We like what Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have done so far with exploring digital music distribution; R.E.M. takes the conversation to the top of the music mountain with their planned online debut of their new album.

(more…)

One YouTube upload later, a Baltimore cop received a suspension after a skater recorded the officer’s less-than-friendly interactions with a fellow skater.

(more…)

So much for the partnership between Google senior advisor Al Gore’s Current TV and Yahoo. The joint effort lasted all of two months before the Yahoo site stopped accepting Yahoo uploads. (more…)

Drew’s blog entry on the forthcoming Zune promotion on Rocketboom says he’s been losing sleep over the deal. He’s decided to back out of a deal with Microsoft that “will be a big traffic loss for us.”

I really love Apple and will stick by them in this competition. I also remembered from last year that Microsoft was the first company to really make me feel as though I was being taken advantage of personally.

Drew’s also concerned that the Microsoft logo agreement would leave Rocketboom unable to criticize the company.

“That’s just not a reasonable restriction for Rocketboom.”

I can’t see why Drew felt the need to publicize the fact Rocketboom won’t be publicizing the Zune. Contractual terms notwithstanding, he’s certainly free to back out on a deal. Airing this where plenty of other people could pick up on it and comment doesn’t seem to accomplish anything.

If I’m Paul at Microsoft, I’m not going to be recommending any deals with Rocketboom in the short term.

I was searching Google and Technorati looking for podcasts that were live or recorded at the Portable Media Expo in Ontario, California. The Portable Media Expo is the first major conference focused on podcasting.

The list below is not comprehensive …

- PodcastPickle.com
- Podcasting Underground
- New Media Musings
- Radio Leo (KFI Radio podcast)
- Accident Hash

- Podcrawl
- TechPodcasts.com
- Learn Out Loud
- Dr. Floyd

Additionally, I ran across some photos of the event which you can view here.

In Ontario, Califonia (near my home town of Montclair) the first Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference starts this morning.

Somehow I missed the news of this conference in time to attend myself. The Portable Media Expo was founded by Tim Bourquin and his brother Emile. They expect over 2,500 attendees and 50+ exhibitors, which are amazing numbers for a first ever conference. Tim and Emile host a popular podcast called The Podcast Brothers which focuses on the business side of podcasting and portable media. As far as I know they have never hosted a conference before … making this a stunning achievement.

It will be interesting to see if they can parlay this into a worldwide conference platform similar to Search Engine Strategies. SES was sold in August by Jupitermedia to Incisive Media for $43 million … so it seems there is again high value placed on popular B2B internet trend oriented conferences.