• muppetmaster on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  Bill I am impressed. You are capable of critical thinking as it concerns Skype.
  Finally there appears to be an awakening to what being closed and proprietary really means. Kudos.

• Uri L. on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  Ok. Karaoke and freestyle singing over loops is certainly something that would feel inherited in the Skype experience.

  Reminder - Gary Brolsman - the boy who recorded himself singing that romanian awful dance song ("O-zone - Dragostea Din Tei", better known as "Numa numa").

  Another possible advantage may rise once skype carry out their invasion into the mobile platforms.

  Would skype evetually introduce a lucrative interactive music/video channel to the show biz world?

• Phil Wolff on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  Uri, I want full on Skype Karaoke.

  Music video. Webcam of me singing in front of the music video. Lyrics on top. People texting and talking to each other behind my back. Letting me hear applause or the audience sing with me.

  I'd pay for a monthly subscription.

• Uri L. on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  As a music producer, who's seen all sorts of contracts (still not those with $500k advance though :) I think Skype is still not an option for effective distribution, at the moment.

  In the past I wrote some toughts on the possible opportunities to utilize skype for promotion of music content. As a viral, guerilla platform that can bypass many archaic and label controlled routes (radio playlists, for example).

  As an e-wallet to buy micro-content like video and music - skype is cool, but where's its real competitive advantage? Ok, Ebay will bring it for skype. But currently, if the content is just another tab in the skype window, I'm not sure if it's a real big deal.

  And Skype better get their billing facilities on a proper level, before aiming to be a light paypal.

  People in the music industry have been thinking for a while how to crack the IM world for the music business. Should it be playlist sharing? recommendations? the main direction today is to offer the music content in context with the IM activity. Buttons for play/buy don't really work.

  Cool animations with a sample from a song could be nice teasers. I tried to create MSN winks and Yahoo audibles for our track "The Askew - Invisible". But the API wasn't clear to me.

  Anyway, back to the point.

  Another option was to use promotion tracks to sponsor free minutes. As a musician/ label I'll buy 500 minutes to be sponsored by my tunes. I know this trick has been tried in the past and didn't work. Maybe Ebay-Skype could revive it with an intuitive bidding system and enthusiastic users.

  And there are more ideas....The thing is, that just to sell your tracks on skype, like any other digital music shop, probably won't create a new experience.
  We need to find the methods to connect the basic skype experience (the voice chat) to music contetn in a way that will excite or benefit consumers.

  And actually, I think I got some ideas in this direction.

  Hope I could test some of them sometime :)

• Jim Courtney on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  Alec Saunders has some interesting comments about how the Platform Partners effectively extend the Skype API to a higher level of support for industry standards (in this case VoiceXML).

• Jim Courtney on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  I may be having senior's moments from time to time but not on this one. When I read about the program this morning I thought I had read on the Skype Platform Partners logos "You receive 40% for chargeable services". Now my math says that means, since Skype gets 30%, the Partners are getting 30%, not 40% while the content provider gets 40%. Aside from the math issue here, that's a long way from the 5% to 20% that I believe artists receive via the RIAA members (and that I know from experience software developers receive via OEM contracts).

  Let's put this into a framework relative to other industry practices in recognizing and rewarding creative content. I certainly stand to be corrected but it seems to me that once again an Internet technology has broken down some intermediation barriers, increased market size for products and services by several orders of magnitude and reallocated more wealth to those deserving of it.

  Can someone bring us up to speed as to what musicians receive for iTunes?

• Bill Campbell on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  Hello phoneranger!
  Good points. I agree Skype will become a global bank. It has the advantage over PayPal of being able to economically bill a 1 Euro purchase.

  I think in time Skype will get it right.

  Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts

• phoneranger on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  I agree that there's less here than meets the eye. There are many new distribution channels opening up for music, video and print. And Skype hasn't done enough yet to make their platform a good way to learn about and buy digital products. Maybe Ebay will teach 'em how. Or NewsCorp.

  OTOH does this mean that one can trade Skype minutes? That Skype will become a global bank or PayPal competitor? We'd be glad to take Skype Credits for our headsets if we can sell them to someone else. We'd even pay what Paypal extorts from us.

• Bill Campbell on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  Hello Paul!

  I was thrilled when I first read the announcement too. But the devil is in the details.

  The Skype Web site talks about Skype being a "group hug". Feels to me more like being "squeezed to death".

  Thanks for dropping by... Regards, Bill
  

• Paul Jardine on Skype goes Hollywood with Voice Services

  Bill, very good post. I couldn't agree with you more, 70% cut for the delivery is daylight robbery!
  The whole announcement smacks of last minute spin and I would give Marcus (and the rest of us who made suggestions on how Skype 3rd parties can make money) a lot of credit for forcing Skype into this.
  What is more depressing is that Skype were not able to come up with this on their own (i.e. without the partner involvement).
  I was more upbeat this afternoon, but reading the details just irritates me!
  Gie's another glesh o'that wine, big yin! - B.C. circa 1980

• continued in the Skype Journal Comment River: 200 fresh comments

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