Charlene Li Launches The Altimeter Group

Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, recently left her position as an analyst for Forrester Research and launched the Altimeter Group.

She discusses her new project on her blog:

"In the book Groundswell, Josh Bernoff and I took the confusing world of social technologies and boiled it down so that not only was it understandable, but also approachable and actionable for businesses."

"My goal is to continue providing that kind of thought leadership and insight primarily through writing, public speaking, and consulting. I'll be writing here on my blog, The Altimeter, and if I'm lucky enough to find a publisher again, a book. Speaking at both conferences and private corporate events will bring those ideas to a broader audience. And I'll also provide direct consulting through Altimeter Group to a small number of clients who need to tap into my thought leadership via a retainer relationship."

ProHipHop wishes Charlene Li the best of luck in her new endeavors.

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

808s & Heartbreak: Kanye West Testing Songs in Airports

Kanye West is apparently conducting one-on-one focus groups in airport settings for songs off the upcoming 808s & Heartbreak.

Jenny Lewis, of whom I've just now heard, singer in Rilo Kiley, of whom I've vaguely heard, said:

"We missed our flight and had to wait a couple of hours in the lounge...I noticed Kanye West was waiting for the same flight. He looked over and said, ‘Excuse me, would you mind listening to my new track?’ And so he put his headphones on my head and I listened to two of his new songs. He had no idea who I was. I guess he was doing research."

Combined with the Love Lockdown retake, presumably due to fan feedback, Kanye's showing an interesting responsiveness to the opinions of others.  It's good to see him getting out of the lab and into the field.

Available via Amazon:
Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak

Ypulse Launches Youth-Focused Ypulse Research

Ypulse, the "leading independent blog for media and marketing professionals seeking to reach youth audiences", recently announced the launch of Ypulse Research:

"a neutral platform and channel within Ypulse.com, where youth-oriented research reports and white papers will be available for sale. Additionally, Ypulse Research provides unique advertising opportunities where research companies can promote their companies, studies and services via traditional online advertising units."

This is a nice look for Ypulse which is working with Modern Media Partners on the project.  I like the fact that they're using blogging software for their catalog of research reports.

As a B2B play, Anastasia Goodstein began expanding Ypulse from a blog to a full-time business in 2006 including the Annual Ypulse National Mashup conference.

Tip via Lynne d Johnson.

Akon Exposed Via Government Records, Who's Next?

Akon's criminal past has been exposed as a fraud by The Smoking Gun:

"Police, court, and corrections records reveal that the entertainer has created a fictionalized backstory that serves as the narrative anchor for his recorded tales of isolation, violence, woe, and regret."

Note: government records available to the public busted Akon.  These guys are applying some basic research skills utilized everyday by journalists and librarians made much easier by the growing accessibility of such documents online.

David Carr at the NY Times recently included this angle in a profile of The Smoking Gun's three person operation:

"Mr. Bastone...said the idea for the site was his fascination with rummaging around courthouses and city property records and a notion that it might attract an online audience. Nowadays, that obsession finds expression on his desktop."

"'Sitting here, we can monitor cases and filings as if we were sitting in the courtroom,' he said.  So far, the Smoking Gun crew is still doing the most looking."

"'We figure that people who come to the site sort of get it; we consider them to be sophisticated and in on the joke,' said Mr. Goldberg. 'But I would never have thought this far down the road that we would be all alone.'"

So who's up for tearing through all the rap game bullsh*t with some records research?

Global Habbo Youth Survey: US Kids Like Hip Hop!

Brandweek reports on a survey of teens [11-18] conducted by teen oriented virtual world Habbo that I assume is the Global Habbo Youth Survey.  However they are focusing on only the figures for U.S. teenagers which find that rap/hip hop is the favorite music genre of U.S. teens surveyed [brief reference near the end of the article].

Though the press release for the Global Habbo Youth Survey doesn't mention hip hop, it does have more about the larger research report including what Habbo's researchers claim to have identified as "five clearly defined behavioral segments amongst respondents".

This is the second such survey by Habbo parent company Sulake who conducted the first survey in fall 2006.

From Sulake's Blog:
Habbo’s Second Global Youth Survey reveals shake up in teens' favourite mobile brands

Music Blog Buzz Study: Does Chatter Matter?

