This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of MobiTV. All opinions are 100% mine.

We’ve all had it happen at one point or another. There’s something you really wanted to watch on TV, but you’re either on the road or someone else is hogging the set in your living room. Do you wait patiently until you can grab the remote control and relax, or do you take matters into your own hands with a mobile solution?

Enter the new AT&T U-verse Live TV app for iOS. This app actually delivers live television to your mobile device using your 3G or wireless Internet connection. In a method similar to your home DVR, the AT&T U-verse Live TV app delivers both live and on-demand programming to your mobile device with great clarity and very little, if any, buffering issues.

AT&T U-verse Live TV is a free app, but in order to take advantage of the service you will need to sign up for a monthly recurring $11.99 fee. When compared to some comparable services that deliver television shows to mobile platforms, this rate is very reasonable, especially when you consider that almost none of them deliver live television from popular cable channels including Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, ESPN Mobile, Disney, ABC, and more. In terms of value for your investment, it would be hard to find something that delivers as much content on these platforms.

New channels are constantly being added to the app, which currently supports a wide range of live and on-demand channels. Here are some of the channels currently supported on the iPhone:

Live Channels:
FOX News, MSNBC, CNBC, ESPN Mobile TV (featuring live MLB, NBA and college sports), Disney Channel, ABC Mobile, NBC Sports Mobile, FOX Business, ABC News Now, Saturday Morning TV, Comedy Time, and Ataku.

Full-Episode, On-Demand Channels:
ABC Mobile, NBC, FOX News, FOX Business, Comedy Central, Spike, MTV, VH1, CMT, MTV Tr3s , NBC News Mobile, ABC News Now, ESPN On Demand, NBC Sports Mobile, FOX Sports, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Nickelodeon en Español, Teen Nick, and ABC Family.

10 music video channels are also included and made available to AT&T U-verse Live TV app subscribers. Channel availability varies per device.

Just because this app is brought to you by AT&T U-verse doesn’t mean you have to be an AT&T iPhone user to take advantage of this service. Both AT&T and Verizon iPhones and iPads will work perfectly with this app. In fact, and iPod touch, with no direct ties to any carrier, can run AT&T U-verse Live TV as well.

There are a couple of points to keep in mind. First, you’re going to want to use this app on a Wi-Fi connection if at all possible unless you have an unlimited data plan. Video, no matter how well compressed, is bandwidth intensive and can eat away at your monthly cap very quickly. You’ll also want to be aware that the monthly fee is automatically recurring, and in order to cancel your commitment, you will need to do so through the app itself.

Over all, AT&T U-verse Live TV is a great way to stay connected to major news channels in times of emergency when you don’t have power, keep kids occupied with their favorite shows in the car, and otherwise free you from having to be on the couch while you enjoy your favorite television programs. This could be a very popular service for people working out at the gym who want something to take their mind off their 10-mile hike on the treadmill.

How to Watch Live TV on the iPhone

A few years ago, I uploaded my first Home Office Tour after on a New Year’s Day “Subservient Chris” request. This exploration has since become an annual tradition, with me having skipped only one year (and being kindly lambasted for doing so).

For years, individuals from this community have been asking for a complete house tour – and I’ve been reluctant to give it, if only because I didn’t think it’d be all that interesting. Well, today might mark another annual tradition – a complete home video tour on my birthday.

While the home office tour was simply put online for immediate digestion, I decided to go a step further with the house tour and make it available for rental only. I did this for a few reasons: (1) to make it truly special, (2) because there’s a real value to it, (3) because it’s my birthday and I can.

For a fee, you can watch the house tour video on YouTube – though we’re still trying to figure out how to support the international community, so another viewing option should be made available soon. I’d like to (honestly) create a universal iOS app for the video and make it available at a lower price point, too – but I have no skill as a programmer / developer, so that idea will likely have to wait. We’re also going to make this available on DVD – and that link will be added to the viewing options in this post when it’s ready to go. I’m not sure anybody would really buy it, but… stranger things have happened.

Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HpEBmWrQzc

If you’re watching from outside the United States, you can find it here: http://movielocker.com/8108

If this effort isn’t seen as “successful” over the next year, it probably won’t happen again. I’d like to say I made enough from the idea to cover my mortgage for a month, though. That would be one helluva birthday present!

