On September 8th, Apple unveiled its latest ‘innovation’ to help prop up the recorded music industry – the iTunes LP. For only seven bucks more than a regular digital album, you can get some pretty pictures and liner notes.
Facepalm!
But the story doesn’t end there.
Last week, Brian McKinney of Chocolate Lab Records told Gizmodo that Apple was charging record labels $10,000 in production costs to release an album in the iTunes LP format – and indie record labels need not apply. Apple later denied that allegation and said it is working on releasing the specs for the LP format and making them available to all, indie and major labels alike.
Regardless of the outcome of this “he said she said” tempest, it amplifies the silliness of the iTunes LP format itself.
Several web developers have dissected the format to find that it is essentially HTML, Javascript, CSS, and multimedia content – a website. For a little more than the cost of an actual physical CD, you get to save files to your hard drive that largely mirror content you can find online, from the artist’s website itself to Wikipedia, YouTube, and others. Read more…
Forrester Research recently released a report that lays out a “radical vision” to “save the music industry from the current Media Meltdown it finds itself in.”
While the actual report is only available to Forrester customers, the company’s blog reveals that the plan involves broad “music release windows,” similar to the chart on the right. “Premium” content is released first, followed by a “mainstream” release at a later time, and eventually wide dissemination to free and “feels like free” services.
Judging by comments on the Forrester blog and elsewhere, many scoff at the idea of regaining content scarcity through this staggered release approach. “What about pre-release leaks?” they ask. True, the industry has increasingly bumped up release dates of albums – Jay-Z’s latest came out three days early today – in part to combat the problem of early copies leaking onto the internet. But it’s important to keep in mind that large swaths of music listeners are not running around downloading leaked copies of albums off torrent sites.
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After five years as the Executive VP at Warner Music Group, Kevin Liles has announced he is leaving the company.
Liles joined WMG in 2004 after leaving the role of President at Def Jam and Executive VP at Island Def Jam Music Group. He began his career as an intern at Def Jam in 1991, he was named President in 1998 at 30 years of age. Liles played a big part in the success of artists such as Jay-Z, Ja Rule, DMX, Kanye West, T.I. and LL Cool J.
Kevin also published a book in 2006; Make It Happen: The Hip-Hop Generation Guide to Success.
“In the past couple weeks I’ve made one of the most important decisions of my life,” Liles said in a statement, “to depart the Warner Music Group in order to focus more on new entrepreneurial endeavors in talent management, entertainment media, and my personal philanthropic and political passions.”
According to a written statement Liles will remain in a consulting role at WMG.
First of all, I must apologize for my absence from the site in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been incredibly busy elsewhere and any time I got to put into the site was mostly taken up by “behind-the-scenes work”, hence the lack of activity on my part.
Back to business though and one story that’s been generating a frenzy this month is the new digital album format being developed by the major record labels and Apple (separately). Since rumours have been flying around for a few weeks now you’ve probably read or heard about it somewhere, I just wanted to play catch up though for those that haven’t heard and drop my 2 cents.
A brief overview; Apple announced they were working on a secret project which was given the name “Cocktail”. The idea behind Cocktail is a single file download that would include songs, videos, artwork, lyrics and liner notes for an album. This new format would presumably work very nicely alongside their iPod line and the new Tablet rumoured to be released later this year. Apple apparently reached out to the majors (Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI) for a partnership, however the majors decided instead to team up and develop their own competing format – CMX – which would, again presumably, require its own supporting player.
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More and more established artists and labels are shying away from releasing albums and concentrating on singles and small song blocks.
Last month, Rhino Entertainment announced that it will be releasing a series of “digital 45s” – a bundle of 2 singles and artwork.
In a recent interview, Thom Yorke of Radiohead told Believer Magazine,
None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again. Not straight off. I mean, it’s just become a real drag. It worked with In Rainbows because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we’ve all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us…. we need to get away from it a bit.
Even the Big 4 have hinted at a desire to release smaller song blocks more often.
This focus on a small amount of tracks rather than full-length albums is nothing new. In the 1950s and 60s, singles – more accurately, 45’s (the single on one side, a different song on the B-side) – were a significant part of any rock or pop label’s business. Even after the advent of the CD and the collapse of the singles market, many genres continued to see releases in the form of singles and EP’s – EDM, punk, and hip-hop to name a few.
Yet, when someone mentions the “death of the album,” inevitably a few still cry that this means the death of music itself. Or more commonly, independent bands and musicians still see releasing an album as the ultimate goal.
Why is that?
