What we're listening to. Dave Matthews 'Crash'.

1996, the second Album from Dave Matthews and still their best selling.
Not surprising given one track alone ('Crash into me') is worth the Album. Totally, completely.

Matthews vocals are superb and this is folky rock. 

'Tripping Billies' has a hillbilly sound with fighting violins, 'Two Step' is good old rock n' roll, whereas 'Let you Down' is ballady. Pretty eclectic and the Band are from Virginia USA so you get a country sense too. If you don't know them, give them a chance.

All the Album produced by the great Steve Lillywhite (U2, The Stones, Talking Heads etc) but grounded in great playing and strong songwriting. 

If you don't know the Band, this will bring you into them and a really interesting, strong sound that's very different.

This is a great Album and a great single 'Crash into me' which was inspired by Matthews wife (the love of his life). You might also know the Stevie Nicks cover.

A sound of Summer. Try listening to this and then you'll know....

Previous "listen to's" you'll also find on this blog.......Beyonce 'Lemonade'; Prince 'Sign O the times'; Daft Punk 'Random Access Memories'; Amy Winehouse 'Back to Black';Police 'Outlandos D'Amour'; Michael Jackson Off the Wall; Carole King Tapestry; Beatles Red Album; Sex Pistols Never mind the Bollocks; Sam Cooke Live at Harlem Square; The Doors LA Woman; Thin Lizzy Live & Dangerous; Kendrick Lamarr Butterfly; Aretha Franklin Amazing Grace; Clapton 461; Massive Attack Blue Lines; The Clash London Calling; Chris Isaak At The Filmore; Bob Dylan Street Legal; Bad Company Straight Shooter; Jackson Browne Love is Strange; Lou Reed Transformer; Steely Dan AJA; Stones Black+Blue; Stephen Bishop Careless; Nils Lofgren Night after Night; Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells; Neil Young Harvest; Led Zep 4; David Bowie David Live; Van Morrison It's too late to stop now; Wings Band on the run; Rod Stewart Atlantic Crossing; Ryan Adams Heartbreaker; Santana Essential; Bob Dylan Desire; Roxy Music For your pleasure; Bob Marley Legend; Stephen Fretwell Magpie; James Taylor Sweet Baby James; Deep Purple Machine Head; Springsteen Darkness on the edge of town; Leon Bridges Coming Home; Eagles Hotel California; Jungle; Aretha Soul Queen; Neil Young After the Goldrush + Harvest; Zappa Overnite Sensation; Fleetwood Mac Rumours; Keith Jarrett Koln Concert; Doobies Southbound; Stevie Earle I feel Alright; Tom Waits Closing Time; Pink Floyd Dark Side; Van Morrison Moondance; Eric Church Caught in the Act; Randy Newman Little Criminals; Elton John Madman across the water; Patti Smith Horses; Doobies Captain and Me; Steely Dan Can't Buy a Thrill.

New York Times post loss Q1 2016. How soon before it goes Digital only?

The very excellent New York Times (if you see it on a Saturday, just get it) reports a loss of 14 million usd in Q1 2016.

It's about the decline in print advertising but digital is up, although as usual, does not compensate for the print decline, just yet.

It added 67,000 digital subscribers in the quarter - huge - bringing it to 1.4 million overall. 

Total revenue in the quarter was 380 million usd and it's hard to understand (very very hard) with revenues like that, you can make a loss at all! 

Here's the point....Revenue from digital subs was 54 million. Revenue from print and digital advertising was less, at 42 million. 

There comes a time when the cost of printing the paper becomes so loss making because of the massive cost of production (paper, printing), whereas the cost of producing the digital edition is massively lower and profitable.

And with their growth in digital subscriptions, there has to come a point where it makes more sense for The New York Times to become digital only. 

It has to be an outcome. 

You heard it here first!

Amazon launches YouTube Competitor.

Amazon have launched 'Amazon Video Direct', a self-serve video platform (like YouTube is) but lets creators earn money on advertising share (a 'per the minute streamed' payment). 

It's a big head-to-head with Google's YouTube.
YouTube make 2 Billion dollars a year and have 20% of the market.

It's directed at professional creators (like Streamabout) with only HD formats allowed (so targeting Vimeo quality we'd guess). You can select various ways to have your video monetised - streamed, download, rent, buy - even subscription.

And they're promoting it through their 'Stars' programme giving a share (small we'd think) of a million dollars a month fund, based on engagement. It's all about quality, all about Premium - good video.

But of course, this way it's a lot cheaper than buying content and Amazon spend circa 3 billion dollars a year doing that. Better to get quality video on a revenue share.

They'll also give full analytics so you know how well you're doing.

It shows yet again, the growth in online video viewing and the need for corporates to be involved. Perhaps with a programme series?

Yes we can.

The 'New Day' ends.

The new UK Newspaper called (bizarrely), 'New Day' has closed after only 9 weeks.

The last edition was Friday.

Published by Trinity Mirror (The Daily Mirror) it was aimed at those readers who had "fallen out of love" with Newspapers and clearly, well, they had. It seems a peculiar name and most peculiar targeting.

Expecting sales of 200,000 copies a day (at 25p), it reached only 30,000 and was supported by an extensive enough Ad Campaign (circa £5 million). The line was "Seize the New Day" which in itself, is hard to decipher.

But the imagery was all about the Social Media generation and one cannot think how it was envisaged that they'd switch back to traditional print? The mind boggles.

Having said all of that, there's jobs lost here and there's money lost which is sad. Very.