Green Country Habitat for Humanity and Boomtown Development broke ground today, Nov. 1, on a strategic new north Tulsa rental project. The project, the Harvard Apartments, was designed by Method Group and funded by the City of Tulsa and PartnerTulsa ...

Green Country Habitat, Boomtown Development break ground on north Tulsa rental project

Howard Audio is thrilled to announce our double win in the Creative Circle Awards for July and August, responsible for the sound design, final mix and original music in both the film and radio categories!

Full Circle win for Howard Audio

Best Buy! The brothers-in-law from Wisconsin source beyond their estate plantings in the Walla Walla Valley and collaborate with some of Washington’s top winegrowers for their nicely priced Boomtown tier.

Boomtown by Dusted Valley 2022 Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley, $19

Matthew Lawson previously lived at Camp Hope. Now, he's in a pre-apprenticeship, taking skilled trade classes to get back into the workforce.

Boomtown | Some of Spokane's formerly unhoused population in classes to re-enter workforce

SPOKANE, Wash. — As part of KREM 2's Boomtown Week, we have investigated how rent prices affect the Inland Northwest. From 2022 to 2023, the average rent price stayed relatively the same. However, in the last five years, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment increased by more than $350.

Boomtown | Spokane residents talk challenges of rental market

Las Vegas (KSNV) — The Springs Preserve is gearing up for a fun fall season with some new shows, exhibits, activities, and more.

Springs Preserve announces upcoming events in November

Boomtown brand design team member, graphic designer Michelle Conway-Cleaves, has been responsible for the conceptual design and execution of a hat-trick of Brands & Branding South

Boomtown graphic designer makes it a hat-trick for Brands & Branding

BEAUMONT, Texas — Lamar University will be celebrating its 2023 homecoming this coming Saturday afternoon with multiple activities and a Friday night bonfire. The celebrations begin Friday evening with a 6:30 p.m. bonfire at Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum and end with the Saturday homecoming game against Texas A&M Commerce.

Lamar University celebrates 2023 homecoming with bonfire, events before Saturday afternoon football game with Texas A&M Commerce

STA says the so-called "Division Diet" will make ride times shorter and transportation more efficient, but some Spokane residents aren't happy about the project.

Boomtown | Division Street project prompts concerns from Spokane residents, businesses

Interest rates, home prices, and a lack of inventory are some of the reasons lenders said are why fewer people are applying for home loans in the last year. This means, for the median sale price in Spokane on a 30-year fixed-rate loan will cost buyers more than one million dollars.

Boomtown | Explaining the massive final cost of mortgages because of rising interest rates

Boomtown

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I love reading the insights of successful entrepreneurs contemplating on their and try to draw insights from my own experience as a startup owner. The more I’m into it, the more I realize that growing a startup is all about decision making. decision-making evolution Although my portable is still in its infancy, I can single out 7 strategic decisions I had to make to reach this point of the startup growth. nect MODEM Some were right. Some were wrong. Some were unavoidable. Some - a matter of principle. Each contributed to the product we are bringing to the market and the overall progress of our startup. Embarking on the Hardware Road Hardware is hard, they say. Now, I realize it is much harder than I could have imagined. Nonetheless, I am still glad I didn’t listen. SaaS startups win on many points. They have a shorter time to market, a severe bug resulting in a non-working product can be resolved in just a month (compared to 6-8 months for hardware along with the pile of useless consignments), selling to a dozen of clients can be enough to return the investment. Consequently, investors consider SaaS startups less risky and are more willing to give it a try. Still, my passion for the product idea and my background in science makes me convinced I have made the right decision. Developing a Product Before Introducing the Idea After I had the idea of the product - a portable modem that could provide 5G LTE internet connection wherever you go or travel - I have started building a working prototype. It took me about 5 months. Worst of all, I didn’t disclose the idea to anyone during this long time, being convinced that you can start speaking about a product only when you have a hardware prototype ready. This was a major mistake setting the startup growth back 5 months. It is vital to discuss the idea with a wide range of potential stakeholders to predict their interest and learn from their needs and pains. Now, I understand that a smart decision for a startup is to optimize the product before even starting the work on its hardware version. Choosing a Vision Statement While some might see that as a waste of time, I think that choosing a vision statement for a company is an important thing to do from the very beginning. For our company behind nect MODEM, it’s High tech can be green. And this vision has informed many startup decisions I have made. For example, the product is designed with recycled plastics, and we are further going to promote sustainability on each stage of the product creation, including manufacturing and logistics. The core team and partners we work with - all share the same values and vision. It gives us direction and sets the boundaries. Forming a Core Team Another difficult choice was whether to invite anyone to share decision-making responsibilities. Thankfully, I have met excellent professionals, who share my values and have soon developed strong ownership of the product. Recently, I have had the opportunity to understand how much change their support makes. The case is, I was in the United States after attending when we received an invitation to , so I moved into the campus right away, waiting for the other two weeks for the rest of the team to join me. CES Boomtown Accelerator One conclusion is clear here: even the best mentors cannot substitute having a core team you can rely on. Attending Conferences Like any other startup, we had to think if it worth going to conferences with our product. And I wouldn’t say I hesitated before saying yes, we definitely should. I have already shared our experience of and - a short spoiler - it hasn’t been flawless for us. Some wrong decisions made us pay too much for our gains, and some decisions dictated by the wish to cut expenses (like not taking the whole team to the US for CES) resulted in some lost opportunity. In some cases, it is not up to us to choose any more: , the next conference we were attending (tickets bought, hotels booked), was canceled due to COVID-19. attending conferences as a startup MVC Barcelona 2020 Choosing a Crowdfunding Platform and an Accelerator Other life-changing resolutions in terms of the life of our startup have been choosing a platform for crowdfunding and joining a startup accelerator. Of course, the decision to launch a crowdfunding campaign is more than answering a yes or no question. It is about taking hundreds of operating decisions that make it all a viable idea. We take ours every day and believe our crowdfunding campaign that starts on Indieogogo on the 28th of April will prove a success. Concerning an accelerator, it has been for me to know which one to join, and there is a whole story behind what made me come to Boulder. Although I can already note some great gains in terms of knowledge and business optimization, a distance of time is needed to assess the true impact of this decision. Adapting to Change Other induced decisions have been due to an unexpected factor you all must have heard about. Coronavirus. First, it seemed it would impact the startup dramatically, as we saw digital nomads and as key segments interested in a portable modem with reliable LTE connection and affordable, flexible plans worldwide. frequent travelers However, our target audience is much wider, and now, when people need a back-up internet solution to stay connected when working from home, our portable modem has got another business case. Of course, the change called for adapting the targeting, the imagery, and the overall content strategy. Does it Get Easier to Make Decisions as Startup Grows? Every new stage of growth poses unique challenges. Some decisions are taken spontaneously. Some take much contemplation and weighting of threats. For many recent entrepreneurs, the knowledge of the latter, as well as the increasing budget and the risk of letting down stakeholders, is paralyzing. What about me? Well, I start learning to live with it. After all, doing business is all about decision making.

