[Wooz.in] Cornetto Summer Ice Cream Festival

Cornetto Summer Ice Cream festival kemarin digelar di Taman Krida Loka, Senayan pada hari Sabtu, tanggal 14 Juli 2012, dan menyulap area sekitar Gelanggang Renang Senayan tersebut menjadi penuh warna.. dan penuh es krim :). Banyak acara dan permainan menarik ditawarkan pada pengunjung yang bisa datang hanya dengan membayar HTM Rp 40,000 atau membeli Cornetto 5 potong saja, seperti - Battle Of The Bands, Cornetto Open Cinema, Cornetto Sing A Long, Summer Style, Cornetto Summer Fun dan Cornetto Lounge. Pengunjung yang mendaftar akan mendapatkan gelang RFID Cornetto gratis, yang bisa digunakan untuk foto di Photobooth, dan check-in ke semua permainan yang disediakan. Setiap check-in dan foto akan dihitung poin, dan kalau poinnya cukup bisa ditukar dengan lebih banyak lagi merchandise Cornetto gratis!
Terdapat juga banyak acara musik dari Drew, The S.I.G.I.T, Pure Saturday, Andien, Maliq N D'Essentials, Endah N Resa, Hivi, dan DEV.

Kalau mau liat foto-fotonya, bisa liat di blog Wooz.in atau di halaman Google+ Wooz.in.

[Music Monday] Does The Average Consumer Care About Legal, Digital Music?

Before I go on with this article, let me be clear - most references are anecdotal; I don't have a survey or research results to refer to. But I think this will ring true to most consumers of digital entertainment - not many of us, including me, think of the legal aspects of something we want to hear/view/play. Having worked in intellectual property based-industries for some time, I avoid pirated content and always try to find legal ways to get music, movies and software. Full disclosure - I've done my fair share of downloading and torrenting, and I often download TV shows that have not aired in Indonesia, and sometimes movies I missed watching in the cinema. I'm no saint.

I'll admit that I avoid illegal music and software, because I know what goes on behind the scenes and how they make their money. I also feel less guilty (but guilty nonetheless) about downloading TV and movies because I also know how they actually make their money (and outside of the cinema, it's based on upfront royalties, advertising revenue share, cable subscription share, and so on). I'll probably write more on that later... but here's the point: I happen to have insight into these industries. What of the average consumer who does not?

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] NKOTBSB: A Great Impulse Buy For Digital Music

For weeks and days heading up to the NKOTBSB concert in Jakarta last Friday, longtime fans have been racking up YouTube views of their videos, and radio stations have been playing songs from NKOTB and Backstreet Boys to prime everybody up for enjoying the concert. Needless to say, on June 1 evening Jakarta time, Twitter was awash with people tweeting from the concert and sending whatever pics they can to share with their friends. The show was a success, but what can we learn and exploit from it?

One of the most basic principles of music marketing is to increase awareness and raise sales, a band or musician should do live shows direct in front of audiences. This applies to new or established artists - pushing a song for increased awareness is sometimes not enough through tv, radio and the internet; but a live show (especially if tied with met-and-greet sessions with fans and autograph sessions) would do a lot to reward fans, retain loyalty, and generate awareness and interest for people who have not previously heard of the band/musician. Bands would tour tirelessly around their country - and around the world - as a way to promote themselves and their most latest album. The music labels in charge would also arrange time for the band/musician to meet with the press, to make sure they get more exposure.

Read the rest of the post at Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] So You’ve Got A Band. Now What? Make A Website?

Despite all the doom and gloom you might hear in the music industry lately about how it’s more difficult to sell albums, it’s actually a great time to be a band or musician. Whatever the type of your music, you could probably record most or all of your music on your computer, with adequate quality also. And if you don’t have your own computer, most small-to-medium sized music studios already use a computer to do most of the heavy work, and cost less to rent.

From the software point of view, there are many software suites you can use to record, mix, and make a CD master, even free ones, and the Internet offers various paid and free audio libraries to enhance the recording, whether it be a sound effect or a drum loop. Just make sure you can use it for your own music (just make sure it’s totally free or ask permission from the owner). You can even write and share the musical notation of your songs online.

 Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Why Music Download Stores Won't Work In Indonesia

The more I think of it, the more I think that many music services - at least in Indonesia - are going about it the wrong way. Since 2008, Indonesia has had a number of online music download stores. Various business models were tried - an ISP tried ISP billing, telcos tried charging via SMS, and some others even had a choice of payment systems; either through SMS or electronic voucher. Investments in (quite expensive) hosting and delivery systems were made, in an attempt to replicate what seemed to work overseas - the music download. Essentially, users will pay for a song that they want, and only the song that they want, and download it to their choice device. Most services were required to implement digital rights management (DRM) as a way to circumvent unauthorized copying, and the files themselves were usually confined to the device that downloaded the file.

Needless to say, it didn't work. It has never delivered the results that the music industry wants, that's for sure.

Read the rest of the post at Dailysocial.

[Music Monday] Wait, You Can Make Money For Music From The Internet?

The [recorded] music industry has been in very dark days lately, especially in Indonesia - I've frequently written about the current situation so I won't revisit it. But the breakdown is this: there is currently no real way the [recorded] music industry can make money from their work. CD sales are diminished, music through mobile is going through a crisis, and there's not really an online music store worth mentioning. But this does not mean that the internet cannot make money for you, the musician or music label.

I'll admittedly be broad about this - I won't say there are a million ways to make money for music directly from the Internet, but there are definitely a lot of ways to make sure the Internet works for you and gets you that much-needed money. Music may be virtually free for most music listeners, but it doesn't mean making the music you want does not cost money. Even downloading Audacity or Gamelan will take some money off your internet bill. Trying to pitch to a music magazine to cover your band may not cost money but bringing along coffee for the journalists goes a long way. And so on. Even if you're a self-proclaimed indie artist that does not want to spend money, eventually you'd need money for food, right?

Read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

Microsoft Campfire Singapore with Wooz.in

This Friday to Saturday, Wooz.in will be in Singapore to support Microsoft Campfire, a 2-day event for developers, designers, UX experts and entrepreneurs. This event is supported by e27, who will also be holding their Echelon 2012 Singapore Satellite event on Day 2. This event will be held on April 13-14, 2012 at *Scape Orchard Link Singapore.



Now it's not too late to register, so if you're interested, you can register here - powered by Wooz.in.

(original blog post here)

[Music Monday] Actually, Music Startups In Indonesia Have Been Around For A While (Part 1)

What is a startup, actually? And in the context of DailySocial, what is a tech startup, anyway? According to Wikipedia, a startup is a “company or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model”. The article goes on to describe that “Startup companies can come in all forms, but the phrase “startup company” is often associated with high growth, technology oriented companies. Investors are generally most attracted to those new companies distinguished by their risk/reward profile and scalability”. You can read the whole thing on the link provided, but I think I’ve put the key definitions here. And I think most people would add “under 3 years old” to that criteria.

Now, with all the attention that tech startups have been receiving the past year, a quick look at the theStartuplokal.org Showcase shows a small smattering of music startups, some defunct, some only having a beta signup page, and some not live at all. Although I agree that it the list is less than comprehensive, it shows that at least music startups have largely gone unnoticed by the recent wave of media attention towards startups in general. If you don’t believe me, try an internet search for music startups in Indonesia, and see where that gets you.

Read the rest of the article at Dailysocial.

Kabaret Oriental: Anak Emas Juragan Batik

Eki Dance Company dari tanggal 20-24 Maret, 2012 menggelarkan acara Kabaret Oriental: Anak Emas Juragan Batik di Gedung Kesenian Jakarta. Mengutip dari website Indonesia Kaya,  mengangkat cerita soal perebutan cinta, harta dan tahta dalam sebuah keluarga pengusaha bisnis batik. Kabaret Oriental ini menggabungkan unsur-unsur drama, tari, musik, lagu dan multimedia kaya dengan unsur budaya oriental,  dan khusus untuk pertunjukan ini, para pemain menggunakan Batik Kudus dalam kostum-kostumnya.







Baca selanjutnya di blog Wooz.in.

[Music Monday] What An Exciting Week For Digital Music!

Who says the music industry is dead? While Napster might of spelled doom at one point in history, the past 10 years has seen an ever-accelerating comeback in the digital music space. While iTunes might still hold a dominant spot over digital music sales, more innovations and startups are breaking into the scene and making their own noise (nudge at Spotify).  I literally couldn't decide what to write about for this week's column, so I've decided to do a short summary of all the interesting news around digital music.

