For this year’s Coachella Music Festival – a holiday of sorts for Los-Angelenos in the music industry – I chose to forgo the long lines, blistering heat and nutty ravers to spend a weekend of leisure in the desert area. And of course hit some pool parties along the way.

I think the decision to sit this years’ fest out was a blessing in disguise. I encountered many up-and-comers at these little parties – too small to hit the festival circuit, but absolutely rockin’ nonetheless.

When I returned to LA a couple of DJ friends at KCRW asked if I had managed to see any good acts. Nosaj Thing immediately came to mind. His glitchy, dub-step, sampled electro groove had the Imeem/Indieoasis party rockin’ and I was transfixed.

It was truly amazing to watch someone so young and forward thinking totally kill it. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

The album dropped Tuesday on Alpha Pup Records.

Emusic

Amazon

Twitter

Nosaj Thing on Imeem

Nosajthing.com

MySpace

Note: This article is syndicated at made this for you.

After spending time with Boxee, I decided it was time to explore alternate options for streaming online video to my TV. The back-and-forth between Boxee and Hulu had started to get a little nuts – and ideally I’d like one place to go for all my content without worrying about it unexpectedly going away. In a perfect world, all content owners would offer an RSS feed for me to ingest content wherever I’d like it to go. If the bulk of the advertising lives within the video playback itself, video can freely travel – and the container itself shouldn’t make a big difference.

Cue Miro.

While trolling my Google reader late one night (as nerds like us are wont to do), I discovered the free, open source HD video player that quickly and easily serves up video streams. You can stream videos from sites like YouTube, Comedy Central, CBS, or Hulu (for now); and Miro will upscale to HD wherever it’s offered. The app offers full playback of content from within my media library too; making it a great one-stop for video playback. Very cool. Miro’s real strength though, appears to lie in the ability to host and organize multiple video feeds from a variety of sources.

The simple layout and navigation process resembles iTunes. A sidebar located on the left allows easy navigation of your content whether it be online or local. You can subscribe to RSS feeds and set them to automatically download new episodes as they become available- just like subscribing to a podcast in iTunes. You can even subscribe to a torrent, allowing you to keep all of your vids in one place (I chose a “Miro” directory under “Movies” to keep it clean).  After Miro grabs your new episodes, you can easily port them to your device of choice.

The open-source nature of the program means that you can participate in the continual build to improve it. The website offers information for those who would like to write code, become a bug tester, or simply help others get started.

Miro 2.0 is currently free for Mac OSX and created by the non-profit Participatory Culture Foundation. It’s open source and licensed under the GPL (general public license), with the goal to decentralize online video by making it free and open.

Get it: http://www.getmiro.com

Read the blog: http://www.getmiro.com/blog

My little sister was at the Simpsons studios in Burbank last November as the animators were working on this. I was invited but attended a friend’s birthday dinner in Silverlake instead – because I love her THAT much. Anyways check the final result:

Boxee is an open source media center that allows you to enjoy your movies, tv shows, music and photos in one place and pull more streaming content from the web. You can recommend items to friends – and see what your friends have recently watched or what they recommend.

I installed Boxee on my Macbook Pro running Leopard OSX 10.5.6.  Boxee automatically discovered the music, movies, tv shows, and pictures on my hard drive, allowing me to navigate by format of choice.

One of the great simple features about Boxee is that I have the option to go online within each category seamlessly. For example, under “movies” I can access my Netflix account and stream movies from my instant queue. Under “music” I can log in to my Last.fm account and stream a station. Also cool is the ability to discover content from CNN, CBS, Comedy Central, Hulu, etc under “television”.

I can set up RSS feeds to add niche-specific shows that I prefer. This is where it gets interesting.  Should I feed in a TED video podcast? How about CNN breaking news clips – or a torrent of Gossip Girl?

Extremely intuitive, sleek design. Awesome. Now how do I get this from my mac to my television?

For picture I connected my laptop to a Samsung 36″ HDTV using a DVI-D to HDMI adapter. For audio I used a basic Y Cable running from the laptop’s digital output to  Onyko 5.1 Surround. Still looks sleek. In settings I can check real-time details to monitor how close I’m getting to 60 Hz.

Pretty cool. Now how can I control Boxee remotely to make the experience akin to watching television?

