The WELL: inkwell.vue.83: Intellectual Property in the digital age: Music

#79: Wagner James Au (wjamesau) Tue 19 Sep 00 17:58

Tue, 19 Sep 2000 17:58:00 PDT

It's an interesting promotional deal, and I'm hugely glad you're part of it, Adam (congrats!), though I think it's a passing trend.

In three years, I predict that at least 85% of music files on the Internet will be downloaded under the direct control and profit of the major labels. If not sooner, if not more. [Read entire topic]

#78: The salon stopped responding (rocket) Mon 18 Sep 00 09:08

Mon, 18 Sep 2000 09:08:00 PDT

Smashing Pumpkins, the Offspring, and Radiohead have all released new albums directly to the Internet in the last week. The thinking is that this stuff is going to get sucked into Napster anyway, so one might as well get some cred with the kids/turn it into a promotional event.

Actually, Radiohead is working with us to promote their latest offering, KID A. You can listen to the album for free at http://www.angrycoffee.com today, and in won't be sold in stores for weeks.

Of course, you can also get the entire album using Napster.

Is this the wave of the future or sheer desperation? We'll know when the numbers come in on the Offspring and Radiohead records whether this drives CD sales or replaces them.

Any predictions? [Read entire topic]

#77: The salon stopped responding (rocket) Tue 12 Sep 00 12:28

Tue, 12 Sep 2000 12:28:00 PDT

That's great to hear, <sd>! [Read entire topic]

#76: Death to Tortureshoes! (sd) Tue 12 Sep 00 11:27

Tue, 12 Sep 2000 11:27:00 PDT

sorry. http://www.southerndiscomfort.com [Read entire topic]

#75: Gail Williams (gail) Tue 12 Sep 00 11:22

Tue, 12 Sep 2000 11:22:00 PDT

Please share the link to that... if you don't mind! [Read entire topic]

#74: Death to Tortureshoes! (sd) Tue 12 Sep 00 11:04

Tue, 12 Sep 2000 11:04:00 PDT

I'm in a peculiar situation compared to David. My primary age demographic is in the mid to late 40s.

I put some MP3s of a few of the songs from the new cd on our website and sent out a press release and got over 900 downloads of the newest song in one week. Another MP3 got 180 downloads which is about the number of hits we used to get for the whole site in a month. We've gotten airplay on 80 NPR affiliates and interest from another syndicated show that is in 53 markets as well as a handfull of individual stations.

As a group that has been taking in under 20 grand a year, we were anxious for the larger market and consider the cds to be part of our marketing effort. Also, since our song parody material is fairly topical, we don't mind giving it away to create interest. There is a Bobby Knight number written as of yesterday for example. [Read entire topic]

#73: The salon stopped responding (rocket) Mon 11 Sep 00 14:47

Mon, 11 Sep 2000 14:47:00 PDT

There are some good links to recent legal decisions that threaten to impede the Internet's natural growth in this article:

http://www.suck.com/daily/2000/09/08/

"But the decisions are no less legally binding for being silly: As of last month, domain names aren't property and thereforecan't be stolen; the ability to decrypt a DVD corresponds directly to the intent to pirate it; and linking to a program declared illegal is itself illegal. The legislative branch has kicked in its own contributions, too: The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and UCITA (Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act) are wonders of embarrassing corporate glad-handling, all at the expense of users."

No comment on the article itself. [Read entire topic]

#72: Trey Dunbar (slipknot) Mon 11 Sep 00 14:45

Mon, 11 Sep 2000 14:45:00 PDT

Re: 69 "But will it help me sell CD's?"

I would suggest that David is selling "music content", not CD's. I think that consumers are making a very loud statement that the current pricing ($15+) and delivery mechanism (CD's) of music content is no longer seen as being an appropriate value for their dollars. Absent pricing and delivery which is seen as appropriate, consumers will choose available delivery mechanisms that entail no cost simply because they do desire the content. That does not mean that most consumers will continue to use "no cost" delivery mechanisms if a pricing/delivery system is developed which is viewed by consumers as being appropriate.

A free marketplace will eventually determine what pricing is perceived as being an appropriate value by consumers. I suspect that a price of less than $1 per song, coupled with on demand availability, will be considered to be an appropriate value by most consumers. Put that together with some type of copy protection and I think we would have a workable system. Although there would still be hackers who would break the copy protection, I believe that the vast majority of consumers would use the authorized delivery system and be more than willing to pay what they consider to be an appropriate price.

By not aggressively developing such a system, the labels are doing a great disservice to artists. By not listening to what their customers are saying, the labels are doing a great disservice to artists. The labels are not protecting artists, they are screwing them (as usual) by not responding to the marketplace. This should not be a fight between labels and consumers or a fight between artists and consumers. It should be a fight between labels and artists because what the labels are doing is ultimately a great disservice to the artists. [Read entire topic]

#71: Rafe Colburn (rafeco) Mon 11 Sep 00 11:40

Mon, 11 Sep 2000 11:40:00 PDT

Basically it's an effort to make the web not the web. [Read entire topic]

#70: The salon stopped responding (rocket) Mon 11 Sep 00 11:32

Mon, 11 Sep 2000 11:32:00 PDT

More on the legality of hyperlinks:

Mp3board.com does not host any music files, nor do they host a DB of pointers to files, as Napster does. The company merely faciliates the posting of links to mp3 directories and files by individuals via message boards.

The RIAA's argument and the basis for thir lawsuit is essentially "don't try to get off on a technicality. Your site exists to aid and abet infringers of copyright law."

A fair point (they sure chose the wrong name, didn't they?). However, the law is all about technicalities. There's another case in the mix down in Florida, and the preliminary results suggest the possibility of liability for "bad" links.

If linking is sometimes illegal, it's going to do weird things to the way we build Web sites. So this is a case where the RIAA, in its efforts to meet its own agenda, is actually helping to enact legislation which affects everything from free speech on the web to the way we include links on the sites we build.

it's pretty scary. [Read entire topic]