75% of Students Prefer Downloading Music To Streaming

A study by the University of Reading has found that 75% of college students prefer downloading their music to hard drives or MP3 players as opposed to streaming it using new sites such as Lala.

I have been playing around with Lala for the past few days and it is pretty cool concept.  It allows users to stream any of Lala's 7 million songs once for free, and for as many times as they would like for as little as ten cents.

When a song is "streamed" as opposed to being downloaded, the listener must be connected to the internet to play their song, and the song cannot be transferred to an MP3 player.  If a music listener mainly listens to music on an internet-connected computer and doesn't have an MP3 player, however, a service like Lala would be great way to save money on music purchases.

I'm not surprised, though that most college students prefer to download music.  It wouldn't be worth 10 cents to me to listen to a song that I can only listen to on my computer.  I listen to a significant amount of music on my computer, but I really like also having my music on my iPhone.  Plus, if a service like Lala is discontinued, a user is likely to lose all of the music that they have purchased.

The availability of songs that can be streamed for free on YouTube also makes paying for streaming music on sites like Lala less attractive.  The quality doesn't always match Lala's, and many songs on YouTube are uploaded illegally, but many songs have official, high-quality music videos uploaded by record labels or artists and that can be played an unlimited number of times for free.  I have noticed that many students ignore the video portion of music videos on YouTube and simply listen to the music while browsing another website.

Source: Yahoo Finance
Image: LaLa

Apple Uses Windows 7 Google Searches to Promote Macintosh Computers

Apple has taken out Google Adwords related to Windows 7 so that when a user of Google does a search for Windows 7-related keywords, ads are displayed encouraging the searcher to purchase an Apple computer. 

In working with novice computer users for a number of years, I have noticed that Google Ads really work because many people do not even notice that they are advertisements, but think instead that they are actual search results.  I think that this marketing is brilliant on the part of Apple and that it may persuade some people thinking of upgrading to Windows 7 to instead get a Mac.

Source & Photo

Facebook's New Homepage

Once again, Facebook has changed the look of their homepage, and just like with the previous changes that Facebook has made to its look and the way that it operates, many of its users are outraged, and just like with every other major change that Facebook has made, stories such as this are popping up on my news feed.

I've thought about why Facebook would continue to change its site so much if everybody seems to get hate every change that they make, and think I've figured out why Facebook continues to change its site.

On the Internet, there's always something new.  We used to use AOL, now we use Gmail.  We used to use Myspace, now we use Facebook.  In order for Facebook not to loose its spot as the dominant social networking website, it needs to continually be something new so its users don't flock to a different site.

Even if this upsets some of its users, it's worth it because the changes to Facebook make the site more modern and ultimately improve it.  If Facebook is essentially a new site every year, what reason do people have to move on to the next "big thing?"

What are your thoughts about this?  Why do you think that Facebook keeps changing its home page even if it upsets its users?

Review: Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals"

Last night, Cobra Starship and Girl Talk came to Dunn Meadow at IU as a part of "B-Town Bash."  I had heard of Girl Talk before in my T101 Media Life class when we were talking about "remixed media," and was excited he came to campus.  Girl Talk (Gregg Michael Gillis) is an artist who makes musical remixes of unauthorized audio samples from a variety of songs. 

Before the concert, I listened to some of his songs on YouTube and liked the music, and he put on quite a show for just being one man "preforming" with a laptop on stage.  After the concert, I decided to download his newest album, "Feed the Animals" on Amazon.com, and would give it an "A."  Remixes are not my favorite genre of music, but Gillis does a great job of making the transitions between songs seamless and making the entire album sound like one continuous piece of music.  I also really appreciate the wide variety of music he uses and his use of classic rock in addition to pop songs. 

His songs are the perfect example of the fact that all media are remixed, a fact that refers to both actual remixes such as this and the reuse of ideas from older media in newer media.

"Feed the Animals" is available from Girl Talk's label's website, illegal-art.net, for download using a "pay-what-you-want model," which can be nothing if you wish.

Photo: pitchfork.com

IU's New Twitter Directory

I Stumbled across the new twitter.iu.edu today and it felt it is blog-worthy because it emphasizes my last post.  This website gives students a clean directory for subscribing to IU-related Twitter feeds, and I discovered the @indiananews feed on it today.  I think that is a smart move on the university's part to promote the Twitter feeds related to IU.

Image: twitter.iu.edu

IU ranks among top Tweeting schools

Indiana University ranks among the top 7% of college users of Twitter, with 16 accounts and an 9,877 followers.  Just checked my Twitter page and it looks like I follow three of them.  I really like how the university tries to connect with students by staying up with current technology.

Source: IndyStar
Photo: Cartoonart

Starbucks and Microsoft Strong in Social-Media Marketing

According to a study that "linked social engagement, customer satisfaction and business success" through a companies use of Social-Media Marketing, Starbucks came out on top, with Microsoft taking fifth place.  These corporations are mastering the new art of communicating and developing a relationship with their customers through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. 

I find it interesting that this new marketing shifts away from expensive ads to promotion that is free.  It costs nothing to make a Twitter account and tweet about a new product or promotion, unlike purchasing ad-space on the Internet or on television.  It is amazing to me that people actually choose to follow the Twitter feeds of companies such as Starbucks.  Doing this is like opting to have more ads on Twitter, yet Starbucks has over a quarter of a million twitter followers!  I thought that we lived in the age of AdBlock Plus and TiVo, an age where people try to avoid advertising wherever they can. 

I would like to ask my readers if they are following any Twitter feeds that are essentially ads?  If so, why do you do this?  Any other thoughts on this phenomenon?

Source: Seattlepi