Technology

A free Kindle? Unlikely unless you like ads

Amy Gahran over at CNN says Amazon would be smart to give away the Kindle. Here's why she's wrong.

Creativity

Ive's potential loss a bigger blow to Apple than Jobs'

So not one but two eyebrows were raised at the news that Apple’s head of industrial design, Jon Ive, might be exiting the building.

Marketing

Introduce the familiar before the unknown

Most people, even investors, are relatively risk adverse. Most of us like safety. Investors want to know that your product is not that unusual.

Marketing

Godin’s Purple Cow

I belatedly started reading Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. An easy read, he has interesting things to say about marketing in the 21st Century.

Creativity

Digital clutter: deliver quantity or quality

There’s so much information around today that there's only one option when building your lists: quality over quantity.

Business

The customer is not always right

It's time to throw out the old adage that "the customer is always right." Finding the right type of customer is much more important.

Business

Repost: pushing or redefining boundaries

Children push boundaries: it’s how they learn. Adults live within them: it keeps them safe. Geniuses redefine them: and the world changes.

Business

You're not that special, no-one is

Business, even industries, like to think they’re special. That they're immune from the laws of business. The book publishing industry is no exception.

Publishing

Territorial craziness, what the publishing industry doesn't get

Now book publishers are whining about the ease with with the Kindle’s territorial restrictions can be circumvented. Here's what they get wrong.

Principles

With our thoughts we create the world

Whining is a reverse placebo. When you get good at whining, you start noticing evidence that makes your whining more true.

Principles

Perfection is not what you think

To most people in Western society perfection means flawlessness. Free from mistakes. Zero errors. Do you know anyone who never makes mistakes?

Publishing

Will book retailers get what they truly deserve?

Our sales department received another call this week from a potential customer who couldn’t buy one of our books from the big retailers here in Australia.

Music Business

Books v. Music: retail smackdown

Will the the fate of recorded music retail befall booksellers? If history is any measure, the book biz is not likely to rebuf the digital onslaught.

Great imitations, why being second wins

David Bowie is famed for saying, it’s not who does something first, it’s who does it second. His point is that it is not the originators of ideas who usually succeed but those who follow in their footsteps.

Ubiquitous distribution is (mostly) necessary for authors

If you want to limit your distribution channels to create the kind of value Godin is talking about, you need to start early and stick to a plan.

Marketing

Do you see what I see?

An important skill for any businessperson to have is the ability to detach themselves from their work and appraise it honestly.

Technology

Are you and your customers on the same page?

Sometimes in business we create products and services aiming to fill a particular need only to discover that our customers actually value something else entirely.

Music Business

Ticketmaster whipping boy no longer

Ticketmaster has for a long time been the whipping boy that angry punters blamed for turning reasonably priced concert tickets into a pocket gouging exercise.

Publishing

Seth Godin's self-publishing independence

Seth Godin recently announced that he will eschew traditional publishing models for an independent path. The statement made quite a splash in mainstream media.

Music Business

Just how out of touch are music moguls?

Paul McGuinness, arguably one of the most astute minds working in the music industry in the past three decades, wrote a profoundly insightful article on QC UK: How to save the music industry.

Business

Lessons from the bus, about the future of entertainment & media

If you’re the CEO of a media-based business, when was the last time you took a ride on public transport? Do you really know how your customers consume their media?

Music Business

Getting old and the business of concert ticket pricing

It is little wonder the industry is in such a parlous state when a club show for an artist such as Ice Cube costs $110.

Technology

Customer service 101 is Apparent for Barcode Producer

So if you’re looking for an extremely versatile, commercial grade barcode creator check out Barcode Producer.

Technology

No iPhone 'death grip' Down Under

Initial reports upon the launch of the iPhone 4 in Australia suggest the antenna problems experienced by North American owners may be isolated.

Music Business

Scary music business album sale numbers

Paul Resnikoff discussed album sale statistics presented at New Music Seminar in New York. Scary numbers that will be paralleled in book publishing soon.