Kein Praktikum zu vergeben

Es gibt keinen Grund, unbezahlt zu arbeiten. Nicht in kleinen “aufstrebenden und spannenden” Unternehmen, die mit Lohnsklaven, die als “Praktikant” getarnt werden, überdecken, dass sie es selbst nicht drauf haben oder ihr Geschäftsrisiko auf Lohnsklaven übertragen und auch nicht für größere Unternehmen, die mit “viel Erfahrung, spannenden Kunden und anderem Blabla” werben, denn wenn es so ist, dann müssten sie auch das Geld haben, Dich zu bezahlen.

Source: Kein Praktikum zu vergeben |

Animated Infographic of the Film Market – Sundance

Regarding the section on piracy in the Animated Infographic article on Cultural Weekly:

I know all the wrong arguments surround piracy and how and why they are wrong and specious.

Except one argument: the one about being able to access the films at all.

If there was a simple way of paying to view current films that aren’t being released in my country at all (and a lot of what is being shown at Sundance falls into that category), I would take it. And I can not imagine, that removing the theaters, distributors and marketing from the cost side, that it would be more than 3 to 5 bucks to view the film at home.

As an industry insider, I would love to be able to at least virtually take part in Sundance, but I understand that this makes the IRL cinema world even less financially viable.

Complicated new world indeed.

Source: Cultural Weekly

Weekend reading: The Fake Traffic Schemes That Are Rotting the Internet

For anyone doing business on the internet, the article below is essential reading.

This paragraph made me chuckle:

In September, after Bloomberg Businessweek asked Viant about its content, Myspace players began showing non-placeholder videos. But if the counters embedded in the players are accurate, those placeholders are some of the most watched clips in Internet history. Hitboy has amassed 690 million views. Even bigger is Surfing, which looks like someone butt-dialed a video: five seconds of black screen with some muffled background noise. According to the Myspace counter, Surfing has been viewed 1.5 billion times. That would make it bigger than any YouTube video in history—with the exception of Gangnam Style.

So, basically what the music industry has been saying for _years_ is, that music and music videos are one of the biggest drivers of traffic on the internet. Yet, the music isn’t generating any revenue to speak of anymore.

I personally suspect, that a lot of the “free culture” and “free information” and “creative common” folks around the web are either cleverly programmed AIs or (more likely) the cheap labor workforce  reposting standard thoughts and arguments in order to keep their employers properties relevant.

 

An exclusive investigation into the bots that will cost companies over $6 billion this year

Source: The Fake Traffic Schemes That Are Rotting the Internet

 

Enabling of Ad Blocking in Apple’s iOS 9 Prompts Backlash – The New York Times

There is a small revolution going on at the moment. The very successful and great content creators of the internet start to understand how their business model actually works.

These are the same people who have turned a blind eye for years at the issues surrounding music and the monetizing of music.

They kept saying: look for a new business model, look for a new business model, look for a new business model, look for a new…

I don’t mind them and their content going away. Even if it’s the New York Times.

What I like to see come back is a business model between creators and end users based on open and transparent transactions: I use your content, I pay you directly for it. Either up front and can keep the content or transparently per use.

But the new middle men are much much worse than the old labels used to be.

Apps that block all ads are threatening some web publishers’ livelihoods, which in turn could threaten some content on the web.

Source: Enabling of Ad Blocking in Apple’s iOS 9 Prompts Backlash – The New York Times

On looking back

I read this in an article about journalism but it applies just as well to music, film and any other media whose business model is severly threatened by the internet:

The only way to find the future is to experiment, and negativity is not productive. If you don’t have the answer yourself, you are free to take your pessimism, hush it, and go sit with the folks in the corner sobbing over their VHS tapes and broken records. To entrepreneurs, I say: More power to you!