Get For Free !!!: 10/8 L.A. Times Tech Blog

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Crystal Harris, the Playmate behind Playboy Hugh Hefner's Twitter profile
October 7, 2009 at 9:15 pm

Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner is 83 years old. He doesn't own a cellphone or spend any significant amount of time on the computer.

How could someone so disconnected from technology post several tweets a day and garner more than 100,000 Twitter followers?

He has his beautiful blond girlfriend to thank.

Crystal Harris, the costar on the new season of Playboy's E! TV show "The Girls Next Door" and one of Hefner's three new girlfriends, Twitters her lover's musings.

"He writes them down, and Crystal tweets them," said Kristina Shannon, one of Hefner's twin girlfriends, in an interview last week at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.

"Or Amanda in the office," Hefner chimed in, "if someone forgets," he said affectionately.

Celebrities, including Britney Spears and 50 Cent, have gotten flak in the past for having staffers Twitter for them. But if they're actually coming from Hefner, as they assert, via his gorgeous lady friend, we'll let it slide.

Playboy is selectively welcoming technologies into its home. Some new -- for example, the company has a cutting-edge film crew that records every interview Hefner does. Some old -- like the video-game arcade next to the mansion, complete with Playboy-branded pinball machines. Take a tour of the arcade below.

-- Mark Milian

Follow my commentary on technology and social media on Twitter @mmilian.

The music industry outlook: still grim
October 7, 2009 at 8:05 pm

How low can the music industry go? Analysts speaking at Digital Music Forum West in Hollywood this afternoon suggested that there's more pain ahead for the industry -- much more. On the other hand, they said it's not necessarily a bad time for artists, and things couldn't be better for fans.

Here are a few of the data points thrown out by NPD Group's Russ Crupnick, BigChampagne's Eric Garland and Topspin's James Lamberti:

Fewer consumers are buying music, and the ones who do buy are spending less per year, Crupnick said. The number of buyers fell from about 153 million in 2006 to about 132 million in 2008, with per capita spending dropping from $44 a year to $35. And despite the rapid growth of digital downlads, almost two-thirds of music consumers purchase CDs only. About a quarter buy both CDs and downloads, and 10% are download only, Crupnick said.

He then offered an even gloomier statistic. Although the number of people buying downloadable music is growing, the amount they're spending on average is flattening. And the amount spent each year by repeat buyers dropped from $50 in 2007 to $46 in 2009. Why? One factor is the proliferation of free, advertiser-supported music services, which Crupnick said are cannibalizing digital sales.

Garland said that the optimistic assumption underlying the industry's digital strategies proved not to be true -- as buyers have shifted from full albums to singles, the lower prices per unit haven't prompted them to spend more on music. As a result, total U.S. music revenues have fallen over the last decade from more than $14 billion to just above $8 billion, the lowest level since 1991.

Like Crupnick, Garland noted how much more popular free streams are than paid downloads. Chart-topping songs sell a few hundred thousand downloads weekly, which is less than 10% of the number of times those songs are streamed -- and that's just on legal services. And the industry isn't having much success converting those free listeners into paying customers, Garland added.

Lamberti's outlook was more optimistic, but not necessarily about music sales. Topspin is a music marketing firm that specializes in helping artists promote and sell their products online. The Internet presents a tremendous opportunity for artists and labels to identify and serve a band's biggest fans, offering bundles of goods and premium-priced packages with high profit margins. Topspin artists are seeing average revenue of $18 per transaction, he said -- significantly higher than what a digital download or even a full album would command.

But Lamberti also said that it's important for artists to give music away. Not all of it, necessarily, but real MP3s, not 30-second samples or free streams. Those who do have significantly more success converting listeners into paying customers, he said. The right course is to spend time investing in the relationship between artists and fans, so that relationship can be monetized later.

Another essential, Lamberti said, is to cut costs. In dozens of tests, Topspin found that the money spent on marketing had a negative return on the investment. In other words, it was dollars wasted.

Oddly enough, the panelists' comments didn't deflate the mood in the room. Rather, the underlying message was that there are promising paths for artists and labels to take. They just can't rely on the masses to spend a lot of money building their music collections.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division.

CTIA: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski poses framework for regulating wireless industry
October 7, 2009 at 6:12 pm

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

After three months on the job as President Obama's chief telecommunications regulator, Julius Genachowski concluded, "It's all about mobile."

At least that's what he told attendees at the CTIA wireless conference in San Diego this morning. The Federal Communications Commission chairman outlined four priorities as a sort of framework for how the Obama administration will regulate the market for mobile Internet service.

Calling it his "MBA plan" (mobile broadband agenda), Genachowski laid out the priorities:

Add more spectrum capacity to handle the coming explosion of Internet traffic from smart phones and wireless laptops. From uploading and watching video on phones to accessing electronic textbooks, the uses of wireless connectivity are expected to zoom thirtyfold in the next five years, while capacity is projected to grow only threefold, leading to what Genachowski called a "looming spectrum crisis." He proposes two solutions: making more efficient use of the current network and freeing up more airwaves such as the ones the FCC auctioned off last year.
Remove red tape to allow wireless carriers to build their networks faster. Genachowski vowed that his agency would expedite requests to put up cell towers, help clear spectrum and clarify policies on issues such as roaming, a statement that drew applause from the audience.
Codify and enforce so-called net neutrality policies. Reiterating his previous statements, Genachowski said he favored regulations that would prohibit carriers from delivering some content faster than others. Though most of today's Internet traffic goes through wired cable of DSL services, a fast-growing portion of data also happens over cellphone networks. In a nod to the wireless industry, Genachowski acknowledged that there should be different sets of rules for wireless companies than for wired cable and DSL businesses.
Operate more openly. He called for a "fact-based, data-driven" open dialogue with industry executives.

One industry bigwig, AT&T's mobility and consumer markets chief, Ralph de la Vega, took Genachowski up on the offer. De la Vega's message: The wireless industry ain't broke, so don't go trying to fix it.

-- Alex Pham

Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.

Judge sets November deadline for revised Google book deal
October 7, 2009 at 12:59 pm

A New York judge overseeing the long-running case in which a group of authors and publishers sued Google over the company's attempt to obtain digital rights to millions of books ruled that the parties must submit a revised settlement agreement to the court by Nov. 9.

The previous agreement was scuttled last month when federal regulators notified the court that the pact may have been vulnerable to antitrust and copyright concerns. The Department of Justice filed an amicus brief after a wave of critics -- including authors, libraries and watchdog groups -- complained that the agreement was unfair.

A plaintiffs lawyer said the sides had been working "around the clock," and that the amended agreement would address the issues raised by the Justice Department, according to the Associated Press.

-- David Sarno