Summers here, put back the car roof, crank up the music and this is all you'll need - Stevie Earle 'I Feel Alright'. This will make you smile.
New 'country rock' from 1996 but now, hold on, you might not like 'country' so don't despair, it is and it isn't.
It's country, it's blues, it's rock. Most of us for example, don't like his infamous 'Guitar Town' which was his breakthrough record because it's too country.
'I feel alright' refers to his recovery from drugs (heroin) and a stint in prison 2 years earlier. So the emotion is authentic.
His life was a bit upside down - married 7 times, divorced 6 - but was getting it all together. He's a brother-in-law of Shelby Lynne too. Pretty upsetting.
When you listen to 'You're still standing there' with Lucinda Williams, it's hard not to feel good - nevermind 'Hard Core Troubadour' or 'More than I can do'. Stevie is a big fan of Ireland too and we've seen him live here lots of times.
This is a feel good album - and here have a listen - but check out the last track 'You're still standing there' first!
Netflix does it again.
It beats forecasts of subscriber numbers and shares climb +12%.
New subscribers rose +22% year on year, to 4.88 million (forecasted at 4.05 million). Good forecasting though but it's a staggering growth.
It now has a total of over 62 million subscribers.
This is driven by original content such as 'House of Cards' which is better than excellent and the decline in traditional TV viewing as viewers switch online. The original shows are also giving Netflix the edge of competitors such as Hulu. Revenue is 1.57 Billion usd, which shows that their pricing is right.
It's a tremendous success and it's hard to see Netflix not continuing to power on as its penetration in international markets is still low.
As you can imagine, audio is a huge thing for us at Streamabout.
And we use headphones all the time from Bose to Beats by Dre. Simply, you need clear sound so that you can hear everything on video as well as, using music tracks.
It's a constant feature and critical to the business.
So for what it's worth, we just got delivery of a new set of Sennheiser Urbanite XL. It's their new range and running from Iphone (although it's there for everything) comes with a remote control on the wire to allow volume control, track playback and so on. As well as allowing you take calls.
The view by the way, is that wired headphones (as distinct to bluetooth) are better for quality just now - although wireless are of course, more convenient.
They're big cans too, that fit snugly over your ears.
But to be honest, the sound quality is extraordinary. Extraordinary. As is the comfort.
If you want our advice, professionally, have a look at these.
We've tried everything else and well, haven't found better.
So much so, we had to blog about it.
New Nielsen data as published by Ad Age shows Americans still watch 5 hours of traditional TV a day (149 hours a month in fact). However, that's a reduction of -6 hours a month over the last year....
So what are they doing instead?
Watching more online video.
In fact in the last quarter of 2014, online video was up +3 hours a month year-on-year. A +38% increase. And they're watching more time shifted TV (recorded) than before, possibly skipping those Ad breaks.
And the switch to online is more noticeable in those lucrative 18-24's and you'll see from the above chart.
TV is losing audience, losing market share and consequently, must lose Advertising dollars.
Story and charts here
http://adage.com/article/digital/video-revolution/297996/?utm_source=daily_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage&ttl=1429493873
