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Grex > Music > #54: The Thirty-Second "Napsterization" Item |  |
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krj
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The Thirty-Second "Napsterization" Item
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Apr 14 20:02 UTC 2008 |
The usual canned introduction:
The original Napster corporation has been destroyed, its trademarks
now owned by an authorized music retailer which does not use
peer-to-peer technology. But the Napster paradigm, in which computers
and networks give ordinary people unprecedented control over content,
continues.
This is another quarterly installment in a series of weblog and
discussion about the deconstruction of the music industry and other
copyright industries, with side forays into "intellectual property,
freedom of expression, electronic media, corporate control, and
evolving technology," as polygon once phrased it.
Several years of back items are easily found in the music2, music3
and music4 conferences, covering discussions all the way back to
the initial popularity of the MP3 format. These items are linked
between the current Agora conference and the Music conference.
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| 30 responses total. |
krj
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response 1 of 30:
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Apr 14 20:03 UTC 2008 |
Hug your record store on Saturday! (If you still have one.)
It's "Record Store Day," April 19 2008.
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/04/happy-record-st.html
http://www.recordstoreday.com/
(Maybe I should go leave carnations on the sites where the good stores
used to be. It's been ten years since Ann Arbor's Schoolkids Records
closed its original store, about eight years since SKR Classical
folded, eight and seven years since the Tower Records outlets went,
and about that long since Michigan Where House Records closed.)
I was realizing the other day that the late 20th century record store
was a creation of the baby boomers and their musical demands, and so
it exits with them.
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cyklone
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response 2 of 30:
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Apr 14 20:32 UTC 2008 |
Thanks for the reminder to get my tickets for this year's "Horse and
Carriage Day"!
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hungus
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response 3 of 30:
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Apr 15 14:52 UTC 2008 |
Encore's still there.
And that was the only record store that ever really mattered anyway.
And wazoo too, right?.
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krj
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response 4 of 30:
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Apr 16 21:41 UTC 2008 |
It's not clear to me how long the used shoppes like Encore have,
as the flow of new CDs slows down towards a trickle. Maybe we'll
all trade the existing base of CDs around for decades, but I kinda
doubt it. Don't get me wrong, I do love Encore and I have bought
more CDs there in 2008 than at any other retailer.
(Encore also has the problem that the big realty company wants to
redevelop their space.)
Wazoo is still hanging in there. I don't get there much any more
because in the genres where I buy the most -- folk, "world",
jazz and classical -- they are pretty weak in all except jazz.
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hungus
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response 5 of 30:
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Apr 17 14:16 UTC 2008 |
I'd say the bulk of Encore's inventory is vinyl, and appeals to a certain type
of collector.
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krj
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response 6 of 30:
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Apr 18 15:45 UTC 2008 |
NBC suggests that software tools which load content into portable
players -- think iTunes, though the NBC spokesperson did not name that
product -- would be a good place to enforce some antipiracy measures.
Presumably the loading software would somehow fail to load
content which did not have some sort of proof of authorized-ness?
NBC was not full of technical details here.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920399-7.html?tag=nefd.lede
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krj
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response 7 of 30:
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Apr 18 20:27 UTC 2008 |
Here's a quote:
> "To limit unauthorized consumption of media it's imperative to
> control the audience," Robert Hughes, executive vice president
> of global sales, services and marketing for Akamai tells the
> Business Technology Bog.
How's that controlling-the-audience thing working out for ya?
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/04/16/media-companies-need-to-pick-up-the
-pace/
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cyklone
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response 8 of 30:
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Apr 18 23:51 UTC 2008 |
They're pinning their hopes on a nice, controllable Internet2.
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gull
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response 9 of 30:
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Apr 30 21:07 UTC 2008 |
The problem for them is DRM is quickly losing in the marketplace.
Amazon's online music service gives you nice, DRM-free MP3 files. You
do have to use their "download manager" tool, but once you have the
files you can do what you like with them.
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mcnally
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response 10 of 30:
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Apr 30 22:43 UTC 2008 |
I believe you only have to use their download manager if you want
to buy albums at the $8.99 price. If you want single tracks at
$0.99 there's a way to work that without using their download
manager.
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nharmon
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response 11 of 30:
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Apr 30 23:59 UTC 2008 |
I may be getting an iPod soon and plan on filling it with music not
purchased from iTMS. :)
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mcnally
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response 12 of 30:
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May 1 03:50 UTC 2008 |
As does pretty much everybody who buys an iPod but doesn't have $10,000
lying around to blow on music downloads.
