RAD!O-ED!T

Due to some technical issues, this blog is currently on hiatus. We’ll back back asap.

Right, some news to catch up with then. Firstly, SonyBMG and Warner have come under increased pressure to dump the DRM after it’s been revealed that the Amazon MP3 store and Pepsi are doing a joint promotion with the Superbowl this year to give away MP3 downloads on Amazon. Given the fact that it’s tied in with the Superbowl, this is potentially the biggest music promotion of the year, and Warner and SonyBMG don’t want to miss out on it.

Of course this is just a side-effect of the other factor here - that of heavily promoting Amazon’s MP3 store as an alternative to iTunes. Amazon’s MP3 store is apparently doing well, but with content from only half the major labels, it suffers a bit from catalogue problems. Most users aren’t aware of the contract negotiations in the digital space, and when they can’t find their favourite band in a search, they assume it’s just a rubbish store and head elsewhere. The other problem is that Amazon MP3 only covers the USA at the moment - it hasn’t been rolled out anywhere else in the world. Seriously guys (and I’m looking at you too, Zune), how hard is it to do global deals with stuff like this?

Got an awesome band but can’t think of a good name? You might consider bidding on this auction. From the page:

Running low on creative energy? Sick of using Arial-style font? Don’t want to name your band “The Somethings?” Are you a middle of the road band and the only thing that stands between you and greatness is the perfect title? Are you tired of wasting your hard earned cash on lottery tickets and lucky gumballs? Well, if who I described above is you, then search no further, my fortunate friend

For sale in this auction is an unused (that’s new people) band name that I came up with during a bout of inspiration. I think the name would be good for an indie rock to moden rock-type band. The band name will be revealed to you (assuming you are the group’s lead singer/guitarist) at the auction’s end via email. I have not and will not discuss the name of your band with anyone.

In all seriousness, if I were a musician or even musically capable, I would name my band the name I have invented. It is good.

Disclaimer: Satisfaction is not guaranteed. Consider this your opportunity for your John Lennon “Flaming Pie” dream. If not pleased with this band name, it is a black licorice gumble in the band name gumball machine of life. No refunds. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions. Thank you for looking!

Wow. Though given that the auction title is “Rock Band Name Sunset Rubdown Okkervil River”, the new name is likely to be a bit emo…

Reuters are reporting that EMI is looking to ’substantially reduce’ its contributions to trade groups like the RIAA, BPI and IFPI. This is part of new EMI boss Guy Hands’ strategic review of where EMI is spending its cash. Apparently the four majors give approximately 64 million pounds each year to the IFPI, the RIAA and many other national associations.

This sounds very smart to me - there is an enormous amount of resentment from consumers to these trade organizations, as from a customer perspective, all the RIAA ever does is sue them. The RIAA has spent huge amounts of cash on lawsuits over the past few years - and have only ever achieved one court victory (though they have won a whole lot of default judgements and settlements). Repeated attempts to get the RIAA to disclose exactly how much cash is going towards lawsuits have failed, so this event perhaps reflects EMI bosses finding this figure out and it giving them a bit of a shock…

Techcrunch have got a great roundup of the slightly-legally-dodgy music search engine field. They look at Seeqpod, Skreemr and Songza.  Their conclusions are as follows:

• “Seeqpod is the most useful. It has an index of 8 million individual songs, auto-spell checks queries to find common misspellings, and allows users to create playlists.”
• “Skreemr has bare bones functionality and the hit rate is a little iffy. But they have one feature that the others do not - a direct link to the file on the third party server. That means downloading the song to your hard drive is just a right mouse click away.”
• “Songza also allows users to create playlists and provides embeddable players. “

Check this link for the full article.

Techdirt are reporting that  the RIAA have lost a court battle to keep secret details of exactly how much each download costs them. The case revolves around whether the fines that they’re levying are ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment or not. But hang on - if you’re seeking damages in a court case, shouldn’t you have to detail them in the first place?

Regardless -  it’ll be interesting to see how they value downloads. I can’t quite place how much I value them myself - clearly they’re not the same as the loss of 1 physical unit (I’ve downloaded stuff I’d never buy, and some downloads have made me buy stuff I wouldn’t have otherwise bought), but I think it’s fair to say they don’t have zero value either. I don’t think they’re worth the quid iTunes charges for them, either - especially with all that DRM they’re slathered in.

