Music video startup AtticTV takes on YouTube

Music lovers who want to get their daily fix now have another way to get it — via AtticTV, an online music channel that aims to be an MTV for the Internet generation.

Founded by Malaysians Johnson Goh and Grey Ang, who had previously worked together on another startup that didn’t take off, AtticTV is their second venture together. It allows users to lean back and discover new music videos from YouTube.

The website essentially streams users a constant diet of music videos — it’s like watching MTV the old-school way. You consume clip after clip, making a mental note of those you like (or don’t).

Except that for AtticTV, viewers can surf by music genre, skip over videos they don’t like, add noteworthy tracks to an online library, or share them with friends.

They can also create ‘mixtapes’ — essentially a series of music videos organized around a certain theme. For instance, if I feel heartbroken after a breakup, I can create a list of songs that fit my mood, and share it with my friends.

AtticTV, in essence, hopes to do music discovery better than YouTube.

In some ways, it has achieved that. The interface is beautiful, and I find it generally a joy to use. Unlike YouTube, which refreshes every time you load a new video, the transition in AtticTV is seamless and elegant.

Also, when you switch to the next track, the current song fades out before the next one plays,  – a subtle but nice touch. YouTube can take some notes on how AtticTV does this.

But I do wonder whether a nice interface and a focus on music discovery is enough for this startup to take off. Johnson considers YouTube and VEVO to be direct competitors, and these heavyweights have a lot going for them.

AtticTV, for instance, doesn’t have a long tail of music content.

If I watch the music video of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ on YouTube, I will not only receive recommendations to other Michael Jackson videos, but also footage of his concerts, parodies, and even covers by other artists.

For Michael Jackson fans, this bonanza of content drastically increases YouTube’s stickiness.

In addition, I find YouTube’s ability to discover new music for me rather decent. I’m a sort of YouTube addict, thanks to the website’s recommendation engine, and the result is that I often watch more stuff than I intended to. I’m sure that’s the case for many users too.

While it’s true that AtticTV is less cluttered and more suitable for viewing and discovering new music, it remains to be seen whether there is enough demand for it to gain significant traction.

Currently, they have 150 to 200 daily active users on average, with each user watching about 14 videos and staying 40 minutes.

The startup is also indirectly fighting for attention with online music services like Spotify, Turntable, and so on, which provide MP3 streaming.

Johnson admits that they still need to “figure out the exact use-cases that people want to view music videos, versus only listen to music, and carve out a focused product competency (in terms of design and features) to cater for those use-cases.”

“This will carve out a market for us, thus on a majority basis, not compete against these music-only services.”

This means that the startup is still groping around in the online music space. It may be one or two pivots before AtticTV finds a niche for itself.

The good news is, Asia is tremendously under-served by online music startups, thanks to the need to negotiate licensing deals country by country. As such, music lovers in this region don’t have a lot of options when it comes to consuming music digitally, other than downloading them illegaly.

The bad news is, time is extremely short for AtticTV to grow its user base. Spotify is already making a move into Asia, and it’s only a matter of time before other startups fight for a piece of the valuable real estate.

AtticTV may be receiving help though. They are seeking seed funding of up to US$100K, and are in discussions with an investors on the terms.

In the near future, they plan to iterate their product and marketing strategy to grow their user base, bring AtticTV to more platforms, like mobile phones, tablets, and smart TVs, and partner with music services like Spotify as well as mobile carriers.

Their revenue model right now consists of a “support the artist” feature to drive users to purchase MP3s, DVDs, and other memorabilia like T-shirts and mugs. These are provided through the Amazon Affiliate Program, and they earn a cut of each purchase.

They also plan to provide access to concert information and allow users to purchase concert tickets off their site.

Lastly, they hope to work with telcos to sell caller ringBack tones through their platform.

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Entrepreneurial courses and programmes offered through the education system

This post is sponsored by University of London

Wealth and a high majority of jobs are created by small businesses started by entrepreneurially minded individuals, many of whom go on to create big businesses. It fosters economic growth, it increases productivity; it creates new technologies, products, and services; and it changes and rejuvenates market competition.