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gull
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response 13 of 30:
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May 1 17:20 UTC 2008 |
Re resp:10: I think you're right. They have download managers for most
platforms now, though, including Linux, so it hardly matters.
The majority of the music on my iPod is still from CDs I own, but when I
buy new music now it's mostly in downloaded form.
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anderyn
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response 14 of 30:
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May 16 20:42 UTC 2008 |
I don't know. I have a LOT of iTunes music. But then I don't mind the DRM that
much.
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gull
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response 15 of 30:
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May 20 17:11 UTC 2008 |
I find it kind of an annoyance, but that's partly because I use more
than one computer. iTunes does not cope with this well.
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krj
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response 16 of 30:
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Jun 3 20:47 UTC 2008 |
A couple of music retail stories with Michigan angles. Apologies
for not having links.
Borders reported that their music sales were down 25+% for the
first quarter of 2008. They acknowledge that part of the decline
is because they are shrinking the inventory and the square footage
"aggressively." I think it's a race to see if Borders gets rid
of CD sales before Borders itself goes bust or is sold.
The Handleman company, based in Troy, was one of the largest
distributors of physical music recordings in the US. Maybe they were
the largest? Their web site says they were a Fortune 1000 company
in 2002. Handleman is winding up its music business in North
America and selling the assets to rival Anderson.
Anderson is the leading supplier of CDs for Wal-Mart; Handleman
had been #2. I am still trying to figure out the implications of
this for what's left of CD retail, but I suspect it isn't going to
be good.
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cyklone
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response 17 of 30:
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Jun 3 23:28 UTC 2008 |
I'm surprised Handleman has lasted as long as it has.
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krj
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response 18 of 30:
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Jun 6 05:05 UTC 2008 |
Quoted without content:
-----(start)-----
The music business once had to bear the accusation that it was full
of dinosaurs who looked back to an old business model rather than
embracing a new one.
Today, though, it is the music business that is charting the way
to the future. We are the ones exercising the brains of government
about how to balance a free internet with an internet that respects
intellectual property, is properly regulated and is not the Wild West.
I believe President Sarkozy truly caught the spirit of the age with
that statement. The visionaries and the dinosaurs have perhaps changed
places. If there are dinosaurs around today, I think they are the
internet free-thinkers of the past who believe that copyright is the
great obstacle to progress, that the distributors of content should
enjoy profits without responsibilities and that the creators and
producers of music should simply subordinate their rights to the
rights of everyone else.
-----(end)-----
Paul McGuinness, manager of U2, remarks at the MusicMatters conference
in Hong Kong a few days ago.
http://www.u2.com/news/index.php?mode=full&news_id=2230
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gull
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response 19 of 30:
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Jun 6 19:54 UTC 2008 |
Remember the "broadcast flag" that was intended to restrict home
recording of HDTV programs? The FCC rule requiring its implementation
was struck down in 2005. However, Microsoft Windows Media Center is
honoring it anyway -- something users found out when NBC apparently
started setting the flag on some of their programs, blocking Media
Center from recording them:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9946780-7.html
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cyklone
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response 20 of 30:
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Jun 10 23:13 UTC 2008 |
Here's an amusing story about a chain that accidentally ordered some
LPs, AND THEN ACTUALLY SOLD THEM!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/10/vinyl.records.ap/index.html
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lar
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response 21 of 30:
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Jun 11 03:18 UTC 2008 |
It may be nostaliga but I still think a vinyl LP with a 1/4 gram
magnetic cart. on the turntable still gives the best sound
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tod
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response 22 of 30:
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Jun 11 04:20 UTC 2008 |
I'm partial to DBX Dolby with FLAC.
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gull
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response 23 of 30:
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Jun 11 17:25 UTC 2008 |
Re resp:21: I think that's true for certain values of "best." It's not
objectively accurate as the sound from a digital recording, but if you
happen to like it better, then that's how you should listen to music.
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krj
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response 24 of 30:
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Jun 17 20:28 UTC 2008 |
The Associated Press has decided to object to the quote-and-link
style of most political blogs. They have filed numerous DMCA takedown
notices against a web site called The Drudge Retort. The excerpt
quotes in question range from 33 to 79 words, according to the
report here:
http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/3368/ap-files-7-dmca-takedowns-agai
nst-drudge
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