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What's Plan B? (Or Is This Where RIAA Lobbying Money Goes?)
September 24, 2010
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. 24 years working in executive promotion capacities at both Capitol Records and at Universal Studios' MCA Records. Recognized as one of the industry's top professionals.
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"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet."
-- Mark TwainThis week our "lawmakers" (I don't think I need to explain why I put quotation marks on that word) inside Washington D.C. introduced legislation that would let the Justice Department seek U.S. court orders against piracy websites anywhere in the world, and shut them down through the sites' domain registration.
"The bipartisan legislation, dubbed the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, (.pdf) amounts to the Holy Grail of intellectual-property enforcement. The recording industry and movie studios have been clamoring for such a capability since the George W. Bush administration. If passed, the Justice Department could ask a federal court for an injunction that would order a U.S. domain registrar or registry to stop resolving an infringing site's domain name, so that visitors to PirateBay.org, for example, would get an error message." (Source: http://tiny.cc/917ev )
And lo and behold, none other than high-paid RIAA chairman Mitch Bainwol welcomed the proposal, saying "The trafficking of pirated American movies and music from rogue websites outside our borders is a big business," Bainwol said. "This bill is a welcome first step toward cutting off the financial lifeline that sustains these illegal operations and threatens the livelihoods of countless members of the American music community."
It's long been a dream of the music industry to shutter every website possible that allows people to download copyrighted material illegally. Now of course, the movie industry is jumping on the bandwagon as DVD sales plunge. (See 'The A Side Track 5' below)
I'm sure the RIAA spent lots of their lobbying dollars trying to get this legislation written. They will probably spend more to get it passed.
I have never condoned illegal file-sharing. In fact, when I started this newsletter back in 2003 I wrote, "The fact that the Internet has made file-sharing accessible to a global market is not good news for the music industry. But, the technology that exists that has allowed people to file-share and download music isn't ever going to go away despite the best efforts of the industry to stop it all."
That statement is even truer today than it was seven years ago.
As I've said many times here in my commentaries, even if the powers-that-be could shut down all the websites around the world that offer file-sharing, it wouldn't stop people from downloading music on offline Intranets and on darknets. (Closed private network of computers used for file-sharing that fly below online detection) And what about all the people who just burn copies of CDs for friends? And those friends burn their copies for other friends? And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby.
Let's assume that this "Holy Grail of intellectual-property enforcement" will be passed. Let's imagine then that the legislation once enacted, results in hundreds of file-sharing sites being shut down all over the globe.
Is there anyone who really believes if that happens, CD sales will not decline further? Is there anyone who really believes this legislation will save what is left of the music industry?
If neither of those things happen (and I am of the opinion that neither will happen), then what? What's plan B?
When Plan B is finally put down on paper, the first order of business should be stop sending money to the RIAA to lobby politicians who have no understanding of digital technology.
Passing legislation will make it harder for people to download music illegally, but it's not going to solve the problem at hand I've been talking about now for almost a decade. How does the industry (labels, artists, producers, songwriters, studio musicians, etc.) co-exist in a digital world where "Most people still steal music. We can build the technology, but there are still ways for people to steal music." (Microsoft's Steve Ballmer back in October 2004)
That's the only question the industry needs to ask itself.
Trying to plug holes in the digital dike that's been leaking for over a decade won't stop the flood.
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 2
A BIG "DUH" FROM BEST BUY
Within a week of the iPads release back on April 9th, I wrote the following: "There's even talk the iPad might be the new netbook. "Despite the fact that the Apple iPad and the netbooks essentially target different sets of customers, it is being largely believed that the plunging netbook sales during the first quarter -- the three months leading up to the iPad's launch -- are an indication that the days of netbooks are probably numbered." (Source: http://tinyurl.com/y9lofpo )
Last week Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn in the Wall Street Journal noted that "internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs, especially netbooks, by as much as 50%." ( Source: http://tiny.cc/014om )
Five months later and "internal estimates" showed that, huh?
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 3
FOLLOW-UP ON THE VIDEO GAME NEWS FROM LAST WEEK
Last week I noted that Microsoft's latest video game in the 'Halo' series grossed $200 million on its first day of release globally.
