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| Author |
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| 25 new of 151 responses total. |
ceyx
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response 1 of 151:
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Jun 24 08:54 UTC 2001 |
Well what can you do? I loved it, but normally if it's to good to be true then
it normally is.
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micklpkl
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response 2 of 151:
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Jun 25 20:17 UTC 2001 |
From the latest Roxio (EZ CD Creator) e-mailing:
Apparently some of our customers have misinterpreted our new partnership
with EMI. This is somewhat understandable in that there has been nothing
less than a "holy war" being waged between content owners and some high
profile internet entrepreneurs.
The fact is, however, that Roxio in no way intends to restrict
functionality, or obstruct the free and easy burning of content. The
EMI/Roxio deal is about enabling -- not disabling.
Roxio is hardly waving a white flag here. We have pro-actively fought
and lobbied the labels to allow more burning functionality, not less.
Our customers will continue to be able to burn all the content they burn
now (regardless of the source--CD collection, mp3 files, downloads,
etc.). Roxio's mantra is "Burn Everything". We have no intention of
deviating from this fundamental promise to our customer.
We think the major significance of the EMI/Roxio partnership is that one
of the largest record companies in the world has publicly recognized
that digital distribution doesn't work without burning. This is a huge
win for the consumer in getting closer to delivering on the promise of
the "celestial jukebox".
Thank you,
Chris Gorog, President and CEO, roxio
***********
Also in the same e-mail, it was announced that there is now an update to EZ
CD Creator 4.02 that "fixes" the Audio Recognition feature that "broke" when
CDDB threw a spanner in the works.
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krj
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response 3 of 151:
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Jun 26 05:07 UTC 2001 |
I tend to use this item as a running weblog for news stories and essays
which I find of interest; hope everyone else isn't too bored.
http://www.newmediamusic.com/articles/NM01060306.html
"Don't Let The New DRM Standards End Up In A Chorus of Disapproval"
I can never be certain if author Larry Powers at New Media Music is
utterly brilliant or just blowing really pretty smoke rings.
In today's essay Powers talks about how the music industry in
the past has created "the illusion of ownership" for LP/tape/CD
consumers, and how the DRM systems threaten to destroy that illusion.
But, according to Powers, the labels don't grasp that when they
trash the consumers' illusion of ownership -- with song files which
expire after 30 days, or which have a limited number of plays --
they will damage the value of their intellecutal property holdings.
Powers cites the first DiVX DVD system, the one which involved
players which had to phone home for authorization to play the disc,
as an example of what might be in store for the music industry
if they continue on their present course.
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krj
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response 4 of 151:
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Jun 26 05:18 UTC 2001 |
http://musicdish.com/mag/?id=4017
"Dear Artists, Take Control Now While You Can"
The hook quotes economist David Friedman:
"Mark Twain made a lot of his money lecturing, not selling books. His books
were more or less promotional tools. In the future, creative people will have
to accept a similar business model. Current copyright laws simply won't be
enforceable..." (paraphrased)
The article also mentions a Chinese artist-management agency which
has thrown in the towel on CD piracy, which is rampant in Asia.
The agency has now adopted a policy of manufacturing just enough
CDs to get the interest of the pirates; the agency then lets the pirates
assume the costs of manufacturing and distributing the discs, which
the agency now regards as promotional tools for concerts.
Musicdish.com is somewhat amateurish, but I have found their essays
worth checking in for.
----------
I had another article which discusses the original Napster, and its
file sharing successors, as the only consumer-driven online distribution
system to date, but I've lost the reference...
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krj
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response 5 of 151:
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Jun 26 05:22 UTC 2001 |
((( Summer Agora #22 now linked as Music conference #315.
Previous items in this series can be found in the Music
conference: items 240, 279, 280, 294 & 304. )))
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krj
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response 6 of 151:
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Jun 27 17:50 UTC 2001 |
I stuck a response in the music conference (item:music,293) about the
financial difficulties and possible bankruptcy of Tower Records.
Requoting from the L.A. Times:
"Music merchants say sales are down 5% to 10% for the first six
months of the year..."
The LA Times story mentions lots of causes for Tower's problems,
and for the general fall in music sales. Curiously, Napster is
never mentioned.
One wag somewhere (mp3.com/news, maybe?) argues that the falloff in
music sales has accelerated as Napster has been fettered with
filters, and as all measurements report that less and less music is
being traded through the Napster system. So, he argues, this shows
that Napster actually was helping drive sales of music.
(That argument is probably about as valid as the argument that
Napster was damaging sales in 2000...)
