The Circle of Life -- Apple to Kill Off Music Site Lala -- Only to Be Reborn as iTunes in the Cloud?

Lala -- the online music service acquired by Apple about 6 months ago -- just announced that it will be shuttering its service as of May 31st (and, as of today, it is no longer accepting new users). But, is this the end, or simply the beginning of something greater? Is Lala simply being killed off to be born again in the body of Apple's long-rumored iTunes in the Cloud subscription service?

As my Magic 8-Ball says, "Signs Point to Yes."

First, Apple doesn't acquire companies that much. And, it certainly doesn't buy companies only to shut them down 6 months later (it isn't Yahoo! after all!). Second, as popular as iTunes is, it is in need of a sexy new announcement. Third, despite Apple's and Steve Jobs' continuous protestations for years that consumers only want to download music and own it, Lala's service redefined ownership in a very un-Steve Jobs-like manner. Rather than iTunes' $.99 per download model, Lala customers could "buy" tracks for $.10 and can stream them from the Cloud -- but they couldn't download them. And, fourth, iTunes could greatly expand its footprint by enabling its customers to access their music anywhere via their browsers and simply logging in (which is what all music subscription services -- like Rhapsody, Pandora, Slacker -- have long enabled).

Here's another clue -- a big one. Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is scheduled for June 7 ... a few days after Lala is completely shuttered. I am now of the belief (I wasn't before) that there are no such things as mere coincidences. Especially in connection with Developers Conferences. Companies like to make grand announcements at these events. And, an iTunes in the Cloud service would be one fine sexy announcement.

So, expect it.

Like the great Phoenix, Apple's iTunes in the Cloud service -- in one form or another (check out the possibilities by linking to my former post on the subject here) -- will rise from Lala's ashes in its continued quest to rule the online music universe.

Time to watch "The Lion King Again" ... and listen to Elton John's songs ...

NEVER Get on Jon Stewart's Hit List -- Apple, Are You Listening?

I recently wrote about the "Great Apple iPhone 4G Controversy" that has the entire tech community abuzz.

Well, Jon Stewart also has it on his radar screen. And, as always, he offers his scathing and incredibly effective "take" on it -- and, Apple is directly in the line of site this time (something that is unusual for Stewart, since his "core" audience is the Apple faithful).

Here it is from last night's The Daily Show -- Apple, not good to be on Stewart's hit list. Just ask Jim Cramer ...

And, Steve -- don't fall into his trap of going on his show to try to explain yourself. That never ever works. Again, just ask Jim Cramer ...

Apple v. Gizmodo -- The Raid on the Reporter's Home MUST Be a Coincidence!

Last week, the entire tech world -- at least it certainly seemed that way -- was abuzz about the unprecedented leak of the next-generation iPhone 4G ("an Apple employee walks into a bar with a camouflaged iPhone ...). Leading tech blog Gizmodo broke the news and unprecedented numbers flocked to its site.

Now, in a shocking development (really shocking in my view), it has been reported that a special California task force known as "REACT" flocked to the Gizmodo reporter's home on Friday night, raided it, and carted off several computers. That's quite a REACTion to a reporter's factual reporting of property that everyone concedes was inadvertently left at a bar in full public view.

What diligence! What motivation! Glad to see this special REACT task force acting independently to pursue property in a public bar (raiding the reporter's home when he was not at home no less)!

Oh, wait a second. What was that? Apple itself is on the Steering Committee of REACT?

Ahh, that's just a coincidence ...

Apple is not THAT powerful ...

Our Award-Winning Partnership With Amazon Made In the Cloud (Even if Not Quite in Heaven)

My company's OVP (online video platform) service, Sorenson 360, hooks into Amazon's Cloudfront as its default content delivery network (CDN) on the back-end. And, I am pleased to report that Cloudfront has been named one of Streaming Media's Top 10 "Editor's Picks" of 2010. That means that enterprises get the best of both worlds when they pick Sorenson Media's award-winning video solutions (which include our OVP/video delivery network (VDN) service) -- Streaming Media's "Readers' Choice" award for 3 years running (Sorenson Media) and Streaming Media's "Editor's Pick" (Amazon Cloudfront) -- a partnership that may not quite be made in heaven, but certainly is made in the cloud!