Coolfer has a nice response to the blog buzz study, Does Chatter Matter? The Impact of User-Generated Content on Music Sales, by Vasant Dhar and Elaine Chang, though he does refer to Chang only as a "former student" [pet peeve regarding the disappearance of second authors, but I digress].

Nevertheless Coolfer does briefly point out some of the limits of the study that most media outlets will ignore and he links to the sources.

Key point:
"Of course, a predictor may not be a cause for future sales. The researchers talked about this a bit and theorized that an unobserved variable (such as the quality of the artist) could cause both blog chatter and sales increases."

Which means that NYU's press release headline is inaccurate but that's how science becomes common knowledge.

Nice work, y'all!  Except for that headline writer.

Press Release:
Blog Chatter Can Triple Future Sales of Music Albums According to New Study from NYU Stern

Info & Full Study:
http://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/23783

Link Suggested for Citation:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/23783

Related Study by Elaine Chang:
I Heard It Through the Grapevine: The Effects of Online Word of Mouth on Music Sales
Note: This is her undergrad honors thesis.  I think we'll be hearing more about Ms. Chang in the future.

The "Cluelessness" of Major Labels is Not Stupidity

I was reminded of the uproar regarding an interview with UMG CEO Doug Morris back in late November by a post at My Global Hustle Blog.

Everybody's calling him clueless* in some form and I usually take that route when dealing with such entities but if you're really wanting to understand what's going on and why choices that appear clueless have been inevitable for major labels, read the following:

The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business

The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change

I refer to Christensen and associates work from time to time and, now that I'm on the third book, I'll have to say it's taught me more about the current troubles of the music industry, without ever mentioning it, than any of the online writers I respect and that's saying a lot.

I would hesitate to point these books out because they speak directly to the current competition among online hip hop media outlets except for the fact that most of those people will scoff at the notion.

And thank goodness for that.  It gives the rest of us a little room to build before big money hip hop media catches up and things get really nasty.

*I should note that in the Wired blog post and probably in other writings the term cluelessness was used because Morris said he didn't know much about technology and didn't know who to hire to take the company forward using technology.  Considering how hard it is to evaluate and hire somebody with decent knowledge of PHP or Wordpress, why do people find it surprising that it's hard to evaluate and hire someone to lead a major initiative when any technical person at that level can bs their way through any tech discussion with a non-technical person?

Pew Research Results Regarding Two Separate Forms of Music: Hip Hop & Rap?

A report from the Pew Research Center titled Blacks See Growing Values Gap Between Poor and Middle Class has a lot to consider.  Here's what the full report [pdf, p. 6] says about black and white responses to questions about hip hop and rap:

On the Cultural Front: Rap Takes the Rap

On the popular culture front, the survey finds that while a plurality of blacks think the portrayal of blacks in movies and on television has improved in the past decade, a plurality also believes that these onscreen images remain, on balance, more hurtful than helpful to society’s image of African Americans.

However, blacks are far more troubled by the influence that rap and hip hop have on society than by the portrayal of blacks in movies and television. Blacks and whites by similarly lopsided margins say that these two relatively new music forms are having a bad influence on society – mainly because of offensive language, negative stereotyping of women, and glorification of violence. There are gender differences on these questions, and they play out in different ways among whites and blacks. Among whites, men are more likely than women to see hip hop and rap as a bad influence. Among blacks, the reverse is true – women are more likely than men to see a bad influence.

Here's how the chart breaks things down:

                  All        Men        Women
% saying         %         %            %

Hip Hop is a bad influence:

Whites           64        68        59

Blacks            61        59        62

Rap is a bad influence:

Whites           74        79        70

Blacks            71        67        74

The questions on which these findings were based can be found on pages 85 to 87 of the full report.

The first questions were on hip hop:

In general, is HIP HOP music having a good influence, a bad influence, or not much influence at all on society today?

How often do you personally listen to hip hop music?

What’s the MAIN REASON you think HIP HOP music is having a bad influence on society?

These three questions are then followed by three questions substituting RAP for HIP HOP.