My House Tour Video (2011)

Have you ever wanted to sing and just never had the vocal talent to do it? Well, there isn’t an app out yet that can give you talent, sorry. For those of you that are willing to settle with faking it, there is Songify.

Songify is an app available for iOS devices that turns speech into song using a series of pre-recorded loops and beats. All you need to do is record a sentence or two and select a style. Songify will take care of the rest. Whether you’re describing the actions of a home intruder or marveling at the miracle of a double rainbow, your complete lack of rhythm is no problem with the help of this app.

Let’s face it, the tunes generated by Songify won’t win you any auditions on American Idol or earn you any tips at the local music venue. They will give you something to laugh about as your phrases are molded in to familiar tunes similar to the ones made popular in so many memes across the web. Songify comes with a few tunes with the option of purchasing additional templates within the app including some of the beats made famous through The Gregory Brothers videos.

Songify allows you to share your songified phrases with others, too. You can share them through Twitter, Facebook, and even email in addition to saving them directly to the device. After all, your lack of talent shouldn’t be bottled up and kept to yourself. Share it with the world so everyone can hear your words put to music!

The Gregory Brothers have a knack for creating catchy tunes out of otherwise boring speech, and Songify does a fair job of recreating the magic of their viral videos. Songify’s technology was invented by Khush to turn speech into music. The technology takes a step further than Antares Auto-Tune by turning regular speech into song.

How to Turn Speech Into Song

Home theaters have evolved by leaps and bounds over the past ten years. They’ve gone from a simple television with maybe a VCR (videocassette recorder for you youngsters) and a game console to full-blown high-definition multimedia centers with Internet access and more components than you could ever hope to fit in the TV stand. This is the reality of home theaters today, and there are ways to make them more manageable and easier to use. Here are five tips for setting up your home theater:

The Right Television
If your home theater is a body, then the television is the head. No matter how good your DVR, gaming console, DVD or Blu-Ray player is, your television set is the one place that has the potential of creating a disappointing overall experience. On the other side, many televisions made today have apps and other programs that enable you to experience media directly from the Internet without the need of an external device. When building your entertainment center, it could be argued that the most important thing to get right before anything else is the television. Make sure the television you’re looking for has decent picture quality, built-in support for services such as Netflix, if you haven’t been driven away by their recent price change, and plenty of connection options in the back. After all, we have more devices than we used to, shouldn’t it make sense that your television has enough ports to support them?

The Right Speakers
Having more watts doesn’t mean having louder and/or better sound. Plenty of entry-level speaker systems boast having an all-in-one solution at a low price and frequently display their amplifier stats on the package as if they meant something. The best rule of thumb is to find the biggest and best sound solution and taking a look at what’s two or three levels down from that in terms of price. If what you find there looks like it might be good enough, then it probably will be.

There’s no substitute for hearing things for yourself. When it comes to televisions and sound systems, the best way to make sure you have something that looks and sounds right is to visit an electronics store with them on display and give them a try. Stores such as Fry’s Electronics, home theater specific retailers, and others usually have a small sound room with everything they sell available for you to try out before you make your purchase.

Whatever you do, don’t buy the DVD player / speaker system combo you see at major superstores for less than $50. These are ripoffs and will make you regret your purchase faster than you think. A good quality home theater sound system has an amplifier separate from the disc player. Yes, I’m sure there are exceptions, but we’re talking budget market here, not prosumer.

Get the Cables Right
Whatever you decide to do, don’t spend too much on digital cables. Home theater geeks love to brag about their $200 Creature cables that have gold plating on the connectors and spacecraft materials from the planet Krypton laced throughout the cable and blah blah blah. Look, when you have a digital connection, the extra nonsense that goes in to a cable is just that…nonsense.

Analog cables are slightly different. In some cases, better quality cable will cut down on signal interference to a degree. While there is certainly no reason to pay hundreds of dollars for cables, make sure you do your research before making a purchase. If there is a digital option available to you, and you’re not dead set on using an analog signal – consider going that route instead.

