Sean Parker speaks on Piracy at The Daily Beast Conference [VIDEO]

Sean Parker of Facebook is completely backwards on his thinking towards the music industry. To say that the fight against piracy is a failure is absolutely absurd. Every problem has some sort of issue, it’s just whether or not people are willing to address the necessary steps to conquer the task. With the Beat-Play model not only will piracy be done away with, but the quality of music will greatly exceed the overall mainstream flood we currently experience. People aren’t going to stop illegally downloading music just because you have a cool player that harnesses tons of music. iTunes is around and the majority of people using it have libraries filled with pirated tracks. So why wouldn’t they just continue to illegally download the new music they hear on such a site as your own. As far as the ‘not being able to get your music from the service to other devices’ comment, this is what smartphones and applications are for. Technology is great because it gives us the limitless freedoms we need to cater to all the users’ demands. Spotify offers a decent service but doesn’t change the molding too much from iTunes except that it’s strictly online and they stream full tracks. I’m sure for a short period of time this will be a semi-successful model but the main user base will continue to be the same people that buy music today. If someone is pirating music today, what is to stop them from doing so tomorrow. Not Spotify. It doesn’t make it FREE.

How Tech is Changing the Tone of Music as We Know it

Here I’m going to introduce you to 4 music technologies in particular that have already begun to change the music landscape as we know it. Let’s get right into it.

The Cubes:

First we have Percussa’s Audio Cubes. They’re some of the coolest new music making “instruments” out right now. Here’s how they work, straight from Percussa’s website:

“Each AudioCube is identical. You connect them with a USB cable to your computer, one after the other, and assign a colour and behaviour. After that, they work wirelessly with each other, and use their four onboard infrared sensors to communicate and measure distances to objects nearby. One cube stays connected, to pass the information from the cubes to the software on your computer.”  More Here.

Why iTunes Sucks and What’s Next

There was an article this weekend brought to my attention, about iTunes, that I thought perfectly explained the problems with the platform. The article is called ITunes Music Store. Facelift for a Corrupt Society. I definitely recommend checking it out.

Of course, if you do this research yourself, or you’re an artist, you will or have found the same results, but if that’s not the case, his main points against iTunes are that it’s too expensive, there is poor audio quality, and they take too high of a cut from sales. (horrendous paraphrase..apologies)

2010, and Still Very Much in the Dark

It’s not rare to hear middle-aged people go on about the technology we have now; the cell phones, and the video games, and everybody’s busy lives. But for all the talk about how advanced we are and how everything’s getting so uncontrollably complicated, there’s not enough talk about the truth of the situation.

The fact is, as a country, America is pretty advanced, but in the age of the world wide web, there’s a lot of that web still missing from the picture. The internet has the ability to transform commerce, transform communication, and transcend boundaries. It could be argued that it’s the most important thing missing throughout the world.

The internet has means of education, means of trade, and opportunity. Food and water sent from a rich country can save a life, but it cannot sustain it.

For all the talk about how advanced we are, I think it’s time we start realizing that the rest of the world is still very far behind. When we think about “our” situation, we need to think about it from the perspective of the world as a community, because in reality, and even more so in the future, we are all connected.

I am undoubtedly a huge advocate for more innovation and more technology, but in these circumstances, I would readily support a stand still of all progress in developed countries, in order to catch under-developed countries up at least to America’s standards, which are certainly not the highest, but would still be great for the world.

This stand still would never happen, but I am hoping that with the coming technologies to emerge out of the developed countries in the years to come, a solution to this problem can be found that brings, if nothing else, widespread internet access and computers to the world.

America, Europe, and parts of Asia may be relatively advanced, but in many parts of the world, there’s still not much difference between now and 200 years ago. We tend to make a huge separation between us and ancient people, or even the victorians, but as a whole, we are not much different, and as a world community, we still have a long ways to go.

Written by: Dante Cullari Founder & President Beat-Play, LLC

10 Sure as Sun Big Innovation Predictions for the next 20 Years in Tech

Click this picture for another awesome and interesting blog on Web 3.0!

Note: All predictions are based on a firm understanding of current technologies and the popular trends that seem to be prevalent. It is only by assuming that these trends will continue, that any actual predictions can be made. There are no real guarantees that anything will happen for certain, there are only conjectures.

I should also note that the following is in a particular order, and is meant to be viewed together, as separate pieces of one whole picture, assembled one at a time. Some of them need to be explained first in order to understand others.

1.Computer Imbedding– There will come a time, and I’m sure it’s not hard for you to imagine, where computer technology will become so flexible, that we will go crazy trying to figure out what we should integrate with it next.

Some probable solutions that I think will last will be the clear glass computers, such as in mirrors, shower walls, and cars. I suspect toilet will be a winner, and also probably even the walls of our homes, hopefully being merged with something like Rachel Armstrong’s Metabolic Materials.

