Tag: tech
How Download Cards Connect Physical Music to its Digital Future
by Ranju Chaudhary on Jun.15, 2010, under Latest Web Technologies, What's Happening?
Some songs just need to be played in a car. They require windows-down, wind-in-hair, public-dancing glory. But vinyl fans are stuck inside, sitting by a turntable, missing out on the world’s greatest driving songs. Sound quality? Sure. But what does it matter if you can’t take it with you?
“I want the vinyl for home listening on my stereo, but I want it on my iPod for on the go too,” says Seth Hubbard, Label Manager of Polyvinyl Records. Record owners were penalized by having their music trapped in one place while CD andiTunes
purchasers were free to roam.
“It made it more difficult for them to move music that was actually purchased from one place to the other, and that seemed like sort of a problem,” says Chris Jacobs, General Manager at Sub Pop Records.
A Sound Solution
Enter download cards. The foreign slips of paper and plastic started showing up all over record stores at the beginning of 2007, each scrap entitling the owner to a full MP3 download of the record they just bought. Now fans could take the songs on MP3 players without hunting for illegal downloads or buying the album again on iTunes. The cards also opened the doors for new ways of delivering music. But record labels are still deciding whether or not the cards can serve as a new, standalone format, or if they’ll be able to turn around declining album sales.
“Who’s going to buy a record twice these days when people are hardly buying it once?” That was the reasoning Patrick Scott used when he started offering download cards with all of the releases on his label, Static Station Records. He had started the label as CD only, but when sales started slipping, he switched to records, the only physical music format that has seen a boost in sales in the aughts. But by then, fans expected music they could take with them.
“The ways that people listen to music right now don’t really line up with the ways that you listen to LPs,” says Jacobs. “People like to listen to music in a big long mix or while they’re doing other things.”
Download cards freed up the music, and allowed for goodies, like the extra tracks Scott adds to the download cards for Static Station releases.
“It just seems reasonable to do it,” says Jacobs. “People who have purchased the record already should be able to listen to it in whatever way they want to listen to it.”
The cards helped make vinyl marketable again. “I think that’s influenced a lot more people to buy the LP now,” says Brad Schelden, the indie buyer for Amoeba Music, the world’s largest independent record store.
“Without question the digital download is a big part of why I think our vinyl sells so well,” says Hubbard. The success of the download cards drove the label to experiment with other ways to use the cards.
Paper Makes it Possible
In 2008, Polyvinyl launched of Montreal’s newest record, Skeletal Lamping, as a collection of posters, shirts, lamps, stickers, and other ephemera — each of which came with a download card.
“Kevin [Barnes] from of Montreal kind of sat us down and kind of had this great idea of doing physical objects to sell digital music,” says Hubbard. “Fans still want something physical when they want to support a band, they don’t just want the MP3s.”
Hubbard says it was a way to test the waters and find the limits of the potential of download cards. The art objects sold well, but didn’t quite beat out the CD and LP sales from the record. “I don’t think we’ll try anything to that degree again,” says Hubbard. “But I do know a couple of our bands coming up have requested to do the t-shirt thing.”
Other bands have tried ideas that are further out there. “Routinely there’s people coming up with just weird ideas on how to use these,” says Jon Collins, the Vice President of Business Development at Drop Cards. Drop Cards created the download cards for of Montreal, and continues to make download cards for albums and promotional distribution for companies and music festivals. When Austin Jennings was looking to go on tour, he came to Drop Cards looking for something that would fit into his green initiative. “We print a download card that’s actually made out of a biodegradable paper with wildflowers in it,” says Collins. “He went on tour and rather than bringing a bunch of CDs, he sold little flower pots of dirt, and it had the download card attached to it. So you bought this little flower pot, downloaded his music, and then when you were done with it you could put the download card into the flower pot and it would grow.”
The Limits of Pushing Paper
While the of Montreal experiment opened the door for creative thinking, most are still skeptical of download cards as a new medium. Scott created a label called Fissure Records to experiment with download card–only releases. “It was like this artifact that had, basically a 5 x 7 card that would have big artwork, bigger than a CD, and then it would have the download card mounted into it,” he says. Two releases proved to him that the format wasn’t viable. He says record stores and distributors “didn’t have any idea what to do with them.” Even Scott couldn’t figure out how to sell the cards.
“We’re not set up to carry things like just a download card,” says Schelden about Amoeba Music. “Like, where would we put it? We’re not like WalMart or something, with like a spin-wheel with all these download cards on it.”
Without being attached to an object, download cards seem to only work as giveaways and promotional tools. “As its own sellable form it seems weird,” says Scott. “If you’re going to do a download card it needs to be attached to something else someone wants, be it a t-shirt, a commemorative plate, whatever.”
Sub Pop has been trying to figure out the perfect use for download cards. “It’s kind of hard to find something that’s inherently sort of valuable enough to justify spending that kind of money,” says Jacobs. Experiments with pre-sale stickers have mostly failed, but the label keeps looking for new ways to use the cards.
