The Issues

The Sad State of Legal DRM-Free Music Services

March 27, 2008 by Kirk Biglione

Just six months after the launch of its mp3 music service, Amazon has emerged as the number two digital music retailer. While Apple still has a huge lead, that lead seems to be dwindling quickly.

The major labels may see this as some form of progress in their efforts to break Apple’s perceived monopoly in the digital music market, but the truth is they are very likely creating a new problem for their industry.

Despite the fact that the majors have begun licensing the rights to distribute DRM-free tracks to multiple retailers, Amazon seems to be the only company that has a clue about building a successful online marketplace. As a result, Amazon could quickly become something of a de facto monopoly for legal mp3 downloads. That’s astounding when you consider that the marketplace for unprotected music downloads should be wide open and highly competitive.

The formula for building a successful digital music marketplace seems relatively easy. Consumers want access to a wide selection of reasonably priced DRM-free music, presented in a well organized marketplace that supports all computing platforms. Retailers who expect to compete should offer decent search and discovery capabilities, and maybe even a few social features. This is 2008, after all.

What Radiohead Started, Others Continue

March 21, 2008 by Jim Connelly

Whether or not you think that Radiohead’s download-only release of In Rainbows was a success or a failure; a bargain or a rip-off — and there are valid arguments that it was actually all four — you kind of knew that they weren’t the only artist of their stature who were going to try to bypass the traditional Major-Label release strategy.

And, sure enough, after what can only be described as a collective pause while everybody held their breath, in the past couple of weeks, we’ve had at least four artists with established fanbases follow in their footsteps. While each artist is doing something different, they’re all taking a piece from Radiohead’s playbook.

Who Cares if Saturday Night Live is Pro-Hillary?

March 13, 2008 by Jim Connelly

Apparently, Lorne Michaels is worried that — because of a couple of cold opens spoofing the media’s kowtowing to Obama, Tina Fey’s funny but heartfelt “bitch is the new black” endorsement, and of course, an actual appearance by Mrs. Clinton her own self — people are perceiving Saturday Night Live as pro-Hillary.

This, naturally, brings up two related questions: 1) who still watches Saturday Night Live? 2) Are pro-Obama SNL viewers up in arms over the pro-Hillary bias?

My answers are: 1) me. 2) Not this one.

For Mike Huckabee, Is It More Than A Feeling No More?

February 15, 2008 by Jim Connelly

All of the pundits are pretty much saying that it looks like curtains for the Presidential Campaign of Mike Huckabee, the bass-playing, Bible-quoting Stephen Colbert-homeboy who is wayyyy behind John McCain in the delegate count.

So it pretty much seems to be a weird time to get insult added to injury, but that insult is coming in the form of Tom Scholz, an Obama supporter (like me!) who wrote the classic Boston song that Huckabee has been using on his campaign trail: “More Than A Feeling.” Scholz is pissed, and he wants it to stop.

To me, this is like that time Elvis sent the widely quoted “open email” to Bill Clinton after Clinton played “Heartbreak Hotel” on Arsenio Hall which ended with “didn’t you see me shaking hands with Nixon, stop playing my song.”

This, of course, is the place for the obligatory “Tom Scholz is still alive?” joke, but instead I’m going to do something perhaps even funnier: defend Mike Huckabee.

ABC Fights the FCC and Cultural Correctness

February 13, 2008 by Jim Connelly

ABC, which was hit a couple of weeks ago with a $1.4 million fine by the FCC, has decided to fight back.

The fine was imposed because of a scene in a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue that showed a woman’s buttocks and a bit of what the Celeb gossip sites all call “side boob.”

Just like NYPD Blue had been doing for 10 years. This time, however, it was different. I guess. And five years after the actual episode was broadcast — three years after NYPD Blue went off the air — the FCC came down with their oh-so-timely fine.

And the children, once again, are saved from the gruesome horrors of the naked female human body! Thank God. Or thank Wholly His Official Representatives on Earth, the children-loving, naked-woman hating Parents Television Council, who, as usual, decided to be offended so that the rest of us didn’t have to.