Imagine waking up in the morning and watching your news while in the shower, or getting a jump on your emails, making a list, or putting in a coffee order down the street, all using much improved voice to text. Computers in everything? There may just be a point when we say “Why not?”

2. Free Streaming Content – This is a subject I talk a lot about. I know this is possible because I’ve designed a solution that creates an environment where the more users access and share the content, the more ad revenues the content creator gets. This is done using more creative ad model methods than the currently standard, annoying and obtrusive ad model used online. My model also includes a similarly reciprocal process of promotion, like an automated word of mouth between friends on a social network.

3. Open Browsers – The browsing experience online will be completely different. Everything will be super organized, and super custom. Since intellectual property will no longer be an issue, remixing and sharing of things like apps, whole websites, and of course any entertainment media, will be completely open to the public. The best content and apps will rise and get shared a lot, and the not so good ones won’t, kinda like a virtual Darwin evolution. People will be able to combine the pieces of their favorite sites into one site and be able to share their breakthroughs in efficiency, with better designs arriving all the time, and with the people doing the work getting rewarded justly for their efforts. Innovation, efficiency, and developing the most useful and valuable tools will be full time, self-employed jobs online, along with all aspects of entertainment, in the not so distant future.

4.3D Virtual Environment Integration – Once virtual technology advances a little bit further into the mainstream, you will see a huge shift in how our societies are structured. This is where you might really start feeling like you’re in the future. With 3D virtual environments, and something as simple as peripheral vision glasses with some sort of amazingly clear fractal image technology, interacting with the world will be completely re-defined.

Say hello to the Matrix, or Avatar meets Grand Theft Auto(without the gangs – course, you can’t die anyway). With amazingly real graphics, everyday tasks can be transformed. A person’s movements could be tracked (again maybe using Rachel Armstrong’s technology fuzed with wall censors) which could be cool for things like sports or other games. You almost can literally do anything you want. You can be on a roller coaster, while in your living room, or you could walk over the middle of the grand canyon looking down, if you had the guts. Almost anything is possible, including 3D social networks and teleportation or worm-hole graphic travel from website to website.

For practical purposes, Virtual 3D technology could put an end to retailers having to have actual stores. In addition to movement and touch, eventually even smells and tastes will come into play, and already have begun to. Store clerks & cashiers at the stores can still be real people, and they can simply oversee the transactions and help people with any specific questions.

One of the coolest possibilities is whole city maps that can be re-created in a virtual environment using pictures, building plans, maps, and infrastructure schematics. People can walk down the same streets, can gather for events in a city from ANYWHERE In the world, walk into the same stores, get the same experiences, but more efficiently. If this happened there would be no need for the sheer number of business related buildings.

Going green can mean going virtual for a company. It cuts down on overhead, cuts travel expenses, its makes the company look good, it’s more efficient and convenient for customers by a lot, and it expands access immensely. The result would be the land once occupied by business, to be occupied only by people and people dependent services like food, mail, doctors, ect. The land could be cleared of concrete and can open up space for much more nature, gardens, farms, protected lands, or recreational areas.

Traffic to high profile areas will be cut, thus less death due to travel, and less pollution. People would not need to walk home from work, or take a taxi, or really leave their houses other than to travel, meet with friends, eat out, enjoy life, ect. If the hour is bad for a run, the option to stay at home and do it safely is there. City crime will cut tremendously, also due to the surge in jobs online, which will also cut stress, and the greener landscapes will provide better scenery. “Inner Cities” will go from being claustrophobic, to completely out in the open. Also with this technology, you would see the true meaning of World Trade, as shopping in different countries becomes incredibly easier and more reassuring.

The home office will rule. You can go to work and even realistically interact with co-workers, all while at home. People already use second life for things like school and retail. This transformation to 3D Virtual worlds I believe will begin in the next 20 years, but let’s hope that when it does we don’t leave a bunch of empty skyscrapers sitting around rotting.

5.Same-Day Delivery Online Shopping – With everything now being purchased virtually, from food to clothes, it will all have to get delivered right to your house. The biggest problem right now is shipping time and cost. I suspect the solution to this lies in big warehouses. With retail businesses already not needing physical stores, warehouses are the only necessity. I visualize a model where local delivery services like FedEx or DHL start renting out stock room space and delivering to every street everyday, like regular mail. Imagine the time this could save. You could put in a grocery order from lunch at work, and have it at your house in time to get home and make dinner. You wouldn’t have to waste the time stopping by a store, waiting in line, and getting stuck for a second time in rush hour. This would also have a positive effect on the environment, leaving cars off of the road for longer, and it could cut down on accidents. The delivery vehicles could also be electric or some sort of hydrogen harnessing water powered vehicle. Another way the internet can literally save lives, and maybe even our planet.