• As previously covered on Dailysocial, there's an indication that iTunes Store might finally be opening up in Indonesia. Although iOS device penetration is lowest here, it also means that there will finally be an easy-to-use music download store in Indonesia. But would it have the relevant music catalog to match?


• Spotify wants to cannibalize piracy. With 10 million active users and 3 milion paying customers, they might just do that, and catch up with iTunes to boot. But there's a monster looming around the corner - the artists who aren't getting paid from streaming services, not to mention big names like Coldplay and Adele withholding their catalog from streaming services, as part of a sales strategy, apparently. But with Spotify already paying out a lot in royalties, time will tell if they have a change of tune.

read the rest of the post on Dailysocial.

Oreo Fun Carnival, Jakarta

Hari ini, Wooz.in hadir di Oreo Fun Carnival, di Parkir Timur Senayan, Jakarta! Acara ini berlangsung dari hari ini, tanggal 17 Maret 2012 sampai Minggu, 18 Maret 2012, dan menyediakan berbagai permainan menarik untuk anak-anak, sekaligus mengajak anak-anak melihat proses bagaimana biskuit Oreo dibuat, lewat permainan-permainan yang seru. Acara ini merupakan bagian dari perayaan 100 tahun Oreo, dan selain sudah diselenggarakan di Bandung seminggu sebelumnya, juga dilakukan serentak di 24 negara lain.

Baca selanjutnya di blog Wooz.in.

[Music Monday] How Going Digital Can Help Music Licensing

Recently, many people have been talking about the so-called "future of music', on how the music industry and/or the musicians can make money from music. A lot of focus has gone into mobile music offerings, music download services, and the music streaming services much heralded to be the "next big thing". They're all basically consumer-facing businesses, where the services - and the music companies partnered with them - attempt to monetize their music library direct to the music-loving consumer.

The music licensing aspect, however, is not talked about much, and even less understood.

Read the rest of the post on DailySocial.

Using BlackBerry Service In Vietnam

As an Indonesian in Vietnam, I often meet fellow Indonesians on holiday here, and one of the most frequent questions they have is: how do I use my Blackberry in Vietnam?

Well, there are basically 3 options, that would apply to most BlackBerry users:

• International Roaming

Provided you have international roaming activated on your number, as far as I know the BlackBerry service will work. But be prepared for an enormous bill.

• Use the service over WiFi

Free WiFi is pretty much available anywhere around HCMC (and I hear, in many other cities) - cafes, restaurants and hotels usually provide it free and most of the time, all you just need to ask for a password. The video below will show you how (video by Crackberry).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihHkM-GVgIU]

• Use a local operator

There are now officially two local operators in Vietnam that run the BlackBerry service. Viettel has actually had the service for a few years, but only for BlackBerry Enterprise Server users, and they only launched Blackberry Internet Server available for prepaid cards in August 2011. Mobifone just launched their Blackberry services in December 2011. Now for most users, the BIS plan for prepaid cards would be the most reasonable choice.

How to activate BlackBerry Internet Service on Viettel

For full BIS service, just send BB MAIL TUAN (weekly charging, 30,000 VND/week) or BB MAIL THANG (monthly charging, 100,000 VND/month) to 1602. If you want to see what other service options they have, you can look at Viettel's Blackberry page here, and going to the "Dich Vu" section. Unfortunately the site doesn't have an English service, but you should be able to figure it out.

How to activate BlackBerry Internet Service on Mobifone

For full BIS service, send DK BAS (monthly charging, 99,000 VND/month) or DK BASP (monthly charging, 130,000 VND, comes with 300 MB bonus data) to 999. If you want to see what other service options they have, you can look here. Luckily they have an English section.

Personally I've only been using the Viettel service, and it should be cheaper as they have a weekly charging option, ideal for those who only stay for a few days but simply can't resist getting their Crackberry fix. As a comparison, standard mobile internet packages are much cheaper compared to their BlackBerry counterparts - I used to use a standard phone with a mobile internet package that gave me 350 MB/month bonus for 50,000 VND; and if you can resist the urge to immediately share pictures to Twitter or Facebook, using the WiFi option is usually adequate.

