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A Must-Read: The Social History Of The MP3
August 28, 2009
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
"The mess left by free digital music -- a collapsed industry, a rising generation of kids with a vastly different notion of musical "value" than their parents, a subset of that set with more eclectic tastes than a teenager should be capable of, and a wave of lawsuits that are going to appear increasingly surreal and ridiculous as they fall into history-- is going to take a while to sort out and clean up."
-- Eric Harvet, "The Social History Of The MP3" on pitchfork.comI don't remember the last time I read an article as good as Eric Harvey's. It's simply one of the best things ever written on about the state of the industry and how the mp3 changed everything.
Harvey writes in the article "This is our attempt to survey the damage, assess the gains, and try to put the mp3's first full decade in perspective."
He does all that and more and breaks the article into these parts: The MP3 Story Begins; Hoarding, Sharing, and The Recording Angel; Digital Music and Copyright Law; and Convergence Culture and the Next Step. I could go on and on about how well Mr. Harvey summarizes so much of what's been discussed in the media for too long about the subject of the music industry's lack of understanding about what digital technology, but I would ask that any of you reading this newsletter spend the time to read the article in full at: http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7689-the-social-history-of-the-mp3/1/.
I started this newsletter in late 2003 to start meaningful dialogue about the problems facing the music industry in hopes that somebody at some label might possibly get a copy from one of my readers (I had less than 50 industry readers back then and thanks to readers and viral networking, the newsletter now goes to almost 2,000 people direct, and is posted on the leading music industry website www.allaccess.com in the Digital Technology section), possibly get some ideas that were being discussed, and bring them to the table at a meeting.
That actually happened about a year later. A marketing person at a label e-mailed me and told me he had brought an article I had written about labels utilizing consumer retention strategies like those used in other industries into a weekly meeting. He was quickly reprimanded for even bringing up the newsletter and the ideas presented and wrote, "I was told in essence to 'Stay focused on the matters at hand ... selling what's in the system'."
Back in December 2003, I wrote in a commentary, "But how many in the industry today are looking at the very core of the business? How many are mapping out plans for profiles on the active music buyers and those who download? How many are studying the competition in the market today (Not from other artists, from other entertainment options and their pricing)? What are the industry's attack strategies? Defense strategies? What about consumer retention? New acquisition? Conversion strategies for consumers already buying CDs, DVDs, Video games, etc? What about customer data collection and usage info? What enhancements can the industry offer the consumer to sell more products? All these are questions that need to be addressed not just by individual labels, but also by the industry collectively."
It's six years later, and I'm of the opinion most of those questions went unanswered by the industry. (And as always, if any readers know different, please e-mail me.)
Part of the problems Mr. Harvey identifies in his article stem from those unanswered questions in a much larger sense. He talks about what was, and is no more, and what steps the industry might take to preserve what's left.
Harvey closes his article with this: "The second step is much tougher: using these new tools to push against the illogical constraints of those who think the old model is still viable, and set about redefining music's value. We've been conditioned for the past century to think about music as a commodity ... If the networked public sphere shaped by mp3s could collaboratively re-imagine itself not as an audience or a market but as members of a civil society, who feel that they deserve a stake in its own culture, then the rules going forward, and our appreciation of music's social and affective values, might emerge like mp3s themselves: from the bottom up. We've long since figured out how to grab and recirculate music. Now, let's make something with it."
"Let's make something of it." That's what I've been saying for six years.
Read the article ... it's terrific.
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 2
A BETTER WAY THAN PAID CONTENT
I gave my reasons why I don't believe Mr. Murdoch and others will succeed in their efforts to charge for news content in three separate issues of the newsletter.
This week, one of the most compelling arguments against paid content and a viable solution for news publishers is offered in an article titled "Hyperdistribution vs. The Pay Wall" on buzz machine.com. The article contains new analysis from the Newspaper Association of America, based on Nielsen Online data,and it finds that less than 1% of time spent online is spent on newspaper sites, and that newspaper sites presently drive less than 1% of total pages views online. (In case you're wondering, that's among the total "Active Digital Media Universe," which is Nielsen's term for the 195,974,309 U.S. unique monthly visitors online, both at home and at work.)
"The dialogue in the industry should not be about building pay-walls, punishing aggregators, tweaking copyright laws or anything else that would constrict, rather than build, the online audience for newspaper content," longtime newspaper executive Martin Langeveld writes on The Nieman Journalism Lab blog. "The dialogue should be primarily about transforming newspapers into online-first digital enterprises."
Jeff Jarvis, arguably the free Web's greatest proponent, insists that success for newspaper publishers lies in "hyperdistribution."
"Since when did it become OK for media people to shrink their audiences?" Jarvis asks. "Since they gave up on the ad model, that's when. But I am not ready to surrender to the idea that advertising, which has supported mass media since its creation, is over." Rather than a justification for paid models, falling ad rates, Jarvis adds, are all the more reason for publishers to attract larger "publics," along with more targeted and valuable communities.