I discovered that the Boxee remote app is due any day. In the meantime, found an app called AirMote and installed it on my iTouch running 2.2 software.

All of this sounds fine and dandy. But, how does Boxee handle streaming?  I can have access to all the content in the world but if the streaming quality is bad – buffering does not a good movie watching experience make.

Speakeasy.net tells me that I’m clocking in at a 1.5MB pull. Not bad. I watched a few trailers from the apple site and it looked great. I then went to Hulu to catch the latest episode of 30 Rock. Halfway through I almost forgot that I was watching over the internet. The stream was crisp and there was no buffering at all. The quality was about the same as watching television but higher bandwidth paired with more HD offerings could easily solve that. Streaming a movie from my Netflix instant-queue was different. It didn’t buffer but the video occasionally dropped a few frames.

I skated over to the music category and streamed music from my library then visited Last.fm. Would love to pull in music from other sources such as Pandora or Slacker, too.

Boxee allows me to friend other users and see what they’re watching. I can recommend programs to my friends and view items recommended to me on the Boxee homepage. At friendfeed, Twitter, and Tumblr I can share my recommendations, what I’m watching, and what I’m listening to.

I like having all of my digital media in one place. It’s fun albeit a little strange to lifestream what I’m watching.  However I can’t multi-task and surf around on my computer while I watch. Time to save up for a Mac Mini! Then I can network all of my media somehow…. Which makes me wonder how I would go about backing it all up…ahh there’s always something.

Anyway, 2 thumbs up for Boxee.

note: thanks to Andy Sternberg for the Alpha version invite.

The beta of Sling.com’s video site is pretty awesome. And smart.

After streaming a full clip or episode, the viewer is given the ability to leave a comment, purchase the full episode, or buy the entire season. You can also create a subscription feed that provides updates on your friends’ activity along with the shows you’ve subscribed to.

The site currently imports content from Hulu (which doesn’t allow for commenting or purchasing just yet).

The networks are smart because they know that in this day and age users will always find a way to get copyrighted content for free.

They figured that they may as well direct eyeballs back to their site, or an affiliates,  to allow free streaming while generating dough from ad-based revenue.

Perhaps just as important as ad-based revenue is connecting directly with viewers on a one-to-one basis. The viewer has the ability to engage with the brand by leaving comments, tagging items, sharing clips with friends, and providing feedback on what they watch.

Users can create profiles allowing basic data to be pulled by the site admin such as age, gender, and location.

NBC and ABC already offer up  full streaming episodes on their sites as does Comedy Central and The CW – and more have come aboard.

Music labels are coming into the fold too although there doesn’t seem to be a site that aggregates music in the same way that Hulu, Sling, or Fancast does for video. Perhaps Imeem?

Indie label Team Love recently launched a music library allowing the perusal/streaming of music from their label and even offering free downloads with no stipulations.

For a content creator, the ability to connect directly with fans is a big deal. There’s a strong possibility that they’ll stick around to purchase, share, participate, or simply watch more to connect with what you have to offer.

Viewers are also directed to your site to discover free content – rather than hitting up P2P, YouTube, or bit torrents for the goods.

Which is always a good thing.

5 years ago when I was in grad school, my media theory professor proclaimed that “years from now you’re going to remember me as the old lady yakking on about something called convergence”. I was intrigued. Then and there I decided to work this into my career somehow. Although I wasn’t quite sure how as this very process of convergence – the merging of television, internet, and radio – was and still is unfolding before our eyes.

This merging of mediums distinctly affects how we receive media from both a technological standpoint and an experiential one. Given the growing advantage of communicating easily and directly between viewers via mobile technology and the internet, the experience is no longer passive.

The other afternoon as I waited in line to pick up dry cleaning (mine, not someone else’s thankyouverymuch) I caught a few scenes of an old episode of Married with Children. The show seemed so dated and not just because of Marcy D’arcy’s wacky hairdos. The script plodded along and lacked the jumpy camera shots, asides, and irreverent dialogue that we’ve come to expect from reality shows and newer sitcoms like 30 Rock and Arrested Development that seamlessly weave multiple characters, story-lines and alternate visual scenes.

Narrative has evolved past traditional mis-en-scene on a studio set with scripted dialogue. With the advancement of technology it allows not only backchannel conversation about a show but also sets a stage for supplemental original content and conversation (there are also tremendous marketing opportunities here of which I’ll touch upon in another post).