Growing a Startup is all About Decision Making 

Starting a business is hard and requires making tough decisions. More than that, most startups struggle to find the necessary investment. This is why many startup founders seek to join an accelerator that will make the initial investment and provide quality mentor support. Startup accelerators have attracted a lot of buzz in recent years and too. Still, the abundance of related terms — angel investors, venture capitals, crowdfunding, incubators to name just a few — make early entrepreneurs really confused on what accelerators are all about. multiplied in number Are accelerators and incubators the same thing? How can you choose the right accelerator and get accepted? Will it make your startup failure-proof? These are the questions to ask yourself before contemplating your future in an accelerator. Although my experience is not too big, I have already been there and I will try to give some of the answers. Incubators vs. Accelerators: What’s the Difference? and communicating with fellow startups, we have noted that most of them do not distinguish between incubators and accelerators — some even use the words interchangeably as synonyms. Attending global conferences There is a marked difference between the two: : Incubators support startups with a business idea, but no business model. Accelerators accept those who already have a business model in place. : Incubators’ timeline is often open-ended, and there is no pressure on startups to “graduate”. Accelerators’ programs often last for three to four months and culminate in a Demo Day, when startups can pitch the qualified investors. Incubators are funded by universities and organizations interested in community development and the creation of new working places. If your startup is something like this, you have pretty good chances to get accepted. Accelerators are more selective, and some of the best are notorious for of all applicants. : Incubators guide but do not invest capital into startups. Accelerators have a traditional business-like approach: they and gain an equity share (around 7–8%) instead. An entry stage Duration Chances to be accepted: taking no more than 1% to 3% Investment invest a specific sum in a startup Choosing the Right Fit for Your Startup When choosing the most suitable accelerator for your startup, do not chase their popularity or big names among the mentors. All these do not guarantee success. Instead, study the portfolio of the accelerator to see if it has helped a comparable business to riseresearch the mentors’ experience with your niche or your type of product Most importantly, make sure the culture of the accelerator and its location is a good fit considering the values you cherish. If it is possible, visit the most popular destinations and seek a chance to communicate with accelerators’ representatives face to face. In fact, these were the two factors that made me choose. After an online search, I still had no idea what accelerator might work well for a , a hardware startup I have founded. A Boomtown Accelerator, to which we had been invited, was not an expectation too, so I even hesitated whether to fill out the form. nect MODEM However, after speaking to a representative of the Boomtown Accelerator on and visiting New York, Silicon Valley and Boulder — drastically different startup hubs in terms of culture — I was sure about where I wanted to be. CES Dos and Don’ts of Applying After you choose an accelerator, it’s time to think about the application process. Here are the major do and don’ts to remember: A fancy video for your pitch will trigger many expenses but will not add you an advantage over competitors that have a better business case. . Joining an accelerator is a good chance for your startup, but do not make the prospect of getting accepted make you overlook other viable opportunities. . Most startups on early stages consist of a founder and a co-founder, and a major mistake would be to put off looking for potential contractors (e.g. developers, marketing experts) until you get accepted into the accelerator. For when you do, the pace of working on your startup will become blistering. The mentors will advise you on the necessary steps, and it is critical to have a network of contractors to be able to execute them and move forward. Focus on your product and its traction instead of the application process itself. Do not put off doing business for the sake of application Plan your hiring Concluding Ideas Joining an accelerator may be a unique opportunity for a startup paving the way to a sustainable business. Still, see an accelerator as a means to your goal, not a goal in itself. There is a good test to see if you do. Close your eyes and paint a picture of success, which you associate with an accelerator. If you have imagined yourself talking to a prominent mentor or even successfully pitching your idea to investors — you probably see joining an accelerator as a goal in itself. Thus, the experience may distract you from the main focus, while the unsuccessful application may leave you crushed and discouraged. In that case, put off the idea of joining until you have a clear vision of a true goal you are pursuing, like the image of people enjoying and using your product.