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danr
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response 7 of 151:
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Jun 27 18:44 UTC 2001 |
Could it be, perhaps, that music is getting just too damn expensive?
I'm not a big music buff like many of you, but how many CDs can the
average person buy at $20 a pop?
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slynne
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response 8 of 151:
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Jun 27 19:44 UTC 2001 |
I buy less than 10 cd's a year and so far this year have gotten over 50
free ones from work.
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polygon
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response 9 of 151:
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Jun 27 21:24 UTC 2001 |
It has been years since I have purchased a new CD in a store -- mainly
because the prices are so high. I have never used Napster.
I do occasionally buy CDs from the artists directly, at concerts.
I think the last CD I bought from Tower was a cutout, and it was at least
seven years ago.
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senna
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response 10 of 151:
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Jun 27 21:49 UTC 2001 |
I have never used Napster (and the only time I ever downloaded mp3s at all
was a couple of years ago when I downloaded perhaps 20 live Tool songs not
available on any cd. They were deleted some time ago). I buy cds a lot less
than I used to. I think part of the problem is that music isn't as good.
Sales boomed during the early alternative period, when not only grunge but
also rap produced large volumes of sales, but nothing new has moved in to take
its place. Electronica was hyped as the next alternative explosion several
years ago (with much discussion of how record execs were packing electronic
dance clubs the way they used to pack Seattle shows in the late 80s and early
90s), but nothing came of it.
I've puchased two new cds this year, both from bands formed and popularized
in the early 90s. The difference? Tool and Radiohead have both gotten a lot
better as they've gone along. Few bands mature musically the way they have.
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dbratman
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response 11 of 151:
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Jun 28 05:55 UTC 2001 |
resp: 3 - I went and read this article, and I'm still not sure what the
authors mean by "the illusion of ownership" in regard to old/current
practices of selling recordings. What illusion?
resp: 4 - David Friedman's clever notion that authors will live by
lecturing is not a new one: I think it came from Faith Popcorn
earlier. But it's fallacious. Some authors lecture well; some don't,
or dislike it so much that they'd give up authorship first. There's a
limit to how many lectures a practicing author can give and still
write, which means that to live on it, the fees have to be high. But
I've heard a few high-paid lecturers meander on at conferences - John
Perry Barlow was a notably ill-prepared example - and my willingness to
pay big bucks to hear these people burble is strictly limited.
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brighn
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response 12 of 151:
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Jun 28 13:54 UTC 2001 |
My CD budget is around $100/month, which gets me about 7 CDs. I stopped
shopping at Tower when I moved out of Lansing, though that one went to shit
after Mark left anyway.
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gull
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response 13 of 151:
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Jun 28 14:23 UTC 2001 |
I buy the vast majority of my CDs used.
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flem
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response 14 of 151:
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Jun 28 16:23 UTC 2001 |
I apologize if these links aren't new here; I've not been following the
discussion. They're about comic strips rather than online music, but the
argument applies to any content.
part 1
http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-5/icst-5.html
part 2
http://www.thecomicreader.com/html/icst/icst-6/icst-6.html
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brighn
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response 15 of 151:
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Jun 28 16:36 UTC 2001 |
I've read part one, and I like -- but question -- the implication that, if
web-based art is provided at a fair price, people will stop macking it.
Napster (specifically referred to, visually) is, after all, a form of
shoplifting, vitually speaking... its users justify the behavior on the dual
grounds that (a) CDs cost too much and (b) too much of the money goes to
fatcat RIAA guys, but would the virtual shoplifting really stop if prices were
lower? Shareware has been around for years, and most shareware packages have
a reasonably priced registration fee (WinZip is, what, $20 or so?), but most
people I know (including myself) still don't pony up the dough (yes, I'm
admitting I'm a virtual shoplifter, too).
Of course, shareware continues because enough people pony up the registration
fees to make it worth the while of the developers... with the negligible
overhead involved in shareware distribution, especially on-line, the only
thing that money goes to is development time.
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flem
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response 16 of 151:
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Jun 28 16:58 UTC 2001 |
Read part 2, and perhaps his followup to the flame war that this apparently
started <pause for link-finding>:
http://www.scottmccloud.com/home/xtra/backlash.html
He addresses just that issue. Briefly, his response is that no, of course
it won't stop pirating, but it will make it less common, because 1) for the
average person, paying a small fee with a few clicks will be less trouble than
going through the effort to get it for free, and 2) people will be less
likely to go to the trouble of providing bandwidth, disk, and access to
things just to save someone else the trouble of paying a few cents.
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brighn
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response 17 of 151:
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Jun 28 17:23 UTC 2001 |
Ah, so, basically what I suggested in para 2 of #15, i.e., that pirating will
continue, but that *enough* people will pony up to make it worth the time,
and the artist will still wind up netting more than going through traditional
publication channels. I'm inclined to agree.
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krj
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response 18 of 151:
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Jun 28 19:10 UTC 2001 |
Here's a report claiming that Napster is about to disable the older,
"free" versions of its user software, to force everyone to download
the new security-enhanced software. The report goes on with
an account of what the new Napster pricing system will be, and argues
that it is priced to be a certain failure in the market.
Mp3newswire.net is a kind of amateurish site, and I haven't seen this
stuff reconfirmed elsewhere, so you might take it with a grain of salt
for now. However, this report does confirm my original speculation
from back in February that Napster's fate was to become just a branding
for some minor variant on the BMG centralized download system which
has already been rejected by the market.
http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2001/napstersleep.html
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krj
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response 19 of 151:
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Jun 28 20:49 UTC 2001 |
Here's a mainstream media story on the simultaneous crash in both
Napster users and CD sales, which I discussed in vague terms in resp:6 ::
http://www.latimes.com/business/cotown/20010620/t000051058.html
"The numbers raise the issue of whether Napster truly represented the
doomsday for record companies that some industry executives predicted.
And they call into question the RIAA's contention that Napster would
cause 'immeasurable' harm to the business."
..."Slumping sales may have more to do with a comparatively weak release
schedule, a stumbling national economy and the popularity of video games
and other competing forms of entertainment."
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krj
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response 20 of 151:
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Jun 28 20:55 UTC 2001 |
Ooops, forgot part of the article I wanted to quote:
"SoundScan research shows total music sales are down about 5.7% from
the same period last year, dragged down by giant drops in sales of the
singles format and cassettes...
"The story with CDs is even more intriguing. According to SoundScan,
CD sales from January through March 4 were up 5.6% from the period a
year earlier. But for the period from March 5 -- just after Napster
began removing copyrighted material from its service -- through June
122, CD sales were behind last year's numbers by 0.9%"
I did not realize (1) the overall crash in music sales is concentrated in
singles and cassettes, and (2) that CD sales so closely correlated to
the imposition of Napster filters.
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brighn
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response 21 of 151:
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Jun 28 20:55 UTC 2001 |
So far, 2001 has turned out mediocre musical product. The crashes could easily
be coincidental. They could also be anti-RIAA backlash by Napsterites... it
doesn't demonstrate (on that analysis) that Napster wasn't adversely affecting
Majors buisness, it would only demonstrate that the RIAA's handling of the
issue adversely affected Majors business (which it would... regardless of the
morality of Napster, the RIAA acted like Prime Bastards).
And none of it really changes the morality, ethics, or legality of Napster.
A clear proof that Napster was helping the Majors still wouldn't affect
whether it was moral, ethical, or legal a priori.
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krj
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response 22 of 151:
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Jun 28 21:07 UTC 2001 |
Actually it does reflect on the legal situation. All of the legal
fighting so far has been over a preliminary injunction; the argument
for the preliminary injunction is that Napster was causing irreparable
harm to the record companies. Napster has still not had its trial;
I have no idea at this point if Napster is *ever* going to have its
trial.
I propose that one way in which irreparable harm to the record companies
should have been apparent is in diminished sales. The sales figures
we have now show a NEGATIVE correlation between Napster usage and CD
sales; thus no irreparable harm, thus there should have been no
preliminary injunction.
Napster may still be liable for statutory or actual
damages for copyright infringement, but these damages alone do not
warrant a preliminary injunction before the full trial.
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brighn
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response 23 of 151:
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Jun 28 21:50 UTC 2001 |
Mm... I'll grant that it does obviously impact on the irreparable harm issue.
I was think of the intellectual property issue, and had forgotten that that
wasn't the only (or even the major) part of the suit. My mistake.
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senna
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response 24 of 151:
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Jun 28 22:09 UTC 2001 |
I'm surprised that there's distress about singles and cassette sales, both
of which are music formats that have been running downhill for years. In my
early high school years, most retail centers still had healthy cassette
sections, but barely anything exists now.
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brighn
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response 25 of 151:
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Jun 29 04:57 UTC 2001 |
At this rate, an early prediction of mine -- that cassette will actually be
discontinued before LPs -- may actually bear out.
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