But don’t worry — I’m not gonna predict that millions and millions of people are ready to abandon Facebook for the next hot thing. In fact, this isn’t even about anything that Facebook, or its users are doing. Instead, it’s about the perception that Facebook can help to sell media products that no one wants to buy.

You see, when MySpace was still on top of its game, there was a moment when people thought it could help save the entertainment industry. Countless bands were on MySpace, and many of them found it to be an invaluable tool for communicating with their fans. That’s when folks in the music industry got the idea to use MySpace not only for promotion, but actual distribution as well.

First up was Snocap, the music startup founded by Napster’s Shawn Fanning. Snocap wanted to sell MP3s directly on musician’s MySpace profiles, complete with a widget and a rather complicated backend. Snocap’s pitch was that indie bands would be able to avoid the middle man and directly sell to consumers, and reputable online music platforms like CD Baby joined to give their 200,000 musicians a chance at raking in the dough.

Only, the money never came. CD Baby founder Derek Sivers wrote an eye-opening account of his dealings with Snocap in 2007, detailing how he hired six people to exclusively work on the cooperation — only to receive a measly ,000 check for eight months of music sales on MySpace. Snocap eventually closed shop when its assets were acquired by Imeem in early 2008.

Imeem itself got acquired by Myspace in late 2009, only to be folded into MySpace Music, a service the social network launched in cooperation and co-ownership with the four major record labels. The primary goal of MySpace Music wasn’t to sell tracks like Snocap, but to make money through advertising. And guess what: That didn’t work either. MySpace Music burned through “a lot of money,” observed Greg Sandoval from CNet last summer, reporting that MySpace was thinking about switching to a subscription model.

What does Facebook have to do with all of this? Both sites are obviously quite different, but the similarities are striking if you look at the way folks in the media business are projecting all of their hopes on them. Case in point: I got a pitch for a startup last week that wants to sell VOD rentals from independent filmmakers on Facebook, much in the same way that Snocap wanted to sell music downloads.

The startup in question, Berkeley-based FlickLaunch, actually has a pretty neat feature: Film makers can decide to give any number of views of their movie away for free, only asking users to press the Like button if they want access to the title. That way, 1,000 free views become 1,000 promotional messages in people’s Facebook news feeds, which could potentially reach a huge crowd for free. FlickLaunch also has the benefit of launching at a time when major studios are looking to Facebook as well to boost their online VOD sales. Warner Bros. has been experimenting with renting The Dark Knight and Harry Potter on Facebook, allowing users to pay for the movies with Facebook credits.

However, none of that matters if the product isn’t right. Internet users have for the most part rejected one-off VOD rentals, and opted for Netflix-like subscription plans instead. Netflix has captured 61 percent of the digital movie market, according to recent data from the NPD Group. Apple’s iTunes store, which is the biggest online platform for VOD rentals and sales, only has four percent of the market.

Of course, you can convince yourself that all you need is a better social media strategy to make online VOD take off and put all your bets on Facebook. Or you can face the facts: Facebook may be a great platform that has much to offer for the media business. But it won’t help you sell things no one wants to buy, much like MySpace didn’t help the record labels to preserve a failing business model.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Denis Dervisevic.

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Startups in the long-simmering QR code market are hoping that the change in season, along with what they say is a “critical mass” of smart phones, will finally bring QR codes, barcodes that lead to URLs or information when scanned, into the mainstream. The idea is that when more people are out and about, the more likely it is that they’ll interact with QR codes on things like movie and concert promotion posters. And at least two QR code startups are in the process of closing on fresh rounds of funding to make sure they can seize what they think is a major opportunity to bring QR awareness to the masses. But are QR codes really a seasonal thing?

Los Angeles-based startup ShareSquare makes QR codes that lead to customized HTML5-based web applications. The majority of the company’s clients are in the entertainment industry, from independent musicians to large movie studios, and use ShareSquare’s QR codes on promotional materials. ShareSquare launched to the public in March after proving popular at the South by Southwest conference, CEO Matthias Galica said in an interview this week.

Galica says his company is quickly closing on about .5 million in funding to ensure that it can capitalize on what he says is a crucial time for the QR space. “Most of these QR placements are out of home, and [in the summer] people have the opportunity to interact with them,” Galica said, noting that the funds will be used to double the size of ShareSquare’s developer team. “We’re seeing the market really accelerate.” Summer is a huge time for concerts and big movies, so maybe he has a point.

