Ismail Dhorat » Music

Why @NMS_ZA (Nokia Music Service) Fails on twitter

Ismail Dhorat — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:24:51 +0000

So i have been tweeting about @amawheelies project for the last few days, and they just hit 100 followers and i won a voucher for Nokia music services. Now i must say i really appreciate it, and would like to say thank You.

However, out of integrity i have to call out an issue i see with the service. Upon going to the site i was faced with the message below.

Apparently the site is only supported on Windows, and the only browser supported is Microsoft Internet Explorer 6!

I am not sure who is assisting Nokia with their social media strategy, but it clearly shows a misunderstanding of twitter and the community.

Why? Well worldwide Internet explorer has the most market share, but on my site StartupAfrica the most common browser is Firefox. I also wrote a post which clearly shows that early adopters favor Firefox. The same early adopters that are on twitter!

Lesson: If you are going to play where early adopters are, make sure your website and systems cater for them.

Free Album from Nine inch nails, The future of music

Ismail Dhorat — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:47:00 +0000

Today Trent Reznor announced on the official Nine Inch Nails website that he would be giving his new album album “The Slip”, free of charge under a creative commons license.

From their web site:
“We encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc.”

Now, this is not the first move like this, prince has been selling directly to the public for years. Last year we saw radiohead offering their album on the internet and you got to choose how much you wanted to pay. Now both these moves make sense, and are very significant.

Are we we seeing the end of the record labels as we know them?

I believe so. Take a look at the costs that go into producing an album, only a small fraction of that goes to the artist.

For years the recording industry have fought technology, refusing to embrace it yet technology and the internet allows you to bring down the distribution costs and lower prices.

With the internet most of these costs are zero, therefore artists can offer them at a fraction of the normal price or even free as NIN have. The future will be the democratization of music, previously artists had to make the right contacts and hope they would be noticed and get ’signed’. Now that wont matter anymore. The time from when music is actually recorded to when it will be released will be much quicker, and here is the best part:

We get to choose who are the best artists, and which artists get played on the radio and not the record labels.

P.S Lets hope the other band that was ’subtly’ referenced in this post follows suit
P.P.S if you figured out the band, give yourself a pat on the back
P.P.P.S Posts to this blog will be a bit sporadic as i am working on another project

Akon LIVE at the F1 in Bahrain

Ismail Dhorat — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:30:00 +0000

Akon will be featured in a free concert for the first time ever in Bahrain. The Concert is part of the entertainment planned to celebrate the end of the race and the 5th year of the Bahrain F1. The event has also been added to his official web site.

“Check out Akon when he arrives in your area!!!

April 6th 2008 Bahrain, Manama (Grand Prix F1 Races)

April 11th 2008 Johanesburg, South Africa”

(http://www.akononline.com)

Venue: Opposite the Main GrandStand
Time: 7 PM!