In Singapore, with human resources being the only resource it has, education plays a huge role in molding the countries’ next generation leaders, as well as entrepreneurs. Recognizing the importance of entrepreneurship towards the society, several entrepreneurial elements has been injected into the education system as early as secondary school all the way till the tertiary levels. In the secondary school level, two of the more popular programmes that promote entrepreneurships are http://yea.sg/ as well as The Little Entrepreneurs.

In the tertiary level, NUS, NTU and SMU, which are the government university, too have their own entrepreneurial centres. NUS has an Enterprise arm runs two body: the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre as well as the NUS Overseas College programme, where entrepreneurial students are sent overseas to startup hubs up to a year. SMU too has several initiatives such as the monthly entrepreneurial corner, while NTU runs the Ideas Inc competition.

Outside of Singapore, in University of London, there are also non technical courses provided which are available for budding entrepreneurs. For those who wants to interact and study at UOL, the University also provides you the option to be based here in Singapore. http://e27.sg/unruly_iframe.html

As you can see, one does not have to take technical courses to be an entrepreneur. With all the abundant resources out there which are readily available through the Internet, students with entrepreneurial mindset can easily pick up any skills they want to pick up, or take entrepreneurial courses through the education system.

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Entrepreneurial courses and programmes offered through the education system

This post is sponsored by University of London

Wealth and a high majority of jobs are created by small businesses started by entrepreneurially minded individuals, many of whom go on to create big businesses. It fosters economic growth, it increases productivity; it creates new technologies, products, and services; and it changes and rejuvenates market competition.

In Singapore, with human resources being the only resource it has, education plays a huge role in molding the countries’ next generation leaders, as well as entrepreneurs. Recognizing the importance of entrepreneurship towards the society, several entrepreneurial elements has been injected into the education system as early as secondary school all the way till the tertiary levels. In the secondary school level, two of the more popular programmes that promote entrepreneurships are http://yea.sg/ as well as The Little Entrepreneurs.

In the tertiary level, NUS, NTU and SMU, which are the government university, too have their own entrepreneurial centres. NUS has an Enterprise arm runs two body: the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre as well as the NUS Overseas College programme, where entrepreneurial students are sent overseas to startup hubs up to a year. SMU too has several initiatives such as the monthly entrepreneurial corner, while NTU runs the Ideas Inc competition.

Outside of Singapore, in University of London, there are also non technical courses provided which are available for budding entrepreneurs. For those who wants to interact and study at UOL, the University also provides you the option to be based here in Singapore. http://e27.sg/unruly_iframe.html

As you can see, one does not have to take technical courses to be an entrepreneur. With all the abundant resources out there which are readily available through the Internet, students with entrepreneurial mindset can easily pick up any skills they want to pick up, or take entrepreneurial courses through the education system.

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Meizu MX Quad-core to Launch in June, Powered by Samsung’s Exynos CPU

Chinese phone maker Meizu has just announced that its new Meizu MX Quad-core will launch in June, thereby becoming the first smartphone to rock Samsung’s (005930:KS) own Exynos A9 quad-core processor. It’ll also mark the first appearance of Android 4.0 on Meizu’s phones, overlaid with its own Flyme OS and app store.

Samsung’s Exynos A9 CPU is small – 32nm – and so will use up less power when you’re on the move. Meizu reckons it can save “up to 20 percent” of your juice. To make that go even further, the upcoming MX Quad-core will have a fairly sizable 1700mAh battery. Samsung has said it’ll generally run at 1.5GHz, but Meizu didn’t specify in its announcement today.

Other MX Quad-core standout specs include a high-res 4-inch screen – at 292 PPI – that’s close to the pixel intensity of the iPhone 4S or its Android brethren, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Plus, there’s an eight-megapixel BSI camera upfront. Upon its summer launch date, folks can choose from 32- or 64GB models which will be priced at 2,999 RMB and 3,999 RMB (US$475 and $633) respectively in an unlocked state. Separate Hong Kong prices have been set at HK$3,099 and HK$4,099.

The phone will hit Meizu resellers and its official stores in June. To prep for the launch, Meizu is today making its current MX model a bit cheaper.

Meizu will also get the satisfaction of stealing thunder from Xiaomi, the other Chinese upstart manufacturer that’s trying to make powerful yet affordable Android smartphones. Not to mention beating Samsung to market using the Korean giant’s own processor.

