So as usual, we’re overdue for a roundup. Earlier, we heard about TechStars 2009. There are already summaries of the products available, mainly at Techcrunch, and few at Fred Wilson‘s. But we like doing reviews here. So we are.
First Off on our list:
Next Big Sound:
This is a concept I really believe in. I’ve blogged about it previously, as well as commented about it over at Fred’s place, there is no need for aggregators to display to us information in a purely text based way. The Next Big Sound does break that convention. And it does a beautiful job of breaking that convention. I now can track certain metrics of (right now) 4 different band’s popularity, and have those results emailed to me.
The design decisions leave me with some large questions.
The Biggest Ones: Exactly who is this for? Is there anyone who needs this information? Can you segment their different needs? What are they? Of these groups, who is willing to pay for what? (since at some point you are going to need to charge for something). Why are you choosing the metrics that you are choosing, and how are you weighing them?
Here is why this is an issue from what we know about them:
A Brief Guide to What NBS Tracks & What it Means
- Plays Total new combined plays.
- MySpace plays are counted when a song is played for at least 1 minute.
- Last.fm plays are counted when at least half of a song is listened to by someone in iTunes with Last.fm installed or from the Last.fm player.
- Fans Total new fans, friends, and followers.
- MySpace fans include anyone who has added or accepted a band as a friend.
- Last.fm fans include anyone who has listened to the artist in their iTunes at least once.
- iLike fans include anyone who has clicked “iLike” on an artist’s iLike page.
- Facebook fans include anyone who has clicked ‘Become a Fan’ on an artist’s Facebook page.
- Twitter fans include anyone who is ‘following’ an artist’s twitter account.
- Views Total new profile views.
- MySpace views are counted every time a visitor loads an artist’s page.
- Comments Total new comments, shouts, and posts.
- MySpace comments can be left on an artist’s page by any registered MySpace user. Artists can delete comments.
- Last.fm comments and shouts can be left on an artist’s page by any registered Last.fm user. Artists can delete shouts.
- iLike comments can be left on an artist’s page by any registered iLike user. Artists can delete posts.
There have been discussions already about the slow death of MySpace, for one. One thought is that Tumblr may take over as the new music place. It is currently not on the list. Nor are sites like the Hype Machine, nor We Are Hunted, who also have aggregation technology inside of them, admitted in. Further problems involve web radio- what about the rise of Pandora and YouTube? Should they count likes and dislikes if they can? What about Video plays featuring music?
Should they exclusively stick to ITunes? I realize it is a major destination for Legal Music Buying, but it is not the only place to buy music, nor have people stopped illegally sharing music. Nor has ITunes become the totally dominant for everything player. Should the ecosystem include other ways of liking, such as Glue, Amazon.com Wishlists, or even Ticketmaster purchases? What makes a statistic relevant? Further- although I suspect this is partially a beta problem, why just rock? Why just contemporary music of a certain type? We do fill concert halls with these people, and they are expensive tickets, and sell songs on ITunes. Someone is curious to know. Right now, John Zorn, a MacArthur Fellow made fun of by Stephen Colbert, is missing. So is Beethoven. I’m not sure which is worse, because I am not sure who this is aimed at. While we are at it, when I had MP3s, I listened to music that spanned multiple genres, eras, and continents. (3,000 years of musical genres and every continent on the globe.) I am not a music snob in any category, I just happen to like music, and I am not sure how atypical or typical I am. However, an industry executive in some of the fields I listen to would be interested, and would probably want deeper statistics about me, which is essentially what is being aggregated en mass. Ideally, they want very deep statistics, such as IP locations of certain types of music listeners. (Where do Bang On Can players live so we can have more concerts there? Maybe we should send CDs of Zhou Long to that area?) Meanwhile, the majority of those sorts of features are not there. And that sort of deep look, in emails, is where the money is at. Are certain types of trends happening in other fields? Well you would have to monitor debates about the merits of harpsichord players, or kinds of minimalist improvisational jazz, which tend to be long drawn out discussions on Amazon Reviews or on Blogs. Beyond the metrics you have, of course. So exactly what is the Next Big Sound trying to be, and for whom? Clarify that. Then Clarify your next step, and the next, and the next. And then you got a really good product. Right now, comparing 4 charts is sort of boring, albeit a pretty looking sort of boring.
