What we're listening to. Stones 'Back & Blue'

You nearly have to have a Rolling Stones Album in there somewhere.

Arguably 'Exile on Main street', 'Let it Bleed' or 'Sticky Fingers' (all interestingly, pre-dated Black and Blue) but 'Black and Blue' is a good place to start from 1976, their 13th record. 

They've released 29 studio Albums alone and the next Album they produced after this, was 'Some Girls' which was their biggest seller ever - bizarrely. 1968-72 is considered their Golden Age where all the big singles came from. 

When Jagger/Richards started in circa 1961, they called themselves 'The Blue Boys' and although we are making it up, assume some link to this Album's title. The name 'The Rolling Stones' comes from a Muddy Waters song, 'Rolling Stone'. So there.

You'll like this, not just because it's the first Album to feature Ronnie Wood (from The Faces and a great pal of Rod Stewart) who replaced Mick Taylor, although Irish man Rory Gallagher was auditioned, but because it's so different. More funky, more reggae.

'Fool to Cry' was the big single from the Album but 'Memory Hotel' is a stand out track as well as, 'Melody' featuring the great Billy Preston. 

Generally though, it's not what you expect - more "produced" than the raw sound of their other records. And for that reason, it's well worth a listen, because it's different.

Clearly, very officey! Here's the great 'Melody' and you can hear Billy Preston all over it. Enjoy.

Square IPO Today at 2.9 Billion Dollars.....

Square will start trading today on the NYSE at 9 usd per share, on opening. This gives it a valuation of 2.9 Billion usd.

It's the Jack Dorsey company, or was, now that he's back at Twitter.

It lost 54 million usd in Q3 2015, a higher loss y-o-y and they've yet to make a profit, although that doesn't really bother us. But the valuation does.

It's a mobile payments company (www.squareup.com) largely at retail point-of-sale for Small businesses. Big deal - we've seen a 100 of these types of companies. 

So what's getting Square the profile and huge valuation? 

The presence of Jack Dorsey. And if you want a view....that's 2.9 BILLION of madness.....enough already.

UPDATE - It opened today at 11 Dollars 20 Cents. Range was 11-13 Dollars but priced at 9 Dollars. So this is real positive. Still makes no sense though....but remember, it has to CLOSE over 9 Dollars. 

TV has simply become the delivery channel for live Sport only.

Adage, that bastion of all things Ad Agency, has a story showing that traditional TV in the USA has really just become the "delivery system" for the NFL.

Based on ratings, using Nielsen data, it shows that top rated programmes are all about Football live. The only other content that makes it, albeit in a relatively small way, is Season premieres or Republican debates.

So general entertainment per se, doesn't get a look in.

Pretty shocking if you're a TV broadcaster to see that all that supposed "rich" content you've developed, gets beaten by Football. 

For example, 'Supergirl' the newly well flagged show, ended up 71st on the list....'Empire' season premiere was 37th...'Walking Dead' a lowly 50.

Because entertainment is being watched online through video.
TV really is only about live broadcasts that you can't get online. Yet.

THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN

TV Show	Date	Viewers (in millions)
Fox National Game (Seahawks-Cowboys)	Nov. 1	29.4
NBC SNF Kickoff Game (Steelers-Patriots)	Sept. 10	27.4
Fox National Game (Cowboys-Eagles)	Sept. 20	27.2
NBC Sunday Night Football (Giants-Cowboys)	Sept. 13	26.8
NBC Sunday Night Football (Seahawks-Packer)	Sept 20	26.4
CBS National Game (Patriots-Cowboys)	Oct. 11	26.1
Fox National Game (Packers-49ers)	Oct. 4	25.9
CBS National Game (Chargers-Packers)	Oct. 18	25.0
Fox National Game (Cowboys-Giants)	Oct. 25	24.5
NBC Sunday Night Football (Cowboys-Saints)	Oct. 4	24.2
CBS National Game (Broncos-Colts)	Nov. 8	24.0
Fox News Channel GOP Primary Debate	August 6	24.0
CBS National Game (Ravens-Broncos)	Sept. 13	23.3
CNN GOP Primary Debate	Sept. 16	23.1
NBC Sunday Night Football (Eagles-Cowboys)	Nov. 8	23.0
NBC Sunday Night Football (Packers-Broncos)	Nov. 1	23.0
NBC Sunday Night Football (Patriots-Colts)	Oct. 18	22.8
NBC Sunday Night Football (Broncos-Lions)	Sept. 27	22.1
CBS National Game (Bears-Seahawks)	Sept. 27	22.1
Thursday Night Football (Broncos-Chiefs)	Sept. 17	21.1
NBC Sunday Night Football (Eagles-Panthers)	Oct. 25	20.6
NBC Sunday Night Football (49ers-Giants)	Oct. 11	19.6
Thursday Night Football (Ravens-Steelers)	Oct. 1	19.4
The Big Bang Theory (CBS)	Sept. 21	18.2
NCIS	Sept. 22	18.2

Source: Nielsen
Chart by Chen Wu

Facebook Safety Check launched in Paris.

Words fail us in understanding the Paris attacks of Friday night by Muslim extremists. The murder of people having a meal, watching football or at a concert. Inhuman, hardly comes close.

The Facebook 'Safety Check' tool was activated and used by nearly 5 million people to check on their friends and families. It has been used before in natural disasters 5 times since it launched in October 2014 but not in human tragedies before now.

But it will be used again should there ever be the need, which we hope against hope, there should not. However, it's a great innovation for Social Media under these tragic circumstances. God be good to them. 

What we're listening to. Stephen Bishop 'Careless'.

Not a lot of people know about Californian Stephen Bishop, but those in the know, know 'Careless'. 

It was his first Album from 1976 and 'Save it for a Rainy Day' and 'On and On' were fairly big hits at the time. But it is a classic.

'Never Letting go', 'Madge', and 'Little Italy' are great tracks and it all comes in a traditional singer/songwriter vibe - he wrote all the tracks. 

Clapton features here (he notes Bishop as being a fan) as does Art Garfunkel, Andrew Gold and Chaka Khan - but it's a star lineup of session musicians of the time.

Great songs and the Album went gold at the time. Bishop then spent his time developing movie appearances and soundtracks with his most recent Album in 2014 (a live album).

But this is a star. 

Easy listening but with real melody and moving lyrics. Not for everyone, but if you like that James Taylor style, you'll love this. A very worthy addition to any collection. Smooth and Meaningful. Really.

Apple announce Irish expansion today.

Apple announces further expansion today in Cork, Ireland (South West). Tim Cook was there in person this morning.

They've been in Ireland for 30 years and announced a further 1,000 jobs by 2017 on the back of the 5,000 Irish direct employees already. And that's up by 25% this year alone.

It's estimated that Apple's Irish operations support about 18,000 jobs directly and indirectly. Fairly vast.

It makes Apple, one of Ireland's biggest employers/investors.

Superbowl Airtime nearly sold out.

Superbowl airtime on CBS is nearly sold out.
At 5 million usd for 30 seconds, that's a bonanza for CBS.

And it shows just how important the Superbowl is in American Psyche. 

Nevermind the audience numbers, the brand association is extremely positive allowing the kudos of being part of the party. Of course too, it allows a whole creative opportunity online to get engagement for the "best Superbowl Ad" and commentary.

But it's not cheap....

Snapchat reports 6 Billion Video Views a day.

Following Facebook's Q3 Earnings call that showed Video views up to 8 Billion a day (from 4 Billion in April), Snapchat isn't far behind.

According to The Financial Times, Snapchat reports 6 Billion video views a day. That's pretty impressive especially in their young, affluent demographic and up x 3 since May.

They have circa 100 million daily active users on Snapchat and frankly, recent remodelling of the App has made it look pretty good. Sky News and sports on snapchat deserve worthy mention in the Discover piece - it's all pretty smart. They will generate about 100 million usd in revenue this year too.

