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The Ongoing Piracy Thing
January 29, 2010
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We were one of the first content businesses to have to grapple with a business model that suddenly wasn't a business model at all. Suddenly it became common for consumers - and businesses - to use our music without paying for it.
-- Elio Leoni Sceti, chief executive, EMI MusicFor years now I've been telling readers that despite the best efforts of the RIAA and IFPI (the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), and any reports to the contrary, there was no stopping illegal file-sharing and downloading.
Once the "Pandora's Box" of technology was opened, the technology that allowed people to download, send digital music files to one another, burn their own CDs, etc., there was never going to be a way to stop piracy. Those who have tried to stop it via legislation (both the RIAA and IFPI and a host of other associations representing artists and creative content originators) instead of seeking solutions on how to exist in a world where this technology exists, have wasted precious time and untold millions.
I have said before, but I will say it again now: I don't condone illegal file-sharing or downloading. But, after spending hours and hours talking to tech people over the past decade, I'm smart enough to know it's never going to go away and it will never be eliminated. Those who believe that someday they can somehow stop it all are delusional, or at the very least completely ignorant in regards to the impossibilities of trying to reverse the technology that exists. It would seem by all appearances (and press releases) both the RIAA and IFPI are in one of these two categories. If they are technology educated, they would then realize all the millions they spend trying to legislate away what technology can do, are wasted.
In its report for 2009, IFPI noted that though the music industry has increased "its digital revenues by 940% since 2004, piracy has been the major factor behind the overall global market decline of around 30% in the same period," The report also says online store such as Apple's iTunes store accounted for 27% of the world's recorded music sales last year. (The bestselling track online was "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga, selling 9.8 million units.) Source: http://tinyurl.com/8fyq8e )
In the same report, IFPI calls for "the urgent need for legislation to curb digital piracy on ISP networks." There it is again. The wishful thinking that will surely lead to the same place it has lead the RIAA and IFPI to for years now. Nowhere.
Thinking ISPs will suddenly decide to give up their subscribers who are downloading, is simply not rational. If ISPs had to do so, they would lose millions of subscribers, and tens of millions more in revenues. More important, even if the RIAA and IFPI could force ISPs to do so, it wouldn't solve the problem because tens of thousands of "darknets" (online or offline nets that fly under detected radar) would spring up all over the globe.
Many of you probably remember the insane judgment in the amount of $1.9 million originally handed down to a Minnesota woman for illegally downloading. (See the first news story below) The RIAA reveled when the judgment was announced and declared it a huge victory in their already lost battle against downloaders.
From the news story, "A Minnesota District Court judge has significantly slashed the $1.92 million fine against Minnesota mom Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who was sued by the RIAA after illegally downloading 24 songs through peer-to-peer networks. In a decision, Judge Michael Davis found that the decision to fine Thomas-Rasset's $80,000 per song was "simply shocking" and downright unconstitutional. Davis then sliced the penalty to $2,250 per song for a grand total of $54,000 - a 97% drop from the previous sentence, Copyrights & Campaigns reports. The major labels named as plaintiffs in the case now have seven days to decide whether to accept this fine or let Thomas-Rasset go to trial for a third time ... Richard Marx, who was one of the artists Thomas-Rasset downloaded on the peer-to-peer network, said he was "ashamed" that he was involved in the excessive punishment and called the $1.92 million fine against the Minnesota mom "misguided and at worst, farcical."
Back in 2004, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer said ""Most people still steal music. We can build the technology but there are still ways for people to steal music."
Six years later, nothing has changed that fact. It's long past the time for the RIAA, IFPI, and others to wake up and realize their efforts should be directed at creating new ways to generate new revenues. Once they do that, those artists they say they are fighting for, will be better off. The music companies will be better off.
And they can save the millions they waste annually in a world where the "Pandora's Box" of technology is never going to be shut.
