Posts filed under: Music
Zune/Universal licensing agreement
Great analysis on Daring Fireball about the revelation that Microsoft will now pay per unit licensing fee from every sale of a Zune player to Universal Music Group.
In addition to conspiratorial thoughts about Microsoft VS Apple, I think the most interesting quote from the DF post is from David Geffen, as he attempts to justify a per-unit licensing fee.
“Each of these devices is used to store unpaid-for material. This way, on top of the material people do pay for, the record companies are getting paid on the devices storing the copied music.”
But will the RIAA still sue Zune users for downloading Universal content? You better believe it!
A compulsory license is an interesting idea that deserves more thought, and having a tax on specific goods (like music players and blank CD’s) that eventually trickles back to the “Artist” (read: rights holder) might also work, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Geffen’s justification seems dangerously flawed.
Dosh - The Lost Take
Came across this track on promonet and I think it’s beautiful.
Dosh - The Lost Take
Download “Um, Circles and Squares” (MP3, 192kbps)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
SXSW panel idea: The Ultimate Music Recommendation Smackdown
SXSW is still months away, but I can’t help but get excited already. The list on upcoming.org is growing , and panels are being selected using a cool new tool that lets people vote for which panels should be added to the conference.
Speaking of panels being selected, yours truly has proposed a panel for this years SXSW. I know that the panels that do the best, seem to be the ones that are slightly confrontational, a bit tongue in cheek, but still very informative. So keeping that in mind, my proposed panel description is as follows:
With the unprecedented accessibility of recorded music, how can we discover that hot new band when there are millions of possibilities at our fingertips? Fortunately, many companies address this very question. Find out which service creates playlists worthy of a veteran DJ, and which service recommends tracks like an iPod set on shuffle as they battle it out in the ultimate playlist smackdown. Based on audience feedback, trophies will be awarded.
You can vote for my panel here:
http://2007.sxsw.com/interactive/panel_picker/#panel_23
Music recommendation experts out there might might be wondering about a few things. What sample data will be used? What will the audience voting be based on? What metrics will be used? etc… There are definitely a few details to be worked out (if you have any good ideas, please add in a comment on this blog, or email me directly). But the main point of the panel is to have fun and to show SXSW attendees all the great new music recommendation services out there. So to quote the Simpsons, in a sense, everyone is a winner, but in a more specific sense, one service will be the winner ;)
You can go vote for it here!
EuroOSCON 2006
I’m stoked to be speaking tomorrow about music at the O’Reilly EuroOSCON conference tomorrow. So far, the conference has been quite interesting and I’ve enjoyed hearing about new projects and new approaches. The things I have enjoyed so far are:
- Tom Steinberg’s “Hackers guide to democracy” and mysociety.org. We need something like this in Canada. Maybe built on Drupal. Hmmm…
- Bre Pettis (of Make Magazine fame) and his cool drawbot
- Tim O’Reillys’ keynote, which was a well put together summary of things we all know. But when you hear it all said again in a clear concise voice, you just can’t help but get excited.
- Hanging out with Drupal folk.
- Daisy, which looks kind of cool.
Looking forward to DrupalCon and BarCamp, coming up this weekend!
MySpace now selling music
Nice write up about the snocap/myspace deal, where the former will now be selling music through the later.
There are already a few companies (like projectopus.com) that let musicians do this, but this is the first ‘official’ method.
Standout quote from the article comes from the always intelligent Terry McBride:
“We have a strong belief the next major retailer in music is the consumer themselves,” McBride said. “This is a step in the right direction.”
Amen.
Color of my Sound
Here’s a neat flash app that maps sounds to colors. Seen on Information Aesthetics.
Secondlife as concert venue
I love the trend towards virtual concert venues. Might still be a bit more of a PR move then an actual money maker right now (all though good PR does equal money), but you can bet that in the future, this kind of stuff will be common place, and a cash generator.
Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes says:
“We are hoping to give the crowd that come to the virtual concert a real immersive experience, so they can interact with us and react while we are stage. New technologies, such as Second Life, will become an enormous part of the music industry in the future.”
Amen.
