You are not logged in. Login Now
 0-24   25-49   50-74   75-99   100-124   106-130   131-155   156-165   
 
Author Message
25 new of 165 responses total.
bdh3
response 131 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 3 07:08 UTC 2002

Both are doomed.  The moment it becomes a significant market there
are a number of players ready to move into that segment that already
have significant infrastructure in place to deliver such as service
in addition to what they already deliver.  For example, you already
have 'web enabled' cellphones, it wouldn't be too difficult to
offer 'music enabled' as well, indeed I'm surprised it hasn't
happened already.
dbratman
response 132 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 3 20:32 UTC 2002

Listening to music on a cell-phone would be the utter triumph of low-fi.
orinoco
response 133 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 3 21:23 UTC 2002

The low speaker volume would be a bigger problem.  Bad sound quality's never
stopped people from listening to radio before.
scott
response 134 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 3 23:27 UTC 2002

Two (or is it three?) words:  "Headphone jack".
orinoco
response 135 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 4 07:32 UTC 2002

D'oh.  Of course.
bdh3
response 136 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 4 08:00 UTC 2002

Exactly. 
dbratman
response 137 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 4 20:00 UTC 2002

Orinoco wrote: "Bad sound quality's never stopped people from listening 
to radio before."

Yet more proof that I do not exist, I guess.
krj
response 138 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 5 13:37 UTC 2002

USA Today has an overview article on the struggles between the 
music business and music fans.    File sharing only gets a small 
piece of the story.
 
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2002/2002-06-05-cover-music-industry.htm
jaklumen
response 139 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 6 09:48 UTC 2002

Based on previous discussion, it sounds like the 1980s all over again, 
with a contemporary twist.  We're getting heavy into one-hit wonders 
again.
krj
response 140 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 8 16:54 UTC 2002

Via Slashdot:
http://www.newyorkmag.com/page.cfm?page_id=6099
 
The essay by Michael Wolff argues that the music business of the future
is going to look a lot more like the book business -- much less 
significant to the mass culture, and much, much less profitable.
He suggests that rock and roll, which powered the growth of the 
music biz in the 1960s and 1970s, is spent as a cultural force, 
with nothing of equal impact to replace it.

He also sees two ways that the Internet has sandbagged the industry:
besides the file sharing and copying issue, there is the problem that
the Internet has encouraged tastes to splinter into thousands of 
musical subcategories.  This makes it much harder for the major music 
corporations to come up with the megahits which power their profits;
it also means industry costs are way out line with the sales that 
can be expected for most discs, and they need to be drastically pruned.
Translation: lots and lots of layoffs in the music business.

In talking to music business people, Wolff reports that a grim fatalism 
is setting in.

Recommended essay.
jmsaul
response 141 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 8 18:05 UTC 2002

Good riddance to them, as fas as I'm concerned.
krj
response 142 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 9 05:28 UTC 2002

found it!  The New York Magazine article referred to a Wall Street Journal
item; usually the WSJ stuff is not freely available, but this story
was made available as a cautionary tale for children...  :)
 
http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/0502_mdia.htm

                  MCA Records spent about two
                  years preparing Carly
                  Hennessy for pop stardom,
                  and about $2.2 million to
                  make and market the
                  18-year-old singer's first pop
                  album, "Ultimate High."

                  But since "Ultimate High" was
                  released in stores nationwide
                  a few months ago, it has sold
                  only 378 copies-amounting to
                  about $4,900 at its suggested
                  retail price. ...

Wonderful story!
jp2
response 143 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 9 05:31 UTC 2002

This response has been erased.

jmsaul
response 144 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 9 14:23 UTC 2002

#142 brings a tear to my eye.  I'm proud of the American public.
aruba
response 145 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 9 14:50 UTC 2002

I think musical tastes were well on the way to slintersville before the net
became something a lot of people used.
scott
response 146 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 9 17:14 UTC 2002

Great interview/article about David Bowie in today's NYT:
"The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music
will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it.
I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm
fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10
years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing."

 "Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity," he
added. "So it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none
of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a
lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going
to be left. It's terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn't matter
if you think it's exciting or not; it's what's going to happen."


http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/arts/music/09PARE.html?todaysheadlines

Sounds like (as usual) Bowie has been thinking a few years ahead of most
people in the music business.
bru
response 147 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 9 21:13 UTC 2002

who is carly hennessy?
scott
response 148 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 9 22:04 UTC 2002

Carly Hennessy was given as an example in one of the articles Ken posted
yesterday.
oval
response 149 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 10 03:18 UTC 2002

it's great to see people so optimistic. i can't wait, if they're right.

russ
response 150 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 10 11:48 UTC 2002

Re #147:  That's *exactly* what I'd like everyone to ask about all
the acts which the RIAA tries to manufacture via their hype machine.

If I hadn't seen N'Sync plugged on T-shirts and sniped at by Foxtrot,
I might still be ignorant of them.  The nice thing about such creations
of hype machines is that if everyone stops paying attention to them
they soon cease to exist.
dbratman
response 151 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 10 18:14 UTC 2002

And a good thing, too, that musical tastes are splintering.  Whenever I 
see a movie set, say, in the 1950s, it's always filled with the pop 
music of that era, and I think, "If I'd lived back then, I would have 
had to hear that crap all the time _whether I wanted to or not_."  (I'm 
thinking to myself, I'm entitled to call it crap.)

Of course, nowadays I have to hear hip-hop whether I want to or not, 
usually while I'm waiting at red lights in traffic, but at least I 
don't have to hear too much of it.

oval
response 152 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 10 21:42 UTC 2002

i'll happily take hip-hop over shit-pop.

flem
response 153 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 11 14:20 UTC 2002

Dunno if this is the right item, but I read yesterday that some ReplayTV
users are suing Turner for saying that skipping the commercials is theft. 
I could probably find the URL if I tried.  
jazz
response 154 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 11 20:01 UTC 2002

        It's not theft;  you're not taking something that Turner's not giving
away for free.  At worst, it's a breach of an unspoken contract.
tpryan
response 155 of 165: Mark Unseen   Jun 14 23:51 UTC 2002

        It's the defamation of character the Turner is doing, to call
it's veiwers "Theives".
 0-24   25-49   50-74   75-99   100-124   106-130   131-155   156-165   
Response Not Possible: You are Not Logged In
 

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss