2highbehind

Andrew Dubber's New Music Strategies (Read it!)

New Music Strategies A must read, including all the comments. What I find interesting is the way Andrew engages an audience, a true professor ;-)

I had the pleasure of meeting Andrew last summer and believe that this casual professor is adding a lot to the debate and the music business. It's not rocket science, but logical views on something called the music business.

RIAA Jury Finds Minnesota Woman Liable for Piracy, Awards $222,000

DULUTH, Minnesota -- Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, was found liable Thursday for copyright infringement  in the nation's first file-sharing case to go before a jury. >> WIRED

It took a while but finally the illegal file sharing is no longer an accepted method of consumption. It must be hard for this woman to be convicted for something that millions of other people do without getting caught. But heh it's like walking through a red light.. For me another indicator that the digital music space is maturing and that the opportunities are getting bigger. Good news for the industry, bad news for Jammie.

Happy with Andrew Dubber's New Music Strategies

A while ago I stumbled upon Andrew's weblog and ever since I feel more connected with the world around me. Thanks Andrew! He pointed me to a new social network service called >> Simplify Media. It looks very promising and today I am going to try it out and take it for a spin. I have seen so many new social music services, all, except Pandora and LastFM, are bad clones of the latter. Simplify sounds so simple and if it works it would be the next big thing. Would be cool if they add the feature so I can buy tracks from friends (they get compilation royalty) and creators get paid. The ultimate way to discover is through people you trust for their good taste and expertise in music.

FUGA is alive and kicking

Imagine a your digital business as easy as setting up an account with your bank and be able to transfer your music to any other account in any format, with meta data in any configuration and receive reports about the usage all across the value chain..... Last Friday it became reality and we at IIP are so happy to have made this milestone. I am so proud of my team and everybody that has helped to get here. Thanks!

MP3 and MS vs AL

The situation that occurred after the verdict in this case is quite interesting. If the patent is granted why would MS get away with it. Value patent vs individual corporate interests. Settlement will be a logical step. Great business for Alcatel-Lucent BTW. Anyway I think that it is time for some serious packaging at the A-L product development department or will this be a pure legal play? Let's see how it develops.. Strange first DRM, now this when is the time right for flow?

The gods too are fond of a joke.

Aristotle

Song of the day

About techmology ;-) hahaha

>> Ali G

Business News Radio interview

Last Saturday we were on Dutch BNR (business news radio) to do our elevator pitch for IIP. Check it out (in Dutch): >> Elevator pitch audio archives 21-10-2006 We are in the 21-10 2006 broadcast.

Digital rights in question as business model

The voices against DRM are increasing in volume almost daily. Scientific American's recent article lays out in clear language what we've been saying for ages, " If the music industry truly wants to loosen Apple's iron grip on digital music sales, it should start allowing music to be sold without digital rights management protection." >> DMW

Gotshrimp >> I agree, companies like Apple and MS are playing the wrong game. I hope Sandisk will be smart enough to offer DRM free downloads and protect the content via another mechanism. The 4 major record companies are still fighting illegal usage of their music, so it will be almost impossible for any party to get a DRM free contract. I wonder if everybody realizes that their are two choices. 1. Almost all music is available for free without DRM on illegal filesharing networks and other places on the internet, so this is the first option for music lovers. 2. Buy a DRM protected file from a legal service. OPtion one gives access to over 40 million tracks and option two gives access to over 3 million tracks. For me a no brainer.

Mastercard Joins Credit Card Boycott of AllofMP3

Both Mastercard and Visa are now boycotting of AllofMP3, a move that may settle the score with major rights holders. It remains unclear exactly when the decisions were made, though news of the Visa pullout surfaced Wednesday, and the Mastercard development followed on Thursday. The cut-rate Russian download store has been assailed from every conceivable corner, including the United States government itself, which threatened to deny Russian admission into the WTO over the matter. But the pullout of both major credit card companies, which effectively cuts the flow of incoming cash, may represent the cleanest approach for closing the store. >> Digital Music News Gotshrimp >> This will make a huge difference. Again it's strange that governments don't act as fast as they could. It's almost like fighting poverty, corporations will play a more important role in fighting poverty than governments, same same here. So maybe if we are lucky politicians will only be wallpaper in 10 years from now, worried about the next elections....