My iMusic - iPod Experience. And further rambling on the music business & entertainment.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
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Door slammed on Cdn music industry's bid to obtain names of file sharers
Music industry takes on file sharers outside U.S.
Wed Mar 31, 8:03 AM ET Add Technology - MacCentral to My Yahoo!
By Joris Evers, IDG News Service MacCentral
Stepping up its campaign against online music sharing, the recording industry on Tuesday said 247 individuals in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada face legal action for allegedly making copyright-protected music available on file-swapping services.
Harvard business school study on affect of file sharing. It seems the Australian Piracy Prevention governmental body is upset about the fact the study fails to mention anything about the theft of property they feel is inherent in file sharing. . .
Captivating article in USA Today about kids listening to their parents' music collection - the Whole, Beatles, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith; all that stuff.
Kids are listening to their parents Their parents' music, that is Tue Mar 30, 7:29 AM ET Add Entertainment - USATODAY.com to My Yahoo!
Jamie Horton, 14, considers himself a fairly savvy music-loving teen. The Los Angeles ninth-grader trawls the Internet for rock discoveries and totes an iPod packed with 3,000 tunes.
Monday, March 29, 2004
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The Baltimore sun reports a shakeout with BestBuy and others deciding not to enter the download market "at this time" due to potentially massive competition.
NYTimes ran a nice piece about webradio, in particular AOl and Yahoo will allow their radio audience to be added together and sold as one to radio advertisers. Certainly makes for more potential choice.
Old school pirate ring busted in NYCity this week. Apparently, capable of making up to 5,000 cds per hour.
MSNBC reports that the concert business is the healthiest part of the music business currently with an average concert seat selling for ~$51.
Sunday, March 28, 2004
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CDs in soda lids. Yes, you read that right.
A Web Refugee Turns to Music and Says, 'The Sky's the Lid'
By BERNARD WEINRAUB
About 16 months ago, Mr. Arnold, a co-founder and former chief executive of the WebMD Corporation, was visiting Los Angeles when a colleague showed him a lid for a 34-ounce plastic soda cup. Tucked inside a transparent pocket were several coupons offered to customers at a convenience store. Mr. Arnold said he was dumbfounded.
* * *
But if you're huge you don't need no stinkin' record cos. really. Read about Prince here.
Interestingly enough, they point out what's absolutely true, Prince could sell 1/10th of his recordings on his site, and make the same as selling 10x those records on iTunes due to the income stream split. . . fascinating shaping up going on.
Saturday, March 27, 2004
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Here's a good blog about the network effect in the race for DRM cache.
Lengthy treatise on the issues around DRM (~50 pages).
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potential source for underground rock music from detroit.
One of the better "pro-RIAA" (OK, actually pro copyright) discussions I've seen in a long while.
Friday, March 26, 2004
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Interesting article about indie label owner (large one with white stripes) who says napster may have been the best thing ever -- and also says the future of art and music is with the indies, not the majors.
I concur.
Thursday, March 25, 2004
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Here's a story about sony gearing up for the online content war.
Apple selling out of its mini-ipods so they are delaying worldwide launch of the device.
Microsoft intends to open their own online music store in the fall.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
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Motorola makes phones as both video and audio downloads. . .
Here's the SonyConnect press release.
A decent review of personal stereos, i.e., mp3 players, ipods, mini-disk players, etc.
MSN Sets Plan for Online Music Store
Digital Music: Apple Shouldn't Sing Solo
As Rivals Multiply, Jobs & Co. Will Make More Money From Its Music Site And IPods If All The Industry's Rival Players Can Share Its Software Standards
Subscribe to BusinessWeek
With 50 million songs sold as of mid-March, 2004, Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) owns more than half of the music-download business. Apple (AAPL) execs note proudly that the iPod now rakes in more than 50% of the total revenues in the digital-music-player sector. Macheads offer these numbers as proof that the music battle is over -- and that Steve Jobs has won.
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interesting article with bowie being quoted as saying copyright will die in 10 years. . . can't seem to find the original article though. . .
The New York Times, September 14, 2003
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
September 14, 2003, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section 4; Page 1; Column 1; Week in Review Desk
LENGTH: 1199 words
HEADLINE: Ideas & Trends: The Sharing Society;
In the Age of the Internet, Whatever Will Be Will Be Free
BYLINE: By STEVE LOHR
BODY:
THE recording industry's long-running battle against online music piracy has come to resemble one of those whack-a-mole arcade games, where the player hammers one rubber rodent's head with a mallet only to see another pop up nearby. Conk one, and up pops another, and so on.
Three years ago, the music industry sued Napster, the first popular music file-sharing network on the Internet. That sent Napster reeling, but other networks for trading copyrighted music -- KaZaA, Grokster, Morpheus and others -- sprang up. Last week, in the latest swing of the hammer, the Recording Industry Association of America filed 261 lawsuits against individual file sharers, which will surely make some of their estimated 60 million compatriots think twice -- for now. Earth Station Five, a company based in the West Bank, surfaced recently with claims of being at war with the industry association. It promises the latest in anonymous Internet file sharing. Its motto: "Resistance is futile."
Since Gutenberg's printing press, new technologies for creating, copying and distributing information have eroded the power of the people, or industries, in control of various media. In the last century, the pattern held true, for example, when recorded music became popular in the early 1900's, radio in the 1920's and cable television in recent years.
But the heritage and design of the Internet present a particularly disruptive technology. Today's global network had its origins in the research culture of academia with its ethos of freely sharing information. And by design, the Internet turns every user in every living room into a mass distributor of just about anything that can be digitized, including film, photography, the written word and, of course, music. Already, Hollywood is trying to curb the next frontier, film swapping. The inevitable advance of technology will make reading on digital tablets more convenient than reading on paper, so the publishers of books, magazines and newspapers have their worries as well. "Nobody is immune," observed Michael J. Wolf, managing partner in charge of the media practice at McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm.