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 2
THE APPLE iPAD FOLLOW-UP
Unless you haven't watched one iota of TV news this week, or read about it online or in your newspaper of choice, you already know that Apple made its announcement this week of its newest product, the iPad. (Not the iTablet, not the iSlate, or a dozen other names that were floating around the Internet and rumored to be possibilities.)
The reaction from the media was not one of surprise, of course (news of the device's forthcoming leaked a long time ago), and most tech journalists want to get their hands on it before they make final decisions. But there are already those who are raving about it, and others who are not so thrilled and have a "wait-and-see" attitude and opinion.
If you haven't seen the iPad, you can see check it out online at the Apple site at http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/
I'll keep you up-to-date on the sales stories as they become available.
(Note to all the readers who sent me e-mails saying you were buying one ASAP: Your reviews would be most appreciated )
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 3
THE PAID CONTENT THING UPDATE ... AND THIS ISN'T GOOD NEWS FOR THOSE WHO THINK IT WILL BE A BIG SUCCESS
Well, Long Island's favorite newspaper tried it. After three months, guess how many people signed up for the $5 a week -- or $260 a year -- paid subscription to access content from the newspaper online? Would you believe only 35? (Source: http://tinyurl.com/yf5yv66 )
Needless to say, the newspaper was not at all happy with those numbers.
Needless to say, others who believe paid content will provide a new significant revenue stream are now thinking maybe that isn't going to happen.
And Now For Some News ...
Judge Slashes RIAA's $1.92 Million Fine Against Minnesota Mom
Rolling StoneMore evidence the RIAA lawsuits waste money for nothing.
A Minnesota District Court judge has significantly slashed the $1.92 million fine against Minnesota mom Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who was sued by the RIAA after illegally downloading 24 songs through peer-to-peer networks. In a decision announced today, Judge Michael Davis found that the decision to fine Thomas-Rasset's $80,000 per song was "simply shocking" and downright unconstitutional. Davis then sliced the penalty to $2,250 per song for a grand total of $54,000 - a 97% drop from the previous sentence, Copyrights & Campaigns reports. The major labels named as plaintiffs in the case now have seven days to decide whether to accept this fine or let Thomas-Rasset go to trial for a third time.
Richard Marx, who was one of the artists Thomas-Rasset downloaded on the peer-to-peer network, said he was "ashamed" that he was involved in the excessive punishment and called the $1.92 million fine against the Minnesota mom "misguided and at worst, farcical."
My congratulations to Mr. Marx for stating what was so blatantly obvious.
Read more about it by clicking here.
While some news media outlets reported earlier that Verizon would disconnect its subscribers who illegally download music, Verizon's spokesperson cane out and quickly squelched that.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Hello Music Gets $4M
SoCal TechLos Angeles-based Hello Music, a new startup looking to help identify musicians and help them distribute their music, said Friday that it has raised $4M in a private equity funding.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Apple Has Best Quarter In History, Earnings Jump 50%
Cnet.comApple first-quarter 2010 earnings soared past Wall Street expectations Monday, with the company reporting a profit of $3.37 billion, or $3.74 per share. That's up 50% from the same quarter a year ago, when profits reached $2.26 billion, or $2.54 per share.
Revenue for the quarter was $15.6 billion, up 32% from the same quarter a year ago ... In short, it was Apple's best quarter in company history.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Hewlett-Packard Partners With U.K.'s Omnifone For Digital Music Service In Europe
Hewlett-Packard, the world's #1 PC company, said Monday it was partnering with U.K. mobile music startup Omnifone Ltd. to launch a subscription music service on its personal computers in Europe, moving into a market dominated by Apple Inc.'s iTunes.
Read more about it by clicking here.
MusicScout Beta Available
IndieMusicTecg.comEssentially, Music Scout is location-aware mobile music app for the Android and iPhone that enables music enthusiasts to express their thoughts and sentiments about the band they're watching in real-time directly from the venue. Not only can users rate and express their feelings about a band or musician, but Music Scout will begin to trace and identify the individuals that are actually scouting and discovering the next hot bands before they become known acts, providing of course, they're using the service, but to help encourage use they are building in a future reward system.
