Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

Category: Rant

  • Stop Same Sex Marriage

    Stop Same Sex Marriage

    … the term. By delineating it with its own term, you imply that it’s somehow different than “regular”, heterosexual marriage. The gay and bisexual couples I’ve met in my professional and personal life have had relationships just like I’ve had as a heterosexual male. Using the term same-sex marriage to me implies that it’s different, and should be treated differently in the eyes of the law, the same way that any hyphenated-American automatically separates that group of people from an unbranded American.

    Either you’re married or you’re not. Either you’re American or you’re not. Any additional qualifiers are just noise designed to distract and confuse.

    Should certain groups of people be prohibited from getting married? Swap out any term and see how well it flies.

    Should black people be prohibited from marrying? Same-race marriage.
    Should elderly people be prohibited from marrying? Same-age marriage.
    Should poor people be prohibited from marrying? Same-economic-status marriage.
    Should Catholic people be prohibited from marrying? Same-religion marriage.

    Want to start changing minds? Start by changing your own. Eliminate the confusion around marriage and the term same-sex marriage by not using that term any longer. Call it what it is.

    Bigotry.

  • Is C.C. Chapman a Podcaster?

    Is C.C. Chapman a podcaster? Does he produce podcasts? Recently, I tried out the Songbird browser, which is part iTunes clone, part Firefox. When you browse any web page with MP3 links and/or RSS feeds, Songbird brings up a panel, kind of like iTunes’ mini-store, that lets you listen to the MP3s, download them (or queue them for batch download), and subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s a podcast producer’s dream browser in a way – instant connection for the audience members who want to listen right now, who want to subscribe, or who want to queue up selected shows for later listening. I decided to point it at a couple of web pages – my own, of course, at the Financial Aid Podcast, and I was rewarded with my most recent shows.

    Now, before I continue, I should clarify something. C.C. Chapman is not only a good friend and a brilliant guy, he’s also the Podfather of New England. C.C. started the first podcasting group in the area as podcasting was just getting started, and that became the New England Podcasting network. He’s unquestionably not only a podcaster, but a podcasting pioneer.

    I decided, let’s check out C.C.’s show, Accident Hash. Since I’ve been a little hard on Podshow recently, I figured I’d show off Songbird pointing to C.C.’s page on Podshow Plus – AccidentHash.Podshow.com, show a little love. Was I surprised. C.C. is not a podcaster. There’s no MP3s to download, no RSS feed to subscribe to, no way to get the show, his show, right then and there.

    CC Chapman is not a podcaster

    I headed over to AccidentHash.com, and found that on his own site, C.C. is a podcaster. MP3s, RSS, the full deal.

    CC Chapman is a podcaster

    So, in the tradition of trying to help Podshow Suck Less, I offer this suggestion to the development team at Podshow – on Podshow podcasters’ home pages on Podshow Plus, put links to the MP3s and RSS feeds – use the Auto-Discovery links so that browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Songbird, and Google Desktop-enabled browsers can find and subscribe right then and there. It’s a fast, easy way to quickly get new listeners.

    Nothing is more transient than a web site visitor. You’re lucky to get 5 seconds of their attention. If they can’t be rolling with the Podshow podcast they presumably came by to tune into immediately, they’re gone – and that listener may never come back. If you need the syntax for the auto-discovery, use this HTML:

    <link rel= "alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title ="RSS 2.0" href ="https://www.accidenthash.com/feed/" />

    This goes between the <head></head> section of the page and lets any browser find the RSS feed of choice. Please help C.C. Chapman become a podcaster again.

  • Podshow's Gold Mine, the RIAA, Sound Exchange, and sucking less

    Time to turn the Podshow discussion more positive with an idea they can execute on, instead of just complaining. One of my many causes is helping podsafe independent artists as much as I can, and this year I’ve been fortunate to be part of two projects to do that – Bum Rush the Charts (yes, still waiting on IODA to get me sales data) and Virtual Hot Wings.