Normally in a survey of this sort such questions would be asked without any kind of explanation from the researchers [which would throw things off] or from those being surveyed [they aren't allowed free form responses].  Given that there is absolutely no consensus on the difference between rap and hip hop, except within the linguistic rules of distinct subcultures, these questions add a problematic level of confusion.

Very unscientific maneuver, in case you're wondering, and one that will confuse the heck out of most journalists.

I've got a phone message in and hope to find out more soon.

Via Miraflor.

Hey! Nielsen: Social Network as Research Tool

When I read the press release from Nielsen.com I thought Hey! Nielsen was a bad idea:
"Hey! Nielsen gives lovers of pop culture an opportunity to sound off online and to make their voices heard by decision-makers," said Karen Watson, Senior Vice President of Communications at The Nielsen Company, and Executive Sponsor of Hey! Nielsen.

"If you're passionate about any aspect of the entertainment world, you will find like-minded consumers on Hey! Nielsen. We hope this will be a fun place to share opinions and discuss your favorite shows, movies and music. And because we will be providing our clients with insights from Hey! Nielsen members, joining the network is a way to let the entertainment industry know what you think."

A social network that gives me the opportunity to bond with "like-minded consumers" as we "let the entertainment industry know" what we think!

When I go to the site, Hey! Nielsen: Opinions, it doesn't seem so horribly misguided or off-putting:
Hey! Nielsen is the place to make a name for yourself while trading opinions on TV, movies, music, personalities, web sites and more.

Hey! Nielsen looks nice and combines some good ideas.  Obviously it's a smart dataplay for Nielsen if the social network attracts participants.  Now let's just keep the VPs away from the mic and try to remember that if you want to communicate with folks who might participate in your social network, calling them something other than consumers is a simple but effective place to start.

Since Nielsen does seem to want to push the idea that participants can have an effect on what big media makes, messaging should clearly communicate that participants are powerful partners whose actions have real effects [if that's actually the case] rather than content generators who periodically drop some feedback in the digital suggestions box by voicing an opinion or taking a poll.

Hey! Nielsen has a blog.

Fellowship Winner to Study Hip Hop Industry Marketing & Advertising Strategies

Winners of the most recent round of Nieman Foundation journalism fellowships include:
[James] Causey, night city editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, [who] plans to study "the marketing/advertising strategies of the hip-hop industry and examine their impact on America's central cities and cities throughout the world."

A Practical Methodology for Analyzing Long Tails

That's right!  Now you too can analyze long tails with the help of Kalevi Kikki via the latest issue of First Monday.

SOHH It's Another Bogus Hip Hop Survey?

Rafi Kam does a nice job of breaking down the wackness of a nonsense survey report from SOHH regarding Don Imus. But, I have to say, I'm always puzzled by what Rafi decides is worth attacking and why. This could as easily have appeared on his "why are you people bothering" list.

Hip Hop, Academia and Citing Sources

I seem to be in one of those headspaces where I need to respond to some hip hop media coverage with points that may not concern most people.  So this is for the record regarding hip hop and academia.

Since hip hop in academia is on a growth curve, meaning we're going to hear more opinions about academic research from those untrained in research, I want to address Davey D's take on his academic experience as presented in a recent SF Chronicle article:

When hip-hop journalist and former emcee Davey D, a.k.a. David Cook, turned in his undergraduate thesis titled "The Power of Rap" in 1987, he didn't think he had a problem with sources.

"I handed it in with no footnotes," he remembers in a phone interview, "and my professor was like, 'Cool. This is good but there aren't any footnotes. You need footnotes.' I mean, I'm talking about something I was a part of, something I knew a lot about, and he was like, 'Footnote something. There's got to be books about hip-hop.' "

But there really weren't any source books on the subject, so Cook the student ended up footnoting emcee Davey D -- himself -- as someone who had been quoted in Bomb magazine.

What bothers me here, beyond the fact that undergrads aren't taught anything about research and pickup phrases like "footnote something" without ever really understanding why, is that the teacher obviously hadn't discussed the likelihood of there being significant coverage that wasn't in books.