Streamabout have placed video on Snapchat too as part of a Bank recruitment drive and it showed good results. 

Online video is growing (+38% expected this year in the US) and these numbers confirm the explosion. Something we know very well.

John Lewis. Another piece of beauty for Christmas.

Ah look, what can you say. John Lewis just do it better year after year. Or should I say their Agency - Adam&Eve DDB. But also the Client has to be having a role here because you just couldn't get this brilliance year after year otherwise.

With an Oasis track too.

Can't think we've seen anything better in a long, long time. 
It's just outstanding. 
To Absent friends. 

What we're listening to. Nils Lofgren 'Night after Night'.

Nils Lofgren must be tired everytime he's mentioned as being part of 'The E Street Band' (replacing Steve Van Zandt in 84). He still is with Springsteen, but he's had a superb solo career. 

He's done a huge lot with Springsteen (Born in the USA, Tunnel of Love to name a few) and indeed with Mr. Young's Crazy Horse (playing piano/guitar on After the Goldrush, Tonights the Night) but should have more recognition in his own right.

Born in Chicago (his Dad was Swedish, hence the name) and in 1977 he released this double live Album. 

"I came to dance" is probably his best known track but 'Keith don't go', a tribute to Keith Richards, is so well regarded and both are here. Add to that, 'Back it up', 'Moon Tears', 'Going Back' and 'Code of the Road', you have an excellent rock album. 

Hard to get the Album but if you can find it, it's really worth it. As he is. And if he see him playing live, just go!

His 'Acoustic live' from 1997 gives a real insight into a virtuoso guitarist and notably there, you'll find a terrific version of 'Keith don't go'. 

Don't believe us, have a listen (especially from 3 minutes on...)

Facebook. Stunning numbers on Video. 1.5m small Businesses, posted a video in September. 8 Billion monthly video views!

Facebook does it again. It beat all earnings expectations in Q3.

Revenue 4.5 Billion usd, up +41% (staggering).
78% Revenue comes from Mobile.
1.55 Billion monthly active users.
Active Daily average, users up +17% (1 billion).

But look at online Video numbers...

8 BILLION Video views a day (that's up from 4 Billion in April). See? It's all about Video! 

500 million users watch video every single day.

1.5 million small Businesses, posted a Video in September.

So their stock is at an all-time high with +25% on mid August prices.
Stunning yet again. 

Candy Crush sells. For a sweet 5.9 Billion Dollars.

Candy Crush game maker, King Digital Entertainment is selling to Activision Blizzard for, wait for it, 5.9 Billion usd.

Activision makes Call of Duty (that's the excellent Call of Duty) and the deal pushes them to the top of interactive games.

Now they'll have half a billion monthly active users in 126 countries and Candy Crush is big on mobile (60% users are female) representing about a third of King's total revenue. It started on Facebook.

Needing approvals, it should go through early 2016 but just shows you how valuable online gaming has become.

The Sun brings down its Paywall.

'The Sun' UK newspaper has scrapped its paywall. Instead it's offering all of their website content for free following the appointment recently of Rebekah Brooks.

It's the biggest selling UK tabloid and has had a paywall since mid-2013 with over 30 million monthly unique visitors. 

So clearly the view here is that subs aren't as lucrative as Digital Advertising opportunities. 

By maximising viewers in taking down the paywall, they'll maximise digital advertising as Mail online have done. It's estimated that already it has brought in another 800,000+ viewers a day.

Lessons here....

Numbers Down for Republican CNBC Debate. But still a record!

The Republican Presidential Debate of Wednesday, gets lower viewer numbers for CNBC.

14 million viewers on average.....but that's down on the previous Fox debates of 23/24 million. CNN's Democratic Debate got 15 million+.

Still, it broke CNBC records. 
It was their most watched programme ever.

They had sold out airtime at 250k usd for 30 seconds. Good value? Absolutely on any cpt basis. Just looking at online activity and notably YouTube views, seems to be pretty low.

But there again, it was pretty dull....except for this 'cage match' bit....