What to Know Before Joining an Accelerator

Here I am, a twenty-year-old astrophysics student to place in orbit around Mars and a self-starter entrepreneur longing to show my baby — — to the earth. I've had a few bumps on the road. Thankfully, I learned a few valuable lessons, and the experience of attending five conferences with my startup as my product made me reflect on a lot I'd like to share with other aspiring startup owners. designing satellites nect MODEM I hope you find my insights helpful, and respond with your own unique stories — I would love to learn from you. Bump #1: IT Arena is the best tech event in Ukraine that is widely known for its global outlook and scale. It has a dedicated “Alley of Startups,” where each is allotted a few square meters to gaze and amaze. IT Arena It also has a Startup Competition where I had an opportunity to for the first time. speak about nect MODEM from the stage : Lessons learned Significant on the national scale, the event is rather small in comparison to globally recognized IT conferences. Thus, you do not have too many chances to meet investors interested in your niche — something we anticipated. and will guarantee you some heartfelt meetups during future global events. Smaller national conferences are great places to meet peer entrepreneurs from your own country that will open many partnership opportunities — something we did with great pleasure. A local event is a safe place to test and, thus, optimize your product and your pitch Bump #2: Bits&Pretzels was the second conference for our startup. An excellent investment, considering the wealth of contacts you can make around the beer carousel conveniently located in the center of a conference space. Bits&Pretzels It's fairly useless to go there with a startup stand, however. : Lessons learned I met tons of people to refer to in case of a business need, found a software development partner for our product, and received contacts from two accelerators, where we can potentially be accepted. Bits&Pretzels is an excellent place to go to for networking. this will reduce the expenses while giving the freedom to move around and network to your heart’s content. It is best to attend the conference as a visitor without any startup stand: Bump #3: South Summit , which takes place in Madrid each October, has been our third conference bringing in cooperation with Peter, an entrepreneur who was excited to leverage our 5G expertise in logistics tracking — something we had never thought before. Still, now, when I know what South Summit is like, there is something I would do differently when attending it again. South Summit : Lessons learned Unlike Bits&Pretzels with its amazing carousel, South Summit restricts access to sponsors and investors; they all hang out in a Business Lounge. To enter this lounge and make the most out of conference networking, — more expensive but definitely worth it. And I will sure do this the following time. you need to buy a ticket for Business Finalists enjoy a media coverage one can only dream about. Another way startups can ace South Summit is by taking part in a competition. Bump #4: Web Summit Having some experience of attending conferences behind our shoulders, we tried to make our stand as interactive as possible. We developed a test “What kind of internet user are you?” (you can still try it ) and rewarded test-takers with medals displaying their results. Web Summit here Out of three conference days, startups can only have a stand for one day, so we spent the other two running around the space to get useful contacts and ask participants about the issues they had because of the unreliable Internet connection. This kind of “market research” made us have a better picture of our buying persona. : Lessons learned The conference has its mobile app for the visitors that allows people to find who they need. There we met Pascal, one of the evangelists in , the platform where nect WORLD’s crowdfunding campaign is planned. His interest in our product and promise of support upon the launch is invaluable. The fear of getting lost among Web Summits’ 70k participants is quite unfounded. Indiegogo Bringing a hardware product like nect MODEM there is not the best idea. Web Summit is a heaven for anyone working in the SaaS industry, especially in B2B segments. Bump #5: CES With or CES, it has been “our heaven” at last. Contrary to Web Summit, the exhibition united those presenting and interested in hardware products. And we were happy to bring the first consignment of our modem — — to CES and gleaming Las Vegas streets. Consumer Electronics Show newly designed and produced from the recycled plastics : Lessons learned The fact is, the conference fee was $1000 for the chosen startups, which presupposed access for a team of up to 10 people. Since flights from Kyiv for the whole squad multiplied conference expenses by far, I decided to go on my own, asking two friends from San Francisco to join and help me with a stand. Despite the excellent results we have gained, I keep thinking that they could be times better if I have brought the whole team with me. Not taking the whole team to CES was a great mistake I still regret. After all the long searches for a perfect accelerator for hardware product startups, I have “come across” one at the conference, also attracting a strong advocate expressing personal interest in us being accepted. Just a lucky chance, you say? Might be. But it still depends on you to create perfect conditions for such opportunities to come. Instead of the Afterword After all the gains and bumps I had, would I recommend startups to go to conferences? Yes, I definitely would. At the same time, I would not recommend anyone to start calculating return on investment on the way home from each conference. Yes, we have spent much more than we have earned so far. Still, I cannot imagine moving forward without investing any money, or — even more pricey — time and passion. The insights into your idea, the experience of your product presentation, tips from top experts, which they generously share in a small talk chat (otherwise worth thousands of dollars). All the benefits are hard to name. And it’s hard to put a price tag on them. What I am sure about is that the experience made me a wiser and more realistic entrepreneur, even though I remain a 20-old dreamer, stubborn enough to keep going. PS. It is sad that the next conference we were going to, , was canceled due to COVID-19. Residence and flights booked, . If anyone can share their experience from the conference and give me some insights into all the rookie mistakes I was about to make at that conference — I will appreciate it if you do share in the comments. MVC Barcelona 2020 money spent PPS. Either this post remained planned and drafted for too long, or the time has speeded up for our startup, but I finally hit “publish” being in the US, . I will share my insights into this new experience any time soon, so stay tuned. several weeks into the Boomtown Accelerator program