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CHINICT Conference Bringing the World’s Tech Rising Stars and Leaders, 24-25 May [Discount Code Available]

Carrying on the vision of showing the world, ‘China is becoming bigger than Silicon Valley, both as a hotbed for innovations of global impact & as a magnet for entrepreneurs’, the 8^thAnnual CHINICT conference will be held in Beijing over May 24^th and 25^th 2012.  We are indeed gearing up for this year’s tech conference season!

To inspire people in China to make their dreams happen and highlight the power of China’s tech scene to the world, CHINICT is once again bringing an impressive array of entrepreneurs with global companies.  Here are some you can expect to see:

From China

• Robin Li, CEO of Baidu
• Richard Peng, VP M&A of Tencent
• Herman Yu, CFO Sina
• Cheng Binghao, CEO of Kaixin001
• James Hsu, Co-Founder of Mochi Media

From America

• Eduardo Saverin, Co-Founder of Facebook
• Dave McClure, Founder of 500Startups
• Naval Ravikant, CEO of AngelList
• Net Jacobsson, CEO of Ginger
• Tim Draper, Co-Founder of DFJ

To cater to entrepreneurs at different stages of their life cycle, there are three sections: Rising Stars, Protégés and  Hackathon.

Rising Stars is a competition to award the best up and coming tech companies with an established brand name and market presence across various categories such as mobile OS, Anti-virus, social networking, online video and gaming. Some of the past winners include Qihoo, Kaixin001, iQiyi, LinkedIn, Tianji, Youku and Playfish.

The Protégés program is strictly targeted at recently founded early stage companies with limited angel money, as well as an existing team, product and buzz – whose goal is to raise a series A round of funding during CHINICT or shortly after. Around 15 startups will be selected to pitch a high level panel of judges including:

• Facebook’s co-founder Eduardo Saverin.
• 500Startups’ founder Dave McClure.
• Qunar’s founder Fritz Demopoulos.
• Israeli’s legendary investor Yossi Vardi.
• DFJ’s co-founder Tim Draper.
• AngelList’s founder Naval Ravikant.

To impress the judges, each startup will have 5 minutes pitching time followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. The pitch must address the company and its product or service, target market and unique selling proposition, team, how much has already been invested and how much series A investment needed. Founder Franck Nazikan has an amibitous goal of getting at least 80% of the start-ups funded as a result of the Protégés program

Similar to last year’s TechCrunch Beijing Hackathon, CHINICT will allow programmers and entrepreneurs to hack a product over May 23-25th. A selection of impressive products and teams will win the chance to pitch at the Protégés program for Angel funding.

If CHINICT, sounds like a cool conference to attend, here are the details:

When: May 24-5th (Thursday and Friday)

Where: Beijing, Tsinghua Science Park

Cost: €1,995 or save €195 and pay €1,800  with our special discount code (CHINICTTechNode2012)

Buy here: Book tickets here 

 

 

Related posts:

1. Event: International Internet Summit 2008, Nanjing, China
2. Event: Google Technology User Group (GTUG) Shanghai Event on 29th Nov
3. G-Startup Competition Prizes Announced, So Apply Now!

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China’s High Speed Rail Adding Face Recognition in Stations

If China’s high-speed rail wasn’t high-tech enough for you, you’re in luck, because it’s about to get high-tech-er. This morning, the People’s Daily reports that the Beijing-Shanghai high speed rail line is planning to have facial recongnition software installed in the surveillance systems at three of its stations, specifically Shanghai Hongqiao, Tianjin West, and Jinan West. From the People’s Daily:

“The quick identification system will enable the police to recognize faces via surveillance cameras and comb criminal databases on computers for the final match,” authorities said.

Researchers added the technology works when people are moving and is helpful even if suspects have had cosmetic surgery.

Police said the real-name ticket purchasing system also helps them catch criminals. During the Spring Festival travel rush this year, railway police seized 375 fugitives along the rail network.

It’s hard to imagine this will be particularly effective in catching fugitives, who probably know it’s much more easier for them to stay undercover if they just take the bus, or one of the cheaper trains. But if the technology is successful, it might well be rolled out on a wider scale, effectively allowing police to cast a wider net.

As to who, exactly, they’re looking to catch in that net, there are some concerns. Citizens traveling to Beijing to petition the government for redress of grievances — as is their legal right — are often intercepted by local police exploiting the railway system to capture and detain petitioners before they can reach Beijing. In the wrong hands, facial recognition software could make this illegal-but-not-uncommon practice even easier.