Second:
Take Comics:
So I am on the Beta List for Take Comics. If they like me, I’ll review it. I’m going to give them a warning though, You already got competition in the IPhone App Category, from Comixology. They have first mover advantage, plus they have a relationship with the main distribute of comic books in America and the writers because of the blog. The owner is a really passionate guy when it comes to comic books. Personal suggestions: Take over every other phone. No one wants to make them happy. Also, if you have such great tech, why use it just for comic books? I read glossies (Vogue??? W???). There is supposedly a new MAC tablet coming out very soon. Get your hands on that and corner all those magazines that people consume. There are a hell of a lot of those, and they have lots of glorious pictures of nice clothing that I can’t afford (yet)
Third:
Everlater:
So it was the first time I ever used Facebook Connect too (maybe I should take down that Nude I drew, even though I think it is a decent drawing, even though I have now deleted my Everlater account, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, it was more for testing, but my school friends are chill with it). It was an interesting experience. I’m not sure what I think. I like the fact the option is there. It allowed me to theoretically share what else what else I was doing on the web. It also made me hearken back to the old Facebook (back in the days that I remember when it was 5, or was it 8 schools), which was not about that at all, but more about keeping track and connect with people who you already sort of knew in person. It felt very safe, and there was no facebook connect. I miss that sort of closed network where it stays closed between friends, and I almost wonder if people would pay for that. Just for that fake/real closeness and safety net. Just had to be said. “Older” users don’t remember the fact that some of us live in fear of the fact that for real, right now I really should take down that nude, despite the fact that I am enormously proud of my black on black charcoal/ink drawing…
Back to the topic at hand though, Everlater….
It is a map, and you tag it, and add descriptions, and photos. Semi-manually. While the map tagging is nice (really nice actually), again, what is with the IPhone only type of integration? We need to start thinking more broadly about smartphones and the market they occur in? So it appears to fully integrate into the rest of the services people are already using to talk about trips, such as FLICKR, Blogs, ect. Except this is made to be a nice map and have everything nicely organized. And then you can export it, to your blog, which is amazingly neat. And I could see this being sort of useful for all sorts of things, like even a day out in a city one already lives in.
Here are some basic questions: So there are tips and restaurant/ lodging reviews. Are their plans to aggregate these and make them sellable/usable in any which way outside of the blogging engine? Same problem with the tips section, because for a user, that could be anything, but from a marketing perspective, that could be a data goldmine. Further, are we sure that everyone has a computer and camera with them on a trip, especially long haul trips as per the ones on the front page, because then we need some serious substitutes. Will the user experience hold up to those substitutes, especially in far away places where the Internet is not so good, and power availability is not so good either (Think, the middle of Africa, or going to the Galapagos) And if not, will this satisfy the scrapbooker market enough (being an online scrapbook of sorts which is fyi, a huge way of making money in its paper form) Are people willing to come back afterward without nudging to make a trip scrapbook? How much personalization do people want for this trip? Is The person who went on a Fashion Bonanza in Paris wanting the same scrapbook as the person who did volunteering in Cuba? Is this a way to make money for you long term, to personalize the scrapbook to make it fit what you did as opposed to leaving it sort of generic?
Speaking of the Scrapbook questions (because I think it is the toughest for you) Because you have this API that surrounds activities, not just writing, and at least the word EverLater doesn’t immediately connote “I am going on this trip,” do you believe that this is in some way is a transformative product on the web because it is scrapbook-like? How much are you a scrapbook, and how much are you a travelblogging service, and which direction do you think will provide customers who use the product the best experience? How much of Everlater is this something where I am planting my location on a map and telling you about it versus telling you about it which happens to involve planting locations on a map, and it could involve a whole host of other ways of telling. What made you choose this way of engaging people in this type of story, or any story at all?