The writer of the article relates the point that "there really weren't any source books on the subject" as if that mattered.  Citations can be to anything and, depending on the discipline and the level of knowledge of the teacher, can include one's own experiences, emails, etc, though citing personal experience was not so acceptable in the late 80s and remains unacceptable to those uninformed of historical advances in qualitative research.

Citations simply tell you where something came from and have never been limited to books because a lot of important research never makes it to book form.  It's all academic journals and direct conversation for serious researchers wanting to know the state of the art.

But the fact that Davey D is saying the only thing he had is Bomb in 1987 [which is a little hard to believe] suggests that the teacher did an even bigger disservice by not introducing Davey to basic library reference tools for periodicals.  If the teacher had, Davey D would have found the treasure trove of early hip hop culture coverage that emerged in the Village Voice very early on and that was informing me in North Carolina via a subscription throughout the 80s.

There are a lot of interesting issues related to hip hop and academia but I'm afraid that most journalistic coverage will stop at the stereotypes of what academia and research are all about without ever knowing what's actually going on.

Key Point:
Davey D didn't really need a book about hip hop to cite a book based source useful in a research paper about hip hop.  So, let's assume that his undergrad thesis The Power of Rap spoke to issues like the political content in the lyrics or the exciting experience of a live show.

A useful source for considering the political content of hip hop lyrics might include books on political poetry, for example, in the 1980s there was a revolution in Nicaragua and all sorts of stuff making the news.  When the Sandinistas took power, they installed many artists and writers in important positions typically held by professional politicians.  This was widely reported in the news and I bought numerous books about the situation discussing how artists were deeply immersed in the nation's revolution.

For a live show approach, there's so much on the power of crowds, live performances, rhythmic group movement, popular dance, etc. that it would have been easy to find something that discussed the elements that made rap a powerful live experience.

So, even in the absence of topically specific material, there is usually a great deal of material that is directly relevant and could even simply be used to generate some references that confirm what you already believe, like most normal people would probably do.

SkypeCast Discussion With Chris Anderson

If you're down with The Long Tail, then you may appreciate this SkypeCast discussion with Chris Anderson.

And let me know if it's any good.  I'm not a very good listener if I don't get to do some of the talking!

Update:
This post seems to be attracting a lot of sp@m so I'm closing comments.

Using Google Trends For Marketing Research

Search term trend sites tend to be fun but rarely seem that useful from a business sense, though they should be for so many reasons.  I think the main problem is that they generally only give you enough data to treat them as entertainment, which is probably the point, but not so helpful to business researchers.

In playing around a bit with Google Trends, I did see a couple of interesting possibilities for those concerned with marketing hip hop in other countries and I'm sure more uses could be found.

A combined search for hip hop, rap illustrates my point.  Notice that, at the moment, the cities list begins with Santiago, Chile at no. 1 with New York, NY in the 6 spot.  What you're seeing is not a comparison of overall searches on hip hop or rap but a comparison of cities with a large number of search on those terms that are ranked by the percentage in their area of searches on those terms.

So if only 10 searches were made in Santiago and one of them was on hip hop, they would be ranked higher than New York if 100 searches were made and 5 were hip hop, i.e. 10% beats 5%.  But somehow they make up for the overall number of searches so that you're not comparing Lizard Lick, NC with Los Angeles, CA.

At least, that's what I think they're saying.  Since there's a limit to how much info they share, it's hard to really evaluate it thoroughly but, if you see a readable explanation by someone who also seems to understand what Google actually does, please let me know.

You'll notice when comparing cities in the hip hop, rap search, searchers in Santiago were much more likely to use hip hop than rap while searches in Los Angeles appeared equally likely and those nutty folks in San Francisco used rap more often than hip hop.

Even this miniscule piece of data suggests some interesting possibilities for further exploration.  For example, if you were planning marketing campaigns that were country specific, you might want to use hip hop more often than rap in copy for Chile while in California it might not matter.

Of course, we know that in the States, some hip hop acts who market themselves to fans that see rap as a degraded form of hip hop would not want to use the term rap at all.  And the issue of native languages vs. English also complicates things.  Nevertheless, realizing that differences in use of terminology may be revealed by search trends suggests a lot of interesting possibilities in shaping language to regional markets, especially online.

