Record Industry
Robbie Robertson
10/05/11 21:42
To prove I do more than rail against various things...
The new record (yes, so far as I am concerned they are still records) from Robbie Robertson, "How To Become Clairvoyant", is a great piece of work.
To listen to an extended interview (with three songs) from KCRW in Los Angeles there is a link here.
The new record (yes, so far as I am concerned they are still records) from Robbie Robertson, "How To Become Clairvoyant", is a great piece of work.
To listen to an extended interview (with three songs) from KCRW in Los Angeles there is a link here.
Comments
Record industry thinking
10/05/11 21:14
Amazon already have in the States a cloud-based music storage system.This enables its customers to upload music to a remote server so that they can access it from different devices. Google have followed this up with an announcement of their own service today.
Keeping true to form Google report that the demands of the record industry were wholly unrealistic and, if accepted, would have meant the service was emasculated. They have therefore launched this without the agreement of the record industry.
The thinking of the record industry can be seen here in a statement by the General Counsel of BMI (which is a publishing rights body in the States). They believe "that the public performing right has long applied to on-demand, interactive streaming". This means that if one decides to upload music from a record, CD, download to a cloud-based service that BMI believe that they should be paid before the uploader can listen.
Perhaps BMI and their industry friends should concentrate on working on ways to encourage new and innovative ways of encouraging their consumers to take paid content rather than sticking their heads in the sand and complaining how unfair it all is.
Keeping true to form Google report that the demands of the record industry were wholly unrealistic and, if accepted, would have meant the service was emasculated. They have therefore launched this without the agreement of the record industry.
The thinking of the record industry can be seen here in a statement by the General Counsel of BMI (which is a publishing rights body in the States). They believe "that the public performing right has long applied to on-demand, interactive streaming". This means that if one decides to upload music from a record, CD, download to a cloud-based service that BMI believe that they should be paid before the uploader can listen.
Perhaps BMI and their industry friends should concentrate on working on ways to encourage new and innovative ways of encouraging their consumers to take paid content rather than sticking their heads in the sand and complaining how unfair it all is.
Important news from California
27/04/11 22:00
Record industry accounting
06/04/11 21:07
Two recent cases illustrate how the record industry functions:-
1. Having successfully shut-down the peer-to-peer filesharing service Limewire the US industry body claimed $75 trillion dollars in damages. I had to go away and check how many zeros there are in a trillion.To save you the trouble try $75,000,000,000,000. Given that the gross domestic product of the UK in 2005 was a relatively modest £1,209,334,000,000 its good to know the record industry values itself so highly; and
2.Meanwhile back in the real world the record industry sticks to what it is really good at - screwing the talent. Recent litigation involving Eminen reveals that whilst he receives 12% royalties on the sale of product this increases to 50% for licensed product. The traditional justification for the differential is the actual cost of producing and distributing physical product. Strangely enough Universal Music Group decided to treat iTunes royalties as sales rather than licenses...even though an iTunes purchaser acquires a limited licence in respect of the content. Not surprisingly this did not wash with the judge. This ruling has great potential significance for a lot of older artists who were royally stitched-up on their original contracts and may now start getting (part) of what is properly due to them.
For a gripping account of rampant corruption in thee industry the Frederic Dannen book "Hit Men" is highly recommended.
1. Having successfully shut-down the peer-to-peer filesharing service Limewire the US industry body claimed $75 trillion dollars in damages. I had to go away and check how many zeros there are in a trillion.To save you the trouble try $75,000,000,000,000. Given that the gross domestic product of the UK in 2005 was a relatively modest £1,209,334,000,000 its good to know the record industry values itself so highly; and
2.Meanwhile back in the real world the record industry sticks to what it is really good at - screwing the talent. Recent litigation involving Eminen reveals that whilst he receives 12% royalties on the sale of product this increases to 50% for licensed product. The traditional justification for the differential is the actual cost of producing and distributing physical product. Strangely enough Universal Music Group decided to treat iTunes royalties as sales rather than licenses...even though an iTunes purchaser acquires a limited licence in respect of the content. Not surprisingly this did not wash with the judge. This ruling has great potential significance for a lot of older artists who were royally stitched-up on their original contracts and may now start getting (part) of what is properly due to them.
For a gripping account of rampant corruption in thee industry the Frederic Dannen book "Hit Men" is highly recommended.
Jon Bon Jovi accuses Steve Jobs of being 'personally responsible for killing the music business'
16/03/11 21:14
This is a subject on which I feel very qualified to comment upon.
For our older readers I recall that back in the early 1980's the music business ran a very high-profile campaign with the tag-line "Home taping is killing music". Dire Straits came along with the "Brothers in Arms" compact disc (savour those words) which was instrumental in kick-starting an enormous wave of people ditching (or rather duplicating) their vinyl for cds. The record industry rode on this wave and made fantastic money selling cds (in the UK) at up to £15 for new and catologue releases despite the production and distribution costs being fraction of that for vinyl discs.
Whilst I could go on and on and I will make the following points;-
1.Bon Jovi harkens back to a golden age when the music business screwed its customers royally;
2. His own listeners are opting to download individual songs rather than collections of his songs; and
3. If ship building etc is allowed to go down why should the music business be allowed some some special place?
I suggest he works a bit harder on coming-up with some better songs and engaging with his own fan base.
For my own part I am going to sell "Home Taping Killed Music" t-shirts and donate the proceeds to something worthy.
Don't start me on Van Morrison though...
For our older readers I recall that back in the early 1980's the music business ran a very high-profile campaign with the tag-line "Home taping is killing music". Dire Straits came along with the "Brothers in Arms" compact disc (savour those words) which was instrumental in kick-starting an enormous wave of people ditching (or rather duplicating) their vinyl for cds. The record industry rode on this wave and made fantastic money selling cds (in the UK) at up to £15 for new and catologue releases despite the production and distribution costs being fraction of that for vinyl discs.
Whilst I could go on and on and I will make the following points;-
1.Bon Jovi harkens back to a golden age when the music business screwed its customers royally;
2. His own listeners are opting to download individual songs rather than collections of his songs; and
3. If ship building etc is allowed to go down why should the music business be allowed some some special place?
I suggest he works a bit harder on coming-up with some better songs and engaging with his own fan base.
For my own part I am going to sell "Home Taping Killed Music" t-shirts and donate the proceeds to something worthy.
Don't start me on Van Morrison though...