For now, though, the face recognition tech will only exist on the Beijing-Shanghai high speed line, and the bidding process for this project hasn’t even started yet, so implementation is probably quite a long way out.

[People's Daily, h/t to @seeingredchina]

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News Roundup: Google and RCom Partner for free data for Android devices, Aakash tablet controversy

Google and RCom have partnered to provide 1GB of free data usage to RCom customers who buy Google authorized 3G Android O/s Handset. The offer is applicable for both GSM and CDMA devices and the offer of 1GB of 3G data free (with 30 days validity) is open from 15th of April 2012 to 15th of June 2012 [FAQ/details].

New twist in Aakash tablet controversy

The fight between the two former partners (Canada’s DataWind Ltd, and its erstwhile assembly partner, Hyderabad’s Quad Electronics Solutions Pvt. Ltd), who have terminated their relationship and claim to have served legal notices to each other, is the latest chapter in the troubled saga of the government’s ambitious effort to bridge the digital divide with a low-cost product.

While Quad claims DataWind hasn’t paid it, the Canadian company alleges that its former partner infringed its intellectual property rights and tried to sell directly to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rajasthan, the government-run technology school vested with the responsibility of procuring the tablets. [source]

Airtel 4G: Bharti Airtel in talks to buy 4G licences from Qualcomm for about Rs 6000 crore

Bharti Airtel is in advanced discussions with US chipmaker Qualcomm to buy its fourth-generation licences for about Rs 6,000 crore, an acquisition that will allow the country’s largest telecom firm to quickly launch 4G services in the key markets of Delhi and Mumbai. Qualcomm, which had won airwaves in four regions – Mumbai, Delhi, Haryana and Kerala – in the broadband wireless auction of 2010 for Rs 4,900 crore, had begun talks to sell its 74% stake in its Indian joint venture to Bharti later that year. [source]

Cash-strapped BSNL likely to lose ‘mini navratna’ status

This comes as the PSU has recorded a whopping loss of 6,384 crore for the year-ended March 2011, capping a series of dismal results in the last four years that saw the erstwhile monopoly being reduced to a bit player in the fast growing market. A mini-navratna company can place orders for projects and enter into joint ventures on its own without having to seek prior government approvals. [source]

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Green Tech Startups in Indonesia in Focus as IVAP Picks 2 Winners

Back in February we encouraged startups to apply to win a place on the Impact Ventures Accelerator Program (IVAP) which had just launched across Southeast Asia. And now we have word of the two winners of the Indonesian leg of the contest, which was run in association with the Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI).

The two winning startups are ones that, in line with the aims of the LGT Venture Philanthropy-run IVAP, “strive to have a direct social or environmental impact.” One was Bali Recycling (pictured above on stage), which is a waste management system; the other eye-catching enterprise was ALUMIBP Sukses Mandiri which runs mentorship programs for rice farmers. Both those teams win places on the IVAP 8- to 24-month program for early stage entrepreneurs, with the possibility of up to US$50,000 in backing from Lichtenstein-based LGT Venture Philanthropy.

Shinta Kamdani, vice chairwomen of GEPI, praised the strength of the entries, saying, “we admire knowing that all the businesses are run by entrepreneurs with their inspiring social vision.” LGT’s SEA investment manager, Joan Yao, hailed the quality of all the submissions in the past few months:

We found interesting businesses by entrepreneurs who applied, which the businesses have direct social and environmental impact that can be scaled up for long run. It has been a great pleasure to see entrepreneurs from agriculture, education, waste management, and foods sectors showcasing their real impacts to their surrounding communities.

Bali Recycling collects and processes hazardous materials for both businesses and households. The organizers pointed out that “helping solve the waste problem is the first step in creating an ‘environmental awakening’ in many countries,” with the hope being that the team can do exactly that on the Balinese island.

ALUMIBP Sukses Mandiri aims to educate and support rice farmers in Indonesia, with its mentorships designed to enlighten on the subject of seeds, organic fertilizer, and such-like; whilst also hopefully increasing the numbers entering into rice farming.

