The Webinar Blog writes:

I just saw this short video from iLinc. It’s selling the concept of web conferencing as well as promoting themselves (natch). Nicely shot, not too sledgehammer in the approach, and warmly humorous. Top marks!

The rather Hollywood-looking sharp-dressed model in the video is none other than iLinc’s President and CEO, James Powers, Jr. It’s nice when the head of your company is so photogenic!

Bonus link: Webinarwire a “multi-author blog for the web event services market and we encourage marketers, tech service providers, and web event producers and promoters to contribute their news, opinions and insights.”

Don’t know him? Well, if at all, most people probably know him as the ex husband of Carmen Electra, and Tommy Lee is more the ex husband to Pamela Anderson to me than anything else. Well, until recently that was.

As most of you know I may be ‘living’ more in the american podos-/blogosphere but with one big disadvantage: no US TV. Unless it comes over here (which is highly unlikely). And when, in awful dubbing.

So it took me a moment to realize why a comment on a blog about Rockstar Supernova made my brain go “hm?”. The phrase used was “… worldwide voting …”. Wait a second – how’s that?

Well, Rockstar Supernova is not only a reality TV show where some old rock guys (Gilby Clarke, ex tour Gun’s and Roses, Jason Newsted, ex-Metallica and Tommy Lee, Motley Crue) wanna get a new fresh voice to their newly formed band Supernova, it is also in interesting experiment in world wide marketing.

If you don’t know it is like American Idol just with more sex and rock. And more guys wearing make up. And tattoos. And the contestants actually can write their own songs. So it is like American Idol just with real talent.

It is not only featured wildly on Youtube (as usual), it is also featured prominently on MSN under Rockstar Supernova. On which you can watch reality webisodes, the performances of the show and elimination show and some video statements (like confession and fashion).

So what is different and why do I even care as I actually don’t like guitars, nor hard rock aka Schrammelmusik?

Because for starters *I* can watch it, even being in Germany because it is put online. I also can vote, because it is not only open to some phone lines in the US but also from here through web voting and (if I would use it) MSN Messenger.

Which of course all would not matter if not the show actually was fun to watch – you can skip the performances if you don’t like them and just go to the commenting judges. Some of the performances were painful, but now the competition has got so close that every show is really good. And there really have been some “memorable performances”.

Besides the actual show, I am thrilled to see the steps taken for marketing while at the same time shake my head about some parts they still do not get right.

Part of what makes it good is already listed above and if you click around a bit on the site, you will for example see that every contestant has an MSN Live Space Blog and it is plugged throughout the show.

Also MSN is making you get an ID in their system so you are able to comment on the blogs of the contestant; as well as encouraging you to start a blog about your supernova stars. There is a contest for them as well – make the best fan page and do get some tickets to the finale.

I usually hate flash, but it does make a lot of sense here.

Now what is bad on the site? I cannot understand why only performances are put online – com’on! We want to see the good stuff too!

But my biggest criticism would be the advertisement between the segments of the online videos. You are likely to go through the whole 4-6 pieces and you will get only two different advertisements. One big long honda add (30 seconds) which makes you tune down the sound once it starts because it is just soooooo not the audience (a guy writing to his wife how he misses her while being out with the boys – very good if you target daddies in the 40s. how many of them watch the show and especially go online?).

Now the Verizon promoting is a bit more clever: The contestant get to download video messages by the judges through Vcast as well as get songs etc. It is plugged throughout the show but in an okay way.

They also have a more clever advertisement between the online segments: Presenting some kind of windows mobile device in a 15 second spot. It is fast pace and also different features pop up as text. You need to watch a lot of them to start getting bored because you do not find something new. The honda add? 2 times and I was done with it.

So what beside the obvious good and bad is interesting?

Those rockers are quite clever. Using this show to get not only a front singer but also pure advertisement over several weeks leading up to their world tour is not bad to get. They have recently started doing songs with some of the contestant, already testing out the crowd. They seem like clever business men who also love to party.

I have not checked all the pages surrounding them, but in most you will find the usual webstuff. While the contestant have their new supernova blogs (and most of them also their own website), they do not seem to really grasp the power they could have through this.

Although Dave Navarro tries to tell them about it in every show.

See, Dave is special. He could be considered just the male beauty on the judge bench (as counterpart to Brooke Burk, she is just voice over, presenter and eye candy, whereas Dave actually does give comments for the performances), but he also is a musician with a history with Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

As I got interested in the show and catched up with the links on the page I also landed on the male eye candy’s website. And you know what? Dave actually knows what he is doing there.

Not only does he have a blog where he gives out commentary to the current show (be warned to not read a current thread as it will reveal who goes home in week 9), but also an internet radio station called spreadradiolive, chat, ecards, videos, pictures and – you guessed it, a myspace page. One for his new band of course as well. (Second Life is missing, but that will probably follow some day *g*).

