State of Mind of The Art

Spotted on: The Long Tail

Chris Anderson deserves a parade in his honor.

This brilliant post completely uncompresses the major label view of the music business with the actual music business.

“…it appears that every single part of the music industry except the sale of compact discs is up.

• Concerts and merchandise: UP (+4%)
• Digital tracks: UP (+46%)
• Ringtones: UP (+86% last year, but probably just single-digit percent this year)
• Licensing for commercials, TV shows, movies and videogames: UP (Warner Music saw licensing grow by about $20 million over the past year)
• Even vinyl singles (think DJs): UP (more than doubled in the UK)
• And, if you include the iPod in the music industry, as I’d argue a fair-minded analysis would: UP, UP, UP! (+31% this year)”

With statistical data to back up the claim, it’s clear that all the hoopla around the death of the music industry is a death cry form major labels. They could revamp their business models, and in fact they could have ten years ago when they knew this was coming. It’s as if these major companies have absolutely no relationship to reality.

The end of Chris’s article seems almost directed to this blog: “…for those who say that this avenue [giving away all music free] is only available to artists at the head of the curve…I’d point out that the other group poorly served by the labels are those at the bottom of the curve…”

As the major labels fail and become some new form of entertainment companies (most likely a clearinghouse for content or booking agencies), music will lose almost all of its value. Once we (the audience) are no longer pressured to buy, or told we are criminals for our actions, music will begin to regain its value.

While touring and swag are viable outlets for artists to generate revenue, the question becomes: where can smaller artists play, and is gigging still viable?

What is your take on the state of music sales, given this exciting and inspirational update on sales figures?

The Recording Industry is at it again. This time they are suing XM Satellite Radio and Sirius over new time/place-shifting devices that act like TiVO for Radio. I’ve long wanted this for even normal FM, since I got my DVR. Most times it for the pause feature, or for rewinding back to a part I missed. The RIAA claims that users are now being able to download tracks they here on their receivers, and keep them forever. The thing is, none of the devices allow you to off load the music to any other format or player, much like almost all of the DVRs on the market (and the ones that can are home built and run software designed for this purpose).
Sirius rolled over, which is a bit strange to me, considering XM is owned by Clear Channel. They agreed to pay $15 per device sold, on top of the usual 2% Fair Use “tax” that has been applied to devices that store media broadcasts since the days of home-taping and beta-max.
In the case of XM, they refused, and the RIAA slapped them with a federal lawsuit. And just so you know that the RIAA is still in the same frame of mind as they typically are, one device, the XM Inno, even has the feature to push a button and purchase the track they saved on Napster. Basically they want XM to pay up, or pull these devices from the market.
The madness continues.
originally published on dr.xnlb.com

Music

1. The RIAA has sued more than 20,000 music fans for file sharing, yet file sharing continues to rapidly increase both online and offline.  When will you stop suing music fans?
2. The RIAA has sued over 20,000 music fans for file sharing, who have on average paid a $3,750 settlement.  That’s over $75,000,000.  Has any money collected from your lawsuits gone to pay actual artists? Where’s all that money going?
3. The RIAA has sued over 20,000 music fans for file sharing.  Recently, an RIAA representative reportedly suggested that “students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford [P2P lawsuit] settlements.” Do you stand by this advice? Is this really good advice for our children’s futures?
4. The RIAA said that it only went after individual file sharers because you couldn’t go after P2P system creators. After the Supreme Court’s Grokster decision, shouldn’t you stop going after music fans?
5. Major entertainment companies have repeatedly brought lawsuits to block new technologies, including the VCR, Digital Audio Tape recorders, the first MP3 player, the ReplayTV PVR, and now P2P software. Why is your industry so hostile to new technologies?
6. DRM has clearly failed to stop songs from getting on file sharing networks, but it does prevent me from moving lawfully purchased music onto my iPod and other portable devices.  Unlike the major record labels, many popular indie labels offer MP3 downloads through sites like eMusic.  Why won’t you let fans purchase mp3s as well?
7. The RIAA says that it doesn’t mind if I rip CDs to my personal computer and put them on my iPod.  Do I need your permission to do this or can I legally do it even if you object?
8. Recording off the radio is clearly permitted by copyright law and something Americans have done for over 25 years, but the RIAA supports legislation restricting devices that record from digital radio. Why are you against TiVo for radio?
9. Sony BMG recently implemented a DRM technology that damaged users’ computers.  But for independent researchers’ analyses, this serious flaw may have gone undiscovered. After this scandal, will record labels allow any computer scientist or security expert to examine these products and agree not to sue them under the DMCA?

Video

1. The major movie studios have been enjoying some of their most profitable years in history over the past five years. Can you cite to any specific studies that prove noncommercial file sharing among fans, as opposed to commercial DVD piracy, has hurt the studios’ bottom line in any significant way?
2. Is it legal for me to bypass CSS DVD encryption in order to skip the “unskippable” previews at the beginning of so many DVDs? Why should I have to be forced to watch these ads when I already bought the DVD?
3. Is it legal for me to skip the commercials when I play back time-shifted TV recordings on my TiVo or other PVR? How is this different than getting up and going to the bathroom?
4. Why are there region-code restrictions on DVDs? How does this prevent copyright infringement? Is it illegal for me to buy or and use a region-free DVD player, or to modify a DVD player to be region-free?
5. In several lawsuits, the MPAA has repeatedly said that it’s illegal to make a back-up of a DVD that I purchased.  Why is this illegal?
6. Is it ever legal for me to use software like DVD Shrink or Handbrake to rip a digital copy of a DVD I own onto a video iPod or my laptop? What if I want clips to use for a class report? Or if a teacher wants to include a clip in a PowerPoint slide?
7. Is there anything illegal about copying TV shows I’ve recorded off the air onto my video iPod?
8. If the MPAA-backed “broadcast flag” bill passes, I won’t be able to move recorded TV content digitally to my current video iPod.  Why should TV studios get to take away my ability to lawfully time- and space-shift?
9. Major entertainment companies have repeatedly brought lawsuits to block new technologies, including the VCR, Digital Audio Tape recorders, the first MP3 player, the ReplayTV PVR, and now P2P software. Why is your industry so hostile to new technologies?
10. Hollywood is pushing legislation to “plug the analog hole.” These restrictions won’t keep copyrighted video off of file sharing networks, but they will block me from excerpting a recorded TV show for a school report or using tools like the Slingbox to send recorded TV shows to myself over the Internet.  Why are you trying to restrict these legitimae uses?

Questions posed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Reprinted with permission. Spotted on Boing Boing and Digg.

Community Web Log, MetaFilter, expanded their operations recently by launching MeFi Music. Now users of the site can post mp3s for the MetaFilter community to discuss. Sports a sweet little flash player, so you can listen to the music without having to download it. Other features include playlists, and podcast and RSS feeds. Put this on your short list of sites to preview new tracks on.
spotted on digg
originally published on dr.xnlb.com

Did you ever notice how all those cell phones, MP3 players, laptop speakers, and most small computer speakers have no bass in the songs you play on them?

Do you think that the perceived value of music might also realted to the fidelity or limtations of the speakers?

Is there something wrong with the fact that most people’s highest quality stereo is in their car?

Maybe this explains some of the trends in the songs that sell well as ringtones.

Or maybe it’s a sad commentary on where we spend the most personal time…