Posts by Andrew Dubber
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
The non-commercial use one is quite a thorny one. Case in point - I've been approached by the marketing department of the university I work for. They have announced that they would like to republish the work of their blogging academics on a site specifically designed to recruit students.
The blogging that I do - like that of my colleagues - is personal, on my own time, and although on a related topic to my area as an academic, not part of my salaried work.
Grey area, I suppose...
New Music Strategies is under an Attribution, Non-Commercial licence. As the author I can, of course, grant permission - but the question is whether the use of the work as a marketing tool to bring revenue and students (considered 'clients' these days) to the institution classifies as commercial use under the rules.
Saw Lessig speak in London once. Really engaging presentation style.
On a related note, I was on a panel at a music industry conference here in the UK yesterday. The topic was Copyright and IP.
I mentioned that I was in favour of copyright reform, and explained that the problem stems largely from the fact that the rules we have do not work in the current media environment. Unfortunately, what the delegates heard was "I think that you should not be allowed to make money, and furthermore, I wish to boil your children and dismember your pets."
Several of the delegates (typically, those from record companies) indicated that they had never even encountered the idea of copyright reform, and certainly had never heard anything quite so preposterous in all their lives.
Meanwhile, in Belfast, at another music industry event I'd had to decline to attend, Feargal Sharkey (who is now heading a massive UK pan-music-industry über lobbying organisation) announced that he is strongly in favour of copyright extension to 95+ years.
And he's going to get it - despite the Gower Report.
-
Credit where credit's due - they're quite good at the internet these days, aren't they?
-
Happy birthday.
That email from me in your inbox is work. You can ignore that until after all of your own festivities have subsided.
A gathering of New Zealand radio academics raised their glasses and said nice things about you in Lincoln last week. Let's pretend that was related to your birthday in some way.
Have a great week.
-
I resisted Facebook for three years. Finally it reached the point where people whose opinion I respect were inviting me daily, so I succumbed. It has one major drawback for me, and one distinct advantage.
The Drawback:
It turns out that everyone I know is an idiot. Like 8 year-olds hyped up on sugar and food colouring on Halloween night, they're all manically running around dressed up as zombies and vampires, playing a pointless game of bitey tag. I refuse to be 'it' and I want them to be grownups again please.The Advantage:
I can now find my students. Not in class? Oh -- Debbie is recovering from a massive binge drinking session and is accidentally in Nottingham. I see. -
But Limmy rules them all. Start with the worrying 'Requiem' video and then go to the Xylophone plaything.
Most worryingly of all, he seems to have gone legit.
-
Umm... that's not Arthur Baysting is it?! :)
-
I have to say, I'm a bit of a confirmed mp3 user. I agree that AAC is a touch better-sounding and OGG is a more free-range organic audio file. Perhaps when my shift to Mac is complete, I'll start using AAC files, but everything I own to date can remain as it is.
To date, interoperability and consistency have won the day.
That said, the music I buy online is made of vinyl. eBay has been an absolute godsend. Bit by bit, I'm picking up the CTI/Kudu back catalogue in £2-£5 increments.
I no longer have a place for CDs in my life. But digital files are about convenience more than they are about quality. Out-and-aboutness. When I've got my headphones in and I'm on the bus, I'm no audiophile.
I don't necessarily agree with Simon that albums are a thing of the past -- artists still want to release a unified collection of related works -- but it largely comes down to the way they are presented and sold. I am far more likely to pick up a whole album on eMusic than I am in the iTunes Music Store.
Now that the iTunes playback software prioritises the album ('coverflow') and the iTMS encourages album purchasing ('complete my album') I suspect there'll be something of a swing back around.
The compilation album, on the other hand...
-
Perhaps LOOP, Arch Hill, Capital, Round Trip Mars, Lil' Chief or Dawn Raid would be interested in conducting the experiment on a smaller scale.
You'd get worldwide press coverage out of it, and -- I'd expect -- massive sales at low prices, rather than relatively few sales at current prices.
And you don't have that pesky problem of going back to the pressing plant and paying for another thousand units when you run out.
-
I have to admit, 256k was a bit of a surprise. I don't think the price hike needed to be an inevitability though. While the majors have been pushing for an increase because of their losses 'due to piracy' -- actually, more likely due to the (long tail) massive increase in alternatives -- there is no good reason that a 256k AAC file should be more expensive than a 128k AAC file.
I mean, they don't use any more raw materials, take up more shelf space, cost more to manufacture or require more time to assemble...
I just don't think the best way to try and compete with a free (albeit unauthorised) version of your own product is to raise the price.
EMI would be far better off selling masses of music, rather than trying to maximise return on investment on a per-unit basis. Re-release all the deleted stuff (95%+ of everything they've ever issued), make it dirt cheap and sell it by the truckload.
I'm convinced that most people would give EMI far more money at $2 an album than at $2 a track. It would virtually kill the piracy incentive, and the profits would far outweigh the initial investment in digitisation.
The labels would make more. The artists would make more. Not per unit -- just more overall.
-
While this might be a good moment to say a quick 'hooray' for the demise of DRM in the face of common sense, it's probably also worth highlighting the fact that EMI just repaired a faulty product, put the price up and called it 'premium' -- and wound up with a good batch of PR to boot.
Meanwhile Steve Jobs gets the credit for persuading a major record label to ditch DRM despite the fact that the IFPI announced that the majors were walking away from DRM months ago.
I am impressed with all the cleverness.