We will be showcasing our best in class video solutions, together with Amazon and Adobe, at the upcoming Streaming Media East show. Get more information about our free training classes with these partners by clicking this link.

Not Your Father's Hulu -- Moves to Subscription Model (and That's a Good Thing)

Online video site Hulu -- directly in the cross-hairs of the Internet TV v IPTV battle royale -- is extending into the experimental world of paid subscriptions. Although its "free" Internet TV model (not really free, but ad supported) generated $100 million plus in Q4 2009, that's not nearly enough to compensate for viewers gravitating away from lost television revenues. So, to expand its business model, Hulu will dive smack into paid subscriptions in addition to its ad supported model, offering expanded content offerings for $9.95 per month.

And, that's a good thing.

Why? Because Hulu, of late, has been CONtracting its content offerings rather than expanding them as a result of pressure from the major cable companies and telcos (one of which, Comcast, has a significant ownership stake in Hulu itself) -- and that would be the kiss of death. You can't be a successful content destination site without ... well... content! So, giving consumers more of what they want -- rather than less -- is the right thing to do. More really IS more. And, content is monetizable -- just because it is freely available on the Internet via an Internet TV model does not mean that it is really free (for example, with Hulu, you ARE paying for it when you watch it, because you are seeing ads). Content owners will be able to monetize it via ads, paid downloads, and subscriptions. No one has cracked the code yet on how best to do it (or what combination works best), but it will be done out of necessity.

So, Hulu is doing the right thing by trying to find that winning combination -- by experimenting with paid subscriptions -- so that it can build its content offerings (rather than dismantle them, as it has had to do of late). So, for all of you whiners out there who are bemoaning Hulu's new move, get over it! Premium content owners DO need to get paid -- yes, Virginia, there really is no free lunch.

(But, even though Hulu's new initiative makes sense, it does not mean that its initial subscription "package" is sufficiently compelling. Take Netflix for example. It is offering unlimited online viewing of its entire catalog for $8.99 per month.

Go Daddy Chooses Sorenson's Enterprise Solutions

Yet another significant enterprise win for Sorenson Media -- this time, Go Daddy.

Here's the full press release announcing the partnership --

Go Daddy Chooses High-Quality Browser-based Encoding Solution from Sorenson Media to Power Quick Blogcast for Mac Users

Monday, April 19, 2010

World's Leading Domain, Web Site Hosting and SSL Certificate Company Joins a Growing Number of Enterprise Customers Employing Sorenson Media's High-Quality Internet Video Solutions

Premium Go Daddy Blogging Service Enables Go Daddy Customers to Create, Manage and Publish Video Content Such as Podcasts and Vlogs (Video Blogs) on Blog Sites Across the Web

SAN DIEGO (April 19, 2010)-Sorenson Media today announced that Go Daddy has chosen Sorenson Media video solutions to power its Quick Blogcast Web blogging platform for Mac users. Using Sorenson Squish, Sorenson Media's proprietary browser-based encoding solution, Go Daddy Quick Blogcast customers can quickly and easily create, manage and publish video content, including podcasts and vlogs, for use on blog sites across the Web.

"Go Daddy is dedicated to keeping our services simple for our customers," said Go Daddy vice president, Site Building Service, Wayne Oleksak. "Our partnership with Sorenson Media enables Mac-based bloggers to quickly and easily upload high-quality video content for their blogs."

With Sorenson Squish, all encoding is done directly on the user's desktop, making the video immediately ready for use in a Web environment and without the need for opening a separate application. The resulting smaller compressed file reduces bandwidth requirements and shortens upload time. The company's best-in-class encoding technology ensures the highest-quality video content, while eliminating the need for encoding expertise and expensive, server-side infrastructure. Users can also easily capture and publish video content directly from their Webcam, DV cam or simply drag and drop a video file.