Also currently in funding talks is Paperlinks, a Los Angeles-based startup. Paperlinks sells stationery products, like wedding invitations and business cards, which include QR codes linking back to a customized site. Paperlinks CEO Hamilton Chan told me in an interview this week he’s in the process of securing an undisclosed amount of venture capital to help fuel his company’s projected growth. “We want to grow very aggressively,” Chan said. “The time is right for QR codes.”

It bears mentioning, however, that not everyone is so bullish about QR technology’s current potential. In late March, Google quietly shut down the QR code initiative it debuted for its Places product in 2009 . The word is, Google ditched QR to focus on developing near field communications (NFC) technology, which goes beyond offering more information about products. With NFC, people could use their mobile phones to buy things.

It could well be that both QR and NFC have widespread adoption, but in a world of ever-increasing mobile technology, there may not be enough room on the average consumer’s radar for two features that are so similar. That may be the real reason why QR companies see this summer as a now-or-never moment: They’re hoping QR will be the first to grab a place in the sun, and in consumer’s minds, ahead of NFC.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

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Right now most people turn to Wi-Fi because it’s cheaper and faster than cellular networks, although those surfing on Verizon’s LTE network may no longer worry about speeds. However, there’s still a cost. Chugging gigabytes through an HD movie stream on a cell phone network will eat through your wallet. Under current Verizon plans, five hours of HD streaming would eat up the entire 5GB plan, leaving users to pay more for every gigabyte over. So in general, for long-form content, Wi-Fi is where it’s at. However, even short-form content — such as hot YouTube videos — takes its toll on the network.

That’s one reason SanDisk has teamed up with Softbank, Sony and Orange to create a standard to deliver content to handsets via Wi-Fi. The standard, known as HQME –or high-quality mobile entertainment — is being debated in the IEEE. Noam Kedem, a VP of marketing at SanDisk helping lead the HQME charge, explains that an executive at an international operator told him that if someone could deliver the top 100 YouTube videos via Wi-Fi, that would cut down on 80 percent of the problems on his network.

I wrote about the HQME standard a few weeks back and explained it would automatically detect when a mobile device hits a Wi-Fi network (and is plugged in), then begin downloading content such as movies or e-books for consumption later, while seemingly keeping digital rights management and subscription information intact. I had some issues with this, namely that most people consume short-form and unplanned content via their mobile networks, so having some type of pre-determined download wouldn’t help all that much. But I didn’t have the full story.

Kedem explained that the technology ideally would be able to work from a Netflix queue to download content a user is likely to want. For example, if I’m watching the second episode of Downton Abbey before I go to bed that night, it might preload episode 3 over my Wi-Fi connection so I can take it on the go with me the next morning. This assumes the content owner is willing to let me store content that was licensed for streaming — a big if. In another example, Kedem explains that an operator could cache the Top 100 YouTube videos on a handset or tablet when the user encounters a Wi-Fi network using the HQME standard. Then if someone sent the handset’s owner a viral video, it’s likely the video would already be cached on the handset. Again, this is an example, and would require help from YouTube and may likely hack off content owners whose copyrighted product tends to show up on popular YouTube videos.

This intelligent and predictive caching model also depends on phones and tablets having the room to store a few gigabytes of video content — something that isn’t exactly feasible on most of today’s handsets. Kedem says the onboard storage might change (he stresses it won’t use the phone or tablet’s SD card which could perhaps contain SanDisk memory), or that users could set limits on how much of their storage would be dedicated to caching. But is that something most users would want or even know how to do in the “post-PC” era?

While the hurdles to adoption on the consumer side and on the content side seem large, the threatened deluge of mobile video content is frightening enough that the industry is trying to find new ways of building out their networks, selling new data plans and even pushing forward with open standards in an effort to keep their networks afloat. Even if the HQME standard doesn’t come through, predictive content caching is an idea worth looking at.

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Powered access equipment hire is proving a popular solution for those tricky scenarios that could end up with both lengthy and costly scaffolding construction, or situations that would have a health and safety officer chomping at the bit! So this doesn’t happen, there’s an efficient, effective and safer solution, which is to hire powered access equipment.

Cherry picker hire is the most popular type of powered access equipment hire. The name ‘cherry picker’ comes from …you guessed it… picking cherry’s and other orchards, which gives the fruit picker access to the top of tall trees. There’s so many uses for these inspired engineering masterpieces . Cherry pickers or as they are sometimes called, personnel lifts and aerial work platforms are designed to give access to all kinds of vertical challenges, however restricted the space is. For example, utility services that require access to pylons and poles use cherry pickers to make their work more reachable . Buildings with high ceilings such as warehouses, supermarkets, leisure centres use cherry picker hire companies as do councils when assembling your local high streets Christmas lights. Let’s not forget their popular use in the entertainment industry as well; any kind of rigging for gigs and shows, and I seem to remember a certain Michael Jackson whose daring performance also used a cherry picker.

