The Fundamental Issues Surrounding The Entertainment Industry
Read the full post here on Jonathan MacDonald dot com
Excerpt below:
1. The licensing bodies demand fees that are extraordinarily challenging (read: totally impossible) to cover with ‘advertising’ as we know it today – Why? Because:
2. The ‘advertising’ model commonly adopted (pre-roll, post-roll, ham-roll, banners and buttons), is mainly tolerated by people who want free stuff – rather than who want to communicate with brands – hence advertising is remarkably inefficient regardless of what metric is used to cover the tracks (sorry, ‘prove effectiveness’)
3. ‘UK Music’ and several other organisations are unwilling to accept the way the entertainment industry actually is – the manifesto of which you can read in full here
4. We live in a world where those with the loudest voice, sadly, are those who have absolutely no link to reality and come up with utterly ridiculous notions such as thinking a distribution channel (like YouTube) is somehow ‘unfair’ in rebelling against a bloated and greedy industry, clinging onto its 1987 Porsche Targa by its charlie-ridden fingernails
5. Ek (Spotify), Purdham (We7)n and Arora (Google) just wanna find a way of legally allowing people to access the music they love, yet the music industry is unwilling to work symbiotically to make this happen – meaning, ultimately, music lovers lose out
6. This drives more services out of business and more music lovers to seek other access points – in many cases, illegal
7. As services show that ad-funding can’t cover fees, the advertisers become more skeptical and less willing to invest heavily meaning that issue #1 is even more true…
…and the vortex continues to perpetuate.
EMI has a new spin?
Sunday Times Business today – page 7 – James Ashton writes about Eliols ‘fresh business model’.
This, it must be said, is in light of Guy Hands’s write off of half the £2.3BILLION he invested, accepting he is likely to make a loss on the deal.
NO SHIT SHERLOCK.
The ‘fresh approach’ is apparently so position EMI as the content provider and let all others (Spotify are mentioned), monetize in their new revolutionary ways (translation: try desperately to ad-fund tracks + place a premium if you want to avoid the ads)
All is well for EMI then….so long as the other models can financially support the license fees on the music.
All is well, according to Elio, in terms of piracy, so long as the Government legislates and ISPs abide by said legislation.
It seems there is a total lack of personal accountability here.
You can sit around waiting for everyone else to ‘sort it out’ or record companies can be pro-active and find new ways collaboratively – including talking about the elephant in the room that is the vast majority of people who share music ‘illegally’ and will continue to do so, regardless of legislation.
The nanosecond cassette players had two decks, one with a record and play function, the industry as we knew it, died.
Will the likes of EMI ever read and understand the Manifesto?
We doubt it.
Will the industry work out like Terra Firma would like it to?
Absolutely categorically not.
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But then I guess, we shouldn’t judge a man until we have walked a mile in his shoes.
Mind you – by then, you can judge, PLUS you are a mile away, AND still have his shoes.
The RIAA is great at screwing itself
Read the TechDirt and Slashdot.
We love the Gloria Gaynor-esque suggestion by one commentator:
At first I was afraid
I was petrified
Kept thinking they would never let
Our plastic disc sales slide
but then Napster came along
And I had to find a way to make govn’ment cheese
And I regret
And I learned how to suck money using legaleese!
And so we’re stuck
The business has sank
I just sued my customers
And I have the legal system to thank
I should have made it competitive
I should have listened to customer woes
If I’d have known for just one second
They could force my doors to close
Go on now go
Get Hypnnotized
Just take the backcatalog now
‘Cause it’s no good in your eyes
I was the one who tried to condem
With a slice of DRM
Did you think I’d stumble?
Did you think I’d let that deal die?
Oh no, not I
I will survive
Oh, as long as I have DRM
I know I’ll stay alive
We’ve got all our bonus stock
I’ve got so much more to mock
And I’ll survive
I will survive, hey hey
Government Seeks International Strategy On Illegal Downloading
From here.
The below from The Guardian:
The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, is aiming to have the framework of an
international strategy to combat illegal internet downloads agreed with the
US and European partners by the autumn.
Burnham’s ambitious plan, part of a five-pronged strategy to bolster the ailing music industry, was outlined by the government minister at a
parliamentary reception last night involving groups including the BPI,
which represents UK record companies.
The ultimate aim of the plan, Burnham told MediaGuardian.co.uk, would be to develop a memorandum of understanding with other governments that would make the UK’s own initiatives to combat internet piracy more likely to succeed. Burnham said that the government is seeking a 70% to 80% reduction in illegal downloads with its plans in the UK.
