John McDermott

Category: media blog

  • Amazon Prime Music goes live

    Amazon Prime Music goes live

    I am a big-time Amazon Prime fan, and I like the idea of this service.  I haven’t tried it for mobile yet, but will in the next few days.  As for the idea, I like that I get it “free” and don’t really care about not having the most recent music.  I don’t know how that would work out for my kids, but I don’t mind.

    Amazon is also saying these lists are curated.  I’d like to know more about that – so far it looks like it’s just simple Top 50’s.  Maybe that’s the interface, maybe I am just dense.

    I’ll play around with this one in the next few days.  The Streaming Wars are lots of fun to follow, and I’m excited to see another player jump in.

    From the press release:

     

    With Prime Music, Prime members have unlimited, ad-free access to over a million songs at no additional cost to their membership. Prime Music includes tens of thousands of albums from top artists like Daft Punk, P!nk, Bruno Mars, Blake Shelton, The Lumineers, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. And we’re just getting started—more music is being added all the time. Prime members can choose exactly which songs and albums to listen to, or they can sit back and listen to hundreds of expert-programmed Prime Playlists. Discovering music is easy thanks to Amazon’s personalized recommendations. Music fans will find tons of music they’ll love, from Grammy winners to indie breakout singers, along with a huge music catalog that can easily be combined with their own collection. Prime members can also download songs from the Prime Music catalog to their mobile devices for offline playback on planes, trains and anywhere they’re without an internet connection.

    via Amazon Media Room: Press Releases.

  • Father’s Day Comedy Playlist

    Father’s Day Comedy Playlist

    louis ck

    I have been doing these the past few weeks…hope you enjoy this one.

  • Comedy Playlist for week of June 8

    Comedy Playlist for week of June 8

    fantastic four

    I did this last weekend (I missed spinning comedy, it’s hard to get it out of your system after ten years). Hope you enjoy it via Spotify.

  • 20 years since the 50th anniversary of D-Day?

    20 years since the 50th anniversary of D-Day?

    d-day 50th anniversary

    Time flies.

    Back in 1994 I was a punk kid producer working with John R. Gambling on the long-running Rambling with Gambling.

    I clearly remember putting together the broadcast for the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

    We were working on an audio montage.  This was back in the days before digital editing.  You’d “cart up” all the individual pieces you needed, hit record on the reel to reel and give it a shot.

    John was unhappy with the mixes that the engineer made, and with mine.

    So he sat down at the board himself and nailed it.

    This 24 year old was IMPRESSED.  The idea that this guy (John was probably about 44 which is what I am now) could sit down and do this was amazing.  I thought he was “just” a host, but JRG told me about his days coming up and how he did a lot of engineering and technical stuff.

    So “John R” (as the older folks called him, to differentiate from his father John A. Gambling) nailed the mix and that was the one we went with.

    Not the most amazing story, hut I can’t believe it was twenty years ago, and that a lot of the people who were in charge of things when I was cutting my teeth are now retired.

     

  • WHCI Drops Comedy – can the format work on AM/FM? Yeah….

    WHCI Drops Comedy – can the format work on AM/FM? Yeah….

    TJ Miller

    RadioInsight — WCHI Drops Comedy

    Sorry to hear that another AM/FM (they seem to be mainly AMs) has dropped the comedy format.  It has always been a challenge to do this over-the-air because of the FCC limits…but there is a way to do it.  (Take look at my portfolio of work as the most experienced programmer in the format, then call me, 917.833.5983, I can’t give that one away for free.)

    ICYMI here is this week’s Comedy Playlist.  This one was not made for AM/FM nor is it particularly curated…just some cool comics I felt like sharing.

  • Another CarPlay demo…oh look it’s every baseball game

    carplay in a ferrari

     

    Kind of cool to see that MLB App there.  That’s one of my favorites.  Will we see an NFL version?

  • How long should your YouTube video be if you want it to be watched?

    Here’s a really cool study of YouTube videos from Social Bakers.

     

     

    The most commonly viewed videos are 31–60s long (32% of all views)

    The shortest videos are generally the least commonly watched

    Videos longer than 5 minutes are the next least commonly watched, but that does not hold true for all industries.

    Despite there being fewer videos in the 31 to 60 second range than in the 61 to 90 second range, the former category took on more views than the latter.

    via YouTube For Smart Social Marketers | Social Media Statistics & Metrics | Socialbakers.

  • Comedy Playlist for week of June 1

    Comedy Playlist for week of June 1

    Jimmy Fallon

    I missed having the chance to spin my favorite comedians, so I made this. No real rhyme or reason other than here’s an hour of good stuff to listen to via Spotify.

  • iTunes radio to add local ads and local AM-FMs?

    iTunes radio to add local ads and local AM-FMs?

    spock

    I know I have been posting about iTunes radio a lot…but stuff keeps coming out.  Again I will use the Spock “fascinating” eyebrow as the featured image.

    Apple has plans to add both targeted local advertisements and broadcast radio stations to its iTunes Radio music service in the coming months, according to a report from The Information.

    via Apple to Bolster iTunes Radio With Localized Ads, Content – Mac Rumors.

    Let’s see…ways to make money off local ads and selling “records”…and a device that is in a lot of hands…and a ton of cash to spend on content if they want…coolness factor with Beats/Dre/Iovine….

    …pay attention

  • Amazon Prime streaming with six month old songs?

    Amazon Prime streaming with six month old songs?

    spock

    So the initial reaction is to stomp your feet and be mad about the six month thing.  On the other hand, how many of us listen to classics/hits/music from when we were 15, etc.  Maybe it doesn’t really matter to a lot of us?

    Once again I bust out the Mr. Spock fascinating eyebrow.

     

    The Prime music service, which is scheduled to launch this June or July, will not include recent releases but instead restrict its catalog to songs and albums that are 6 months old and older, five music industry sources familiar with the company’s plans confirmed to BuzzFeed.

    via Exclusive: Amazon Prime To Offer Music Streaming Service — With 6-Month-Old Songs.