What we're listening to. Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

There's a super documentary going about, showing the making of Tubular Bells in 1973. Well worth a watch and you'll see it an the end of this (BBC).

A shy 19 year old, Mike Oldfield, created and played (pretty much) the whole Album (which has no vocals except Viv Stanshall announcing the instruments) around basically, one tune. 

The instruments were layered over an 16 track (!) in a place called 'The Manor' which Richard Branson used as a "hot bed" for musicians. John Cale, The Stranglers recorded there and indeed, Van's 'Wavelength' but it has been closed since and now a country home. 

The Fender Telecaster using by Oldfield, had belonged to Marc Bolan and in fact, the Tubular Bells he used, had been left over from a John Cale recording session. Betcha' didn't know that! 

Of course too, what made the Album infamous, was that it was the first big break by Richard Branson's new Virgin Records (catalogues as V2001) although the documentary makes clear, our Richard wasn't exactly a big music head, just a businessman. 

It was infamous too, that snippets (the piano solo) of the Album were used in The Exorcist Movie.

Oldfield performed it at the UK 2012 Opening ceremony for The Olympics but he was never a big live performer even when the Album came out. Now 62, he still comes across both as a nice bloke and hugely talented. The "Fame thing" got to him and he never really duplicated the success but then, how could you. 

The Album nearly went into obscurity. It was released for a year and becoming forgotten before Sales started to take off and sell it did. Massively. 

Really nice addition to any record collection and great music in an Office, or anywhere. That's not to denigrate it one jot - it is a gem. 

Streamabout people loved it anyway....the opening just sends you off.

And here's the doc. If you've time, you'll enjoy it....

Digital Advertising, Digital Video marches on as Traditional Media doesn't. Sea Change.

Not that it will come as any great surprise, but according to Business Insider, Digital Advertising is to continue its march - and change the face of Advertising/Media.

Mobile will show fastest growth +25%, Video Advertising will overtake Search (Yipee!) +22%, Social Media will grow +14% and of course Programmatic Buying will rise.

BUT, wait for it...... Traditional Media will remain flat until 2020. And that makes perfect sense because Digital delivers guaranteed Results, Traditional is 'hit and miss'.

There can be little doubt that Traditional Media is dying. And the practitioners of it, notably those who've been rubbishing Digital, will go with it.

A Sea Change. At last. 

Streamabout creates video and places it. Just a by the way......

TV airtime Trumped.

Interesting to see that Politics is becoming good business for the TV networks...

CNBC has seemingly sold out its airtime for today's Republican Presidential Debate. 250k usd for 30 seconds, 5 times the usual rate and +25% more than the last debate.

They bring in about 25 million viewers although the Hilary Democratic debates only get about 14 million. 

Of course, there's one big factor for the Republicans.
Trump.

What we're listening to. Neil Young 'Harvest'.

'After the Goldrush' (1970) has already got a spot in what "we're listening to" and now Neil gets a second time.

'Harvest' is from 1972 and features The London Symphony Orchestra (honest guv) and was the best selling Album that year. No surprise because 'Heart of Gold' became every new guitar player's first lesson. The harmonica opening is just iconic. 

That's James Taylor too, doing backing vocals.

'Needle and the damage done' is actually recorded live and listen closely, you'll hear the audience clap at the start. 'A man needs a maid' is a cracking track as is 'Old Man' (for Young's old caretaker buddy). The older you get, the more cracking it becomes. 

This Album is Folk but it's Country. Mellow and charming. People in Streamabout have seen him live three times and not impressed, although he has a good reputation for gigs. Funny that. 

CSN are on there too but by this time they'd fallen out really since 1970 but go back together in '74. Young is Canadian by the way and 70. A really prolific songwriter and a leader.  

And Harvest is so well worth a look. It fits beautifully with 'After The Goldrush' as must haves, in any self-respecting record collection.

Heart of Gold, hear you go. 1971 (and look at the views. 47m+....)

What we're listening to this week. Led Zep 4.