You can read the article here: http://tinyurl.com/nrj4ld.
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 3
THE BEST OF ONLINE VIDEO ALL IN ONE PLACE
Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron has launched Mag.ma for "exploring, discovering, collecting, sharing, and tracking videos" online. The site, which aggregates what it deems to be the best videos from YouTube, Hulu, Twitter, Digg, Vimeo, Delicious, Dailymotion, and other video sites.
Check it out here: http://mag.ma/
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 4
IF EVER THERE WAS A QUOTE THAT THE RIAA SHOULD LEARN FROM...
"Be careful that victories do not carry the seed of future defeats." -- Ralph W. Sockman
An Interview With Michael Robertson: Digital Music's Bad Boy Was Right
Cnet.com's Greg Sandoval interviewed Michael Robertson this week, the man who founded pioneering digital music service MP3.com, and has never hesitated to make a prediction about the sector's future.
From the article, "The man who has fought more high-profile battles with the record industry than anybody in technology, and whose experience in digital music is nearly unmatched, has never appeared more prescient. He told me two years ago that ad-supported music sites would perish. The licensing fees required them to pay a penny, or some fraction of that, each time a service streamed a song to a user's computer, and that was too high to sustain a business. And now just look at the sector. It's a mess ... As for Robertson, he is certainly a lightning rod for controversy. He likely has as many enemies as friends in tech and music circles. His second major go at operating a digital music site, MP3tunes.com, has less than 500,000 users, which he acknowledges is "nothing." EMI has filed a copyright suit against him and MP3tunes.com. Still, his experience and track record at sizing up the sector make him impossible to ignore."
A terrific interview and a must read for anybody in the industry who wants to learn more about what might work in the online digital world of music.
Read more about it by clicking here.
The RIAA Loses Its Case Against Yahoo's Launch Media
Yes, those RIAA lawyers are still after the evil-doers online, and still wasting the money and time of the labels they (allegedly) represent.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Music Publishers Group Finally Sues Lyrics Sites
The National Music Publishers Association has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against two companies, LiveUniverse and Motive Force, for allegedly operating Web sites and applications that offer users free lyrics. The lawsuits, filed this week in federal district courts in California and Pennsylvania, mark the first time the publishers group has taken lyrics sites to court, says Pres./CEO David Israelite.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Musicians Look For A Way To Earn Pay In An MP3 World
by Laura SydellIt has been almost 10 years since Napster helped launch a revolution that turned the music industry on its head, allowing file-sharing fans to swap music on the Web. Record labels have blamed this phenomenon for a steep drop in CD sales.
Consider this: In early 2000, 'N Sync's "No Strings Attached" was on top of the Billboard album charts, selling nearly 2.5 million CDs in its first week. Now the bar has been lowered. Last year, it took only 1 million CDs for Lil' Wayne to reach the top of the charts.
Music industry revenues have dropped by half since file-sharing sites came on the scene. Attorney Don Passman, who has represented major recording artists such as Janet Jackson and R.E.M., says even fans of the biggest stars aren't paying for music.
Read more about it by clicking here.
New Digital Radio Boasts Color Touch Screen
There are many docking stations for the iPod/iPhone on the market, but if you're looking for one that's different -- possibly in a good way -- Revo has something for you.
The company announced on Monday its newest digital radio, the Ikon, which may be the first to come with a full-color 3.5-inch touch screen and an icon-based user interface. It also supports multistandard radio capabilities and works as a dock for the iPod or iPhone. It's a great looking toy ... check it out.
Read more about it by clicking here.
YOUNG & BAEZ IN TORONTO
Neil Young and Joan Baez will both be performing free during the Toronto Film Festival, IndieWire reports. Young will appear after the September 14th North American premiere of The Neil Young Trunk Show. On the 16th, Baez will perform at a showing of American Masters -- Joan Baez.
NO, IT'S NOT A JOKE
Pete Townsend is writing a new musical, and it's titled "Floss." Pete says. "At 64, I now want to take on ageing and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock'n'roll." (Editor's note: I guess "Floss" is better than "Wheelchair")
UNDERWOOD & PAISLEY TO HOST CMAs
Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley have been booked to host the Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, which airs live on ABC November 11th
CROW SELLS
Sheryl Crow is selling out selling off her musical catalogue. Rights to her songs were just acquired by the S1 Songs Group for a reported $10 million.
CHARLIE REJOINS DYLAN
Charlie Sexton, who played with Dylan from 1999 to 2002, has rejoined Bob Dylan's tour starting October 5th.
PAULA GETS A ONE-NIGHT GIG
Paula Abdul has locked down her first post-"American Idol" gig: she'll be hosting VH1's Divas, which airs live from Brooklyn, New York on September 17th at 9 p.m. This year's Divas features Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, Miley Cyrus and Adele.
