RJ Eskow / Huffington Post on Rick Rubin's NYT feature (Why Not Surf the Velocity of Music?)

This is a good comment on Rick Rubin's NYT piece which in itself is a good feature to read. And it does mention my and David Kusek's book "The Future of Music"... even better;):  RJ Eskow: Dear Rick Rubin (or Somebody): Why Not Surf the "Velocity of Music?" - Business on The Huffington Post.  My favorites: 

"The subscription model Rick mentions ($19.95 for all the music you'll ever want) is based on the work of Gerd Leonhard and his idea of "Music Like Water," that would be available in unlimited amounts for a monthly fee. That would require a back-end technology to divide the money back to companies and artists based on usage, but that's a simple task in tech terms. There are also intermediate steps, like a subscription service for Columbia product only, that an individual exec like Rick Rubin could explore without bringing in his peers. But to make that fly, Columbia would have to throw in a lot of exciting extras to make people sign up. Not impossible - but it needs a Brain Trust to design it...."

Well, ehem, this is no longer rocket science, now is it, it just takes LEADERSHIP!

Comments

[Ron Hogan]

Speaking purely for myself, I'd be unlikely to subscribe to a service that didn't have all the major labels and most of the minor labels as a part of it. If I'm going to pay that much for something, I'm going to want it to have everything I could want right at my fingertips. Maybe the free music era spoiled me by making everything so easy to find and uncomplicated to use wherever I might want.

Gerd's reponse: Totally agree - and that's what it will be!

[Marc Schiller]

I'm confused why Rick Rubin and everyone is suddenly acting like a subscription service of unlimited music doesn't exist. It does. It's called Rhapsody and I have it streaming on my Sonos system in every room.

[Gerd Leonhard]

Marc, I love Rhapsody myself but it works well only ON THE COMPUTER, due to DRM (ouch). Yes, there are mobile versions but they have serious problems. A real winner would be a flat-rate based service on a OPEN, ALL ACCESS platform. Low price ($1-2 / week), maybe ad supported, fully compatible with all devices and platforms. In principle, not unlike Napster and Rhapsody but OPEN. Maybe Amazon will make this happen:)

[Marc Schiller]

But I don't have Rhapsody on my computer. I stream it through Sonos directly into my stereo system. As a consumer, I'm not sure how DRM matters being that I have at my home unlimited music streamed on demand by subscription directly into my stereo system with no computer needed. What I don't yet understand is how I don't already have what Rick Rubin is claiming to be the future.

[Gerd Leonhard]

Marc, yes, Sonos + Rhapsody is cool, for the home, and DRM does not matter much. But this is not what the problem is - the problem is with getting music when you're not at home. Imho

[Captain Obvious]

Music subscriptions are a great idea. In fact, emusic has been pushing that business model for years. Unlike Rhapsody, you own what you pay for and download.

http://emusic.com

[pigchop]

All is most certainly not well in the world of Metallica. While the music is good, Rick Rubin's production is atrocious.
The new record is an distorted audio nightmare. The music was compressed (during the mixing) to such an extreme level (in a bid to make it louder) that the results are such as to leave the listener wondering if his audio equipment might be damaged. The sad story of Death Magnetic is well documented at: http://mastering-media.blogspot.com