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Time On My Side --- Michael Hedges July 31, 2008
Maybe it escaped your notice but Mick Jagger just turned 65. Two days later the Rolling Stones ditched label EMI for Universal. Jagger has made no other comment on becoming eligible for a free bus pass in the UK. EMI said they were sad. Universal said they were glad.

Media searches for a new business model --- Michael Hedges April 29, 2008
The business model you choose depends on where your product/service is on the product life cycle. Media business models by nature must interact with other business models, which are also moving. New business models are rare and disruptive.

So, Just How Successful Was That Original Prince CD Giveaway? --- Philip Stone July 24, 2007
The figures are in from last week’s UK Mail on Sunday giveaway of Prince’s new CD, Planet Earth, and circulation on that day was up a whopping 600,000, a huge financial and promotional success for Prince, but also for the newspaper? All depends how advertisers will look at the circulation numbers and how many of those extra 600,000 sales stick.

A Shrewd Marketing Ploy By Prince, The Artist Who Formerly Sold His CDs In Stores But Now Has Given Away His Latest With A UK Sunday Newspaper, Has Music Retailers Raging Purple --- Philip Stone July 17, 2007
For Prince, the pop musician from Minneapolis, it was marketing bordering on the genius that has UK CD retailers furious but got the singer untold millions of $€£ in free promotion for his European concert tour. For The Mail on Sunday newspaper it was a marketing gem that probably cost around £500,000 ($1 million) and boosted its circulation by some 500,000 on the day. So, was it a win-win to give away Prince’s new Plant Earth CD and not sell it in the shops? For Prince, absolutely, For the Mail on Sunday the jury is still out.

Powerful Radio – “I’d love to turn you on” --- Michael Hedges June 8, 2007
It was worth hearing, again, that the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” passed a milestone. It was forty years ago this week that radio stations daringly played a song starting “It was twenty years ago today…”. Things change.

“Five Years Ago, If You Wanted to Carry Around a Thousand Songs in Your Pocket You Carried a Radio. That Has Changed.” --- Michael Hedges April 30, 2007
Media consumers are dancing, en masse, to the new digital beat, awaited, predicted for a generation. Or, so it seems. Media people, those disposed to listen to their customers, have heard the patter turn to rumble and now stampede. Before the gathering dust cloud stifles their offices and golf courses many hope for an early escape to a Caribbean island. Very sorry: there is no buggy, car, airplane or rocket fast enough.

Another Bill Collector Pounds At the Internet Door --- Michael Hedges March 7, 2007
Media’s growth engine is the World Wide Web. Not a month goes by without another fact-filled report citing evidence that consumers really like accessing media content through the internet. Not a nano-second goes by without another industry that once made lots of money through traditional media attempting a new extortion on the internet.

Capital Radio Self-Immolates or Much To Do About Being Number Three --- Michael Hedges August 14, 2006
Wall-to-wall music stations – and BBC Radio 1 – win the latest London radio audience survey. Capital Radio resembles a cinder. Ah, the perils of a mature radio market in the midst of a smokin’ hot media market…

France vs Google. France vs Microsoft. France vs CNN. Now, it’s France vs Apple. Just More of the Same, Right? --- Michael Hedges - March 27, 2006
Maybe not! Keeping to their strong tradition of dismissing the French, the Anglo-American media missed the point. Interoperability may test business models but it’s great for consumers.

Virgin’s Deal In the UK To Become A Quadruple Player – Fixed Lines, Mobile, Broadband, and Television – Is A Forerunner of What Will Occur Elsewhere. And Suddenly BSkyB Has A Real Program Competitor On Its Hands -- Watch Those Sports Rights! --- Philip M. Stone December 5, 2005
It’s the kind of deal that, when announced, seemed such a natural, and it propels Sir Richard Branson yet again into the limelight, this time as the biggest shareholder in a company that will deliver broadband to 2.5 million customers, that already has 4.3 million fixed-line accounts, more than five million mobile customers and 3.3 million cable TV subscribers.

NYT Baits Bloggers --- Michael Hedges May 23, 2005
By September access to opinion columnists on the New York Times web-site will come with a charge. This newspaper has decided that there’s money in weblogs.

Spitzer and Payola – the Two Most Feared Words in US Broadcasting --- Philip M. Stone October 25, 2004

Music Quotas for German Radio --- Michael Hedges October 10, 2004

From Alternative To Icon And Back --- Michael Hedges March 12, 2012 Follow on Twitter
The fearful truth about the digital age is that advantage goes to those willing and able to exploit a hot spot. While some in digital media see every breath taking moment as new and brilliant, the longer view shows a more consistent and real world. The spirit of the times needs lots of spirit while times change slowly.

Playing Nice To Get Lucky --- Michael Hedges February 10, 2014 Follow on Twitter
Innovation is often seen as coming from young minds at hard labor fueled by Red Bull and pizza. Some of that is true, particularly the pizza bit. As digital markets mature the other source of innovation is much less frantic and involves coupling needs and wants by finding benefits for all. Of course, everybody wants to get lucky.