MySpace revises their terms and conditions
Billy Bragg has written an articulate letter (would you expect anything else) with regards to MySpace’s new terms and conditions. In the past, MySpaces terms were pretty heavy handed. It seemed as if uploading a song to MySpace would give MySpace license to do pretty much whatever they wanted with it. Now, this has changed, and for the better.
From Billy Bragg:
I am very pleased to see that MySpace have changed their terms of agreement
from a declaration of their rights into a declaration of our rights as artists,
making it clear that, as creators, we retain ownership of our material. Having
been adopted by the biggest social networking site on the block, I hope their
recognition of the right of the artist to be sole exploiter of their own material
now becomes an industry standard because there is much more at stake here
than just the terms and conditions of a website.In the past, songwriters and performers needed a record company to
manufacture, market and distribute their work, and in exchange for that, the
company expected to own the rights to exploit the recordings for as long as the
material was capable of earning royalties - life of copyright in legalese which
currently means 50 years.Ive always had a problem with that arrangement, arguing that the recordings
Ive made should provide my pension not that of some record company
executive. In order to achieve this, I have held on to my rights, signing licensing
deals in which ownership of the records reverts to me after a stipulated period,
usually ten years. I figure that if a company cant make their money back after
that time, they dont deserve to put out my records anyway.Every few years, the reversion clause kicks in, my back catalogue returns to my
ownership and I begin the licensing process all over again. Not only does this
strengthen my hand in contract negotiations, it also allows me to take account
of new technologies in a rapidly changing industry.Now that the popularity of downloading has made physical manufacturing and
distribution no longer necessary, the next generation of artists will not need to
surrender all of their rights in order to get their music into the marketplace. It is
therefore crucial that they understand, from the moment that they first post
music on the internet, the importance of retaining their long term right to
exploit the material that they create. This is doubly important on a networking
site where many of the songs posted will be by unsigned artists. Ownership of
the rights to such material is somewhat ambiguous. Thats why I hope that the
groundbreaking decision of MySpace to come down on the side of the artists
rights will be followed throughout the industry.I also welcome the new wording of the terms and conditions in which MySpace
clarify exactly why they require specific rights and how they intend to use them.
Again, I hope more sites follow the lead of MySpace in ensuring the use of clear
and transparent language in contracts. The last thing any of us wants to see is a
situation in which everyone posting a song on the site has to have a lawyer
sitting next to them.Im glad my music is available to the community again and Im glad that
MySpace chose to act on my concerns. In order that we might avoid any such
confusion in future, can I suggest that MySpace notify its members of any
changes in the terms and conditions whenever they take place.Billy Bragg
Here are the (now quite reasonable) revised terms:
Proprietary Rights in Content on MySpace.com.
MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing (”posting”) any Content on or through the MySpace Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the MySpace Services.
Without this license, MySpace.com would be unable to provide the MySpace Services. For example, without the right to modify Member Content, MySpace.com would not be able to digitally compress music files that Members submit or otherwise format Content to satisfy technical requirements, and without the right to publicly perform Member Content, MySpace.com could not allow Users to listen to music posted by Members. The license you grant to MySpace.com is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to MySpace.com), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that MySpace.com is not required to pay you for the use on the MySpace Services of the Content that you post), sublicensable (so that MySpace.com is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide the MySpace Services), and worldwide (because the Internet and the MySpace Services are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the MySpace Services. The license does not grant MySpace.com the right to sell your Content, nor does the license grant MySpace.com the right to distribute your Content outside of the MySpace Services.
Coming Zune…
Everyone is curious about the new microsoft player/online service known as Zune. Engadget has some speculation, but John Gruber sums it up succinctly with style and wit to spare.
The most shocking thing about all of this is that the new microsoft player and online store does not support microsoft’s own ‘plays for sure’ technology that napster and other onlines services use. ‘Plays for sure?’… How about ‘might play, but don’t hold your breath’ or the less verbose ‘cross your fingers!’
I do have to admit it though, I think the ‘comingzune.com‘ corporate site has a great URL…
UPDATE: Microsoft employee Sean Alexander discusses the ‘Plays for sure’ angle…