I had one of those “convergence of thoughts” reminders the other day. In the content and tech business sectors it has recently been impossible to go a day without a story on Netflix – further evidence this morning – a WSJ story on Netflix being added to the S&P 500 (kicking out the NYTimes and Kodak). Netflix is, to put it mildly, on fire at the moment. I’m not a subscriber or shareholder, and truthfully don’t have enough time to watch much recreational television. However a couple of weeks ago, I started ruminating over the value proposition of an unlimited $7.99 streaming option, that also allows me to view shows and movies on my iPhone and iPad, and also comes with a one month free trial. And I used that pricepoint to draw a direct comparison to unlimited mobile music subscriptions – currently at about $9.99/month from Napster, Mog, Rhapsody and Rdio (note – Pandora is not in this list as it’s a radio experience and not truly interactive). None of these services even offer a 30 day free trial – 14 days is the maximum. I think you can see where I’m going here… unlimited video – $7.99/month – unlimited music $9.99/month. (Napster also offers an $8/month annual plan but it can’t be canceled at any time like Netflix). The question in my mind has been, what makes labels (who are driving this pricing model) think their product is worth a 25% premium over video?

Earlier this week, I read a thoughtful post about Facebook Jumping The Shark on AdAge. In it, Judy Shapiro referenced a Clay Shirky blog article titled The Collapse Of Complex Business Models which draws inspiration from Joseph Tainter’s Collapse Of Complex Societies. In his entry, Shirky uses the analogy of cost-efficient television production to illustrate his “collapse” analogy. If you read the posting, you can see that it’s actually analogous to all 20th century media distribution forms  - print, TV, radio and of course, the packaged content that fills those media types.

So my convergence thought was the perpetual notion of collapse, as applied to the music industry, tied to this seemingly high value low cost offer from Netflix. Putting on the consumer’s hat it’s clear that the Netflix offer is a value proposition – it offers something the consumer can’t get (TV shows and movies when they want), something that they could want for a very attractive price, and I anticipate that the streaming subscription will be an enormous business for Netflix and their content suppliers. Conversely, a $10 mobile subscription for music is as dead in the water as a $10 online subscription was 5 years ago. A little business, with struggling players and no breakout service, with labels impeding the companies’ success (due to punitive content costs) and ensuring their own slow motion collapse. Razor thin margins for the services, and no money left on the table for marketing. And the collateral damage, labels are driving away innovation which has historically helped the music business model.

Back to the question – what makes music think their product is worth more than video? Purely on the basis of numbers, and the value to the consumer, if Netflix has set the market price of $7.99 for video, what is the potential market price for a mobile subscription music service? It certainly isn’t $10 – I’m going to say it’s $1.99 and it should just be buried in your carrier bill.

That’s what I’ve thought for a number of years and those are the thoughts that converged once again this week.

I read a local Miami story earlier this week that Charlie Crist, outgoing Governor of Florida was wrapping up his final responsibilities before vacating his office. It was anticipated that one of those responsibilities would include a full pardon of Jim Morrison, the late, lead singer of The Doors, for charges stemming from a March 1969 concert in Miami. The details of the event that night are well documented and certainly part of the Lizard King’s mystique and legend. Morrison, of course, died in Paris in July, 1971 while the two misdemeanors for which he was convicted (open profanity and indecent exposure) were going through the appeal process. And the convictions have remained in place.

The Doors music has moved in, around and through my life ever since Janice Youngren popped a quarter into the jukebox at McCracken’s Landing on Stony Lake in Ontario and played Riders On The Storm. In around 2003, while licensing content for MediaNet, I wanted to figure out how to get The Doors catalog included, as they weren’t available at all digitally anywhere at the time. An inquiry to my contacts Warner Music, who controlled Elektra (The Doors’ label), led me to Randall Wixen. Randall was the Wixen of Wixen Music Publishing, which administered the publishing rights for Jackson Browne and The Doors among other artists and composers and was the point of contact for any inbound business opportunities for the band. I explained what I was seeking to do – open the door to getting the band’s music out digitally, that I wasn’t looking for any exclusivity, and that the label would handle distribution. Randall was cautious, but explained what I needed to do to make my pitch. “Write a personal letter to each of the three band members – Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore, as well as the Morrison estate. They will discuss it and get back to me.” And that’s what I did. A month later I called Randall, and he said the band had approved it. I thanked Randall, and asked him to thank the band for me. My next call was to Warner, to let them know. And a month or so later, we had The Doors music in all our digital services at the time.