Go Daddy is one of a growing number of enterprise customers that have chosen Sorenson Media's total video solutions to power their Internet video activities. The company has recently announced significant contracts with major universities throughout the world, as well as the John McCain 2010 re-election campaign.

"Our total end-to-end video solutions and APIs are tailor-made for the enterprise market," said Kirk Punches, vice president of business development for Sorenson Media. "Our new partnership with Go Daddy underscores the reality that no one else empowers users with the same combination of quality, flexibility, control, intuitive functionality and cost-effectiveness that we offer."

Coachella 2010 MUSE-ings -- My Top 10 Set List

I am pleased to say that I survived Coachella 2010! Three full days of amazing music out in the 90 degree heat of the desert sun amongst 100,000 of my closest friends. Okay, not quite 3 full days (my body was starting to give out last night -- on day 3 -- at about 7 pm); but, last year I only made it two full days.

And, the winner of the most incredible -- and surprising -- best show? MUSE. My expectations were low -- am not really a Muse fan. But, the bombast and bravado worked tremendously on the main stage -- amid the mountains -- on Saturday night. As I tweeted after their set, the torch has now been passed from U2 -- to Coldplay -- to Muse as the champions of arena rock. In fact, speaking of champions (as in "We are the Champions, My Friends"), Muse reminds me a lot like Queen. Incredibly dramatic ... and that's a good thing. The band's multi-media show during the set powered their music -- taking it to new heights -- rather then overpower it. Fantastic.

Too many highlights to list them all, so instead, I'll just give you my Top 10 favorite sets -- starting at #10.

#10 -- Them Crooked Vultures (David Grohl was on fire)

#9 -- Vampire Weekend (3rd time seeing them; expectations were too high)

#8 -- Yeasayer (the more I listen to them, the more I like them)

#7 -- Deer Tick (wacky lead singer; great music)

#6 -- the XX (one of the hottest bands around right now)

#5 -- Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (a cross between the Grateful Dead and a cult)

#4 -- deadmau5 (the evil mouse head during the late night set was classic)

#3 -- Devo (yes, Devo -- vintage, classic -- great; brought me back to 1984)

#2 -- the Avett Brothers (great music, and surprisingly powerful live show)

#1 -- Muse (the new kings of arena rock)

Coachella Music Festival Begins Today -- My Picks

The annual 3-day Coachella Music Festival begins today in SoCal -- in the desert in 90+% heat! Great bands as always. Here are my picks:

DAY 1 (TODAY) -- Vampire Weekend, Them Crooked Vultures, Echo and the Bunnymen, She & Him, the Avett Brothers, Deer Tick, Yeasayer, Ra Ra Riot, LCD Soundsystem, and Jets Overhead.

DAY 2 -- Muse, MGMT, Faith No More, the XX, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Band of Skulls, White Rabbits, and of course, Devo.

DAY 3 (if still standing) -- Thom Yorke, Gorillaz, Little Boots, Gary Numan (yes, that Gary Numan), Miike Snow, Julian Casablancas, MUTEMATH, One EskimO, and Orbital.

3 full days -- a marathon of music amid the mingling masses -- can we handle it? Absolutely!

Video Chat Coming to iPhone -- I Told You So!

TechCrunch recently reported that it is highly likely that Apple soon will bring two-way video chat to the iPhone.

In the "I told you so" department -- forgive me, but I can't help myself -- I wrote about this inevitable eventuality in December 2006!

Okay, so it is taking a bit longer than I had anticipated at the time. But, does anyone anymore doubt the potential power of both two-way mobile video chat and one-way "see what I'm seeing"?

A Remarkable Blog Post By a Tech Titan

The Apple v. Adobe steel caged death match over Flash has dominated tech news in the past week -- with Apple laying down the gauntlet by essentially banning developers to port Flash applications to the iPhone and iPad.

In a remarkable response to Apple's shot across the bow -- which received considerable press -- Adobe's Platform Evangelist Lee Brimelow challenged all developers not to become "pawns in [Apple's] crusade against Adobe. As if that were not sufficiently clear, Brimelow continued: "Any real developer would not in good conscience be able to support [Apple's move]."