Scott, Jacobs and Hubbard all saw t-shirts and download cards as the success story in the of Montreal experiment. “It’s an easy way to package two things that people expect from a band,” says Hubbard. “You want to get the band t-shirt when you go to a show, you usually want to get their record. Why not just package them together?” The t-shirts have been repressed multiple times, and Polyvinyl plans to release other albums in the t-shirt and download card format.
Conclusion
Whether download cards can save the music industry depends on whether or not the industry can be saved. “It’s part of a greater discussion of whether music is worth buying,” says Collins. “If you can’t sell your music, it being on a drop card isn’t really going to help out.” Collins says that the download cards can sell if fans start buying music again, but Scott isn’t convinced they can ever be a standalone format.
“The download card is basically a band-aid for music distribution,” says Scott. “I feel like currently download cards are just a bridge to something better.”
Why Schools are Turning to Google Apps
by neetika on Apr.29, 2010, under Gadgets, Latest Web Technologies, Trends
Today, the entire public school system of Oregon will embrace Google Apps. 400,000 Students, teachers, and administrators will have access to a common e-mail and chat system, cloud-based collaboration tools, and a robust multimedia streaming service. Traditionally, statewide adoptions of any kind in education are hotly contested, with the most minute details up for extended debate.
But the case for Google Apps in education is compelling in many ways. We interviewed the architects of this plan, as well as others who use Google in the classroom, and we’ve highlighted the three major benefits: 1) It saves schools money; 2) It boosts academic performance and motivation, and; 3) It prepares students for digital communication in the real world.
Saving Money
Money is often the top issue when it comes to educational reform, and the outlook for Google Apps is certainly good. The Oregon Department of Education estimates a savings of $1.5 million per year. Even the relatively humble Maine Township District 207 in Illinois, another school system that currently utilizes Google Apps, estimates their savings to be an impressive $160,000 each year.
Google Apps for educational institutions is free. The savings largely come from the replacement of legacy e-mail systems and desktop office application suites, and these figures include the associated costs of IT support and infrastructure upgrades. For Steve Nelson, Technology of Director of Oregon Virtual Schools, these savings allow the state to provide multimedia streaming services that support student-generated content, which he says was “not economically feasible” without Google.
Henry Thiele, IT director for District 207 says he is “surprised by how many schools don’t even know that [Google apps] is there.” And, when they hear about the opportunity, says, Thiele, they’re curious to know “what the catch is.” Thiele simply responds, “There is no catch.”
Boosting Student Motivation and Performance
“Our students involved in this program are increasing their reading ability at rates faster than anything we’ve seen before,” says Thiele. He is referring to an English course which pairs high-risk 9th graders with their own laptop. District 207 expects an average gain of three points on reading tests over the course of the year, and observes that at-risk students’ scores typically either stay stagnant, or fall behind. For those in this program, scores have skyrocketed between 8 and 10 points. While Google Apps alone was not the only factor in raising test scores, its low cost and collaborative nature made the 1-to-1 curriculum possible.
Principal Jason Levy, who helped usher in Google Apps for New York’s Intermediate School 339 (see the PBS documentary below) finds that 47% of students now perform at grade level for math, up from 27%. Additionally, both Thiele and Levy observe greater focus and fewer disciplinary problems. “Behavior has improved, attendance is higher, and suspension levels have fallen,” reports Levy.
Both educators’ observations are par for the course, as other classroom experiments confirm that technology in education helps to boost student interest.
It’s not hard to understand why. “People talk a lot about kids — that they can’t focus and sustain their concentration. Well, neither can I,” admits Levy. Embracing children’s need to be social, combined with their rapid adoption of technology, is an organic way to work with the grain of human curiosity.
Preparation for the Real World
In addition to the obvious benefits of collaboration and familiarity with technology, Google Apps is helping to prepare students for the outside world in some innovative ways. At Notre Dame, for instance, Engineering students keep a running e-portfolio of the classroom projects with Google Sites. The digital accumulation of their college efforts will likely mean more to future employers than the bullet points on a resume.
A Maine Township teacher is using Google Spreadsheets to free the science classroom from the confines of the textbook. Students conduct actual experiments and code the data in collaborative online tables. In this instance, students get their hands dirty, literally, by measuring plant growth in various soil types, and analyzing the data using digital tools, just as a real scientist would. This common sense model seems like an inexpensive and engaging way to help the Department of Education meet its goal of increasing U.S. scientific competitiveness, as outlined in the ambitious “Race to the Top” agenda.
Conclusion
“The enhanced functionality is absolutely staggering,” gushes Nelson. Indeed, every one of my interviewees had nothing but positive reviews of Google Apps in an educational context. Regardless of what one may think of Google as a company, its contributions to the American education system are certainly noteworthy.
That more school districts are starting to adopt Google Apps for use in the classroom is in many ways an affirmation of the broader cloud computing model in enterprise settings. The increasing maturity of these tools, paired with significant cost savings, makes web apps attractive to cash-strapped school departments. The Oregon decision to adopt Google Apps across its entire school system is perhaps a harbinger of a more cloud-based future for education.
