Posts filed under: Music
More on Internet Radio from SXSW
Here at SXSW, there’s much interesting discussion on the current rate increase for internet broadcasters that will see SomaFM’s rates (for example) rise from about $20,000 to over $600,000 for 2006, and will top 4 million in 2007.
So how did we get here?
The new rate increase is based on a “willing buyer/willing seller” strategy, where the royalty rate is set on what a willing buyer and seller would both hypothetically agree to in an open marketplace. There are many issues with such a scheme, but the best came up in a discussion with Rusty Hodge, founder of SomaFM.
His (tongue in cheek) point of view was since labels (rights holders) have been convicted of massive payola scandals in recent years, where the labels pay radio stations millions of dollars to hammer out a song until it’s a hit, the “willing buyer/willing seller” have in essence reached a negative price. Payola, shows that the major labels are willing to pay massive amounts of money in exchange for air time, and therefore, the rights holder should be paying internet broadcasters to *play* their music, rather then the other way around.
He was mostly joking, but I think it’s an interesting point.
More from SXSW to follow.
Internet radio threatened
This is ridiculous. Basically the Copyright Royalty Board has accepted a new licensing fee structure set out by SoundExchange (read: the RIAA) and is now going to require online radio stations (or anyone who streams music) to pay new licensing fees that are in many cases greater then the profits the radio stations generate. Nice eh? Read this and this for more background, and then go sign the petition.
The way the music died
I stumbled across a great (if a few years old) documentary called “The way the music died”. This is a must watch for any industry follower.
“The Way the Music Died follows the trajectory of the recording industry from its post-Woodstock heyday in the 1970s and 1980s to what one observer describes as a “hysteria” of mass layoffs and bankruptcy in 2004.”
It’s an hour long, but well worth it. Watch it here
DYLAN launched
The new DYLAN project has been released. What is DYLAN?
“DYLAN is a project to define an OPEN specification for digital music packages. It is an independent project coming out of the XIPF initiative started by Yahoo! Music. The goal of DYLAN and XIPF is to allow music downloads to support functionality beyond just listening.”
Really, this is about providing context. This is about putting the ‘listening experience’ back into a plain old folder of mp3’s. There’s an feeling I get from looking at the spines of my vinyl record collection that is sorely missed from iTunes, and I have high hopes that this project will rectify the situation.
More Steve Jobs coverage
Here’s the best take of Steve Jobs open letter, courtesy of Daring Fireball:
“In other words, the music industry wants a magical DRM format that gives them — not Apple, not Microsoft — complete control over all digital music. And a unicorn and a rainbow.”
Steve Jobs on DRM free music
Steve Jobs said today that he would “embrace it (DRM free music on iTunes) in a heartbeat” if he could. I think this is the beginning of corporate shift away from DRM, echoing the consumer shift that has been ongoing for quite some time. DRM is a bad idea that has run it’s course and I’m looking forward to seeing how fast it can crumble.
last.fm and Warner Music join up
Last.fm can now stream the entire library of Warner Music, and there was much rejoicing.
“Warner Music Group has signed a deal to allow its entire catalogue to be played over the fast-growing social networking music service Last.fm
The deal with Warner, the world’s fourth-largest music company, is the first with one of the major labels and the network’s co-founder Martin Stiksel said they were in talks with the other three major labels and content holders.”
All together now…
When many voices join together, they usually get louder so it’s nice to see Independent musicians and labels join together to form Merlin.
“The world’s independent record sector, responsible for artists including The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys, Tom Waits, Pixies, De La Soul and Cat Power, today launched Merlin, the world’s first global music new media licensing agency, with the message:
“Equitable deals for ALL independents”
A one-stop licensing shop, Merlin will leverage the sector’s 30% world share … and will make it easy to license up to 80% of the world’s new releases through a single point of contact - potentially replacing the need to negotiate thousands of individual deals.”
Come together
Apple and the Beatles have made up at last. Looks like one might be able to get Beatles songs through iTunes in the very near future. I’m still not clear if this means Michael Jackson will get a few cents every time a song is downloaded though.