Shortly after moving to Coconut Grove in 2000, I mentioned to friends that I wanted to see a show at the Coconut Grove Convention Center, and asked them if they knew where it was. Little did I know that I’d driven past it a hundred times already at that point. They responded by saying it’s at Dinner Key… that it’s the old Dinner Key Auditorium. To which I replied… Dinner Key… isn’t that where Jim Morrison was arrested? I was out of their orbit at that point, but sure enough, the drab, grey concrete bunker and former Pan Am hangar on Bayshore that I’ve driven past and run past thousands of times, and ridden by a couple of times a week for years (including this morning) is of course “that” place. Now though, it’s mostly home to gun and knife shows – and not much else.

So it’s to-be-determined if Governor Crist can accomplish what he’s set as one of his final goals in office, some 42 years after the alleged incident took place. I wasn’t there – I was way too young and living in Toronto, so I can’t say what actually happened that March night in Miami in 1969. However, this might be Jim’s best shot, and would wipe up a smudge for the Morrison family. And give Doors fans and campaigners a moral victory. At best it’s a curiosity… even more so when you watch the news coverage… a footnote of relevance in 2010… miles from 1969 but strangely not too distant from The Beatles’ decision to now be on iTunes. But then, if The Beatles’ catalog can finally be available to buy digitally, I’m beginning to think anything may be possible.

Interesting times for the World Triathlon Corporation, owners of the Ironman brand. As 1) a repeat Ironman competitor myself, at both full (140.6) and 70.3 distances, 2) a professional who works with brands everyday and 3) respects the Ironman brand… although I don’t have it tattooed on me… it’s intriguing to watch the stumbles made by WTC this year.

Ironman is one of the most revered human performance brands on the planet. Not only is it an extraordinary test of individual physical achievement and endurance, it’s one of the only sports where normal people can line up alongside world champions on the starting line. Because of what it takes to just complete an Ironman, competitors are passionate about the mark, as they are about the sport of triathlon. It’s a lot more than a Sunday afternoon thumb exercise to do a triathlon. And to complete an Ironman is a huge commitment for an individual, and usually for their family. So finishers, rightfully or not, feel they own a piece of the brand, which is why you see so many M-dot tattoos on competitors. Additionally, the sport of triathlon is exploding – as these stats from usatriathlon.org show.

In 2010, in addition to launching several new full Ironman and 70.3 series events, here is what WTC has done:

