YouTube has released the world premiere of the Tan Dun composition Internet Symphony, Eroica as selected and mashed up from thousands of video submissions from around the globe.

This is more interesting as a technical demonstration than it is musically, but it does represent a milestone in the use of social media in music.

Watch for the Storm Trooper – and then let me know if you think this is more than just a gimmicky promo for YouTube.

The New York Times today suggests that newspaper ad revenue is going to decline 30% in 2009 – worse than the most pessimistic of industry predictions:

One of the few publishers to make a public statement is the Gannett Company, owner of the largest and most profitable newspaper chain in the country. At a conference with analysts last month, Gracia Martore, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, indicated that so far, 2009 newspaper ad revenue was down roughly 30 percent, and more than that at its flagship paper, USA Today.

In filing for bankruptcy recently, Sun-Times Media Group, publisher of The Chicago Sun-Times and several smaller papers, disclosed in court papers that it had drawn up its original 2009 budget based on an expected 18 percent slide in ad revenue for the entire year, but had revised that to 30 percent.

“This is far worse than anything any of us has seen,” said an executive at a major newspaper company. “We can keep cutting, but we need this to start to bottom out.”

Undead Newspapers

A lot of newspapers are now zombies.

You can tell they are dead already, even though they’re still moving. You read them in the morning, and they are rehashing news that you heard about yesterday on Twitter or on a blog. You find yourself skipping stories, because you watched a video of the news on YouTube last night.

How long can this go on?

We’ve said previously that newspapers will have to start learning from bloggers, if they want to survive. Bloggers are 50 times more efficient than newspapers, when it comes to the Web. New media makes it possible for one man to have the reach of a multinational media conglomerate.

Do you think your paper has what it takes to make it through the year?

Image: Kurt Koller

Surroud sound recording company Holophone has introduced Holophone TV 5.1 (iTunes link), the world’s first full 5.1 video podcast series, according to the company.

Holophone TV 5.1’s podcasts present a variety of surround content – from music recordings to fireworks to motocross events. The Canadian company also has plans to showcase local Canadian recording artists in future podcasts.

“This is the first podcast where the entire content is offered in 5.1,” states Holophone CEO Jonathan Godfrey. “The podcasting technology out there is made to handle this type of content but no one has yet attempted to move into this realm. With Holophone TV, we hope to break some new ground and show that it can be done easily and effectively.”

The video podcasts are short segments designed primarily to highlight the capabilities of Holophone’s 5.1 recording technology.

The President of the National Association Of Broadcasters has asked Apple to change the design of iPods to incorporate an FM receiver.

According to a report in Radioink:

NAB President/CEO David Rehr has written to Apple COO Timothy Cook to urge the electronics maker, “as a recognized leader in both the mobile phone and portable music player arenas,” to begin including FM radio capability in iPhones and iPods.

“With Apple as our partner, I am confident that we will be successful in convincing the U.S. mobile network carriers and their customers that FM radio is an indispensable feature for their mobile phones. Also, the radio industry would enthusiastically provide significant public promotion of FM-enabled Apple iPhones and iPods.”

That’s exactly what everybody has been asking for – for Apple to make the iPod more like the Zune, which features an FM receiver.

Does it seem to you like Rehr’s grabbing at straws to protect an industry that no longer has a monopoly on your ears?

Image: andyi

A report out today from BBM Analytics shows growing adoption of HDTV, portable media players, and podcasting among Canadian consumers over the past year.

A highlight of particular interest to PodcastingNews’ readers: Approximately twenty percent of the population listens to a podcast on a monthly basis. This is good news for podcast creators, as well as for businesses interested in promoting their wares via new media.

BBM Analytics, a Canadian company which tracks media consumption and consumer behavior, has compiled an annual “Media Technology Adoption Report” since 1997. The report reviews trends in “the penetration of various audio/video media technologies, both emerging and declining, in the context of the consumer adoption cycle.”

For its 2008 report, BBM asked 12,000 Canadians about their use of different technologies, and their adoption of new ones, including personal video recorders, video on demand, satellite radio, MP3 players, high definition TV screens.

Highlights from the 2008 Media Adoption Report:

• The fastest growing segments were HDTV screens and receivers as well as MP3 and portable video players.
• Podcasting also grew, with 1 in 5 Anglophones listening to a podcast on a monthly basis.
• HDTV screen adoption amongst both Anglophones and Francophones has tripled since 2004, up to 37 and 28 per cent, respectively, in 2008.
• Nearly 6 in 10 Anglophones and Francophones subscribe to a digital TV service. 82 per cent of Anglophones and 73 per cent of Francophones have access to the Internet in their homes.
• Close to 75 per cent of Anglophones and over 65 per cent of Francophones are using broadband.
• Radio streaming and music downloading off the Internet among Anglophones saw a slight drop over the last two years, both registering an incidence rate of 16 per cent.
• Among Francophones, radio streaming and music downloading off the Internet saw no growth over the last two years.
• The popularity of online video rose significantly, with 42 per cent of Anglophones and 37 per cent of Francophone’s now watching video on the Web.

More detailed explanations of each of the highlighted findings will be forthcoming from BBM in the coming weeks.

Engadget has posted a set of pictures that it says are of a new Microsoft Zune HD.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, interest in the Zune is at an all-time low. It’s hard to imagine new hardware changing that, unless Microsoft can make a truly bold move with it’s concept for the Zune.

Do you think that an updated Zune HD could reignite interest in the Zune platform?

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloadsm featuring over 5,000 free MP3s that are pre-cleared for you to use in a podcast.

According to the FMA:

Every mp3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by outdated copyright law.

Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won’t put your audience to sleep?  A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist?

The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Piper Jaffray reports a rather surprising fact: there’s zero interest among teens for portable media players other than the iPod.

“Apple’s dominance in the PMP market remains largely unchecked, and it is clear to us that Apple has captured the ‘cool factor’ among high school students across America,” said Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster.

Credit has to go to Apple for nearly flawless execution in developing its portable media platform, leading the way in design and dominating digital music and podcasting.

Other highlights of the research:

• 92 percent of students said they currently own a digital media player, up from 87 percent a year ago.
• 86 percent own an iPod, an increase of 2 percent from the same survey conducted in the fall of last year.
• Only 19 percent plan to purchase a player in the next 12 month, a “dramatic” decline from 28 percent a year ago.

Game Over, Man! Game Over!

It looks like the Zunepocolypse (the Zune 30’s leap year problem) effectively killed interest in Microsoft’s Zune player. Last Fall, 15% of those surveyed showed interest in the Zune. Six months later, there’s zero interest.

Interest in Sony’s line of portable media players also dropped, going from 3% in the Fall to zero.

Is it “Game Over” time for other lines of portable media players?

Panopto has announced the availability of the latest version of its free lecture publishing platform, CourseCast 2.1, and several new features including live broadcasting and usage analytics.

CourseCast is a client-server application designed to make it easy to capture and publish lectures and presentations as podcasts and streaming media.

CourseCast 2.1 includes a simplified user interface, the ability to “remember” presenter recording settings, adjustable frame-rate recording, public and private note taking and the ability to attach and view PDF documents directly in the CourseCast player.

Administrators will be able to remotely create and manage recording profiles, deploy a background service that automatically transfers new recordings to the server even when the application is closed, and increase security through enhanced ActiveDirectory support.

This is a video demo of the Mikiphone Pocket Phonograph, a sort of steampunk precursor to the Walkman and iPod from the 1920’s.

Can you imagine trying to carry your media collection around like this?

via bb