And, if that weren't sufficiently clear, how about this? He concluded his blog post with this subtle nugget -- "Go screw yourself Apple."

Wait a second? What was that? No you didn't! ... Yes, he did!

Now, THAT is a remarkable public statement from a top executive at Adobe, or any tech giant, or any other public or private company for that matter. Yes, Brimelow wrote this in his own unofficial blog -- i.e., not officially sanctioned Adobe blog -- but you gotta think that he cleared it with Adobe's top brass before he posted it (or at least soon thereafter). The post itself indicates that he removed a sentence from his post "at request from Adobe" -- meaning that Adobe apparently has not requested that he take the rest of it down! And, the blog is called "TheFlashBlog" for god's sake!

(One more thing that is really wacky here -- when you click Brimelow's bio on his blog, you get a strange drawing of someone doing arm curls with the following quote -- "My resolution is to get healthier while still destroying myself with alcohol and drugs." Huh, come again? It is getting wackier and wackier!)

Brimelow's (and hence, Adobe's) move is a bold one, for sure. But a smart one?

One thing is for certain -- Apple's body-blow is not winning it any friends right now in the developer community. But, does Apple really care? Apple's transgressions almost always seem to be forgotten as we all hold cool shiny products in our worshipping hands ...

Video SEO -- Why It Matters & How We Take It to the Next Level

Yesterday, on Day 1 of the NAB conference, we announced a major partnership with leading search engine optimization company SEO.com.

Sorenson Media VP Marketing & Strategy, Eric Quanstrom, explains the importance of video SEO (search engine optimization) to getting your videos seen -- and, how Sorenson Media takes video SEO tools and success to the next level with SEO.com.

Online video content provides significant, inherent advantages for organizations looking to achieve leadership on the Internet. Yet, online searches often yield exponentially less searchable video than text content. For example, an April 6, 2010 examination of Google Trends shows the top 10 Hot Topic searches generated more than 858 million text results, but only 158,101 video results—a ratio of 5,348-to-1. This relative lack of video competition within Google search results is balanced with the growing importance of blended or universal search, where Google presents video results alongside all other search results. In addition, there is strong and growing demand for video content and its generally-recognized strong emotional connection with viewers.

The Sorenson 360 online video platform already provides users automated methods for optimizing their video content for search engines, with the ability to add targeted metadata such as titles, descriptions, tags and keywords. Now, we significantly augment those SEO capabilities by uniquely adding the SEO.com team and its expertise to our overall Sorenson 360 platform. Our customers can now contact a member of the Sorenson Media sales team to get started and get connected to these newly expanded services. Company team members will help refine focus and objectives.

This partnership with SEO.com is the first of its kind between two best-of-breed companies. And, it will provide tremendous advantages for customers of both Sorenson Media and SEO.com and have a powerful impact in every market segment, from enterprise to small business. It also is yet another indication that we are absolutely committed to empowering our Sorenson 360 customers with the best solutions for creating and delivering high-quality video content online, and helping ensure that the content they create reaches its intended audience. We want them to be on page one, not buried on page 50.

Sorenson Media & SEO.com NAB Partnership to Offer Highest Quality, Better Relevance & Searchability to Online Video

The news keeps rolling in ... lots of exciting stuff to report last week, and more this week.

Today is day 1 of the NAB Conference in Vegas -- National Association of Broadcasters. We will be there all week -- meet us at pod in the South Upper Hall of the Convention Center (Booth # SU9506P).

And, to kick off NAB, we -- together with leading search engine optimization firm SEO.com -- are announcing a partnership to offer each other's industry-leading services to our respective customers. Now, Sorenson Media 360 users not only have the ability to optimize their videos within their CMS (content management system), they also have the opportunity to work closely with SEO.com to enhance the relevance and searchability of their videos. SEO.com users, on the other hand, now will benefit from Sorenson Media's online video expertise and solutions (including its Sorenson 360 online video platform and other customized enterprise solutions).

