I just like this post. It capture a lot of great ideas. It is about the music industry, but it is also about passion and Generation C.
[via Scoble’s Linkblog]
Author Archives: toddsattersten
Pennies from Heaven
TrueTalk is writing a series called Pennies from Heaven and I always link to things having to do with pennies. Chuck Conway gets credit for pointing them out to me and he has all the posts summarized in one entry. Beyond the copper coin connection, it is a great series on how money doesn’t buy happiness.
Beer Blog
I blog about beer yesterday and today I find a beer blog.
[via ProBlogger]
Weekend Music – The Subdudes
I was (still am) a pretty big Huey Lewis and the News fan. I got tickets to see them live at Summerfest about 12 years ago. The band that opened for them was called The Subdudes and I thought they put on a better show then HL&TN. I can’t tell you how many times I have listened to their Lucky album. They just have a great southern rock/blues sound. I should also say that I am a sucker for accordion and organ. They use a lot of the first.
After a seven year silence, The Subdudes have just released a new album called Miracle Mule. Check out Morning Glory, I’m Angry, or Maybe You Think.
P.S. For a limited time, the Subdudes are offering a free download of their song “Help is On The Way” on their website.
Beer.
When I am offered a “cocktail”, beer is my drink of choice. I came of age during the microbrew renaissance. I was drawn into the newness and the variety craft brews offered. When I visit a city, I always find the microbrewery/restaurant. Almost without exception, you find great beer and really good food. When I was in San Francisco at BlogOn, I visited three such establishments.
I have taken my interest to the next level and started doing some homebrewing. For those who haven’t, it is easy to do. You can be brewing with a $50 investment in equipment. The ingredients for a 5 gallon batch (~50 bottles) cost about $25. It takes six to eight weeks from start to drink. I just started drinking my second batch and it has turned out really good. My two recommendations are (1) buying a copy of Homebrewing for Dummies and (2) visiting the website of Midwest Homebrewing Supplies.
This whole entry was inspired by two beer business articles I ran across on Friday. The first was in the October 18th edition of Fortune. The New King of Beers is a profile of Europe’s InBev. You may not have heard of the company, but you definitely know their brands – Bass, Beck’s, Labatt’s, Rolling Rock, Skol, and Stella Artois. The surprise for me was that they are the world’s largest beer producer (161 million barrels to No. 2 Anheuser-Busch’s 130 million). AB usually gets the nod as the world’s biggest, because their revenues are larger ($13.8 billion to InBev’s $11.3 billion).
The second article was a book excerpt that I found in the Wall Street Journal [sub. needed]. The book is called Travels with Barley: A Journey through Beer Culture in America by Ken Wells (Free Press, Oct. 2004). I liked his stories of visiting Memphis to find out what Elvis drank and visiting Woody’s, “an extremely famous beer joint in the town of Caruthersville [Missouri]. The main reason it was famous…was that Woody’s had a firm policy of not serving beer in bottles because bottles, well, are just too hard on the human head.” I have added this one to my Christmas list.
Why to read Wired
I read every issue of Wired magazine. Some tell me that the design is too much for them. Others tell me it is too much about tech.
I read it because they give you a headstart on how technology is going to impact your business and its strategy. You must go read this month’s article called The Long Tail. It is an outstanding analysis of how e-commerce companies are consolidating demand like physical stores never could.
Consider this – The top 400,000 songs on Rhapsody’s music service are played by customers at least once a month. That is amazing. If you were to look at my iTunes purchases, you would see some very similar behavior. I have some very popular stuff and a few tracks were I probably made the purchase for that month.
Let me recommend again getting a subscription to Wired.
Schedule for BBBT #5
Here is the schedule for the fifth Business Blog Book Tour with Al and Laura Ries:
Tour Stops
- October 11th – 800-CEO-READ
- October 12th – John Porcaro
- October 13th- David Paull – Dial.Log
- October 14th – BusinessPundit
- October 15th – CrossRoads Dispatches
- October 18th – Learned on Women
- October 19th – What’s Your Brand Mantra
- October 20th – WonderBranding
The permanent location for the schedule is here.
How to Podcast
Engadget has an outstanding post on how to create a podcast. They tell you what software you need and how to configure it. This specifically talk the Mac platform with screen shots and everything. They promise the same for PC as soon as they figure it out.