6.Flying Automated Cars – This will represent another huge breakthrough for our society. It would free up any time spent traveling for other, more productive things, and it also would mean faster speeds, faster arrivals, and more practical long distance trips. People would never really get lost, and accidents would be reduced dramatically. There’d be no rush hour or no traffic. The world really would be a less stressful place.

You’ve seen the Discovery Channel show.. Cars would all talk to each other and would be able to make sure they never come in contact with each other, like automated air traffic controlers. These technologies are already being realized. Rumor has it that the U.S. government has even already started designing air vehicle licenses, but who knows for sure. With this notch on our belts, I’d say we’d be pretty deep into future culture at this point.

7. Blogosphere Awakening – Basically this is an information revolution that begins by bloggers taking over as the main source for news worldwide. I believe this will happen as better technologies are developing in the fields of home production, film and sound recording. I see there being a trend more towards vlogging as time goes on. Having bloggers be the main source of news would just mean more sources. More choices and opinions represented, rather than the usual 2 or 3 that are represented on traditional news networks, and more information for which to base one’s own opinion.

The premise for the new model is simple. It’s like books on tape. Listening to a book is always faster than actually reading it. It’s no different with a blog. Blogs transformed into Vlogs would allow users to get through more information faster, and actually feel a relief from the overwhelming flows of information that they want desperately to absorb in a manner that will one day be referred to as “as old school as an actual book.”

Just right now I have about 16 tabs open in Chrome, all blogs that I want to read later. Imagine if I could press play, and all of them would play in the order I put them in, and I could be listening to them now as I type this, instead of having to read it all later, each on a different website. Trust me, this technology will be out sooner than you think 😉 (don’t be surprised if you see some vlogs coming from this blog in the future).

8. Wirelessly Charging Devices – There are rumors of Apple creating an iPhone that is powered by solar technology. This is truly the wave of the future. There are also some crazy technologies that supposedly allow you to get a charge from a WiFi connection somehow. And who knows, Tesla could have been up to something when he built those big towers to harness energy from the earth’s magnetic fields. This technology could prove to be so important, especially for emergency situations, that it’s my guess that we will gain significant ground in this area within the next 20 years, and the solutions are already beginning to emerge.

9. Global Wireless Internet Access – This is something that’s benefits are so tremendous, that 20 years from now, with all of our capabilities, we would be negligent not to do it. Especially with wireless devices charging from solar or magnetic fields, having a working device with global wireless not only would mean the TV show Lost wouldn’t have lasted more than a week, but even while they were waiting to be rescued, they would have been pretty well entertained. In addition to emergency situations, global WiFi could help connect a range of devices together to talk to one another, further the reach and expanse of knowledge and information all over, and especially transform areas mostly cut off, into areas with new opportunities and resources. It’s the World truly connected.

10. Wireless Everything– I’m sure you’ve all seen the TED video about Wireless Electricity. If not, give that a look. This technology really isn’t far off. It’s hard to think of now, but just take a look around the room. Look at all of the wires coiling and protruding from every corner. If you’re like me and are into music recording and production, you know, when you move a studio, or need to re-set one up, you’re literally up to your neck in cords. We don’t think about it now, but we really are in the dark ages still relatively speaking. 20 years from now they’re going to be looking at wires with looks as baffled as when we look at old telephone switchboards from the 50’s and 60’s, with the huge matrices of connections horribly branched out all over the place and the terrible inefficiency and complication. Wireless…is just a no brainer.

So that’s it; a great look at what our future holds in store for us if we continue down the roads that we are currently following. It’s a much safer, more in-tune, healthier, more efficient, and much more pleasant place to be. I for one cannot wait until all of these amazing technologies are truly recognized. I encourage everybody to do their part in supporting the growth and ongoing development of these technologies, and I hope to see you on the front lines leading the way. Until then, that’s where you can find me. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and please, offer your thoughts. Here’s to a great future.

Written by: Dante Cullari Founder & President Beat-Play, LLC

The Loss of Competition in Tech

The key to success is knowing something nobody else knows. It seems to me that too many of the people in the web or tech fields are strictly focused on what everybody else does know, and they don’t take this information and use it to create the next big evolution, but instead, they try to create something that fits into what everybody else is already talking about, or are focused on at the moment, in order to fit into a perceived market trend.

There also always seems to be much speculation about what the next big trend will will be, but usually we end up being very wrong. For example, many people are betting on the tablet PC to be the next BIG innovation, however, I will suggest something later in this post that could make the tablet PC obsolete, and even if it isn’t realized now, the chances are that someone will realize it eventually, and it will then take the place of the tab. I will give you a very recent example of why this issue occurs.