Cloud Computing, Music, And What It Means For Music Discovery

So, cloud computing's all the rage lately; it has seemingly become the latest marketing 'buzzword' that tech-based services need to use to ensure potential customers that their product is relevant with the times. And for a good reason too; the growth of the amount of internet-enabled devices we interact with every day, has made cloud computing a proposition that is become more and more relevant to the consumer public.

If cloud computing, where storage and processing power is relegated to servers "in the sky" instead of only relying on the device you are currently using, has already made inroads to business, then why not entertainment? The importance of the 'cloud computing' jargon for consumers is that they can access all their content, files and services through virtually any internet enabled device. Files are "safe", service preferences are remembered, and almost always, a service with cloud computing capabilities can be accessed through any modern browser.

The Money-Making Trifecta Of Content + Access + Hardware

More than 2 years ago today, I did rounds to a couple of companies, presenting in what I thought to be the next step in entertainment media - the media ecosystem. The idea itself was not new, and many of the parts of the idea were inspired by real-world businesses, like Nokia's Ovi, RIM's BlackBerry platform and of course, Apple's iTunes. I simply tried to point out that the market is still wide open to create a seamless ecosystem for media products - music, movies, news, sports, and so on - to meet with advertising and brands, to become equally beneficial to all parties involved. This concept was based on 3 principles:

What's The Next Step For The Music Industry?

This article originally appeared in Rollingstone Indonesia magazine edition 871 (October 2011) in Indonesian. This is the English translation of that article.

A few months ago there was a rumor that the popular file-sharing site, 4shared, would be blocked in Indonesia, as part of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics to stop digital music piracy through that site. Although the rumor turned out false, it brought the issue of digital music piracy back to the surface. The question is, what is the correct course of action?

At the end of July 2011, a rumor that 20 popular music blogs and websites were to be shut down by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics; when actually, the associations of music industry companies supporting the 'Heal Our Music' had sent an official letter to the Ministry regarding this, which was also spread to the press. At the time of writing, there has been no action from the Ministry towards these sites.

This is a sign of the times, something with an apparent long history.

The recorded music industry that we know today, grew from the commercialization of music products through vinyl records. The music that we enjoy could only be heard through a live performance, or the purchase of a vinyl record (and in turn, cassettes and CDs). The recorded music industry had a stranglehold over music distribution, because access to music was limited to a physical product, in the form of vinyl records, cassettes or CDs. A relatively perfect business pattern was shaped - an industry structure that sold all kinds of music, in relatively equal formats and prices, and could be maintained indefinitely; as long as market conditions did not shift.

[GEEK POST] 5 Reasons Why I'm Still Using A BlackBerry

RIM has certainly lost a lot of steam these days. With sales dropping like flies across the globe, the future looks uncertain because no one in the world will know exactly how successful - or not - the upcoming QNX-based phones will fare. It certainly didn't do well for the Playbook, which in all accounts is actually a solid hardware product with a mediocre software product. With the trend in computing - mobile or otherwise - is obviously moving towards a focus on software (the OS and apps), we have yet to see how RIM will ride tomorrow's waves behind the giant ships of iOS and Android.

Of course, all this doesn't matter for the average consumer, and I consider myself one. I do keep tabs on tech news and the latest trends in computing, but at the end of the day, I choose what works for me as a consumer. And for me, the BlackBerry works.

And Just Like That, The Post-PC Era Is Really Here.

Once again, during the span of the last few hours, the tech scene (kind of) dominates the headlines again. HP, a longtime stalwart of the PC business (and personally, a trusted PC brand) is planning to sell off their PC business. Also most notable, they're killing off WebOS devices (although it will be interesting to see what they will do with it next). I won't even bother to link to the various news sources; all tech blogs are churning out article by article about the news, their analysis and so forth. Check out the newsfeed here.

What is interesting to look at, though, that like IBM 6 years before them, they let go of their hardware PC business. A previously fat-margin area has turned into slimmer pickings, due to advances in technology that brought down manufacturing prices, and enabled more players to enter the market with cheaper products. According to Wikipedia, HP is not a small company - 324,000 employees (in 2010), for instance, so their decision to move away from consumer PC is no small feat, either. And following IBM, they will be maintaining their enterprise businesses.

