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THE STANDARD'S
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The Latest Digital Music News - and It's Free
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http://www.thestandard.com
Tuesday, April 17, 2001
NET NOISE:
* Punkmusic.com
BEATS:
* Under Pressure: Another Busy News Week for Napster
DOT DOT DOT:
* Musicbank Folds ... Is EMI-Bertelsmann a No-Go? ... Farmclub Honcho
May Head Duet ... Digital-Music Fun at Harvard
SOUND OFF:
* This week's question: Which aspects of the current digital-music
scenario do the media tend to overlook?
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NET NOISE
~~~~~~~~~
Punkmusic.com
Punk rock pioneer Joey Ramone died from lymphatic cancer over the
weekend at age 49, and it's a crying shame. The Ramones lead singer
co-founded the band in 1974; Joey started off as the drummer but
switched to vocals a few months after the group played its first gig.
Subsequently the Ramones was the first punk rock band to sign a record
contract. Its eponymous debut came out in 1976 and included visceral
thrills like "Beat on the Brat" and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue."
SonicNet's Gil Kaufman's obit for Joey Ramone sums up the band's vast
influence in a nutshell: "Destroying the '70s prog-rock idea that rock
had to be played by learned musicians in full command of their
instruments, the Ramones pioneered the do-it-yourself ideal that
inspired thousands of punk bands with lots of energy but dicey chops
to pick up instruments and rock." To pay homage to Ramone and all
those he inspired, drop by Punkmusic.com, an extensive resource for
the punk community. Here you'll find exhaustive news about the scene,
a multitude of related links to sites, interviews with artists, a
guide to touring bands, MP3s for download, essential stuff for sale -
bumper stickers, leather accessories, posters, etc. - and a community
of never-say-die punk enthusiasts. Now let's all shout together for
one last chorus: "Just get me to the airport / And put me on a plane /
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane / I can't control my fingers / I
can't control my brain." Oh no, oh oh, oh no. R.I.P, Joey.
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BEATS
~~~~~
Under Pressure: Another Busy News Week for Napster
Having recently emerged from beneath our pile of tax forms - blinking
blearily into the light and vowing to start organizing receipts in a
color-coded file system - we notice that life has apparently gone on.
Napster continued to dominate the digital-music headlines last week:
Judge Marilyn Hall Patel sounded a bit sick of the whole bloody mess
at a San Francisco court hearing last Tuesday, calling the company's
efforts to block unauthorized music "disgraceful" and opining
ominously that "maybe the system does need to be closed down." This
came in response to the music industry's claim that 84 percent of the
titles it wants to block remain on Napster. At the hearing, Patel
named a technical adviser - A.J. "Nick" Nichols, who previously served
as an adviser in a suit between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems - to
help resolve disputes over filtering. The same day, Napster announced
it had acquired the search and file-identification technology of
Gigabeat, an online music-recommendation service. The deal is meant to
help develop Napster's launch of a paid download service this summer
and comply with the court's order to block copyrighted material from
its service. On Thursday, an extensive Wall Street Journal article
about Napster-partner Bertelsmann featured CEO Thomas Middelhoff
calling the record industry the "music mafia" and saying that his
company will ultimately tame the Web. The Big Question is, of course,
whether Napster will be able to keep millions of users coming back for
more when it has to charge actual folding money and face competition
from the likes of MusicNet and Duet.
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DOT DOT DOT
~~~~~~~~~~~
Musicbank Folds ... Is EMI-Bertelsmann a No-Go? ... Farmclub Honcho
May Head Duet ... Digital-Music Fun at Harvard
Net music company Musicbank folded abruptly last week, despite having
ties with all five major record labels and being held up by the
Recording Industry Association of America as a poster-child for proper
song licensing and "legitimate" digital-music business models. The
company - which had never actually introduced a commercial service but
planned to act as a "storage locker" for consumers' music collections
- ceased operations and dismissed its entire staff on Tuesday. The
firm's Web site was initially replaced with a brief
thank-you-and-good-night message, and now it's offline completely. ...