The second season of AMC’S Mad Men that just wrapped a few weeks ago incorporated the micro-blogging tool Twitter to further the viewing experience by allowing a viewer – or simply the curious – to engage in direct dialogue with each of the main characters. Twitter updates from the so-called characters (called “brand-ambassadors”) provide bonuses like tiny updates throughout the day like what the character may be doing on a given day and what his or her thoughts are on relationships with the other characters. You can even send direct messages to your favorite character and receive a message back.

This season I followed Don Draper, Betty Draper, Peggy Olson, Roger Sterling, and Ken Cosgrove. One evening I fell asleep watching an episode and awoke to notice that Betty Draper was following me on Twitter. If that’s not spooky enough, I Twittered about the experience and almost immediately received a response from Betty: “I hoped it’d be a nice surprise, I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m sorry.”

In Australia a show called OZ Girl is slated to launch January 12th, becoming Australia’s “first social web show”. The show streams online only and encourages fans to participate by interacting directly with the main character on Facebook, Twitter, and email.

By paving the way for this non-linear narrative between television and the internet, a stronger bond is created between the viewer and the brand.

The viewer becomes an empowered fan with the ability to learn more about the characters identity, participate in dialog surrounding last night’s episode on chat rooms, buy music heard on the show, leave comments, stream b-rolls or supplementary content, and share media with friends.

For the content creator this provides almost instantaneous feedback. It also allows direct marketing opportunities, more of which I’ll touch on in a later post. As a viewer, the show becomes increasingly integrated into my lifestyle. I can watch and participate how, when, and where I want to – and this seems to be where we’re headed.

Taking in the presidential election results on Tuesday happened in different places in various ways.  Beginning at 4pm at work we tuned the TV to CNN.  NPR was on the radio. and I had npr.org and the NY Times both open on my computer.

Later on I went home to twitter the unfolding results for KCRW, the Santa Monica-based radio station where I work.  I felt particularly anxious – preferring to avoid the parties and mayhem on the streets of LA to enjoy and reflect upon on the outcome at home. But I didn’t feel alone, and I wasn’t.

I twittered as the results came in and people responded with comments like “Ooh. I like this show. One of my faves. Thanks.” and “Spanky, Spanky, Spanky, Ms Dole. Naughty campaign.”  Twitter allowed for real-time conversation fostered among strangers and among friends.  On Facebook, friends’ status messages lit up with their reactions and observations. My cell phone rang with calls from friends and family from Ohio and Los Angeles. It bleeped with incoming text messages from Paris, Boston, San Fran, and  Columbus, OH. I excitedly chatted with friends on IM.

CNN’s live video feed was broadcasting in one window and Twitter’s election page was running in another. The NYTimes election module, San Fran Chronicle, and Current TV’s election coverage were open in other tabs. NPR was blasting through the apartment (and a few of my neighbors). When the final results were announced, people were dancing, shouting and hollering with joy in the streets on the sleepy block in the beach town of Santa Monica where I live.

I think back to how this relates to the last election.  Sites like Twitter, FB, and Current TV were still babies – if they had even been born yet. The technology required to build nimble news modules was not nearly as evolved.

The ability to communicate with others with lightning speed and accuracy was nothing like it is now. The very way we communicate with one another has totally evolved. As Seth Godin recently said, “The transformation of communication is real, it’s permanent and it’s more powerful than most of us notice”.

The last administration was a secretive club that could easily manipulate voters perceptions.  We’re entering a new era where we’re constantly being informed and always plugged-in, whether we like it or not.

The internet has finally become a forum for public discourse. I can quickly and easily express who I am voting for and why. I’m not going to try to convince you to do anything – just give you reasons why I think the way I do. And because we think in a similar way, maybe you’ll be open to what I say compared to, oh I don’t know, Fox News. When election time rolls around, being from Ohio becomes especially important to me. I grew up knowing lots of people (including myself at one point) who can be easily swayed by what they hear in their sheltered communities at church or around the dinner table. It’s a self-perpetuating  mechanism with no incoming feed from the outside world.

Not anymore.

I like the clean interface. It’s easy to use and not too flashy (I guess we’ll see how long that lasts).

Check it out