So the 21st century has seen 2 PC giants letting go of their hardware past, while a notably very 21st century internet company actually bought a hardware company. Interesting, right? Who's to say that Google won't buy HP's PC business as well, however unlikely it is?

But here's what we can see already - the post-PC era is definitely here. Naysayers will be silent from this day on. Perhaps HP has stopped making WebOS devices, but it has not let go of WebOS. No way in hell it would.

The Wars On Intellectual Property Rights - To What End?

In one of the largest acquisitions - ever - in world history, Google buys Motorla Mobility for USD 12,5 billion. Now that's a lot of chilli sauce. I will not get into the details as there are probably already a record number of articles out since the press release until today, reporting, analyzing, cross-analyzing, and so on. You can grab a news feed here.

What Rafe Needleman of CNET says in his article, however, caught my attention:

The accumulation of patent portfolios into a smaller number of bigger players, which themselves are locked in a deadly standoff, has the real potential to slow down the pace of innovation. Which is precisely the opposite reason the patent system was created.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, the current pace of technological advances and the multitude of ways one can enjoy music (read: entertainment) is already calling for some sort of reform of copyright and/or copyright enforcement. Instead of limiting the consumer experience to what copyright law dictates is applicable for some sort of revenue calculation to benefit the copyright holder, shouldn't it be more flexible? Perhaps we all should sign up for Creative Commons, instead of locking our copyrighted work to companies who simply need to limit entertainment channels for better control of profits?

The escalation of patent wars in the past few weeks, currently climaxing with the H-Bomb Google decided to drop on their partners (and harried news editors), shows something else is wrong with the current state of IPR. As Mr. Needleman pointed out and going on a tangent on that, IPR was basically set up so credit is where credit is due, whoever creates or invents can benefit from their work, encouraging more innovation, and creators/inventors/innovators everywhere are encouraged to work more with the comfort of knowing that their work will be worthwhile.

Now IPR has become an offensive weapon: RIAA lawsuits; Apple blocking Samsung tablets; the sordid case of Intellectual Ventures and the like. The merit-based system that IPR is based on, basically bit itself in the ass because patents (and copyright) can be bought and sold, enabling those with the most money to get whatever IPR they want. Currently IPR is at a premium, which is a boon to the IPR industry, but at what cost to the average consumer? Do these IPR weapon silos actually push innovation or inhibit it? These large companies are buying up giant stores of patents to protect themselves from litigation - but what about what comes next?

Hey, I don't even know how many patents, belonging to how many parties, are inside the whole package of hardware and software of my smartphone. I assume that all parties are paid with a royalty scheme. Which is good, and the way it should be.

But will these patent wars stop us from getting the best technology we want or need?

Video Piracy and Copyright Enforcement Reform

As part of my job, I have been scouring the Internet looking for illegal uploads of movies produced and released by my company. It seems that here in Vietnam at least, there is a dominant video streaming model done by these illegal movie sites:
- register a Vietnamese-market oriented domain on an overseas registrar and hosting;
- upload the movies to YouTube, 4shared, Dailymotion and many other similar sites, sometimes using private accounts with private links;
- make a landing page for the movie with all the links to the clips uploaded to the various video/storage services, sometimes using a proprietary Flash player based on JWPlayer;
- place a disclaimer on every page that the site does not host the content, thus the site is fully legal;
- sell ads on the page.

This is just wrong.

I'm all for the reform of copyright enforcement, but I still support the basic concept that the copyright holder should have some say on any exploitation of their content, and receive a share of any money made from it. A more flexible, liberal concept of copyright and copyright enforcement, should still benefit the creator.

How do we reform copyright law? I don't have any details yet, but perhaps more flexible controls for use, reuse and derivatives; positive enforcement i.e. making it attractive for people/businesses to support copyright... But this is something that needs a lot of thought and discussion, and perhaps needs an enormous reworking of the copyright concept. Perhaps abolishing copyright ownership altogether? Who knows. The shorter-term solution is innovating the business models and the customer experiences, but still, in my opinion, these kinds of websites need to go. File-sharing is one thing, but making money of somebody else's work - without permission and any revenue share - is downright wrong.