It requires great strength of character and courage to stand alone and go against the tide of criticism. The story of Susan Boyle is an inspiration and a reminder that when we encounter malicious people who want to take us down how important it is to continue to be who we are. There is always hope that someone will come along who will understand us. The celebration and deep appreciation of human differences is the fire that fuels lasting love. These are the great moments in life that can bring a crowd to their feet, a grown man to tears, and inspire leaders to build great companies.

Want to be the next music star? Why not host your own internet radio station at http://blip.fm ? Like a kind of Twitter for music Blip.fm is a micro-messaging service that allows users the opportunity to post short “blips” (mp3 + 150 characters comment about the music), to a community of ‘wanna be’ Disc Jockeys. In addition to connecting to other DJs to share songs users can rate their favorite DJ and post their songs on their Twitter accounts.

Music discovery has always been a social sharing process so it is not unusual to find a proliferation of technology driven music applications and services vying for our attention in this arena. A quick search prepares a daunting list of applications, music sharing sites, mashups, and bookmarking sites, some who have open deals with record companies, some running under the radar, and some that are taking the You Tube approach by putting the responsibility on users not to upload pirated material. Here are just a few music services I thought were interesting:

- Muxtape – oops they were shut down last September by the Record Industry and are now trying to rebuild

- We are hunted.com – tracks the top 99 songs of the day around the world through social networks, forums, blogs and twitter and turns data into a chart

- Midomi – hum a tune into your phone and the service finds and plays the song for you. (Make sure you are in a private place when humming to avoid embarrassment)

- Last.fm – you listen to the music, then Last connects you to people who have similar tastes. Sort of a music gone dating service

- Pandora – type a song and Pandora creates you a customized radio station through a complex algorithmic analysis of your preference. Very cool but not available to Canadians due to licensing restrictions.

- LaLa – select a song from a library of millions, then get recommendations from friends and reviewers

With so many free services out there is anyone making any money?

Slacker Radio, at http://slacker.com a US only interactive radio service, appears to have a subscription and ad supported revenue model that is working. Founded in 2007 Slacker offers “Your Radio Everywhere”. Users have access to 100 programmed stations, 10,000 artists’ stations, and an unlimited amount of personally created stations. Slacker acquired the rights from content owners, including Sony MBG Music, Universal Music Group, and hundreds of independent labels, Slacker Radio is available via PC and on protable devices like the Blackberry and Iphone.

CEO and founder of Blip.fm, Jeff Yasuda when asked at the recent Ad Tech Conference in San Franciso about how his new company planned to make money indicated that while their arrangements were confidential he did indicate that monetization around music and their users can be well received if executed appropriately. For example he indicated that Ticketmaster interested in advertising an upcoming Metallica Concert to band fans on Blip.fm would be accepted by his users especially if targeted geographically. This certainly supports the notion of permission-based, customized and personalized advertising.

The other day my daughter asked if I could rewind a song playing on the radio so she could hear it again. I told her I could not because it was the radio. She found that puzzling. There is no question that technology has changed the way we enjoy and share music and that consumer demand is fueling the speed of innovative alternatives to the old radio station model. The key to survial for these old modeled companies is to embrace change and learn how to partner with innovative startups.

Elizabeth Gage, president and CEO of PCM Interactive will address the Canadian Chapter of 85 Broads in Toronto, on April 29, 2009 on the subject of Entrepreneurial Leadership – or how to embrace change and risk and succeed in business and in life.

The business world is moving fast, changing dramatically and becoming more complex. For leaders and businesses that can react quickly, make changes easily and take calculated risks it’s a world filled with opportunity. And now more than ever it’s a necessary marketing and life strategy. Elizabeth Gage tells how she makes this work and why you should sometimes be comfortable jumping off a cliff.

About Elizabeth Gage:

Elizabeth Gage is president of PCM Interactive, a leader in performance-based Internet marketing for business, specializing in advanced search optimization. PCMI delivers next-generation search, mobile and online marketing strategies and functionality designed to maximize business presence, impact and return on investment. The company is a spin-off of a national Yellow Pages and Internet marketing firm first founded by her in 1995. She is the recipient of the “Building Business Award” and the winner of the 2008 Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award given by the Woman Business Owners of Manitoba.