"The cultural and technical principle embedded in today's Internet is that it is neutral in the sense that the people who use it have the power to determine its use, not corporations or the network operators," said Jonathan Zittrain, a co-director of the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School. "The plan for the Internet was to have no plan."
The Net's free-range design, combined with the global proliferation of personal computing and low-cost communications networks, laid the foundation for the surge of innovation and new uses that became so evident by the late 1990's. The World Wide Web is the overarching example, but others include instant messaging, online gaming and peer-to-peer file sharing. And while companies are free to build proprietary products and services in cyberspace, the basic software and communications technology of the Internet lies in the public domain -- open for all to use.
It was inevitable, then, that the Internet would eventually force a radical rethinking of intellectual property rights, and the music industry's current travails represent a particularly dramatic example of the mutating rules -- though not the only one. Consider, for example, the rise of so-called open-source software. The poster child of open-source projects is GNU Linux, an operating system whose computer code is distributed freely over the Internet and is maintained and debugged by a loose-knit global community of programmers. Linux has become a genuine challenge to Microsoft because programmers around the world can see and modify the underlying source code -- instead of jealously guarding it as a trade secret.
That concept of open-source is inseparable from the Internet, because it provides the vehicle for free exchange and widespread distribution -- the same idea that is at the heart of file sharing and one that is spreading well beyond the techies. A group, led by Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School, has established a "creative commons" project for collecting and putting creative works including music, film, photography and literature in the public domain, inspired by the open-source software model.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is posting the content of 500 of its courses online this fall, a project called OpenCourseWare. In Britain, a small group of artists and editors has set up a Web site for Jenny Everywhere, an increasingly popular open-source cartoon. Its only requirement is that any "Jenny" cartoon include its license, which states "others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed."
What all this means for the future of intellectual property, and some businesses, is as unpredictable as the open-source revolution itself. In the music business, it seems remarkable that only a few believe the technology cannot be held in check.
One of those few is David Bowie. "I'm fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing," Mr. Bowie said in an interview last year. The future of the music industry, he suggests, is that songs are essentially advertisements and artists will have to make a living by performing on tour.
Others fear that, as the futility of technological fixes becomes clearer, the response may be onerous legal restrictions on the Internet and how people use it. "You don't want to break the kneecaps of the Internet to protect one relatively small industry, the recording business," Mr. Lessig, the Stanford professor, said.
William Fisher, a Harvard law professor, offers a solution for the recording industry's Internet challenge, and one that borrows from the past. When radio became popular in the 1920's and 1930's and began broadcasting copyrighted songs, the record companies, singers and bands protested. The answer was to have the radio stations pay the copyright holders and set up a measuring system so the largest payments went for the most popular songs.
In a book to be published next year, Mr. Fisher recommends placing a 15 percent tax on Internet access and a 15 percent tax on devices used for storing and copying music and movies like CD-burners, MP3 players and blank CD's.
The funds raised, he estimates, would be about $2.5 billion in 2004, roughly the projected amount the recording industry and Hollywood would lose to online piracy. The music business and Hollywood would get refunds based on what works were the most popular downloads.
"It's not perfect," Mr. Fisher admitted.
Still, it does represent what is not much in evidence today -- some sort of middle ground that would compensate rights holders but also move with the march of technology and consumer behavior instead of merely trying to fight it.
"With music file sharing, you have a cultural norm that is being established by what is technologically possible," said Daniel Weitzner, a director at the World Wide Web Consortium. "That is very hard to resist."
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
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ACTS TRAVEL ROAD TO RECOVERY
Sun Mar 21, 7:00 PM ET
PHIL GALLO
(Variety) With record sales dipping every year and film box office flat in 2003, one area of entertainment is showing a boffo rise: North American concert revenue shot up 20% to $2.5 billion.
Record Industry Sues 532 More U.S. File-Sharers
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. music industry on Tuesday forged ahead with its legal effort to stamp out online piracy by suing over 500 people for online copyright infringement, including 89 individuals using college networks.
Music industry Web site downed by virus
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - The Web site for the recording industry's anti-piracy lobby has been inaccessible for several days, possibly the victim of a computer virus specifically targeting the site.
Piracy-fighting startup's technology is making its mark in music industry
Bowie may be the most astute musician ever. He sold his career via bonds based upon future revenue for recording royalties. But what happens if the revenue royalty streams dry up?
David Bowie's bonds hit low note
Bowie first issued the bonds in 1997
Bonds issued by rock star David Bowie, which earned him millions of dollars linked to future royalties, have been downgraded by US finance experts.
Music industry surfs the tide of change
MATT JOYCE
Associated Press
AUSTIN - Music industry insiders don't hesitate to throw around weighty phrases like "paradigm shift" and "irrevocable change" when they discuss the current state of affairs in the American music business.
Editor Comment: Seems to me right now (or in very near future) we could certainly see jukebox like devices that will burn a CD for you and spit it out like a cup of coffee. Why couldn't this sort of device be brought into the 7-11s of the world? Surely in a few years, these devices (essentially a computer station) will have access to the vast majority of the world's catalogue as well. . .
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good article (sort of article - more like newsgroup post) on darknets.
article on a darknet manager in Boston.
Monday, March 22, 2004
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Another great post on the state of the music industry and whether it's too late. . .
HEre's a nice story from reasononline.com which talks about how we continue to have more and more access to more and more songs.
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INTERESTNG VIEW ON BRITNEY AND MADONNA
Essentially, Britney's royalties pay Madonna's bills. He's right, btw.
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Another great article on how technology could be used to gain more profit for the music industry. Specifically, an idea I already proposed (and love the thought of), is a hard drive which would contain ALL music ever offered for sale. . . then charge for the tools to access it; or a subscription fee.
