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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, January 2, 2001
TOP STORY:
* They Said It
Choice Beat Sheet cuts from the past year.
NET NOISE:
* NPGOnlineLtd.com
DOT DOT DOT:
* Napster charges copyright infringement ... Drowning in watermarks?
... New top dog at Capitol?
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TOP STORY
~~~~~~~~~
They Said It
Choice Beat Sheet cuts from the past year.
By Julene Snyder
We asked, they talked. We listened, they talked some more. Then we
scribbled. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Just when you thought you'd heard the last of the roundups, along
comes Beat Sheet to ruin the party. Herewith, highlights from our
favorite Beat Sheet interviews of the past year:
Judging Napster
"This whole thing with the RIAA, instead of pointing the finger at
Napster, they should look at the people who are using Napster wrong.
Napster is just a place where people can chat and communicate and
contribute MP3 files." -
Chad Paulson, founder of Students Against University Censorship,
before he did an about-face and decided that backing Napster was
tantamount to supporting stealing
"I actually did find (any of my songs) on Napster once. In my case, it
was kind of exciting ... I'm not against Napster the technology. I'm
against Napster the corporation."
- Artists Against Piracy founder Noah Stone
"The real question is whether Napster will survive when it tries to
persuade people to pay for a service that has been free up to now,
particularly when there are alternatives available which will remain
free. Asking someone for their credit card number is a great way to
turn them off your software."
- Freenet developer Ian Clarke
"The record industry is pretty stubborn. They've done it this way for
years. They're resisting change rather than trying to work with it.
Inevitably, they're going to realize that change - as they've always
realized - is good for the business. Next thing you know, they'll be
working with it, and everybody will be making more money."
- Bruce Haring, author of "Beyond the Charts: MP3 and the Digital
Music Revolution"
"People steal music on the Internet because it costs $16 or $17. If
music was available for $3 or $4, I don't think they'd steal it;
they'd go to the source for the original. I don't think the American
public is interested in ripping off artists."
- Digital Club Network President Andrew Rasiej
"Napster has also brought up issues like the fact that artists don't
own their copyrights. At the end of the day, our service is a lot more
efficient way of compensating artists than going out and buying their
CD."
- Matt Goyer of Fairtunes, a "virtual tip jar" that was set up in the
spring. To date, the site has collected nearly $6,000 to be
distributed to artists ranging from Courtney Love ($138) to Pink Floyd
($6) to Smash Mouth ($2.29)
On the Unsigned Band, uh, Craze
"There are a plethora of unsigned band sites: MP3.com, Riffage,
Garageband.com, but none of them is a record label. So instead of
throwing your shit up on the wall and hoping that someone will come
across it, this is actually a direct line to the thing that most bands
want, which is a record deal and the opportunity to be a rock star." -
Farmclub.com General Manager Amanda Marks, on the occasion of the
first taping of the site's TV show in February, which featured some
guy named Eminem, who claimed the record he was about to drop was
going to be huge
"Basically, if we'd signed that contract, we would have no children,
because they would have taken them, too." - Bass player Evan Silverman
of The Rosenbergs on the band's decision not to sign with Farmclub.com
Send in the Lawyers
"We follow the law. The first step in staying legal is to not break
the law."
- Myplay Senior VP David Pakman, making a not-so-veiled reference to
one of the firm's main competitors, MP3.com
"I frankly don't think this proves a whole lot except that labels can
win lawsuits and collect very large sums of money from winning
lawsuits."
- Launch.com CEO David Goldberg on MP3.com's settlement with the major
labels
A Refreshing Alternative
"I hope everyone's found the Kool-Aid fountain and had big cups."
- MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson on the occasion of the company's first
open house in April
On the General State of the Industry
"It's awash in all kinds of hype, disinformation and garbage."
- Uberbabe Media's Lisa Voldeng
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NET NOISE
~~~~~~~~~
NPGOnlineLtd.com
Ah Prince, you lovable freakazoid, you. First, you changed your name
to an unpronounceable symbol, then, once we'd all grudgingly gotten
used to it, you changed it back. You continue to insist on using the
number "2" to mean "to" and a "4" to mean "for" and other quirks that
annoy copy editors the world over. Now, as if your Web site wasn't
filled with enough bells and whistles, you've come up with a new
scheme, one that forces your fans to immerse themselves in the site if
they want to find the two new songs hidden somewhere in its depths.
Sonicnet.com reports that users must "click on a sun icon that appears
on various pages on the site, and then click on a series of letters
that spell the word 'truth,' which is then used as a password." Even
if you can't figure out the secret code, the site is worth it anyway,
perhaps just for the news that "this NPG Doctrine hereby authorizes u
2 distribute the digital in4mation contained herein (to) anyone in the
universe." Nor is the music anything to lament; the duet with Angie
Stone, "U Make My Sun Shine," is a soaring ballad that reminds us why
we liked the Artist in the first place, while "When Will We B Paid"
sets injustice to a groovy beat. Check it out 4 yourself.
DOT DOT DOT
~~~~~~~~~~~
Napster charges copyright infringement ... Journalists targeted with
watermarks ... New top dog at Capitol?
OK, it's easy to say "pot, kettle, black" to the news that Napster is
suing online retailer Sport Service for wrongfully using its trademark
to market merchandise, including T-shirts and caps with the Napster
logo, but a quick visit to NapsterStore.com - the site where the stuff
in question can be ordered - seems to support Napster's claim that
visitors could be confused. You see, the site claims to be the "only
online source for official Napster apparel," which is a perplexing
claim indeed. ... The Hollywood Reporter tells us that two major
record labels - Universal Music Group's Universal Records and Warner
Music Group's Reprise Records - are experimenting with watermarks to
determine who, exactly, is putting prerelease music online months
before the albums' street dates. Apparently, the suspects are music
critics, a shady bunch that's been known to "make as much as $10,000 a
year in cash by selling product labeled clearly as promotional to
retail outlets," according to one anonymous music writer, who
obviously gets a lot more promos than some of us do. No penalties have
been set, but should journos be caught using albums in "unauthorized
manners," they could get in really big unspecified trouble. ... Hits
DailyDouble says that "superproducer" Andy Slater is mulling over an
offer to take over as president of Capitol Records. Should he choose
to accept it, he'll have to get out of his current deal at Sony.
STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Julene Snyder (julene@well.com).
Editor: Steven Zeitchik (szeitchik@thestandard.com).
Deputy Editor: Michele Keller (mkeller@thestandard.com).
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