Currently, and widely because of this years CES Convention, the web is buzzing about tablet PC’s and iSlate speculation, and eReaders. It seems to me that in both categories, there are many competitors with extremely similar products. At least all of the big brands out there seem to be following a trend. There aren’t very many different solutions in terms of features and technologies.

How could they all have come out with similar products at the same time? The future of eReaders and portable PCs is so uncertain.. How could they all have come up with the same answers to the same questions, and especially when there are many different directions left unexplored by any of them?

It seems to me something fishy is going on, like they’re all talking to one another.. However, the fishy big companies aren’t the only causes of the problem. There just doesn’t seem to be any push from new companies to completely out-do their bigger competitors and introduce an innovation that makes their competitor’s products obsolete. Maybe it’s lack of resources, but I know if I’m a venture capitalist, I’m going to invest in innovation*.

The one hardware example of a new company at least slightly distinguishing themselves from their competitors has to be Plastic Logic with their Que proReader (shown at top) that is designed specifically for business solutions. But as luck would have it, eReaders may be in danger of becoming obsolete all together due to evolving portable PCs that can do almost infinitely more.

I think the winner of this debate for the hardware would be Light Blue Optic’s Light Touch 10 inch touchscreen projector; but even this has many problems, or holes, in functionality that could prevent this particular model from going to the next level. Imagine if this product was also a mini PC, but the screen expanded to Microsoft Surface proportions. It could potentially make the Surface obsolete, and in the process maybe the tablet PC as well, due to no limitations on screen size, with much less hardware, therefor less price, and the same capabilities. Why hasn’t Light Blue Optics figured this out?

It’s the same story with websites and apps. There’s about 182,000 (not accurate) music websites out there, all with extremely similar models, and if not, with similar problems. For independent artists, they either charge you too much upfront without you being guaranteed results, or they’re free but offer you no way to actually promote your music other than spamming people, or you need to use more than one site because one provides a tool that you need that the other doesn’t have, and vice versa. There’s many similar problems from a fan’s perspective as well. Why can’t someone come up with a website that solves ALL of these problems for everybody!?! (Beat-Play)

It seems that even with all of the amazing possibilities that the web is capable of providing, with a market place driven by poor competition, still, nothing is easy.

You might say “But Dante, it’s not so easy to innovate in a field these days. Where do you even start?” And I’d say to you “But it really is! And you start with your competitor’s products.” An innovation doesn’t have to be some huge evolutionary leap, like morse code right to Telephone, it just has to solve a problem that is currently put up with by society. Be the person to solve that problem, and your company should be off to a great start.

Try using your competitor’s products. Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. If you don’t know what industry to start with, chances are you’re a consumer of something..what problems do you face with products? I once saw a great TED Talk by Charles Leadbeater, about the occurrence of innovation. He talked about how the invention of the mountain bike didn’t come from the R&D labs of major companies, but they came from the consumers. Avid bikers became fed up with the restrictions placed on them by the big companies, and they began modifying, and eventually selling their modified bikes. The mountain bike industry today accounts for 65% of all bike sales in America

By looking at all of the slate computers, and finding the fundamental problems, creating an alternative to these problems becomes a lot easier, instead of creating something that poses the same problems. It seems that many times the major company’s definition of “compete” is to create a product with almost identical features as the other company’s products, so when you’re in the store staring at both of them on the shelf, you’re so confused that hopefully you’ll end up picking their product. This is either lunacy, stupidity, or treachery towards the consumers. I have a feeling there’s a little bit of all three floating around in this marketplace somewhere.

People only pay attention to the products of existing companies when it comes to hardware. The web is the only medium where mass mainstream media advertising can have absolutely no effect on the success of a website. In other words, a website can completely explode, seemingly overnight, with no TV commercials or billboards up initially whatsoever.

For almost every other major industry, advertising could make or break you, which is why new competitors don’t arise very often. But, it turns out that the internet and social-ecommerce could very well offer a solution to this problem as well, especially with the massive networks of people being created by the Web 2.0 revolution. However, how the internet can make advertising obsolete is a subject for another blog.

For now, if you’re a consumer who wishes they weren’t constrained by company or brand restrictions, then now is the time to do something about it, and come up with the solutions to those problems. You might as well, the big companies aren’t going to solve them. The key to success is knowing something nobody else knows…or admits..

Written by: Dante Cullari, Founder & President Beat-Play, LLC

*However it is worth noting that most venture capitalists are probably in their 50’s-70’s and they’ve seen so much innovation in their lifetimes, that to them, they kind of have the outlook that enough is enough. They may even resent the fact that the world will continue to advance without them. At least this is my theory. I also happen to think the world would be a much better place if run by intelligent people in their 20’s. I should also note that I’m 21 :).