Archive for September 5th, 2010
The Ping Problems: Is Apple To Blame, Or The Music Labels? (AAPL)
Unlike Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a public profile on Ping, the iTunes social network.
Zuckerberg likely wanted to see what the new social network on the block had to offer. The second person to leave a comment on Zuckerberg’s page told him all he needs to know: “nothing to worry about here… Ping kinda sucks.”
That’s the general sentiment around Ping. It kinda sucks.
What the biggest problem with Ping? It is fundamentally flawed because it doesn’t interact with your iTunes music collection. It only plays nice with the limited selection of music obtained through Apple’s store.
For instance, if we play Kanye West’s “Power” in our iTunes collection, none of our Ping friends know it. All they know is that we “liked” Power. But they only know that because we searched iTunes for “Power,” then “liked” it. A cumbersome process we only went through because Ping is new and novel.
Without the ability to actually to actually tell our friends what we’re listening to, Ping is a pretty useless service. Without the ability to listen to all our music through Ping, like we once did with Lala, the service is decidedly weak.
But here’s what we want to know: Is this Apple’s fault, or are the music labels stopping Apple from making Ping a better service?
Apple reportedly spoke with music labels about allowing users to upload their music collections to Apple’s servers, which would then stream to any device. Here’s CNet’s Greg Sandoval in January:
Apple executives have spoken to the top four recording companies about plans to offer a streaming music service free of charge to consumers, multiple music industry sources told CNET.
Apple’s managers haven’t revealed many details about their plans but did discuss offering iTunes users a means to store copies of their music libraries on Apple’s servers. The benefits to an iTunes user would include the ability to back up music and access songs off the Web from any Internet-connected device and conceivably from anywhere in the world.
The music labels subsequently shot down Apple’s plan, Sandoval reported. He later reported Apple was going to get 60 second music samples, instead of the current 30 second samples, but the music labels quashed that at the last second.
Are 60 second samples ideal? No, but they sure make it easier form an opinion about a song, improving the Ping experience.
When Ping first rolled out, we called it pretty good, with huge potential. We stand by that, even if we’re alone. We love the idea of Ping. We enjoy surfing Ping and seeing what people have liked.
But, if Apple is ever going to realize the potential of Ping, it has to do a better job negotiating with the labels.
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See Also:
- Spam Attacks Apple’s Ping Network
- Steve Jobs Isn’t On Ping… But These Apple Execs Are
- Apple’s Ping Social Network Is Actually Good, And It Has Huge Potential
The Latest Scheme In California: Dissolving Cities
Some cities in California are so bloated in debt and other problems they are considering dissolution. Mercury News asks is this The End of Half Moon Bay?
Between budget losses and lawsuit payments, Half Moon Bay’s financials have become so dire that if a local sales tax measure doesn’t pass this November, officials say they may have to disincorporate.
City leaders have been using the “D” word for a few weeks now as they try to persuade voters to pass Measure K, a one-cent sales tax increase that would help the city balance its budget with an extra infusion of $1.4 million per year for the next seven years.
Dissolving Half Moon Bay — handing the city’s budget, operations and services to San Mateo County — would be an absolute last resort, but the city may not have many other options left, City Councilman John Muller said.
At first glance, disincorporation could save taxpayers some money: no more city administration to support. Police services would be contracted out, and the county would cover planning, building and public works projects from its offices in Redwood City.
City Manager Michael Dolder admits disincorporation is one of the options on the table now. The City Council already cut $900,000 from the current budget — including half its employees — and imposed furloughs on those who remain. Some of the cuts were needed to pay for the Beachwood lawsuit settlement, a $15 million burden the city will shoulder in bond payments for the next 20 years.
Disincorporation is so rare in California that it’s almost without precedent. The last city to do it, Cabazon in Riverside County, had fewer than 2,000 residents and no functional government to speak of when it voted to give up cityhood.
The process is so complicated that county officials said they don’t know what kinds of services the Board of Supervisors would choose to provide or how much they would cost.
One thing is certain: disincorporation is not a bailout. The county would lay claim to revenues, including Half Moon Bay’s property taxes, sales taxes and hotel taxes, but not its liabilities. Today’s Half Moon Bay residents would be required to assume the debt burden of Beachwood bond payments, which would likely be added as a lien on their properties, according to Assistant County Controller Bob Adler.
D Is for Disincorporate
The PropZero blog writes California Cities: D Is for Disincorporate
City officials in Half Moon Bay say the municipal budget is such a mess that it may make sense to disincorporate and turn the place over to San Mateo County
Consider Los Angeles County which has 88 cities, many of which it clearly does not need. Several of the smaller cities seem to exist as personal playgrounds for families or particular businesses. Those municipalities — the now famous Bell just one of them — have extensive histories of municipal corruption. If such cities were to go away, would they be missed?
A side note: unions have revived legislation in Sacramento that seeks to prevent cash-strapped cities from declaring bankruptcy (Municipalities would have to get permission from a labor-dominated commission first). The consequence of that legislation, were it to pass, might well be to promote more disincorporations — that is, the shutting down of cities — since bankruptcy would be all but off the table.
Simple Solution
Unions have revived measures to prevent municipal bankruptcies, but hopefully the governor would veto such asinine legislation were it to actually pass. I doubt there would be enough votes to override the veto.
The problem with disincorporation straight up is that it leaves the debts intact.
Instead, I propose Half Moon Bay file bankruptcy, wiping out its debts, or at least sending them to bankruptcy court. Then Half Moon Bay can disincorporate, saving itself the problems of dealing with a local police force and its pensions.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List
Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.
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The 25 Laziest Cities In America
Even when times are tough, not everyone is exactly living up to the vigorous, enterprising stereotype of rugged American individualism.
Put more bluntly, some people are just lazy. They watch too much TV; they don’t exercise; they let themselves slip from being overweight to obese. Surely, that’s not going to help us get out of the recession.
Those are problems across the country, but we found the places where people really need to get off the couch: the 25 Laziest Cities in America.
We made the list by analyzing three metrics: self-reported obesity and physical activity rates (from the Centers for Disease Control) and TV viewership (from Nielsen). The scores were then normalized and combined to rank the worst cities.
Click to see the laziest cities >
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CHARTS OF THE WEEK: The Rise And Fall Of Apple’s iPod (AAPL)
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See Also:
- CHART OF THE DAY: The Rise And Fall Of Apple’s iPod
- CHART OF THE DAY: Watch Out Cable Companies! Live Streaming Popularity Up 600% For The Year
- CHART OF THE DAY: 1 In 5 YouTube Users Uploads A Video Each Month
5 Signs Your Company Is In Distress
After 25 years of rescuing distressed companies, certified turnaround professional Renee Fellman has seen it all. Companies with no business plan. Owners buying fancy cars in spite of crumbling cash flows. CEOs so focused on the top line that they couldn’t see how badly runaway costs were hurting the bottom line.
Seeking to learn from the mistakes of others, we asked Fellman–the Portland, Ore.-based winner of the 1997 Turnaround of the Year Award from the Turnaround Management Association–to identify some of the most common gaffes she’s seen over the course of 34 turnaround assignments.
The bottom line? With the economy still struggling to break the shackles of the last recession, this is no time to let business practices get sloppy. Follow Fellman’s advice to make sure you don’t become her next project.
Scan her list to make sure you’re not guilty of these mistakes>>>
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See Also:
- If Your Startup Can’t Get Money In New York Right Now, There’s Something Wrong With It
- If You Make Any Of These 10 Mistakes, Your Company Will Fail
- 6 To-Do’s That Will Help Your Business Win On The Web