response 60 of 162:

Jul 27 03:53 UTC 2003

This story is about folks going into competition with Clear Channel
in the concert promotion business; most of it is long and windy, but 
I wanted to use one short quote:
 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/07/26/MN199320.DTL
 
  "Concert attendance has dropped in three consecutive years,
   and only rising ticket prices have kept revenues up."

Another report suggesting that the plunge in pop/rock music 
concert attendance started at the same time as the slide 
in CD sales, suggesting that what's happened is either the 
economy, or else a cultural turn away from music.

response 62 of 162:

Jul 28 19:40 UTC 2003

 :)

response 64 of 162:

Jul 29 20:57 UTC 2003

That's _Sweet Child O' Mine_.......;-)

response 66 of 162:

Jul 30 13:20 UTC 2003

Oh boy.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=industryNews&storyID=3173482

response 68 of 162:

Jul 30 17:31 UTC 2003

(By "concert promoters" I don't mean just the ilk of Bill Graham, but 
the whole record industry.)

response 70 of 162:

Jul 30 18:53 UTC 2003

The Fresno Bee profiles one Fresno-area target of a RIAA subpoena:
 
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/7187003p-8115681c.html
 
"Could file sharing cost Fresno man $45 million?"

response 72 of 162:

Jul 31 23:36 UTC 2003

SBC's Pacific Bell internet service provider is contesting the DMCA
subpoenas they have received from the RIAA for alleged file sharing.
SBC makes objections on procedural grounds -- subpoenas being issued
from the wrong federal court, and multiple individuals being targeted
in a single subpoena -- and they also make constitutional privacy
claims on behalf of their customers.  Many news stories on this everywhere,
here's one:
 
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-07-31-pac-bell_x.htm
 
-----
 
Vivendi Universal, the French conglomerate which owns the largest 
music company, reports distressing results for the first half of 2003.
     "Fewer international releases, currency effects, and weakness in 
   the music market helped push sales at Vivendi's Universal Music
   down 29 percent to 1.068 billion euros.  At constant exchange rates,
   sales dropped 19 percent."
 
   ((Vivendi reports its results in Euros, and the Euro has gone up 
     relative to the dollar this year.  I think the 19 percent number is 
     the key one -- this is a fall twice the predicted rate for CD sales
     this year.  Also, this news story is measuring money, not units sold.))
 
http://www.msnbc.com/news/946407.asp?0cv=BA00

response 74 of 162:

Aug 1 01:10 UTC 2003

MIT is Boston College.

response 76 of 162:

Aug 4 18:20 UTC 2003

Cnet ran this story about discussions between the RIAA and unnamed 
universities, with a goal of creating a legal online music service 
aimed at the campuses.   
 
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5059030.html?tag=lh
 
My guess is that the RIAA's goal is to tamp down the number of students
who run Kazaa and similar services, and thus offer large number of files
going outbound from the high-speed University networks -- I speculate
that they are hoping to throttle the uploading side of P2P and are 
willing to sell songs at minimal cost to accomplish that.

I expect that the discussions will founder; according to the article, 
the universities want some sort of all-you-can-eat system, while the 
record companies remain stuck on the pay-for-each-song model.
 
In a related topic, I realized last week that the RIAA has timed its 
lawsuits to coincide almost precisely with the students' return to 
their schools.

-----

In a story reported everywhere, so I won't bother pulling up a link:
Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota would like to chat with the RIAA about
the shotgun approach they are taking with their subpoenas.

response 78 of 162:

Aug 5 22:33 UTC 2003

Hey tod!  You might want to close those table tags...

response 80 of 162:

Aug 5 22:59 UTC 2003

Sorry, on the main page.

response 82 of 162:

Aug 6 02:35 UTC 2003

Ahem!  The html table tags on http://www.megachump.com/ are not closed.

Oh, never mind.