http://www.youtube.com/lindseybuckingham

Wow, nice blog.

Another approach is the ability of a single human brain to record some memories, for instance songs, once or several times heard on TV or on the radio. Which means I have never ever bought (nor of course pirated / copied / owned) a single record copy from Queen’s Freddie Mercury, while I really love his music !

To Larisa M. : some people sing in the shower, and they do not even record themselves, nor put the stuff on sale on the web either. :-)

To wild shovel
There are still some radio amateurs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_amateur

PS If you want me to follow up the discussion, please send me a private email at my email : Pascal.Boulerie@gmail.com

The article has some good points, but it is ultimately wishful thinking to thing that DRM and internet filtering won’t work. DRM and internet filtering on a massive scale is coming — count on it.

Yes, it is wishful thinking to think that DRM will fail, but this kind of articles aim partially at telling people about DRM – because ultimately it is the mass consumers who will decide to adopt or reject DRM and such kind of restrictions.

There is too much money involved here. And there is is nothing “technically impossible” about the concepts, either; the technology only needs to be installed in the right places.

You can put the tech in any place you want, you can’t stop “piracy traffic” since there’s no way or method, nor is it feasable, to differenciate legal from illegal traffic. Yes, you can have an ISP block all .mp3 files, for instance, but it would block both legal and illegal sharing of mp3 files, it would piss off consumers and it wouldn’t stop piracy.

And to do that, you simply need the right people in certain key positions of power to be properly motivated. Look at China: they filter the internet on a mind-boggling scale, both from a technical level and by strong-arming content providers. In one great example, China recently forced Google to voluntarily restrict the content of search results. Since all the other search providers had already capitulated, Google finally gave in as well, lest tbey blocked from the hugely lucrative Chinese market.

Yet, to block “copyrighted work” you would have to block the Internet.

Already, you are seeing the results of their efforts: try searching youTube for old episodes of Saturday Night Live, Colbert Report, or any moderately famous TV show. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get this stuff; I am saying that it is no longer trivial.

You’re kidding me? Search for “saturday night live” + torrent on google…

Yes, this is a fight that will take a big number of years, and yes, things will get harder on the consumer side. That’s why this kind of alert must be written and this issues talked about. How many of your friends know or care about DRM? When someone you know stumbled against DRM restricting them, how many of them weren’t pissed off? Consumers getting pissed usually means that consumers fight against it – or simply not buying it. All those industries will attack their own consumers, yes, but all of them will suffer from it. Who will win? It really only depends on one side… Will you admit defeat and accept the loss?

And to do that, you simply need the right people in certain key positions of power to be properly motivated. Look at China: they filter the internet on a mind-boggling scale, both from a technical level and by strong-arming content providers. In one great example, China recently forced Google to voluntarily restrict the content of search results. Since all the other search providers had already capitulated, Google finally gave in as well, lest tbey blocked from the hugely lucrative Chinese market.

In western countries, such motivation is simply a matter of greasing the right palms.

Back in the dawn of the radio age, radio was like the internet is now. It wasn’t a one way medium — ANYONE could broadcast, all you needed was a simple transmitter. Once someone realized how money could made by delivering content and advertisements over the airwaves, then the bigger broadcasters began to slowly buy out the smaller ones. Eventually, the biggest broadcasters banded together, and lobbied Congress for restrict who could broadcast, thereby shutting out the remaining little guys.

Money changes everything.

The article is right about how the record industry wasn’t at all prepared, and is currently in upheaval. That is true, but the television and film industry is next up, and they are much better prepared. Already, you are seeing the results of their efforts: try searching youTube for old episodes of Saturday Night Live, Colbert Report, or any moderately famous TV show. I’m not saying it’s impossible to get this stuff; I am saying that it is no longer trivial.

And they are just getting started.

And even if the television and film industry isn’t successful, next in line to take up the fight will be the massive book publishing industry, when eBooks take off.