Unfortunately, the current limits of data available from Google Trends means that it's primarily useful as a quick tool for idea generation and brainstorming.  But that's a good thing, especially if it helps one past misguided assumptions and moves one towards more useful data gathering.

Learning About Hispanic Teens From Hispanic Teens

Cheskin, an "innovation consulting firm", recently released a video research report entitled Nuestro Futuro: Hispanic Teens in Their Own Words.

From the press release:
An unprecedented video profile of U.S. Hispanic teen lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors. Produced from over 30 hours of in-depth at-home interviews with more than 30 Hispanic teens across the US, ages 13 to 19, the profile illuminates key issues in the words of teens themselves. Hearing and seeing them in their homes through the lenses of Snippies video journalists provides an emotive and realistic context for understanding.

From Chris (pictured above), a 17 year old from New York City:
I cannot live without music. It's such a big part of my culture.
Latinos, we need our music, we need a daily fix of our music, it's like
our life drug. I couldn't go a day without listening to my iPod. I even
bought a cell phone that has iTunes on it. I have to have some rhythm in
my life.

From William, a 19 year old from Chicago:
My personal style is mine. I don't know how to explain it ... I'm a fresh Latin Hip Hop style ... It's my unique and own style. I try to take samples from other styles, but I don't just straight copy. I take bits and pieces here and there and just make it my own.

Jessica, a 17 year old from New York.

Three major themes of the report:

* There are multiple levels of complexity in how Hispanic teens
identify themselves. While Hispanic traditions provide grounding,
this segment maintains a multicultural, broad worldview and embraces
diversity. Family orientation is important, but so is establishing
their unique individuality.

* They have influence within their own families as role models and
navigators, and as cultural ambassadors with their friends. They are
proud of the growing influence of Hispanic culture in the U.S.

* They are optimistic. While achievement oriented, they also seek life
balance and opportunities for altruism. Education is important to
them, and they recognize the advantages of their own bilingualism.

For more information on the 3-DVD $5,850.00 set including a video sample see:
Nuestro Futuro: Hispanic Teens in Their Own Words

Official Sites:
Cheskin ~ Snippies

Research: Music, Substance Use, and Aggression

I'm reading a research report that has just been released by the  Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation's Prevention Research Center entitled Music, Substance Use, and Aggression.  It looks at the correlation between music preferences and listening habits by genre, alcohol use, aggressive behavior and "sensation seeking".  I just got a copy from one of their pr folks.

In the press release, the lead author of the report, Meng-Jinn Chen, Ph.D., states that:
People should be concerned about rap and hip hop being used to market alcoholic beverages, given the alcohol, drug and aggression problems among listeners . . . That's particularly true considering the popularity of rap and hip hop among young people.

Based on what I've read of the study so far, I think the title of the press release, Rap Listeners Prone to Alcohol, Drugs, Violence; Study Raises Questions About Alcohol Industry Marketing Through Hip Hop, is problematic at best but I'll hold off on the spin for my follow-up post.

The actual report is a nine page article published in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, and the research was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 

There's much of interest in the study including the presence of cultural artifacts.  If I were to make fun, I'd focus on the fact that they revealed that malt liquor is no longer quite so popular nor synonymous with rap music.  Since I associate the marketing of malt liquor and 90s gangsta rap, that does suggest likely correlations between marketing, product placement and alcoholic beverages of choice, if young people are now drinking whatever product is being mentioned in lyrics and shown in videos.  However, such questions were not included in the survey.

I'm getting the feeling that their research team has a knowledge gap in understanding things like musical genres and how they're currently functioning in the lives of young people.  For example, they offer three rock related genres (alternative, punk and rock) and only offer rap for the whole of hip hop.  I'd prefer seeing the rock genres combined or seeing rap broken up into something along the lines of gangsta, party music and conscious hip hop, or some other way to indicate forms of rap with distinctly different perspectives.

I also think that to productively turn science into policy, which seems to be the aim of the Pacific Institute, they'll need to examine the full range of lyrics, visual images used in music videos and also include a discussion of rhythmic and other elements of the music itself as it is experienced by young people.

To really study what they're trying to study, they need an interdisciplinary team with social and/or cultural researchers who can contribute a richer perspective.

More on this later in the week, including a cynic's look at the implications of this study for marketing.

