In preparation for my presentation on how ISPs and the Music Industry can work together (see today's Midemnet blog post), I have recorded a short podcast on the topic, below. The MP3 (4MB) is here: Gerd Leonhard 21st Century Music Economics
Go to PiratesPrisons.com
This is a great video from a May 2007 panel at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Even though it's over a year old, there are some great moments and nuggets of wisdom captured in this video (and not just from me;). Details: Commonwealth Club of California San Francisco, CA May 7th, 2007 The Future of music: "Digital Rights or Wrongs?" is the theme of this program examining what music rights and creative license will mean in the world of new technologies. What will music rights and creative license mean in the world of new technologies? From the music industry and claims of rampant piracy to online sharing and fierce advocates of fair-use, how will we access and enjoy music? Representatives from all sides wrestle with the future of music and digital rights for creators, consumers and
via the WSJ. I will comment in more details later but... READ THIS. Excerpt:
"Deregulate "the copy": Copyright law is triggered every time there is a copy. In the digital age, where every use of a creative work produces a "copy," that makes as much sense as regulating breathing. The law should also give up its obsession with "the copy," and focus instead on uses -- like public distributions of copyrighted work -- that connect directly to the economic incentive copyright law was intended to foster.
Simplify: If copyright regulation were limited to large film studios and record companies, its complexity and inefficiency would be unfortunate, though not terribly significant. But when copyright law purports to regulate everyone with a computer, there is a special obligation to make sure this regulation is clear. It is not clear now. Tax-code complexity regulating income is bad enough; tax-code complexity regulating speech is a First Amendment nightmare.
Restore efficiency: Copyright is the most inefficient property system known to man. Now that technology makes it trivial, we should return to the system of our framers requiring at least that domestic copyright owners maintain their copyright after an automatic, 14-year initial term. It should be clear who owns what, and if it isn't, the owners should bear the burden of making it clear.
Decriminalize Gen-X: The war on peer-to-peer file-sharing is a failure. After a decade of fighting, the law has neither slowed file sharing, nor compensated artists. We should sue not kids, but for peace, and build upon a host of proposals that would assure that artists get paid for their work, without trying to stop "sharing."
Larry rocks - and that's that!
Nokia has announced that it is launching their Comes with Music (CmW) offering in the UK, Engadget reports. With 2.1 Million tracks from 3 of the 4 companies 'formerly known as major record labels', DRM'ed but without expiration date. Regardless of the obvious bummers (where are the indie labels, and why DRM?) I find this offer to be a very interesting step-up-the-ladder towards the Music Flat Rate that I have been describing for the past 5 years (lately, in my new book, Music 2.0... download the free PDF now!).
In a way, just like Google is doing in China, Nokia is using music as the social glue, i.e. to make sure people stick with their Nokia devices and receive lots of added value which imho is a really valid marketing strategy for Nokia - but of course not an overall solution to the vast music ecosystem problems; that will require the controling entities to get with the program, first. In reality - even though the handsets will be a bit more expensive than usual I would guess - it is Nokia that will pay for the music so that people will in turn love them (and their phones) even more. Music Like Water paid for by the Faucet Makers, so to speak. Let's see where this goes!
Update: Elliot over at Wired Blog has another good take on this, Techmeme has more cool links
Disclosure: Nokia is one of my thinktank clients
Hate to say it but....I told you so: Sony BMG Plans to Drop DRM.
"Abandoning an Outmoded Idea.....Many, including music executives, consider the industry's about-face long overdue. "This agreement is the first of many of these types we'll be announcing in the coming weeks and months," Warner Music Group Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. wrote in a Dec. 27 memo to employees explaining Warner's breakthrough deal with Amazon. "Many have argued that we could and should have done this long ago."
And one more to go for my prediction to come true: all of the major labels selling MP3s by the end of 2007 (yes... a few months later but still ;); read this link from hypebot: What WMG MP3's On Amazon Really Means.
"With the addition of Warner Music Group product to its 2.9 million track DRM free mp3 catalog, Amazon is poised to to take on the mighty iTunes. The final piece of the product puzzle, Sony BMG, will inevitably be forced to join the other three major labels in freeing their downloads of unpopular and restrictive "copy protection..."
Hate to say it, but... told you so! A Tipping Point For MP3s.
My comment:And another one. DRM free music, globally, by Christmas 2007!
Link: MIC Norway: Downloads.
as evidenced below ;)
Nice summary by Techcrunch. There are a LOT more sites that offer MP3s but this is a good start - I will post a few comments on this shortly.
Link: Finding DRM-Free Music Online.
Come on now... vote! And hit the play button to hear some music while you do so :)
In response to one of the comments and questions on this blog, here is a link to a good post on Coolfer, trying to answer the question of whether EMI has fared better or worse with their decision to go DRM free.
Link: EMI's New Digital Strategy May Have Prevented A Worse June/July Slide.
Personally, I think this question is moot, for the most part: it is not like going DRM-free will solve all of the industry's problem in one big swoop. It's more like a trigger point - much like the Berlin wall coming down did not change East Germany in one day. More on this subject soon.
Link: Google, Universal Music Partner To Sell DRM-Free Music.
Looks like a hot summer (and autumn) for digital music and the Major Labels who seem to be finally waking up to what IS rather then what they WANT IT to be. Now this is what's going to happen - they will:
Step 1: drop DRM and sell music in the format that people actually want: MP3 (and other open formats - personally I'd love some good wav files!)
Step 2: bundle and combine music with SEARCH and Adds
Step 3: 'hide' the payments for music within another payments (access, ads etc), and license social networks and online communities to stream music on demand, without the usual DMCA compliant stuff
Step 4: share all kinds of revenue streams with all kinds of partners
Step 5: offer new deals to artists that will look like agency deals (well.. this will probably happen in parallel).
GOOD MORNING MAJOR RECORD LABELS. Listen to this soundtrack for immediate edification: Download alarm_clock_oldstyle.mp3 (courtesy of SoundSnap)
"Signaling another departure from the music industry’s longtime antipiracy strategy, the Universal Music Group will sell a significant portion of its catalog without the customary copy protection software for at least the next few months, the company announced yesterday...."
Link: Universal Music Will Sell Songs Without Copy Protection - New York Times. and many other links
It looks like my predictions will indeed hold up: DRM in digital music will be toast by the end of this year. Good to see someone is finally waking up at the Major Record Labels.
In a nutshell, this is like the Berlin Wall Coming coming down. It took a loooooong time but when it happened it crumbled in a very short time, changing the landscape forever.
