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THE INDUSTRY STANDARD'S
B E A T S H E E T
A Weekly Report on the Convergence of Music and the Net
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| http://www.thestandard.com |
Tuesday, April 18, 2000
TOP STORY:
* Keeping Up Is Hard to Do
Bruce Haring takes on the history of the 'digital music revolution.'
NET NOISE:
* Blinded Me (With Beatnik.com)
UPBEAT/DOWNBEAT:
* What is the sound of music stocks falling?
Digital music stocks suffer in market turmoil.
* Another Week, Another Lawsuit (or Three) Metallica sues Napster;
Oldies groups sue MP3.com; Judge postpones RIAA ruling
SOUND OFF: What do you think of Metallica's decision to sue?
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TOP STORY:
~~~~~~~~~~
Keeping Up Is Hard to Do
Bruce Haring takes on the history of the 'digital music revolution.'
By Julene Snyder
Trying to keep up with what author Bruce Haring calls the "digital
music revolution" in book form is like trying to catch a waterfall in
a shot glass.
You'd think that Haring would be frustrated by all the news that has
broken since he finished writing "Beyond the Charts: MP3 and the
Digital Music Revolution" (OTC Press). But you'd be wrong: Haring set
out to write about the genesis of the revolution. Subsequent events -
Napster, MP3.com's legal fight with the RIAA, Gnutella, et. al. - are
interesting, but beside the point.
"I stopped reporting in the fall," Haring says from his Los Angeles
office. "When you're writing about current events, you know that
things are going to change by the time it comes out." He sees recent
developments as fairly predictable. "When you boil it down, it's more
of the same. It's the music industry looking at something and fearing
it, rather than figuring out a new business model they can work with."
Unlike many other books focusing on MP3 that have been published in
the last year or so - not to mention at least a half-dozen scheduled
to be released in the next few months - Haring's book is less a how-to
than a history and overview of the phenomenon. While the writer's
style is straightforward - even sometimes parched - the stories he
relates are compelling. Self-taught MP3 experts will find little new
in "Beyond the Charts," but neophytes can get a crash-course in MP3's
history at a single sitting.
Haring, a former writer for USA Today's high-tech entertainment beat,
makes no secret of his allegiances in the ongoing music battles. He
characterizes the recording industry as a stubborn bunch. "They've
done it this way for years," Haring says. "They're resisting change
rather than trying to work with it. Inevitably, they're going to
realize that change - as they've always ultimately realized - is good
for the business. Next thing you know, they'll be working with it, and
everybody will be making more money. That's historically the way
things have been."
If there's a hero in "Beyond the Charts," it's MP3.com CEO Michael
Robertson, whom Haring sees as being in the vanguard of the digital
music struggle: "He's unafraid to take people on and challenge them,"
he says.
In the book, Robertson tells how MP3.com morphed into its current
incarnation: "We didn't have money to buy content. We didn't know
anyone who had content. And we didn't make our own content. So what
were we going to do? We started off scouring the Net, looking for any
bands, anywhere, that were putting up MP3 files. And we would simply
link to them."
The saga of MP3.com is worth the price of the book, especially the
hilarious story of how the domain name was purchased for $1,000 from a
fellow with the initials M.P., who'd never heard of the digital music
format. The exchange sounds like a steal now, but at the time,
Robertson's wife balked at the pricey purchase: "Are you out of your
mind?"
In the end, Haring sees digital music as a groundbreaking distribution
tool. "Musicians have to take the bull by the horns and use this new
tool for themselves. Don't rely on signing a deal where you're getting
less than 10 percent of the gross revenue; that's not the way to go.
You now have the power to do it for yourself."
That's advice Haring will be taking himself, when he issues an
electronic version of the book, which will include recent
developments. "I'd like this to become sort of a living documentary of
where we were at and where we're heading." He laughs. "Sort of like
Stephen King, but with fewer sales."
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NET NOISE:
~~~~~~~~~~
Blinded Me With Beatnik.com
Well, smack me upside the head and rightly accuse me of being behind
the curve, but I had to go to the "What is Beatnik?" section of this
site to learn what you probably already know: Beatnik's been around
since 1996 and was founded by Thomas Dolby Robertson (yeah, the
"Blinded Me With Science" guy). A first visit proved a bit
overwhelming: What is all of this stuff? To find out, you'll need to
download the Beatnik Player, which is fairly painless. Then, if you're
like me, you'll need to go to "Beatnik for Beginners" to check out
products like ambient sound for your Web site (translation: cool audio
that kicks in when visitors pass their mouse over an icon), ranging
from ferocious dog snarls to the calming patter of rain. The
production music area contains over 120,000 music and sound files,
many of them for sale. They aren't cheap - the average price hovers
around $750 - but offerings come from "prestigious music libraries,"
and presumably are worth the big bucks. Never fear, cheapskates,
there's a free download section for sound compression and manipulation
that'll keep you occupied for hours. Cool demos and tutorials promise
to give even the clueless a clue.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOWNBEAT:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What Is the Sound of Music Stocks Falling?
Digital music stocks suffer in market turmoil.
