WooThemes
June 21, 2010
WooThemes is Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud, according to 37signals’ Matt. As its About page/comic illustrates, Woo is in the WordPress theme business.
Woo has much in common with Automattic, the firm behind WordPress, and with 37signals. All three firms are distributed: Woo has three principals, one each in South Africa, England, and Norway.
As someone who has written about the WordPress ecosystem, I was struck by this quote from Woo founder Adii Pienaar.
We have created a niche, micro-economy, where a lot of our users — specifically the designers and developers — are selling add-on services that relate to our themes in one way or another… So we’re finding that users are helping each other on our support forums, while also building their own businesses using our themes.
Woo didn’t just find a niche for itself: it created an ecosystem within the WordPress ecosystem. It is now exploring other publishing platforms/ecosystems. For example, there are now Woo themes for Drupal.
Woo particularly impresses 37signals by being like 37signals. Neither firm took venture capital, and each has grown “organically,” from profits, without taking investment from outside.
Woo’s About page/comic refers to WordPress default themes as boring. I’d say that has ceased to be true now that WordPress 3.0 comes with Twenty Ten as the default theme. But it looks as though Woo, its brand, and its ecosystem have arrived at the point at which it doesn’t need other themes to be boring in order to stand out.
Talking of the Woo brand, I came across what I think of as a neat bit of brand-building when I was upgrading blogs at WanderNote, which lives at BlueHost. Use of Simplescripts there is “sponsored by WooThemes Get a fresh new free or premium WordPress theme!” Upgrade and installation are good times to tell WordPress admins about theme options.
I’d be interested to read your impressions of WooThemes: the themes, the organization, the way in which it has grown? Mine are fairly positive, although I’ve yet to use any Woo themes myself.
WordPress 3.0 Released
June 17, 2010
WordPress 3.0 is out. Matt suggests vuvuzelas. I consider them strictly optional – although Vuvuzela would be a great name for a WordPress theme.
This is a good time to mention:
- My series of posts on 3.0.
- WanderNote, a WordPress host where new sites will have 3.0 itself, rather than a 3.0 release candidate. I’ll upgrade existing WanderNote sites to 3.0 soon, unless the owners opt out of the upgrade.
Rdio On
June 16, 2010
I just got my invite to Rdio, and started my free trial. My first thought was that Rdio reminds me of MOG. The free trial lasts three days, with no credit card required to start it. Thereafter, the cost is $5/month (basic – see below for what another $5 gets you).
Rdio also reminds me of some of the reasons I decided MOG is not for me. There are gaps in the music library. I continue to use Josh Ritter’s So Runs The World Away as my first test case. Rdio fails that test.
That’s not an isolated gap in the library (or even in the Josh Ritter collection). Three of my favorite five albums of the year so far (The Golden Archipelago, July Flame and Sigh No More) aren’t available at Rdio.
A different sort of gap in Rdio is the current lack of an Android application. It is apparently coming soon. Use of mobile apps (currently BlackBerry and iPhone) is part of Rdio Unlimited, which costs $10/month.
It may seem premature to criticize such a new service for gaps. I believe that the gaps are being addressed. I don’t mean that I have inside knowledge that the four albums referred to above are seen as particularly high priorities by Rdio management. I mean that I believe Rdio’s statement that the library is growing, and its statement that Android is coming soon.
Rdio did decide that its service is ready for trial. It seems to be, in that I’ve found the site easy to navigate, and encountered no problems with streaming the music that is in the library. I doubt that I’ll subscribe beyond the 3-day trial, although I don’t rule out another trial as the gaps are filled.
If you’d like to try it for yourself, I have some invites to give away. Leave a comment while stocks last, and a Rdio invite will be yours.
Update: my 3 free Rdio days are up. It seems that I can still give out invites. I have 8 left as of June 20, having sent an invite to each of the first two people to comment.
AOL’s Spinner for New Music Releases
June 16, 2010
Since I can’t visit Lala to check out new releases, I’ll be visiting Spinner’s Listening Party even more. It features a dozen or so recently-released albums, with the roster being refreshed every Tuesday.
Spinner is owned by AOL, which means that it has me visiting an AOL site regularly. That’s quite an achievement these days.
Currently spinning albums include Antifogmatic by the Punch Brothers. My first impression is very positive. If it continues to sound this good after a few more listens, it’ll make my soon-to-be-posted list of 6 albums from the first 6 months of 2010.
Networked Nonprofit Virtual Book Launch
June 15, 2010
The Networked Nonprofit, the book by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, will be released on July 6. There’s a closer, and more important, date: Beth posts about the June 21 virtual book launch party date. She aims to concentrate (pre-)orders around that date, so that The Networked Nonprofit becomes a bestseller.
There are a bunch of things that Beth conspicuously doesn’t specify, at least not prominently enough for me to notice:
- A real world book launch event/signing here in the DC area, or anywhere else.
- Any reference to any real world stores or sales. I picture Beth and Allison descending on bookstores to hide copies of their book so that people will buy it at Amazon, thus keeping it high on the Amazon business bestseller list.
- A widget for the use of people who want to blog about the book and the virtual launch party.
- A hashtag for tweets and a tag for posts (I’m using networkednonprofit here).
Anyway, the books sounds great, and I intend to be at the virtual launch party.
Not the Lala: Grooveshark and Rhapsody
June 14, 2010
I miss Lala,and its extensive music library, more and more as I try other music services. Yes I am using the “does this service give me what I liked about Lala” test.
That test may be particularly unfair on Grooveshark, which has a music library comprising stuff that users have uploaded and labels haven’t demanded be taken down. Basic Grooveshark is free. VIP includes ad-free service and access to mobile clients. It usually costs $3 a month, but the first month is free for Lala refugees (thanks to Mashable for the heads-up).
