I found the fictional DreamOn Pro software package through David Kusek on the Future of Music blog and it cracks me up! They should add a “Suck” knob with “less” on one end and “more or less” on the other. Enjoy:
This looks like a fascinating documentary that PBS is airing on January 19th, and it’s further proof that our current system of copyright is broken. We need to return to a constitutional copyright. The one that recognizes that copyright is a balance between the good of the public and the rights holder, but primarily for the good of the public. We need to get rid of this ridiculous “lifetime + 70 years” and return to a sensible 28 years. Let’s face it, if you can’t figure out a way to make money from your work in 28 years, you’re probably not going to figure it out, so let it go. If you do figure it out, there’s little to stop you from continuing to make money from it for the rest of your life. Plus, you should be saving some of that money (if you had a hit) and you should be creating more hits so you won’t be a pauper in your “golden years”.
People will argue that creators (musicians, authors, etc) will still have popular works after those 28 years (case in point: “I Feel Good” by James Brown) and they should be allowed to profit from them as long as they can (read: infinity). If this creator is good enough to have one popular work, shouldn’t we expect them to create more? Wouldn’t that be better for them and the public? But what about the work that would then be released to the public domain, the creator wouldn’t be able to profit from that any more, since people could get it for free. Really? So you couldn’t re-master it and put out a higher quality version than the original you did 28 years ago? And you think people wouldn’t pay for that difference, especially coming directly from the source and supporting your career?
The reason we have our current disaster of a copyright system is due to Disney. The squeaky-clean mouse peddler copyrighted its first iteration of Mickey Mouse in the 1928 movie Steamboat Willie. Once Walt realized Mickey was his cash cow…er, mouse…he began to protect it in every way possible, including manipulating Congress to extend copyrights so Mickey Mouse for forever be the property Disney Inc.
While I understand the desire to protect what makes you money, the purpose of copyright was to give the copyright holder a limited, government-protected period of time when they exclusively manipulate their work for profit, then it would be released to the public domain and anyone could use it as they wished. This way, the creator gets to make money from creating, they get credit for their creation, they are forced to create more due to the “limited” time, which in turn promotes the “useful arts” and enhances the public good through the creator’s creations.
Without copyrights altogether, it would be a free-for-all! The creator wouldn’t have any incentive to work, since there wouldn’t be any guarantee they could get paid for their work and/or get credit for it. The public might get enhanced by creators’ creations, but the creators wouldn’t have any motivation to create, so creating would become a hobbyist industry and the public would be the losers since they wouldn’t have the benefit of well-done art created by people who can concentrate their time and effort on it.
Copyright systems work because of that balance. Let the creators make some money, then give it over for public use. The creator gets paid and gets credit, the public gets a steady supply of art, everyone wins. The current system has been skewed so far to the creator’s side of the equation that the public no longer gets their due. Thus, dead grandmothers and children getting sued for “infringing copyrights” and works being protected long past any usefulness of the protection or the art.
I could go on for days about this, and I’m sure I’ll write more. A sensible, constitutional copyright is desperately needed in the US, I hope I live long enough to see it come about. Until then, check out this trailer for “Copyright Criminals“:
I’ve known about this great band from the Bay area for a while now. I found them while checking out electro-harmonix pedals; member Jack Conte does all the official demo videos for EHX. Here are few thoughts to ponder while checking out these insanely catchy covers of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and Earth, Wind, and Fire’s classic “September“:
Arrangements. They make use of everything in their arsenal, including toy pianos and running the vocals through guitar pedals, to make sounds and arrangements that are very unique. Are you using all the tools at your disposal?
Creativity. One of my favorite sections in “September” is when Jack uses his cheeks as the drum fill, brilliant! Even though you don’t own every instrument known to man, you can still use what you have creatively. I’d never considered using a flanger pedal before, but these videos have inspired me to investigate how to use one on my songs.
Limitations. They don’t have a great studio and I don’t know that Jack even really plays drums (notice all his drum parts are done one hit at a time). Creativity is enhanced by limits. Something I’ve been debating for my next recording: use a particular sound no more than five times on the entire recording. While this will be a pain in the butt, it will force me to be more creative and use sounds that I wouldn’t have tried without that limitation.
Video. Jack and Nataly videotape everything they do while they’re doing it. This gives them piles of material to use to promote their work and they create amazing music videos from all of it, on a budget that fits any ramen-crunching band’s income.
