Well, last week was an eye opener. I attended both MIPTV and X Media Lab Sounds Digital and thought I’d share some highlights.
MIPTV: Mobile Engagement 2.0
Without wishing to blow my own trumpet too loudly, I’d like to say that I really enjoyed moderating this panel as part of MIPTV’s digital focus. Thanks to the lovely Ferhan Cook for inviting me to host it.
We had a great line up – Michael Schneider, CEO of Mobile Roadie; Rudy De Waele from DotOpen and (aka @Mtrends on Twitter); Clare Boonstra from Layar and Kurt Sillen from Ericsson.
There’s a live blog report of the session on the MIPTV site (as well as a video of the debate – choose the second video down, under April 15 – not sure why there’s no addressable link). The panelists talked about the importance of apps, location , media transfer and other issues but there was a healthy debate about which was the most important. Check it out.
Rudy’s presentation was great for people who are interested in where the mobile industry is going (he and I are in agreement on alot of points!):
Clare’s presentation on augmented reality was particularly good and here it is:
Starling
One of the coolest things I saw all week was Starling – a new mobile app that enables social TV viewing – it will essentially make it possible for audiences and broadcasters to create experiences like the one MTV created for The Hills where users could comment in real time and then MTV could overlay the best comments on the screen.
When I first saw The Hills (purely out of professional interest, I might add!), the main thing I didn’t understand was why it hadn’t been done on mobile in the first place – and this app does just that. I’ve often said that broadcasters aren’t making enough of the natural proximity CEO Declan Caulfield was kind enough to give me a sneak preview of the alpha and the interface is very slick – combining loads of bursts of social media with various contexts in a really slick way (and I promised I wouldn’t say any more than that!). Good write up on it from Mobile Entertainment here.
Mobile Roadie
CEO Michael Schneider was on the panel I hosted and showed off what looks like a great product for build-it-yourself apps. There’s bound to be alot of pretenders in this space – I get emails from them regularly – but Michael also demonstrated that he’s making apps for major names (including Madonna and Taylor Swift) in the music industry and that these apps are making money and increasing the ‘laser focus’ (as he called it) on their brands. Michael also used the panel as an opportunity to announce that Mobile Roadie would be opening a European operation. One interesting insight he told me is that they’ve seen fans buying songs in the music apps that they already own, because they are so drawn in and wanting a complete experience while they’re inside the app. Interesting, and very different from the web ‘model’ for music and artists that we’ve seen so far.
And speaking of web vs. mobile discussions… Newscorp’s Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller talked about how he no longer sees mobile as ‘just an extension of the web.’ He also talked alot about Newscorp’s forthcoming paywall policy (and the related notion of ‘freemium’ content like what the Wall Street Journal is doing on the iPad), and hinted at a paid music subscription service from MySpace. He also expects to see different tiers of quality of content and experience to emerge based on whether or not users are willing to pay for better experiences and quality. Interesting.
I had to miss Gerd Leonhard’s talk on Social Media because I was in a rehearsal for my panel but caught up with him in person and have reviewed the presentation and thought I’d point that out too. Worth a read:
X Media Lab Sounds Digital
I was lucky enough to get to talk about mobile (what else?) and mentor on Sounds Digital over the weekend and really enjoyed it. My presentation is below – basically an update of things I’ve posted here before. And prettier.
Lots of other interesting tidbits I gleaned…
– Tune Rights proposal that we can all be ‘cons-owners’ music that invest in tracks and artsist is really interesting (and works in Sweden – so let’s hope it rolls out further soon);
– Susan Bonds from 42 Entertainment talked about how their work on an alternate-reality-game was directly related to Nine Inch Nails directly marketing music to their fans without going through a label;
– AudioFuel looks like alot of fun for other triathlon/running fantatics;
and
– I’ll see alot of you in Egypt for MasterPeace (I hope!).
Jason DaPonte's blog 