When We Can Pitch Startups at Events
Again, Take These Lessons With You

Working from home — WFH in short — is one of the most debated topics these days. Recent events have compelled many organizations to close their offices and force their employees to work from home. All aspects of the working experience are now being done remotely. What can we learn from this unplanned experiment? And what does it teach us about the “future of work”? From “Stir Crazy” . . . After one week, many of my colleagues couldn’t wait to get back to the office. Working from home had become a nightmare. “It is stressful and unhealthy.” “I feel lonely” “I am constantly disturbed by family.” “My desktop sucks.” “Curse you Netflix. The children are destroying the bandwidth.” “I never realized my husband could be this annoying.” No one imagined that “missing” the office would be such an issue. The pop songs of my youth just don’t work anymore. I see The Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays” in a different light. And I won’t even mention The Bangles or the much covered “Friday on My Mind.” . . . To the “Best of Both Worlds” And yet, as time goes by, the complaints are slowly vanishing. People are getting used to the “new” situation. They have settled in with new and better equipment. They are becoming more experienced “video conferencing” users. My own experience is instructive. I start enjoying talking to my tripod camera. I always disliked virtual meetings and conferences, and avoided them as much as possible. When I give presentations, for instance, I love the interaction in the room. The expression on the attendants’ faces. The body language. So, I usually declined speaking at online meetings and webinars. But the last couple of weeks I have changed my mind. For a start, the network infrastructure and software options make online meetings (almost) problem-free. If this crisis had hit even five years ago, I am not sure the software and network technologies would have been ready in the way that they are now. And even if I can’t see the audience, there are digital possibilities for interaction that allow me to immediately respond to questions during the talk. This might sound weird, but virtual meetings can break down many of the social barriers that exist when people are in the same room and prevent genuinely open discussion. And it is not only the improved technology. Office workers have learned from many blog posts with tips and tricks for more effective “working.” Get up early. Work out. Get dressed. Stick to your daily schedule. Designate areas for virtual business meetings. Stop at 6 PM. Separate your work time from your personal life. Working from home is becoming the new routine. But there is still one issue with working from home that appears to be impossible to solve: Opportunities for serendipity and the resulting loss of creativity within an organization. The Office Bathroom Steve Jobs always wanted office workers to meet and talk informally. He believed this fostered a creative work culture. And, the best way to achieve this? Making sure the physical environment “nudged” us together. Apparently, he was obsessed with office design. What’s the best place for serendipity? Yes, the bathroom. By far, the best spot to stimulate creativity. His idea was to have only one set of restrooms in the central atrium and force people to bump into each other when going to the bathroom. These informal meetings aren’t possible in a cloud/online/virtual environment. Now that companies need to be more creative and innovative than ever, the “working from home” decision seems to create a problem and tend to make things worse. Will companies ever be able to return to “normal” without people being in the office? I am now in my fifth “working from home” week, and I have completely changed my opinion about opportunities for serendipity. Working from home makes us more productive, healthier, and can save our companies (no I am not talking about the cost-saving potential of having office employees work remotely). My experience is that we start to collaborate more. We have become much more creative “outside” the office routine. But it all depends on leadership. Digital Leadership Old leadership styles and hierarchies don’t work in a “working from home” environment. Command and control aren’t useful in the digital world. More distance means less control. That is unavoidable. The good news is that more and more leaders appear to see this and start adopting a digital leadership style. And here, I am not referring to the “personal” video messages and open letters that deliver bad news, show dubious emotion, and explain how the leaders have also made a “sacrifice” by giving up a percentage of their salary or making donations to charities. No, I am referring to creating an open and inclusive leadership environment, which enables every office worker to become a leader themselves. A big part of this is trust. Digital leaders understand that they must trust their workforce to exercise their new “freedom” in a responsible manner. Leaders also become more approachable. Back in the office, they were usually surrounded by the same people over and over again (the “blockers”). Leaders existed in an “echo chamber” in which their own ideas were constantly repeated back to them. Now, we see more personal (and not pre-recorded) messages that give directions, explanations, and show empathy and understanding (we are all in this together, and together we have to find adequate solutions). The best leaders open up, invite questions, have open virtual coffee/tea hours where other workers can ask questions and pose ideas. This allows them to find the people who matter (despite the hierarchy and seniority). The creative minds who can help the company define the company’s next normal. This approach is crucial because the post-coronavirus world will not be the same as the pre-coronavirus world. Changes are accelerating and do not always follow pre-defined trajectories. The winning companies of the future will be the ones that define the “next normal” themselves. The virtual environment has also allowed me to collaborate more and faster with my colleagues. There is no need to make appointments. We don’t have to be stuck in traffic and think about what to wear. Authenticity rules. Children on laps, pets in the background, and unshaved men at video conferences don’t matter anymore. In informal settings (and the comfort of being at home), it is all of a sudden so much easier to connect, interact, exchange ideas, and be innovative. And never forget. The office was never that great anyway. The gossip and back-biting, the nay-sayers and free-riders. The processes, procedures and politics that were a constant obstacle to “getting good things done.” Ironically, social distancing has brought us closer together and created a better environment for serendipity than the open spaces or bathrooms of the modern office. Future of Work Of course, some people will never get used to a working from home environment. They cannot wait for the “manic Mondays” to return. My suspicion, however, is that a big chunk of those “nay-sayers” are not the people who help the organization move forward. They are the ones resistant to change and holding things back. Rather, people who found a way to make it work and quickly adapted to the new realities of remote work should be prized. They saw the opportunities in unexpected places and figured it out by themselves without being told what to do. We need digital leadership but we also need more digital employees. Smarter, more resourceful people who don’t see remote work as an opportunity to complain, take it easy, or do nothing. This is why I hope that we will not turn our backs on the WFH revolution too quickly. Even after we go back to office work. The flexibility, informality, and opportunities for creative serendipity are crucial components for every company in identifying and designing the next normal.

