HP Connected Music IndiBlogger Meet

I spent the day at the hp Connected Music IndiBlogger Meet held at Otto Infinito in the BKC. As this was my first blogger meet,I was just looking to see what was what.

I expected to meet other bloggers.And in a way I did.Unfortunately I found the time allotted to interact with each other severely limited.Shaking hands,mumbling greetings and introductions and scribbling on each others’ cards in a few seconds is  hardly conducive to getting to know anybody.And it had the feel of one of those networking parties where everyone glues on a fake smile and shakes hands and tries to look interested while their eyes are darting over to the next quarry.Without the cement of genuine feelings networking doesn’t count for anything.Out of the 160 participants.I doubt if I can recall the names,faces and blog details of more than a dozen people and I think that’s a pity.On the bright side,I met a school mate after 19 years.I guess that counts for a lot.In the midst of a group of people both younger and older than me,it helped me get a sense of travelling in a cohort.I value my connections from school a lot more now,than I did at 15,when crossing the next frontier was more important than enjoying what I had at hand.

I also observed how hp and Otto Infinito launched/promoted their products/brands.

Connected Music comes from a deal between hp,Universal and hungama .I have no details of the deal.The idea is that hp computers offer copyrighted music and chances to meet the stars to customers who buy laptops with Windows 8.No idea who pays who in this deal.

Also customers get the service free only for the first year.And the promoters have no answer for how much they will charge from the second year onwards. They plan on taking a call,depending on the number of sign ups.The service is supposedly free to the customers for one year,but who’s to check that the costs are not bundled into the price of the product?And who knows how many of us will pay to subscribe the following year?

In my opinion there are too many competing sources of music.And legal sources too.Pirating is not the only alternative as these guys would have us believe.Signing in is not such a big chore as they make it out to be, especially with passwords saved in browsers.Is signing in so much of a problem to get something free?Buffering too might hinder the enjoyment of music,but IMHO the solution is using a faster connection for streaming content.

Then there was the virtuous piece of how we wouldn’t want our children to be exposed to porn while searching for music.In my opinion,porn exists because there are consumers for it.All normal human beings have sexual needs and porn is one way it is expressed.So long as there is no exploitation or children involved and all parties freely consent, I don’t see a problem with it.Each to his/her own tastes.Children grow and mature and discovering their sexuality is a part of the process.Unless a child has reached a certain maturity,he/she is unlikely to perceive sexual content. And if they see something disturbing or seem to be getting in over their heads,it’s for the adults around to provide the reassurance and guidance needed.The very idea of keeping children in the dark/ignorant irritates me.Awareness is likely to keep them safer.The promoters had already spoken about assuaging our guilt about pirating music,Then came this bit about tuning out porn for the sake of the kiddies and I just started tuning out what was being said.

As for the viruses downloaded with the supposedly pirated music,why don’t we just depend on our anti-viruses?

After the demo of Connected Music,I’d say this:If you are anyways buying a hp Windows 8 laptop,use the feature free for a year.If not don’t bother to upgrade or go out and buy a hp machine.We can’t blame the music companies for trying,but they don’t seem to have learnt the lessons from the failure of paid subscription based satellite radio.

Otto Infinito ,of course, was looking for favourable reviews.I went to this place for the first time and its a little out of the way.But if you are in the BKC, it might not be a bad place to go.Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to look at the menu and order a la carte ,so I have no way of judging the value for money.I didn’t care for the drinks as I found them too dilute, but that might be because we were freebooters.The gnocchi,especially the spinach flavored one,is something I can seeing myself coming for again.The best part of the experience was the person manning the grill outdoor.Now if ever I were to start a restaurant,he is the man I would want to pinch.And before you exit,be sure to note the yellow marble on the walls.The Colosseum is supposedly built of the same stuff.We were informed that it is pretty expensive.So I guess this capital cost is amortized and added to your bill.So be sure to enjoy the show of marble.

IndiBlogger as a sort of event manager seems an interesting concept.Does anybody know more about the business?I’d love to hear more about them from you.

Today was the first time I saw companies using bloggers to promote their wares. Arranging a venue,some free food and drinks,some contests and prizes and a few giveaways to launch a product and give it some publicity seems pretty cheap compared to buying airtime.Have you used this method to promote your business?How well did it work out?

Lastly,thanks to Vineet and the IndiBlogger team for all your work,organizing today’s meet.