Last week's stock slide left its share of damage in the music
industry. Liquid Audio Inc., which started trading last week at
$21.67, sank steadily to $12 on Friday, but ended today slightly up at
$13 - after issuing a quarterly report that cited "strong revenue
growth and cash position." The stock's 52-week high is $49, so there's
not much room for rejoicing here. Over at EMusic.com Inc., things look
even bleaker: The company started trading last Monday at $5.03 and
plummeted to $2 by Friday. Today shares were up only slightly to
$2.13, as investors proved unimpressed by today's announcement that
EMusic's first quarter downloadable revenues "increased by 118 percent
to $450,000 compared with downloadable revenue in the preceding
quarter of $206,000." Over at MP3.com, stock fell from last week's
peak of $18.88 at the start of trading on Monday, to $10.25 by day's
end on Friday. MP3.com closed today at $10.06. Hapless CDnow Inc.
started last week trading at $5.13, then hit a 52-week low on Friday,
down to $3.50 a pop. Today, trading ended even lower at $3. These are
happier days for RealNetworks Inc., which started last week with
$51.63, ended the week at $30.56, then stepped back up to $41.31 by
the end of trading today. That's still a huge drop from the 52-week
high of $96. (But we'll take what we can get, won't we?) The only
thing certain is that nothing is certain. And you can quote me on
that.
Another Week, Another Lawsuit (or Three) Metallica sues Napster;
Oldies groups sue MP3.com; Judge postpones RIAA ruling
From the damned-if-you-do department, last week Metallica slapped
Napster with a lawsuit and was promptly tarred with the "sell-out"
brush by the heavy-metal band's fan-base. No doubt a few Metallheads
are responsible for the subsequent hack of the band's Web site. The
suit charges the song-swap software company along with USC, Yale
University and Indiana University - schools that have allowed Napster
use on their servers - with "copyright infringement and racketeering."
Unlike most major acts, Metallica owns its masters, so its suit
somewhat undermined claims by Napster advocates that no one but the
big bad record labels are getting hurt by those who trade free songs.
Indiana University student Chad Paulson came out in Metallica's favor
on his www.savenapster.com site and was promptly hacked and called a
"backstabber." It's getting ugly, folks.
(http://www.layer3news.org/images/napster/save_big.gif).
In other lawsuit updates, waning luminaries The Chambers Brothers, The
Coasters and The Original Drifters filed suit against MP3.com,
claiming that this is the first case where artists - not labels - have
sued "in their own name." Last week's summary judgment hearing in the
RIAA vs. MP3.com suit found the judge delaying a ruling until April
28, at which time a number of things could happen, including a move to
full trial, a call for an evidentiary hearing, or a move granting the
RIAA's position and move to damages. What's most surprising is that
MP3.com only has one current job opening for corporate counsel.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,14119,00.html?nl=bts
SOUND OFF:
~~~~~~~~~
This week's question: What do you think of Metallica's decision to sue
Napster along with three universities?
E-mail your opinions to julene@well.com with "sound off" in the
subject line, and we'll print a selection of the responses in next
week's newsletter. Letters may be edited for clarity and length, so
keep them short and include your name and affiliation, if any.
Last week's question: Is it possible to be too much of a music geek?
"'High Fidelity' has liberated music geeks the world over: Suddenly
they're 'funny,' their elitist obsessiveness vindicated by John
Cusack's tryst with a cute blonde. Fact: If you over-geek, you better
only speak to other geeks. Fact: music geeks are less offensive than
chess geeks or draw (marijuana) bores. Fact: loving music doesn't
excuse anal and antisocial behavior."
- Jake Stepton
"Wait, wait, you're using the phrases 'too much' and 'music geek' in
the same sentence, and while they're both English, I'm afraid you're
just not making any sense. I am already more obsessed with and in love
with music than most people I know, and my geekiness barely scratches
the surface of everything that's out there. I can't think of any more
rewarding way to spend my time than poring over bin after bin of
unalphabetized boxes of plastic-bagged old records, analyzing every
detail of a 12-inch square of double-sided dreams, memorizing liner
notes and production credits like a 12-year-old boy with a rookie Lou
Gehrig, and watching that wheel of black butter spin on the turntable
while a heady five-part harmony melts out of those two black boxes I
spent way too much money on, and spend way too much time fiddling
with. Oh, yeah, BTW, real geeks go vinyl!"
- Stephanie Wiggins
Research Analyst
Girl Games
"Damn straight you can be too much of a music geek! Problem is that
everyone has a different definition of that. Geekery to some is merely
'informed' to others, and the more 'informed' you are, the more
extreme the definition of 'geek' is stretched. Encyclopedic knowledge
of Bob Marley? Not geek. Encyclopedic knowledge of klezmer? Geek. But
of course, my klezmaniac friends will challenge my Marley fixation
(including a child named Marley) as geek. Of course, music geeks are
not an Internet phenomenon. Where would we be without those stalwart
music geeks who write for the local alt.paper and/or run our local
indie record shops (no matter where you are)? Long live the music
geek!!"
- Jody Lentz
VP of Buzz
eConception
STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Julene Snyder. Send newstips and press releases to
julene@well.com.
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