Seven Beland

The Ethics of Crowdsourcing

2012-02-22T10:03:00.000+01:00

Recommended short video by Futurist Ross Dawson for everybody who plans to source funds from the crowd: Discussion of the Ethics of crowdsourcing.

A Book Recommendation: The App Effect

2012-02-20T13:52:00.000+01:00

Recommending: "Almost overnight, display devices and multi-touch have become the normal user experience. The biggest constant however are our personal apps. In this book we sketch out these major developments in technology and human information behavior. And, in particular, focus on their business impact.

Apps on display devices are “merely” the heart of the issue. What really matters is that this irresistible force works in tandem to create new information behavior that already has begun to profoundly impact organizations. The App Effect will leave a lasting mark on our interaction with products and services.

“We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us.” Never has this been more true than in the present mobile revolution, as Paul Hermelin, Vice-Chairman and CEO of the Capgemini Group, states in his foreword to The App Effect. The following 10 fundamental App Effects and attendant business implications are ...read on."

ExaTrends of the Decade: Reputation Economy

2012-02-16T13:26:00.000+01:00

Futurist Ross Dawson shares these insights into major trends: the reputation economy. A short video worth watching for everybody whose business model targets the public and who seeks to expand their audience. For more see www.rossdawson.com.

Spotify: € 0.007 per stream? What’s all that about?

2012-02-13T10:58:00.000+01:00

Just found this on digital distribution service iMusician Digital's blog: "This is a difficult one because we love Spotify and would go as far as to say that with Spotify (Simfy, Rdio, MOG, MyJuke etc) for the first time, we have a music service that just makes sense. It’s just these pitiful payments which leave a bitter taste in our mouths. Spotify pays us 0.007 EUR per stream so you make about 0.0059 EUR though depending on whether the listener has the free, unlimited or premium versions, it can be more. But it still means your next beer just cost you 840 streams…read on and leave your comments."

Midem 2012 - Quick Review

2012-02-10T10:50:00.002+01:00

For all those who couldn't make it to Cannes end of January, here is a quick review of Midem 2012. The event's organisor prepared an exclusive summary of the show's key news and events, be they music business, technology, brand or artist-focused.
Read here.

The Universe is a Symphony of Vibrating Strings

2012-02-06T10:17:00.000+01:00

As music is one of Seven Beland's business fields, we sometimes like to take rather unusual approaches to this wonderful art. Professor of physics Michio Kaku has an interesting point of view:

Musikbusiness E-Book: "CD machen - und dann?"

2012-01-27T22:54:00.000+01:00

For our German Readers in Switzerland:

Seit unseren MBiz Workshops 2010 zu haben: Praxisorientiertes E-Book für alle unabhängigen Musiker/innen, Produzenten und Interpreten. Der Leitfaden bietet viele Tipps, Hinweise, Adressen und weiterführende Links rund um die Themen Vertrieb und Promotion im Schweizer Musikmarkt und dient als Hilfestellung, um als Musikschaffende/r seine Kunst eigenständig zu verbreiten.

Erschienen am 5.4.2011 auf » lulu.com, € 18.90, PDF 60 Seiten A4 auf allen Computern und mobilen Geräten.

Now in German: Short Story "The Last Cigarette"

2012-01-24T23:17:00.000+01:00

Seit heute im Kindle Store. Alexander G. Johnsons spannende Kurzgeschichte aus einer nicht allzu fernen Zukunft:

Die letzte Zigarette
"Es ist das Jahr 2052. Die Welt wird von einem zentralen Rat mit Sitz in Hong Kong regiert. Die Produktion von Rindfleisch wurde beschränkt und die offiziellen Sprachen sind Mandarin, Spanisch und English. Rauchen und das Anpflanzen von Tabak ist gesetzlich verboten. In London findet eine Auktion statt, an der die letzte noch verbliebene, legale Zigarette versteigert wird. Die Geschehnisse an jenem Tag eskalieren. Doch es geht nicht alles in Rauch auf ..."
€0.89 auf Amazon.de, per gratis Kindle App auf allen Mobiles, Tablets, Computern und Kindle Readern. E-Book Kurzgeschichte entspricht 30 Taschenbuchseiten.