Don’t think eBooks will ever take off? Heard of Amazon’s Kindle?

The question here is: who’s going to win? Will they manage to regain control by restricting even more artists and music lovers? Or will artists and music lovers redifine the music business?

The winner is hard to just calculate; the problem here is the popular music will have its audience, (this group made of a bunch of children) it wasn’t that long time ago I did bought list-pop music, Aqua’s first and Second album or the Various Artist – something something (got it from my parents because that was on my wish-list)) and that unfortunately will always sell, but is this just a question of time? I wasn’t aware of internet in my childhood, but dose this apply for the 5-15 years old girl who is dancing to Britney in the living room, in front of MTV and runs to the parents, smiles and wants a stereo that can play Britney’s music meanwhile her own voice is getting recorded? How many of you parents here, actually will actually download the music? Few kids will just forget asking why the cover isn’t just as pretty as it is on TV.

The outcome of the situation however it will change into by the costumers force or not, or simply transform to, will leave (actually allow) any form of the musically-talented to step forward in this could of icons for the industry of music as it is (shampoo bottles alike, production wise) and create their own market. That is at least my theory at this very moment.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

The long tail is made possible by the internet, our ability to find things ourselves, affordable technology which enables User Generated Music as much as it helps User Generated Video (UGV), and the aggregators and indexers which enables UGM/UGV to be found.

What the record labels and broadcast industry have been doing is deciding which hit’s they should push, they basically either produced the content or in the case of music went out and found it for you. Some of it was genuinely good and some was arguably made popular by throwing lots of money into marketing.

Now these same companies are scrambling to control or profit from UGM and UGV in some way.

1) The recording industry is rich and greedy, over-prices music to a punitive degree, incorporates DRM and rootkits into their media without any concern for the wellbeing of consumers, and punishes consumers suspected of possessing or sharing music for which they have not paid a ransom.

2) Artists are seen riding in limousines, are also viewed as rich with respect to the average consumer and the cause of high music prices. This is in some ways inaccurate if you look at the total *pie* taken in by the recording industry; only a small portion actually goes to the artists who make the music. A very few artists also speak out against consumers who acquire their works without paying, effectively authorizing the poor to be punished by the recording industry (tending to paint an dispassionate picture of artists in general in the public mind).

3) There is no *common ground* perceived between those who make, market, and consume music.

There is a proposed solution to this problem, which addresses the points by 1) incorporating a direct model between artists and consumers, greatly reducing music prices,while increasing the portion of sales received by artists, and (2,3) establishing common ground between artists and consumers by channeling a portion of the money formally absorbed by the recording industry toward a common good: benefiting charities.

Member artists benefit from tax deductions, from increased PR status, and from the increased self esteem that comes from helping those in need.

Consumers benefit from decreased music prices, DRM-free music which they can use on all of their media devices without restriction, from the security of knowing that member artists will never prosecute an individual for possession of music, and from the good feeling of working with artists toward a common goal: helping those in need.

As the above motivating factors are addressed, piracy should be greatly reduced using this model.

Please see http://www.artc3.com for more information and sign the guestbook letting us know if you support this model.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JHN5HaUg28

It’s always been that way and always will, because there are so many millions who want the fame and don’t care about the business.
I come from a showbiz family; my parents met on stage and my father did kiddie shows, commercials, movies. I was in a family band as a teenager, which did OK, we went to Hollywood, danced and sang on stage at the Troubadour and were voted one of the twelve best of the year. We met lots of big names in the business, had a good time and I haven’t done anything like it since. My brother played piano in New York City for twenty years, my sisters were in shows, my cousin was in Reba McIntyre’s band. None of us made a great deal of money, except for my cousin who never lived to enjoy it. I know how to play several instruments, though, and when I want to hear music I’ll make it myself.
I never thought of music as something to buy, because the radio station was right next door to the TV station and my father would periodically bring home large free stacks of demo records. I’d tape a few songs off the radio, but I’ve never bought more than a half-dozen albums in my life, usually directly from the artist–though I do have a fairly large collection, left by friends or relatives who were moving or occasionally bought from the bins at the Salvation Army for 25¢ or $1, especially 78’s (I have a hand-cranked antique record player, too).
In general, I don’t support the music business, because I don’t really care. If I want music, I’d much rather pull out my banjo or guitar or clarinet or harmonica and play it myself, which I do most every night for my kids when they go to bed. That’s what music is about, not buying little plastic discs, and it brings me far more pleasure and fulfillment than dancing around on stage ever did.