DRM’s Not Dead, It’s Just Resting

February 11, 2008 by Kirk Biglione

It would be all too easy to declare the DRM wars over. With the recent addition of the Sony BMG catalog to the Amazon MP3 store, all of the major labels have finally given in to consumer demands by allowing their music to be sold in an unrestricted digital format.

Unfortunately, DRM is anything but dead. There remains a pervasive belief among media executives that DRM can somehow protect content and intellectual property rights in the digital marketplace. This despite all evidence to the contrary. A quick glance at the leading online sources for legal downloads will confirm that DRM is still very much a part of the digital media landscape.

Both Amazon and Apple continue to use DRM to restrict access to video content. That’s no surprise considering film studios and television networks have long required DRM on all digital media products — a requirement that has done nothing to curb piracy.

Amazon also uses DRM to restrict Kindle eBook downloads. Given Amazon’s relationship with the major publishing houses, you might expect the company to use its influence to convince publishers that DRM actually limits consumer choice, thereby inhibiting the marketplace for digital content. After all, Amazon advertises DRM-free as a feature in its MP3 store — why not encourage publishers to follow suit?

The Weird Case of Qtrax

January 29, 2008 by Jim Connelly

FREE Music!! 25,000,000 Songs! Legal!

Those are the claims of on the current home page of Qtrax, the latest entrant in the downloadable music fray.

All I have to do, of course, is sit through advertising while downloading. Oh, and I also have to download their player in order to play the music I’ve downloaded. OK, so haven’t we already been down this route before with, you know, Spiral Frog?

Well, there is one big difference from Spiral Frog: the fact that right now the major labels are all saying “Qtrax? Who-trax?”

Oops.

Great Moments in RIAA History: January 1997, RIAA Develops System To Prevent CD Copying

January 17, 2008 by Kirk Biglione

In this era of mega-super-star recording artists and multi-platinum albums, it’s hard to believe that there was ever a time when the recording industry was in dire straights. Many have already forgotten the challenges the major labels were up against in the mid-90’s.

Back then, low cost CD burners were just becoming widely available. While the drives were developed for data storage, it didn’t take long for unscrupulous ~~consumers~~ pirates to figure out that they could use CD burners to copy music CDs.

Piracy quickly became rampant as consumers “backed up” their CD collections and traded disks with friends. The problem was so serious that the major labels began to fear that CD sales would eventually plummet.

Fortunately, the RIAA was on the case. On January 31st, 1997, the organization unveiled a “breakthrough copyright protection system to prevent CD copying through computers“.

How to Screw Up DRM-Free Music — Lesson One: Trading Cards

January 8, 2008 by Kirk Biglione

Just when it looks like the major labels have finally decided to give consumers what they really want by selling DRM-free music, Sony BMG comes along with a totally ~~innovative~~ harebrained scheme that could have only be hatched by the minds that brought you spyware infected audio CDs.

Sony BMG is the last of the major labels still clinging to DRM as a means of protecting digital content. However, it’s now being widely reported that Sony will begin selling DRM-free album downloads later this month. More precisely, the label will begin selling trading cards that include a PIN that can be used to download music. Oh, and the cards will only be available through traditional retail outlets.

That’s right, to download one of Sony BMG’s new DRM free albums, you’ll need to log off your computer, leave your house, find a retailer that’s actually selling the cards, find a parking spot, buy the damn thing, then drive home to download the album (note the use of the world ‘album’, Sony apparently won’t be selling individual tracks).

Will An Irrational Fear of Piracy Destroy the Publishing Industry Too?

December 6, 2007 by Kirk Biglione

When they write the history of how the recording industry botched its transition to digital content distribution, they’ll probably devote a whole chapter to the Diamond Rio.

Ugly as it was, the Rio was the first widely available portable MP3 player. While the appearance of the device indicated a clear demand from consumers for portable digital music, the recording industry saw it as a threat. Instead of embracing digital music and working to develop a viable business model for digital content distribution, the RIAA took the manufacturer of the Rio to court and tried to have the product taken off the market. The RIAA was at war with the MP3 format, and claimed that any device capable of playing MP3 files would clearly contribute to piracy.

The RIAA ultimately lost its lawsuit, and the rest is history. While the Rio may seem like a footnote now, it was an important milestone. The court ruling on the Rio case cleared the way for Apple’s iPod, and eventually the iTunes music store.