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Another fantastic post by Clay Shirkin about how music has lost control of 2/3rds of the pie, but the "filter" remains its sole function. And I'd argue the transformation currently taking place is simply the loss of the second, distribution, monopoly. And then there was one: A&R/Promotion.
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An interesting article about independent music business going through the roof in the Christian Science Monitor.
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Here's an excellent post on the economics of the music industry.
The New Economics of Music:
File-Sharing and Double Moral Hazard
Part 1: Why the Music Industry is (Really) Broken
‘The whole point of digital music is the risk-free grazing’ – Cory Doctorow
Every major label 's setting up an iTunes these days. They're all, in the immortal words of Johnny Cash, 'born to lose, and destined to fail'. Why? The music industry doesn't understand the microeconomics of it's own business. If it did, it would see that it's business model is not just misguided, but broken- because, DRM or not, the implicit contract it signs with listeners is being broken in both directions.
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Here are some pictures of Starbucks Hear Music Store in Santa Monica, CA. Seems odd to me that Starbucks doesn't have their own pictures up. I'd like to get some pics and post them and maybe even burn a CD and report back on the experience. . .
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PR Newswire (U.S.)
Copyright © 2004 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
The Orchard Becomes First Independent Distributor to Hit One Million Paid
Downloads and Streams World's Leading Supplier of Independent Music
Experiencing Growth of 100% Per Month
PR Newswire (U.S.)
Copyright © 2004 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
The Orchard Becomes First Independent Distributor to Hit One Million Paid
Downloads and Streams World's Leading Supplier of Independent Music
Experiencing Growth of 100% Per Month
NEW YORK, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Orchard, the world's leading supplier of
independent music, today announced its unmatched achievement of one million
combined paid downloads and streams. The company is experiencing explosive
growth, increasing its sales by 100% per month. "Doubling our sales month over
month signals an inflection point in the online music business," says Daniel C.
Stein, CEO of Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity firm that owns
the Orchard.
The Orchard has become the world's largest distributor of non-major label
music, with a catalog of 130,000 tracks from 2,500 labels representing music
from more than 48 countries. It is the only company to have successfully
secured licensing deals with all of the leading digital music services in the
US and Europe, including iTunes, Rhapsody/Real Networks, Napster/Pressplay,
Music Net/AOL, Music Match and BuyMusic. Currently, the Orchard's full catalog
is available and for sale through all of these Digital Music Services, with new
titles quickly becoming available as they enter The Orchard's distribution
system. More than 80% of the albums in this vast catalog generate revenue
through the digital services, bearing out the premise that the digital
revolution benefits independent artists and labels and allows for effective
distribution outside traditional channels. In the first month alone of 2004,
The Orchard generated digital revenue equal to the prior 12 months combined.
"Having achieved an unmatched one million combined paid downloads and streams
proves that independent artists and labels can get their music distributed to a
world audience, and that music fans are hungry for access to this cutting-edge
content," said Greg Scholl, CEO of The Orchard. "The Orchard will continue to
lead the way for independent artists and labels and, working with our retail
partners, we will ensure that artists have a paying audience, and music fans
have access to the best music in the world -- which, as everyone knows, is not
exclusively Top-40 radio."
The influential New York-based alt-rock label French Kiss recently joined The
Orchard for digital distribution, and four weeks later, their entire catalog
was available on iTunes and the other major digital music services. "The
Orchard has solved the logistical riddle of digital distribution for us," said
Label Manager, Aaron Roman. "I can't tell you how simple it is to have all the
various sites accounted for on one statement, not to mention the fact that they
have been able to get our product on to sites like iTunes that we would not
have the leverage to do so on our own. Basically, as a small record company, we
wouldn't be able to get this much done on our own."
Other artists who have benefited greatly from The Orchard's service offering
include The Raveonettes, Elysian Fields, The Features, The Hong Kong, Ozark
Mountain Daredevils, Jon Auer (Posies, Big Star) and The Hold Steady.
About The Orchard
The Orchard ( http://www.theorchard.com/), based in New York and London, is
the largest distributor of non-major label music in the world. The Orchard
currently represents more than 130,000 tracks spanning a multitude of musical
genres, including Blues and R&B, Country, Classical, Children's, Christian,
Electronic, Folk, Hip Hop/Rap, Jazz, Latin, Metal, New Age, Pop, Punk, Rock,
Seasonal and World Music. The songs were supplied to The Orchard by over 2,500
record labels and thousands of artists from 48 countries.
About Dimensional Associates, Inc.
Dimensional Associates, Inc., is the Rye, New York-based private equity arm of
JDS Capital Management, Inc. Its portfolio companies include eMusic, The
Orchard and Digital Club Network (now eMusicLive).
Web site: http://www.theorchard.com/
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MOBILE ONLINE DOWNLOAD
Chrysalis to roll-out service to download ringtone melodies from songs on the radio; then later transform into downloading direct to a phone (which could then transfer the song elsewhere).
sounds like a terrific idea to me.
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Another company, Britain's Mean Fiddler (Reading and Leeds Festival promoters), enters the online music distribution industry. It has signed deals with Warner and BMG.
Evidently Sony and McDonald's will team up to co-promote Sony's digital download service.
Here's a chunk of the article:
McDonald's, Sony Said to Be in Music Pact; The fast-food chain would help
market the launch of a new service to download tunes, sources say.
Jeff Leeds
Times Staff Writer
Hungry for a taste of the online music business, Sony Corp. is aiming to line
up McDonald's Corp. to market the Japanese conglomerate's new download service,
according to people familiar with the deal. The two companies have been
hammering out the details of a pact in which McDonald's would provide fast-food
diners with free songs from Sony's online music store, Sony Connect, these
people said. The deal is expected to be announced this week.
Representatives from Sony and McDonald's declined to comment.
The sources said McDonald's was expected to commit about $30 million to
advertise the program in the U.S. and beef up the launch of Sony Connect, which
will charge 99 cents per song when it starts up this spring.
