Some quick notes. Has been covered before, but whats a blog without redundancy. Music biz would do well to read.

• ask users what they want, what they expect, what they love and what they hate
• dont ever “protect” users, especially from themselves. Users dont need us, we need them.
• make your process transparent
• your true evangelists should be your best friends
• enable and encourage your users to be part of the discussion
• get the @#%! out of the way

See that receipt there on the left?

That’s PAYOLA.

Microsoft and Epic Records to Offer Ongoing Exclusive Entertainment Content on Xbox Live
The online entertainment network features Natasha Bedingfield as first Artist of the Month, and offers music videos and Game with Fame sessions.

REDMOND, Wash., and NEW YORK — March 16, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. and music giant Epic Records today announced an agreement to make available a full year of exclusive artist content and high-definition music video downloads free for all Xbox 360™ gamers. Over the next year, Xbox 360 and Epic Records will showcase 12 up-and-coming artists through the Artist of the Month (AOM) program via the Xbox Live® service, the first and only unified global online entertainment network. Through the alliance, millions of Xbox Live members can enter a monthly sweepstakes with a prize of gaming against some of the hottest musicians through the Xbox Live Game with Fame™ program.

“This program really taps into the passion and excitement that surround both video gaming and music,” said Cory Llewellyn, vice president of Epic Records Digital Marketing and Promotion. “We are excited to bring our strong roster of developing artists together with Xbox Live for a variety of great experiences for consumers.”

Read more about why my friend Cory is so good at his job at microsoft.com.

I know its work-related and I know its self-serving but dammit i dont care, I’ve got the #1 record on iTunes!

Yo-Yo Ma & John Williams iTunes Sessions with music from Memoirs of a Geisha

As some of you may have read, Microsoft is playing nice with the web (for once) and adopting Mozilla’s “Syndicate” image as their RSS button. This is a good step toward further interoperability and generally making things less confusing for those who arent so RSS-savvy, as well as finally getting rid of those ugly-as-sin orange RSS buttons ().

Instead, what we use now is this:

Courtesy of mattbrett.com

However, realizing that it’s still that ugly orange, Matt has been kind enough to create a ton of downloadable versions of the icon in EPS, GIF, AI, PSD formats, for your own custom color coding.

They’re all available at FeedIcons.com

I’ve already switched over, as you can see from the menu bar.

Here’s an idea that needs to happen:

I want a web service that will import my netflix queue and tell me which movies are on cable within the next week, so if there are films that i dont care about the 5.1 or bonus features i can record them on my tivo and clear out my queue.

Someone, make it happen!

Happy Jewmas!