“I am working towards an international memorandum of understanding, it is
time for much more serious dialogue with European and US partners. No solely national solution will work. It can only be durable with international consensus,” he added.
Burnham is hoping that if all parties can be galvanised into action, there
is a chance that the “Davos for creative businesses” world conference that
will be held in Hertfordshire in late October could be used as the stage
for developing an agreement on tackling illegal downloading. At the least,
he is hoping that by the time of the event a consensus on the issue of
internet piracy will begin to have emerged.
However, he made it clear that success would require the industry, from
internet service providers to music companies, to work together to offer
compelling legal download alternatives and the vigilance to crackdown on
piracy.
Burnham said he is aiming to “bring the threads together” with a
five-pronged strategy to help the UK music industry. “It is an incredibly
important industry to this country and perhaps it has not been focused on
in the way it should. There is a strong sense that this is the year we have
to bring this stuff off, we have a head of steam, a bit of momentum,” he
added.
Other key music-related initiatives Burnham highlighted at last night’s
parliamentary reception include the extension of the copyright term on
sound recordings from 50 to 75 years, the creation of more rehearsal spaces
across the UK, a schools programme and the nurturing of talent and apprenticeships.
In Lord Carter’s interim Digital Britain report, the government said that
legislation would be introduced to force ISPs to notify illegal downloaders
that they are breaking the law.
ISPs will also be asked collect anonymous data on the worst offenders along
with personal details, on receipt of a court order, so that rights holders
can seek to take legal action.
The interim Digital Britain report also recommends the creation of a rights
agency, funded by the ISPs and the media industry, that would set out a
strategy for defeating illegal internet filesharers, including the use of
technologies such as digital watermarking of copyrighted content.
–
My take?
http://musicindustrymanifesto.com/the-manifesto/
Say no more.
The victimization of last.fm
Click below:
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Stop download flood, says clueless music chief
In case you were in any doubt whether EMI will survive, today’s Times article pretty much confirms how disasterous EMI’s future is likely to be.
Check it out here.
Mr Hands – you need to find a CEO who understands what is going on in the real world.
Elio Leoni-Sceti has missed the point by a country mile – don’t be fooled by a slight upturn in sales – waving blame and committing to try to stop what is inevitable, is commercial suicide.
Mark my words.
Pirate Bay hit with legal action
Totally and utterly pointless legal action which will do absolutely fucking nothing to stop what is inevitable.
Click below for the Beeb article:
Music = Respect?
Worth reading the below rant by Hans Ebert. Thanks to Peggy from MSG for forwarding. Forgive the repetitive incorrect use of ‘for free’. Of course, things cannot be ‘for free’ they can only be ‘free’ or ‘without charge’.
Great rant though 
–
Blaine was mentioning to me how there are so many people “out there” who believe they are “owed” music – and for free – and how all music is free- AND all the software to help them smash and grab this music. Go to www.limewire.com and with the file sharing going on, all the music exchanged becomes free and which begs the question, where’s it all gone so horribly wrong that from rocking in the free world, musicians are now “fair game” for what I call the Vulture Culture and where they and their product are “owned” by consumers?
I hear sanctimonous bullshit from people about “caring for the music, man” but listen to them an hour later and they’re telling you to “just go to limewire and download, dude. Why pay?” Er, ‘cos it’s just not right? ‘cos it’s highway robbery.It’s Download Piracy? It’s Digital Hell? It devalues art?
Let’s not look at the States and talk about giving away music to “help gigs and tours.” In many countries, there are no VENUES to “gig,” let alone, “tour.” Again, this is talk from the geographically-challenged and the music industry equivalent of Fox News’ “true American” Sean “Huff Daddy” Hannity.
Even if you are to get a “gig” today, you’re told it’s “for free” and how you can “use it” for “promotion” and build up your “fan base” and soon you’re over thirty, you’re still gigging, you’re still updating your MySpace page, you’re still trying to “do an Arctic Monkeys” or “do a Lily Allen” when they have disappeared into the giant abyss and you’ve finally decided to audition for “American Idol” ‘cos nothing else has worked and you are ready to be a karaoke singer, be called “dawg” and sell yourself to four “judges” who know you’re too old to be “idol material.”
You were irrelevant before and you’re irrelevant now, you have no “fan base” other than your dog and Mum. Even the girlfriend moved out and is living with either Tommy Lee, or Gene Simmons, or David Navarro, or David Lee Roth, or Kid Rock or Sammy Hagar. [Are they one and the same?]