In exchange, sources said, McDonald's will be able to buy some tunes from Sony
Connect at unspecified discounts. The fast-food giant plans to give customers
free songs when they buy certain menu items; customers will receive codes they
can redeem online for downloads.
The pact would underscore a central strategy of would-be players in the online
music world: find major advertisers with the marketing clout to sell
alternatives to the illegal downloading of music on unauthorized file-sharing
networks such as Kazaa and LimeWire.
Sony has already announced a deal with UAL Corp.'s United Airlines in which
travelers, once the Connect service starts, will be able to trade in frequent
flier miles for free songs. And Apple Computer Inc. has teamed with PepsiCo
Inc. to award buyers of soft drinks downloads from the iTunes Music Store if
they find special codes under bottle caps.
Pepsi pledged to give away up to 100 million songs in the bottle-cap contest.
But Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said recently that the redemptions had
fallen short of expectations.
One person familiar with the McDonald's deal said the fast-food company would
probably give away more than 100 million Sony Connect songs in the U.S.
McDonald's had been in talks to launch a similar marketing effort with Apple,
but switched plans after a last-minute pitch from Sony, sources said.
The McDonald's deal comes as Sony is racing to build a presence on the online
landscape and drive sales of its own line of portable music devices. Sony,
which introduced music lovers to portability with the Walkman, has lagged
behind such rivals as Apple, which dominates the field with its iTunes service
and has seized market share with the iPod music player.
Now, Sony not only has to catch up to Apple, but it also has to confront other
online players, including Microsoft Corp., which is developing its own Internet
music store.
For McDonald's, the aim is to build a hipper image among young consumers.
McDonald's, which has hired pop singer Justin Timberlake to appear in its
commercials, has been laying large bets on the marketing power of music.
The McDonald's-Sony alliance is expected to focus on Sony's music service, but
the sources said it might be extended to market Sony video games and other
products.
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Interesting site trying to act as a filter for underground rock music.
Here's a blog which does exactly what I hope every true music fan will do: post their pick of unknown artists that deserve attention.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
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This person seems to think Dell is going to beat apple's iPod and go onto dominate the consumer electronics industry.
I doubt it. But, I'm a Sony guy to start with. . .
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Interesting article by David Ticol about potential compulsory licensing in Canada for music.
And a second interesting article from Canada about file sharing and proposals for compulsory licensing.
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Interesting post on "filter" concept of distributing music using a viral methodology. . . could easily be converted into a web based/blog system.
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Kazaa offices in Australia gets raided and the CEO gets pissed. Here's the original article from Wired.
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VOLUNTARY COLLECTIVE LICENSING
EFF submits a proposal for voluntary collective licensing for P2P networks.
Followed by another attempt to licensing P2P, involving watermarks. Read the lampoon of the system here.
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Steel Kaleidoscope thinks the ability to insert software to stop a copyrighted transfer will stop file sharing. I doubt it.
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any computer into a tivo system -- and a further note about inability to charge for content especially music.
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Sony's bringing music catalog online (in Europe) in June. Unfortunately, wrapping it in all sorts of ugly Digital Rights Management caveats.
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Apparently Canada's p2p network will be difficult to shut down because the solution was decided before: Tax the media devices.
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Clay Shirky's excellent article on file sharing and how the RIAA's attempt to kill-off file sharing may well lead to a more robust, yet underground social network.
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THE CIVIL WAR INSIDE SONY.
A moderately interesting story of Sony's music division vs. the hardware guys.
Saturday, March 20, 2004
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Arguably the best article I've read on why P2P is what it is and should stay that way.
This spawned, apparently in part, this post.
And then this post.
Another interesting view using RIAA's numbers against them.
And yet another article questioning the RIAA's own statistics. . .
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Nice thoughts on the future of the music industry - purchase of live CDs after show in Clearchannel deal in test market - Boston.
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Kevin Kelly wrote a great piece for the NYTimes magazine in 1993. Here it is.
And then Kevin and Kevin had an email discussion which was truncated and edited here.
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PAYPAL TO JOIN WITH ONLINE MUSIC RETAILERS
Currently iTunes pays ~$0.25 per transaction for processing; paypal aims to reduce it to ~$0.11.
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Friday, March 19, 2004
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Thursday, March 18, 2004
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MUSICIAN'S ARTICLE
Article in Newsweek or msnbc.com about the naughty record cos and their 30% drop in sales since ~2000.
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Tuesday, March 16, 2004
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RECORDING COSTS
AND WHAT THE RIAA DOES FOR MUSICIANS
Here's an article which exams the dramatic decrease in the cost to record a "professional" album coupled with the ubiquity of distribution. . .
kc.
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STARBUCKS MUSIC STORE
Here's the report from opening day as to Starbucks foray into the digital music biz.
Here's a second story about Starbucks.
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LESSIG'S BLOG
Consumer rights via Wal-Mart Page
Lawrence Lessig posts an interesting article about Wal-Mart's music page and its restrictive licensing issues.
kc.
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VIRGIN STORE DETAILS and
VIRG DEVICE DETAILS (sort of)
Interesting details emerge for Virgin's nascent plans to sell digital music.
Recent article in the Guardian, says the following:
These will be available both on a pay-per-track basis and through a monthly payment option that will allow subscribers to download as much music as they want, burn it to CDs and copy it to portable players.
Virgin has 700,000 songs ready for download.
Now, if I have huge selection and I can get unlimited tracks in one month, I think I'm going to take month of June off and buy every record I've ever wanted from Virgin. . .
Also, virgin is putting out a wireless device on 3G networks to download tunes (I don't think America is 3G compatible though. . . someone correct me).
we'll see.
kc.