This is a big deal. While other OVPs may offer some flavor of SEO support, only Sorenson Media and Sorenson 360 now offer their customers an integrated approach to higher quality, relevance and searchability to their online video. And, as discussed in the press release -- click here -- SEO is imperative to maximize the effectiveness of your video investment and optimize monetization of your overall business.

iPad -- While Other OVP's May "Support" It, Sorenson Media Alone Optimizes Video For It

Ahh, the iPad -- a plethora of OVP press releases of late vow to "support" it.

But, in a first and only amongst OVPs, Sorenson Media not only supports video playback on the iPad, we uniquely optimize video playback on the iPad to deliver our hallmark highest quality video. This is a substantial difference that is explained more in our just-issued press release (click here to see the full release).

We are committed to continue to be at the forefront of innovation and differentiate ourselves from all other OVPs by delivering the highest quality video on any device and with the highest quality overall customer experience. Expect to hear more about this very soon.

(Separately, and no surprise to me at all, my wife cast me aside when I returned home tonight with an iPad in my hands -- after spying the prize, she gave me a cursory hug, grabbed it out of my hands, and continues to be happily watching a movie on it while I write this post -- and is in the camp of believing that the iPad is absolutely a game-changer).

NewTeeVee Story Clarified

Earlier today, Ryan Lawler wrote a story in NewTeeVee about one of Sorenson Media's shareholders -- a family Trust of the late James Sorenson, Sr. -- exploring alternatives as a result of a long-planned Trust-mandated future transfer of essentially all its assets (including the Trust's shares in Sorenson Media) to a charitable foundation (specifically, the Sorenson Legacy Foundation). The article correctly pointed out that the Trust's exploration was driven solely by potential adverse tax consequences resulting from a for-profit holding (Sorenson Media) being transferred to a non-profit charitable foundation.

In general, the article is factually correct. However, it is worth underscoring:

(1) the Trust's exploration of alternatives, including the sale of its share holdings, is driven solely by the its legal obligation to transfer its shares to a non-profit charitable foundation (and the potential adverse tax consequences resulting therefrom);

(2) this transfer of assets from the Trust of James Sorenson, Sr. to the Sorenson Legacy Foundation was planned and public since the establishment of the charitable foundation long ago;

(3) it is the Trust alone (a shareholder) -- and not Sorenson Media (the company itself) -- that is exploring such alternatives;

(4) Sorenson Media has a long history of profitability; has a very healthy balance sheet; is in no need of cash; and is not looking for new funding;

(5) Sorenson Media just finished its second consecutive quarter of 40% or more revenue growth, with significant growth across all product lines -- including its Sorenson 360 online video platform and overall enterprise business; and

(6) this planned transfer of share-holdings is anticipated to have no impact on the company's customer relationships, partnerships, plans or overall strategy.

Sorenson Media Posts 40+% Revenue Growth for Second Consecutive Quarter

I am pleased to report that my company, Sorenson Media, has just finished its second consecutive quarter of 40+% revenue growth -- including significant growth across each and every product line: (1) our Sorenson 360 online video platform; (2) our award-winning Sorenson Squeeze encoding application; (3) our Squish & SquishNet browser-based encoding and "YouTube in a Box" UGC solutions; and (4) Sorenson Spark codec licensing.

Here is the full press release that hits the wires soon -- you are reading it here first:

Sorenson Media Finishes Q1 2010 with Its Second Consecutive Quarter of 40 Percent-Plus Revenue Growth

· Company Experiences Significant Revenue Growth Across Every Product Line

· Company’s Total Video Solutions, Including Its Sorenson 360 Online Video Platform, Make a Strong Entrance into the Enterprise Marketplace, Led by Significant Contracts from Major Universities and Other Leading Organizations

SAN DIEGO (April 6, 2010)—Sorenson Media today announced that the company has just concluded a highly successful first quarter of 2010, marked by 40 percent overall revenue growth over the same period in the previous year and new contractual and strategic relationships with some of the world’s most successful organizations. Driven by these successes, the company continued to increase its hiring in the midst of a contracting environment in response to accelerating demand for high-quality online video solutions.

Significant milestones for Sorenson Media in the quarter include:

· The second consecutive quarter of 40 percent-plus overall revenue growth.