True Musicianship

2012-01-23T09:43:00.000+01:00

This is improvisation and true musicianship at its best. A violinist's answer to being interrupted by a Nokia ringtone during a solo concert of classical music. Enjoy.

Lovers and the Wisdom of the Crowds

2012-01-18T15:53:00.000+01:00

Recommendation platform SoundOut recently made an offer to Sonicbids subscriber, a free song review. In their own words, "SoundOut is the market leading research and audience insight tool for new music that guarantees accurate and objective insight into any track by any artist, powered 100% by real music fans and consumers."

So we had Sonicbid subscriber Alex Johnson's song "Lovers" rated, and returned was a cool, comprehensive report with lots of comments from real people. In essence, this pages-long report analyses the marketability of the song in details and rates it. God to know that lovers has a 78% (very good) chance to become a hit with the main age group in their twenties ands thirties.

Display the report and snoop around (pdf 550 KB). Btw, Lovers is available for recording, licensing (pop).

Gerd Leonhard's book 'Music 2.0'

2012-01-10T17:42:00.001+01:00

Gerd Leonhard's 2nd book on the Future of the Music Industry. Music 2.0 is an inspiring and invigorating collection of Music & Media Futurist Gerd Leonhard's best essays and blog posts on the future of the music industry. The book continues and expands on the ideas and models Gerd presented in his first book “The Future of Music” (co-written with Dave Kusek, published by Berklee Press in 2005). From his more than 1.000+ blog posts and over 20 long-form essays, Gerd has selected the best essays on the key questions: what are the principles that will define the next iteration of the music business, and what will future success look like?

The author offers his book for free as .pdf, if you...

Free Read: The Last Cigarette

2012-01-05T19:13:00.000+01:00

AmazonPrime Subscribers (US Store) can actually borrow this title free of charge from Amazon's Kindle library, we just found out.

A great new winter read.

A short story by Alexander G. Johnson

"The year 2052, the world is ruled by one central government seated in
Hong Kong; the produce of beef has been limited, and the official
languages are Mandarin and English! The smoking and planting of tobacco
has been outlawed; in London an auction is about to take place of the
last remaining, legal, cigarette. The surrounding events that take place
on that day make it a smoke to remember ..."

Free Kindle App available across many mobile and desktop devices.

Happy New Year, 2012 !

2012-01-03T22:12:00.000+01:00

This ... is my all-time favorite illustration about 2012. By now everybody has heard about the Mayan calendar that will end -converted to Gregorian calendar- on December 21st, 2012. Certain circles already started to panic years ago (some time around 1999?) that the world is going to end. Books have been written, movies were made and believers are getting ready for the big event.

Well ... the Mayans didn't say that the planet is going to be sucked into a black hole or explode or hit by a comet or burned down by aliens. They simply wrote that the world as we know it is going to end.

And that's evident around us already now. Old structures are breaking up, the old is trying to resist the new, and the tensions will get stronger - for a while. But 2012 is also the year of change. I would like to encourage each and everybody to welcome the opportunities that present themselves before us. Chaos offers change and change becomes chance. 2012 will be a most interesting year. Take the chance and enjoy life to the fullest. Happy 2012!

Yes, the Cream is sour now!

2011-12-29T10:41:00.001+01:00

Have you ever heard about the Peter Principle? In this day and age of Occupy, bank scandals and collapsing dictatorships, this principle is evident almost daily in the news. Quoting Wikipedia:
"The Peter Principle states that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of hierarchiology."

Dr. Peter's and R. Hull's findings are the basis to Alex Johnson's song "Peter's Law", a song he crafted during the hot summer of 2003 and which was originally part of his musical STORM. Overestimated abilities of those "leading" in governments and businesses - this song's lyrics described eight years go what people all over the world "occupy" for today.

The Last Cigarette

2011-12-24T13:15:00.000+01:00

A great new winter read.