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Monday, March 15, 2004
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CANADIAN P2P FILE SHARING LEGALITIES
(AUTHOR SAYS IT'S LEGAL)
Read the post about how the Canucks tax the media and distribute profits, in exchange, they're able to legally make copies for personal use. Argues even if all US super-node file sharers were shut down, CAnadians would be able to take up the slack.
Maybe.
kc.
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WASTE SOFTWARE P2P ENCRYPTED SMALL INVITED NETWORKS
Here's an article on WASTE a method of sharing files with small entrusted networked groups.
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COPYRIGHT DURATION
An interesting post on copyright duration. A frequent topic of discussion between a buddy and myself. My view seems to keep changing on the topic.
kc.
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MICROPAYMENTS
Another dicussion about micropayments here. Particularly focused on cost of micropayments and the cost of selling songs for near-free and how he doesn't think an economic model will support it.
kc.
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DOMESTIC DISPUTE OVER ERASED IPOD ENDS IN DEATH
I must say I understand the frustration. Probably knock it down to manslaughter instead of murder because of the compelling mitigating factors.
Read it here.
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Interesting article on micropayments. Author believes they'll never work, because free is better and hard to beat :-)
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A short blurb from: http://radio.weblogs.com/0113297/categories/contentIssues/2003/03/09.html
about micropayments.
Here's the quote:
Sony CEO on micro-payments and music industry
Part 1 of Tony Perkins interview with the CEO of Sony over at Always On Network.
[via Werblog]
Interesting interview overall, but I found this choice quote:
"They have to change their mindset away from selling albums, and think about selling singles over the Internet for as cheap as possible—even 20 cents or 10 cents—and encourage file-sharing so they can also get micro-payments for these files."
I've been thinking about paid content a lot lately, and the issue of micro-payments as an approach. It's certainly true that the value of digital assets (often) approaches zero, but that the available volume and cost of distribution is radically larger. Micro-payments for secured digital content seems to make sense, but hasn't worked for a variety of reasons. Would you pay 25 cents for a music file? $2 for a copy of a video? What else would you pay less than $5 or $10 for (the cost which becomes uneconomical for credit-card and other payment systems to handle because the 2% clearing fee doesn't cover their transactions costs)?
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TOUGH TACTICS FOR MUSIC FAN AND HIS DAUGHTER
This guy paid his $4,000 fine for copyright infringement. Poor bastard.
Most interesting aspect of story is this quote:
Industry watchers expect song prices to drop further, though for now, profit margins are squeezed by the average 25-cent credit card transaction fee per song.
I wonder whether the paypal's of the world are watching this. I wonder whether the online push will finally end up with a preferred small terms vendor to transfer cash. After all, MC, Visa and Amex (and discover) have such a lock on this market. . . but seems like smaller market for mini-payments should be out there. . .
kc.
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APPLE'S TRADEMARK
Apple (of Beatles fame) settled with Apple (computing fame) in 1991. Apple got music, while other apple got computer. Well, Apple iPod (and related products) has landed Apple Computing back in court in London. See the story.
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MP3.COM
Interesting that mp3.com "closed down" with a whimper that hardly anyone noticed.
For me, it's important to realize that without a filter (ostensibly a human filter seperating into good/bad piles) a website full of artists is mostly white noise. And that's said from an artist who had tunes up on mp3.com.
kc.
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MICRODRIVES
Turns out the microdrives were actually created by IBM then licensed to Hitachi and then Hitachi licensed Apple. (And apple locked up exclusive license for the larger drives).
Read the whole sordid mess here.
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HISTORICAL POST FROM 2003
Here's an interesting historical post from 2003, by Richard Menta, of mp3newswire.net, looking to see whether Apple will be able to make iTunes a success. It appears they have. . .
kc.
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COOL ACCESSORIES
Here are some cool iPod accessories, and replacement part services for worn-out batteries.
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Person's take on Branson v. Jobbs. I'm with Remy (Davison) -- since Virgin's tunes will be incompatible with the iPOD and the iPod is the dominant mp3 player currently, who's going to buy the music?
hmmm.
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BLOG TELLING HOW TO WIN AT PEPSI ITUNES PROMOTION
You win everytime by glancing up into the bottle at 25 degree angle. Check here for details.
kc.
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VIRGIN GOES ONLINE
Here's an article about the upcoming fight between Branson and Jobbs (sp?).
And then a follow-up article where Bill Palmer of iPod Garage fame takes Alex Salkever to task for his business week article mentioned above. I tend to agree with Bill. To me, the absolute, most critical point, is the fact that Virgin won't support the AAC standard. You've now excluded ALL of the iPODs which is the dominant device. Seems pretty dumb to me. . .
ps - Evidently iPod garage repairs iPods (no battery ipods presumably) for ~$28 bucks. May want to check it out.
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TURNS OUT APPLE DOESN'T LIKE PEOPLE COPYING _THEIR_ PRODUCTS
Read about the pPod a device that seemingly mimics the iPod in a pocket PC format.
kc.
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TURNS OUT APPLE DOESN'T LIKE PEOPLE COPYING _THEIR_ PRODUCTS
Read about the pPod a device that seemingly mimics the iPod in a pocket PC format.
kc.
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Sunday, March 14, 2004
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Andrew Raff is a second year law student at Brooklyn Law School, and a musician interested in pursuing a "digital rights" (maybe music?) law career.
He has some interesting thoughts on the eBay sales scheme below.
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Selling iTunes Song on eBay
eBay dropped this guys expiremental auction for a song on eBay. I think it's a fascinating point to be made about the future of digital "rights" vs. ownership. I'd hazard to guess, given all of the marketing on "ownership" he probably does own it, and can transfer all of it (so long as he doesn't retain it).
I feel an article coming on. . .
kc.
Saturday, March 13, 2004
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Here is a music label with a business plan to readily give away unencumbered licenses (for ~$5/record). Evidently the one man show signs approximate 15 of 200 records.
This is precisely the sort of filter I think could be useful.
kc.