So the blogosphere is on fire today, following a profile of Universal boss Doug Morris in Wired Magazine this month. For the uninitiated, he’s basically saying that major labels knew they’d have to change but didn’t know how, and dithered for too long. The worrying part is where he starts trying to answer the question of WHY they didn’t know how:

“We didn’t know who to hire,” he says, becoming more agitated. “I wouldn’t be able to recognize a good technology person — anyone with a good bullshit story would have gotten past me.” Morris’ almost willful cluelessness is telling. “He wasn’t prepared for a business that was going to be so totally disrupted by technology,” says a longtime industry insider who has worked with Morris. “He just doesn’t have that kind of mind.

That concerns me - that they didn’t know how to post a job application on their site for someone who knows a bit about digital music, who’d be able to analyse different strategies. There were a million people online who’d have done it for them for free.  With regards to the rest of the article though, bloggers are giving Morris a lot of flak for essentially coming clean and explaining himself. It seems that Morris would have been better off keeping his mouth shut entirely. I think that’s a shame - he should be commended for owning up. It seems like he’s learnt his lesson and we’re seeing the effects - Universal have ditched DRM.  An apology’s too much to ask for - but recognition of the problem is the first step towards solving it.

Wow, the learning process is really breaking down over at MPAA HQ. Techdirt have brought to light some interesting info about the previously reported new law  forcing Universities to crack down on filesharing:

The group is also apparently pushing certain universities to install some MPAA-sponsored software to monitor network usage. However, after examining this “toolkit” some are noticing that it appears a lot more like a “rootkit” than a “toolkit.” Depending on how a university’s network is configured, it could actually reveal a lot of private info to the outside world. The software also phones home to the MPAA, despite promising not to report back any information. There are a few other oddities as well. While it could password protect some of the exposed content, it never prompts the user to do so — and, at the same time, it disables logging who accesses the pages revealing all the info. While it could all be a coincidence, effectively the MPAA has made it so that it (and others) can spy on university network usage without being tracked in many cases.

Didn’t they learn from the SonyBMG rootkit debacle that the dangers of doing stuff like this is enormous?

I always feel a bit guilty when I post Zune stories - especially as this is a UK blog and they’re not available here, but I think this is newsworthy enough to justify it. Wired are reporting that Zune was the second most-wanted item over Thanksgiving weekend in the States.  After the Wii, naturally. Apparently the low price and the new software are attracting throngs of people who just want something pretty that plays music and don’t care if it’s Apple or not. Good news for Zune, good news for consumers in general (Apple needs some serious competition here), and good news for the prospect of Zunes hitting Europe in the future.

While we’re at it, Zune is #1, #2 and #10 on the Amazon.com bestsellers list right now…

Dave Allen, a member of influential post-punkers Gang of Four, has a blog called Pampelmoose. On it, he’s listed some basic tenets for distribution of music in the future. Here’s what he says:

 01. We need to make a cheap quick recording of no more than 6 songs. The days of spending forever in a studio are over.
02. It can’t be called an album, that format is over - case in point - after downloading the Radiohead In Rainbows album I found various remixes of songs from that album and so I deleted the originals as the new mixes were preferable to me. I then built my own running order. Goodbye to having an album formatted in advance.
03. As we write and record in rehearsal we should post the demos, as rough as they are, to our website and also to Amiestreet so that fans can download them. Comments would be offered and that way we could gauge response. Also word of mouth will get the message far and wide that these demos are available and that we are working on the new recordings - no PR required.
04. Understanding the data which will then help us understand our fans’ behaviour.
05. It’s imperative that we give away MP3s.
06. Enroll our most rabid fans to help us market and promote the band.
07. We must partner only with an indie label for any physical good that we release.
08. We must take meetings with people like Kevin Arnold at IODA and Shane Tobin at iMeem whose companies offer very distinct ways to reach music fans.

In my opinion, he’s barking up the right tree in general.  There’s no need to pay expensive publicity and press fees if you have enough fans that love you. Make that growth curve smooth out again. Bands shouldn’t be selling out their debut album on release - it doesn’t seem right. Engage with your audience, allow them to enjoy your music however they like, and they’ll reward you with revenues from other sources (gigs, merch, ’special’ physical product, etc).