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I almost wasn’t going to post this, in the couple of weeks we’ve heard so many positive stories of artists finding a business model that works for them, it’s a shame to have to sit and write about record executives still barking up the wrong tree. But my job is to report on the news, good or bad, so that is what I shall do.
Okay so here’s the story; Antonio “L.A.” Reid, CEO of Island Def Jam Music Group, has decided it would be a super idea to plaster ads all over Mariah Carey’s new CD in an attempt to reduce costs. These ads will appear in a 34-page mini magazine, co-produced with Elle, right beside the lyrics and linear notes. The ads are said to reflect Mrs Carey’s image, brands such as Elizabeth Arden, Angel Champagne, Carmen Steffen’s, Le Métier de Beauté and the Bahamas Board of Tourism will make an appearance in the booklet.
“The idea was really simple thinking: ‘We sell millions of records, so you should advertise with us,’” Antonio “L.A.” Reid, chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group told Brandweek. “My artists have substantial circulation—when you sell 2 million, 5 million, 8 million, that’s a lot of eyeballs. Most magazines aren’t as successful as those records.”
Apparently Mr Reid has been in a coma for the last 5 years and isn’t aware that nobody is selling 8 million CDs anymore, much less Def Jam. As far as I’m aware Mariah didn’t manage even 2 million on her last effort.
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On Friday, a jury handed Joel Tenenbaum a verdict of $675,000 for illegally downloading 30 songs. This marks the second time in as many months that a jury has ruled in favor of the RIAA.
The verdict – $22,500 per song – is neither surprising nor as large as the one in last month’s trial against Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Ben Sheffner of Copyrights and Campaigns has a detailed post-verdict writeup. Among the highlights:
· Tenenbaum is planning an appeal of the verdict, and possibly declaring bankruptcy if he loses that appeal.
· While the RIAA has stopped filing lawsuits against new filesharers, it is continuing to move forward on currently filed lawsuits. In all, there are over 100 pending lawsuits, with about a dozen actively in litigation.
It remains to be seen how many of those pending lawsuits actually make it to trial. Of the 18 – 35 thousand downloaders the RIAA has sued, this is only the second case to reach a verdict. It also remains to be seen whether the RIAA’s strategy as a whole has resulted in a reducing the growth of P2P filesharing, or deterring internet users from engaging in the same behavior as Tenenbaum.
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A second major filesharing trial is getting underway in Boston, MA.
Little over one month has passed since a jury handed Jammie Thomas-Rasset a $2 million verdict. Today, 25-year old grad student Joel Tenenbaum finds himself in court to defend allegations that he used Kazaa to download and distribute 30 songs without permission.
The trial begins at 9AM and is expected to last until 4-5PM EST. The judge hopes to wrap up by July 31st.
For those wishing to stay updated, several commentators and bloggers will be onhand, twittering throughout the proceedings. These include Ben Sheffner, Marc Bourgeois, and the Joel Tenenbaum defense team.
It should prove to be an interesting trial. Both sides have been arguing more substantial points about filesharing in general then what was seen in the Thomas-Rasset trial. And when Harvard law professor Charles Nesson joined the defense team, the pretrial proceedings took on an almost circus-esque tone.
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An article on
CNET yesterday highlighted a lack of support and investment for digital music start ups recently.
Music industry veteran and now venture capitalist at Venrock Associates David Pakman said “Investors lost a lot of money in this space.”
“What the music industry never encouraged or even allowed was building an ecosystem around its product,” he added.
I couldn’t agree more with Pakman. Music labels have shunned digital music services since they started cropping up over 10 years ago. Instead of embracing new technology and, as Pakman put it, “building an ecosystem”, the industry has sued the pants off every digital start up it could get its hands on.
Mike Masnick says “Given that (likelihood of getting sued or getting a deal that makes a profitable business impossible), is it any wonder that entrepreneurs are shying away from any sort of digital music startup these days, in favor of opportunities with no obsolete gatekeepers demanding huge chunks of whatever revenue they might one day make?”
Ask any independent musician why the music industry has been taking a beating, and he is sure to give you an answer.
“Record labels are putting out too much crappy, disposable pop.” “The price of albums is too high.” “Illegal downloading.”
The traditional music industry tends to concentrate on the last reason as an explanation for falling sales. On July 10th, record label plaintiffs in Sony v. Tenenbaum filed an expert witness report that pointed to unauthorized file-sharing as the primary culprit for the industry’s woes.
Despite the expert testimony, several studies and analyists support alternative theories. Debating and studying these theories is certainly fun (or depressing, if you’re suffering the effects).
Today, however, we’re not going to look at “why” the traditional music industry has been in a decline, but rather “how” it happened to begin with.
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