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An article that screams the sky will crash by 2008.
CDs will fail and so too will the digital music business. Or so they say.
Albeit, I do imagine, the rush to online music won't be that dissimilar to the rush to provide dial up service, only to see it flock back to the kids, due to incredible price pressures due to distribution costs / server / infrastructure costs. .
We'll see.
kc.
Friday, March 12, 2004
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As I predicted not more than a few weeks ago, Hitachi announces the new release of its 400 gig drive. Evidently, used in a DVR, like TiVO, it will save up to ~400 hours of video and approximately 45 hours of hi-def TV performances.
Now, it seems to me, we're growing into a much wider market for quicker download speeds (i.e., 10-100x faster than DSL) capacity. I'd begin to think about paying more for quicker last mile transmission speeds. . . I suppose, especially, if I could join a mini-group in my apartment complex, that paid for it to be brought to the complex, and then split the cost to deliver from roof to my apartment. . . we'll see -- it's already my prediction, that DSL will be too slow in 6 months, and pent-up consumer demand will drive a faster solution for download speeds within 1-2 years. . .
kc.
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Interesting story about brick and mortar stores. Some have banded together to create "Echo" a company that will assist in creating digital download on demand (similar to Starbucks below).
Also, tells the story of woe of retailers who are feeling a huge crunch already.
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Starbucks is opening up a record store. Sort of. Apparently offering digital downloads in Starbucks stores nationwide, beginning 03-16-04.
Here's an excerpt:
"The time it takes you to order a latte, you could have any CD burned on demand for you,'' says Don MacKinnon, vice-president for music and entertainment for Starbucks. "That's truly transformative and unlocks for so many people a need that's not being served -- making it easier to learn about music, easier to get it, and easier to create your own compilations.''
* * *
HEARING AN ECHO. Based on his experience with HearMusic, MacKinnon believes people want a place they trust to help them discover and choose new music. With partner Hewlett-Packard supplying the high-powered CD burners, the special printers for the CD covers, the tablet PCs, the digital storage, and the army of servers, Starbucks figures it is taking the best of the digital world into the coffee shop. Says MacKinnon: "This is training wheels for digital.''
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Interesting article in Wired by Lawrence Lessig about the historical account of constant piracy within creative realms and how the new music piracy is actually nothing new.
kc.
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Yale law school student, Mr. Miller, seems to believe the subscription model is the only workable model for digital music. Noting, in particular, a 40 gig iPod costs $400 while the software (songs) to fill it cost ~$10,000. Maybe.
BTW, I already own ~1,000 CDs. It seems to me, the frequent fliers, like myself, want to own lots of CDs and we make up a disproportionate number of CD purchases. . .
kc.
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Eve and I seem to have similar musical tastes (though she's much more "indie" than I. . . it's not a criticism, she's just more schooled than I). . .
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A very funny article on a reporter sitting his parent's down to listen to songs from 2003 and get their reviews.
A few gem quotes from it:
OutKast
“Hey Ya”
Dad: This sounds like something out of the '60s to me, like the Beatles.
Mom: Yeah, my first reaction was that I could hear the Beatles' influence. I liked the little xylophone they played. There's a classical musician named Anton Bruckner, and he writes things that start great and you think they're going somewhere, but then they never deliver. I felt like these guys didn't really go anywhere.
Dallas Observer: I'm noticing a trend. You keep saying these songs are repetitive, but pop songs are repetitive by nature. I worry that you might be imposing a classical standard.
Mom: I don't want them to be classical. In my day, the songs repeated. There was verse one, two and three. I'm just looking for something to hold onto.
Dad: I'm just looking for anything to say.
read on. . .
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ARTICLE ON RADIO
Web Blogs perhaps new radio format?
Interesting blog piece by Gary Robinson, who seems to believe a possible new duplicate radio version could be via a blog. I agree.
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MUSIC RECOMMENDATION ENGINE
Here's a very nice music recommendatoin engine. You can put in up to three artists and it will spit out a list of artists it things you might enjoy using its algorithm. The more obscure the artist, the better results you will get.
Ideally, I'd like to send my entire collection to it, and then get recommendations, ranked most to least likely (to a point) back. . .
kc.
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PREDICTING POP HITS
Here's an article about an odd software outfit (www.polyphonichmi.com) that attempts to predict hits by what a music file "looks" like. Also, interestingly enough (to me) is it's potential ability to predict what artists you might enjoy when your music collection is compared against others (or buying habits comparison).
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Business Models
Here's an article on a proposed new digital transmission business model for entertainment (music and then movies) by William Fisher, evidently a Harvard economist. . .
kc.
Thursday, March 11, 2004
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Some interesting thoughts here on a potential future music business model; more or less, try to get paid upfront via performances, and then fewer and fewer dollars via recorded music later.
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
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Here's a long report on the future state of digital transmissions (music, TV and films).
It's reallllllyyyyy long, but lots of great ideas.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
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Here's an interesting article about a guy who is renting iPods filled with music he believes will fit the clientele.
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Here's a picture of the world's smallest (currently) mp3 player. Appears to be about the size of a double A battery (512 mb I believe. . . ). It'll fit on a keyring it appears!
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200403/200403040010.html
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Monday, March 08, 2004
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TiVO for Radio
Turns out there is a device that records FM (and other) audio for later use and can also stream it. Unfortunately it only offers ~4 hours (I'd like about 40 hours on demand). Evidently, you can save the files out to a computer though. . .
Not quite what I'm looking for just yet. I think, ideally, I want the cell phone sized, gps/tivo_radio/mp3_player/ipod funcationality -- and I want to be able to use it either in my car or on my person walking around.
Soon. . .
kc.
Thursday, March 04, 2004
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Bands I've always enjoyed that no one knows about
For my money, I've always loved the unsung heroes, especially in music.