Read more about it by clicking here.
AutoTag Website
Autotag.comAudioTag is a free music recognition service that allows you to identify over 1 million songs by simply uploading a 15-second clip (almost any audio file format and bit-rate is accepted), or by submitting a YouTube URL.
Read more about it by clicking here.
ArtistData Releases Improved UI, New Features, Paid Options And More
ArtistData boasts over 20,000 musicians using the site that provides a free account. Their artists have made 2,655,759 show, news, or blog updates across MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. That's given them more time to write music, meet fans, and be creative.
This week they released some significant improvements. Below is a little bit of what Brenden Mulligan had to say.
"Today we released the single largest revision to the ArtistData platform. For the past few months we've been reworking and improving the user interface to develop a framework that will allow us to drastically expand our site's capabilities. We are thrilled to share it with everyone today ... There are many back-end upgrades, including time-zone support to make our timed notifications more relevant, full character support so users all over the world can use their native characters, and a ton of smaller bug fixes just to make the site work better.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Apple To TV Nets: Slash Prices On Downloads
The Business InsiderOn the eve of the Apple tablet release, Steve Jobs is asking TV networks to get cheap. In meetings with television executives, Apple has also been urging TV networks to slash their price tags on shows sold through iTunes to $0.99 -- half of the standard $1.99 price. Apple believes lowering prices will increase sales dramatically, offsetting any revenue lost from the cuts.
Networks are resisting, citing the music industry's 2003 pact with Apple to reduce prices. The plan helped boost downloads, but album sales slumped. With DVRs, Netflix and illegal online downloads already plaguing TV studios' profits, Apple asking networks to reduce prices might seem unfair. Yet a quick review of the Top 10 TV shows downloaded on iTunes, including "24," "The Office" and "Vampire Diaries," show each episode costs $2.99. Bundled "season passes" are also pricey. NBC's The Office season 6 pass costs $59.99.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Windows 7 Lifts Microsoft Earnings
Cnet.comApple isn't the only tech company releasing good income statements. With a boost from the release of Windows 7, Microsoft on Thursday said that its quarterly revenue topped $19 billion as the company sold a record number of copies of its operating system.
The software maker said it earned $6.66 billion, or 74 cents per share, on revenue of $19.02 billion for the three-month period that ended December 31st. Exceptional demand for Windows 7 led to the positive top-line growth for the company," chief financial officer Peter Klein said in a statement.
Read more about it by clicking here.
HOPE FOR HAITI DOWNLOADS
Total iTunes downloads of the "Hope For Haiti Now" special, including both full album sales and individual tracks, have now topped $3 million, with all proceeds benefiting Haiti relief funds. The Hope For Haiti album also topped this week's Billboard 200 chart with 170,000 digital copies sold, marking the first time in chart history that a digital-only album debuted at #1 on the charts. iTunes' $3 million haul accounts for nearly all digital sales of the project.
"AVATAR" NOW ON TOP
As anticipated, this week James Cameron topped himself as "Avatar" replaced his "Titanic" as the biggest grossing movie in history worldwide.
UNDERWOOD ON SUPER BOWL
Former American Idol winner and four-time Grammy-award winner, Carrie Underwood, will sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl XLIV at Sun Life Stadium in South Florida on Sunday, February 7th on CBS
THE iPHONE GAINS GROUND IN BUSINESS ARENA:
Challenging Apple's stigma as not business-friendly, corporate use of the iPhone doubled since the release of the faster iPhone 3GS last summer, company COO Tim Cook said on an earnings call Monday. Cook said about 70% of Fortune 100 companies are testing or using iPhones as their corporate communications device -- largely credited to support for Microsoft Exchange. According to analysts, this gives the iPhone a fighting chance to take on RIM's BlackBerry.
TICKETMASTER MERGER DONE:
The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the pending merger between Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc., the companies said Monday. As a part of the agreement with the Justice Department, the companies will divest Ticketmaster's ticketing subsidiary, Paciolan, to Comcast-Spectacor and has agreed to license the Ticketmaster Host technology to Anschutz Entertainment Group. Live Nation and Ticketmaster also reached a similar deal with the Canadian Commissioner of Competition. Once the union is finalized, the company will be renamed Live Nation Entertainment Inc.