• They launched a magazine, Lava. OK… with the dead tree business in decline WTC is going against the grain. How many magazines has Conde Nast, Time Warner or Hearst launched in 2010. A better question would be – how many did they fold? Look, Ironman is trying, and  I suppose WTC could know the print business better than the aforementioned publishers, however isn’t it a matter of priorities and resource management? Ironman’s website truly does not do the brand justice. Especially when you compare it to any other major sports brand such as the NBA, MLB or NHL, or even the sport’s governing body usatriathlon.org or Slowtwitch, a site that does a phenomenal job of covering the sport of triathlon. Add to that underwhelming video coverage of events, weak social network integration, no iPhone or Android Apps, no iPad App. But a magazine… ok… why was that a priority again? Ego battle with Triathlete magazine perhaps? Ironman is not in the content creation, content packaging and content distribution business – it’s a brand licensing and brand marketing business. But if you’re going to play in or make a bet in the content world – better to make that bet with a medium that is growing (mobile), rather  than contracting (print).
• 5i50 or is it 5150. I’m confused. Is that still an Ironman, or what. Ironman is a platinum brand. Diluting the brand, devaluing the brand equity correspondingly devalues the enterprise. Earlier this month, WTC announced a new series of Olympic distance races called the 5i50. Sure WTC wants a piece of the action in shorter, entry level events – what’s next, Sprint distance races? The number of triathlons in the US alone has grown from 800 per year a decade ago to over 1800 today, so inevitably some Sprint-esque WTC event series will follow the 5i50 announcement. This only serves to weaken the core Ironman brand. Maybe you’ve heard of baseball… it’s played everywhere. But there is only one World Series. Find a way to work with the shorter races – provide entries to various IM events for series winners in regions. In other words, support the feeder, aspirational races to the benefit of the IM brand. But don’t steamroll them or be threatened by them and try to own the sport entirely. Nurture and protect the Ironman brand.
• It’s evidence of a systemic problem when the three-time Kona winner speaks out against World Triathlon Corporation. Such was the case earlier this year, when Chrissie Wellington, Kona’s 2007-2009 Women’s champ wrote this thoughtful and articulate post taking WTC to task for performance levels, registration fees and prize money. Ironman made Chrissie Wellington, but now Ironman needs her to be an inspiration for others to aspire to her level of success, and WTC needs her to be a proponent of the Ironman brand, not a detractor. Good for her for speaking out.
• And lastly… Wednesday evening I received an e-mail invitation to a new Ironman “Access” program. For a $1000 annual membership, I would be given opportunities to register in advance for selected IM events, 2 VIP passes per registered event, a one year subscription to Lava magazine(!), a 2011 Lottery entry and second chance, a 2010 Kona DVD, 20% off IM merch and a membership card. I don’t need to say how I felt. Triathlon is already an expensive sport. $550 to enter an event. You typically have to sign up a year in advance of an event. There is no transfer policy or rollover policy if you can’t make a race. I was supposed to race in the Ironman at Couer d’Alene in Idaho this past June, but couldn’t because of a foot injury encountered earlier in the year. I would have given… given my registration to another athlete to enjoy but couldn’t. I’ve recovered enough to do Ironman Florida this November, but that’s beside the point. WTC is owned by Providence Equity, a Private Equity firm which purchased WTC in 2008. Like any good PE, they’re probably looking for 50-100% ROI per year, as they should… that’s their business. If it feels like WTC stands for We’ll Take (Your) Cash, that’s why. Last night, I received a second e-mail, with a link to a video from Ben Fertic, WTC’s CEO. 24 hours later, Ironman canceled Access, as a result of the howling negative reaction to the program. So did WTC float Access or test a response to the program across a group of active Ironman competitors. Was the $500K the program might have drawn in worth the beating the brand and WTC took? Wouldn’t the time developing Access have better spent working on product licensing, sponsorship, applying positive attributes to the brand through Mobile Apps,or tweaking the site perhaps??? Maybe these tactics are all in progress. If not, my company would be pleased to help.

The fact is, Ironman is not Coke. People don’t tattoo a Coke logo on their legs, arms, neck or torso. They don’t define who they are through the mark on a can of soda. But they do with the M-dot, the Ironman logo. As a brand, Ironman needs to protect the incredible equity entrenched in that logo, and bounce every dumbass idea for the growth, pimping and exploitation of the brand against a series of enshrined core values. And it’s a challenge, to Watch The Core… to preserve the core brand equity and grow the business. But then, so is 140.6 miles of swimming, biking and running.

Facebook and Twitter get the headlines, but one of the biggest developments in socialized content and expression enabled by the internet has been the rise of the Mom Blogging communities. At the center of this ecosystem are a number of high ranking aggregators that act as hubs to the spokes of all the Mom Blogs. Not mixing metaphors, but the viral expansion loop of these communities is impressive, as the growth and ultimate reach of each blog and micro-community extends beyond the hub, out to its individual blog visitors.
Here are a few current Alexa rankings out of the Top  1 Million Sites on the web for the major Mom Blog aggregators:

It’s a great community for the Consumer Product sector to advertise and evangelize new products. We put an ad on BloggyMoms this week for one of our products to see what the impact is compared to other sectors in which we’re marketing this app. We can’t wait to see how this community responds!

Looking back

I seldom look back on a week, preferring to always look ahead to the next week. Even rarer are the occasions when I would allow the occurrences to coalesce into a posting, but in the technology world, a lot has happened – one event was substantial in scale, others… smaller but portending the development and shaping of the future, and then… there is what is ahead! So here we go…

iPhone 4 – Like many others around the globe, I stood in line a week ago Thursday (June 24th). For 13 hours… which is a long time for just about anything. Fortunately, The Apple Store’s WiFi at The Falls in South Miami was working, so my iPad was in contact with the world, Victoria Secret let me charge my iPhone, and it was largely a productive and somewhat pleasurable day. While my iPad arrived on the release day, April 3rd, direct shipped from China, the last time I’d gone to a store to buy any new product on the day of release was in 1995 – August 24th, for Windows ’95. A lot can change in 15 years in the technology world. I expected that Apple would sell 2 million phones over the 4 days from Thursday through Sunday. This week, the 1.7 million number surfaced in reference to 3 days of sales. So 2 million over 4 days is probably light, irrespective of limited stock etc. The phone is great, for me – I’m not experiencing any antenna issues. I truly can’t believe how stunning the display is. Any CD covers in the iPod section look incredible. And FaceTime is amusing.