    A few friends and I were standing around in CC Chapman’s U Turn Cafe in Second Life the other night and had an idea the other night that I would LOVE for someone at Podshow to steal/use/borrow/make. Podshow is the only company that can legally execute on the idea because they own the PMN.

    From the PMN license for artists:

    “Broadcast” means Work or an acceptable Derivative Work thereof that is played publicly for the benefit of interested listeners, and particularly when such Work is played by a listener accessing a digital file such as a podcast or streaming media file.

    3. You hereby waive the following rights to any and all musical compositions:
    a. the right to recover performance royalties under blanket licenses, including the right to collect such royalties individually or through a performance rights society.
    b. the right to recover mechanical rights or statutory royalties.
    c. the right to recover any royalty that may be applicable for public digital performance of the Work, such as webcasting or podcasting.

    From the PMN license for podcasters:

    “Broadcast” means Work or an acceptable Derivative Work thereof that is played publicly for the benefit of interested listeners, and particularly when such Work is played by a listener accessing a digital file such as a podcast or streaming media file.

    2. Subject to these Terms of Use, You are hereby granted the following world-wide, non-transferable, non-exclusive, royalty-free rights
    a. the right, and to access the Music database and reproduce each Work included therein for the purpose of Broadcasting the Work, including the right to use and incorporate each Work into a Collective Work, which may itself be Broadcast.
    c. the right to create and distribute webcasts and Podcasts that contain the Works

    What am I getting at? The PMN contract overrides the statutory royalty issues that SoundExchange and the RIAA have been nailing Internet radio/streaming radio stations with. By my read, as long as you are a valid, registered podcasting member of the PMN, you can play podsafe music and NOT have to pay SoundExchange/RIAA. If you run an Internet radio station, record all your shows with podsafe music from the PMN and publish them as podcasts as well, and you get to stay in business and not pay SoundExchange a cent.

    Pandora’s been making noise about going bye-bye due to increased web radio rates. A lot of other small Internet radio stations are saying the same. The law around SoundExchange is that it is a compulsory license – if you don’t have any other form of licensing, you MUST pay up to the RIAA, whether or not the artist ever sees a dime of the revenue. The law also states that the compulsory license can be overridden with a license directly from the artist, and Podshow has that license with the PMN.

    So the idea can go one of three ways:

    1. Give/sell/rent/grant Pandora a license to use the music on the PMN under the terms of the PMN license. This effectively ends their liability for royalties to SoundExchange, AND provides a great tool for exposure to podsafe artists.

    2. Built an equivalent Pandora-esque system using PMN artists.

    3. Alert every single streaming internet radio station in the United States and wherever draconian RIAA-sponsored laws apply that with a registration to the PMN as a broadcaster, they too can eliminate SoundExchange royalties as long as they only play podsafe music from the PMN.

    It also almost goes without saying that Podshow should be negotiating playlist time with lots of small, independent internet radio stations for its contracted podcasters, because those podcasts on the air also incur no SoundExchange penalties. Get Accident Hash or In Over Your Head on the hundreds of college radio stations, web stations, etc. so that not only are more people exposed to podcasting, but the Podshow family of podcasters also gets more promotion.

    So, to Joe Carpenter, Adam Curry, Jersey Todd, and everyone else involved in music at Podshow who was party to the last discussion about Podshow, here’s an opportunity to single-handedly save internet radio, earn goodwill, promote the PMN, and most of all, help podsafe artists all at once.

    This one’s on the house. Go to it, guys!

