Disruptive Conversations

Do you want to understand the future of television? of online video? of the future of creating video content? Actor Kevin Spacey really nails it in this speech at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

If you have 45 minutes, the entire speech can be found on YouTube:
 

Some of the key points I enjoyed were around the 39-minute mark, but the whole piece is a brilliant look at where online video and television is at right now.

If you only have a few minutes, someone at the Telegraph in the UK made a 5-minute edited version that hits many of Spacey's key points:

It truly is a great analysis of where we are today... and where the opportunities are...

I loved, too, that Spacey said something very close to what I wrote here back in January 2012 about the key to reducing piracy: give the people the content they want in the channel they want at a reasonable cost. It really is that simple.

I do hope that people in leadership positions within the media industry will watch / listen to this speech... if they want their businesses to survive and thrive in our new world, I believe many of the keys can be found here in this talk.

What do you think? Do you agree with Kevin Spacey?

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If you are fan of WordPress... if you use WordPress or maintain a WordPress site... and haven't yet watched Matt Mullenweg's "State of the Word 2013" talk from WordCamp San Francisco in July, I'd strongly encourage you to sit down for a bit and watch:

It's a great view into where the WordPress ecosystem is today - and where it is going in the future. Incredible stats, such as 46 million downloads in just the past 12 months! 336 new themes added in the past 12 months. 6,758 plugins added in the last year... and so much more.

A huge number is that 18.9% of web sites on the Internet now run WordPress!

Intriguing info about WordPress as an app platform... and where it is all going...

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Working in a home office, I've found that I enjoy having Spotify on in the background playing a much larger range of music than what I have in my own collection. I have found the "Discover" tab to be quite a useful way to learn of newer bands that I have never heard of before. I did have to laugh yesterday, though, when I encountered this box in the Discover tab:

Yes, indeed, as any child of the '80s can attest, both of those were quite popular... I remember a summer around 1985 when it seemed like every radio station (remember them?) had "Money For Nothing" on near-constant repeat.

Similarly, Spotify noted that songs were "huge when you were a teenager", such as:

And I do remember, and still play, that Billy Joel song, although I'll admit that I don't really remember that Eddie Murphy song at all.

Regardless, it's definitely a clever and fun way that Spotify is using my age data to help highlight songs that I might want to listen to again.

If you have been using Spotify's Discover tab, have you rediscovered some old songs this way?

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