Kin – RIP – No surprise – As I wrote in April I indicated the prospects were grim for this device before launch. And since then, Robbie Bach and Jay Allard have exited Microsoft, the device was widely criticized, and it surfaced that that factional dissent existed between the flagging Windows Mobile and Kin teams – never a positive indicator for an aligned corporate strategy or a product’s potential. We may never know how many of these devices were sold – yes, the rumors were “around” 500. Nor could we calculate how many hundreds of millions this mistake cost Microsoft in cash outlay, lost opportunities, and reputation damage.

But certainly, iPhone 4′s first weekend sales killed the Kin.

Great week for Startups!

Woot! - Woot! gets acquired by amazon. After investing several million dollars into Woot in 2008, amazon fully immersed itself in the social commerce space by acquiring Woot.

Tapulous – Disney certainly had the inside knowledge of how successful Tap Tap Revenge is, through the tight relationship with Apple. Great to see this frugally funded startup joining a company with significant investments and acquisition successes in social and mobile properties.

TESLA – TESLA IPO’s – Behold the new Tesla Roadster. Stunning, quick, and green. Congratulations on being the first American automotive manufacturer to IPO in 54 years – not since Ford in 1956 has there been a new public company creating cars here. If only Silicon Valley’s speed of innovation had once been embraced by others in the automotive sector.

BuyWidget – One of our apps, BuyWidget, got mentioned in Billboard this week. As the music biz saying goes, you’re not a hit until you’re a hit in Billboard. Thanks for the mention! Thanks also to the many, many new sites who signed up for BuyWidget this week. Among them, one took me back a few years. Steve Kilbey was the unmistakable voice of The Church, whose big hit “Under The Milky Way” is still alluring, even a “few” years after it was first released. Steve has teamed up with Australian Martin Kennedy and has made some great new music. Check out their site, and this performance clip to hear what they’re creating.

Canada Day - Canada Day was July 1st. So, a belated Happy Canada Day to all my friends and family.

Looking ahead

July 3rd

I’m not much of a fan of Wimbledon, and the World Cup holds only a passing interest for me. But starting tomorrow I’ll undoubtedly be mesmerized for three weeks by the Tour de France. This year there are four strong teams in contention – Astana, Radio Shack, Saxo Bank and Cervelo – all with great riders, and the potential for great stories and drama. As I wrote a year ago, Lance Armstrong remains the story, but there are significant sidebars to be found along every mile of the ride. the race is defined in the Time Trials and mountain stages, so with the Prologue on the 3rd, mountains starting on the 8th, and final TT on the 24th, it will be an epic tour.

4th of July – Have a safe and enjoyable Independence Day!

Here’s an overview of the BuyWidget Application from slideshare:

BuyWidget launched today – an app that allows for distributed commerce of music downloads from sites, portals or blogs. Try it out – build your own BuyWidget playlist at www.buywidget.com customize it with your own logo and name, and copy the code to your site. It’s easy! Update the playlist as often as you like! Enhance your site’s user experience and add a source of incremental revenue. You can see it in action in the sidebar on this blog, or at www.buywidget.com

Here’s the release:

BUYWIDGET EMBEDDABLE MUSIC DOWNLOAD WIDGET LAUNCHES

Service allows any site or blog to instantly and easily sell digital music

MIAMI, FL (May 26, 2010) – BuyWidget, the distributed commerce service, announced today that it has launched its new embeddable music download widget. With the launch of BuyWidget, any site or blog can instantly and easily build a custom playlist, embed a widget, and sell track or album music downloads to their visitors.

BuyWidget allows site owners to enhance their user experience and derive added revenue. BuyWidget eliminates the need for any site to integrate a proprietary cart or e-commerce solution, and unlike standard affiliate sales models, the entire transaction takes place on the actual site where the widget is located, avoiding the redirection of visitors to a third party or competitive site.

