News in today that Kazaa will follow rivals Napster by legitimizing and moving to a subscription based service. This must be good news for the entertainment industry who is still struggling with ways to muscle through the problems they perceive with illegal downloading and sharing of content by imposing bigger fines and greater sophistication in digital rights management and copy protection.

I just had lunch yesterday with two leading executives from one of the big TelCos, who looked on me with suspicion when I suggested the following notion: “people will do the right thing, if you give people them opportunity to do so through an enjoyable and transparent experience”. I referenced iTunes, and they response almost suggested that it was a fad, because Apple are not a music/entertainment company, only enforcing the notion that duopolies are bad and innovation is key to a sustainable future.

But beyond the argument over financial models, what interests me here is a lifestyle change where I no longer have media stored locally, whether it’s in the form of hard media such as CDs or a hard drive full of digital files. Rather, the subscription based, all you can eat model, keeps everything remotely for you to draw on as you choose, constantly pushing towards virtual computing and cloud services to deliver them. Perhaps this is what the telecoms companies should be focusing on instead of exercising the strong arm of the law on every petty (download) thief?

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I was horrified to read this morning that Walkmart was pushing through policy that would force the brands it sells in its stores to proportion some of their media spend to Walmart run campaigns. There’s already alot of ‘cajoling’ when it comes to getting your brands positioned on shelves and now you have to commit a, potentially, large part of your budget to their media strategies. Ad Age estimated that someone like P&G would have to divert approximately $1 Billion – th idea being that Walmart makes up 30% of P&Gs total sales and, therefore, they should divert 30% pf their media spend to Walmart!!

Is this legal?

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• Just launched: http://www.hdeverything.co.uk/3D/ #
• http://vimeo.com/3069795 #
• http://bit.ly/adjQS #

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Many have exploited the accessibility and affordability of online video, most have done it poorly including those brands with big budgets. Occasionally, however, we see a great example of relevant, compelling and aspiring content that is, ultimately, good advertising. Inspired Bicycles of the UK, have a produced a lo-fi video featuring one of their sponsored riders Danny MacAskill and delivered it via YouTube.

Perfectly targeted to their demographic and even entertaining/interesting to the rest of us unwilling and unable to perform such feats, it still proves that Digital is a space where every brand can play.

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What an amazing location for our second Last Exit Presents!

The Royal Court Theatre on Sloane Square, in the heart of London’s Chelsea, has an elegant and traditional 130 year old Victorian facade, yet everyting that happens inside is far from the traditional.

The theatre has become known as a hotbed for generations of talented actors and playwrights – the shaping of the ‘angry young men’ is a phrase synonymous with the work of this contemporary institution.

In the words of Diane Borger, Associate Producer at the theatre, the Royal Court is a ‘point of view’, a powerful ’set of opinions’ which happily takes sides, challenges taboos as well as the critics. Diane’s explaination was amplified by the words of two of the theatres youngest and most promising playwrights, who also spoke to our audience of guests.

Levi David Addai talked passionately about how he could never have imagined the theatre as his ‘home’, back in his early life in London’s deprived area of Lewisham. Another exciting young playwright, David Watson also hailed the Royal Court as a unique place to write and explore the telling of personal stories. “You may love or hate the end results on stage, but you will always get noticed” said David.

The huge number of thank you emails we have received from guests attending the event have left us in do doubt that ‘Inside Out at the Royal Court’ was a fantastic evening for our second Last Exit Presents!

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Surely the best Olympics identities yet?

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• I just reached level 2. #spymaster http://bit.ly/playspy #
• I just killed @missmonkey in an assassination plot. #spymaster http://bit.ly/playspy #
• I just wounded @khanomann in an assassination attempt. #spymaster http://bit.ly/playspy #

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So like a lot of geeks today I read the tweets and live blogs about the rumor that a new iPhone would appear.  No disappointment – Apple smacked the ball out of the park.  They reacted perfectly to the market conditions:  keep innovating through the recession, drop prices where you can and provide lower cost entry points into the product families.

I owned the first gen iPhone, bought the 3G last year and was about to buy the new iPhone 3G S.  $299 for the new one? No problem.  One small problem though, the at&t small print:

For non-qualified customers, including existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $499 (8GB), $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB).

So my reward for having been an at&t customer for 6 years and bought both iPhones?  A $400 premium.

F**k you at&t.  This is why as soon as Verizon get’s iPhone, you are toast.

For more understanding of why this happens read this Wikipedia article on Monopoly Rent.  Essentially certain economic conditions allow companies to take the piss out of consumers.  The problem is that whilst they have tremendous leverage over the consumer with the demand this device will draw, we still have a choice.

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• This agency is not amused by the Champions League final result. #

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• Great coverage from iMedia Connection. Apparently we’re hot!
  http://tinyurl.com/qn3la5 #

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