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TwitterThe Price of Popularity
03 Mar 2008 No Comments
in Music, Technology Tags: download, Music, NIN, slow
Oh, and the download died after 510K. Whoops.
Elton John is an Idiot
01 Aug 2007 1 Comment
in Entertainment, Music, Spot the Sarcasm, Uhm... yeah
Elton John wants to shut down the Internet for five years because “[t]he internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff.” Right.
His proof for this?
He said: “In the early Seventies there were at least ten albums released every week that were fantastic.
“Now you’re lucky to find ten albums a year of that quality.
“And there are more albums released each week now than there were then.”
Riiiight. This, of course is the fault of the Internet. You know, that global distribution network that has enabled thousands of artists to find a market they would have previously missed. It’s also pretty dubious to claim that there are 10 albums a year of remarkable quality. That seems… high. Kidding. I think Sir Elton is, finally, too old for the current crop of artists.
Granted, there are some serious gaps in the release of quality albums, but that’s not the fault of the Internet; that’s the fault of music publishers and groups like the RIAA. When the radio is controlled by payola and breakout artists are stuff in the backwater of the, wait for it, Internet, it’s not wonder there aren’t “quality albums.”
So, yes, I totally took the bait for Elton John’s attention whoring, but if he even remotely means what he says, he may finally be irrelevant.
Internet Radio's Death Rattle
26 Jun 2007 1 Comment
in Entertainment, Music, Signs of the Horsemen, Technology
Today is a day of silence for Internet radio. Small broadcasters all the way up to Yahoo are shutting down in protest over the outrageous royalty rates approved by the Copyright Royalty Board. Who’s the CRB? Essentially, they are an arm of Congress, tasked with reviewing and setting royalty rates.
How bad are the rates? Instead of a flat fee, broadcasters will have to pay a per performance, per listener rate with a minimum of $500 per channel per year. Of course, they don’t define a channel in terms of the internet, so no one knows what that clause means. Internet broadcasters had proposed a fee structure that allowed for their continued existence and it was soundly rejected in favor of a proposal from SoundExchange, a fee collection body created by, guess who, the RIAA.
What’s the math on this?
Because a typical Internet radio station plays about 16 songs an hour, that’s a royalty obligation in 2006 of about 1.28 cents per listener-hour.
In 2006, a well-run Internet radio station might have been able to sell two radio spots an hour at a $3 net CPM (cost-per-thousand), which would add up to .6 cents per listener-hour. [source]
Effectively, the CRB has adopted a proposal that makes it cost at least twice as much to run an Internet radio station as what you could conceivably make in ad revenue. Oh, and satellite and terrestrial radio don’t pay this rate. Note that this has nothing to do with RIAA-member bands or acts; this is a fee you have to pay if all you did was broadcast music you created yourself. It’s a hit job by the RIAA, plain and simple.
So, what can you do? Call your representative, write a letter (not an email), urging them to support the Internet Radio Equality Act introduced in both the House and Senate. Internet Radio is not dead yet, but today is a preview of what it will be like come July 15th unless something changes.
Lyrics to Yellow Ledbetter
05 Jun 2007 No Comments
in Entertainment, Made Me Laugh, Music
Ok, not really, but this video from Misheard Lyrics cracked me up.
By the way, according to the font of all knowledge, even Pearl Jam may be unaware of the real lyrics.
Sometimes, the story writes itself
21 May 2007 No Comments
in Made Me Laugh, Music, Signs of the Horsemen, Uhm... yeah
2002, The Onion -RIAA Sues Radio Stations For Giving Away Free Music
RIAA attorney Russell Frackman said the lawsuit is intended to protect the artists.
“If this radio trend continues, it will severely damage a musician’s ability to earn a living off his music,” Frackman said. “[Metallica drummer] Lars Ulrich stopped in the other day wondering why his last royalty check was so small, and I didn’t know what to say. How do you tell a man who’s devoted his whole life to his music that someone is able to just give it away for free? That pirates are taking away his right to support himself with his craft?”
2007, LA Times – Artists and labels seek royalties from radio
Mary Wilson, who with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard formed the original Supremes, said the exemption was unfair and forced older musicians to continue touring to pay their bills.
“After so many years of not being compensated, it would be nice now at this late date to at least start,” the 63-year-old Las Vegas resident said in Milwaukee, where she was performing at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino. “They’ve gotten 50-some years of free play. Now maybe it’s time to pay up.”
I can’t wait for the radio stations to tell the RIAA to stick and then start playing, yah know, music.
Careful What You Wish For
02 Apr 2007 No Comments
in Music, Technology
Huzzah! Finally, one company has the guts to call the technorati’s bluff and offer higher quality, non-DRM’d music downloads through a major digital distributor. EMI has announced that they will offer all of their digital assets, via iTunes, as non-DRM’d AAC-format files at “twice the quality” of the DRM’d version. EMI’s press release doesn’t mention the detailed of the kbps size, but 256kbps seems likely.
The hitch? The files will cost more, $0.30 more. Now, not a huge bump and, as BoingBoing points out, could be a sneeky way to backdoor a price increase, but not a terribly huge increase. This is feeding into the geek cred of we’ll-pay-more-for-no-DRM line. The real test will be if the general consumer will do the same thing. In a world where cheaper often wins out over quality, it won’t be the stock-optioned Valley web head that decides this, it will be the average iTunes user; the one who now sees that $20 iTunes card worth 15 songs, not 20.
Hopefully we’ll huge sales on non-DRM’d Coldplay, Pink Floyd, the Stones, and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds to validate this business move. I’ll be surprised, but here’s hoping.
Of course, this guy really hates Pachelbel
16 Mar 2007 2 Comments
in Made Me Laugh, Music, Video
I don’t remember where I saw this first, but..
I know I saw this on DataWhat first. Anecdote to all you music execs (and CBS); I bought this album after seeing this video.