The Web Turns Professional On Purpose --- Michael Hedges April 17, 2017 Follow on Twitter
A notable force in the rise of the World Wide Web has been its facility to engage people. Part of that is due to the ubiquity of internet and now mobile access. But people also just like to share their thoughts, personal and otherwise, and those of others in a rather non-binding way. Anybody can have a blog, website or pages on social media portals and invite others to their world, except in China and a few other places. Some of these are silly, some serious, a few actually become famous and make money. All of this could be coming to an end.

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Gets Clever --- Michael Hedges June 25, 2010 Follow on Twitter
New media has turned content industries on their heads, shaken them and delivered a few bruises. Powered by a racing technology, Web and mobile services left the injured to squeal and moan. Content is again a battleground and the armies bigger than ever.

It’s the economy, stupid! --- Michael Hedges September 2, 2008 Follow on Twitter
A certain coolness is flowing across the Northern Hemisphere, even as summer keeps its tentative grip. The tough vice of economic chill and advertiser wariness (or weariness) is clamping hard on media companies big and small.

The Hubris Of The Meteorically Risen --- Michael Hedges January 5, 2015 Follow on Twitter
The meteoric rise of media executives always attracts considerable attention, adding to the enduring narrative of success in this highly visible arena. Big ideas, working hard or having the right connections most often illustrates the careers of these winners. That light is also visible, however briefly, when media stars fall back to earth.

Music Industry Crisis Continues, Blame Everybody Else --- Michael Hedges January 25, 2011 Follow on Twitter
Of all content producers, the music industry faced the digital revolution first. It has been the proverbial canary in the mineshaft. Music executives responded by fighting the Web, consumers and everybody else. The result is unsurprising.

The Music Industry’s Favorite Song: Busted --- Michael Hedges September 13, 2010 Follow on Twitter
A world record for street singing made the headlines during the German music industry trade fair Popkomm. Singing for ones supper, literally or figuratively, may be the norm for the lesser known artists and performers. Music industry executives and their lawyers have a different tune.

The Television Business Will Never Be The Same --- Michael Hedges May 13, 2013 Follow on Twitter
The marketing geniuses in every field have worshiped at the premium offer temple for as long as sellers have been selling. Customers are told that for just a tiny bit more a whole new world of fun can be theirs. It's popular because it works. Loss-leaders work, too.

Brand Google Burnished, China Bruised, France Buried --- Michael Hedges January 18, 2010 Follow on Twitter
Enlightenment comes hard to enterprise management struggling day-to-day. Often it’s economic stress that brings on the ‘ah, yes’ moment, usually when that moment is lost. Horizon can make a difference.

Music, news and the greater good --- Michael Hedges May 4, 2009 Follow on Twitter
Music has been called the universal language. News is considered a universal right. In the cold light of this century’s media reality, both are merely content to be consumed.

Politician Attacks "Crazy Loopholes" --- Michael Hedges October 17, 2014 Follow on Twitter
Quotas legally requiring radio broadcasters to broadcast music locally produced or performed in a national language periodically rise to broad debate. The music industry generally loves the idea and radio broadcasters generally hate it. Supporters and critics often cite French and Canadian music content broadcasting laws as proving their respective points.

Yearning For Connection, New Perspectives, Not Singing Along --- Michael Hedges November 22, 2021 Follow on Twitter
The analytic mind in the Western intellectual tradition tends to examine all things through contrast. How is this bird different from that one? In time, ages actually, that exploration helped reveal much about human behavior. To better sell products and services market segmentation is the natural extension. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Politicians Vote To Kill Internet, Radio --- Michael Hedges April 12, 2010 - Follow on Twitter
The UK Parliament passed the long awaited Digital Economy Act, presumed to stimulate economic activity in and around the digital realm. Even the manner in which it was threaded through the political needle reveals more about ‘act’ than ‘digital’ or ‘economy.’ It’s the reason politicians and bankers are held in such high esteem.

The Copyright Problem Best Solved By Consumers --- Michael Hedges February 18, 2019 - Follow on Twitter
The European Commission, Council of the European Union and the European Parliament gave a St. Valentine’s Day treat to those hoping for fit for purpose digital age copyright rules. The EU Copyright Directive, officially Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, was last updated in 2001, three years before Facebook appeared. Failure to reach agreement on copyright rules after all these years would have caused an existential crisis. There are yet more steps but baring the unforeseen - debate within the Member States - this is the legal framework that will govern copyright legislation within the European Union with effects reaching beyond those borders for decades.

Lawmakers Toss Publishers Copyright Bill Under The Bus --- Michael Hedges July 5, 2018 - Follow on Twitter
Internet freedom has suffered in recent years as trolls, bots, propaganda and hate speech tainted the concept. Still, there are more internet users every minute of every day, most generally pleased to access a sorts of news, information, music, videos, gossip and cat photos. While the internet has offered global access to anything that can be digitized, even dodgy stuff, proximity has been lost. This has not gone unnoticed.