Most popular music scenes in America

Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts performs.

Over the past twenty years the geography of popular music has changed considerably. The internet and social media have obviously played a large role. While industries like automobiles or steel still cluster around resources, cheap labor and transportation routes, or high-tech companies cluster around skilled labor and universities, the forever altered music industry now has fewer physical reasons to cluster — musicians no longer need to be near any particular resource to record and distribute their work anymore. And yet, they clearly still do cluster, just perhaps for slightly different reasons.

 

 

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‘Cord Frayers’ cut back on cable TV but up digital video viewing

Almost half of all US internet users stream TV content through an internet-connected device.

Marketers are familiar with cord cutters—consumers who have traded in their cable TV packages for internet-steamed TV and video content but they should also be aware of “cord frayers.” Cord frayers make up a segment of consumers who have downgraded their cable TV packages instead of cutting the cord completely. Not surprisingly, doing so has affected cord frayers’ TV and online video viewing behavior.

 

 

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Top 4 event trends you need to know about

The world of events and in-person marketing is evolving. 

Audiences today expect more than education and entertainment; they expect participation at an event. Today’s top events take advantage of technology as a platform for audience engagement. Having produced and attended a number of customer conferences and trade shows this year, I’ve noticed some very clear trends in how technology is blurring the gap between the presenters and attendees. Here are some examples.

 

 

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Inventing the 3D Pill Printer

Futurist Thomas Frey: The next big innovation in healthcare may very well be a printer. But this is no ordinary printer.

Professor Lee Cronin heads up a world-class team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University in England. His team has figured out how to turn a 3D printer into a sort of universal chemistry set capable of “printing” prescription drugs via downloadable chemistry.

 

 

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In Search of the Next Great Addiction

Is the cool glow of a smartphone the sure sign of an addict?

What exactly do you do here, I’ve been meaning to ask. Because I’m the producer, right? I cook. But from what I can tell, you are just a drug addict! You are a pathetic junkie too stupid to understand and follow simple rudimentary instructions!” – – Walter White from the hit TV show “Breaking Bad.”

Futurist Thomas Frey: Addiction is a word seething with negative connotations. It implies that someone is out of control with their life, making bad decisions with their money, and placing everyone around them at risk.

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Is the era of the personal computer over?

PCs consumed the majority of memory chips since sometime in the 1980s until 2012.

We have been hearing for years about the so-called Post-PC Era.  But now it seems pretty hard to argue with.  Personal computers no longer consume the majority of the world’s memory chip supply as of this year.

 

 

 

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Anticipatory Computing: Unlocking the Ultra-Human in All of Us


(yuliang11/Photos.com)

Futurist Thomas Frey: Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn on your television and it instantly knew what show you wanted to watch?

We all dream of an easier life, so what if we got into our car and it knew where we wanted to go, or turned on a radio and it played the perfect music, or pressed “call” on our phone and we would instantly be connected to the person we most wanted to talk to.

 

 

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Four Key Trends Driving the Future of Patents

Futurist Thomas Frey: In July, David Kappos, Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, announced expansion plans for the USPTO that would involve opening satellite offices in Denver, Dallas, and San Francisco. These coupled with the previously announced office in Detroit would draw on a diverse new talent pool for future examiners.

 

 

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