Rhapsody provides a more direct comparison with Lala, and suffers for it. It has a smaller music library, is far less exciting on new release Tuesdays, insists that you download an app, wants that app to be the default player for all sorts of things, and… I think there are other things I’ve forgotten.
In sum, there is still an opening for Andrew’s favorite music service. If you have suggestions, particularly if you are a USA-based Lalagee (Lala refugee) and have found a new promised land, I’d love to read.
Funnels, Donations, NPR, and Apple
June 10, 2010
National Public Radio offers its radio shows at no charge, and hopes that enough listeners will donate enough money to make it viable. More broadly, NPR offers its content for free, on a variety of platforms including radio, the web, and iPad apps. There is the potential for more platforms to mean more consumers and hence more donations.
NPR has much in common with for-profit freemium services (such as WordPress.com). It can therefore use some of the same analytical tools, such as funnel analysis.
We can think of a funnel with NPR listeners toward the top. Fans of NPR, or of a particular show, are at a lower and narrower part of the funnel. Some of those fans donate; we might think of donations as money emerging from the bottom of the funnel.
What effect will iPad and iPhone apps have on NPR’s funnel? That’s what this 3-minute video is about. If it makes you want to donate to NPR, that’s good. The Changing Way Multimedia Studio is not currently seeking donations, despite this production’s use of crayon and handheld camera. The producer, however, is seeking work in the DC area.
The video illustrates, using the funnel model, an argument I made yesterday: that NPR was rather hasty in getting on the iPad bandwagon. I was prompted to make the video an following an exchange with Beth Kanter. We seem to agree that someone should write a post living up to the title: Apple or Android? Which One is More Nonprofit Friendly?. Neither of us has done it yet.
I’d be interested to see comments (or external posts) on the comparison of Apple and Android for nonprofits, on the use of the funnel model by nonprofits, on Apple’s policy toward nonprofits, or anything else arising from this post/video. Over to you…
NPR: Bitten By Apple?
June 9, 2010
NPR is a fascinating business. Yes, the word business is appropriate for a nonprofit like NPR. How can it bring in enough money to fund its radio shows and other activities?
This particular post was prompted by a remark about “Apple’s wrongheaded policy of prohibiting donations.” That’s from Jake Shapiro, CEO of PRX, writing at Ars Technica. One of the things that PRX does is develop apps for NPR shows such as This American Life (by the way, that last link currently goes, not to a home page, but to a donate page).
Apple’s app policies deny nonprofits access to 1-Click payments: “the most powerful direct-payment platform in the mobile marketplace.” Apple does provide a payment infrastructure, but takes a 30% for itself.
I don’t want to bash Apple. Well, I do, but there are other posts for that.
If there is bashing to be done, at least some of it should be directed at the people at NPR (and PRX?) who rushed headlong to kiss the iPad’s touchscreen: “we’ll be there for you Day 1 with a fully redesigned app and a Web site that’s optimized for the platform.” NPR made it a priority to expend money and other resources on iNPR.
I can see that the iPad audience is a desirable one. We might call them ABCs: affluent, brand-loyal, connected. This audience benefits from iNPR. I hope that NPR benefits as well, in terms of contributions from the ABCs.
But I suspect that most of the benefit goes to Apple. NPR has packaged its content for the iPad, thus improving the already-lauded tablet. Perhaps even more important, NPR’s eagerness to support the iPad, and to be seen to be doing so, is free publicity: something that Apple doesn’t lack, but can always use more of.
Here’s an app promo image. It’s linkjacked from NPR’s tablet page. But it links to NPR’s donate page. If you’ve used iNPR, and haven’t yet donated, please do so. No, I don’t want a cut of your donation.
I found Jake’s editorial via Beth Kanter. Her post has the title Apple or Android? Which One is More Nonprofit Friendly? I think that’s a great title, and a great topic to explore. I don’t think that the post really explores it, though, consisting as it does of little more than an approving pointer to Jake’s article.
MOG isn’t for me, but Josh Ritter might be
June 3, 2010
MOG is prominent among the alternatives to Lala, which just shut down. I’m about halfway through the free 3-day trial of MOG All Access.
I don’t think that MOG is the service for me, for reasons including the following.
- The album I first tried to listen to, Josh Ritter’s So Runs The World Away, isn’t available on MOG (with the exception of the very short opening track/overture).
- Another album I wanted to listen to doesn’t even have a page at MOG. The album in question is Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Song And Chanteys. It didn’t exactly dominate the charts, but it’s not the most obscure of albums either, given some of the people who play on it, and its movie tie-in.
- MOG seems more inclined to buffering interruptions than was Lala.
- There isn’t an easy way to embed playlists at blogs and other sites (although there are FaceTwit buttons).
- MOG doesn’t have an affiliate program (which reminds me, my links to music are affiliate links to Amazon).
In sum: MOG’s missing music, compared with Lala. The other objections are minor. I admit that all my objections are based on a short period of pseudo-research. I also admit that MOG is tremendous value for $5/month (currently). But I suspect that I can do even better, and so will keep on exploring music web services.
As for Josh Ritter, he has long been an artist who makes music I kind of like, but don’t really really like like. His new album might change that, which is why I want to give it a few more listens. I heard a recent NPR studio appearance while driving, and like the web version even more, featuring as it does a rather cool video.
I’ll look for Josh at the next music service I check out, which will probably be Rhapsody.
I Quit the Wrong Service
June 1, 2010
As of today, I have a Facebook account, but not a Lala account. That seems like the wrong way round, given that yesterday was Quit Facebook Day, and that I liked Lala.
But Lala did indeed close as yesterday turned into today,so it really is time to look at alternatives to Lala. I’ll probably start with MOG, since its free trial does not require a credit card; on the other hand, that trial only lasts three days.
