Music industry - the lesson is not that free will always win. EASY will always win. I could rip this track for free by breaking the DRM and converting to an MP3, but that’s 10 minutes of my day I can spend doing something else (like blogging about it). That would be free, but I want easy. I value my time more than my money, because I can always make money, but my lifespan is finite and irreplaceable. Read Article

You can’t stop digital copies! When will they learn?? OPENhulu, a ripoff site that looks a lot like Hulu, features much of the same video content, and doesn’t require an invitation. The concept is pretty simple. Since Hulu lets registered users embed videos on their own web sites, why not grab all the embeddable content from Hulu and post it on an open site?read more | digg story

Not that I like to defend the RIAA, but this clears up the claim that the RIAA said ripped CD’s are “unauthorized.” Despite what some websites are reporting, the RIAA is NOT saying that ripping CDs into MP3s is illegal.Read Article 

It’s a weird feeling, but I’m sick of hearing how Radiohead is “changing the music industry.” And it’s not because I don’t love what they’ve done, it’s because I’m left wondering: Why haven’t more musicians started giving away their music?

It seems like a no-brainer that album sales will continue to plummet. Musicians that hope to secure a career in music need to look elsewhere to earn money. The funny thing is that musicians already know this—because that’s how it has always been. Most musicians make less than $1.00 off of each album sold, and historically, less than 15% of bands actually make money from album sales (coming soon: 0%). The truth is that successful artists ALREADY net the bulk of their bankroll through sources other than album sales.

That brings us to Radiohead. They did the math and then did something about it. Instead of relying on skimpy returns from album sales—yes, skimpy, relative to the fact that Radiohead sells millions of albums—they allowed their music to be downloaded for free while accepting non-compulsory donations. As a result, they’ve been graciously rewarded by generous fan donations and media praise. Not to mention the kind of free publicity that garners heaps of potential new fans.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is one of the few to follow Radiohead’s lead. Three weeks after Radiohead’s album release he announced that he’d be giving away his latest collaboration with Saul Williams. Recently Reznor remarked, “in the future songs can be a way to entice fans to buy concert tickets and merchandise.” He definitely has the right idea: give away your songs to capture the attention of new fans and sell your live shows.With that said, I’ve written a letter to the world’s musicians who have yet to loosen their clasp on the measly royalty checks their record labels afford them:

Dear Musicians,

I’m asking you to look past the pocket change you receive from digital album sales and make your music available online for free.

I understand that after spending months in a recording studio, you may be a bit apprehensive to fork over your cherished songs. Especially considering that some people may actually be willing to pay for them. But in the end, I believe there are more incentives for giving your music away digitally. Lucrative ways for musicians to make money include:

• Live shows and merchandise: These two have always been the #1 source of income for musicians. Give your music away because, from a marketing standpoint, every fan you earn is one more customer to whom you can sell merchandise.
• Music Licensing: Although often eschewed by independent musicians (remember when The Shins shamed their music in a McDonalds commercial?), music licensing can subtle and doesn’t have to be tasteless. For example, the Dresden Dolls earned about $40,000 when they licensed “Coin-Operated Boy” for a jelly commercial in Austria.
• Donations: Collect 100% of your earnings when your fans give directly to you. I created the site musicNetural.com so that you can start collecting donations right away. Alternatively, you could set up a donations site yourself using PayPal, Amazon or Google.

I understand that some musicians don’t have the right to distribute your recordings for free (i.e., if you’ve already sold the copyright). No problem—you can still support our cause.

• Educate yourself about copyright laws, the RIAA, and unfair music industry practices. Before releasing your next album consider a Creative Commons license instead of a traditional copyright.
• Take immediate action by displaying the musicNeutral button to let everyone know that you support alternatives to album sales.

With that, I wish you the best of luck with your career. If you’re a new band and you need a fan in me, try making your music available for free—and I promise that by eliminating the #1 obstacle to widespread exposure to your music, you’ll rein in a lot more than just one new listener.

Sincerely,
Chris (and the rest of musicNeutral)

The beleaguered music industry is beginning to show more enthusiasm for free, advertising-supported business models. More FREE and LEGAL MUSIC!  read more | Digg This

No matter how much money is coughed up in fines or how many kids get made into examples, the downloading will continue … just not on my machine.  Read More…

It could be a Zen koan, or a fragment of a Fifth Dimension lyric: The value of music is what the listener will pay. But as of Oct. 10, it became a viable business model. That was the day Radiohead made its seventh studio album, “In Rainbows,” available for download online. Customers were invited to pay whatever they wished. Clicking on the question mark on the Radiohead site led to a screen that read, “It’s up to you.” Clicking on that led to another message: “No, really. It’s up to you.”

According to early estimates, 1.2 million downloaded the record in the first two days, earning the band somewhere between $1 million and $5 million. Soon after, the withered husk of the recording industry gently commenced to collapse on itself.

Or possibly not. For while there was joy among Radiohead fans and those eager to get on with the post-scarcity economy, it remains unclear whether a new paradigm has been established. According to Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University, Radiohead’s experiment isn’t likely to succeed with just any artist. “Radiohead fans are a partisan group,” Cowen says. “It’s very easy to get donations from them.” Moreover, an e-commerce survey claims that more than 60 percent of “In Rainbows”

downloaders paid nothing; Radiohead disputed the findings. The exact numbers, however, remain known only to Radiohead.

But it’s a bit unrealistic to expect five dour introverts from Oxfordshire to come up with a universal fix to save the record industry. The Radiohead payment scheme, whatever the final tally, worked for Radiohead. (It may be portable; Paste, a magazine devoted to indie rock, ran a monthlong pay-what-you-want subscription deal in the wake of “In Rainbows.”) And yet at least some aspects of the old model may still prove useful. The CD of “In Rainbows” — an actual, tactile, old-economy product — will be available in record stores on Jan. 1. And EMI, the band’s spurned label, has proved resourceful itself, quickly assembling a Radiohead boxed set in time for the holidays, happily riding on publicity it didn’

t pay a thing to create. 

Original NY Times Article  

“You can’t force people to follow directions they deem arbitrary”.

Image and Caption thanks to Michael Salamon

The Songwriters Association of Canada SAC proposes that each Internet-using Canadian citizen be charged a minimal $5 monthly fee directly by their ISPs. This collective monthly license fee would then be split among artists and content owners, generating new revenues and allowing former pirates to sleep better at night now that they can legally trade music for a nominal fee. Read More…

Music search engines like SeeqPod, Songza and Skreemr index the web looking for music files that people have uploaded to servers. For now the search engines are free to link to infringing songs, but could these sites be shut down due to copyright infringement? Read More….