A short story by Alexander G. Johnson

"The year 2052, the world is ruled by one central government seated in
Hong Kong; the produce of beef has been limited, and the official
languages are Mandarin and English! The smoking and planting of tobacco
has been outlawed; in London an auction is about to take place of the
last remaining, legal, cigarette. The surrounding events that take place
on that day make it a smoke to remember ..."

E-Book on Amazon for Kindle, iPhone, iPad and many mobile devices.
Enjoy!

The Perfect Tune for the Christmas Days

2011-12-22T13:26:00.003+01:00

"More Then You'll Ever Know" by Michael Ruff, performed live in the studio, vocals Thierry Condor, piano by Urs Wiesendanger. It brings you the love in the music - and with it the spirit of the season.

The Digital Music Year That Was: 2011 in Review and 2012 Predictions

2011-12-20T09:52:00.000+01:00

Found on Mark Mulligan's Music Industry Blog: "Following the disappointment of 2010, 2011 was always going to need to pack more punch. In some ways it did, and other ways it continued to underwhelm. On balance though the stage is set for an exciting 2012.

There were certainly lots of twists and turns in 2011, including: disquiet among the artist community regarding digital pay-outs, the passing of Steve Jobs, Nokia’s return to digital music, EMI’s API play, and of course Universal Music’s acquisition of EMI. Here are some of the 2011 developments that have most far reaching implications:

The year of the ecosystems. With the launch of Facebook’s content dashboard, Android Music, the Amazon Fire (a name not designed to win over eco-warriors), Apple’s iTunes Match and Spotify’s developer platform there was a surge in the number of competing ecosystem plays in the digital music arena. Despite the risk of consumer confusion, some of these are exciting foundations for a new generation of music experiences.
Cash for cache. The ownership versus access debate raged fully in 2011, spurred by the rise of streaming services. Although we are in an unprecedented period of transition, ownership and...read on."

The Voice of Germany: Yasmina Hunzinger

2011-12-18T17:09:00.001+01:00

I was surprised by the concept "The Voice of ..." when I saw the first couple of shows in Germany. Tired of all those X-Factor, Popstars, Soundso-Idols of the past and their juries' endless insults, bad remarks and sensations at the expense of mediocre candidates, I would not have turned the telly on if Yasmina Hunzinger didn't have the courage to participate in Germany's current battle. Great voices and fair critiques by the coaches, that's what counts in this format.

Yasmina is a gorgeous singer (songwriter and vocal coach). This Swiss lady with domicile in the Cologne area in Germany is one of those hidden gems whose name is hardly written across large concert billboards, but does a lot of work on smaller stages, in the studio and even lends her voice famous singers to move their lips to (don't ask!).

When Alex Johnson pre-produced the music to the musical STORM, Yasmina was called into the studio by music producer Urs Wiesendanger to interpret character Maria's song "Broken Toy". With her emotional interpretation, Yasmina designed the vocal concept of this song, which was applied without any alterations to its live performance. Listen here:
Broken Toy - feat. Yasmina Hunzinger by Alex Johnson

Yasmina's entry into the battles of "The Voice of Germany" will be broadcasted a few days prior to Christmas on German stations. It won't be easy to stand out against all the other fantastic vocalists in the ring. I wish Yasmina all the best, and a wide audience to become her fans.

Looking for a Christmas Present?

2011-12-18T16:02:00.001+01:00

For Music Lovers of all age groups: Pop, Rock, Blues, Swing, Jazz & more.
Complete Download Collection "Tales of Toil & Tribulation" available on iTunes, Amazon, etc.

The Future of Business

2011-12-17T18:14:00.000+01:00

Would you like to stay in touch with the future?

Follow The Futures Agency on:

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SerGIO Fertitta and the Power of Self Invention

2011-12-16T17:21:00.000+01:00

Alex Johnson's first attempt at podcasting; and with a leading music producer! SerGIO Fertitta is a veteran music producer, so Alex was more than happy when he agreed to be the subject of his first interview in August 2011.

Music Producer SerGIO Fertitta interviewed by by Alex Johnson
Also available on iTunes.