Jermaine Dupri's Strip Club Research

In an article about Jermaine's Dupri's surprising lack of nomination for Producer of the Year at the Grammys, he confirms what Tamara Palmer discusses in Country Fried Soul: Adventures In Dirty South Hip-Hop, that strip clubs are like research centers for many Southern producers:

The strip club, Mr. Dupri earnestly explained, serves as his de facto research lab. Here, he said, where skirt hems are high and inhibitions are low, he is better able to assess what really makes a crowd move, and to discover new music. "In the strip club, the music is more grimier than what you hear on the radio," he said. "It's like a D.J. in New York playing a mixtape."

BBC Misrepresents "Apathetic" Downloaders and Science?

Recent media reports claim that, "according to research", the easy availability of music via downloading has led to a "generation of people who do not seriously appreciate songs or performance". Since this announcement immediately appeared to be one of those media items that would return to haunt me via op-ed columns and blog posts and since, as with most scientific research, the research itself was likely to be misrepresented, I thought I would try to check out the research findings.

So I went to the web page of Adrian North, a researcher at the University of Leicester's School of Psychology who is quoted in the BBC article linked above. I was surprised to find no mention of the research on Dr. North's page or on any of the University's press release pages so I wrote Dr. North directly.

North replied with a citation for the research in question:
North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J., and Hargreaves, J. J. (2004). The uses of music in everyday life. Music Perception, 22, 63-99.

Since that seemed a bit old for research being reported in the BBC, I followed up and Dr. North stated:
"I did an interview for one of the Scottish newspapers a couple of weeks ago in which I was asked to speculate about how downloading might have affected attitudes towards music. After that it just seems to have snowballed - strange how these things work."

Strange, indeed. What began as some speculations on Dr. North's part about the effects of downloading in light of North's earlier research becomes the media creation of a generational label that can now go on to have a life of its own. Since my copies of Music Perception are in storage, I'll have to hold off on a closer look at the research itself for the moment. If you happen to track down a copy, feel free to respond in the comments below. Otherwise we can simply continue the conversation like most conversations about science generated by media interest, the discussion will have little to do with the research itself.

The Hustler's Spirit, Research & Networking

Hashim Warren relates the "hustler's spirit" of the Hip-Hop Generation to a research study finding that "Blacks and Hispanics with some graduate level education are the most likely groups to start a new business." Although it's another example of how the hustler mentality can be viewed in a positive light, Hashim's take is mostly speculative in relationship to this particular study.

If you want to follow up and check out more than the section to which Hashim links, the full study is called Entrepreneurship in the US: 2004 Assessment and was produced by Paul D. Reynolds, Director of Florida International University's Entrepreneurship Research Institute.

In related news, WSJ's Startup Journal has an article on Networking Resources For Entrepreneurs.

Teens Reveal the Future of Digital Media

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released another of its ongoing series of research projects into American use of the Internet and, in doing so, reminds us that the future us grownups keep predicting is already being lived by teens. The newest report is entitled Teen Content Creators and Consumers and examines the fact that:
"Fully half of all teens and 57% of teens who use the internet could be considered Content Creators. They have created a blog or webpage, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations."

Representatives of old media sometimes attempt to ridicule the general population's content creation by focusing on the fact that few will be great artists in order to downplay the fact that the Internet makes it possible for anyone to become a publisher and potentially reach a world wide audience if they can execute well or bring something unique to the table. But what critics of media democracy miss that's perhaps even more important is the fact that the Internet and digital media more generally have offered an environment in which young people can create content as a normal part of everyday communication.

The authors of the report Teen Content Creators and Consumers state:
"Teens are often much more enthusiastic authors and readers of blogs than their adult counterparts. Teen bloggers, led by older girls, are a major part of this tech-savvy cohort. Teen bloggers are more fervent internet users than non-bloggers and have more experience with almost every online activity in the survey."

When I was first using Blogger for various blogs, the recently updated weblogs list was more prominent in the interface and I would check it out regularly. In clicking on interesting looking blog titles, I encountered what various researchers have verified, that a large proportion of blogs are created by teen and, sometimes, preteen girls. No, they aren't creating political blogs or trade blogs or any of the other blogs we currently take so seriously. They're simply using the weblog as another form of communication among many forms and by communicating online they remind us that the professionalization of content creation which has resulted in amazing riches has also tended to disempower everyday people.

