What we're listening to this week. Patti Smith 'Horses'.

Just that we heard that Patti Smith is coming to Dublin this Summer to play 'Horses' live, we decided to stick it on.

Considered a punk album (but it's not) and released 1975 with the iconic Robert Mapplethorpe cover - shot in Greenwich Village (we note the jacket has a horse shaped pin) - and featuring a cover version of Ireland's own Van Morrison's 'Gloria'.

It was Patti Smith's debut and 40 years later, just blew everyone in the office away. 

Because quite simply, it's one of the greatest albums ever made. There can't be any arguments. It just is.

"There is a little place, a place called space...."

2 million advertisers on Facebook up 33%. 4 million active on Google. The advertiser switch to digital is on.

Another Facebook milestone this week as announced by Business Insider, achieving 2 million active advertisers, a +33% increase on July last year.

Facebook is therefore gaining ground on Google but leaving Twitter in its wake at 60,000 advertisers. Google has 4 million.

These advertiser relationship growths, point to a healthy future and the opportunity to grow the revenue (spend) per advertiser in the longer term. If you have that many clients, you're going to grow.

If Facebook keep developing their Search capabilities, they could really extend into Google territory and we know that Facebook continues to grow its users year-on-year.

But importantly too, is shows the advertiser move away from traditional. If digital wasn't of real, core interest, they wouldn't be building these relationships. It's coming, it just has taken longer than we thought.

Ad Blocker software is on a surge. Blocking Ads online creating problems for publishers. 300 million times and rising.

The surge (or scourge depending on who you are) in the growth of Ad blocking software is likely to accelerate on digital and that's a worry.

Simply, they remove Ads from content online so you watch without the Ads - although it's unclear if publishers still count them as "impressions" when the Ads are never seen. Easy to download, Ad blockers just sit in your browser as an extension and they're available for every browser. They even take out YouTube Ads.

Adblock, one of the better known software, already stands at 300 million downloads. It's reckoned that over 200,000 downloads of Ad blockers occur every day. A recent survey of 100 million impressions on top tier websites, saw 9% of them being blocked already, with usage growing at 70% per year.

That's a lot.

Some publishers are rumoured (but it's true) to pay Ad blockers not to include their site, such is the scale of the issue.

The appeal to viewers is not just stopping what they consider, "annoying Ads" but by blocking them, you browse faster. That's a real advantage so it's hard to see the surge decreasing.

Of course we're bound to say it, but generating your own Video content or Video Ads, is one way around it. They haven't found a Video blocker, nor will they!

Streamabout can help!

What we're listening to.....

Last week another 1973 Album from The Doobies caught our attention in Streamabout. The Captain and Me was played and played in here anyway. 

Their 3rd Album but we found a link to last week's Steely Dan Album 'Can't buy a thrill' in that Jeff 'The Skunk' Baxter plays on both.

Seriously good artwork on the vinyl album too by the way!