Bill Watt’s Blog

My friends and I are always talking about web-based businesses that people are able to start, grow organically, and need little hand holding. Check out From 10 Hours a Week, $10 Million a Year in the New York Times.

Granted, the thing I find funniest in this article is how unconcerned he is with user experience. Sure, his site is doing really well and people apparently like it but it is just this kind of response that leaves the door open for someone to beat him.

Spending time at Plenty of Fish is a visually painful experience. Wherever a row of members’ photos is displayed, which is most pages, many of the faces are elongated or scrunched because Mr. Frind has not taken the trouble to write the software code that would automatically resize frames or crop photos to prevent distortion. When I asked him why he had not addressed the problem, he said it was a “trivial” issue that did not bother users.

And that my friends is the power of the free market.   His choice not to address it, his user’s choice to stay until they find a better solution, and someone else’s option to come along and dethrone him. Maybe I should have gone with, “that’s the circle of life (on the web).”

Oh boy… the networks better get with the game and bring back the writers with a reasonable offer. Tonight was the first night where I opted for YouTube over prime time and it could get easier to do so the longer TV offers no new content.

LOL… the more I read about the music industry the more I laugh. Check out this article from music2dot0 that starts with the title, “Time for Luddite & Wanton Label Chiefs to go” which is a great summary in itself.

I was reminded that in my previous post talking about the Wired Magazine article that Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music, claimed to not even know who the right technology people to hire would have been. “Uh, yeah. So what?” would have been my response. Tons of technology consultants get hired every year who only know one thing (and more yet who know nothing) but that doesn’t stop companies from trying to get the right people. To just stay out of the game for fear of not hiring the right people for the job further reinforces my desire to cut these guys no slack. Hell… they have enough money to go buy a company that is in the space and have them lead the charge.

God, I love seeing these guys get angry over their own ignorance. It won’t surprise me if later it is revealed that they in fact did hire consultants but instead of technology folks they hired MBA’s to tell them who to hate. That seems about right.

Oh man, I love digital music and hate people that want to take it away from me.

The big wigs in the music industry hate that we want control of our music and are in total denial about the market for music. Check out this article from Wired that calls out all the attitudes I hate. They are thinking in terms of their profit margins and not in terms of adapting to the current market conditions or finding new business models. I love this quote:

“It was only a couple of years ago that we said, What’s going on here?’ Really, an album that someone worked on for two years — is that worth only $9, $10, when people pay two bucks for coffee in Starbucks?” Morris sighs.

Yes, I know the music industry is angry that iTunes set the price at $.99 and think people should be forced to buy full CD’s and deal with it. But here’s the thing… they are in complete denial that the long tail exists. There is a ton of music that I’ve been buying that I wouldn’t buy if it was $14 for the full CD.

It is much the same as I wrote in my post about Cult of the Amateur and how I can’t feel any sympathy for the profit margins of of a big company. I just can’t. They need to wake up and figure out that consumers want control and technology provides the tools to make that possible.

It is just like the movie industry refusing to acknowledge that the world has changed. They should be looking at the music industry and try to get ahead of the curve. I’m not saying they need to lose money (I’m all for making money!) but they do need to get with the program. Selling a physical DVD for $15 or an online movie purchase for $15 is one thing but the fact I buy it online and get less for the same price is some crazy logic. I don’t even want the outtakes but knowing that someone else gets them for the same price drives me nuts. And if I buy the physical DVD can I rip it to my iPod? Nope… they want me to also buy the digital version.

When I worked sales it was called “porking” and no one likes it. You have to offer value if you want customers to stay customers. Instead, these guys think they own the world and we need to be thankful for what they offer. Keep in mind that it is the artists who are the artists and the rest of these folks are part of a support organization. The problem is that the times they are a-changin.

Lower development costs, digital distribution, online reviews and guides, and all kinds of other benefits are already benefiting the market. Just the fact that I can learn about music from my friends and sample before buying lowers my frequency of buyers remorse.

The other thing that cracks me up is when the music industry does try to play nice they still want “nice” defined on their own terms. The idea that I have to buy a music subscription and pay monthly is a model I won’t ever want. I do get it… I’ve liked the concept of Rhapsody and the other services and have friends who subscribe but I really like to own things and not have to go back time and again. Licensing schemes just always seem more restrictive or end up biting me in the ass in one way or another. Now- would something like that work in an office environment or a college where we want to provide a music source that people can customize and enjoy while on site? Sure! Would I want that tied to my personal music collection? No way.