Cherry pickers allow for one or two man operatives, and if you have other needs including larger loads, larger number of operatives or access to challenging spaces, then there are a variety of alternative powered access equipment for hire . Scissor lift hire allows for larger loads and larger work platform. This would be for much more industrial work that would require tools and lots of workmen on board. Boom lift hire gives you horizontal reach as well as a vertical elevation and could be used for when working horizontally on the outside of a building, for example when guttering. When access near the vicinity of the job is denied, a telescopic boom hire would be ideal to give you that verticle reach. . So, say if there are obstacles in the way on the terrain, then this piece of machinery gives you far greater reach. Genie lifts hire provide more stability and are mounted on a light trailer which is towable behind a motor vehicle. These are much more versatile and easily transportable to any job that has a vertical challenge.

So, the common and most household name of any powered access equipment hire is the cherry picker, but as I have pointed out there are many more powered access equipment for hire whatever your vertical and horizontal working needs.

Through classification, a scam is a fraudulent company structure; a swindle; a hustle, flim flam, scheme and a bamboozle. It indicates that the firm, in this case the Recording Connection scam, is in the company to victimize individuals and deceive and fool them out of money. In case a business is a scam, the “simply” company they are was to take advantage of persons of cash and provide them nothing in exchange. That is a accurate scam and usually they get identified promptly and their business is banned.

The Recording Connection, founded in 1984, contains connections and applications over a worldwide range. It provides students hands-on experience with actual working specialists in the entertainment industry. Many students, through the connections they’ve created throughout their training, secure a job instantly after graduating. The tuition is actually far less than most of the schools which offer a similar courses and also the Recording Connection allows students to be effective within a actual studio or arranged location environment. For pretty much 30 years, the corporation offers received the compliment of many experts, parents and students and nothing associated with a Recording Connection bad deal.

It’s unlucky that the small group who could have experienced a regrettable misfortune having a college can create a buzz that they’re the Recording Connection scam; when students for many years possess felt it was one of the best places to practice for work in the entertainment business. It’s important when reading through e-mail, especially those that are composed anonymously, that you also navigate to the site and read the glowing good remarks of this academic institution by the ones that actually attended. On the Recording Connection site, you will find video as well as written testimonials by “genuine” individuals with “authentic” titles; not someone who stays their times attempting to ruin another person’s reputation.

Finally, be assured that any company which is in the business of education and has already been for pretty much 30 years is doing something correct. However, now that negative people out there and schemers possess a tone of voice on the world wide web and still have tagged the corporation the Recording Connection scam, they make an effort to eliminate something that they feel does not make with their viewpoint. The Recording Connection, sad to say, has got involved in the center of a few of these individuals. However the evidence is in the many years of graduating tens of 1000s of students who are working efficiently in the industry nowadays.

There are many people who want their own future profession to be in the entertainment, recording, or music areas. However, these fields are very competitive, and challenging to receive work in. Unlike in various other particular field, a college diploma counts for very little within the entertainment industry. Exactly what firms look for are usually young people who’ve expertise, a goodness ear, have had hands-on experience, and come highly recommended.

The issue with starting a new college for a degree to work inside the entertainment area is that colleges usually do not provide an adequate education with regard to sensible work. Companies have caught on a long time previously. Attending college, college students are forced to remain from their concentration since they’re needed to consider specific courses which do not have to do with their area of analysis, taking a few of the focus off of learning their particular area. Another problem is which lots of the professors teaching the actual courses haven’t proved helpful from the area on their own, or worked from the area a very long time gone by. Thus, these people aren’t able to totally advise their own college students without the need of hands-on practical knowledge themselves. The Recording Connection scam isn’t a gimmick at all, not as much as four-year colleges.

Another disadvantage to university is that it’s very time consuming and extremely costly. This tremendous cost is incredibly unnecessary because there is a very high chance of by no means making up the money. Although some careers finance university (after the college student possesses finished and begun working), the entertainment area isn’t the same. There isn’t any guarantee, along with a really small chance of college students finding work in a recording station right after college. Educational costs with regard to four-year colleges may cost upwards of $8,000, depending on the school. Also, college students might have to lose hours and therefore reimbursement if they perform, because courses and learning usually takes up so much period.