MAYER NEWS
John Mayer has announced that his new album, "Battle Studies," is due November 17th.
WEIRD AL UPDATE
"The Essential 'Weird Al' Yankovic" is due October 27th, and an animated video for "Ringtone," a single from his "Internet Leaks" iTunes EP hit YouTube this week. The clip was co-directed by Dustin McLean, the man behind the popular "literal song" videos from Current TV.
DYLAN XMAS LP?
Bob Dylan's latest will be a Christmas album coming out on Columbia Oct. 13th. All U.S. royalties from "Christmas in the Heart," which features such holiday standards as "Little Drummer Boy," "Winter Wonderland" and "Here Comes Santa Claus" will benefit Feeding America, the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity, RollingStone.com reports.
FALL OUT BOY FALLS INTO JAIL
Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump spent a few hours in jail last night after being picked up by L.A. cops for an outstanding warrant for driving without a license. The singer-guitarist was held on $15,000 bail.
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE NEWS
Death Cab For Cutie will score the lead single for the upcoming "Twilight" sequel, "New Moon."
PASSING
Ellie Greenwich, the songwriter who along with producer Phil Spector and co-writer Jeff Barry, crafted some of the biggest and greatest singles of the 1960s, passed away at the age of 68. The AP reports that Greenwich died of a heart attack in New York's Roosevelt Hospital, where she was battling pneumonia. Among the most famous songs that list Greenwich as a songwriter are the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You," the Shangri-La's "Leader of the Pack," the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love," Tina & Ike Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" and the Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me" and "Da Doo Ron Ron." She also shepherded a young performer named Neil Diamond, producing his early hits "Cherry, Cherry" and "Kentucky Woman."
Quotes of the week
"Finally, the media would pay some attention to me."
-- Britney Spears, revealing the No. 1 way the country would be different if she were president, while presenting the Top 10 list on the Late Show with David Letterman"I'm too old for this s-."
-- Robin Wright Penn, on why she's moving on following her split from husband Sean Penn, to More magazine"Tabloids were my text books, I'd tear out pages. I embrace pop culture; everything that people say is poisonous, ostentatious and shallow. It's like my chemistry book. I look though everything and make what I believe is art out of it."
-- Lady GaGa, talking to CNN"That originally was mentioned a number of years ago and we all sort of said we'd look at it. But there was a logjam with the people who took over EMI -- there were some aspects of the whole thing that they became nervous about. So the deal got stuck. So we're just waiting. Meantime, as you say, it's kind of interesting, because virtually the same kind of thing is going to happen with 'Rock Band' -- you're going to be able to download albums from that. We bypassed the logjam -- not really intentionally. But one day I think that it's natural that it will be on iTunes."
-- Paul McCartney, talking to Billboard about why The Beatles catalog still isn't online at iTunes"I would imagine ... I can't tell you for sure, but I think there's a little animosity that I went with another management agency. Which is for me to know and you to find out. I'm certainly not in outs with the guys. But look, I do what I do. The easiest thing in the world is to say he's drunk or stoned. But what are you gonna do?"
-- Steven Tyler in Rolling Stone"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the ef-nets and darknets, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Internets."
-- The Pirate Bay
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Area Man To Hang Out At McDonald's For 20 Minutes Until Lunch Menu Goes Up
ERIE, PA-Upon being informed by a McDonald's cashier that the lunch menu would not be available until 11 a.m., restaurant patron Don Turnbee elected to wait 20 minutes inside the fast food establishment Saturday until the items he ordered would be served.
"There aren't any other stores or anything that I like around here, so I figured I would just wait," said Turnbee, who typically frequents the McDonald's in the Buffalo Road shopping plaza, but chose to stop at the Pleasant Valley location because of its proximity to his wife's hair salon. "The girl at the counter said I could still get breakfast if I wanted, but 10:40's too late for breakfast."
Added Turnbee, "I want lunch."
Read the rest here and laugh: http://tinyurl.com/n45nvl.
THE RADIO INTERVIEW on 'THE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE' - From newsblaze.com
"Steve Meyer is on the front line of global music sales and distribution which he expects will soar to pocket-bursting levels. What's more, he shares his insight and ingenuity with us. Steve gives us both historical perspective and futuristic vision as he chats with Judy about the love of his work, trends of the business and his personal points of view about success, happiness and blending life with the lust for life. Steve joins Judy and helps us discover the thrill of having it all with a sense of balance and purpose. "
You can listen to an interview I did with Judy Piazza of 'The American Perspective' by clicking here: (It runs about 15 minutes)
http://www.thesop.org/index.php?id=10306.
The Blogs
Check out Jerry Del Colliano's (the founder of INSIDE RADIO) daily blog, by clicking here: http://www.insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com