If you have some devices that send video out in through a component connection, there are options available for you to go from component to HDMI, allowing you to free up your component ports for other uses (such as some cable company’s DVR units).

Things to Watch Out For
In addition to digital cable and all-in-one systems, it’s important to keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks suspicious. The home theater market is full of companies and brands that want nothing more than to get you to spend piles of money on something that nearly worthless. If you come across home theater equipment that carries a brand name you’re not familiar with, it’s ok to check for reviews online. Brands like Vizio, Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, etc. are all major names that have proven time and time again to make products that have predictable quality, at least most of the time.

Cables are one exception to this rule. The brand name of a cable doesn’t matter as much as the overall quality of the cable itself, no matter what Creature or any other brand tells you.

Computer vs. Set-Top Box
If you have an old computer laying around, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of noise, you may already have the perfect addition to your media center. Adding a computer to your home theater setup can make a big difference on what you’re able to do. You can surf the web from the couch using a wireless keyboard and mouse, install third-party set-top software such as Boxee or Hulu and use the computer just like a Boxee Box.

Set-top solutions can save you the space the typical computer takes up and a few dollars if you don’t have a spare system laying around the house. The Roku Box, Boxee Box, and others are a great solution if you frequently subscribe to web shows or have decided not to pay a monthly cable bill for your television entertainment. Online services such as Hulu Plus and Netflix can give you access to many of the shows and movies you would otherwise be missing. If you’re an Apple user, the Apple TV is also a good choice, especially if you have shared iTunes libraries that you’d like to access from your home theater.

Five Tips for Setting Up Your Home Theater

I’ve been a Netflix subscriber from damn near day one.

I’ve certainly appreciated having the service there as an entertainment alternative long before video streaming was a remote possibility. I’d have three DVDs out at a time and often forget I was holding onto them for months on end. You could say that I’ve wasted a lot of money on Netflix – far more than I would have spent at a local video rental store.

So, last year, I decided to drop the 3-disc option and go with the 1-disc plan plus the on-demand streaming – even though the streaming selection was seemingly stunted (though nowhere as bad as Hulu’s lackluster movie library). For the most part, that’s worked out well – but I still feel like I’m overpaying for media that I’m not remembering to digest.

This morning, news came down the pike (yes, pike – not pipe) that Netflix is staging new subscription plans for us. Yippee? Nope.

There are now 2 DVD-Only plans:

• $8 a month for one disc at a time
• $12 a month for two discs at a time

Now there’s a separate option:

• Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $8 a month

They think that this change “is a terrific value.” I think it’s a load of shit. This is “forcing” me to drop their disc-only plan altogether (based on my patterns). When I want to rent a DVD, I’ll simply make an online reservation for my local Redbox station. I’d be tempted to drop the Netflix streaming plan if there were a viable alternative elsewhere – but judging by how many documentaries my girlfriend loves to watch, that’s not practical.

I guess at the end of the day, I’m going to be spending less money with Netflix (by $2). Thanks?

Is Netflix Worth It Anymore?

A California law that would prohibit the sale of “violent” video games to minors has been struck down by the Supreme court (7-2), after being deemed an unconstitutional violation of free speech. This ruling came after strong arguments from both side were weighed and considered.

Arguments against the law included current restrictions on selling certain movies to minor due to nudity or strong language that warrants R or NC-17 ratings. If these restrictions can be made on movies, why wouldn’t they apply on video games that feature decapitation and torture?

Justice Clarence Thomas argued that free speech, as used in the constitution, doesn’t apply to minors and therefor the law doesn’t actually violate this code. Some of his stronger points include various points where founding fathers (including Thomas Jefferson) had indicated parents had control over their children’s speech and therefor the rules of free speech do not apply to them.

The majority, however, shared the viewpoints that America as a country has no longstanding tradition of blocking children from violent content, and therefor it would be unfair to impose such a strong restriction now. In addition, the current ratings system, managed by the ESRB, are already in place to give parents a clear indication as to the level of graphic content present in a game.

Looking back throughout the history of mankind, it is hard to say that violent literature, video games, or other forms of entertainment have actually had any real bearing on the level of violence we see in society. Some of the most violent and dangerous countries in the world have populations with little or no access to some of the most violent video games our youth are exposed to regularly.