Here are some of those heroes:
THE Q-DIVISION CHRONICLES. Q-Division is a great studio in Boston that also has a record label. They produce some fantastic stuff there, and we're lucky enough to be able to hear it. . . if you know enough to find it.
1. Poundcake. Unfortunately they broke up a number of years ago. They made this great record, Aloha Via Satellite, which Q-Division (Boston recording studio, former home of Letters to Cleo and now Senor Happy among others). It's just brilliant work (similar to, say, Utopia Parkway record by Fountains of Wayne).
2. Senor Happy. Great alternative band. This is their second generation (first band broke up and reformed). You wll almost never hear of them, but their record stands the test of time with me (I've been playing it in my own personal rotation, for the past five years).
3. The Gravel Pit. They are either on hiatus or have actually broke up by now. They released their finest work in ~1997, The Gravel Pit Manifesto. Any number of those songs, could have gone on to become radio hits, especially at that point in our musical evolution. Highly influenced by people like Elvis Costello, it's really brilliant work.
4. Burning Airlines;
5. Six going on Seven -- I really need to get their first and third records. The first is fantastic (but became so scratched I finallythrew it away). . .
So there are three bands no one konws about, but they should. . . I've been telling everyone I could for the past 7-8 years about these bands. . . apparently to no financial avail.
I was mulling over this prospect last night: I've made some recordings -- but never made any real money off of it. Would I mind if someone took one of my recordings from one of our CDs and published it on the web? I don't think so (I mean I'm making no money off of it anyway). So, I'm tempted to say, if you think you might be interested in discovering some great unknown music, maybe I can post a file or two (or perhaps the whole record) in some hidden folder somewhere online and you can go get it. . .
I'm not into the P2P thing, because it just seems like a big headache. . .
Other records, that keep coming by me, that I've re-fallen in love with:
AC/DC records: Back in Black and Dirty Deeds. Fantastic blues rock from the 80's -- the days of my youth (indeed, Rock and Roll ain't noise pollution plays in the background).
One of my ulterior motives for this blog is to find people with similar tastes to mine, so I can be turned on to more music I really love. I will soon post a list of the music I currently have in digital format. . . about 150 records, out of about 800 records to be ripped. . .
Is there a website where one can post their list of music -- and perhaps have like minded people suggest other records they might enjoy? If someone thinks their taste might mirror mine, I invite you to post your music list in the comments, and I'm guessing (if you're a rock person) I could probably suggest a few records you might really enjoy. . .
kc.
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FM Transmitter
I'll probably end up using an FM transmitter to move signals around my house (that way I can simply leave the external hard drive in the family room. . .
Here's the device I'll use: Device.
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FM Transmitter
I'll probably end up using an FM transmitter to move signals around my house (that way I can simply leave the external hard drive in the family room. . .
Here's the device I'll use: Device.
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Turns out TiVO for radio does exist. . .
see here.
Sounds great to me. When it enters PC market I'll probably buy one. . . (need to get another external hard drive, not enough room on my desktop. . . ). Hey, then instead of dealing with tapes of loveine shows, I can simply email the files to my friends on the east coast (I tape it for them, because it's off the air currently). . .
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Great post here by Steve extolling how our future of music/media within cars could be managed. Essentially, a TiVO audio system and auto docking that syncs your playlist on your car to your playlist at home (whatever you've purchased, automatically moves over to your car, whenever you pull in the garage).
I love the idea.
kc.
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Top 100 songs according to VH1.
The Beatles - Revolver (1966)
Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (1971)
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced? (1967)
The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)
Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life (1974)
The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)
Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde (1966)
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
The Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album) (1968)
Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street (1972)
The Who - Who's Next (1971)
Joni Mitchell - Blue (1971)
U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987)
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (1977)
Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols (1977)
Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain (1984)
Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (1988)
Elvis Presley - Sun Sessions (1976)
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisted (1965)
Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)
Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (1969)
The Clash - London Calling (1980)
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus (1977)
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (1975)
Patti Smith - Horses (1975)
Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks (1975)
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) (1967)
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (1973)
Van Morrison - Moondance (1970)
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
James Brown - Sex Machine (1970)
Prince - Sign O' The Times (1987)
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall (1979)
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill (1998)
The Eagles - Hotel California (1976)
Carole King - Tapestry (1971)
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968)
Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul (1968)
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987)
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I (1969)
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II (1969)
Sly & The Family Stone - Stand! (1969)
Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers (1971)
David Bowie - Hunky Dory (1972)
David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust (1972)
Prince - 1999 (1983)
Police - Synchronicity (1983)
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)
The Pretenders - The Pretenders (1980)
Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
The Ramones - The Ramones (1976)
Parliament - Mothership Connection (1976)
Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express (1977)
Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1976)
Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis (1969)
Allman Brothers Band - Live At The Fillmore East (1971)
The Doors - The Doors (1967)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu (1970)
NWA - Straight Outta Compton (1988)
Curtis Mayfield - Super Fly (1972)
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1969)
U2 - Achtung Baby (1991)
Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (1959)
Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet (1968)
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978)
The Stooges - Raw Power (1973)
Al Green - Call Me (1973)
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (1975)
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland (1968)
Jeff Buckley - Grace (1994)
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989)
The Replacements - Let It Be (1984)
Aretha Franklin - Young, Gifted & Black (1971)
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James (1970)
Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold As Love (1967)
Pearl Jam - Ten (1991)
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True (1977)
Otis Redding - Otis Blue (1966)
AC/DC - Back In Black (1980)
Television - Marquee Moon (1977)
Paul Simon - Graceland (1986)
Santana - Abraxas (1970)
The Who - Quadrophenia (1973)
Cream - Disraeli Gears (1967)
Talking Heads - Remain in Light (1980)
Derek & The Dominos - Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)
The Who - Tommy (1969)
Peter Gabriel - So (1986)
R.E.M. - Murmur (1983)
Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends (1968)
Radiohead - O.K. Computer (1997)
Tina Turner - Private Dancer (1984)
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville (1993)
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music (1961)
Jackson Five - ABC (1970)
The B-52's - The B-52's (1979)
Madonna - Like A Prayer (1989)
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
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Don Henley, drummer (Eagles) and solo artist, penned an editorial in the Washington Post.