Anyway, all this started because I’ve found a bunch of old music on my ipod (all legally purchased too). I’ve been especially enjoying some Linkin Park. I was thinking about the song “In the End” while writing my “goodbye eBay” email and was able to call it up on the iPod and listen to it in real time. Then I went and listened to the other songs I liked of theirs on iTunes and bought a few more that I had not previously owned. Simple and smooth and now they’re in my collection for all times.

PS- I’m still pissed at NBC for not selling the new season of 30 Rock on iTunes. Sigh. Lemon out.

Michael Vick is a disgusting human being. The people who think dog fighting is ok, a cultural thing, and that dogs are property that can be used in any way they want also fall into that camp in my book. This isn’t Rome… we have better entertainment options.

I just saw a news blurb about the beagles that were rescued from his home and were to be used as bait dogs. Bait dogs. I’m sad there is even a term for that.

A good rule of thumb is be kind to puppies.

Everyone is looking for the hot new thing and everyone else is looking over their shoulder to see who’s hot on their heels. I’m going to call this the facebook problem since that is the line that jumped out at me from this article.

Ha… I was just watching a Wired Science show with the folks from 20andme and they were discussing privacy considerations. The best line was when the interviewer likened it to Flickr, “you can see my photos and other people can’t…” and then Linda added, “or like LinkedIn.” Even genetics folks want to be web 2.0.

But back to the real topic…

Heck yeah I would have privacy concerns! You can’t even make a phone call without the current administration asking for (and getting) transcripts. How long after they figure out these genetic records are out there before they start flipping through looking for organ matches for the president? You know… just in case. They don’t believe in stem cell research but I am of the opinion that it is only a matter of time till Dick Cheney figures out there is money in black market organs and then anyone he hasn’t seen at his country club (the one that can’t be seen in Google maps for security reasons) will be fair game.

I’m just saying…

In an almost 100% different direction from the previous post, I was watching a news article tonight about a young girl who just got a new heart. The expected story was that the family was grateful for their daughter’s life and everyone was understanding Thanksgiving a bit more this year.

The real story was of a young girl who was deeply saddened by the loss of another girl her own age in a car accident that was the source of her new heart. It was touching to see the girl’s sadness for the parents of the other girl.

I caught myself thinking something like, “Don’t be silly… it isn’t your fault and at the very least only one family had to suffer that fate” but then to think how a 12 year old girl views the world made it seem not silly at all. This isn’t the original video I saw that talked about the sadness but if you watch the video from ABC then you see the other side… the kindness of the parents who lost so much and still reached out the the girl who had just been saved.

Man, I’d like to think if I were in that situation I would be as good a person.

Well, we all know that I’m not as current on other people’s behavior as I could be but it makes me sad when I see things like this collection of video clips from a documentary. The topic is “the most hated family in America” and from the short bits I’ve seen I can imagine that is an accurate summary.

I just (1) don’t understand this much hatred, (2) don’t understand how they got to the point of hating the entire US, (3) wonder what these people do for a living and (4) wonder how / where these kids will be in 10 years.

Note: Fay- if you’re reading this then the clip is not suitable for Chris to watch. Other parents the same goes for you but I only know that Fay and Chris sometimes read my blog so I wanted to call it out specifically for them.

So, I jump in the car today to get coffee and notice that my clock is wrong. Since I am clueless about such things as seasonal time changes I look at my blackberry, see nothing has changed, and then am left to wonder which is right. I should have realized that my $300 blackberry was patched specifically for this new change process but that my brand new, nearly $50k Acura MDX didn’t get the news.

I understand that old appliances and things that aren’t connected to the Internet will have problems with the time change they’re not expecting but I own a ton of stuff that is connected in one manner or other and I expect those will just change. My car is getting tons of data via GPS and bluetooth… isn’t on of those bits of data the current time? It knows where I am and can do the offset easily.

As an aside- I’m also not sure why my car’s GPS system doesn’t (A) remember the last city I searched or (B) default to all listings that match my search sorted by distance to me. I was looking for a Pete’s coffee yesterday (meeting a friend… not my choice ) and it started with a different Pete’s business that was alphabetically ranked higher but was hundreds of miles away. I know searching on a console is not exactly simple but I would love if the default sort was a setting like so many other pieces and then I could make the problem go away for me while other people could blissfully search alphabetically.

I think this is what the abundance of search options on the web has taught me… I should be able to get relevant rankings.