The Recording Connection scam hasn’t placed a damper about the school at all, Recording Connection still provides college students with similar hands-on education. While this institution is different from four-year colleges, college students are still expected to give your very best and put in time, energy, and practice in order to pass and be successful. Even though this certainly does require the same time frame dedication and expenses a lot less, students are nevertheless likely to behave like college students and study challenging the profession they desire.

Through classification, useless is a deceptive business structure; a con; a hustle, flim flam, scheme and also a bamboozle. It means that a company, in this case the Recording Connection scam, is incorporated in the business to victimize people and also fool and fool all of them out of funds. In case a clients are useless, the “only” business they are in is to take advantage of persons of money and provide all of them absolutely nothing in exchange. That is a true scam and usually they get identified promptly and their own business is banned.

The Recording Connection, based in 1984, contains connections and applications on a globally scale. It provides students hands-on experience with real working professionals in the entertainment industry. Numerous students, through the joints they have made during their study, find employment instantly after graduating. The tuition is actually far less than the majority of the colleges that offers the same classes and also the Recording Connection allows students to be effective within a real studio or arranged area atmosphere. For nearly 30 years, this company offers received the praise of many experts, parents and students and absolutely nothing associated with a Recording Connection bad deal.

It’s unfortunate that a modest group of people whom might have had an unfortunate misfortune having a school can make a news that they are the Recording Connection scam; when students for decades possess experienced it had been one of the best places to train for jobs in the entertainment business. It is necessary when reading e-mail, particularly those which are composed anonymously, that you simply additionally go to the site and browse the excellent praises of the educational institution simply by those that actually attended. On the Recording Connection site, you will find video and also written reviews by “genuine” individuals with “authentic” names; not someone who spends their own times trying to destroy someone’s reputation.

Ultimately, be confident that any company that is in the business of training and has already been for nearly 30 years is doing something correct. Unfortunately, given that negative people out there and schemers possess a voice upon the world wide web and still have tagged this company the Recording Connection scam, they make an effort to destroy anything that that they feel doesn’t line up making use of their viewpoint. The Recording Connection, sad to say, has gotten involved in the middle of some of these people. But the proof is incorporated in the many years of graduating tens of 1000s of students who are working efficiently in the market today.

More fallout from last week’s U.S. Government Accountability Office report on the entertainment industry’s piracy numbers. The gist of the report was that the government (and you and I) should never believe what the entertainment industry has to say again re: piracy because it was pulling data completely out of thin air. “Oh, 44 percent of all unauthorized file-sharing comes from universities, so you universities have to install filters to prevent students from downloading this and that, and we’ll need new laws passed to protect our dying business methods. Oh, wait, sorry, math error, that’s only 15 percent of unauthorized file-sharing. What, you want to know where we got these numbers from? Sorry, can’t tell you, trade secret, but please pass favorable legislation anyway, kthxbye.”

Somewhere in that rambling mess of dialogue is today’s story. The Motion Picture Association of America had refused to cooperate with the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s investigation into entertainment industry piracy figures. The GAO wanted to know how the movie industry came up with its doom-and-gloom numbers, but the MPAA said, “Nope, we’re not telling.”

What, the government is supposed to take the MPAA at its word? Ha!

Flickr’d

Disney, who is probably the most IP-protective company in the entertainment industry, realizes that I’m a lot more likely to buy their Monsters, Inc. Blu-ray for a small price premium if it includes every other format I could possibly want.

So why isn’t the video games industry offering me the same choice with multi-platform titles like Call of Duty? Or, put differently, why is it that buying Call of Duty on the 360 doesn’t give me a portable version for the DS or my iPhone?

I know, how ignorant of me to ask such a question! Porting a Call of Duty title from the Xbox 360 to PS3 is an expensive endeavor—we’re talking huge development teams costing millions of dollars. For the DS or Wii, it’s likely that game is designed again from the ground up to accommodate the unique hardware and lower processor specs. If I own an Xbox and a DS, they can’t just give me the DS version for cheap or free!

Or could they?

Let’s use Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2‘s numbers as an example. According to data from VGChartz, 4,890,348 discs sold of Xbox 360 version alone in the first week. Imagine, for a moment, that $5 extra would buy you Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360 alongside a bonus version for the DS. If only 10% of buyers were tempted into this upsell, that’s 489,000 additional DS version sold, or an extra $2,445,170 in DS-related revenue for Activision.

