Government Fail…

picture-1Rather than close the stable door well and truly after the horse has volted. The consvertive party website now has a list of the expenses of the shadow cabinet see http://bit.ly/15Vttp.

More interesting than the claims themselves and some are interesting, is the fact they are using Google Docs. Strange you might think but Eric Schmidt of the very same company is an advisor for the conservative party. http://bit.ly/17q273

Sadly Labour’s website isn’t so transparent, in fact there is little to no mention of anything remotely like expense claims on the homepage. So I will let the BBC do the work for me http://bit.ly/HnWDG

Once your lucky, Twice your stupid.

BBC1 will be web-streamed live through BBC.co.uk as of next year, according to the broadcaster’s director general Mark Thompson.

BBC1 is internet bound

Hoping to capitalise on its impressive iPlayer service the Beeb has decided why not go back to the 90’s and try something they know doesn’t work.

People simply do not want to watch TV in a linear sense anymore, the only content thats worth streaming are sports events, I there isn’t much chance of that happening soon.

The BBC needs to work on iPlayer and getting the BBC online identity sorted out, its abit of a mish mash at the moment. With iPlayer the BBC struck gold and unless they keep pushing they will become a follower not a leader. I think the best idea would be to can live streaming, and just make iPlayer better they would be forgiven for that.

Confessions of a Serial Soundtrack Collector

It seems no matter how good a film is, the music that goes with the film is always under appreciated, while there are exceptions to the rule we really should pay more attention to the music, it will make or break a film.

I don’t really know hoe I ended up collecting soundtracks, but two moments that really standout are; tracking down a piece of music used the in 2004 BAFTAs and another piece of music featured in the South Bank Show.

The music from the BAFTAs was probably the easiest to track down, I just emailed them. It took a couple of weeks but they emailed me back answer: Whisper of a Thrill – From Meet Joe Black – Thomas Newman. Within seconds the CD was bought and on its way. Its OK if you can email the people responsible and get them to tell you the music used but in the case of my second hunt, the emailing method wasn’t so fruitful.

After watching the South Bank Show, I had the I must have that music moment and started on my merry way trying to track it down by google to no avail, I had some idea of who the composer could be Craig Armstrong or Thomas Newman, so I loaded the ITV website and sent them an email. I have found since then both ITV and the BBC hate these inquiries and just brush them off, Channel 5 usually give a better response. I got the typical response, “Due to the nature of the way we create our programming there is no record of the music for each program.” I spent another few months searching, and had all but given up hope on finding the elusive piece of music, when i chanced upon a newly upload Craig Armstrong Album on iTunes. I had found it. Finding Beauty – Craig Armstrong within a couple of seconds it was downloaded.

I am sure that there isn’t just me who has these little quests, I am also sure that many people unlike me will give up on finding the song they were looking for. I wish the BBC and ITV would setup websites that listed all the music from each program. I think music companies should be actively encouraging the publishing of music in film and TV, it would earn them some points and make some money.

Since my first encounter with the wonderful world of soundtracks my library has grown from a mere 5 hours to over 22 days (thats528 hours) So much so I now have so much music that the chances are that I hear a piece of music in a film or TV program, I will already have a copy in there somewhere.

The problem is finding it.

The BBC actual seem to get things…

This week the BBC has joined the OpenID foundation.
BBC Internet Blog 

OK, so there are some problems but I do have faith that they know what they have to do particularly with making iPlayer Cross-Platform and stripping the DRM (I think a little wishful thinking is needed on this point)

Overall the BBC have seemed to be more than ready to jump in were the other industry giants have failed or been far too slow, obviously some people have learned from the Music industry hopeless mess. They have been willing to say most of the 15 – 25 year old market is not watching TV they consume their media online and not in the traditional linear sense like with traditional TV. Also an unexpected (at least to me) effect of iPlayer is how many ‘older’ people can and enjoy using iPlayer. I often get the comments “Wow, so I don’t need to tape anything anymore?” response, which hats of to the BBCs marketing department.

I think some good things are coming out of the BBC, I wonder if they can keep it up and appease both the techies and non-techies alike. I know its a seriously tall order.

BBC Clogging the Tubes

Senior executives, including BT Retail’s Ian Livingston, The Carphone Warehouse boss Charles Dunstone and Tiscali UK’s chief Mary Turner have held informal talks amid growing anger over the BBC’s hitching a ‘free ride’ with its new iPlayer system for downloading TV programmes over the web. Link

Oh no the ISPs don’t like there bandwidth being actually used. Call me stupid but we pay the ISPs for bandwidth, so why should the BBC have to pay, the ISPs already get the money from the consumer least they could do is put the money back in and invest it and give us more speed.