Humans have been violent for as long as they have been around, dating back to centuries (and possibly much longer) before recorded history. Violence, while not a good thing, has been a part of human culture since the beginning, and it would be short-sighted to place the blame of any and all acts of violence by youth on pixels.

What do you think? Do video games cause violence?

The Supreme Court Rules Video Games Protected by Free Speech

If you didn’t realize I was a “Weird Al” fan, I’d be shocked.

I’ve only been listening to his music since the 7th grade, when a friend introduced me to a couple of his earlier albums. To be more specific, I dubbed parts of “In 3D” and all of “Dare to Be Stupid.” I scrimped and saved to purchase the originals less than a year later, completing the collection with his self-titled debut. Well, I was a kid – and those bootlegs certainly turned me into a rabid fanboi.

I was rather perturbed when my 8th grade music “teacher” (who, I swear, was once an officer in Hitler’s Gestapo) asserted that Yankovich wasn’t a true musician. Mind you, I was probably more upset that she tacked an ‘h’ onto the end of his name. It’s Yankovic – I’ve never needed a spell checker. Either way, I couldn’t make the argument that crafting parodies AND originals made for a well-rounded musician… because she was God’s gift to music.

And then Polka Party was released.

I still remember standing next to a classmate while we were putting our respective bins away for the day. She was singing a few bars from Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer – and I took it from there, whirling my way through the maze of a Yankovic polka. She turned to me and said: “You’re weird.” And I responded: “Thank you.”

I’m fairly confident that was the first time in my life I felt normal. It’s been that way ever since. This sense of normality is one of the biggest reasons why I listen to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s music.

Maybe I cling to tradition too tightly: to get up out of bed, drive across town, and walk into a department store to pick up a physical copy of an album. Are they even called ‘albums’ anymore? Maybe using that terminology alone dates me. Even with a digital copy readily available through legal means, I was not dissuaded from the day’s mission.

To tell you the truth, I think the last CD I purchased before “Alpocalypse” was Weird Al’s “Straight Outta Lynwood.”

I’ve met him a couple of times before (backstage), and I’ve talked to him over the phone (for a very brief, relatively-pointless interview on TechTV during the Helpathon). Maybe we’ll meet again at some point in the not-too-distant future. Who knows?

Why I Listen to ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s Music

Robert Rodriguez, an Austin-based filmmaker and founder of Troublemaker Studios is no stranger to technology. In fact, he makes a point of stretching the limits of his equipment on each film by utilizing as many features of the technology as possible. Recently, he sat down to talk technology and movie making at an AMD event.

He sat down for a surprise interview at an event held by AMD in Seattle, WA to launch their new APU (Accelerated Processing Units) line of processors, which combines a standard processor with a graphics processor on the same chip. As he explains in the interview, his partnership with AMD is based on a need for a “bigger gun” in the wild west known as the cloud.

Having the right amount of processing power in a movie studio is very important. As movies have evolved, so have the demands of the technology. Video encoding, rendering, and various other high-priority tasks need to be done as quickly as possible during the process of filmmaking. A clip is created, rendered, tested, and remade sometimes dozens of times over as the editor works towards that perfect take. As Rodriguez notes, everything he does has to work absolutely perfectly on a multitude of formats, and that takes a lot of testing. Faster and more powerful processing can make this process much easier.

On his first film, “Bedhead”, Rodriguez took a wind-up camera (obsolete by today’s standards) and thought of ways to use what may have been considered a downside of the technology as a feature in his film. The idea of introducing telekinesis to the film was the result.

To Rodriguez, technology is a tool (much like a paintbrush) that can be used creatively.

He attributes being based in Austin, as opposed to Los Angeles, for much of his ability to think outside the box. Being away from the bulk of the industry can appear to be a setback to some, but not to Rodriguez. This separation can give you more room to expand, and think outside the box. Where Hollywood has a tendency to be slow to adopt to new technologies, an independent filmmaker has the freedom to try things in their own way.

Robert Rodriguez was one of the pioneers of digital and 3D filmmaking. He promises to expand his technological and creative horizons even further with an upcoming film that features “4D”. What that will mean for the future of cinema, only time will tell.

