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34% of people find new music using video services

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Google Inc.’s video service, YouTube, has grown in leaps and bounds year-on-year from the second quarter of 2014.  How large has it grown?

11%: That’s how much YouTube has grown since 2014’s second quarter.Revenue totaled $17.7 billion, and profit was $3.9 billion. Google chief financial officer Ruth Porat says there are two factors contributing to this growth. The first is the growth of Google’s search business on mobile. The second is the time users spend on YouTube. The average view time has increased by 60%, with watch time on mobile doubling. YouTube has a billion monthly users. Music video publishers and labels will need to study YouTube and how its growth can benefit music artists and bands. Source: Muscially

$65 billion in market value: A strong second quarter increased YouTube’s stock value by 16.3%, increasing its market value to $65 million. For the 18-49 year old demographic, YouTube is larger than any individual American cable network, Google chief business officer Omid Kordestani said. Home page views have increased three fold, he said.  Revenue has increased for advertisers as well. There are 40% more video ads than last year with the top 100 advertisers spending 60% more on ads. A year ago, YouTube was worth $3 billion. Google purchased YouTube in 2006, a year after it was founded, for $1.65 billion. Every minute, 300 hours of video are uploadedSource: Forbes

So, how are multi-channel networks doing compared to YouTube?
VEVO saw a 70% increase in users age 13-24. That same demographic grew an average of 63% on other networks.
VEVO had 48,195 unique visitors in 2014. Vimeo had 38,851. Google websites totaled 162,317.
34% of people find new music using video services, more than any other source.
– 45% of YouTube viewers discovered new music with a video service.
Sources: Music Watch and Boyar Research and Midem

Yoko Ono To Release ‘Yes, I’m A Witch Too’ Out January 22 With Death Cab For Cutie, Peter Bjorn and John, Portugal The Man

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MANIMAL GROUP is excited to announce the sequel to YOKO ONO’S critically acclaimed 2007 collaboration record Yes, I’m A Witch through Astralwerks called Yes, I’m A Witch Too. The album is Executive Produced by Yoko and Rob Stevens.

Yes, I’m A Witch Too is slated for an early 2016 release and features new collaborations and remixes pairing ONO with Death Cab For Cutie, Peter, Bjorn and John, Sparks, tUnE-yArDs, MiikeSnow, Cibo Matto, Portugal The Man and more.
The album is coming out via MANIMAL (Bat for Lashes, Warpaint, Chains of Love) as a double vinyl set, as well as in deluxe CD and digital formats, on January 22nd, 2016.

Featuring:
“Forgive Me My Love” ONO-Death Cab For Cutie
“Mrs. Lennon” ONO-Peter, Bjorn and John
“Move On Fast” ONO-Jack Douglas
“Give Me Something” ONO-Sparks
“She Gets Down on her Knees” ONO-Penguin Prison
“Soul Got Out of the Box” ONO-Portugal the Man
“Dogtown” ONO-Sean Ono Lennon
“Warrior Woman” ONO-tUnE-yArDs
“Catman” ONO-Miike Snow
“Yes, I’m Your Angel” ONO-Cibo Matto
“Wouldnit” ONO-Dave Audé
“I Have A Woman Inside My Soul” ONO-John Palumbo
“No Bed For Beatle John” ONO-Ebony Bones
“Coffin Car” ONO-Automatique
“Walking On Thin Ice” ONO-Danny Tenaglia
“Approximately Infinite Universe” ONO-Blow Up

Here’s How You Can Be The Change – #UpgradeYourWorld

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To celebrate the launch of Windows10, Microsoft is launching a really exciting campaign, #UpgradeYourWorld. I’m really excited to have my very first guest blog post on this site – my 12-year-old daughter Hannah Alper has been asked to help spread the word because everything about #UpgradeYourWorld fits with my, and her, vision of changing the world.

Here it is, and take it away, Hannah.

My blog and everything that has grown out of it, is founded on the idea that we can all make a difference every single day and that all of the things that we can do – big and small – add up make a difference in the world. Through my work with Free The Children and We Day, I have grown to understand that change is urgent locally and globally. When we come together as a community to share and celebrate the change that we are making, we inspire others to join us in their own way. These things are all part of Microsoft’s #UpgradeYourWorld.

