2highbehind

Music 1.0 RIP???

Consider the statements that were made today without controversy:

• DRM on purchased music is dead
• A utility pricing model or flat-rate fee for music might be the way to go
• Ad-supported streaming music sites like iMeem are legitimate players
• Indie music accounts for upwards of 30 percent of music sales
• Napster isn't losing $70 million per quarter (and is breaking even)
• The music business is a bastion of creativity and experimentation

Ars

I had a bet with a guy about DRM (Never heard back from him). About a utility model I can only say that it might make sense to  put it in the mix.  Their is no holey grail!

Paul McGuinness during Midem

A couple weeks after Midem and after the speech of Paul McGuinness and reading several items on this speech, I think that many people don't take the effort to listen to what is actually being said. Part of listening to some body is understanding/knowing who that person is and what makes up this person's world. If you ask Peter Kolmisoppi to talk about the internet and media you will get a different story when asking Paul McGuinnes. Asking the guy who knows the future of music will give you another view on everything related to the internet etc. Listening to Paul and thinking about what he is saying a lot of things actually make a lot of sense. Not all, but this is primarily because he is not a real tech head and of course defending his position to the point where it becomes unrealistic. But the essence of what he is saying is quite true and understandable. I sometimes joke that in the land of the blind, one eye is the king (Dutch say, don't know if it translates to English ;-) Today it seems the moment you talk about the internet there are no rules, no laws and no mechanisms to stop things that hurt all or some users. We have a war on drugs and 80% of the planet likes to be stoned at given times, we search and destroy child pornography networks, we throw bombs on people that don't support our western values and may have access to WOMD, but we do not act on people and companies breaking copy right laws etc. Why? Maybe this is a less important subject in local and global politics and business and 80% of the people that enjoy music like to be stoned, so maybe if we kill the music business we kill two birds with one stone? Back to Paul and his ideas. It's hard to hold ISP's and mobile network operators responsible for everything that goes on inside their networks without supporting them and create a partnership where all take the burdern. It's true that the recorded music industry never made a serious attempt to create partnerships with technology providers, willing to pioneer together and together take the risk. Yes Paul might have a great relationship with UMG, but isn't UMG and it's Chief giving Steve Jobs a hard time to make iTunes less dominant? It's all to fucking complicated and to F*&^% political to get a prosperous  future for the music business. Everybody involved  is defensive and politics don't care because they live on votes, free music  earns you more votes than a music tax or utility bill for music. So how to proceed? The idea of a global hub for music isn't a bad idea IMHO. Easy access to music by Digital Service Providers and easy access to data about usage and money generated with that by owners. To make this happen we need all music companies to join this initiative, politics and lawmakers to allow this way of collaborating and technology providers to create and support this hub. Nothing is impossible, but to get this done on a global scale we need a Nelson Mandela for the music business. Maybe it's a good idea to lock up Doug Morris for the fact he runs a music business and release him 15 years later, tortured and motivated to the bone to change, but I don't think Doug likes the idea. So what to do? I have some ideas on this and even technology that could make this happen, but the hard thing is to get every body to agree that this is the way frwd. Back to Paul. Yes it's crazy that the internet gives everybody a card blanch to steal and it's crazy that everybody thinks you're crazy when speaking out loud about this. But it's also crazy that record companies take a decade to understand the world around us is changing and the game needs different rules. It's also crazy we still measure all of this misery against laws created before the mobilization. So I think too we should aim for a better collaboration between content and technology people/companies, dare to share! Create a new experience that goes beyond the expectations of the people out there enjoying music. I believe people don't mind to pay, but it should be simple and fair priced. Just make the effort and go on the street and try and buy a CD. I bet that with every store you try you get exactely what you want. Now try and do the same on the internet ;-) I do this several times per year and to be honest Steve and iTunes is the only place where I get what I want. I don't want advertising, I don't want complex stuff and subscriptions I just want to listen to music I love and want to buy. I will have an issue when changing my iPod for another device. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I also don't want companies/governments to track me, my music and my behaviour, I just want to pay and get what I paid for. This is me being a consumer. In the B2B it's a different ball game. There you want to understand what happened with your assets and how much you made on it. But it all starts with giving people that buy music to enjoy it what they want and even more!