There's very little argument out there, about what is the definitive Led Zeppelin Album. It's Led Zep IV (4).

Now you might not like the Band as such, or like heavier rock, but this is worth a listen and we loved it in Streamabout for a change. 

Of course, what made it famous was 'Stairway to Heaven' the iconic song of the 70's probably but 'Battle of Evermore', 'Rock and Roll', 'Going to California' are terrific too.

It was the Band's 4th album (obviously) from 1971 but you've probably never noted, it has no title and not on the cover which was hotly contested at the time between Page and the Record Company. Not only that, the Album sleeve has no notes or printing of any kind. 

So it just became known as Led Zep 4 only because it was their fourth whilst in fact, it's an Album without a name (actually, there's a song in that about a horse....). See? lots of interesting stuff here! 

The 19th century painting on the front cover was bought in a local shop by vocalist Robert Plant and photographed on a derelict building wall to contract the old and the new. 

Produced by legendary guitarist Jimmy Page (nearly as good as Ritchie Blackmore but pipped at the post we'd say), it's still one of the biggest selling Albums of all time. 

Page, Plant, Bassist John Paul Jones (real name John Baldwin I kid you not) and Drummer John Bonham (who died at 32 in 1980 having taken a lot of alcohol and choked) were the Band. And this is their best moment.

Hard to listen to the Album and not be invigorated. 

We are all a bit tired of 'Stairway to Heaven', and you'll know it well, but it does sum up the record. 

So what we have here is another version which is deadly cool from Rodrigo and Gabriela (which in turn helped make them famous). Have a listen you'll love it!

Facebook close the gap on YouTube.

Facebook are really pushing Video.

And to be fair, they're very much at the forefront of Video developments. With 4 Billion Video views a day (from their earnings call in April 2015) they're now getting close to YouTube (Google).

Although Facebook deliver Video better than YouTube because of the relevance of placing video in defined News feeds on Facebook. It's better than searching and advertisers get what they need.

They're now experimenting with 'Suggested Video' as a feature where users watch one video and then get offered similar videos that might be of interest - and therefore, growing video views, growing video revenue.

They're also looking at better ways to display video like 'floating' in news feeds.

Streamabout make and place, Video. We know the market and we do know that the video explosion is in no small way thanks to Facebook. 

Good on them.

What we're listening to. David Bowie 'David Live'.

Watching 'The Martian' in 3D (by the way, if it has Ridley Scott written on it, it's always good) and up comes Bowie's 'Starman' on the soundtrack. Which makes you want to put on Bowie and so we did.

Actually, he's David Jones in fact and changed it because he was confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees. And you won't know that Bowie was a session man and did the backing vocals on Lou Reed's 'Transformer' (take a walk on the wild side...).

I know people talk about great records like 'PinUps', 'Ziggy Stardust', 'Heroes', 'Aladdin Sane', 'Diamond Dogs' and 'Hunky Dory' as classics but we keep going back to David 'Live'. 

Two reasons really....one an overwhelming need to play 'Rebel Rebel' loud, which is superb here as is a great salsa version of 'Jean Genie'.

Mind you, there's an almost equally cracking version of 'Rebel Rebel' that opens the 'Reality' Album (2003). Well worth checking that out and he hasn't done a live gig since 2006.

Another reason to give 'David Live' the vote is that they're all here - '1984', 'Changes', 'Suffragette City', 'Aladdin Sane', 'Space Oditty', 'Diamond Dogs' and 'Jean Genie' - so it's a great overall intro to Bowie.

From a 1974 gig in Philadelphia (he didn't really breakthrough until 'Fame' in 1975), this marking the end of his 'Ziggy' time and problems with Coke. 

The Album didn't do very well critically but was strong enough commercially. It came out as a double Album and we think it's much better now, looking back. Really better.

In fact, sometimes it's worth buying an Album for one track alone and if that's the case, 'Rebel Rebel' is worth it as you'll hear on the link below (track 2 in the first part). 

It's also good to be reminded of genius and that, he was. No question. The heart of British rock and roll.