Tom Zeller Jr. of the NY Times looks at some teenage examples of what the Pew/Internet report reveals in aggregate and references recent situations in which students were threatened with suspension for posting on MySpace in order to "protect" them. In addition to the fact that such threats extend beyond the appropriate realm of pedagogues, I found the responses from 20 somethings rather interesting. At least the 20 somethings I read seemed unaware of the political history of young people's battles for free speech while simultaneously seeming old and cynical in relationship to the concerns of teens. It must be tough being over the hill while still in college, but that's how fast things move today.

Although the issue of young folks' attitudes about downloading copyright material is also raised in this report, I find the response so far to be rather uninteresting. Blah blah blah about what the music industry is going to do in the face of downloaders when the fact that what we are seeing is the postmodern artistic practice of appropriation becoming a mundane part of everyday life. That's some heavy sh*t and academic theorists had little to do with bringing it about.

Both the report and the questionnaire can be freely downloaded as .pdf files providing open access to research, one of the many reasons the Pew/Internet projects get widely discussed in the media, far beyond the usual brief flare from inaccessible research shared with the public only via press releases.

Podcasting Business Models

The September issue of online research publication First Monday features a paper entitled Podcasting: A new technology in search of viable business models by coauthors Sheri Crofts, Jon Dilley, Mark Fox, Andrew Retsema, and Bob Williams.

The paper includes a bit of history and an overview of podcasting technology followed by the social, commercial and legal context for podcasting before getting into issues related to business models.

The authors focus on business models for "nanocasters" or folks doing podcasting for niche audiences with commercial intent. They identify and discuss a variety of possiblities for generating revenue:
Sponsorships
Advertising
Listener donations
Cooption
(Paid) subscription models, for aggregators
(Paid) subscription models for individual podcasters
Infomercials
The star maker machinery

In their conclusions, they add this note regarding independent podcasters:
"Given the ease with which podcasts can be created, the only true barrier to entry — or at least a barrier to generating a sizable listener base — is product differentiation. Given the ease with which podcasts can be subscribed to and discarded, consumers are only going to tolerate podcasts that appeal to them. This creates a challenge for new podcastsers — how to differentiate their podcast from the thousands of others already on the Internet. Clearly focusing upon a niche area in which one has significant expertise is one means of doing this. However, as with traditional radio, insightfulness, entertainment, and creativity will be necessary to create audience interest and a listener base of any significant size"

Overall I'd say the paper's a solid effort at sketching out some of the basic issues in professional podcasting with a relevant bibliography that includes live links. It should be particularly useful for those needing an introduction to podcasting or for those who are thinking through issues related to making money via podcasting as well as other forms of online publishing.

In related news, two recent research studies had conflicting views of who's actually listening to podcasts.

Blogger Conducts Research, You Can Help

Hashim Warren at Hip Hop Blogs needs your help. He has a "theory about buying music. It relates to the battle between pay per download sites (like iTunes), subscriptions sites (like Napster and Yahoo Music), and p2p sites (like Limewire)."

But before he announces the results of his theorizing, he needs you to go to the site and respond to a list of tracks from "this week's Hot 97 playlist." He's conducting an informal survey in which you tell him "which songs you would buy, whcih tracks you like to hear but wouldn't buy, and which tracks you don't like to hear and of course wouldn't buy."

There's more information at the site. The more people that participate, the closer he'll come to statistical validity. Together we can make hip hop research more scientific!

First Monday: Internet Research

The current edition of First Monday, an open access peer-reviewed Internet studies journal, includes:

Gifting technologies - on file giving.
Interview With McKenzie Wark - author of A Hacker Manifesto.

From next month's issue:
Artists' earnings and copyright - based on British and German music data.

Filesharing Research on the Artist's Viewpoint

The NY Times alerts us to the latest research on filesharing that takes account of the multiple and often conflicting viewpoints of musical artists themselves.  Imagine that.  The full report can be downloaded for free from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, my all time favorite source of Internet research.