Four other IVAP runners-up were 8 Villages, a business social network for farmers; Kedai Balitaku, a project to sell nutritious budget food in areas plagued by malnutrition; Sulis, a technology to pasteurize milk without using heat sources; and Provisi Education, which runs support groups in public schools.

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Apple introduces more than just the A5X this year, but nobody notices.

Photo:Engadget

The folks over at Chipworks have noticed that the good old iPad 2 got an upgrade as well.

So, apparently our friends at Apple have given the “new iPad 2″ an upgrade. Chipworks discovered that the fruity device maker is shipping its “new iPad 2″ with a revised A5 SoC (called the S5L8942 for those who speak chip instead of human).

It is built on a 32nm Samsung  HKMG (High Metal K-Gate) process, and this has been verified by several review sites. The new A5 is as near as makes no difference 41% smaller than its predecessor. Chipworks speculate that because the new A5 is complex for such a low volume part, it may be a low risk attempt to test the new 32nm process, while figuring out design issues. In chip manufacturing, it is sensible to change the design, or the process, but not both at the same time as it adds an exponential level of uncertainty/difficulty. Could Apple be trying out the 32nm process on a low volume A5 part in order to test the manufacturing for a die shrink of its A5X? I feel this is plausible as the die size of the current A5X is even larger than some low voltage Intel Notebook processors. At this point, there are two interesting issues to think about:

1) Will there be a 32nm die shrink version of the ‘new iPad’ in a few months time? Typically a die shrink leads to better power consumption and less heat. This solves two of the biggest issues that have been widely reported about the ‘new iPad”.

2) Will the ‘new iPad 2′ have better battery life than the ‘old’ iPad 2?

I’m trying to get my hands on a new iPad 2 in order to run some tests vs my old iPad 2. Until I do, I hope that some owners would post their findings in the comments for the benefit of their fellow users ;)

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Apple introduces more than just the A5X this year, but nobody notices.

Photo:Engadget

The folks over at Chipworks have noticed that the good old iPad 2 got an upgrade as well.

So, apparently our friends at Apple have given the “new iPad 2″ an upgrade. Chipworks discovered that the fruity device maker is shipping its “new iPad 2″ with a revised A5 SoC (called the S5L8942 for those who speak chip instead of human).

It is built on a 32nm Samsung  HKMG (High Metal K-Gate) process, and this has been verified by several review sites. The new A5 is as near as makes no difference 41% smaller than its predecessor. Chipworks speculate that because the new A5 is complex for such a low volume part, it may be a low risk attempt to test the new 32nm process, while figuring out design issues. In chip manufacturing, it is sensible to change the design, or the process, but not both at the same time as it adds an exponential level of uncertainty/difficulty. Could Apple be trying out the 32nm process on a low volume A5 part in order to test the manufacturing for a die shrink of its A5X? I feel this is plausible as the die size of the current A5X is even larger than some low voltage Intel Notebook processors. At this point, there are two interesting issues to think about:

1) Will there be a 32nm die shrink version of the ‘new iPad’ in a few months time? Typically a die shrink leads to better power consumption and less heat. This solves two of the biggest issues that have been widely reported about the ‘new iPad”.

2) Will the ‘new iPad 2′ have better battery life than the ‘old’ iPad 2?

I’m trying to get my hands on a new iPad 2 in order to run some tests vs my old iPad 2. Until I do, I hope that some owners would post their findings in the comments for the benefit of their fellow users ;)

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Japan’s Social Gaming Market [Infographic]

It has been interesting for us to follow the growth of Japan’s social gaming market, particularly the bigger players like GREE and DeNA as they try to translate their domestic successes abroad. One of the most insightful voices about this space is Serkan Toto, who we tend to reference more than a few times here on Tech In Asia.

Serkan just sent us a long a wonderful graphical overview of Japan’s social gaming space, created by Tokyo-based designer Francesco Romano. Appropriately, it’s designed with a fun game motif, which I thought was rather clever. In terms of financials, some of the numbers here are pretty astronomical. Serkan points out that this is ‘almost entirely’ from Japanese users.

If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the social gaming in Japan, do follow Serkan on his blog where he often writes about the latest development in that space. He recently posted a short discussion on the possibility of regulation coming to the industry.

You can check out the full infographic below, and if you’d like to post it on your own blog, the embed code is here.

Embed code:

via: Infogra.me

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