The Working from Home Puzzle

Retail and AM/FM plays aren’t satisfying fans’ demand for Bob Seger’s music. Streaming matches fans with music. By Glenn Peoples, Music Insights and Analytics at Pandora Streaming gives people what they want. Vast catalogs, immediate access, and personalized recommendations are features not available from legacy markets. Brick-and-mortar retail and AM/FM won’t always reflect what people want to hear. Not even digital retailers can provide the best matches between music fan and music recording. As noted by economist Tyler Cowen, streaming services excel at reducing search time and matching a particular good with the right customer. If Tower Records was a singles bar, and digital retail was speed-dating, streaming would be Match.com, a place where people spend less time and have the best odds of finding music they’ll love. Bob Seger is a perfect case in point. The legendary Detroit rocker has a new album out today, , and a catalog of beloved rock and roll classics: “Old Time Rock and Roll,” “Turn the Page,” “Against the Wind,” “Night Moves” and dozens more in his prolific career. If you listened to album-oriented rock radio in the late ’70s or early ’80s, you heard Bob Seger’s throaty howls and stirring croons. He was a Midwest alternative to the East Coast’s Bruce Springsteen. “New Jersey’s blue-collar culture plainly inspired Bruce’s lyrics, but Seger was more mass appeal lyrically with pop sensibilities,” explained Ron Nenni, director of music programming at Pandora. I Knew You When [Pandora has three new Seger-related items: the playlist, the Bob Seger and Friends , and the Bob Seger and friends .] Bob Seger A to Z playlist mixtape Seger’s catalog is deep — 18 studio albums (including his newest) and two live albums with tens of top 40 hits and a handful inside the top 10. But retail hasn’t been meeting consumer demand for Seger’s music. Many albums are frustratingly out of print. As Tim Quick (ex-Google Music, ex-Rhapsody) described in his about Seger’s catalog, prices for used copies of his out-of-print early albums have become exorbitant. A good condition LP of his first album, , goes for a reasonable $14 or $15 while a used CD can fetch $22 and a used cassette can cost $30 or more. A used copy of can be found for $15 to $20. novella-length article Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man Mongrel Not to sound like a broken record — read and and — but streaming is best able to satisfy what people want to hear. Music retail comes closer but misses the mark. Whatever brick-and-mortar stores exist carry a limited number of titles, and mass merchants have been steadily decreasing the shelf space dedicated to CDs (although the LP has appeared in lifestyle retailers American Apparel and, for a time, Whole Foods stores). Digital retail can carry only whatever titles are in print. this this this To see how Seger’s streaming volume compares to his retail sales, I compared five albums’ Pandora spins to their 2016 sales (from Nielsen Music). For clarification, this analysis examines U.S. retail sales only and spins only on Pandora, not the overall U.S. streaming market. Retail sales of Seger’s catalog is dwarfed by his streaming numbers. (In the music industry, the term catalog refers to a title released more than 18 months ago. Anything older than three years is tagged as deep catalog.) isn’t in the league of all-time great catalog titles such as Bob Marley & the Wailers’ (insane sales) or The Eagles’ (also insane sales), but it registers some sales. Other albums have lower or no sales. There’s an obvious disconnect here between Seger’s sales and Pandora spins. If Pandora’s streams are converted into album units — using the 1,500 streams-to-1 album ratio Billboard uses for its charts — has the spin equivalent of 135,000 units (and that’s Pandora). , a breakthrough album that’s out of print, gets 4,000 albums worth of spins at Pandora each year. Stranger In Town Legend Greatest Hits ’71–75 Stranger In Town just Live Bullet AM/FM radio is also failing to meet the demand for Seger’s music. Classic rock stations, which account for 11.2 percent of U.S. radio listening, , still play Seger’s long list of classics. So do other formats (classic hits, adult hits, and adult contemporary stations), as longtime Seger manager Punch Andrews following Quirk’s article. Even so, his Nielsen BDS radio audience last week was 710,000 listeners, according to , a surprisingly low figure given his former reign as a king of album-oriented rock of the ’70s and ’80s. His Pandora audience was over seven times that. according to the Radio Advertising Bureau noted Seger’s Next Big Sound page What AM/FM program director would delve deep into Seger’s catalog? Classic rock stations are geared toward people who grew up on rock music of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s: Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Kansas, Heart, Rolling Stones, Boston, Rush, AC/DC, and Fleetwood Mac are among the most commonly heard artists. They play the well-known tracks aimed at the 45–64 age group while attracting some younger listeners with a sprinkling of bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Guns N’ Roses and Soundgarden. Radio, by its very , can give most people a fraction of what they want. A classic rock station is likely to play “Old Time Rock and Roll,” one of Seger’s most popular song on Pandora and an eternal classic thanks to a half-dressed Tom Cruise’s lip-synced performance in the ’80s film . Two more Pandora favorites, “Night Moves” and “Against the Wind,” get consistent radio play. “Shame on the Moon,” from album, gets surprisingly few AM/FM spins even though it was a well-rounded chart performer in 1983: #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #15 on Hot Country Songs. nature Risky Business The Distance To compare Seger’s Pandora audience to his AM/FM audience, I first referred to data from Edison Research to find a benchmark. Edison’s “Share of Ear” survey for Q2 2017 shows Pandora’s share of audio listening (radio, CDs, podcasts, etc.) was 12 percent of AM/FM’s share. Next, I looked up Pandora and AM/FM audiences over the last 12 months for “Night Moves,” “Against the Wind,” “Roll Me Away,” and “Shame on the Moon.” For any song, a ratio above the 12 percent benchmark suggests Pandora is better than AM/FM radio at meeting demand for the song. Pandora spins of his two most popular Pandora songs, “Night Moves” and “Against the Wind,” were 24 percent their AM/FM audiences—twice the benchmark. For “Roll Me Away” it was 34 percent. For “Shame on the Moon,” Pandora spins were 202 percent of AM/FM’s audience (over twice the audience, in other words). Streaming is able to satisfy demand for both volume and diversity of listening. “Night Moves” will always put up big numbers. But even a tune like “Boomtown Blues” from , with a chugging guitar riff that starts as a dead-ringer for Heart’s “Barracuda,” gets spins on Pandora. So does “Ship of Fools,” a beautiful, country-inspired tune recorded with the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section; just the supple guitar playing of Jimmy Johnson, a co-founder of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, makes the song a must-hear. Long-time Seger fans will know is filled with incredible but lesser-known blues-rock tracks. “Get Out of Denver,” the leadoff song from his 1975 album , is a scorching boogie that Chuck Berry would have been proud to write. Not coincidentally, the next song, and the closer, is a medley of Berry’s “Let It Rock” and “Little Queenie.” Pandora listeners have been deep diving and enjoying these songs for years. The Distance Live Bullet Seven Live Bullet Access is everything in the digital era. , 49 million Americans have tried dating services, and some are seeing results. Twenty percent of committed relationships and 17 percent of marriages are said to have started online. Singles bars are too small for people to find good matches. Selecting from a large pool of daters, and being navigated by algorithms, allows for better matching of people. Much in the same way, music listeners are best served by streaming services. A huge pool of options, along with machine learning, is best for pairing song and listener. By some accounts Thank you for reading . Please clap or share if you enjoyed it. You can look at my other Medium articles here . Click here for Measured, a collection of data-driven articles from Pandora and Next Big Sound. My Twitter handle is @theglennpeoples

