Category: Business

The Impact of the Global Digital Music Economy on the Music Business Paradigm

This All About Jazz article, The Impact of the Global Digital Music Economy on the Music Business Paradigm, has some interesting looks at the new music biz. One point he makes about digital distribution is accountability to the artist.

Today, it is literally impossible to verify or truly audit these types of B2B transactions. Artists must “take the word” of the intermediary digital distributor business where sales figures and earnings are concerned.

This really isn’t that different than the old days of a label reporting how many albums they sold, as opposed to how many “broke” or were returned or whatever.

The article has some other better points. i agree with his basic premise that the new music biz is all about artist empowerment and artist control of production and distribution.

Sometimes, it’s not what you play, but who you have played it with

This AAJ review of Curtis Fuller and Louis Hayes at Jazz Standard made me think about one of the ways we often discuss and write about jazz artists.

We often define players in terms of who they have played with, instead of what they have played. Curtis Fuller is more noted in the article for having played with Coltrane, than for being one of the greatest jazz trombonists of all time. Louis hayes is also described by his companions more than his music.

I don’t mean this as a knock on the writer of this particular article, because it is common practice. But I still wonder, Why do we do this? Are we so obsessed with personality or celebrity that we can only take an artist’s music seriously if he has received the endorsement of being allowed to perform with someone more famous than himself?

Denver Post on downloads as marketing tool

DenverPost.com – ENTERTAINMENT

For an increasing number of acts, free or illegal downloads are a promotional tool more valuable than money.

When we released “One”, we decided to do an experiment. I really wanted to get this music to a lot of people, because I am very proud of it. I started to figure out what it would cost to give away that many CDs. It was a lot. More than I would lose from just putting up free mp3s on my website, or so I thought. I still think that.

I did put up free Creative Commons licensed mp3s of the entire album. I also made physical CDs available for sale, and higher quality mp3s are available from the Pepper Enterprises mp3 Store. It is also on iTunes and eMusic, and the like.

I think it worked out all right. Lots of people downloaded it for free, and listened and commented on it, including some well known folks that I might not have been able to get to listen to an unsolicited CD they received in the mail, but they would go download a free track or two when they read about it online. I’ve sold some copies too. I don’t know that I will give away ALL of the next album, but the process definitely convinced me of the promotional value of giving away music online.

Downloads, CDs, both?

For a while now, my head has been trying to deal with questions of downloads vs. CDs, and various realms of making CDs cheaper and easier to produce, including alternative packaging and the like.

In a post that is only tangentially related to the subject, Dave Douglas shared the following view on his Greenleaf Music blog.

The most common question I get when I tell people we’re doing an internet-based recording outlet is: “So you’re doing downloads only? But I like to have the CD.”

We’re still making CDs. You can get them right here. Downloads are also available. But please consider ordering the CDs as they contain full liner notes, Steve Byram artwork and a beautiful Todd Weinstein photograph.

He’d rather have you buy the CD. Interesting.

There is definitely art in the music, but sometimes I forget about the art in the rest of the package.

perspective on technology

Every once in a while, I read something that reminds me that much of the world does not always see things as I do.

In a recent Rifftides post on Herb Geller, Doug Ramsey writes the following:

Amazon offers Herb Geller Plays at an inflated import CD price. The album has not been reissued on CD in the United States, but Verve, which controls the EmArcy catalogue, offers it here as an iTunes download. Those who comprehend that technology may want to investigate.

The part that woke me up was “Those who comprehend that technology.” Sometimes I forget that there are people, valuable music fans, that have issues with technology. As we look to technology as a means to make the creation and distribution of music, especially niche styles, easier and more economically efficient, we also run the risk of alienating large portions of our technophobe listening audience.

I am not sure what the answer is. Do we maintain the old ways of the industry, so as not to leave our Luddite friends behind, or do we simply write off the business of the technologically impaired as out of date and too hard to service? Is there a middle ground where we can use technology to its greatest effect and still maintain and develop the members of our audience who tend to be more…old school?

DRM key to Linux’s consumer success? | CNET News.com

DRM key to Linux’s consumer success? | CNET News.com

“The consequences of Linux not supporting DRM would be that fixed-purpose consumer electronics and Windows PCs would be the sole entertainment platforms available,” Ayars said. “Linux would be further relegated to use in servers and business computers, since it would not be providing the multimedia technologies demanded by consumers.”

How about the DRM using content providers will be relegated to use by teen agers and grandmas because they aren’t providing their content in a usable form demanded by knowledgable and educated consumers?

George Greve’s response:

“Apple iTunes allows people to burn their tracks on regular CDs, which can then be re-encoded and file-shared easily–so is better described as ‘digital inconvenience management’ only. eMusic.com offers clean audio tracks without any restrictions. No DRM platform comes close to either of these in popularity.”

“So fortunately, it is up to the consumer to decide what the consumer market wants. And its answer is clear: It does not want DRM!” he said. “The sooner we bury the foolish notion of putting each and every use of a computer under control of the media industry, the sooner we can start looking for real alternatives.”

Basement webcasts net major record deal for Scots singer – The Herald

Basement webcasts net major record deal for Scots singer – The Herald

Several record labels approached the aspiring 24-year-old after she used her website to entertain worldwide audiences of more than 100,000 a night.

The good news is this is a story of an artist using the net to start or advance her career. The bad news is the measure of success is still a major label deal.

I’m not saying that labels are all bad. They definitely have their place, but the real web/music/success stories will be when artists are using the web to gain artistic and fiscal freedom outside of the old school label system.

Legal Jams

Forensic musicologist is now a job description. I am seeing a mashup of Quincy and my old music history professor…yikes.

Inside Higher Ed :: Legal Jams

Now lawyers hover over new records, listening for any legally actionable borrowing. Such cases are usually settled out of court — for undisclosed, but often enormous, sums. The most remarkable thing about the “Ready to Die” case is that it ever got to trial.

More interesting than the legal-sideshow aspect, I think, is the question of how artists deal with the situation. Imitation, allusion, parody, borrowing stray bits of melody or texture — all of this is fundamental to creativity. The line between mimicry and transformation is not absolute. And the range of electronic tools now available to musicians makes it blurrier all the time.