Robert Rodriguez Talks Tech and Movies at AMD Event

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Yesterday, I bought some interesting things at the grocery store. I had to snap pictures and upload them through Instagram. This site gives you an interesting and unique way to share photos taken with your mobile device on the web in a simple manner. All you have to do is take your picture, select your preferred visual style through the presets and upload it to the web. By doing this, you can share your images across networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.

The problem is that until now there was no easy way to browse everyone’s images on the web. If you weren’t connected to a person in some way, you’d miss out on all the great shots they were sharing. With the introduction of Extragram, though, all of that is about to change.

Extragram uses Instagram’s API to create a new and simple way for people to browse through photos. Instead of relying on the mobile app or even direct links, you can log in and browse Instagram photos within your browser.

Yes, I did just take a picture of the Extragram logo to upload through my Instagram account. If you would like to follow me on the site, just search for my l0ckergn0me username and add me. I tend to take a lot of pictures… I’ll snap shots of silly thing, beautiful things and shiny things. I love to share bits and pieces of my life through photographs, and you never know what you’ll find each day.

The challenging part of using Instagram is choosing which filter to use for any given picture. You have to add exactly the right one to get your point across! Once you’ve done that, it’s time to finally share it out and let others discover what you’ve done through Extragram.

How do you share photos across the web?

How Do You Share Photos Across the Web?

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It has been a few weeks since I joined Empire Avenue. Over the past weeks, this social “game” has done more to help me discover new people I wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to. This is the most addicting game which isn’t a game that I’ve ever been a part of. It’s a website that collects all of my social media activity and pools it onto a profile page that you can then invest in. If you sign up, I can invest in you – if you’re a good investment.

It’s not really a game, because it’s based on all of my gestures. This includes everything I do on my websites, my Twitter stream and even within my YouTube channel. Many of you may think this is a big time waster. I’m here to tell you that it’s not. In just a few weeks, I am flying across the country to have what is likely the biggest business meeting of my life… all because I met someone on Empire Avenue I likely would have never crossed paths with otherwise.

I wanted to record this video to be a sort of shareholder update. In case you didn’t already know, I have now passed the 200 share mark. My account – e(PIRILLO) – was the first to break that barrier. Just a couple of days ago, those numbers were going down. It turns out that Facebook had removed their token, making it look as though I wasn’t doing anything. Me? Not online? Yeah riiiiight!

Yes, my shares are expensive. But if you invest in me, your own EAV is going to grow. There are tons of people on the site who are worthy of your time and investment. You shouldn’t be afraid to jump in… you don’t have to know a single thing about stocks in order to play along. I’ve even written some tips and tricks to help you get started. Keep in mind that by signing up through me, both of us will receive 2,000 extra eaves.

On Empire Avenue, you’re not buying and selling your friends. You’re making investments in the work people are doing across social media networks while making new connections that can further your own career and enhance your life.

Empire Avenue Shareholder Update

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Google’s Music Beta allows you to place your music collection in the cloud, quite similar to what Amazon’s Cloud Player and Apple’s iCloud do. The tech giants appear to be ready to get into a head-to-head battle with each other, with your tunes up for grabs. As of right now, Google’s Music Beta is free to use. How does it compare to the other offerings, though?

You can download free tracks when you receive your invitation to the Music beta. As soon as it was announced, I signed up for my invite. I received it in fairly quick fashion. The email told me to click to accept, and had me download the program for my operating system. I was then easily able to sync my music into the Cloud with just a click or two.

I don’t use iTunes to manage my music, so this was something I wanted to try out. I have to give Google props for allowing me to turn this into a preference pane. I love the way it’s laid out, how it looks and works on my desktop and the various preferences I can tweak to make it work the way that is best for me.

I’m not the kind of person who really buys digital albums. If I purchase one, it’s a physical disc. I prefer to subscribe to music services, such as Rhapsody. I am able to listen to a large variety this way at any point in time. However, Google’s Music Beta is a great solution for managing and listening to the music I DO happen to own.

I had to run Music in Safari because it doesn’t run well within the development version of Chrome. That’s a pretty big oopsie, but I’m sure that they will address this in a future update… at least, I hope so.