Very cool partnership

Morse and Independent IP (IIP) create exclusive partnership to enable better tracking, control and marketing of digital media assets.

London – 11 February 2008, Morse Plc. (MOR), the business and IT consultancy, and Independent IP (IIP), a technology innovator and service provider for digital media supply chain management, have today announced that they are forming an exclusive partnership to enable companies to better track, control and market their digital assets, allowing these companies to focus on their core competencies: finding, producing and marketing entertainment.

 The partnership combines, as an outsourced service, the first web based digital media asset and supply chain management platform, FUGAÔ, with Morse’s business and technology expertise, to help manage assets from end-to-end and expand business to online and mobile sales channels.

“There has been an explosion of digital assets in the media and entertainment industries. Old systems and processes for tracking and managing physical and digital goods from production to consumer aren’t sophisticated enough to deal with the fast growth and complexities of the digital world,” said Philip Eames, head of media comms, Morse.

Many companies are relying on trust and simple reporting to understand where their digital assets are in the supply chain. This method, however, does not allow the owners of the digital assets to have visibility throughout the supply chain.

“Media owners really need a more effective way to manage and track their digital assets. In the past a music company would never have opened up its warehouse to retailers, let them walk in, take what they want and rely on the retailer’s integrity to ensure they were paid for the correct amount of goods. Yet, this is exactly the approach many are taking in the online world,” Eames continued. “It is vital for these businesses to be able to maintain control of digital assets through out the distribution process to make sure they reach the right market efficiently and rely on fast, straightforward reconciliation of revenues.”

“With FUGA™, IIP has developed the next generation platform for doing digital media business, enabling people to collaborate and manage their business from creation to consumer facing channel. All of this is done in a web based environment, founded on an entirely new concept,” says Martijn Tjho, founder, IIP.

FUGA™ builds a collaborative network with trade partners via a secured B2B platform, enabling digital media companies to manage their entire supply chain and prevent loss of control of their digital assets. Morse’s specialist knowledge in digital media and supply chain processes, along with its IT expertise ensures that the solution is successfully implemented and meets the needs of the individual business.

“Once again Morse has identified a true innovator and is pioneering a new partner based approach providing solutions to meet a growing business challenge,” continued Eames. “Working with IIP ensures we leverage our existing experience in the media and communications industries – one of our four vertical markets.”

“IIP is very excited about the partnership. It gives us the strength to operate on a global scale and service bigger clients with higher demands for resources and scalability,” finished Tjho.

 

MORSE  & IIP

 

Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads

Wow, imagine this would be true for all of the world. Illegal downloading would be gone and Media owners would get paid again for every download. Hmm. Networks would suffer, etc etc. So is this whole thing a political battle after all? Who has the biggest impact on the electorate? It sounds like a good idea, but I bet this won't be that easy.

Francis Eliott, Deputy Political Editor

People who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week.

Internet service providers (ISPs) will be legally required to take action against users who access pirated material, The Times has learnt. >> Times Online

AMVJ no. 1 ;-)

Last year it was quite a challenge to get the ball in the net, but this year Jesse's team takes the lead. I love to see the kids play soccer and get all excited about it.

I am so proud of my team

Part of working on a start-up is that you're always short of money ;-) We have a dream team of people that's helping us to become a healthier financial business. How? Dare to share. Wow, I don't know what to say, but I am happy. Thanks everybody IIP just won the lottery with you as a team. My role is changing now Albert is the CEO, getting used to not have my quick fingers in everything. Always ready to learn. Born ready to learn from people that know more than I do. Thanks again and you will not regret ;-)

THE BIZMO, I like ;-)