With just a few quick steps, bloggers or site owners can search from more than 8 million high quality MP3s (encoded at 296 kbps or higher), build their personalized playlist, add their own logo to their BuyWidget, name the playlist and embed the BuyWidget code. BuyWidget supports standard HTML, WordPress, TypePad or Blogger sites. Site publishers can update the BuyWidget tracks and albums or the sequence as often as they like. To fulfill the BuyWidget downloads, BuyWidget has partnered with MediaNet, the leading provider of premium digital media content. BuyWidget does not require a monthly sales minimum, setup charge or initiation fee.

BuyWidget allows a site publisher to embed playlists to accompany music-related editorial stories, music reviews, and artist profiles. Widgets can be built using either pre-programmed or personalized thematic or topic-specific playlists to provide appropriately suggested tracks for events and special occasions – with all songs or albums quickly purchasable from the associated BuyWidget.

“With BuyWidget, website owners, blog owners and publishers can build a truly immersive experience – where music transactions are closely tied to their site’s editorial content,” said John Jones, CEO of BuyWidget. “It’s a great opportunity for sites of all traffic levels to derive incremental income from the sale of music downloads, built around a personalized playlist of meaningful music choices and recommendations, and for artists and labels to virally expand their points of sales distribution beyond dedicated online music commerce sites.”

About BuyWidget

BuyWidget (www.buywidget.com) is a distributed commerce application and service provider. Sites, portals and blogs use BuyWidget to enhance their user experience and derive added revenue from their traffic. BuyWidget is a division of fortyninegroup, LLC. For more information, go to www.buywidget.com or www.fortyninegroup.com

As the days and hours count down to the launch date of Apple’s iPad, there is no end to the forecasts on pre-launch, Q2, and 2010 sales etc. of the device. Speculation aside, there is a palpable excitement and anticipation which finds its precedent only in the June 2007 launch of the iPhone. I’m not going to speculate on AAPL’s iPad sales numbers… those are all over the web… I ordered one, and it’s arriving on April 3. But I will tell you this instead.

A couple of weeks ago, I was over at a friend’s place and was relaxing some of the stress she had been enduring, by providing a friendly shoulder massage. I should say at this point that I would consider myself to be fairly good at working the kinks out of  a neck, shoulders, backs and upper arms, and this aforementioned friend happens to be an fairly tech-savvy girlgeek. We had been talking earlier in the day about the iPad launch on April 3, and that I’d ordered one for delivery on the launch date. So then, out of the blue and in the middle of the massage, she turned her head around and said… “So which iPad did you order?”

Which said to me that the iPad has already found its way into a way of life, even before either of us, or anyone has really used one, or even held one. It also said to me one of the first Apps I should be buying is Better Massage Techniques should such an app possibly exist!

Check out the guided tour videos Apple posted this week on all the program functionality in the iPad – Keynote, Pages and Numbers look amazing! Oh, and my iPad will be the 32Gb Wi-Fi version accessorized with the dock, keyboard and case. The shipping confirmation e-mail arrived last night. It’s on its way direct from Shenzhen, China.

Lots of blogging about the lackluster track record of media mergers in the wake of the official announcement of the Comcast/NBC Universal deal. My POV differs from that of Michael Wolff’s assessment on Newser, although I’ve ordered The Curse Of The Mogul cited in his blog. This is a merger that will work, and will redefine the template of a media merger and the partners that need to come together to make it work.

Let’s look at Comcast. First off, they’re not ditchdiggers like many of their cable company contemporaries. They haven’t spent most of 2009 in Chapter 11, like Charter. Their principles aren’t in jail, like Adelphia’s Rigases. So in their peer group, it’s easy for Comcast to be the shining star. But Comcast has pushed the envelope in services, technology and infrastructure. Their web property comcast.net (Comcast Interactive Media) is ranked number 31 on Alexa – dead even with Hulu – while Time Warner’s rr.com is 59 and  ATT’s att.com is 69. Backed by The Platform, Fancast is easily competitive with Hulu for features and content. Comcast has done a commendable job in transforming VERSUS from it’s non-entity status as OLN. Their other cable properties – E! and Style are category leaders. With respect to the distribution businesses, Comcast’s cable service, quality, uptime and their VOIP service is the best in the country. While they’re missing a presence in mobile, Comcast clearly knows how to monetize and manage the pipeline, and create the content to push through it.

