The Washington Post has reported that the RIAA views the ripping of CDs to MP3s as illegal. Not quite so. The RIAA isn't thrilled with the practice, but that's not why they're suing Jeffrey Howell. His offense against the recording industry was "putting those ripped files into a shared Kazaa folder," notes Techdirt. You know, the sort of thing one would do if he would want to participate in file sharing.
Michael Bull, a film and media professor at England's University of Sussex, has spent three years interviewing more than 1,000 iPod owners — only to reach the most obvious of conclusions. In the process, Bull dubbed himself Professor iPod and won a book deal. The book, Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience, holds no revelations: People carry their digital content around with them, relying on it to get them through the day. iPod owners use the devices to create personalized, controlled environments insulated from the dislocation of their work lives and the cacophony of the city. Is it any shock Apple found his research worthless?
Warner Music has struck a deal to bring its entire back catalog, free of copying restrictions, to the Amazon MP3 store. (New releases from artists like Josh Groban are not included.) This brings the total number of songs available on Amazon to 2.9 million, and strikes another blow at Steve Jobs's quest to remove digital rights management code, or DRM, from iTunes music. So far, only EMI and a number of independent labels allow Apple to sell music in the DRM-free MP3 format. The theory is that the other music labels are willing to allow Amazon.com to sell DRM-free music in an attempt to break Apple's stranglehold on the digital distribution of music. Of course, they're hardly hurting Jobs, since Apple's iPods can play Amazon-sold MP3 files. Did we mention that the music industry is run by self-defeating idiots?
Why did FuckedCompany creator Philip "Pud" Kaplan record a profane song, "Fuck," in August under the name "Farty McPoopants"? The pseudonym is easy enough to explain: His current venture is AdBrite, an online-advertising network. And selling ads is a business that's all about keeping up appearances. Given his past, you'd think Kaplan wouldn't be so sensitive. But even Kaplan knew he couldn't blow his cool. His company, an online-advertising network, was in the midst of a tense negotiation with porn-ads partner AVN, and trying to raise a new round of financing.
Curtis Jackson, more commonly known as the rapper 50 Cent or "Fiddy," has sided with the likes of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails in the ongoing search for a proper model for the recording industry. During an interview in Oslo, Fiddy said that "[file sharing] doesn't really hurt the artists." It hurts the studios. As an artist and G-Unit record label owner, Fiddy's in a unique position to understand that concerts and merchandise sales are where the real money is at. The industry has to learn to maximize its income from them. But what does Jackson care? He made $100 million when Coca-Cola bought Glacéau, the maker of Vitaminwater.
Back in the '90s, Jim Plamondon used to push Windows on software developers. Now he's trying to stir up capital to back the Thummer, his venture into musical instruments. It's supposed to be easier to learn and more expressive due to Wii-like motion sensitivity. But so far, not so good. Plamondon's Wall Street Journal profile points out it's been nearly a half-century since the electric guitar took off. Before that, Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone for the French army in the 1840s.
Universal Music Group has partnered with Nokia to provide a subscription music service to mobile phones. Unlike PC-based subscription services such as Napster, Nokia's offering will let users keep any music downloaded after their one-year subscription expires. Of course what they don't tell you is how much this will cost, or limits on numbers of downloads. [Digital Music News]
Warner Music Group says its quarterly profit fell 58 percent year over year to $5 million from $12 million. Were it not for a $12 million settlement from Bertelsmann related to Napster, Warner would have had a quarterly loss. Revenue rose 2 percent to $869 million. For the year, Warner had a net loss of $21 million versus a profit of $60 million last year. The company said that revenues from online and mobile sales have risen, but this has not offset losses from conventional sales. Warner is attempting to make new agreements with artists to get part of touring and merchandise revenue, but it doesn't help that one of its star performers, Madonna, is dropping Warner for Live Nation when her contract is up.
Reuters is reporting that EMI, one of the world's four big music-label groups, wants to cut its funding to industry lobby groups, including the RIAA and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. EMI's "looking at ways to 'substantially' reduce the amount it pays trade groups," as a source puts it to the wire service. This is exactly the kick in the seat of its pants that the music industry needs.
In one interview with Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris, Wired was able to unravel years of consumer perplexity at the record labels' digital naiveté. Why, exactly, were they being so stupid about selling music online? Morris not only likened the music business to a Shmoo, but he also admitted that he (nor, apparently, anyone in the industry) understands technology. In case his rambling about faucets that produce Coca-Cola were too confusing, Joel Watson has broken the interview down into more understandable terms with his Web comic Hijinks Ensue.
Earlier this month Edgar Bronfman, the mogul behind Warner Music Group, copped to starting the current file-sharing war between the recording industry and consumers, blaming the business's "glacial" adoption of digital sales. If the recording industry ever needed a poster boy for its digital naiveté, it could sign up Universal Music Group's Doug Morris. Seth Mnookin spent an afternoon with Morris on behalf of Wired magazine. Along with equating the music industry to a Shmoo, Morris blamed college students for stealing music while admitting he's ignorant of technology.
"There was a cartoon character years ago called the Shmoo. It was in Li'l Abner. The Shmoo was a nice animal, a nice fella, but if you were hungry, you cut off a piece of him and put onions on it, and if you wanted to play football you just made him like a football. You could do anything to him. That's what was happening to the music business. Everyone was treating the music business like it was a Shmoo." — Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris, on the "opportunities of digital music." [Wired]
Successful rap producer Jermaine Dupri probably didn't win any friends for his Huffington Post entry defending Jay-Z's decision to sell his new album American Gangster online only as a full album. Dupri may not be a polished spokesperson, and no one wants to hear, "Why do people not care how we — the people who make music — eat?" Not when it comes from someone tied as the sixteenth wealthiest hip-hop mogul. Or when that person also gets to sleep with Janet Jackson. But — I can't believe I'm saying this — Dupri is right. Of course, artists should have the right to determine how their creations are packaged. In admitting that it's about money, too, he's just being honest. Music is a business. It's about coming to mutually agreeable terms with the customer, not catering to his every whim. Even Steve Jobs lets musicians sell songs on Apple's iTunes in album-only packages. Ultimately, if consumers really have a problem with the way they do business, the artists will fail. That's their right, too.
MySpace has strong ties to musicians, with bands favoring the social network to host fan sites. But the News Corp. subsidiary has yet to figure out a way to profit off their music. The independent music store idea flamed out as partner Snocap laid off 60 percent of its employees in early October. So what's MySpace going to try next? Giving music away free, supported by ads, Adweek reports.
You may recall that recording-industry lobbyists managed to insert a rather nasty clause into the College Opportunity and Affordability Act to penalize universities which don't follow a strict antipiracy indoctrination campaign. (The bill is up for debate when the Senate returns from Thanksgiving recess). Even though the bill is said to be mostly a scare tactic, it could potentially hold federal funding ransom. The bill demands that universities receiving federal funds purchase a music subscription service to deter piracy that, by some estimates, could have taxpayers forking over $100 billion meant for financial aid to pay instead for digital subscriptions. Why the grab for education dollars?
U.K. album sales are down 11 percent for the year to date and it's been a slow holiday season so far. British music retailers blame record labels for worrying about digital piracy too much. Kim Bayley, director general of the Entertainment Retailers Association, told the Financial Times her members specifically want labels to quit insisting on using digital-rights management code that prevents customers from making copies and playing the music on multiple devices. Bayley said research indicates consumers are about four times more likely to buy DRM-free music than DRM-encoded music. Apple, Amazon.com, and others already sell DRM-free music online, but the selection is limited.