CD-baby ( http://cdbaby.com/ )

Internet radio (from shoutcast to pandora to lastfm)

MySpace (I never go there or have an account, but google indexes a lot of the stuff from there)

These three have been my new way to look at music. I use itunes as well, since it provides a quick search method for bands that I know are more popular and have music labels… but I only use that as a bridge to the ‘old system’. That’s it. I want to get to where I don’t need to do a search on something like itunes or napster or ruckus or any other sort of business. If they make money from the music being sold, I sort of get a ‘icky’ feeling from it. It means I might only find the stuff that gets them money, or worse.

Anyone else feel that way?

If you may recall the whispers when you were young, and someone bought a record, or a casette tape. if you had the nerve to ask for a copy, you would always hear ¿you can¿t make copies¿ or they will sue us¿

As a matter of fact I don’t recall that, but maybe we’re talking about a diferent timespan or even a different culture – I’m Portuguese, BTW. When I was a kid everyone wanted to have the originals but there wasn’t money to have them all. So, most of the times your circle of friends would have all the albums you (the circle) would want, but only one or two copies of each, and the others just cassette copies. That was good for the music business, since people would spend as much as they could in music anyway, and were allways interested in getting new things since, thanks to the copies, they would know more and more interesting music.

It is a business, and unfortunately, we have come to expect everything on the internet for free. Obviously there has to be a mutual meeting of record company and the buying public.

Hopefully someday soon – we¿ll both find a solution.

As I wrote in the article, both artists (or copyright holders) want money, and listeners want free music (at least in digital, they don’t think it’s bad to pay for a physical release as long as the price is fair). That is already possible, but the music industry has to realize that recorded music doesn’t give as much money as they want. A mutual solution? Sure, but the music industry must first realize what you already did: that the market is made by both the producers and consumers, not just producers. Listeners also have a word on the issue.

(btw. I did the resume of your opinion to spanish in our noticiasypunto – I hope that¿s no problem with it.)

I surely have no problem with that, but my name is “Marcos Marado”, not “Miguel Marado” :-)

I was reading an article, I cannot remember the artists name but they are main stream, that sold their new album without a label and made it available for download where you can pay what you the buyer thought was fair. The article mentioned they made more than they ever expected. The average price paid was between $8-9. Think about it, no CD to burn, no tangible items, means increased profit margin!

Yep, it was Radiohead.

I¿m all for using new music delivery systems but not for theft of a musician¿s work. People call it file sharing but it¿s really old-fashioned stealing. Taking something which a person is trying to sell in order to make a living is wrong, even if it comes from a record shop or a site. I once taped LPs from the library. Eventually, I ended up buying the music because I wanted the packaging and higher quality sound. Now I buy the music I like because it encourages artists to produce more. Whenever possible, I support independent artists who have set up their own businesses. No matter how sophisticated our technology becomes, stealing is still stealing.

The unauthorized reproduction and distribution of copyrighted music is illegal because it’s copyright infringement; shoplifting a CD is illigal because it’s robbery. Those are two quite different kinds of infringements, with quite diferent penalties for the infractors. Illegal? Yes. Stealing? No. Stealing implicits taking something away from the owner. If I steal a CD from you, then I have it and you don’t. If I copy a CD from you, you still have it. There’s a difference there, even if it remains immoral.