This week's come news that full video game digital downloads are surpassing retail unit sales. (Source: http://tiny.cc/itc1c )
More media content being delivered online direct to consumers everyday.
If companies are not taking advantage of the online game, it's a shame.
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 4
NETFLIX NOW AFFECTING CABLE TV SUBSCRIPTIONS
Netflix has already contributed to putting what was once the country's largest video rental chain, Blockbuster, into bankruptcy.
Now comes news that 37% of Netflix subscribers aged 25 to 34 have cancelled their pay-TV services in favor of Netflix's streaming service, according to a report by Credit Suisse.
From the article, "An alarming survey by Credit Suisse should serve as a wake up call to the broadcast networks and cable companies that they need to take control of their revenue destiny right now, while they still have some negotiating power."
Like I said, technology never sleeps.
Read the rest here: http://tiny.cc/kegtr
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 5
FOLLOW-UP TO 'ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WERE ACTUALLY VIDEO STORES' AND DVDs DECLINE
I wrote about Blockbuster filing for bankruptcy in the issue a couple of weeks ago and how Netflix and those Redbox vending machines had changed the entire video rental business.
This week the news was made official and one report echoed what I had said, "Its problems have been made worse by a growing number of vending machines that rent films for as little as a dollar a day, as well as an explosion in the number of consumers streaming movies online, either illegally or through legitimate sites such as Netflix and iTunes. DVD and video stores appear to be as threatened as high-street music shops ... Hollywood studios have also been suffering from the huge decline in the once-lucrative DVD sales market, which is down 40% from its historic peak." (Source: http://tiny.cc/jxl7a )
Down 40% from its peak. Yowsa.
The DVD has declined not just because people have less money to spend, but because (as in the case with so many CD titles) the consumers aren't buying the disposable titles like they used to. Titles like 'Avatar' sell millions. But the films that are in theaters one week and gone the next, then rushed to pay-for-view, cable TV and into the retail market as DVDs are already forgotten by the public.
Note to all studio execs: You can sell good movies to all of the people most of the time, you can sell mediocre movies to some people some of the time, but you can't sell bad movies to anybody like you used to.
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The Futurehit.DNA Challenge...Your Last Week To Enter
Good friend Jay Frank, SVP/Music Strategy for CMT (who oversees music strategy as it relates to all of the network's on-air and digital music initiatives across all properties, including CMT, CMT.com, CMT Mobile, games, touring and other businesses), is a reader of this newsletter, and the author of the book which provides a songwriting compass, Futurehit.DNA. Jay stands at the forefront of the new music industry with his theories on the elements of a hit song and Futurehit.DNA is a must read for all songwriters everywhere.
Now artists have the opportunity to put the ideas Jay describes in Futurehit.DNA to music as part of the Futurehit.DNA Songwriting Challenge. Jay will give three top-notch submissions featured placement on his blog, futurehitdna.com and his social networks. One Grand Prize winner will receive a career-changing opportunity to receive an hour-long consultation with Jay on what makes their tune hit-worthy and what next steps are appropriate. Entries for this unique contest are available until October 1st.
"People don't listen to music the same way anymore," says Frank, "and they certainly don't discover music the same way anymore... If artists aren't going to pay attention to that, then they are going to lose out on the key methodology that people utilize to find your music. You have to play into the way technology works by saying to yourself, 'How do I listen to this when it comes through on that technology? How does it sound when it first comes in that way?' Those are the artists that are going to succeed moving forward."
To get your copy of Futurehit.DNA or submit songs to Jay for consideration, please go to www.futurehitdna.com.
And Now For Some News ...
Is This The Future Of Rock'n'Roll?
NY TIMES & INSIDE MUSIC MEDIAThis past week the New York Times did an article about just how big rock and roll merchandising has become. (Although, I think most of us have known this for some time)
You can read the New York Times article here: http://tiny.cc/78ciz
Read more about it by clicking here.
