Creston Journal - From a Porch in Montana, Low-Power Radio’s Voice Rises - NYTimes.com
This really is a great story. The accompanying audio slide show to the article depicts the story even better.
Lawyer Who Spotted Expired Patent on Solo Cup Wins Qui Tam Ruling
Not copyright-related, but still interesting.
Dr. Stanley Liebowitz of University of Texas at Dallas. Talks about his two studies of whether radio play helps music sales. Neither found evidence that sales are increased by radio play but evidence that sales have been harmed by radio. Explains this means total sales and not sales of individual artists (who obviously benefit from radio play). Time spent listening to radio is time not spent listening to purchased sound recordings. In the absence of radio, a person can listen to nothing or pre-recorded music.
Cooler: Notes on the House Judiciary Committee’s Hearing on the Performing Rights Act
I heard Stan Liebowitz speak at a CLE in Dallas late last year. It’s cool that he was a part of the Act.
Josh Schwartz, Creator of ‘The OC,’ Tries Rocking the Web With ‘Rockville, CA’ - NYTimes.com
The role of music licensing and television with a look to the future.
Is Facebook Defending English From the Lawyers? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
This has received a lot of treatment in the past 48 hours or so. I will put in my own $.02 later.
Amazon Introduces Upgraded Kindle Book Reader - NYTimes.com
There are nuances in this article of the major book publishers sneering at the idea of widespread digital-format books in the same manner that the major record companies did with digitally-distributed music a decade or so ago.
Notable quote: “We do not agree with their pricing strategy,” said Carolyn K. Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster. “I don’t believe that a new book by an author should ipso facto be less expensive electronically than it is in paper format.”
It sounds eerily familiar. Print publishers may not have been paying attention to the music industry. That is particularly strange when the conglomerate Bertelsmann (owner of Random House and BMG) should probably know better by now.
Don’t fight the new technology and new pricing strategies. Adapt. Eke out a small profit initially on these digital formats, grow an efficiency and a market base, and say goodbye to your old, inflated price-point strategies.
Death Cab videos disappear from band’s site, thanks to label - Ars Technica
On what is now old news, Warner Music Group’s campaign to mute or take-down offending music videos from YouTube has affected at least one of its better-known own.
On its website, the band Death Cab for Cutie pulls in its own music videos from YouTube. The problem arose when the band’s permitted use of its own video became part of the YouTube DMCA action.
The videos disappeared for a while, replaced instead with this sentence: “This video no longer available due to a copyright claim by WMG.” It appears that WMG mistakenly went so far as to stake a claim against its own. It’s just a little bit humorous.
(The problem is now remedied; the videos are back up.)
Commercials Come to Pandora Internet Radio (via Wired.com)
Under pressure of increased licensing fees, it was only a matter of time. I hope two things: 1) Pandora is able to stick around and perhaps make some money; and 2) the service remains essentially unchanged except the addition of nonintrusive in-stream ads.