Elizabeth had a brief career as an actor at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, North America’s Leading Classical Theatre, before beginning her marketing and advertising career in 1986 with Moffat Communications and then the Winnipeg Free Press before launching her own company.

She has a B.A. English Honours Degree from Queens University and studied entrepreneurship at the MIT-Sloan School of Management.

About 85 Broads:

85 Broads is a global community of 19,000 accomplished women at all stages of their lives and careers who leverage one another’s intellectual and financial capital to effect change worldwide. The women in 85 Broads know how to “tack into the wind” – they know that creating a successful and happy life requires an awesome combination of intellectual and emotional firepower coupled with the guts, the talent, and the ambition to think big. The women in 85 Broads are inspired, empowered, and connected globally.

In 1997, Janet Hanson was inspired to create 85 Broads, a network connecting women who had retired from Goldman Sachs with women who were building their careers at 85 Broad Street, the firm’s Manhattan headquarters. What all these women had in common was a “love of the game” – whether as investment bankers, traders, research analysts, or portfolio managers. Over time, their passion for their clients, their teammates, and the firm itself morphed into something even greater – an uncompromising standard of excellence in everything they chose to do in their personal and professional lives.

Not long after the network was founded, 85 Broads expanded its membership to include women who shared that passion for excellence – regardless of chosen professional career path. For that reason, women who were students and alumnae of the leading graduate and undergraduate institutions were invited to join 85 Broads to collaborate and partner with the network’s founding members. http://www.85broads.com

About Toronto Dinner Event on April 29:

For more information on the April 29, Toronto Dinner Event, please contact Noelle Ibrahim at: 1(905)708-1058 or email: 85.Broads.Toronto@gmail.com

As more TV viewers are waving good bye to their cable companies and turning to the internet for their entertainment, it is not surprising that You Tube is bending over backwards to welcome Hollywood to its popular URL at: www.youtube.com

This past week Google announced that it had reached agreements with several notable media companies to offer its more than 100 million monthly visitors access to full length TV shows and featured films. This is only the “first step” to what appears a strategy to attain access to the largest high definitions video library on the planet.

Social Media sites represent 10 of the top 20 destinations on the web. They are where 82% of internet users watch video clips, 72% read blogs, 63% visit photo sharing sites, and 57% have social network profiles. People go to these sites to consume media, learn about products, and share their opinions. Yet regardless that two-thirds of all video views in the U.S. occur on You Tube, like the other social media sites including; FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter, it struggles to generate revenue from its popularity. You Tube is expected to lose 470 million this year according to analyst Spenser Wang at Credit Suisse who views increasing the monetization of streams as the key for You Tube.

So, business deals with Disney and Sony are important to You Tube because they open the door to revenue models to place ads and share in profits with partners. This is important when you consider the fact that the social media world is fickle and Hulu has a competitive edge in terms of full-length video content on the internet. Owned by NBC Universal and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, Hulu is ad supported and offers far more first run TV shows, such as “30 Rock”, “24”, and “The Simpsons” than You Tube has had access to.

Currently none of the companies involved in the deals with You Tube are disclosing much. Sony purchased Crackle in 2006 and makes available some 60 movie titles already. This site was originally a video sharing site like You Tube but Sony changed their business model to full-length videos when they realized that You Tube dominated that market. The advantage of a deal with You Tube is access to a larger market. While revenues on the internet do not match those from the cable companies Sony realizes that making its inventory available on the web is an important channel and growing opportunity. It will be up to You Tube to show the studios how they can make web revenue so that down the road You Tube may have a shot at providing more of that extensive, valuable Hollywood content.

You Tube could well become the cable channel of the future. Imagine your son uploading his latest skateboarding video to You Tube for his Facebook friends to view and being sent a trailer of Skateboarder Seth Green from “Airborne” with the option of paying and scheduling an online movie night? Old Dutch, Coke, gee…there could be lots of sponsors for You Tube virtual movie nights and perhaps even an opportunity to throw Twinkies during the show.