This is how you get in contact with your fans and possible buyers today. Right on the money. There are already so many people online writing about the show, the band, the contestants … it is not just the media anymore. So, when will there be a “new media clinic”? ;)

Oh yes and in case you wondered:
I think that Storm as well as Ryan are better off as solo artist. Lukas is too goth for the guys, but could fit in the band. Delana? Well, a chick would bring in more fans and she seems to have a good enough voice for it. Magni? Sorry boring. And my favorite?

Well. I always had a soft spot for the accent from down under AND I think Toby has presented in the last shows that he is more a band singer than a solo artist in this project. EVS! ;)

Oh and btw, this page claims to know the winner already. Interestingly the take most of the commenters have is “pick a girl and you will have more fan boys in there” or “pick a guy and you will have more gay fans in it”. hm? The band may have put their eyes on who they like, and that is who they are keeping in the contest, but I still think they will keep it wide open till – only at the end – they will have to choose. Before, it really does not matter.

Technorati Tags: rockstar supernova, reality tv, musicians using digital marketing, dave navarro

Now playing here for the 7th time in the background. How do I get an mp3 out of flash files again?

And the matter is serious as well. Don’t miss the other videos as well. (Creapy, yes. The sound still rocks.)

The song reminds me of the nice ffn baseline cd … that is actually the first cd in a very long time I want to grab out of my cd collection which I think I have not touched since uh 4 years?

Thanks to Tara.

Now, his new show is coming out called Studio 60 and the first show is leaked on different sites including Youtube. I just finished watching it and am so looking forward to new episodes.

Now, when will those producers FINALLY start realizing that while networks are nice, there is a different audience on the net which wants to see good shows like this but does not live in the signal range aka the US? Give me a working model to watch the episodes on demand, on my bidding for a decent price. (Hint: 1.99 is not a working price.)

How many more days till episode 2?

(Go watch it while it is still there, to explore more after you watched the first 10 min)

Technorati Tags: Studio 60, aaron sorkin, west wing

We’re not embarrassed to say that we like you a whole lot. Yep. All 168,000 of you.

I feel special. ;)

If you are one (or know one), here is a free promotion possibility for you: Promote your podcast at Podcastday 2006!

In short: Send in your podcast cover and get displayed on a slideshow. The reactions so far on this request have been quite positive and I expect such slideshow to happen not only on this conference but others as well. So hurry up and send me your cover! :)

On Monday I will speak to the management team at Universal Music Group’s German HQ in Berlin. I will talk about weblogs, podcasts, videoblogs… and how digital tools and technology change the way consumers interact with music (or any type of content).

I though about it and I don’t have a real question, more a statement.

The last times I did listen to radio stations I recognized the songs – even though I have not been listening to radio for a long time. I heard a similar argument from other podcast listener.

I don’t feel akward to watch (music) videos like I would watch them on TV – if I would turn it on: For free. I have not bought one record in the last 5-7 years because the music just plain wasn’t worth the money. Albums had one good song and that is about it.

Through podcasting I have discovered more good music than ever before – and I only liste to some music podcast, like Coverville, the Tartanpodcast and Accident Hash.

I have given money to those podcasters to distribute them to artist as well as bought some from the bands themself. Albums are decently priced at 5-10 dollar.

I do not plan to buy any records in the near or far future out of the record store as a CD – which I only will rip to have it where I want to play it. DRM? Please print it in big letters that you “protect” the artist aka try to get me to pay so much more because you think you can milk me.

Direct contacts with bands are possible, artist are able to conduct tours through support of the web and – most important of all – are able to earn money. It is my suggestion to every band not to sign up with Gema and alike (BMI / Ascap in America) but market their musik directly on the net. Be it Podcasting, Myspace etc; instead reaching some people through last-millenium ways they can reach the world.

Music labels and alike are not any more needed in this equation. The mostly show up as being annoying (install DRM), seem not really interested in artist, and have to feed themselves first. I am a customer. I enjoy spending money for music I like. On my terms, not being annoyed and with a win win for the artist.

So the question for every company like Universal would be: What is my benefit from you?

Well, let’s correct that: I did spend the money “on the artist”. Not on the music industry. How was that claim going of them? “you need us so we make artist known, help them grow, and just help them to make money so they can concentrate on their music”.

Yup. The Internet has taken care of that too. Isn’t that a great time to live in? :)

But as I am finishing my article for the new printed podcast magazine called ID3mag (first edition to be launched in May), I would like to gather some of my dear readers comments on this question. I came about this topic when I talked to a what I call “just podcaster” about all those little things a blogger does automatically when they enter the podcasting space.