And for all of you think this would just cannibalize DS sales, I respond, what sales? Only 12,000 units of the DS’s Modern Warfare 2 sold over the same period of time. (More figures on Kotaku.) Plus, by using digital downloads tied to existing PSN, Xbox Live and Nintendo accounts, software companies could greatly limit sharing/resale of these extra versions.

Assuming my rough numbers aren’t too nuts (actually, I believe they are quite conservative), why isn’t the games industry following the movie industry’s lead? Why can’t buying a game on one platform allow you to play it on many?

The real limitation isn’t development costs, it’s that the video games industry is fundamentally designed to ignore competing formats and charge developers licensing fees that would cripple such a model. Nintendo doesn’t want to acknowledge that a gamer might want to play Call of Duty on the Wii for motion controls, on Xbox 360 for networking and on an iPhone for the road. Nintendo wants Nintendo gamers to live in a digital bubble. And the same can be said for Sony and Microsoft.

We’re not supposed to want to play games on more systems than one. But you know what? We already do. According to the NPD, 42% of Xbox 360 and PS3 owners also own a Wii. And if those same numbers were run in relation to mobile devices, including cellphones, the number would skyrocket to nearly 100%.

Nintendo, with the Wii and DS, and Sony, with the PS3 and PSP, are both advantageously positioned to make such a model work. But ideally, software companies and retailers could take such promotions cross-platform, cross-company.

I don’t live in a Utopian dream state, believing that the next generation of games will play on one uniform platform. And in fact, I think diversity and competition within the market is key to innovation. So let’s leverage these differences to a more consumer-centric model that will probably, ultimately, make all involved companies more money while offering shoppers more choice.

Disney, who is probably the most IP-protective company in the entertainment industry, realizes that I’m a lot more likely to buy their Monsters, Inc. Blu-ray for a small price premium if it includes every other format I could possibly want.

So why isn’t the video games industry offering me the same choice with multi-platform titles like Call of Duty? Or, put differently, why is it that buying Call of Duty on the 360 doesn’t give me a portable version for the DS or my iPhone?

I know, how ignorant of me to ask such a question! Porting a Call of Duty title from the Xbox 360 to PS3 is an expensive endeavor—we’re talking huge development teams costing millions of dollars. For the DS or Wii, it’s likely that game is designed again from the ground up to accommodate the unique hardware and lower processor specs. If I own an Xbox and a DS, they can’t just give me the DS version for cheap or free!

Or could they?

Let’s use Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2‘s numbers as an example. According to data from VGChartz, 4,890,348 discs sold of Xbox 360 version alone in the first week. Imagine, for a moment, that $5 extra would buy you Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360 alongside a bonus version for the DS. If only 10% of buyers were tempted into this upsell, that’s 489,000 additional DS version sold, or an extra $2,445,170 in DS-related revenue for Activision.

And for all of you think this would just cannibalize DS sales, I respond, what sales? Only 12,000 units of the DS’s Modern Warfare 2 sold over the same period of time. Plus, by using digital downloads tied to existing PSN, Xbox Live and Nintendo accounts, software companies could greatly limit sharing/resale of these extra versions.

Assuming my rough numbers aren’t too nuts (actually, I believe they are quite conservative), why isn’t the games industry following the movie industry’s lead? Why can’t buying a game on one platform allow you to play it on many?

The real limitation isn’t development costs, it’s that the video games industry is fundamentally designed to ignore competing formats and charge developers licensing fees that would cripple such a model. Nintendo doesn’t want to acknowledge that a gamer might want to play Call of Duty on the Wii for motion controls, on Xbox 360 for networking and on an iPhone for the road. Nintendo wants Nintendo gamers to live in a digital bubble. And the same can be said for Sony and Microsoft.

We’re not supposed to want to play games on more systems than one. But you know what? We already do. According to the NPD, 42% of Xbox 360 and PS3 owners also own a Wii. And if those same numbers were run in relation to mobile devices, including cellphones, the number would skyrocket to nearly 100%.

Nintendo, with the Wii and DS, and Sony, with the PS3 and PSP, are both advantageously positioned to make such a model work. But ideally, software companies and retailers could take such promotions cross-platform, cross-company.

I don’t live in a Utopian dream state, believing that the next generation of games will play on one uniform platform. And in fact, I think diversity and competition within the market is key to innovation. So let’s leverage these differences to a more consumer-centric model that will probably, ultimately, make all involved companies more money while offering shoppers more choice.