Streaming: the Match.com of Music

As listening shifts online, broadcast radio’s advertising, worth $15 to $17 billion annually, is a gold mine for ad-supported streaming services like Pandora. By Glenn Peoples, Music Insights and Analytics at Pandora AM/FM radio has 176 billion listening hours each year in the U.S. The U.S. radio market is worth $15 to $17 billion annually. The average American listens to 2 hours of AM/FM radio and just 36 minutes of streaming services each day. The youngest Americans are embracing streaming services, but they have hardly deserted AM/FM radio. After being the only game in town for decades, broadcast radio is now battling Internet services that offer better features and vastly different listening experiences. The broadcast (AM/FM) market — not in spite of its size, but because of its size — represents an excellent growth opportunity for any streaming service looking for listening hours and advertising revenue. The invention of Guglielmo Marconi casts a large shadow on its competitors. Streaming services of any source — Pandora is just one—command an average of 36 minutes of audio listening in a single day. In contrast, AM/FM accounts for about two hours. If you read no further, know the AM/FM radio market has about 176 billion listening hours annually and a value of $15 to $17 billion. One can’t help but think of the Northern California gold rush that spanned 1848 to 1855. Hundreds of thousands of Americans moved west in search of gold, San Francisco turned into a boom town, and Levi Strauss & Co. became a successful dry goods business before patenting a new type of denim jeans. Today‘s music market is like a gold rush, too. Over the last 15 years, dozens of music streaming services rushed into digital music to seek riches in the world’s largest market. Most of these services have gone bust, but many better, stronger companies are left, constantly innovating while competing for Americans’ ears. Although streaming revenue has grown bountifully in the last decade, it’s still far smaller than broadcast radio, a huge, influential, and valuable market that represents a good chunk of the United States’ $183 billion advertising business. “The radio advertising market continues to be significant at approximately $15 billion to $17 billion,” noted Naveen Chopra, chief financial officer, and interim chief executive officer, in Pandora’s July 31st earnings call. The U.S. broadcast radio’s value, roughly the size of the recorded music business, comes from 243 million monthly U.S. listeners 12 and older who listen for about 176 billion hours a year, a Pandora estimate gleaned from Nielsen data from Q4 2016. This is the AM/FM universe to ponder when thinking of the future of music. global AM/FM radio accounts for half of the four hours of audio the average American hears per day. And why wouldn’t it dominate? It had a big head start. The first radio program broadcast , when Reginald Fessenden, the engineer who brought speaking to radio waves, broadcast himself playing “O Holy Night” and reading Bible passages. Broadcast radio advertising also has a decades-long head start over online advertising. The seller of apartment buildings in Queens, New York, , from New York’s WEAF in 1922 — that’s 83 years before Pandora’s launch! is said to have taken place on Christmas Eve, 1906 purchased the first advertisement on the airwaves Today, spins on streaming services are becoming the new radio spins, often giving tracks their initial momentum before getting played on broadcast radio. In fact, record label promoters take streaming data to a station’s program directors as evidence of a songs’ popularity. “Look at these spins,” a promoter might say. “People in your market love this song.” Streaming is a sort of Pandora makes available all types of music that get little to no broadcast radio play. It has 16 metal stations; 16 of classical; 30 of reggae; 19 for folk and singer-songwriters; 37 for world music spanning countries and continents; 23 of jazz; and four exclusively for bluegrass! That type of personalization, born from the one-to-one nature of streaming, available to any listener at any time, cannot be matched by a one-to-many, over-the-air broadcast station. new radio. There’s more potential than might meet the eye. Music is usually depicted as a like-for-like competition. That is to say, one streaming company does battle with other streaming companies, and one radio network does battle with other radio networks. But any person’s audio listening comes from a variety of sources: AM/FM radio, streaming, satellite radio, TV music, podcasts, and owned music like CDs and MP3s. Digital services might be competing against one another, but at the same time, they’re fighting for the listening hours of heavily entrenched, AM/FM companies. Streaming is a substitute — definitely at home, increasingly in the car — for AM/FM and its 176 billion annual listening hours. The more consumers see streaming as a replacement for broadcast radio, and the better the listening experiences, the more revenue and listening time will shift from the older to the newer one. Streaming isn’t a zero-sum game. Streaming hours aren’t the only goal. AM/FM listening hours are the larger goal. technology Young listeners still spend time with AM/FM radio, although streaming fares well. Young listeners typify the opportunity