Podcasting
There is some really interesting things going on in this realm of podcasting.
What is podcasting? There is a definition on the Wikipedia. Dave Slusher boils down a podcast to three things:
- Must be a discrete and downloadable media file
- Published in an RSS 2.0 enclosure feed
- Handled automatically on the receiver end, downloaded and moved to where it needs to be and put in the playlists for your playback device
Doc Searls probably has the most linked to post on the subject.
iPodderX is the first newsreader for audio files. You subscribe to feeds and it downloads any audio contained in them. It is a very simple application at this point that will undoubtly evolve.
Adam Curry is probably the biggest cheerleader for podcasting right now. You can check out the iPodder.org website. You can also start listening to his Daily Source Code.
One last thing – I had a post back on September 3rd where I described what needed to happen with audio blogging:
I think it is going to take some more experimenting in form and function. How can I easily record post and upload them? What if it was easy for readers to download audio posts onto their iPod and listen to them later? RSS readers detecting audio posts, downloading the new ones, and putting them into a playlist on iTunes?
How about that? Some others saw the same thing and made something happen. I love the stuff that is going on with this. You will see an experiment from me soon.
Catching up
I am still catching up from being gone.
Two important annoucements:
- I will be contributing to Business Blog Consulting. Rick has gotten busy with some other things and has recruited a few people to keep the blog fresh. I am looking forward to it. You will see more of my blogging posts show up over there…
- We are starting the fifth Business Blog Book Tour on Monday. We are excited to have Al and Laura Ries joining us. They will be talking up their new book The Origin of Brands. The tour will kick off at 800-CEO-READ. We are working out a couple of kinks in the schedule. I will post it as soon as it is finalized.
X Prize Awarded
This is a big deal. The entrance of private companies into space travel is a Wright Brothers type achievement.
Congratulations to everyone involved with SpaceShipOne!
PR Pitfalls with Bloggers
There has been an interesting discussion started around PR and blogging. It started with John and Richard of the Marketing Playbook sending out some email to bloggers telling them about their new book. Peter Davidson immediately stepped in and called the authors out for sending out spam and not knowing how to pitch to bloggers. All sorts of people have chimed in since including Kristen and Rich. The boys at MP have posted an apology or two.
I talked about how I liked the book over at 800-CEO-READ, but in this post I want to talk about the PR and blogging.
Here is my thoughts on the subject:
- Blogs are people and people are posting things that interest them. Those seeking PR have to read the blog to know if what you are offering is going to be a fit. Also understand that bloggers talk about everything, and that anything is fair game from the moment you contact them.
- Those seeking PR need to send links. That is the basis for the medium. Give me a link I can read and send others to.
- Don’t get cheap. I had a person pitch me with a .pdf file of a chapter from a book. I showed interest, asked for a copy, and was turned down. If you want some love, don’t just flirt with me.
- PR people need to know bloggers are going to be a hard sell. I don’t think I have endorsed a product or service that has been pitched to me. I know this to be common with other bloggers too. [P.S. it is a little different over at 800-CEO-READ. I talk to authors, publishers, and PR people all the time.]
1to1 is 1-way
Go read One-to-One Marketing a False Trail.
[via Corporate Engagement]
Weekend Music – Colin Hay
This week I am going to recommend listening to Colin Hay. You all know him as the front man of Men At Work. I find I really like his solo work. There was an episode of Scrubs that featured Hay and a few of his songs. He played an acoustic version of “Overkill” and the episode ended with the cast singing “Waiting for My Real Life to Begin”.
His 2001 solo album Going Somewhere has “Waiting For…”, but you will need to buy the import version to get the acoustic “Overkill”. You can also find a slightly different acoustical version of “Overkill” on the Scrubs Soundtrack with Hay’s “Beautiful World”.
Might I also recommend his 2002 album Company of Strangers available at CD Baby.
The only Colin Hay I could find on iTunes was “I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You” on the Garden State Soundtrack (which was produced, written, and directed by Scrubs star Zach Braff) and you have to buy the whole album to get the song.
Word of Mouth Marketing
I saw this on the back of a bottle of Tuborg Beer in Sweden.
They have left spots on the back for your name and telephone number. Beneath the telephone box, it says “A golden opportunity to let someone else indulge.”
I thought this was great.