Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Amazon's 1 Hour Delivery Comes to London



Available to Prime members only, for a £6.99 fee, and for orders of £20 and over only.  It always begs the question of how many things do you need that urgently, but these days we're more spontaneous, forgetful and impatient, so maybe the answer is 'lots of things'

More here

Monday, June 29, 2015

Beats 1 & Exclusive Content

Beats 1, Apple's free streaming radio service, launches tomorrow.  Here's a trailer for it:

This looks pretty good - people having fun in a radio studio, making stuff that you can't find anywhere else, a bit like all the best radio stations do, but this time globally.

The line-up of shows looks imaginative too - Zane Lowe, poached from the BBC, Dr Dre's Pharmacy, and even Elton John's Rocket Hour, a mix of old and new tunes.

It's kind of like the BBC's 6 Music but for a younger, more hip hop audience.  It feels a bit like when new TV stations launched in the 90s - for example British Satellite Broadcasting, which had lots of experimental shows, that pretty much no one could see.

But this time anyone with an iOS device can theoretically listen, so it's going to be really interesting to see how it develops.  Remember that the Beats 1 radio service is the free product to lure people in to subscribe to the streaming service.

I've occasionally wondered why there isn't a successful music version of Netflix - making its own premium content, completely paid for - and I think the reason is that we attach more value to content we watch rather than listen to.

Beats 1 seems to be taking the 'premium, rare content' idea and really pushing it.  Tidal is also doing the same thing, but radio shows seems like a better way to do it than occasional exclusive tracks that will immediately get pirated.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Haribo Minions

Apropos of nothing this is quite inspired...


See also - The HariboMinions

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Personalised Promoted Tweets



It seems that you can personalise Promoted Tweets, and Coke is the first brand to do it.

It's a great way to promote the new set of personalised Coca Cola bottles.  There is, obviously, lots of scope for getting this wrong - machines can interpret two words as a first name and surname - but I haven't seen any examples of this going wrong.

More here


Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Apple Music - The History of Sound



Apple has produced this lovely ad to promote the launch of Apple Music.

I think the battle between Apple and Spotify (& Google and others) for music streaming will be very interesting.

Apple is striking its own path - no free level, and curated radio, appealing to the more creative and richer end of the market.  I think their idea of curation is very interesting, hiring Zane Lowe and others from the BBC, and letting them make shows and pick music.

Spotify, on the other hand, is all about big data, and trying to use your past choices and the context you're in (time of day, location) to suggest music to you.  Google will I'm sure do similar things when they properly launch their YouTube music offering.

Monday, June 08, 2015

Ten Years of YouTube - an A-Z



YouTube has produced this to mark their tenth birthday.

Some are obvious - A is for Animals, G is for Gangnam - but M is for Memes, R is for React, and X for Xperiments.

& well done to Old Spice on being the 'O'!

PS - there's something quite magical 1 minute 36 seconds in.

Plus - There's a game to play here - test your knowledge of classic videos
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