I can¿t say I know enough to comment on the state of the music business, but I know about my own music buying habits, and I can tell you this: I haven¿t set foot in a brick & mortar CD store in years! When I hear a song I like, I go to iTunes and pay 99 cents for it. It¿s fast, convenient, and I won¿t feel disappointed because I spent $16.99 to buy a CD with only one or two songs that I care to listen to.

Too bad that your choice is iTunes, when you have cheaper and better alternatives, like the new Amazon mp3 music store. iTunes files are crippled with DRM, taking you the rights you implicitly would have (like the right to make a personal copy, for instance)…

I can agree with some points, but as a consumer, what can I do about it? I am a dinosaur of sorts, I strictly buy vinyl, one to support the artist (and yes, the record company) and because it is my format of choice. I have never downloaded a song in my life, and when my boys (age 24 & 26) say I am missing something, I point to my record collection and say they, too, are missing something as well.

There’s still a lot you can do, but I guess that you’re already making the best part: just make sure you avoid buying stuff from those companies who are destroying music as art: namedly the majors.

But, digital music is here to stay, and I must argue that, so too is vinyl, a format that has kept going in the face of numerous formats that were supposed to replace it.

Surely, Vinyl is here to stay, even longer than CD’s.

I have to firstly state that this article is brilliant; it has been a while since I actually enjoyed reading this much about anything.

Thank you.

As I see the future of the music market; well simply there is none. What is going on is an revolution, now this could just have been an slow reform of some kind but the giant of this business know any changes in the milk sucking business they are running will end up in one thing and that outcome is the only one they are trying to delay, the less profitable one. With the market at their fingertips they still feel like they can stop this but they can¿t what makes me to come to the understanding of why they are so ignorant of the real fact; the consumers not only needs a massive change of this colossal imperial old marketing system, we will make sure that our needs gets their 110% attention while we form, rather transform it, rebuild it all for them.

So, what you’re saying is that you don’t see the future of the music market as an evolution but as a revolution, right? If that’s so, I also agree with you, and it even has a name: creative destruction.

those with capital have the power of control, the control is decreasing thanks to internet and it¿s users (like exchanging information and data is only made by one specific group of humans) so they need more in profit to take control in what they didn¿t have to.

The question here is: who’s going to win? Will they manage to regain control by restricting even more artists and music lovers? Or will artists and music lovers redifine the music business?

I think maybe better coordination, free of corporate sites, is a first step¿ Or am I just ranting here?

Surely not. But those “free of corporate sites” are already spawning here and there – it’s now time to see the adoption of those sites (like ReverbNation or SellABand) by artists and fans…

All those great initiatives (like iTunes seemed to be when it started, like CDbaby and so on) have the problem that you can really get lost in the amount, AND poor (artistic) quality¿ One DOES need someone that filters for a specific audience, like it or not. In their queste for a large audience, the initiatives often dilute passion and quality. Could go on for ages, but I stop here, have to do some editing¿

Surely. Mix Last.fm, SellABand and ReverbNation concepts into one and you might have it… You’ll find the music you think is of quality, while supporting all this new Music 2.0 fair scenario.

The beauty of the “new world” of the internet is that musicians that maybe we’ve never heard of…because they didn’t get mainstream radio play or promotion can now find an audience and make a bit of money. They might not make gazillions of dollars, but at least they can make a modest income or at least a modest part-time income…whereas before they wouldn’t earn a cent.

Magnatunes perhaps offers an interesting new model of how to sell online music…no DRM, any format you want etc. Or another model is for musicians to cut out the “middleman” completely and sell directly to the public.

What is clear is that the days of the mega-corp industry biz is over.

The corporate music business has one advantage over the independent artist: the power to get the word out about his or her music. Music A&R people used to be talent scouts, people with an ability to find sellable material. Back then, the music industry was more dynamic in a way: that is, musical styles were developing faster. Look at the charts today as compared to 15 years ago and it’s about the same: some teen pop, some gangster hiphop with other varieties, a lot of bland R&B, producer-oriented dance music. Now compare, say, 1985 (Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Michael Jackson, Steve Winwood, Prince) with 1960… You get the point.