at hand. Contrary to popular wisdom, the youth of America still make AM/FM a major source of listening. According to Edison Research, for the 13–17 demo, the young end of Generation Z, radio accounts for 34 percent of audio listening. The 18–24 age group, the older end of Generation Z, puts 27 percent of audio listening to AM/FM. Millennials age 25 to 34 are heavier AM/FM listeners with a 43-percent share. These numbers aren’t the failure of streaming services as much as the continued attractiveness of AM/FM radio. Pandora and other streaming services should regard youth’s interest in AM/FM as an opportunity. Pandora’s ability to steal away AM/FM hours is the essence of the Internet’s ability to disrupt legacy markets. Before streaming, recorded music had already gone through one upheaval in the young century. The compact disc reached its pinnacle in in 2001, the tail end of the era of boy bands and deep discounts at big box retailers. iTunes launched in the U.S. in 2003 with 99-cent tracks and $9.99 albums, becoming an instant hit and establishing the market for legal downloads. Seven years later, as CD sales shrank, download sales helped digital revenue overtake physical sales for the first time. This pecking order was short-lived, however. By 2011, , and the next digital technology would begin its rise. the digital download had peaked . (Broadcast radio is not represented in that statistic since stations are not legally required to pay royalties to record labels.) As buying music is falling out of favor, a door has opened wide for services such as Pandora to give people music how they want it: on mobile phones (most of which lack an FM antenna), on the web, in the car, through home digital systems like Sonos, and through smart speakers like Echo and Google Home. Ironically, streaming is taking music back to its roots. Just like AM/FM radio, streaming gives people access to music rather than ownership. A tipping point came in 2016 when streaming accounted for a majority of U.S. recorded music sales— 50.3 percent to be exact — an incredible feat considering its share was just nine-percent five years earlier To understand AM/FM radio’s place in American culture is to appreciate its staying power. It’s size and influence has made it nearly ubiquitous for decades. AM/FM dominated the the airwaves before the advent of television and grew during the post-World War 2 surge in automobile sales. It considerable strengths: a wide reach, high automobile usage, and a powerful lobby in Washington DC. But it has signs of weaknesses, too. Although its isn’t as bleak as portrayed in a recent by Larry Miller, Director at the Steinhard Music Business Program at New York University, one of AM/FM’s vital metrics has declined over the last decade: . On one hand, radio can still boast of a 91-percent penetration rate amongst U.S. adults, a number that has more or less held steady over the years. Such a high penetration rate should be the envy of the audio world. But on the other hand, market penetration isn’t the same as listening time. That is to say, 91 percent of 13:35 is less than 91 percent of 19:46. future white paper average weekly listening has declined 31 percent from 19:46 minutes in 2007 to 13:35 i n 2016 Small changes in listening habits will have huge after effects. A million listening hours lost by traditional radio can mean the departure of tens of millions of advertising dollars. Just ten percent of radio’s daily listening time is worth nearly 18 billion listening hours, more than enough to benefit any single streaming service. At current trends, streaming’s share of daily listening will undoubtedly increase from its current 36 minutes per day, taking some of AM/FM’s daily hours and capturing a portion of its $15 to $17 billion revenue. This value exchange isn’t just inevitable, it’s already happening. . Attracting radio dollars has been a key part of the company’s strategy. To get radio dollars, a streaming company needs to behave like radio company. So, four years ago, using measurement data by Triton Digital, Pandora integrated with the Strata and MediaOcean buying platforms to tap into broadcast radio ad budgets. Pandora’s advertising revenue has grown to $1.09 billion in the last four quarters (ended June 30) Young millennials are abandoning traditional TV viewing—network and cable TV—for online-only alternatives like Netflix, Hulu, Sling TV, DirecTV Now, and YouTube TV. There are signs of media disruption well beyond radio.. , according to Nielsen. At the same time, national television have been rolling out their competing streaming packages to stem their losses and adapt to their new reality. Newspapers have struggled to produce journalism under the financial challenges of digital advertising; digital-first, global news sites have captured readerships few traditional newspapers can achieve. These are hardly surprises: entrenched players in legacy industries are usually slow to react to market trends spurred by nimbler startups. This is the state of AM/FM radio in America. Broadcast radio has ceded some of its listenership to Pandora, podcasts and other newcomers — and there are still 176 billion annual listening hours available for the taking. In February, viewing with connected devices (Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, et al.) surged 56 percent compared to the previous year

