February 2007

If ever there was a buzzzzzy month...this was it!...From The Trumpet Awards...The Super Bowl...the NBA All Star Weeekend and Fitzgeralds 5th Anniversary Celebration

The 15th Annual Trumpet Awards - Saluting African American Achievements, Executive Producer and creator... Xerona Clayton was indeed something to behold. Now mind you...I have attended many award shows during my tenure in the Entertainment industry...but to say the least...this was the most rewarding and fulfilling events that I have ever attended.

From: Toni Braxton/Entertainer...Michael Jordan/Goodwill Ambassador...Percy E. Sutton/Business-Pinnacle Award...Tommie Smith & John Carlos/1968 Olympic Track Stars...Dionne Warwick/Living Legend Award...Clint Eastwood/Social Justice Award...Hill Harper/Usher Raymond Altrusim Award and Quincy Jones/Lifetime Achievement Award to name a few!!!

Held at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, a first time event in this city. The menu for the evening was "to die for" and of course yours truly was a happy camper.

The Presenters were equally impressive...Amb. Andrew Young...Dr. Bobby Jones...Gladys Knight...Jasmine Guy...Babyface & Tracy Edmonds (on the same stage..but...not at the same time (:)...Martin Luther King III...Nancy Wilson...and Terrence Howard and far too many more to mention.

The music of the evening was provided by Yolanda Adams, George Wallace...Vickie Winans...a special performance by cast members from Zumanity and Clint Eastwood...Yes, I said Clint Eastwood, who actually played the piano accompanied by his son.

"The Annual Trumpet Awards acknowledges the accomplishments of men and women who have significantly contributed to enhancing the quality of life of all...The Mission is to inspire, educate, stimulate and enlighten human minds to the reality that success, achievement and respect are void of color and gender".

The highlight of the evening for me was when I recognize a very familiar face...the face of Quincy Jones and had the opportunity to approach him and it went like this..."Mr. Jones...I knew this day would come..I have waited 30 years to tell you THANK YOU! for I am a product of the "Quincy Jones workshop"...Such a smile on both of our faces...Then I said..."We also have something else in common..."The woman that saved your life...saved mine by giving me my first job after I graduated from secretarial college"...He said.."Elsie" and I said "Giorgie". He was about to tell me a story about her when a VERY RUDE BROAD, yes I said it...came up and interrupted our conversation. Now back in the day, I would have handled that situation in such a way that at this time is would be one of those occasions that I cared not to remember...Thank God theres God!...Just remembering this, pisses me off!!!!...But who knows, maybe one day, we will meet again...Quincy that is :)

Gipson Penland/Entainment Newspaper Editor was awarded the Posthumous Award the previous evening...so I was able to see her daughters Reve and Shonte Gipson including members of the Regalettes celebrate this momentous occasion.

It was a gala affair...I was told it will be aired on TV1 in March ..check your locat listing...a MUST see!!!

Martin Harriman Vice President of Ericsson's multimedia business quoted a recent survey of 3 BILLION mobile users worldwide. Seventy Two percent of them said that they always took their mobile phone with them when they left home. That means there are approximately 2.5 BILLION mobile phone users worldwide waiting to be converted into music consumers.

Here are a few of the many new technologies that were being touted during the MidemNet Conference in France this year.

Apple iPhone

The Apple iPhone is not just a phone - it is a phone, music player, video player, internet device, and camera all in one. Like its Apple iPod Nano and iPod video cousins, the iPhone is slim and sleek at just 11.6mm thick, 2.4-inches wide, and 4.5-inches tall. A widescreen iPhone features touch screen controls that allow you to enjoy all your content, including audiobooks, music, TV shows, and movies. Using the phone function of the Apple iPhone, you can start calls by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log. All your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet device are also automatically synched, you can select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want - just like email. Calls can easily be merged together with just the touch of a button to create a conference call. Conference calling has never been easier. The iPhone features a rich HTML email client as well as the Safari browser, which automatically syncs bookmarks from a PC or Mac. The Safari browser has built-in Google and Yahoo! search. You can also multi-task by reading a web page while simultaneously downloading your email in the background via WiFi or EDGE. Safari also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! search. You can even display Google Maps as they were meant to be seen, and zoom in to view specific points. http://www.mobilewhack.com/handset/apple_iphone.html

INSTANT FM MUSIC

Stop paying to get songs on your iPod, now you can fill your iPod for FREE. ADS Tech Instant FM Music is a FM tuner for PC's. This USB connected device comes with software that records music both from Internet radio MUSIC INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM

(MIS) has created a sophisticated software program that analyses music using 69 statistical parameters, including melody, rhythm and sound amplitude to predict what is likely to be successful based on previous hits. Users can enter a category, or music type, song or artist and get a play list of matching titles. Users then can listen to clips or download songs. A customized version of this software is being used to power services on Orange mobiles (UK's largest) customers listen to a song and the service picks more songs just like it.

VIRTUAL REALITY

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one. MidemNet attendees were told that future new revenues would be found within Virtual Reality applications.

Currently multiplayer online games are keeping users online 20 / 25 hours per week, the same person only watches 6 / 8 hours of television per week.

Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. The population of this community is 2.75 million and growing at a rate of 25% per month. Users, often called "residents", can visit this virtual world almost as if it were a real place. They explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and buy items (virtual property) and services from one another, current user to user transactions are at $350 MILLION per year. Second Life's virtual currency is known as Linden Dollars, and is exchangeable for US Dollars in a marketplace constituting users, the Linden Lab and real life companies. This is creating a new structure for selling entertainment over several different devices.

Stardoll.com was devised by a 58 year old woman from Finland and is overwhelmingly occupied by girls age 10 - 17. Every week girls from 200 countries gather in pursuit of fun, fashion and friends. These girls can buy clothes for their virtual versions of themselves and as soon as a record, film or TV show is released this site gets bombarded with requests for the relevant celebrity doll. Virtual Star dollars are purchased with real money 10 Stardollars cost $1. Clothing costs from 30 Starcents to 3 Stardollars

NOKIA N800 Whether you're relaxing on the sofa or enjoying the moment at your favorite café, if you have broadband access over WI-FI connection the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet gives you instant wireless access to the Web. You can also stream files, tune in to Internet radio, News Reader, or play your favorite videos and music. Unlike the iPhone you can not make phone calls, what you can now make are SKYPE VOIP (Internet Phone) calls. This is going to place a dent in the telephone business, for SKYPE calls are FREE from computer to computer.

WEB 2.0

This refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Internet-based services-such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies-that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. While interested parties continue to debate the definition of a Web 2.0 application, a Web 2.0 web-site may exhibit some basic characteristics. These might include: • "Network as platform" - delivering (and allowing users to use) applications entirely through a browser. • Users owning the data on the site and exercising control over that data. • An architecture of participation and democracy that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it. • A rich, interactive, user-friendly interface based on Ajax or similar frameworks. • Some social-networking aspects. • a Public good. "public goods" are characterized by two properties: jointness of supply and non-excludability. The impossibility to exclude group members who didn't contribute to the provision of goods from sharing its profits gives rise to the possibility that rational members will prefer to withhold their contribution of effort and "free ride" on contribution of others.

Currently the ideas about who will create these platforms and who will collect revenue from them are being decided world wide.

There will continue to be surges within the technology industry this year creating bigger and better revenue streams for mobile carriers, online sites and musicians. This is the year of the INDEPENDENT.

Allen Johnston