I also wonder, because this is such an engaging product from the consumer end, (Surprisingly so, despite the annoyance of having to upload and write multiple times, an issue that will need to be resolved somehow), where is the end-goal when it comes to cash, because right now you are reliant on others services, a dangerous position to be in. If it is someone already on a trip, is it to direct them? What if the trip already past? Then what? What if it is not long term to be just a travelblogging service? As they say where I’m from, where’s the chap? (the ch is a gutteral) Narrow down the dream and the money, because there is a really rich service and experience that makes you want to coo but that doesn’t equal cash nor user engagement. Sometimes, simplicity is where it is at.
We’ll have another round later, K’
Techstars Boulder 2009 Roundup: Next Big Sound, Take Comics pt1, Everlater, and Losing Facebook Connect Virginity
So as usual, we’re overdue for a roundup. Earlier, we heard about TechStars 2009. There are already summaries of the products available, mainly at Techcrunch, and few at Fred Wilson‘s. But we like doing reviews here. So we are.
First Off on our list:
Next Big Sound:
This is a concept I really believe in. I’ve blogged about it previously, as well as commented about it over at Fred’s place, there is no need for aggregators to display to us information in a purely text based way. The Next Big Sound does break that convention. And it does a beautiful job of breaking that convention. I now can track certain metrics of (right now) 4 different band’s popularity, and have those results emailed to me.
The design decisions leave me with some large questions.
The Biggest Ones: Exactly who is this for? Is there anyone who needs this information? Can you segment their different needs? What are they? Of these groups, who is willing to pay for what? (since at some point you are going to need to charge for something). Why are you choosing the metrics that you are choosing, and how are you weighing them?
Here is why this is an issue from what we know about them:
There have been discussions already about the slow death of MySpace, for one. One thought is that Tumblr may take over as the new music place. It is currently not on the list. Nor are sites like the Hype Machine, nor We Are Hunted, who also have aggregation technology inside of them, admitted in. Further problems involve web radio- what about the rise of Pandora and YouTube? Should they count likes and dislikes if they can? What about Video plays featuring music?
Should they exclusively stick to ITunes? I realize it is a major destination for Legal Music Buying, but it is not the only place to buy music, nor have people stopped illegally sharing music. Nor has ITunes become the totally dominant for everything player. Should the ecosystem include other ways of liking, such as Glue, Amazon.com Wishlists, or even Ticketmaster purchases? What makes a statistic relevant? Further- although I suspect this is partially a beta problem, why just rock? Why just contemporary music of a certain type? We do fill concert halls with these people, and they are expensive tickets, and sell songs on ITunes. Someone is curious to know. Right now, John Zorn, a MacArthur Fellow made fun of by Stephen Colbert, is missing. So is Beethoven. I’m not sure which is worse, because I am not sure who this is aimed at. While we are at it, when I had MP3s, I listened to music that spanned multiple genres, eras, and continents. (3,000 years of musical genres and every continent on the globe.) I am not a music snob in any category, I just happen to like music, and I am not sure how atypical or typical I am. However, an industry executive in some of the fields I listen to would be interested, and would probably want deeper statistics about me, which is essentially what is being aggregated en mass. Ideally, they want very deep statistics, such as IP locations of certain types of music listeners. (Where do Bang On Can players live so we can have more concerts there? Maybe we should send CDs of Zhou Long to that area?) Meanwhile, the majority of those sorts of features are not there. And that sort of deep look, in emails, is where the money is at. Are certain types of trends happening in other fields? Well you would have to monitor debates about the merits of harpsichord players, or kinds of minimalist improvisational jazz, which tend to be long drawn out discussions on Amazon Reviews or on Blogs. Beyond the metrics you have, of course. So exactly what is the Next Big Sound trying to be, and for whom? Clarify that. Then Clarify your next step, and the next, and the next. And then you got a really good product. Right now, comparing 4 charts is sort of boring, albeit a pretty looking sort of boring.