  • Here is what is wrong with Podshow (and maybe how to fix it)

    Here is what is wrong with Podshow (and maybe how to fix it)

    I’ve been collecting Twitters from folks about Podshow’s campaign:

    Mike Yusi: Is anyone else on Podshow getting emails complaining about the new openings?
    P. W. Fenton: Better question: Is anyone not?
    P_Dub: Some podcasters have avoided putting out podcasts until the one minute “suck less” goes away.
    Mike Yusi: P Dub: I actually got someone that said they weren’t going to listen to any more of my shows until they change it.
    C. C. Chapman: @UCRadio – I have already lost some listeners due to it.
    Rob Usdin: Podshow needs to use the radio model – have 5-10 different spots ready to go at the get-go – rotate them. Less listener fatigue.
    Rob Usdin: @P_Dub: See my comment to noebie re: having multiple spots ready at one time. Want me to listen? Make it so I have a reason to.
    Ranslow: I listen to a lot of podcasts from Podshow. The new intro is annoying after awhile. How about some variation on the theme.
    Matthew Ebel: Hey PodShow… the 60-second Suck Less crap is making me stop listening to your podcasts. CC and R&RG are all that remain on my iPod
    Britney Mason: Wondering if i listen to too many, PodShow Podcasts…They can suckless by coming up withnew plug for Suckless, tired of hearing it already
    Britney Mason: I do luv My PodShow friends, but not sure what knowing how much I make per year has to do with suckingless…
    Britney Mason: PodShow should put together a podcast like bluberry does.. let people know whats going on..be open!
    Britney Mason: Okay then not to turn this into a PodShow pick on session..where does the $25 mill VC go? equipment?

    All of these comments were made publicly on Twitter. They indicate a serious problem in the marketing department and in many ways, in the corporate culture of Podshow. Here’s what is broken about Podshow: Podshow believes it is the most important part of its network.

    It isn’t. Not by a long stretch. What is?

    The podcasters. The people who are providing the content for the network. Podshow has some of the finest, best podcasts online – Lifespring, Managing the Gray, Digital Flotsam, UC Radio, the Jersey Todd Show, Pacific Coast Hellway, Accident Hash, Phedippidations, Geek Brief, the ReMARKable Palate, U Turn Cafe… I could go on for quite some time. The network derives its value from the content its members are providing it, and by extension, the audience that is attracted to that content.

    What’s broken is that Podshow treats its content producers as commodities. What do I mean?

    Example: the Super Panel. You don’t need a Super Panel to tell you what listeners want. Listeners do that already with each of the shows they listen to. Look at the comments on AccidentHash.com. Look at the sales of tracks in iTunes from podsafe artists. Look at the subscriber base, server statistics. Listeners are already telling your content producers what they want, and the most successful shows are listening and changing to fit their audiences’ needs.

    Example: Suck Less. This may have been funny in a conference room somewhere, but hearing Suck anything in front of shows like Lifespring, which has a dedicated, super-family friend focus, or in front of Managing the Gray, a business show that has executives (like myself) listening, is just inappropriate. Asking your producers, “Hey, what do you think of this new campaign?” before you start putting it in front of their shows is not only a good idea, it’s also professional courtesy.

    Example: Podshow Plus. I’ve asked many Podshow-contracted producers about the tools they receive when they sign onto the network or how it’s performing. I’ve been told that frankly, there really aren’t any. There’s no indicator of how large the network actually is (44,067 as of 1:50 PM ET 6/1/07) or how fast it’s growing. What’s more, Podshow controls the Podshow Plus platform – why do their content producers, especially the ones under contract, have to manually DIG people like any other user? Why wouldn’t you give them special tools to reach the entire 44,067 registered users to promote your premium shows?

    Example: Contract. Keith and the Girl made quite a show about this, but fundamentally, why wouldn’t Podshow publish a standard contract for everyone to see? At the Student Loan Network, our affiliate contract is public, open, and a matter of record, so prospective affiliates can see what the terms are and whether it’s worth their time to sign up.

    Example: Sirius. Did anyone ever explain to the podcasters WHY the Sirius contract vanished so suddenly?

    How do you fix something like this that’s broken? Change focus. Your podcasters need Podshow for its ability to aggregate advertising dollars across a network, broker deals, do promotion, and provide tools. The function of the podcast network is a lot like a well-run, ethical record label like Binary Star Music. They take care of all the administrative functions for the artist so the artist can focus on making music. They even help the artist improve their music.