#UpgradeYourWorld is a new year-long initiative to celebrate those who inspire and empower others, led by Microsoft’s vision to help people achieve more through technology and in celebration of the Windows 10 launch.

The #UpgradeYourWorld initiative has a few different components and ways for you to get involved and share the ways in which you are taking action to #UpgradeYourWorld.

1. Social Media

Share what you are doing to make a difference in the world – locally or globally – on social media. Remember – everything makes a difference and no act is too small to share. Are you working with an organization that helps people? Do you do random acts of kindness daily? Share them and don’t forget to use the #UpgradeYourWorld hashtag and tell @WindowsCanada  so that all of our actions add up. Microsoft will bring a few of these ideas to life in the coming months.

2. Help choose #10

Microsoft is investing ten million dollars to support global non-profit organizations. They have selected 9: CARE, Code.org, Keep a Child Alive, Malala Fund, Pencils of Promise, Save the Children, Special Olympics, The Global Poverty Project, and The Nature Conservancy. They are looking to us to choose #10.  Starting July 29th, you can vote for the 10th non-profit to receive $500,000 in funding from Microsoft here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/upgradeyourworld/

3. Go Local

In addition to these global non-profits, starting in September, Microsoft will be crowdsourcing nominations for 10 non-profits in each of the following 10 countries: Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. The 100 local winners will each receive a cash investment to support their work to upgrade the world. Stay tuned and share your pick to receive this generous help.

This is a great video from Microsoft to launch #UpgradeYourWorld. I love this: Making our neighbourhoods, communities…there has never been a better time to make a difference. #UpgradeYourWorld

https://youtu.be/1yksa_z8jU8

 

Cool fact: Around the world, tens of thousands of Microsoft employees will participate in the Upgrade Your World initiative by taking a day off to volunteer to upgrade their community, many of them on July 29, in celebration of the Windows 10 launch.

I’m a big user of Windows for school and for my blog, presentations and speeches and I’m excited about the new Windows 10. There are a lot of cool new features and the upgrades are based on feedback and input that they have collected from more than 5 million Windows Insiders. It’s a free upgrade if you’re already using Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Phone here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/features

 

NSFW: Cards Against Humanity Releases Design Pack

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Cards Against Humanity announced today that it has partnered with the prestigious Chicago Design Museum to release the “Design Pack,” an expansion pack of 30 fully-illustrated cards created by world-class designers.

The 30 contributing designers interpreted George Carlin’s infamous 1972 monologue, “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” for the pack; they include: Milton Glaser (I ♥ NY), Susan Kare (the Apple Macintosh), Erik Spiekermann (MetaDesign), Paula Scher (The Daily Show), Art Paul (Playboy), Debbie Millman (Design Matters), Scott Thomas (Obama for America), Jessica Hische (Daily Drop Cap), Matthew Hoffman (You Are Beautiful), and legendary printmakers including Jay Ryan, Yann Legendre, Olly Moss, Mike Mitchell, and Sonnenzimmer.

“In our increasingly politically correct culture where the desire to protect people’s sense of identity is paid for by reducing people’s freedom of expression, I commend any chance an artist gets to fully express themselves,” said Kelly Carlin, George Carlin’s daughter, before adding: “This shit is great!”

All profits from the Design Pack will benefit the Chicago Design Museum, a grassroots, not-for-profit gallery that exhibits contemporary design. Similar non-profit packs by Cards Against Humanity have raised nearly three million dollars for non-profit partners DonorsChoose.org, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Sunlight Foundation.

“The Chicago Design Museum has been my dream for the last five years,” said museum co-founder Tanner Woodford. “With this pack, we will become a sustainable part of Chicago’s design culture for years to come.”

“We love the Chicago Design Museum because it has a grassroots origin similar to our own,” said Cards Against Humanity co-creator and pack contributor Max Temkin. “They’ve gone from a Kickstarter project to curating the most exciting design shows in the world.”

“Our research shows that today’s youths don’t like to read anything with words, so here’s just a bunch of pictures,” said Cards Against Humanity co-creator Ben Hantoot. “Frankly, I’m glad they’ll never read this press release.”

