the iPad app.
Chubb: We think the iPad is an additive experience. On GQ we’ve had 250,000 sessions since iPad launched. 65 percent were coming from the iPad And Vanity Fair, we’ve seen 10,000 sessions, 90 percent on the iPad.
Wolf: Fred, you’ve represented digital companies and artists, What do entertainment companies think in terms of the role of these services?
Davis: Music is not about owning, it’s about accessing. Spotify seems to have unlocked a key to accessing music. Artists and Labels and entertainment companies need to migrate, similar to Netflix with DVDs and movies.
Wolf: John, how do you look at this?
Hagel: Companies have assets to deploy in terms of relationships and creative talent. Changes are so fundamental, its about basic assumptions about what is required for success. Key transitions for media companies is that they have to move from product business mindsets. Who has the power-the creatives or the business people in an organization? How do measure profitability, via product or audience? Most media companies still measure via audience. That’s the shift that makes this essential.
Davis: A lot of media companies never had a training to engage with third party developers.
Wolf: When you think about social conversations, a lot of them are taking place on Facebook and Twitter. How do media companies take advantage of this?
Ronen: It gives them free traffic. I think that the transition towards apps, may be harmful. It may cause the conversation to stay on the app versus going to the content owners.
Chubb: Moving from a product centric point of view to a customer centric is important. We are in the audience business. Social is critical to that-the conversation that is going on is more important than your point of view.
Davis: A movie comes out, now everyone is Tweeting about it. Its changing marketing and ad campaigns.
Ronen: the same goes for TV shows.
Hagel: There is a concern about who is the orchestrator of the social relationships,
Chubb: Who owns the conversation on social media within a conversation, is it pr marketing? if you try to control the conversation, it may backfire.
Wolf: Where do you see the crossover in terms of profitability?
Hagel: There are three different type of businesses-product, infrastructure and customer. The world is more fragmented. Its a challenge, how do you cope with this?
Chubb: You have profitable businesses trying to make that transition, as a large media company, we have to be ruthless about past feelings. We have to be much faster, we’ve learned so much from Wired, Epicurious, Reddit. You’ll see more things from us that are faster turnaround.
Davis: Piracy needs to be part of the conversation. Why it’s not okay to go steal a DVD off of a shelf at Walmart but it is OK to download a movie off the internet. The cultural mindset has changed about paying for content.
Ronen: The psychology of consumers is different now.
Davis: The ease of stealing shouldn’t make a difference.
Ronen: I don’t know if there is a full solution to this – I think there will be some people who always will steal.
Hagel: Part of the answer is to expand content beyond the platform, like virtual goods in gaming
Wolf: Do you believe the existence of pirated content help the entertainment sector?
Davis: I’m not sure piracy helps. I think it helps the conversation.
Wolf: How will media companies profit from this?
Chubb: People are willing to pay for things in mobile-the trick is making it an attractive offering.
Davis: Portability makes content more valuable.
Wolf: How will media business change with gaming?
Ronen: I think the intro of game mechanics and interactions around content will change the way the content is formed and engagement. The merging of content with games is exciting. I think most valuable franchises will be built on combination of games and content.
Davis: Music-oriented games have huge potential.
Wolf: What will happen with the editorial point of view vs. the wisdom of crowds?
Chubb: There’s a need for big media companies to embrace other kinds of talent and thinking, such as Reddit. It’s a different way
Wolf: What kind of deals are going to be taking place? Are these going to be big companies buying small ones or big companies getting together.
Davis: There will be two strategies. How do we monetize content in new ways?
Wolf: This conversation will be an important part of media. I want to thank the panelists.
