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It appears that Hollywood is no longer waiting for films to leave the theaters before issuing release dates for DVDs and Blu-rays.
A few days back I had discovered that Men In Black III was available for pre-order from amazon.com Spring blockbusters have usually been slated for release during the Christmas season. But it appears they will be released in late summer/early fall. I guess the earlier release dates can be attributed to the digital film conversion in theaters. It’s much easier to produce blu-rays and DVDs from films that are already in a digital format. The previous 35 mm motion pictures required extensive conversion before they could be made available for distribution on blu-ray and DVD. Perhaps digital films will be made available for rental or purchase online within weeks of their theatrical release in the near future. Some independent films were already made available during their theatrical run, some on the very day they were released in theaters. |
The Avengers & Hunger Games – Pre-order ?
are available for pre-order as well.Cisco Predicts Online Video Explosion
Cisco has released their Visual Networking Index Mobile Forecast for 2011-2016 and it predicts that mobile data traffic will explode because of online video.
The report predicts that in Canada “mobile data traffic will reach 219,897 Terabytes (0.22 Exabytes) per month in 2016” because more Canadians are using their mobile devices to watch movies, television programs, music videos and other content from sites like Youtube.
In 2011, Canada’s mobile data traffic was clocked by Cisco at 10,773 Terabytes (11 Petabytes) per month, “the equivalent of 3 million DVDs each month or 30 million text messages each second.” And their 2016 prediction would equal “55 million DVDs each month or 606 million text messages each second”.
Cisco reported that in 2011 only 57% of that year’s mobile data traffic was video. But predicts that 75% of this traffic will be video by 2016, at 162,179 Terabytes per month.
Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia Released
 
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The Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia was released in paperback and on Kindle .
Authored by Jaimie Vernon this two volume set continues where Rick Jackson’s “Encyclopedia of Canadian Rock, Pop & Folk Music” left off in 1994 and includes information on Canada’s pop scene from 1949 up to 2011. Each 400 page, alphabetically indexed volume features biographies and discographies for Canada’s most popular recording artists, as well as photographs of these artists. So it is definitely a must for the Canadian music fan. By the way, the Kindle version can also be viewed online via your browser using Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader |
No New Postal Import Duty Allowance ?
The duty free allowances for cross-border shoppers will rise on June 1st, 2012. But the duty and tax exemptions for postal importations remain intact.
The 24 hour duty allowance will rise from $50 to $200 whilst the 48 hour duty allowance will rise from $400 to $800.
On postal importations, the duty and tax exemptions remain at $20, $60 on gifts.
Men In Black III Pre-Order ?!
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Men In Black III was just released in theaters and it is already available to pre-order from amazon.com.
Also included with the pre-order is an offer for a free movie ticket to see it in theaters. I took advantage of an offer I had previously mentioned on this blog. |
A Vinyl Comeback ?
It appears that more and more consumers are choosing vinyl over compact disc when if comes to purchasing physical copies of their music.
According to Soundscan, Americans had purchased just over 330 million vinyl albums last year and over 76 thousand new record albums were released in the United States that year.
Apparently many audiophiles are purchasing mp3s for their portable players and purchasing vinyl for their home stereos instead of compact discs because they believe vinyl has a richer sound. And although many bloggers have claimed that this opinion was subjective, the sales of vinyl records continue to rise.
Regardless of the technological debate, consumers have not dropped vinyl as a physical format like the magnetic tape formats (8 track/cassette tape). And compact disc sales are dropping so dramatically in the United States that many major retailers have either reduced or eliminated the retail space they had dedicated to the format.
On the other hand, many online retailers have created vinyl stores to fulfill the demand, including Amazon.ca
in Canada, and Amazon.com
, CD Universe
, DeepDiscounts.com & JR.com
in the United States.
Yes, compact disc sales were still substantial at $225.5 Million dollars in the United States in 2011. But sales have slipped by 5.7% from 2010 whilst sales of LPs, digital singles and digital albums have grown.
LPs will not likely not surpass compact discs in sales anytime soon. But it obviously remains a niche product that is fashionable in certain circles, who also prefer the artwork found on LPs and 45s.
Compact disc inserts may be adequate to some but I personally prefer framing a LP for display if I am unable to find a poster of an album cover’s artwork. And I doubt that I am alone in finding the LP album cover more aesthetically appealing.
Many home audio systems and compact stereo units still include turntables but record players are available as separate components in Canada from Amazon.ca, and Sony.ca
.