Streaming services can find growth in AM/FM’s 176 billion annual listening hours

Comprehensive Guide to the Boulder / Denver Startup and Tech Scene

Image from Bosstown Dynamics a comedic play on BostonDynamics working on smart robotics. Hype aside, recent developments in AI has caused a bit of mass hysteria and panic in the social sphere. This month i've been asked things like "how long have I got left?" and "are we going to be like pets to them?" While no doubt a lot of it is in jest, there is certainly an increasing level of tension between what the media reports AI can do, and what it can actually do. First, let’s get the main thing out the way, LLMs like ChatGPT & BARD aren't AGI (artificial general intelligence), they are just complex Sequence Transformers. They don't actually understand what you are saying, they have no logical reasoning skills (just because a Parrot sounds smart, doesn’t mean it has a clue what it’s talking about). It doesn’t actually know that  1+1=2, just that 1+1 is followed by =2 most of the time. Microsoft claimed GPT4 had 'Sparks of AGI' in a paper masquerading as science, but don’t let that fool you, GPT4 only generates text, there is no internal quality control or self correcting for it to refactor its answer based on new facts - this means that if you don’t have domain expertise, trusting it will put you at high risk. Which is why they plaster warning limitations on the front page ‘my occasionally generate wrong answers,’ which is an understatement. Bricklayers, chefs, plumbers and hairdressers are unlikely to be automated in the next 30 years, so if you work in a highly manual field, you can relax for now. The digital and intellectual domain is a little more fuzzy however, so I thought rather than making useless predictions about what's in and what's out, I wanted to share the key areas you can and should focus on to stay ahead: Creativity Higher level reasoning Soft Skills Leadership High fidelity/dexterity/intricate bespoke craftsmanship Technical Design & Architecture CREATIVE ENDEVOURS Neural Networks don't just master things they have seen before, they fit to a curve - this means they learn trends well. Where you will excel is if you become a trend setter, focus on original content, finding personalised niches in whatever product you are interested in working on - demand will spike in the domain of hyper personalisation. HIGHER LEVEL REASONING AI doesn't obliterate the 'things to do' pie, rather it expands the pie by opening up new capabilities, you need to expand your mind to 'what problems will we face once we have automated menial work?'
Spoiler alert: it requires being vision driven rather than feature driven. If becoming a hyper 10x developer isn't for you, then look into cross functional IT be it leadership or solutionising, AI hasn't even begun to touch this area. MAKING THINGS WITH YOUR HANDS Some things to consider, as the world ages (East and West are suffering from mass ageing, and collapsing demographics) - this means as consumption plummets, the demand for bespoke, tailored products will skyrocket. Think fashion, personality, trend setting, countries like Italy will pull ahead, so much is hand made there. I'm stopping here for now, if you like what you see let me know and I will finish the second part. For those interested in actually how to take advantage of the latest wave of AI here is a short on prompt engineering. https://youtu.be/V28CU8LEXlU?embedable=true P.S. ChatGPT did not write this.

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