    A podcast network needs to do exactly the same and more so. Provide podcasters with great marketing tools – MySpace data managers, mailing list software, podcast widgets, chicklets, blog themes, anything and everything you can use for guerrilla digital marketing. Heck, I give away most of my tools when I present podcast marketing at PodCamps – Podshow should be doing the same thing on a network-wide scale.

    Treat your podcasters not as commodities, but as talent, as rockstars. Make them the rightful stars of their shows with tools like inexpensive press releases, search engine optimization for their show notes, webinars and seminars for them to learn how to improve their shows, and more.

    I have no plans to start a podcast network. I don’t have enough free time as it is. If I were to, however, I’d invest the bulk of my time helping podcasters who joined the network with so many tools that any independent podcaster who wanted to grow their audience as fast and as large as possible would be insane NOT to join the network. Tools, metrics, advertisers, everything I could find to help them be insanely successful immediately, because the more listeners they gathered, the more advertising dollars I could raise.

    Let me also be clear about this: I hold no animosity towards Podshow or any other network except for what it earns. I very, very much want Podshow and ALL podcasters to succeed, to grow, to be able to QYDJ if they so desire, or become new media rockstars. To that end, I want Podshow to suck less by helping their rockstars instead of focusing on the organization itself. The network is nothing without the people who produce for it.

    Bottom line: help your podcasters become the very best they can be, and network growth will take care of itself.

    THAT is how you suck less.

  • What is Podshow doing with your kids?

    This is a serious question. After hearing their promos for the Suck Less program, which appears to be listener demographics, I decided, what the heck, I’ll fill out the survey just for fun. So far, standard stuff – where do you live, what do you do for work, how much money do you make, all things you’d want to do to target marketing to someone. Then we get to the odd questions:

    • Are you of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin?
    • Please indicate your racial/ethnic background (select one or more)
    • How many children do you have: [insert number]
    • Please enter the following information for each of your children:
    • Child #1 Year of birth: [input] This child lives with me [ ]
    • How many children live with you other than the above:
    • Child #1 Year of birth: [input]

    A couple of things. Why not put Hispanic/Latino in the racial background instead of splitting it out? Probably just survey design.

    But this is the big one: Why do you need to know the date of a survey respondents’ childrens birth, and why do you need to know whether they live with you or not?

    If I were a parent, that’s not information I’d willingly divulge to even casual acquaintances, mainly for security reasons. God knows the headlines are full of stories about kids being abducted. Certainly, it’s not information that a security-minded parent would want to divulge on a faceless survey (privacy policy be damned), especially after being asked where you live.

    Even stranger, if I had kids living with me who were not mine, as a responsible custodian, why would I reveal both their presence AND their age?

    What -is- Podshow doing with this information, and who gets access to it?

    Inquiring minds want to know.

    Updated: Download a printout of the survey here.

  • US Airways Customer Service Sucks

    This would be funny if it wasn’t me.

    I’d booked Flight 1091 at 6:30 AM out of Boston to Dayton, Ohio for the Stephen K. Hayes Full Moon of May meditation seminar. Everything seemed fine – e-ticket booked, confirmation email received (Travel Confirmation: B4P74G, ticket 03721357878361, passenger name Christopher Penn in case anyone from US Airways eventually reads this), etc. I get to Logan Airport this morning an hour and change before my flight is supposed to depart, great. Get to the self-service counter to check in, and the machine says, “No seats could be found for this reservation number. Please try again.” A couple more tries of this, and the machine finally spits back, “No seats could be found for this reservation number. Please see an agent at the booking counter.”

    Of course, being Memorial Day weekend, the lines were on the long side, so after a 40 minute wait in line (getting really worried because the flight’s leaving SOON), I see an agent who brusquely tells me, “I’m sorry, we have no record of your reservation.”

    [insert profanity here]

    After expressing things internally, I said, “Okay, so there’s no ticket even though I booked one. When’s the next flight to Dayton?”