Global Wireless Subscriptions At 5 Billion And Counting
ISUPPLI.COMMarking a major milestone in the history of technology, the number of worldwide subscriptions for wireless services is expected to reach 5 billion this month, equaling 73.4 percent of the earth's population, according to the market research firm iSuppli Corp.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Bob Marley Family Loses Ownership Of Songs
ACE SHOWBIZThe family of reggae legend Bob Marley has lost a lawsuit seeking ownership of his most famous tracks.
Executives at UMG Recordings were declared the rightful owners of copyrights to five albums that Marley recorded between 1973 and 1977 for Island Records.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Olive, Digital Tunes For Technophobes
CNET.COMA lot of home audio devices let you stream digital music from your computer to your stereo over a home network.
Olive's digital servers also connect to your stereo, but let you rip CDs to digital formats right on the device -- no computer required.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Tunecore Helps Artists With Ping Accounts
TUNECORE BLOGTuneCore, a service that helps artists post their music for sale at iTunes and other retailers, has posted details for its musician clients on how they can set up Artist accounts on Apple's new Ping music social network within iTunes.
Read more about it by clicking here.
People Spend A Half-Day Consuming Media
THE WRAPMore has changed in media consumption over the last two years than in the 30 years that proceeded it, says Bruce Friend, president of Ipsos OTX MediaCT. Citing a new Ipsos OTX study of 7,000 online consumers ages 13-74, Friend said that thanks to smartphones and laptops, people are now spending one-half of their waking days interacting with media, and have increased their media consumption by an hour per day over the last two years.
"Communicating is now entertaining, and entertainment is communication," Friend adds. "The speed at which things can be delivered thanks to broadband, and the ways it can be delivered, with DVR and VOD, mean that the speed of change has ramped up in an unprecedented way."
Read more about it by clicking here.
If It Worked For YouTube, Why Not MP3?
HYPEBOT.COMThere has been a great of buzz around music lockers in the cloud lately, including those planned by Google and iTunes. But MP3.com's founder Michael Roberston has been fighting a not-so-quiet battle to gain traction and legitimacy for his own music locker startup MP3Tunes for years. That battle reached the courts three years ago when Capital EMI took Roberston to court over a sister site which helped users search for music for their lockers, Sideload.com.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Is Now Worth More Than Steve Jobs
FORBESI guess dropping out of Harvard isn't such a bad thing if you've got something else going you think might end up being worthwhile.
Just five years after dropping out of Harvard to found Facebook, at the age of 26, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is now worth more than Apple's Steve Jobs, with a fortune now estimated to be worth $6.9 billion. That puts him at #35 on Fortune's 400.
Read more about it by clicking here.
MAYBE SHE SHOULD GO BACK TO GIVING AWAY CARS:
Giving away a free trip to Australia for her whole audience (with John Travolta piloting a Quantas jet) might have been necessary. For the 2009-10 season, "Judge Judy" averaged 6.5 million viewers -- 600,000 more viewers, on average, than "Oprah," according to Nielsen.
FREDDIE MERCURY BIOPIC ON WAY:
Sacha Baron Cohen will play Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in an upcoming film to be produced in 2011. The movie will center around the band's formative years all the way up to Queen's appearance at Live Aid in 1985.
JERRY'S PAD FOR SALE:
Jerry Garcia's 11-acre Marin County, CA estate, where the Grateful Dead singer lived before his death in 1995, has come on the market for $4 million. The home is equipped with a large artist's studio, solar-heated pool, organic garden and a view of the Pacific Ocean.
HITCHED:
Eddie Vedder married girlfriend Jill McCormick on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, Saturday, September 18th, 2010. Tim Robbins was the best man.
YEAH, WE KNOW:
Steven Tyler was officially announced as an "American Idol" judge on Wednesday (as was J-Lo). Tyler will also finally embark on his long-planned solo career with a track called "Love Lives," which will appear in the Japanese film, "Space Battleship Yamato." (And I'm sure he'll have as much success as Paula Abdul did when she tried to put out new records while a judge)
KID ROCK PAYS:
Kid Rock and his entourage have been ordered to pay $40,000 to the man he assaulted at an Atlanta Waffle House in 2007. A jury found the rocker responsible for the incident, which left the victim with $6,000 in medical fees and a broken cell phone. Rock will only pay 15% of the award; his guitarist Jason Krause will pay 70% because it was determined he threw the first punch.