I can browse through my Music folders and find what I want with ease. I can sort via album, genre and artist. The service even lets me give a thumbs up or down to every tune in my library. I’m not sure why you’d choose to own or upload a song you’d want to thumbs down… but that’s a story for another day.

Are you interested in using any of the Cloud-based music services? Which one do you prefer?

Are You Using Google’s Music Beta?

I’ve mentioned in the past that I am a huge fan Justin Hillgrove‘s artwork. His paintings are incredibly unique and fun to look at. His paintings feature monsters, robots, tributes to stories, cartoons, books, and movies that parallel my interests.

One such painting, which I have recently picked up, is Robot City. In Robot City, Hillgrove depicts a scene inside a city where robots are anywhere and everywhere. Even the birds flying overhead are robotic.

Throughout the room are several other Justin Hillgrove originals including Transplant, which I acquired last October not long after discovering this incredible artist.

When I picked Robot City, and original acrylic piece from Justin Hillgrove, it was only natural that I seek out some more robots to go along with the painting.

That’s when I came across Kitchen Robots by Leuckit on Etsy. These little robots are made up of items commonly found around the kitchen and each one has a personality entirely its own. My den is full of these things now, and I couldn’t be happier. Each robot is an original piece and no two are alike.

Unlike boring robots that have traditionally banal shapes to them, Kitchen Robots are entirely different. Some of them have hair, others may wear skirts or funny hats, and a few of them feature extras such as a baby robot or bits and pieces in its belly. One common trait they all share is they express an emotion and/or action. It’s hard to look at them and not associate their pose with an emotion or idea. Every robot has a story to tell, and these pieces tell them very well.

In addition to the incredibly unique and breathtaking robots, the boxes they came in were works of art on their own. Made up of recycled bits and pieces, each box was adorned on all sides with interesting material ranging from comic strips to drawings in a colleague that fits perfectly with the spirit of what’s inside.

Decorating a single room, or your entire home, with something geeky like robots can be achieved with the right artists and inspiration. Thankfully, sites like Etsy and artists like Justin Hillgrove and Leuckit make achieving the perfect look possible.

Decorating with Robots

This guest post was written by Reza (RMalayeri) about Video Time Machine for iOS, an app that allows you to browse through videos throughout history in a simple and easy way.

What do you get when you spend all night watching nostalgic video’s on Youtube, drinking beer, and eating free pizza? Well, if you ask Justin Johnson and Delbert Shoopman III, they’ll say YTTM.TV and the associated app for iOS: Video Time Machine.

If you love to spend your downtime surfing through the massive library of available YouTube videos, then you have to check out YTTM.TV. It’s a cool website that helps users find classic videos that would have otherwise been lost in the abyss. Pick a year, go back in time, and watch classic Ads, Sports, Movies, Music, and more. Their iOS app, Video Time Machine, allows mobile users to experience the same content with formatting that is optimized for a smaller screen. Choose a year, category, and press play. The app will switch into YouTube and play the selected video from there. You can also have the app randomly play a video by pressing “rolling the dice” within the app.

You can find over 10,000 hand picked videos that have been curated by the team at YTTM.TV. With an archive of video’s ranging from 1860 to 2011; YTTM.TV will have countless hours of classic YouTube videos across multiple categories. Watch the very first Atari commercial in the 70′s, or get your groove on with Rebecca Black in 2011.

YTTM.TV allows users to easily submit content to the Time machine database. Make sure you have the link to a good quality YouTube video, and paste the url to the video on YTTM.TV for submission. Currently, the iPhone app doesn’t include this feature, so submissions need to be made directly to the website.

There is also a contest going on right now over at Film Fights until June 7th, and you have a chance to win $100 for submitting a 15 second video about YTTM.TV. Everyone who submits a video for the contest will be given a free copy of the iPhone app “Video Time Machine”. Remeber to let us know what kinds of awesome videos you dig up while you travel through time. By the way, have you joined the communities on Facebook, Twitter, Empire Avenue?