Article
By Don Henley
Tuesday, February 17, 2004; Page A19
When I started in the music business, music was important and vital to our culture. Artists connected with their fans. Record labels signed cutting-edge artists, and FM radio offered an incredible variety of music. Music touched fans in a unique and personal way. Our culture was enriched and the music business was healthy and strong.
And here's a good criticism of the article by Brad.
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Metallica to Sell Digital Downloads of Tour
Metallica is joining Phish, String Cheese Incident and many others in offering digital downloads of concerts:
In a continuing effort to provide their fans with the most unique services, Metallica, along with technology partners CinemaNow.com and nugs.net enterprises, today announced the launch of a new Web site, www.LiveMetallica.com. The site will make available for download music from each performance on the North American leg of their "Madly In Anger With The World" tour that kicks off today in Phoenix, Arizona. Full concert audio will be available on the site within four days of the actual show.
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Here's an interesting passage which quotes moby within an article from The Economist.
In the end, says Moby, an influential musician, the record industry will have to throw out its current business model. It will no longer be able to make huge profit margins on CDs that cost next to nothing to manufacture. To compensate for lower prices, he says, the industry needs to cut its marketing for artists by as much as four-fifths. Once the record companies have less marketing clout, and with internet distribution, says Moby, artists will be in a powerful position. “Why”, he asks, “is a record company any more qualified to send an MP3 to iTunes than I am?”
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Here's an article in Business Week about Napster trying to sell subscriptions (i.e., rent music). I'd rather own, thank you very much. Indeed, many would probably rather steal than own, and surely would rather steal than rent. . .
Evidently, apple currently controls about 75% of the download market currently. Yet, they make little money from it. . . the money shot, of course, is in selling the iPod. . .
kc.
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Interesting article on what Signal v. Noise wants for smart playlists.
Particularly of interest is where the individual decree themselves as "album guys" -- me too, though I must admit I've been convinced to do a bit of shuffling with the iTunes software. . .
kc.
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Here's an interesting list of upgrades people would like on the iPod. I have a couple that I'll try to add to my blog after a while. . .
kc.
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mp3s from a friend
Today I received 3 cds worth of mp3s from a friend at school. Unfortunately, there was little value in it for me. This, again, seems to go back to what I said before: I always hated downloading off the net because it was **song** oriented, rather than album oriented.
M had no records (that I could find) on the three cds, just collections of songs, from random people (and lots of rap and rockabilly and doo wop). Some of the doo wop was cool, but it really wasn't what I was looking for.
On the other hand, sitting in the library today with my laptop, I was pleasantly surprised to see that at least three other people had their laptops plugged in and I could browse/listen to their catalog of music. I like that feature a bunch. I only wish apple would let me sending them an instant message, because the identity of the party is unknown to me (and if they really had some music I wanted, I'd like to send them an email saying. . . umm can I "borrow' these four cds :-)).
Maybe I'll try to start a pattern by naming my library with my email address, perhaps write - myemail@yahoo.com.
Big paper due Monday. . .
kc.
Monday, March 01, 2004
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BIG PROBLEMS.
Fuck.
My files were screwed after my mini-crash of the system. It turns out I lost about 80 cds which I'd burned over the past few days.
Basically, I filled up my c drive, cut and pasted to d drive; and one is not allowed to do that via the iTunes software (basically, software creates database and gives a database pointer to where the file is located; when you move the file, it simply can't find the file).
And then it got worse.
I ended up with duplicate files. So I deleted (cleared) the unrated files and they were all deleted. I then decided I would restore the files -- but, of course, there wasn't enough space in the recycle bin to save all of my sound files, so I only got about 40 cds back.
The only silver lining was the database retained the information for the CDs so when I popped in a new CD it showed up as a CD because I'd already uploaded it.
It'll take about 6 hours of pure upload time to get these back in my computer. And, oh yea, I went out and bought a 120 gig external drive tonight. I'm not fucking around anymore :-).
kc.
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Don't try this at Home.
I burned a few CDs during lunch and my computer popped up an error saying my c drive was almost out of space. . . I figured, no problem and copied my 10 gigs worth of music files from the c to d drive.
Big mistake.
Can't do that. . . the database has pointers to files within a naming-convention structure (basically: artist/album/song_file. I should have known better.
Evidently I can reconfigure to some degree by moving things back to C drive and then using an advanced function; evidently (2x), what happens is apple copies it to a new directory and repoints the database where it needs to go. I believe one then needs to go back and remove the files from the c: drive. Critical importance as I move into my own drive. Which I'm now convinced I need to buy tonight so I don't royally screw this up. . .
BTW, internet connection at school much easier, because it names the CDs quickly and seemlessly, rather than have me type them in. . .
kc.
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Adam asked that I publish a link back to his site in return for the favor of putting this site in his directory. Here goes: link.
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Random iPods... an entry found at a blog here: blog.
Posts a game of creating 15 random tracks from your iPod/mp3 jukebox. (I played but it's on my laptop so I'll transfer tomorrow at school).
Many of the lists contain records I'd like to get my hands on. . . Starting to wonder what happens when I receive an email from someone saying: I don't have the dashboard confessional record, could you possibly email it to me? Or, post it to your yahoo storage account so I can pull it down and listen to it via my own iMusic account?
Assuming the tracks are ripped from CDs, rather than purchased via iMusic, I think it's an open game and those files are easily "tradeable". . .
This could get interesting really quick. . .
kc.
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Turns out Steve Jobs is maintaining his own blog. He calls his new store "fucking gorgeous."
I love it.
kc.
