Category: Business

Indieish : Music Selections from the Creative Commons » CC Artist Scott Andrew dumps CD Audio Format

This post on idieish.com tells of an artistss dumping the audio CD format in favor of selling mini-CD-r’s full of mp3s, or maybe even flash drives, at his gigs. I like it when people shake the paradigm and see what falls out.

If people are just going to rip the CDs and listen on their computers or portable players anyway, why not give it to them in that format to begin with.

The first issue for me is bitrate. What do people want? I have taken to ripping stuff at 256k, and that is what I am selling at my Pepper Enterprises mp3 Store. Lots of folks are still using 128, I think.

I figure that if I am going to go to the trouble of making a physical disc I will give folks the best audio quality posssible, and let them decide how lossy they want to get.

I really want to go to an all download- no disc set up, but then what do you sell at the gigs? Especially at my level, gig sales can account for a large portion of sales.

What are your preferred ways of buying music? Would you buy a disc of mp3s? A thumb drive of mp3s?

Wired News: The Year of Living DRMishly

High-end audio companies are already running into difficulties with DRM.

Steve Vasquez, the founder of ReQuest, which makes ultra-high end streaming audio networks for homes, says his company struggles with the limitations of DRM-protected audio files.

“We have an open system that can stream off a server to another house, but the DRM mechanism doesn’t recognize that possibility,” Vasquez said. “We have clients who have multiple units in one house and multiple units in multiple houses who want to be able to use music in those devices as well as portable ones. DRM is a limitation that limits innovation.”

A similar system made by Sonos creates a mesh-wireless network that connects up to 32 remote amplifiers with music stored on a home computer, but the company hides music bought through Apple’s iTunes store, according to co-founder Thomas Cullen.

“We don’t want to taunt them,” Cullen said. “The best thing we can do is hide iTunes songs so they don’t get an expectation they can play them.”

Ninety percent of his customers own iPods, according to Cullen, and many call in after first buying the system, wondering where their iTunes songs are. But after the company explains it is Apple’s DRM that prevents the file from playing, users universally respond that they will go back to buying CDs that they can then rip into non-DRMed audio files, Cullen said.

“Today, if you are buying a device, you are buying into an ecosystem.”

“Consumers shouldn’t have to think about DRM,”

Those are good, but Cory Doctorow nails it:

Cory Doctorow, a science fiction writer and former spokesman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believes technology companies will eventually decide that entertainment companies’ demand for DRM is hurting their bottom line. That’s when truly innovative gadgets will become available, he said.

“No one can sell more gadgets by saying ‘do less with your gadget,'” said Doctorow.

The entire article is worth reading.

Werner breathes new life into debate on the death of jazz – The Boston Globe

…a neighbor visited Werner and started naming jazz musicians he liked — all of whom play smooth jazz. Werner sent the neighbor home with some authentic jazz CDs, including one of his own, and the neighbor reported that he liked some of it — Miles Davis’s ”Kind of Blue,” in particular — but that Werner’s had been problematic. He’d been trying to build a fireplace in his living room while listening to Werner’s CD, and found the music a distraction.

”His main complaint about it was that it was so interesting that he had to stop and listen to it. And that’s where jazz musicians are all misguided: They’re making CDs under the assumption that someone’s going to listen to them. These people are buying something [so] they can put it on and then spackle.”

That’s not the gist of the article, but it’s a good line. The whole article is a good read.

This Wired article (Wired News: Real Stern Shocker: No Podcast) is really about Howard Stern and his new Sirius satellite radio show, but it touches on some interesting digital media distribution issues.

In fact, if ever Stern considered distributing his stuff online, it was most likely the DRM considerations that scared him away — a sad testament to the fractured state of the online media distribution industry, which scares users as much as it does many broadcasters and copyright owners.

The article also talks about things being available in “a readily consumable form.” That is really the key. When we can offer our content in a form that consumers may use as they wish, we will win. Right now that format appears to be mp3 (at least for audio). Not necessarily because mp3 is the best sounding codec, but because it is the least sullied by controlling corporate interests and the resulting DRM issues.

I believe that ultimately, when the bandwidth and portability issues allow, all media will be accessable from the network on a subscription basis or through monthly billing based on use. Of course that won’t be allowed to happen until all of the big media conglomerates die, or see the light.

More on the copyright front.

Vatican ‘cashes in’ by putting price on the Pope’s copyright – World – Times Online

So now you have to pay to print the words of Martin Luther King and the Pope. I guess that is their perogative, even though it seems absolutely contradictive to their purposes. Maybe someone shoule send the Pope a link to the Creative Commons site.

Via Boing Boing.

Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution

I have mentioned this book before, but I thought I would dedicate a post to it. Check this book out. It paints a picture of a music industry scene that is quite possible, and would be fabulous if all of the players can get on the same team enough to let it happen.

The concept is “music like water” or media delivered in the style of our current utilities, where we pay a bill for it each month, but it doesn’t feel like we are charged at the point of use. Everything is available, and everyone gets paid.

There is even a podcast on the authors’ website with audio book versions of the first 5 chapters.

Digital music spins new sales approach | CNET News.com

This article offers another look at legal music service styles, and the idea of playlists, or listener recommendations.

I like the concept of finding new music through another individual whose tastes you trust. Nearly every really interesting work of art that I have been turned on to has been through a friend’s suggestion. That was one of the founding principles of this website.

This article, Napster on the ropes? | CNET News.com, deals with the business health of a couple of legal online music services.

It points out the two basic philosophies: A la carte (like iTunes) where you buy individual tracks or albums, and subscription (like Napster) where you can access lots of content for a monthly fee, and pay extra to burn things or for other added “rights.”

I think ultimately the subscription model, or a similar “utility” model (see this book for more on that) may win out, but the technology has not quite reached the point to make that work on a grand scale. I think it will, it just hasn’t yet.

What do you think? (Use the comments section)