    “4:30 PM, getting in at 9 PM.”

    Not much good that will do me, since the 2 day seminar begins at 1 PM and concludes the first day at 9 PM. I head home after cancelling a bunch of reservations and calling my teacher to let him know briefly of the foul-up.

    When I got home, my wife urged me to call the airline and get a refund. So I called them up – 480-693-6735. The audio voice response unit kept telling me to submit a refund request online, and then when I queued up to speak to a customer service agent, the helpful prompt said, “Due to unexpectedly high call volume, your estimated wait time is 47 minutes.”

    I bailed out of there, unwilling to wait 3/4 of an hour on the phone, and instead headed online to submit an electronic refund request. Here’s the email response I got:

    Thank you for submitting your refund request via e-mail. We are experiencing an increase in customer e-mail and are working diligently to respond to all inquiries; however it could take between 45 and 60 days to review your request. If this schedule will not provide a timely response, please contact our Refund Department directly at 480-693-6735. When calling, please have your 13-digit ticket number beginning with either 037 or 401 available.

    Your refund request is subject to additional audit and final approval by the US Airways Refund Department. All refunds are credited to the form of payment of the original ticket.

    Thank you for choosing US Airways.

    I’m sorry, 45 to 60 DAYS to review an email? I could send the email by carrier pigeon one word at a time faster than that.

    Needless to say, I’m beyond pissed at US Airways for terminally poor customer service, and on top of that, I don’t anticipate getting a refund without a struggle, which I’m not looking forward to.

    I’m most amused by the closer: Thank you for choosing US Airways. Yeah, that’s a mistake I won’t make again.

    US Airways, and any airline that’s currently worried about staying in business, here’s a tip: if your business is in trouble, improving the quality of your customer service is the only thing that will save you. Take your entire marketing budget – all of it – and dump it all into customer service, because frankly, that’s where you need the most help. Pay your staff to not be surly, or hire people who aren’t surly, figure out a way to communicate with customers that doesn’t involve hold times approaching geological epochs, and make your damn computers work correctly.

    Here’s my last bit of petty revenge. According to the web site, the customer service fax number is 800-892-3447.

    FAX: 800-892-3447

    I hope junk fax spam bots send you Caribbean vacation offers endlessly. May the junk faxes and scams all use US Airways to book their fraudulent, non-existant offers.
    us airways
    usairways
    us air
    usair

    customerservice

    Epilogue: US Airways eventually extended me a credit for the flight… and a $150 fee to use it. #!@# you, US Airways. I’m glad to see this post is #4 when you Google US Airways customer service.

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  • Dear RIAA: Please get your royalties from terrestrial radio

    Steve from the Wicked Good Podcast points us all to this LA Times article. Short version: the RIAA wants more money, and is tired of radio freeloading off of its content library. They want to extract performance royalties from terrestrial radio just as they want for every other form of media in which their artists are played.

    To which I say:

    You go, RIAA! Please, please, PLEASE demand money from radio stations. Please ask for as much money as you can in your demands from ClearChannel. Please make terrestrial radio PAY!

    Why?

    Because this could be a major opportunity for both podcasting and podsafe musicians. Working together, working as a coalition, we can offer terrestrial radio an alternative to paying huge bills from the RIAA. The arrangement is as clear as day – free play for free promotion. I’ll tell you as a podcaster, and I’ll put it out here publicly, that terrestrial radio stations may play the Financial Aid Podcast free of charge. I hereby waive the non-commercial clause of the Creative Commons license for any FCC-licensed terrestrial radio station. Please play my stuff.

    For podsafe artists – NOW would be a great time to make sure your EPK is looking great. Now would be a great time to make sure that your marketing and sales teams are on hot standby, because if the RIAA successfully overturns the federal exemption on performance royalties, simple economics will favor the podsafe independent artist over the RIAA-signed artist, but you’ve got to have your stuff together, your quality as good or better than what’s currently on commercial radio, and have pre-drafted paperwork for radio stations.