“Single Ladies”:
“September”:
This seems to be the week for finding great artists. I’ll be sharing a few more videos and links this week cause I keep finding such great stuff! This first one is from Kseniya Simonova, a Russian sand artist who lives in the Ukraine and who won the 2009 Ukraine’s Got Talent competition; the Ukrainian version of America’s Got Talent. It’s a representation of the German invasion of the Ukraine during World War II. Absolutely amazing.
Are you doing anything with your art that’s amazing? If not, it’s time to step it up a notch…
My post from yesterday about Square from Jack Dorsey got republished (by permission, of course!) on Hypebot, one of my favorite blogs about music industry news. Check it out!
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/12/the-square-more-mechandise-sales.html
I just read about a new product coming out early next year that will be a massive help to performing musicians running into an age-old problem. You have an excited fan who really wants to buy your CD, t-shirt, sticker, whatever, but they only have a credit/debit card. For most of us, this means a lost sale. However, this new product, called the Square will remedy this nicely!
The Square is a card-swiper that connects to your iPhone that reads credit and debit cards. It’s from the guy who started Twitter, Jack Dorsey. You don’t have an iPhone? The best part is, this can be used with just about any phone (iPhone and Android phones right now). The website says it can be used with any device with an audio jack, but I doubt your 80’s Walkman will help you much. Even better: one penny from every transaction goes to a charity of your choice, so you can help improve the world and make more merch sales at the same time! So now, your excited fan can swipe their card, confirm the transaction, and head home with piles of your merch!
Supposedly, they will be giving away the Square for free, you’ll just sign up for service. There aren’t many details out there right now, but they say there are no contracts and monthly fees and your customers get an emailed receipt. Many news sources are saying it will work like Paypal, with a per transaction fee. As a touring artist who’s getting ready to print up physical CD’s, this solves a problem before I’ve even had it!
The US Citizenship and Immigration Service has decided to take a more strict interpretation of the laws that govern them, which is making like more difficult for touring musicians. Hypebot says the new strictness may cost up to $6000 in additional fees, but from what I’ve read, it seems that would only be if they may mistakes on their applications. One artist that has already been affected is British rapper and Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle. She was unable to attend SXSW and the CMJ Marathon due to visa headaches.
It’s too bad for her, I actually like her stuff and I’m sure her career would have benefited greatly from playing those two festivals. Hopefully, the USCIS will get it straightened out and loosen up so we can enjoy foreign artists more frequently. Until then, check out her song: Spinnin’.
I love watching someone who knows their instrument use it to do something cool. Chet Atkins said Evan Marshall is one of the few great musicians of our time. You can see for yourself why:
Ok, I’m a sucker for a hook. There’s this group of kids, the Chartjackers, from the UK who are trying to get their cheesy YouTube-crowdsourced song onto the UK charts. The song is called “I’ve Got Nothing” and the lyrics, melody, band, and producer were all chosen via Youtube, then compiled into a song and the video clips are from the fans also. I think this group does an admirable job showing how to engage an audience and create something everyone can enjoy, all the while helping a charity. Check it out.
Here’s a really cool set of graphs from Hypebot (read my thoughts below):
Physical vs Digital:
16% growth in the past two years, wow. Part of me is still surprised that physical products still outsell digital products. The other part of me realizes that labels seem to do everything they can to prevent themselves from making money in the digital realm, so it’s not that surprising that physical products still provide most of their income. Their only hope is that they open up to digital, learn how to make money with it, and reap the benefits.
Digital Retailer Market Share:
No surprise here. iTunes rules the roost. I can’t wait to see this chart the year after Spotify gets here. I bet it will take a sizeable chunk of this chart. For now, I’ll have to check out this “Other” store though, they seem to doing quite well. (j/k)
Monthly Transactions Per User:
I really have to wonder if the variable pricing thing has anything to do with the chart going up. The new iPhone 3GS also came out in July. In any case, even the modest boost in Rhapsody’s numbers show that people are very interested in music, we jsut need to have access to it.
Spending:
Simple version:
Subscription services have a steady, predictable, going-along-with-the-pricing-plans numbers here. Napster lost a bunch of customers while Rhapsody and eMusic gained.
iTunes has the lowest spending per transaction, but has had a slight growth per user. I’m betting $.69 to $1.29 per track is too high of a price point, otherwise their numbers would be higher in both categories.
FYE and CD Baby have the highest per transaction numbers because people are forced to buy the entire CD at retail prices. You’ll notice people aren’t spending as much there as before.
