300 Classic Concerts Now Streaming

Wolfgang's Vault, the business built around the Bill Graham archives, has recently started streaming 300 of the promoter's classic concerts. The Who, CSN&Y, Black Sabbath, Grateful Dead -- there's a ton of stuff to check out. Login required.

How'd these gems get unlocked? They were acquired in a mass purchase of Bill Graham's archives for ~$6 million by a former health care executive. The artwork was his main focus but once the quality and depth of the music recordings were understood, it became clear that there was an opportunity here. And it's one of those weird situations where releasing them for free is actually easier than paid downloads or pressing cds (due to the negotiations those would require). For now they're all online and being used to cross-sell the collectibles offered on Wolfgang's Vault.

Some favorites:

• Aerosmith, 1975 Central Park
• Black Sabbath, 1975 Asbury Park, NJ
• Duran Duran, 1982 Palladium, NY (MTV New Year's Eve Concert)
  

If a Zune falls in the woods....

It's tech cliche that Microsoft gets it horribly wrong the first time but by v3, watch out. Well, the Chicago Sun-Times broiled the Zune, their first attempt at a home-grown personal music player. Columnist Andy Ihnatko gets taken off the MSFT holiday card list with this one. Here are some of the best samples but you really need to read the whole article to get Andy's vitriol:

"Avoid," is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.

You'll find that the Zune Planet orbits the music industry's Bizarro World, where users aren't allowed to do anything that isn't in the industry's direct interests.

Throw in the Zune's tail-wagging relationship with music publishers, and it almost becomes important that you encourage people not to buy one.

Bats All Folks

Today's NYTimes has a piece on Sam Holman, founder of the Original Maple Bat Corporation. Sam's company makes maple wood bats for a number of MLB stars. He's looking to sell the business and transition out over the next few years. The article ends with a great reminder for the feeling that tells entrepreneurs it's time for the next challenge:

“I’m better off at the unusual and I’m not so good at the usual,” Holman said. “This is getting to a point where it’s more usual than unusual.”

linerider jumps the shark

Call the CEO at Wesabe...

now of course this is blogger bait but I applaud Jason Knight anyway.

Talk to Jason

Hi! I’m Jason Knight, the CEO and co-founder of Wesabe. Every afternoon, from 12 to 4 p.m. PST, you can reach me directly at (800) 511-8544. If you have comments about our product, questions about how it works, or just want to chat a bit about what inspired us to create Wesabe, please give me a call. Sure, I could have an intern man the phones, but I can’t think of any job more important at Wesabe right now than talking to our new members and people who are thinking of signing up. So when you call, you’ll be talking to me. I look forward to it!

Talk to Jason - Seven days a week, 12-4 p.m. PST - (800) 511-8544

Hip-not

We've heard of patent trolls, now meet the sample troll. That's right, own a bunch of music and make sideways accusations looking for your beats in new hip hop songs.

Earl-style Karma

And let the bad karma continue if they broadcast the OJ Special:

“Not having success in the fourth quarter is not beneficial for us,” Mr. Liguori said. [Peter Liguori, president of Fox Entertainment]

Feet and wallet

People vote w/ their feet and their wallet. Everything else is talk. So please, if you have any ability to do so, use your feet and wallet to vote against Fox and Regan Books giving OJ Simpson a voice with this horrible "If He Did It" monstrosity.

And Judith Regan's last minute "trying to free battered women - of which i'm one" and "all money going to charity" plea isn't working.

Seriously. Stop watching Fox. Don't buy anything from Regan Books. Heck, kick it up a notch and avoid News Corp and Harper Collins. Oh, wait News Corp owns Harper Collins. Even easier then. Corporate synergy makes it simple to focus your distaste!

Best and Brightest

I can't open my mailbox or inbox without a smile these days....

----------
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:04:23 -0800
From: "Hunter Walk" xxx@gmail.com
To: "Philip Rosedale" xxx@xxx.com
Subject: Esq Best and Brightest!

My goal is to have second life cited in every of the 274 magazines I
subscribe to. W/ your inclusion in the 2006 Best and Brightest, I can now
cross esquire off my list.

"Field and Stream" next?

best,

hw

Round 1: Sugarcube beats Cloud

Sugarcube vs Cloud. Shorthand for whether all your personal media will be stored on a small portable device carried w/ you or in a data cloud accessible from any connected device. Client vs Server.

Round 1 goes to Sugarcube as six major airlines are going to let you plug in an ipod and listen/watch/charge via the in-flight entertainment system.

Birds of a feather

Season Shot - buckshot made of seasoning so you can kill and flavor your bird at the same time

Soylent Green is.... people

Philip at the AdAge Ideas conference: "The brands in Second Life are the people"

David Kirkpatrick, Fortune Mag: "Second Life is a preview of the Internet of the future"

But it's still a duck

Was talking with a friend the other night about the New York Times website. We agreed that their website was one of the best newspaper sites around. He thought this was a good thing. I thought it wasn't.

What?

My point is that being the best newspaper site isn't enough to increase the relevance and speed the transformation of the NYTimes. Is the Times website where you go when you want information on New York City? Is the Times website where you go to participate in debate and community around ideas? No. It's just the place you go when you want articles from the Times. And that's not enough.

Jeff Jarvis has been talking at length about these sorts of issues.

Six words i didn't need to hear...

Caught Motley Crue and Aerosmith at Shoreline on Thursday. Hey, it's an easy walk from Google.

Six words I didn't need to hear from Vince Neil, Crue lead singer: "Here's one of our new songs."