    As with many empires, the downfall of the music industry empire must come from within, and they’re doing a bang up job. Thanks, guys.

  • Power and morality, gas and steering

    I was talking last night with a good friend about something that popped up in Google Earth. There’s a layer that automatically got added – the crisis in Darfur, all the flashpoints in the conflict, and the topic drifted to – how do you make a difference? Ultimately, how do you effect real, lasting change? Will donating? Writing your Congressman?

    Ultimately, the ability to effect change is power. Without power, you cannot effect change, you cannot make a difference. If you have a little bit of power, you can make a little bit of change. If you have a lot, then you can singlehandedly change entire countries or continents. Consider at his apex just how powerful Alan Greenspan was – a single sentence could rocket or sink the economy for days, and create or destroy billions of dollars in wealth.

    That tangent led us to the discussion of power vs. morality. They’re not the same thing, and in the drive in this morning, it finally occurred to me what they were. Morality is the direction you go – the way you steer. Morality is the gas and the engine that takes you there. No power means that you can steer as straight and true as you like, but you won’t get anywhere. No morality means that you can head off the road really, really fast.

    You need both. Ideally, morality and moral guidance for most people is more or less in place; the trick then is to stay on target, stay on the road while you learn how to build power. That’s the harder part of the equation. We live in a society that actively encourages the bulk of citizens to NOT become more powerful, to forfeit their power to government, business, leaders, demagogues, zealots, religion, and so forth. You hear the pleas for the surrender of your power every day:

    – Buy this product and you’ll be happy.
    – Elect me to office and I’ll fix your problems.
    – Worship this deity and you’ll go to heaven.
    – Trust me with this decision and I’ll reward you.

    The powers that be don’t want to steer you off the road. They want you to stop driving entirely.

    How do you resist giving up what power and steering you have?

  • Jerry Falwell, I'm glad you're dead

    “If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.”

    “God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.”

    “I put all the blame legally and morally on the actions of the terrorist, [but America’s] secular and anti-Christian environment left us open to our Lord’s [decision] not to protect. When a nation deserts God and expels God from the culture … the result is not good.”

    “AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”

    “Blow them all away in the name of the Lord.”

    Jerry Falwell, boy am I glad you’re dead. You nearly singlehandedly turned a fine religion into a fundamentalist, greed and hate-based one, and oh yeah, you took it to the bank along the way, collecting over $200 million a year on the backs and name of Jesus Christ. If I were Christian, I’d probably be praising the Lord right now. As a Buddhist with a strong belief in karma, I can’t wait to see what you come back as.

  • Be An Asshole Today

    Chris Brogan blogged this morning about today being a day to be nice to someone, so I figured I’d take the contrarian view (sort of) and recommend that today, you be an asshole.

    Specifically:

    – commit today to no longer communicate or work with people who are poisonous to your well being. You know who they are – rumor mongers, gossips, backstabbers, energy vampires, and generally not nice people. No matter how may debts, markers, favors, or chits they owe you or you owe them, declare your entire relationship null and void, and get away from them. They’ll probably call you an asshole, but that’s life.

    – commit today to defining what you will and will not stand for, in relationships, in life, in work. When someone or something tries to push that line, push back. Be firm and resolute about your choices, knowing that you’ve committed to your values. Some people will probably call you an asshole for no longer letting them walk all over you.

    – commit today to no longer follow those persons and ideals who lead you nowhere. If your goal is success, why emulate the non-successful? Emulate, follow, and deeply study those people, ideals, and creeds who have achieved what you want to achieve in life. You may find yourself at odds, then, with those around you who have grown comfortable with who you are today, and not who you want to be – and yes, they’ll probably say you’ve become an asshole.

    Obviously, you don’t have to be as blunt or direct as I’ve posted here, but if your goal is accomplishment – be it social good, profit, fame, fortune, salvation, whatever – make today the day you reaffirm your commitment to your goal of accomplishment, and begin to leave behind all the obstacles to that accomplishment.

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