07 September 2008

Posted at 18:21h in apple, dr horrible, ipod, karl pilkington, podcast, radiohead, ricky gervais, social media, steve merchant by

Just like the Apple iPod launched the MP3 market, The Ricky Gervais Show launched the podcast market and later the audio book market.For anyone who hasn't listened, it is well worth the $50 or so for hours and hours of entertainment. Originally launched as a free podcast, they have since commercialised it at a very cheap price and made millions from it. It turned from podcast to audio book and established two whole new markets along the way. "Podcast" became Word of the Year in 2005 and people are now starting to realise the potential behind audio books...

23 July 2008

Posted at 22:47h in dr horrible, facebook, itunes, joss whedon, sing-along blog, television by

If you haven't seen Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, it's too late. And that's the reason you will buy it from iTunes or on DVD. During the Writer's Guild of America Strike, writer and director Joss Whedon developed this mini series. It was to be low budget and circumvent the issues of the strike but professionally done. Three weeks ago the first fifteen minutes were uploaded. A week later the next fifteen and last week the concluding fifteen were aired. It was free to view with no advertising or sponsorship on the website what so ever. On Sunday night it was taken down where it is now exclusively on iTunes (for a price) and soon to be on DVD. The buzz it generated was amazing. There are no statistics on the website hits, but the Facebook fan page has more than 43,000 fans. And in under a month, that is more than remarkable. I know I'll be buying it on DVD (apparently the Audio Commentary will be a musical in itself). You should too. Much like the music industry and soon to be the publishing industry, the middle man was cut out. And while they haven't made a cent yet, I expect the profits will be high. Is this the future of television?...