CSI OPENS THE DOORS:
The February 21st episode of CBS drama, "Cold Case," will be exclusively soundtracked by Doors songs. "Light My Fire," "Waiting for the Sun," "Love Her Madly," "Wild Child," "Riders on the Storm," "Moonlight Drive" and "People Are Strange" will provide the backdrop for an investigation into a suspicious 1971 death of a circus performer.
TYLER DOES KARAOKE:
Steven Tyler may not be singing for Aerosmith anytime soon, but he's still finding a way to perform his band's songs ... karaoke-style. According to Palm Springs, CA's The Desert Sun, Tyler and his management team visited the Tilted Kilt pub earlier this week. "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing"
HOPE FOR HAITI BRINGS IN BUCKS:
Last Friday's night's Hope for Haiti Now telethon raised a record-breaking $57 million from viewers, while the album set a mark for largest-ever pre-order on iTunes,
SCORPIONS DONE:
The Scorpions are calling it quits. According to the AP, the German rockers announced on their website that their March album, "Sting In The Tail," will be their last, writing, "We agree we have reached the end of the road."
YOU WON ... WAIT A MINUTE, NO YOU DIDN'T:
The Black Eyed Peas won and then lost the award for Best International Group at France's NRJ Awards this past weekend. Due to an announcement error, the trophy was yanked and given to Tokio Hotel, the BBC reports.
AOL GETS SEED:
In its first major acquisition since being spun off from Time Warner, AOL is living up to its promise to focus more on a content play. AOL this week announced a deal to acquire StudioNow, an online platform for creating and distributing video programming, and said it would integrate it into its recently launched content management system Seed.com
DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL NEWS:
AC/DC will join Megadeth, Motörhead, Them Crooked Vultures and Stone Temple Pilots at June 11th-13th's Download Festival in the U.K. The BBC reports that the fest's capacity has been expanded to 110,000; tickets go on sale January 29th.
TIMBERLAKE TO HARVARD:
Justin Timberlake will receive Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award at a roast in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 6th, the AP reports.
THE BOSS STAYS A BIT LONGER:
"From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen," an exhibit on the Jersey legend at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has been extended through 2010, the AP reports. Check out highlights from the show, which now includes Bruce's first car.
PERRY LIKED JUDGING:
Katy Perry tells MTV she wouldn't mind quitting her day job to judge on "American Idol" full-time. "I didn't really make anybody cry, but I did tell the truth to some kids that might have needed to hear it," she said.
Quotes of the week
"I have some presence of psychological damage from the past 36 months. I have not had a woman appear in my dreams sexually without a paparazzi in the dream, too."
-- John Mayer, on the negative effects fame has had on his romantic life, to Rolling Stone. Gee John, if you don't want the fame, just stop making music and dating hot celebrity females."Go through my high school yearbooks ... I always looked like a f'n weirdo."
-- Pop upstart Ke$ha, on how her rebellious image isn't just an act, to EW. And so did Lady GaGa, and David Bowie, and Madonna, and so on and so on."I was very surprised and, yes, you have a beautiful bottom end."
-- "American Idol" guest judge Shania Twain, awkwardly praising Idol hopeful John Park"God bless her that she likes older guys. And some wonderful enhancements have happened in the last few years - Viagra, Cialis - that can make us all feel younger."
-- Michael Douglas, 65, on bridging the 25-year age gap between him and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, to AARP magazine. Yup, it can make you FEEL younger Michael, but inside, the parts still get rusty.
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.comWebsite
Check out attorney Ray Beckerman's website at: http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com where he prints news about the RIAA's ongoing activities
TinyURL
Check out www.tinyurl.com where you can make a smaller URL that will work for any webpage you wish to link to or reference. (As you can see, I'm using it in my news stories above!)
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