Second:
Take Comics:
So I am on the Beta List for Take Comics. If they like me, I’ll review it. I’m going to give them a warning though, You already got competition in the IPhone App Category, from Comixology. They have first mover advantage, plus they have a relationship with the main distribute of comic books in America and the writers because of the blog. The owner is a really passionate guy when it comes to comic books. Personal suggestions: Take over every other phone. No one wants to make them happy. Also, if you have such great tech, why use it just for comic books? I read glossies (Vogue??? W???). There is supposedly a new MAC tablet coming out very soon. Get your hands on that and corner all those magazines that people consume. There are a hell of a lot of those, and they have lots of glorious pictures of nice clothing that I can’t afford (yet)
Third:
Everlater:
So it was the first time I ever used Facebook Connect too (maybe I should take down that Nude I drew, even though I think it is a decent drawing, even though I have now deleted my Everlater account, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, it was more for testing, but my school friends are chill with it). It was an interesting experience. I’m not sure what I think. I like the fact the option is there. It allowed me to theoretically share what else what else I was doing on the web. It also made me hearken back to the old Facebook (back in the days that I remember when it was 5, or was it 8 schools), which was not about that at all, but more about keeping track and connect with people who you already sort of knew in person. It felt very safe, and there was no facebook connect. I miss that sort of closed network where it stays closed between friends, and I almost wonder if people would pay for that. Just for that fake/real closeness and safety net. Just had to be said. “Older” users don’t remember the fact that some of us live in fear of the fact that for real, right now I really should take down that nude, despite the fact that I am enormously proud of my black on black charcoal/ink drawing…
Back to the topic at hand though, Everlater….
It is a map, and you tag it, and add descriptions, and photos. Semi-manually. While the map tagging is nice (really nice actually), again, what is with the IPhone only type of integration? We need to start thinking more broadly about smartphones and the market they occur in? So it appears to fully integrate into the rest of the services people are already using to talk about trips, such as FLICKR, Blogs, ect. Except this is made to be a nice map and have everything nicely organized. And then you can export it, to your blog, which is amazingly neat. And I could see this being sort of useful for all sorts of things, like even a day out in a city one already lives in.
Here are some basic questions: So there are tips and restaurant/ lodging reviews. Are their plans to aggregate these and make them sellable/usable in any which way outside of the blogging engine? Same problem with the tips section, because for a user, that could be anything, but from a marketing perspective, that could be a data goldmine. Further, are we sure that everyone has a computer and camera with them on a trip, especially long haul trips as per the ones on the front page, because then we need some serious substitutes. Will the user experience hold up to those substitutes, especially in far away places where the Internet is not so good, and power availability is not so good either (Think, the middle of Africa, or going to the Galapagos) And if not, will this satisfy the scrapbooker market enough (being an online scrapbook of sorts which is fyi, a huge way of making money in its paper form) Are people willing to come back afterward without nudging to make a trip scrapbook? How much personalization do people want for this trip? Is The person who went on a Fashion Bonanza in Paris wanting the same scrapbook as the person who did volunteering in Cuba? Is this a way to make money for you long term, to personalize the scrapbook to make it fit what you did as opposed to leaving it sort of generic?
Speaking of the Scrapbook questions (because I think it is the toughest for you) Because you have this API that surrounds activities, not just writing, and at least the word EverLater doesn’t immediately connote “I am going on this trip,” do you believe that this is in some way is a transformative product on the web because it is scrapbook-like? How much are you a scrapbook, and how much are you a travelblogging service, and which direction do you think will provide customers who use the product the best experience? How much of Everlater is this something where I am planting my location on a map and telling you about it versus telling you about it which happens to involve planting locations on a map, and it could involve a whole host of other ways of telling. What made you choose this way of engaging people in this type of story, or any story at all?
I also wonder, because this is such an engaging product from the consumer end, (Surprisingly so, despite the annoyance of having to upload and write multiple times, an issue that will need to be resolved somehow), where is the end-goal when it comes to cash, because right now you are reliant on others services, a dangerous position to be in. If it is someone already on a trip, is it to direct them? What if the trip already past? Then what? What if it is not long term to be just a travelblogging service? As they say where I’m from, where’s the chap? (the ch is a gutteral) Narrow down the dream and the money, because there is a really rich service and experience that makes you want to coo but that doesn’t equal cash nor user engagement. Sometimes, simplicity is where it is at.
We’ll have another round later, K’
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