Just as with cable TV, you’d think there’d be a huge amount of variety, but there isn’t. Sure there’s some electronica and experimental music that sounds “new.” But even most indie bands are aping their favorite musicians – myself included. We aren’t coming up with striking new styles for the most part. Look at how cdbaby sells albums: by the “sounds like” method. I like, say, Ani DiFranco, so, between Ani DiFranco albums I try to find the closest thing to her.

We independent musicians should take more chances now that we no longer need talent scouts to find the “new” sound. And we have to work on innovative ways to get noticed without a big budget. But I guess we all know that. While lots of people say indie music, like blogs such as this one, are giving a new voice to people… Not that many of these people actually get heard enough to make a difference.

I think maybe better coordination, free of corporate sites, is a first step… Or am I just ranting here?

As I see the future of the music market; well simply there is none. What is going on is an revolution, now this could just have been an slow reform of some kind but the giant of this business know any changes in the milk sucking business they are running will end up in one thing and that outcome is the only one they are trying to delay, the less profitable one. With the market at their fingertips they still feel like they can stop this but they can’t what makes me to come to the understanding of why they are so ignorant of the real fact; the consumers not only needs a massive change of this colossal imperial old marketing system, we will make sure that our needs gets their 110% attention while we form, rather transform it, rebuild it all for them.

This will not end there thou, the movie business and any other business or fields that has anything to with the modern technology will have to bend in the end. What internet dose in the bigger picture in this party of chess and checkers is simplifying it; I want a track I by it with one click and listened to it whenever I want, however I want. Another would be, I really don’t enjoy going visiting the movies just because there is always someone who has some form of cuffing cancer sitting there behind me and makes it impossible for me to enjoy what I paid for, I invest in whatever equipment I want and buy the movie on-line, download it and watch it. Those two wasn’t really mind-blowing examples, surly we all know that, most downloads what they want and if they really want it (these one aren’t that rare any more), they then and only then go and buy it. But, the why would I go and pay these fantasy amount of cash when I still need food this afternoon? There is the dilemma, what I could do thou is, pay 50% less than the average prize for a CD/DVD, that I could definitely live with, actually that would make me feel better because now, I did sacrifice something, but own something that is physically there, to touch, to see, to feel, something that can become a part of you and is not your very own criminal record. And neither are available in Bites but they will slowly but surly. That been said, we are back in the start of the problem and the questions and the resolutions as we see and want them, those making the most profit of anything; those with capital have the power of control, the control is decreasing thanks to internet and it’s users (like exchanging information and data is only made by one specific group of humans) so they need more in profit to take control in what they didn’t have to.

We did with Newton’s theories refused to accept the package of beliefs and that made us to believe in individualism, now this is the next step, the unavoidable one; I want to pay exactly what I think it’s a fare price not something anyone else fabricate for me and try to feed me with.

Evolution, embrace it, none can escape or control it.

Daniel

But, digital music is here to stay, and I must argue that, so too is vinyl, a format that has kept going in the face of numerous formats that were supposed to replace it. In my world there should be no such thing as a “free” download, these musicians work for a living, pay them for their product. That said, this is an impossible variable to control, and therefore the music industry needs to adapt to the times and find a managable way so that all parties are happy, the musician, the record label and most importantly, the consumer.

But, I love the new music that is coming out with some “indie” bands who release their own music via CD Baby or some other venue. A band does not have to be signed to a “recording contract” (er the middleman), but it is that middle man who helps to finance the band. Talk to an “indie” band, they will tell you they need financial support, and who gives them that, the record companies. It is an extremely difficult paradox.

So it is not a hopeless dilema, it will all work out for the consumer and musicians and the record companies….if they can all get on the same page. The business model of music is changing, but the record companies have to change with it for it all to work.

Robert
http://www.collectingvinylrecords.com