More Pagan Intervals Please
3 July 2008
So they have these discussions in Kaamelott too?. Speaking as an advocate of Pagan Intervals, this is a painfully familiar conversation. It’s still possible to find a few branches of the music world that haven’t advanced much in 500 years.
Rocking the boat? Or sinking it?
19 June 2008Kudos to EMI deciding to set sail into uncharted waters of digital music business. The only potential problem is that the captain and first mate don’t seem to like boats.
The captain, CEO Guy Hands, is a financier whose only relation to rock & roll seems to be denying expense accounts for the traditional sex & drugs. There is no evidence that has any regard for music or musicians. On the bright side, he does seem to realize the future is digital and there are smarter ways to make a business than suing your customers.
He hired Douglas Merrill, Google’s VP of Engineering, to become EMI’s president. Though he has no experience in the music business, at least Douglas quotes lyrics in his blog and seems to know how to buy a ring tone.
The next hire was Second Life’s Cory Ondrejka as VP of Digital Strategy. Cory is a very intelligent and creative person and I hope that his musical horizons will expand beyond Rush and that he starts clicking the ‘Buy this mp3’ button a little more often. Otherwise it’s going to be a rough ride.
New Toys For Last.fm
6 March 2008
If you’re a Last.fm listener you should check out a new website for Last.fm widgets and playthings built by community members, Build Last.fm.
There are new scrobblers for different players and widgets for your favorite social network. There’s also some fun recommendation and visualization goodies. Some use your own chart listings, such as the personal recommendation tag cloud and a personalized music magazine. In the developers-with-too-much-time-on their-hands category there’s a One-Hit Wonders chart.
Getting Something for Nothing
6 February 2008There are reports of outrageous ‘suggestions’ by the Danish national public broadcaster, DR. According to the Danish Musicians Union, DMF,
“We’d love to have you perform, but we can’t pay you and you’ll have to withdraw from the musician’s union”
.
Withdraw from DMF so that DR can get live music for free? In what universe is that a reasonable business proposition? It must be the universe where musicians get free apartments and don’t have to pay for food at the grocery store. I wonder if DR’s administration and staff live in that same universe?
Doug, meet Danah
4 January 2008Recently Wired magazine had an interview with Doug Morris, head of Universal Music Group. In the article he tries to explain how it is that the record companies have missed the boat so badly on the digital music business.
Morris insists there wasn’t a thing he or anyone else could have done differently. “There’s no one in the record company that’s a technologist,” Morris explains. “That’s a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn’t. They just didn’t know what to do. It’s like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do?…
“We didn’t know who to hire,” he says, becoming more agitated. “I wouldn’t be able to recognize a good technology person “
Doug, it’s a business model problem, not a technology problem. you don’t need to hire a technologist. You need to hire a sophisticated music consumer who understands how to use technology to listen to the music she wants. Meet Danah Boyd. In this single blog post she points out about five different ways you can get her to pay you real money for music. Consumers like Danah are your friend. Listen to her and I’m sure you can find a way that you can keep both her and your company happy.
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