Let’s just look at the pure economics of spending one’s time- and time is money- creating music, buying instruments, equipment, renting rehearsal rooms, perhaps paying for studio time, getting a finished product “out there”- and only to then have it downloaded for free and without anyone even leaving you a ten cent tip? There’s also the chance that you’ll get your songs ripped off in the process and with many claiming the same “bragging rights” and worse – copyrights – and you have nada bananas for legal warfare.
How have we become so darn callous to it all? How has the art of creating music become “content?” And how and why has this “content” become so discardable and dispensable?
I might not download music for free, but I AM caught up in the feeding frenzy of going online and, like a kid at a buffet table, subscribing to anything and everything that is free- free newsletters about music, free psycho-babble from wealth mentors, free blogs…and which I then spend hours Unsubscribing the next week as my Inbox is on Overload with useless “information” and not unlike all the “jokes” and other spam that finds its way past the firewalls of protection. I feel like a scavenger – a Hurdy Gurdy Man – and part of the Vulture Culture that exists today and where we think and act in “bit torrents.”
But “purchasing music for free,” something I hear all the time from “oxy morons” is, to me, like Quasimodo sounding the death knell to a dilapidated music industry “model” that’s barely able to stand these days as it’s been knocked Over, Under, Sideways, Down. Yes, it’s like that old Yardbirds song.
Having said this, I care for the ARTISTS. I have absolutely no sympathy for music companies as they have always had do to do with a privileged few being the arrogant twats they still are today and never seeing nor caring to see the fast train of technology approaching and which has run over them. The railway tracks are written all over their faces, but they think it’s a tan.
Their “solution” to it all: Legislation and ‘let’s sue the bastards.” As Tim so succinctly puts it, now is the time for Innovation not Legislation.
Leave these hapless twats to their own means and, for reasons that baffle me, many are still running music companies – often, into the ground- but, I guess, it comes down to them having their power bases and being surrounded by toadies to keep their egos on a “higher plain” and who remain “blinded by the light” and dazzled by their own bullshit.
My fear is that unless this weird imbalance of “power,” this dysfunctional “tribe” of artists – and many are also arrogant, ignorant, swaggering twats – fans who support music, management and “new model music companies” come together like a Youngbloods song, this really might be “the day the music died” and we’ll be seeing “Music: R.I.P.” headstones all around.
Silence is not golden and nor is it a pretty sound.
Like a child, like the people who matter in your life, music, like any other art form, needs to heard, nurtured and respected for it to live, breathe, be happy and multiply.
by Hans Ebert,
Chairman & CEO, We-Enhance Inc
Youtube removes copyrighted audio from videos – killing music promotion
Not only is the Music Industry intent on destroying itself, but it seems intent on taking Youtube with it.
In an utterly bizarre fashion, Youtube appears to be using it’s audio fingerprinting software to remove any audio which infringes copyright, but is leaving the original videos online.
Previously, copyright-infringers were either notified, or had their videos removed entirely. There’s no word on whether this new approach was instituted by Google/Youtube, or whether, as most people presume, it was forced by increased pressure from the music industry.
But as the huge amount of online coverage has pointed out, it’s going to hurt everyone involved:
The music industry was unlikely to be losing sales from the majority of fan videos and could have instituted a decent licencing solution.
Youtube won’t be the place for some of the fantasically popular fan videos built around any copyrighted content – for instance the second most viewed Youtube video of all time.
And users will lose out as millions of videos, and all the work that went into them, suddenly become destroyed.
Just some of the negative coverage:
So it’s already on most of the biggest and most-read blogs, and is spreading like wildfire.
And as always, Gerd Leonhard sums it up perfectly.
Update: Cnet has just revealed that apparently the silent videos are down to users choosing this option when informed of copyright infringement. It’s apparently been in place for a while, but is noticeable now because Youtube’s negotiations with Warners have broken down – and most of the music now muted belongs to the idiots Warners.
We’d still argue that it the users aren’t choosing to have their videos muted – they’re forced to choose between being muted or removed, because the music industry can’t work out that lots of people showing their appreciation of a piece of music might actually be an incredibly good promotional tool for that artist.
There are very few people who can save the record industry from their own idiocy, but unless they start following this chap, this chap, or these chaps, it seems like they’re locked into a race with newspapers for who can destroy their industry first.
Entertainment Tax
Outrageous.
Sign the petition by clicking the below RIGHT NOW!