· Significant growth across every product line, including the Sorenson 360 online video platform, the Sorenson Squeeze encoding application, the Sorenson Squish and SquishNet Web browser-based encoding application and “YouTube in a Box” solutions, and Sorenson Spark video codec licensing.

· Expansion into the enterprise marketplace with its total video solutions and Sorenson 360 online video platform.

· A bevy of major new customers and partnerships.

· Continued innovation of the company’s differentiated technology, including public release of its APIs and refinements directed to developers.

“We are very pleased with the way in which we ushered in this new decade and finished the last,” said Peter Csathy, president and CEO of Sorenson Media. “Our revenues and hiring continue to expand in response to strong demand from companies across the spectrum for the best-in-class quality, flexibility, ongoing innovation and ease of use of our total video solutions. But, while we are pleased with our Q1 accomplishments, we already have moved past that because our future plans and expectations are significantly more aggressive.”

The company entered the enterprise market with its total video solutions on the strength of major contracts with a growing number of leading universities throughout the world. Other prominent new customers and partnerships for the company in Q1 include Lenovo, Samsung and the John McCain 2010 Senate Re-Election Campaign.

The company’s continuing revenue growth – together with the fast-growing overall market opportunity for its differentiated enterprise total video solutions – have enabled the company to accelerate its hiring in all strategic areas, from engineering and software development to creative, sales and marketing. Information about job availability at Sorenson Media can be found at www.sorensonmedia.com/jobs.

The company also continued to innovate and develop its technology in Q1. Sorenson Media announced the wide release of its Sorenson 360 APIs and the launch of a new developer site in March 2010. Sorenson 360 APIs empowers developers and businesses with flexible, intuitive client-side encoding that enables them to easily integrate best-in-class quality Sorenson Media solutions into their workflow and create customized video solutions with minimal coding. The company’s award-winning Sorenson Squeeze encoding product and ubiquitous Sorenson Spark codec technology also continue to extend their influence with companies of all sizes in industries across the spectrum. For more information about Sorenson Media’s total video solutions, visit www.sorensonmedia.com/solutions/.

“Our continued progress and momentum reflect the fact that we refuse to rest on our legacy or on our demonstrable advantages in quality, reliability and usability,” said Csathy. “We are impatient – we continuously challenge ourselves to better meet the accelerating video needs for businesses and enterprises alike. Our best score card of success is our track record of ongoing revenue growth and customer satisfaction, as well as our long-term business success.”

Amazon, Adobe & Sorenson Media Team Up at Streaming Media East

Hot off the presses -- industry leaders Amazon, Adobe & Sorenson Media have teamed up to host a series of free workshops at the upcoming Streaming Media East conference May 10-12 in NYC -- titled "The Easy Way to Encode, Manage, Publish, and Deliver Online Video."

Here is the formal description of these workshops:

Publishing and Delivering Online Video can be difficult and involve several cumbersome steps to achieve results. There is an easier way! Join us during a FREE workshop hosted by Amazon Web Services, Adobe and Sorenson Media as we walk through step-by-step demonstrations that take the difficulty out of encoding, managing, publishing and delivering your online videos. This workshop will explain how to capture, encode, store, publish, transcode and deliver your video's "in the cloud". In addition to covering powerful new features of Amazon Web Services CloudFront CDN and Streaming web services, you will also learn about Sorenson Squeeze and Sorenson 360 new features as well as CloudFront and Sorenson integration capabilities with Adobe's Open Source Media Framework - (NOTE - Each attendee will receive $25.00 in Amazon Web Services usage credit via email after the event and a $50 usage voucher from Sorenson for Sorenson 360 service)

Apple's iPad -- Killer App or Killer Flop? Experts Weigh In

My second consecutive post about Saturday's iPad launch (see, this is what Apple does to us -- they get us to advertise for them!).

The question: Apple's iPad -- Killer App or Killer Flop?

Read this article from today's Los Angeles Times in which experts weigh-in -- including the founders of Twitter and Craigslist, the editor of Wired, and a venture capitalist from Sequoia.