It is my take that even a basic blogger often knows more about how to market / present his blog in the Net to attract visitors far better than a ‘just podcasting’ podcaster. Later tends to care more about the audio than the surrounding ways and possibilities to enhance his visibility / findabilty.

Which is of course far better than a lousy blogger and podcaster, but in general the first will have more success through this. In the long run (or even the short) this will be a big problem for just podcasters, because when so many podcasts are available, listeners do what they are doing with websites and blogs now: Go to a search engine and type in some words they would like to see. Perhaps podcast + name of my hobby. Podcast directories, tags, and so on.

The blogging podcaster on the other side is somebody who sees podcasting as part of his personal publishing empire and likes to connect both ways, and perhaps even with other media as for example a picture stream, a frappr map etc. It is more natural for them to reach out for all those more text oriented possibilities and therefor they are – from my point of view – more successful with less effort.

Just some examples (and please remember that I am speaking in general):
Blogging podcasters are more sophisticated in the world of metadata: In blogging this is tags and categories, in podcasting this is proper ID3 tags. The search engines will soon start to pick up indexing and searching them and if you leave them out of the equation, you will have a disadvantage.

They are also more likely to write decent shownotes. Yes, they are a pain in the ass, but they know about the value of them for listeners, occasional listeners and especially search engines – the more audio driven just podcasters often don’t like to write. And if you link to other bloggers, they are very likely to follow the links back to you – marketing again.

Blogging podcasters are also most of the times trained in writing – they are bloggers after all. As it takes time to get into the blogging flow, a new, more audio driven podcaster might be overwhelmed by the audio / video already and does not see much sense in additional text.

The bloggers are also more trained in getting people to subscribe to their blog. Now that they want people to subscribe to their podcast they do have an headstart in this technology over newbies from the just podcasting arena.

If you read my examples you may get the feeling as if I would like to make a simple equation as in “blogging podcasters clever – just podcasters stupid” – which I am definitely not. Think of it more as that I think, that somebody drawn to both podcasting and blogging will have a much easier learning curve for the blogging part as somebody just interested into audio.

To bring this away from the most technical level: Somebody drawn to both sides of the publishing is also more likely to engage in comments on his / other peoples blog and tools like flickr, frappr and co. Engaging in conversations brings more active readers and listeners, which are then more likely to link to that person as well.

Networking and connecting through conversation are much more natural and help him and her get more successful in less time. Does this mean a just podcaster is lost and will have no success? Not at all. But it is more work for them and they have to bring themselves to doing all this stuff.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you have examples where it works as I describe it, or counter examples?

I would like to hear them and possible also integrate them into my article if they give me that time ;o)

Tag(s): podcasting, blogger, marketing, id3mag

Dave Slusher discusses the Earthlink spot in Shows from the Podshow network. If you don’t know or heard it before – imagine silly dingdong music and then – with voices like a happy mom on too many martinis:

Do you believe anything is possible? We do. We’re Earthlink. We believe in an internet that is safe from viruses and scammers. We’re Earthlink. We believe your personal information should be just that — personal. And we believe your internet should be a friend not a foe. We’re Earthlink. Make the smart choice. Visit earthlink.net and discover what our internet experts can do for you. Earthlink – we revolve around you.

I actually thougth for the first three times that this was some kind of joke. And – look at the topic – that they said “we are earthlings”.

Now, don’t me wrong, I know that some podcast definitely need cash in order to pay for the bandwidth bills, but may I agree with Dave that this is a fucking uninteresting spot, especially in this market of podcasting? As Dave said:

I’m not really in the market for dialup. Is that what they are selling? I don’t know. Now the question on the floor is “why should I care?” If they can’t be bothered to tell me that in their allotted time and sublet attention, no chance I’m going to pursue this.

Neither am I. Dial-up, are you kidding? That is what I am using when I am at my families because they don’t do any better. Second, it would be new to me that the information on their website sells to me. And third: Where is the context? With the sponsor before, Absolute Vodka announcing a new flavour, I could at least relate a little, but this one is just wasting my time.

Advertising in Podcasting? Hell yes. And if for example Brian Ibbott from Coverville gets sponsoring from a – tada- company which is selling cd’s of covers and like that, this is working too. As I said recently and many times before: Give me an RSS feed where I can have good commercials. Infomercials as well. I actually like to see good advertisement I have some relationship to.

And I also congratulate on Podshow getting this sponsor – it is just that I am now also tuning out there. And ignoring the commercial. And blog about my not liking it. I am not sure if that was something Earthlink wanted from me when they paid that money …

Is Dave Slusher’s Evil Genius adfree? No. He always mentions the band he has his music from and he plugs his sales for T-Shirts. Okay with me. Because there is context and it matters.

Tag(s): eartlink, podcast advertisement, podshow