Go Back in Time with YTTM and Video Time Machine

The motion picture industry cranks out a healthy amount of movies every year. Many of these films come with a price tag in the millions of dollars, with blockbusters typically reaching budgets of over 100 million. These productions commonly involve an incredibly large cast and crew, each of which is compensated for their time. An album by a major recording artist is a significantly less expensive undertaking. In some cases, a decent recording requires only a handful of individuals, and only a few when in the hands of a capable sound engineer. Big recording houses make a generous amount per hour mastering tracks and getting things just right for release, but their income is negligible compared to the cost of a major motion picture.

So, why does an album cost about as much as a DVD? Why, when you purchase the latest from your favorite recording artist does it take as much out of your pocket as a movie filmed over the course of six to nine months with an all-star cast making millions per picture? Is music too expensive?

Let me start by stating that independent recording artists have more reason than anyone to charge more for their work. Record sales for the average independent artist are dismal at best and breaking even on an album is a fortunate occurrence when it happens. For a record that costs $10,000 (a low-end price) to produce, at least 1,000 copies of the album need to be sold at $10 each just to break even. Unless you have a large enough fan base, this can prove extremely difficult.

When it comes to recording artists signed by a major label, things change a bit. Only a fraction of each album sold goes to the artist and retail store you’re dealing with. The rest goes to the labels. You might expect a bulk of this profit to go towards renting venues for whirlwind world tours, but even those events cost attendees an arm and a leg to attend. In a sense, the music industry has one of the largest middle men of any business.

One recent example of how dropping the price of music may actually improve the bottom line for record labels and independent artists alike is the explosion of sales as the result of Lady Gaga’s latest album, “Born This Way” being put on the Amazon Music Store for just $0.99. Traffic and sales were so sudden and extreme that Amazon’s servers were overwhelmed and went down in the middle of the frenzy. Whether or not these purchases were from listeners that wouldn’t have otherwise bought the album at all is up to interpretation.

What do you think? Is the cost of music too high? Would you be more inclined to purchase if the price were lowered?

Is Music Too Expensive?

HTML 5 has opened the door for web developers to expand their creations beyond previous restrictions. Picking up on some features previously associated exclusively with Adobe Flash, HTML 5 allows web developers to free themselves of the aging platform. HTML 5 is also becoming more popular as an online gaming platform as browsers become more compatible and optimized. Here are five great games made possible by HTML 5:

Angry Birds
One prime example of this which has created quite a buzz around the tech community is Angry Birds. Now, instead of having to play the game on an iPad, iPod Touch, or through a special app, you can play it using Chrome or another HTML 5 capable browser. Angry Birds is a 2D puzzle game where your primary goal is to defeat green pigs that steal your flock’s eggs by slinging birds in to makeshift fortresses protecting the thieving swine. Once you either do enough damage to them with falling debris from their structure or a strike from your feathered ammunition, they perish and disappear. Once you’ve cleared a given area of green pigs, you can move on to the next.

Torus by Ben Joffe
Another game featuring HTML 5 support is Torus by Ben Joffe. Torus is a 3D tetris-like game set on a cylindrical stage rather than a flat surface. This makes things a bit tricky as you have to be aware of what’s on the other side while pieces are falling at an accelerated rate. Another difference between Torus and classic Tetris are the slight variances in the shape of several of the pieces.

Z-Type
Practicing typing skills has never really been something most people would consider to be very entertaining. Z-Type combines speed typing with a fixed shooter such as Galaga or Space Invaders. Your ship doesn’t move at all, but you can fire on enemies in all directions by typing the word associated with the enemy ship. There are no themes to the words, and enemies become increasingly more difficult to keep up with. It does, however, help with typing speed and to some degree spelling.

FrozenDEFENCE
Tower defense games are incredibly popular right now on mobile platforms, and with the help of some clever javascript, FrozenDEFENCE delivers on its promise of a simple tower defense game without all the bells and whistles.

Google Pacman
To celebrate Pacman’s 30th anniversary, Google turned their iconic logo in to a playable Pacman game thanks to the help of web developer Paul Macek. Millions of users worldwide played the popular game and demand for it was so high that Google decided to keep it alive as an alternative Google homepage for people to continue to enjoy.

So, what is your favorite browser-based game?

Five Great Games Made Possible by HTML 5