Mike Industries

I know I’m an old man already at 30, but I think the last music video I watched was something from Christina Aguilera’s Slut-Yourself-Rich period a couple of years ago. Even then, I’m pretty sure I only watched the whole thing because I thought she was going to violate the “no live sex on TV” rule in front of my very eyes. Well, she didn’t, and I haven’t watched a music video since.

… which makes me wonder about all this talk of Apple’s alleged plans to sell music videos for display on iPods.

Is this really a viable market? I don’t think it is. The amount of music videos Apple will sell is probably much less than 1% of the amount of audio tracks they will sell, so it’s clearly not the reason the company is adding video capabilities to their iPods. More likely, it is a way to ease iPods with video capabilities into circulation until Apple has more compelling content to offer.

Conventional wisdom says the real money is in movie distribution, and while I agree to a point, there are so many issues being negotiated behind the scenes that it is understandable why this hasn’t materialized yet. Working at Disney for the past five years, I can’t even begin to tell you how long the chain of rights is to negotiate with regards to theatrical releases. The single biggest achievement of the iTunes Music Store was not the interface, the distribution, or the selection of music… it was the negotiating of rights by Steve Jobs. Jobs offered each music label the exact same deal, and being the most charismatic technology figure in the world (probably ever), he convinced them all to take it. Doing the same thing in the movie world isn’t impossible, but it’s going to be much much harder.

That’s also to say nothing of DRM issues in the video world. If you’re wondering why Microsoft is the only company in the world with industrial-strength video DRM right now, it’s largely because they settled a lawsuit with InterTrust about a year ago for $440 million putting them in the clear of any DRM-related lawsuits. Many companies are afraid to infringe on InterTrust’s patents right now, and Apple may or may not be one of them. If Apple feels they can create video DRM without infringing, they will. If they don’t, they will either have to sit on the sidelines or license.

Getting back on topic, I feel like Apple’s best move right now is not in music videos but concert videos. I wrote about this back in February when I suggested a video device with which to view concerts but the idea received only a lukewarm reception in the comments. Fast forward to July now and we have news of an AOL/AEG/XM cooperative called “NetworkLive” which will not only deliver live and archived shows via audio and video streams but actually play a part in producing the concerts themselves.

Big, BIG missed opportunity for Apple here in my opinion… especially since the rumored investment in this initiative is an extremely affordable $15 million.

If I’m Apple, I’m knocking on the door of NetworkLive right now and if no one answers, I’m busting the damn thing down.

The 4th monthly Mike Industries iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition starts today and the rules are simple: I found an iPod Shuffle. In order to claim it, you must identify it and tell me precisely how you lost it. I have a feeling there is a rich story behind this little piece of plastic, and the person who successfully reveals it in the comments will be reunited with their baby. Submissions will be accepted until midnight on July 31st.

Special thanks to Mike Roberto for coming up with the idea for this 4th contest. Mike will receive a Shuffle from me, and of course, the contest submission pool remains open until the end of the year.

Extra special thanks as well to Dennis Lloyd and iLounge (formerly iPodLounge) who are once again adding a pair of $150 Etymotic ER-6i earbuds to the prize pool.

A peculiar e-mail from China landed in my inbox this evening. It began:

“We have learned from the Internet that you are interested in tents.”

Competitor “joshua” was right when he questioned whether most entries in the third monthly iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition correctly followed the instructions of exploring alternative uses of iPods. Luckily, however, we applaud the breaking of rules here at Mike Industries, and that is why I’m happy to announce this month’s winner and a new honor roll of the top 30 entries… some following the rules more closely than others.

So without further ado, congratulations to Charlie D., whose crudely assembled infomercial about sending iPod Shuffles full of music into space is available for viewing here. It’s an interesting concept for sure, and one which holds special significance after seeing NASA ram a spacecraft with thousands of names on it into a comet earlier this week.

Charlie will receive an iPod Shuffle from me, and a pair of $150 Etymolic earbuds from the nice folks over at iPodLounge.com.

Below is a slideshow of the top 30 non-video entries with the first 10 being the runners-up, in order of greatness. The last 20 are in random order:

Stay tuned for the next installment of the Mike Industries iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition slated to begin around the middle of this month. And as always, the submission pool remains open.

On Friday, I will be leaving the comfortable confines of my DirecTivo for the modern unknown that is the Comcast-orola-soft 6412 High Definition PVR. I fully expect a crystal-clear high-definition 16:9 viewing experience with a woefully disappointing interface. Whether or not it becomes more or less frustrating over time is the only question mark. I think I am even losing the 30-second commercial skip function. Damn!

Oh well. Sorry DirecTV and Tivo. You guys have been great, but there’s only so long I can hold out for HD.

Has anybody tried this thing out yet? Any tips?

Keep the door open for me Tivo. I may be back…

My friends at MercuryCloud in Seattle are looking for some good print and interactive designers. As is evidenced by this photo — taken yesterday from their 4th of July party — they have some pretty sweet office space and they are not afraid to host kegs in it:

James Robinson and Will Prater are the principals of MercuryCloud. They are great guys, and if you’d like to work with them on some high-profile, high-caliber stuff, click the “Continue Reading” link for a full job description.
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