On the other side, NBCU is aligning itself with a partner whose core businesses complement their own best-of-breed cable and broadcast properties. Comcast is neither a French water utility (Vivendi) nor an industrial and appliance manufacturer (GE). Comcast’s toolkit gives Jeff Gaspin and Lauren Zalaznick, (the best programmers in broadcast and cable) the ability to tap the audience directly through the distribution channels – something Viacom could never achieve for them, nor NBCU under GE.

Financially, it means that Comcast will not be held hostage in NBCU carriage fee negotiations – giving them some leverage over the HBO, Disney and Viacom teams, and potentially prime channel placement for the NBCU properties. The NBCU channels complement Comcast’s cable holdings, so while there will be an opportunity to create shared resources – in sales and infrastructure – the creative teams will only benefit from having more outlets to repurpose their content. This will allow the JV to generate more cash as a combined entity than each of the separate business are doing currently.

This is not AOL/Time Warner – the Comcast and NBCU cultures are more aligned, the potential is more symbiotic. This isn’t some fantasy ten years out. This is about now… content and distribution, owning them both, being smart and making it work.

A couple of years ago I spent some time digitizing some of my production work. Most of it is on a mix of source formats, 1/4 inch analog tape, DAT, CD, and even a few reference copies on cassette. For anyone who has undertaken format conversion, I feel your pain. While ultimately rewarding, it’s a time consuming process. Especially the 1/4 inch tape. Depending on the tape manufacturer, my reels were doing one of three things on my Otari MX5050-BII. Either clogging the heads and forcing me to sit with a Q-tip squeezing the tape against the head to optimize the audio signal. This necessitated stopping every 5 minutes, cleaning the heads and picking it up where I stopped. Then putting the whole work back together in Cool Edit Pro. Other tapes played perfectly. Others still played perfectly, but the oxide was flying off the tapes as they crossed the pinch rollers. It makes you really appreciate how easy digital is as a format. Pain aside, it’s great to have everyday access to the shows, interviews and recordings now. I have a bunch more to go through and will add them over time, for now a brief explanation of what these are.

Listen Up – The Lives Of Quincy Jones – 1990. Syndicated radio special, marking the release of Listen Up, the film and CD. Met and interviewed Q – he was an icon as a producer for me – with what he achieved on Off The Wall, Thriller, Back On The Block, not to mention his work in A&R, and as a jazz musician, so meeting him was a highlight. Listen Up was narrated by Sandy Hoyt – one of my favorite Toronto announcers at CHFI. Sandy was a class act – incredibly funny, versatile and original – he even hosted wrestling at one time in his diverse career.

Rent Boys Inc. – Recorded live In Toronto. 1982.The post-punk/alternative music scene was phenomenally strong in Toronto. We fueled the fire at CKLN, gave the bands an outlet – they’d produce their 45s and cassettes, we’d play them, they’d fill the clubs at their shows. Rent Boys Inc. were among a number of second generation punk bands – kids who’d grown up influenced by Television, and The Ramones in New York, and The Diodes, Demics and Viletones in Toronto, with a healthy dose of Manchester’s Joy Division/New Order thrown in.. Kinetic Ideals, Breeding Ground, Dave Howard Singers, Sturm Group, Disband, L’Etranger, Rent Boys and others – the scene in Toronto was vibrant, and music in Canada during that period wasn’t just Loverboy, Bryan Adams and Men Without Hats. If Queen West in Toronto had been the Bowery in NYC, all of these groups would have been famous. But as another Canadian – Neil Young – once said – “if you’re big in Canada, you’re only big in Canada. If you’re big in the US, you’re big everywhere”

The Beat Generation – Sunday Sunday, CHFI – 1991. Short radio story about the impact of the Beat Generation. Timed with the release of Rhino’s Jack Kerouac box set, and Carolyn Cassady’s book – “Off The Road – My Life with Cassady, Kerouc, and Ginsberg”.

Trudy Desmond Quintet – Recorded at CBC Studio 4S. A singer with an alluring presence, backed by some of Canada’s finest jazz musicians. I loved working in that room – it had great history, as a recording studio, and as a TV studio – I’d seen some CBC TV shows shot there as a kid. I recorded a number of great jazz performances in 4S, and was always thankful for the opportunity to work with some exceptional musicians in an amazing setting.