MAYBE IT WAS THE FACT THAT HIS BEARD WAS KINDA LIKE THEIRS:
ZZ Top will collaborate with producer Rick Rubin when the bearded rockers enter the studio to record the follow-up to 2003's "Mescalero."
T-BONE CONCERTS FOR GOOD CAUSE:
Elton John, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp and Gregg Allman will all take the stage when producer T Bone Burnett's Speaking Clock Revue comes to Boston (the Wang Center, October 16th) and New York (Beacon Theatre, October 20th). The concerts will raise money for the Participant Foundation, which supports music and arts education in public schools.
MAYER SEZ BUH-BYE TO TWITTER:
John Mayer closed his Twitter account last week, leaving his 3.7 million followers in the dark. (I'm sure they will all survive this) Like a growing number of social networkers, Mayer has made his primary forum the stylish, image-laden Tumblr.
GOOGLE STORE STUFF:
Google is circulating a proposal among the Big Four indicating that the company's music service will include an a la carte digital download store and a cloud-based locker at around $25 a year, industry sources told the bible's Ed Christman.
HBO HOT WITH GANGSTERS AGAIN:
HBO has already ordered a second season of Boardwalk Empire, the new gangster drama that debuted on Sunday night. The premiere drew 7.1 million viewers over its three airings, while the actual first airing drew 4.5 million viewers-its highest premiere since Deadwood debuted in 2004.
IF VERIZON DOES GET THE iPHONE:
If Verizon Wireless gets the iPhone next year, there's little doubt some AT&T customers with the Apple device would shift to Verizon. In a new report highlighted by MobileBeat, Credit Suisse took a crack at estimating the impact on AT&T. The Wall Street firm projects 23% of AT&T iPhone subscribers, or about 1.4 million people, would drop the carrier for Verizon in the event it begins offering the Apple phone. Ouch.
APPLE READIES SMALLER iPAD:
Apple Inc. may be readying a version of its iPad tablet computer with a 7-inch screen to fend off a threat from competing smaller-sized devices, according to an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw LLC. The product may be ready as soon as the first quarter of 2011. The current iPad has a 9.7-inch screen.
PASSING:
The basketball coach and gym teacher who inspired the name of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Leonard Skinner died this week in Jacksonville, Florida. He was 77.
The Music Industry Past, Present & Future, And The Internet I answer questions on EconTalk
I did an interview about the industry and the Internet at EconTalk with host Russ Roberts. Russ is also a professor of economics at George Mason University, blogs at Cafe Hayek, and has written three novels that teach economics. He's also the co-creator of the Keynes-Hayek rap video. (And if your understanding of the economic meltdown that occurred needs to be enlightened, this video will do it)
In the interview we talk about the evolution of the music industry, the impact of the digital revolution, and I give my reasons for believing in the virtues and potential of the Internet in enhancing the music industry. I point out, as I have many times here in the newsletter, that the internet allows numerous artists to make money from their music and it can enhance revenues from live performances by expanding an artist's base. We also discuss the challenges facing record companies and I suggest that the full potential of the Internet as a distribution channel has yet to be fully exploited. There's a lot of ground covered, but based on the comments already posted of those who have tuned in, they've enjoyed it.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Quotes of the week
"No one knows how we really are ... Like me, I'll go to frickin' Barnes & Nobles, get a coffee and just sit down and read."
-- Jersey Shore star Snooki, revealing a little-known side of her, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. (Yes, but if you're reading comics...)"Next time I'll wear a tofu dress and the soybean police will come after me!"
-- Lady GaGa at her concert in Philadelphia, about her VMA meat outfit controversy
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Classic Movie 'Avatar' Updated For Today's Audiences
LOS ANGELES-Paramount Pictures confirmed Monday the Dec. 23 release date for Avatar 2KX, a remake of the beloved 2009 sci-fi thriller Avatar that will bring the story into the modern era with faster-paced action sequences and cutting-edge visual effects.
Read the rest here and laugh: Click Here.
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
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