Hitsdailydouble.com reported this week that although British music
company EMI and the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann claim that
merger talks are still ongoing, in actuality, a deal to create the
world's biggest music partnership has "no chance at all," according to
highly placed sources involved in the discussion. ... Also from
Hitsdailydouble comes the report that Andy Schuon, head honcho of
Universal's online music development site, may be in line to be named
CEO of Duet, the online music-subscription service recently announced
by Sony, Universal and Yahoo. ... If you just can't get enough online
music stuff, a mere $50 will get you into a symposium at Harvard Law
School this Saturday titled "All Shook Up: The Music Industry
Confronts the Internet and Consolidation." MTVi President and CEO
Nicholas Butterworth is the keynote speaker; panelists include Napster
VP Manus Cooney, Webnoize analyst Matthew Bailey and the Future of
Music Coalition's Jenny Toomey.
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SOUND OFF
~~~~~~~~~
This week's question: Which aspects of the current digital-music
scenario do the media tend to overlook?
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: How much do you spend on music each month? How
much of that amount would you use to pay for digital downloads?
As long as I can remember, I've spent anywhere between $50 and $100
per month on music, even in my poorest student days - and I mean
recorded music only, never mind concert tickets or ancillary products.
(As an aside, I receive a comparable amount in free promos from
colleagues in the music industry ... make of that what you will.) Of
the total spent, I would gladly pay at least half, if not all, for
digital downloads provided the following were the case:
- I can find whatever tracks I wanted, no matter how old, new or
obscure, quickly and painlessly
- I can transfer it easily between my hardware devices, enjoying my
customary "first use" rights of ownership
- the sound quality is guaranteed
- I can recover my music in the event of a crash, theft, etc.
- I can get it in the format of my choice
- I can get a portable player with sufficient onboard memory at an
affordable price (Am I turning blue yet?)
- Ken Ashdown
VP artist & media relations
QDesign
I am a pretty big music fan, and I spend about $50 a month on music.
When I was in college I used Napster to download songs that weren't
available in the U.S. or didn't have singles. Nine times out of 10,
the songs I downloaded were songs I already had on CD, but I just
wanted to hear them on my computer, or my friend borrowed the CD. The
songs I didn't personally have, 75 percent of the time I bought them
on CD anyway because I prefer the hard copy. I don't think I'll be
spending much money on digital downloads, unless there were
digital-only singles by my favorite artists, I might consider it, but
it is pretty unlikely. Maybe digital downloads will give less
mainstream artists a chance to shine. How many Britney Spears singles
would you really wanna download anyway?
- Jame Ervin
Gallagher Public Relations
I spend anywhere between $50 to $100 (a month). That includes new and
used CDs. How much of that amount would I use to pay for digital
downloads? Given that I wouldn't have to deal with people hiding their
own music as the latest hit single, people's poor audio ripping skills
and other time-wasting shenanigans inherent with Napster, it would
depend on what was offered. Full albums for a hair under $20 on MTVi?
What am I paying extra for? No packaging, no tangible item - is it the
"convenience" of downloading? I'd pay a buck or two a song.
- Matt Kremer
In Tokyo, I spend at least $300 to $400 a month for all forms of music
- CDs, live entertainment, videos, cell phone answering tunes, MP3
gadgets, digital storage devices, etc. I am willing to put all my CD
budget on digital downloads because with downloads I can pick and
choose my music selection. I want the freedom to preview my music
before buying. I will not download entire albums in order to avoid
"fillers" unless I am sure about the artist. I am willing to pay extra
for digital video because I can take it with me when I travel.
- Michael Chang
Corporate counsel
PSINet Asia Pacific
STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Julene Snyder (julene@well.com).
Editor: Michele Keller (mkeller@thestandard.com).
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