Business – Page 10 – Scratch My Brain

Downloading music on Internet is fool’s game — and illegal

Downloading music on Internet is fool’s game — and illegal

That is the headline of this Rochester Democrat & Chronicle piece. You would think that a newspaper would employ people that understand at least the broader meanings of the English language. There are plenty of ways to download music on the internet that are completely legal, and not a fool’s game. Using P2P programs like the ones mentioned in the piece, do fit the description, but this writer makes no attempt to differentiate between grabbing a song off Kaazaa and buying a download from iTunes, Yahoo Music, or an artist’s site.

With journalists like this informing the population, our chances of empowering artists through technology are doomed. When I launched my mp3 store, I announced it on a forum that I frequent. One of the other users commented something to the effect of “that’s cool, but downloading is wrong, and I would never do that to you.” I tried to explain that people paid for the downloads and I got the money, so that was a good thing. He eventually got it, but geez…

Geldof cancels Italian tour after only 45 fans turn up for Milan gig

Guardian Unlimited Arts | Arts news | Geldof cancels Italian tour after only 45 fans turn up for Milan gig

Millions of people like to hear Bob Geldof talk about causes as diverse as debt relief and the rights of fathers but it seems not so many, at least in Italy, are as keen to hear him sing.

The Irish rock musician and political activist beat a retreat back to London at the weekend after cancelling concerts in Milan and Rome because too few fans had bought tickets.

Only 45 people turned up on Friday at Milan’s Civic Arena for a performance by the 51-year-old singer and songwriter.

That’s jive. I think artists should have enough respect for the people who buy tickets to play for them, no matter how many, or few, there are. Do people onyl deserve to hear him play, if they are in large groups?

This touches on the subject of why performers perform. Some of us do it because we want to share music with people, and some of us do it because we want people to share adoration with us. Most of us do it for some combination of those reasons.

Yahoo! Music Blog » Buy A Customized Jessica Simpson MP3 At Yahoo! Music

So the news is that Yahoo Music is selling a non-DRMed mp3 of a Jessica Simpson tune. This has led to some inetersting conversation on the Yahoo Music blog.

As you know, we’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform.

We’ve also been saying that DRM has a cost. It’s very expensive for companies like Yahoo! to implement. We’d much rather have our engineers building better personalization, recommendations, playlisting applications, community apps, etc, instead of complex provisioning systems which at the end of the day allow you to burn a CD and take the DRM back off, anyway! And on the consumer end there is certainly some discount built into that $0.99 download for the fact that you can burn a limited number of times, can’t play it on your Squeezebox, can’t DJ it with your DJ software, and can’t make a movie out of it with iMovie? I certainly hope so. Un-DRM’d content is implicitly more valuable to a consumer.

As my friend Jimbo says, “if you can make it come out of speakers, you can copy it.”

To turn this into self-promotion, let me remind you that all of my music (and some other stuff) is available as 256k mp3s with no DRM at Pepper Enterprises mp3 Store.

EMI expands Blue Note to all adult music – EMI is restructuring its adult pop music, jazz and classics,…

NEW YORK, July 19 (UPI) — EMI is restructuring its adult pop music, jazz and classics, grouping them as multigenre music for over age 25 under the Blue Note Label Group in New York.

If I though this would provide more money to record good new jazz, I would say this was a good thing, but I am afraid it will just put the real jazz records in a position of having to sell like adult pop to stay alive. That’s not a good thing.

Students balk at free online music – baltimoresun.com

As a student at Cornell University, Angelo Petrigh had access to free online music via a legal music-downloading service his school provided. Yet, the 21-year-old still turned to illegal file-sharing programs.

The reason: While Cornell’s online music program, through Napster, gave him and other students free, legal downloads, the e-mail introducing the service explained that students could keep their songs only until they graduated.

One of these days they will realize that people want to be able to use the things they legally acquire (music in this case) in whatever manner they choose. If they aren’t free to do that they are more likely to acquire it illegally, because then there are no rules.

There’s also the problem of compatibility: The services won’t run on Apple Computer Inc. computers, which are owned by 19 percent of college students, according to a 2006 survey of 1,200 students by the research group Student Monitor. In addition, the files won’t play on Apple iPods, which are owned by 42 percent of college students, according to the survey.

This is also stupid. I use Macs, and I hate it when someone sends me a link to a news story with media, and it is on MSN, and I can’t watch it because they don’t support my OS. We are way too far into this technology for that to still be an issue. It is not about compatibility, it is about controlling consumers actions, and that is wrong.

It is equally wrong, (and stupid in my opinion, but probably not that of their accountants and stockholders) that iTunes Music store purchases can’t be played on any portable players other than an iPod.

Universal overhauls CD packaging

Is this a sign of the coming apocalypse? Is a record company actually changing to try to meet the desires of a market?

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Universal overhauls CD packaging

Universal Music Group is introducing three tiers of packaging in Europe, also including deluxe and sturdier versions of the standard case.

It expects the basic CDs to sell for about £7, the standard for about £10, and the deluxe – offering bonus CDs or DVDs – for around £14.

The Guardian version of the story.

offBeat :: Alt. N.O. :: Online Duets

Louisiana music magazine offBeat has an article about my online mp3 store in their June isuue. It also appears on their website.

offBeat :: Alt. N.O. :: Online Duets

Such releases, though usually unheralded, are nevertheless spelling trouble for a record industry already plagued by online music trading. While Duets Volume I isn’t free, at $6.93 it’s still a lot cheaper than most anything in a music store. “And,” says Albert, “I’m trying to get people to discover my music, so it’s nice to be able to price it.”

As the Internet becomes a medium in which music is not just stolen but also legitimately sold, its implications for the music industry are unclear. For his part, Jeff Albert is cautiously optimistic. “I think on some level that’s where the future is, but I’m not sure if people are ready for it. People get nervous about the technology.”

For the big labels, that nervousness comes with good reason.

Engine Records: Just Say No to Dumbass Music

The right set-up is having your own studio in a place where you don’t have to pay a lot, and to be able to make high quality recordings without paying a ton of money because this jazz is not going to produce a lot of money. So if you are beneficent then you can choose to make the music that smaller amounts of people like because you’re not going broke doing it. A lot of much larger labels are bloated with costs and spend money on stupid things in my opinion.

Engine Records founder Steven Walcott gives an accurate and down to earth presentation of the issues facing producers of left of mainstream music in this AAJ interview.

Stephen Flinn and hustle

I had the pleaure of sharing a show with Stephen Flinn this past Tuesday at The Big Top. He is a great guy as well as musician. After his solo set, he joined my Improvides Music Trio for a couple of episodes, and we had a blast.

Stephen also has his hustle totally together. He booked an entire San Fransisco to NY solo percussion tour, called it Bald Ambition (based on his chosen hair style, or lack of hair style), THEN got the whole thing sponsored by head shaving product company HeadBlade, of which he is a customer. Way to go Stephen! He got an open minded company to help get some open minded music made. Very cool.

Go here to see his HeadBlade wrapped Honda Element. (Stephen is the May 2006 user of the month).

Dragon’s Den

Good news on the New Orleans venue front! I heard from a fairly reliable source that the Dragon’s Den, once a central venue in the New Orleans adventurous music scene, will re-open in June sometime. The even better part of the rumor is that they fixed the A/C.