“We’ve been out of ideas for two years,” said Cards Against Humanity co-creator Eli Halpern. “Maybe people will like this? Who knows. Fuck it.”

“The Design Pack is being published at a critical moment in the museum’s trajectory, and will allow us to expand our efforts to strengthen design culture and build community in Chicago and beyond,” said Woodford.

The designers contributing to the pack include: Laura Park, Shawna X, Chad Kouri, Susan Kare, Yann Legendre, Paula Scher, Jay Ryan, Mike McQuade, Paul Octavious, Erik Spiekermann, Max Temkin, Debbie Millman, Art Paul, Simon Whybray, Mike Mitchell, Scott Thomas, Matthew Terdich, Jez Burrows, Jason Polan, Jessica Hische, Cody Hudson, Nick Adam, Matthew Hoffman, Magdalena Wistuba, Anna Mort, Eric Hu, Olly Moss, Tanner Woodford, Milton Glaser, and Sonnenzimmer.

The Design Pack is available through at designpack.org, or at the Chicago Design Museum, Block Thirty Seven, 108 N. State Street, 3rd Floor.

Cards Against Humanity is a party game for horrible people. It is the top-selling, best-reviewed, and most-wished-for toy or game on Amazon.com.

The Chicago Design Museum strengthens design culture and builds community by facilitating the exchange of knowledge through dynamic experiences.

 

16 Classic Album Covers Got The Puuuuurfect Makeovers Ever… Featuring Kittens

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Legendary albums from a world dominated by kittens, thanks to the folks at The Kitten Covers!

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Should you be a Wife or a Career Woman? A 1950s Magazine Quiz

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This quiz comes from The Girl Friend (And the Boy Friend), an early-1950s magazine for young women.

Watch this guy move a parked car out of the bike lane. With his hands.

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How many times have you seen a car parked in the bike lane and wanted to either move it, or bash right into it, just because it’ll be their fault? Just me on the last one? Ok, then. Fortunately, this cyclist thought about the former.

https://youtu.be/luNGjffDjCs

Silversun Pickups 4th studio album BETTER NATURE is out September 25

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Silversun Pickups have announced that their much-anticipated fourth studio album, BETTER NATURE, will be released September 25th via the band’s own New Machine Recordings. Pre-orders for the album in addition to other very limited items are now available at silversunpickups.com.

BETTER NATURE is preceded by the incandescent new single, “Nightlight,” debuting August 6th.  “Nightlight” will also arrive via an inspired video directed by renowned filmmaker Mark Pellington which will premiere simultaneously with the song.

Silversun Pickups’ first new album in more than three years, BETTER NATURE sees the Silverlake, CA-based band partnering once again with producer Jacknife Lee (U2, Two Door Cinema Club, Crystal Castles), with whom they so successfully collaborated on 2012’s visionary NECK OF THE WOODS. The songs were created and crafted in Lee’s Topanga studio, the band spontaneously building out from singer/guitarist Brian Aubert’s deliberately spare songwriting demos (see tracklisting below). The result is fluid and freewheeling, “oozing,” in Aubert’s words, with heavily cranked guitars, propulsive rhythms, and seemingly infinite textures. GRAMMY Award-winning mix engineer Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Royal Blood) brings maximum sonic power to the proceedings, but at the album’s beating heart is Silversun Pickups’ remarkably intuitive interplay, as ever providing panoramic musical counterpoint to Aubert’s incisive, increasingly self-exploratory lyricism. Richer, warmer, and more evocative than anything in their prior canon, BETTER NATURE is Silversun Pickups’ most human music thus far.

Silversun Pickups will herald BETTER NATURE with a full North American tour to be unveiled soon. In the meantime, the band will make a number of special appearances, beginning with a headline performance at FM 94.9’s Independence Jam, set for September 12th at Oceanside, CA’s Junior Seau Pier Amphitheatre.

BETTER NATURE marks the debut release from Silversun Pickups’ New Machine Recordings. The artist owned label — which takes its name from the PIKUL favorite, “…All The Go Inbetweens”.

Today’s Kids Can’t Work The First iPod

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Old Tech is back in vogue, and take a look at kids reaction to 1st Generation iPods. Don’t forget to gently get off our lawns.