The project has a codename of “Cocktail,” and will reportedly launch this upcoming September; right around the time Apple plans to release a tablet touch-screen computer with 3G connectivity.

We’ve talked at length about the future of the album, different artists even abandoning the album in favor of singles-only releases (see the Barcelona segment of wwtv #001). We’ve discussed at nauseum ways to create incentive for fans to buy your album, or larger packages based around your music.

What you need to realize, is that you’re no longer selling your music. Like it or not, your music is free. You might not have priced it as such, or want it to be so, but the reality of it is (especiall for the big 4) all of your music is available somewhere for free. What you need to do now, is figure out how to monetize and capitalize on the exposure that your free music has given you. You’re selling an experience around the music, since the music itself isn’t going to pay your rent. Shift back to classic marketting. Shick and Gillette will be happy to give you a free razor, because they know that you’ll buy razor blades from them in the future. Microsoft is happy to take a loss on the XBOX 360 console itself, to sell you video games and downloadable content in the future.

The razor blade still has to be good. The video games still have to be stellar. The XBOX still has to work. So don’t think you can give out terrible music and sell your would-be fans an ugly sleeveless acid wash t-shirt. Your music still needs to be good, along with your bonus content, but think beyond your music as the thing that will earn you money. It might be the catalyst that drives your production, but it is not the bread-winner.

What are your video games? What are your razor blades? What are you offering people to create in them a DESIRE to purchase your goods?

Apple And The Big 4 Look For Ways To Resurrect The Full Album is a post from: wax&wires

Before Terra Firma gives EMI nearly a $500M shot in the arm, it has sent CEO Guy Hands to ask Citigroup for a Bail Out. Hands has asked Citigroup to write off close to 500M pounds of the label’s debt.

In a long career of successful investing, Hands will count EMI as the worst deal he ever made. Hands has now sunk more than £2.2B into a company on financial life support, including £1.7B for the original deal, £500m in additional capital, and £170m on restructuring and desperate attempts to turn EMI around.

Enter WMG’s head, Edgar Bronfman. He has been public about his desire to merge WMG and EMI for quite a while, and if Citigroup denies the erasure of debt to Terra Firma, Bronfman may just have his wish of cutting the “big four” down to the “big three” record labels.

Bronfman has strategically set up housekeeping in London, where EMI is based, under the guise of culturing his kids and giving them a broader world view. If you believe that, I think he’s got a bridge and some water for sale in New York too;  you might want to call your realtor about picking it up. WMG has just come out of a restructuring of their own debt, and maybe in a place to pick up EMI should the timing and price be right.

Technically, Terra Firma has until 2015 to bounce back and pay their debt back to Citigroup. Should Citigroup deny the bail out, I don’t see how they can continue to hold onto the bleeding investment that EMI has become.

EMI Asks For $500M Bail Out is a post from: wax&wires

(disclaimer)
This was written on a bumpy Euro-bus ride across the wilderness – may ramble a bit but I think the point gets across.
TR

I posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media “got it right” regarding how to sell music in this day and age. Here’s a link to their store:

[illcommunication.beastieboys.com]

Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual “yeah, if you’re an established artist – what if you’re just trying to get heard?” argument. In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I’ll reiterate what I said here.

If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established:

* Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) – your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one.

If you’re forging your own path, read on.

* Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.
To clarify:
Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this – give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people’s email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special – make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters… whatever.

Don’t have a TopSpin as a partner? Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment. [www.amazon.com]

Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere. [www.tunecore.com]

Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately.
The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not. Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away. This is a fact – it sucks as the musician BUT THAT’S THE WAY IT IS (for now). So… have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).

The Beastie Boys’ site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in – available right from them, right now. The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging – they are established and you are not. Think this through.

The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on – like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.
Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace – it’s dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don’t autoplay). Constantly update your site with content – pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community. Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos. Film yourself talking. Play shows. Make interesting things. Get a Twitter account. Be interesting. Be real. Submit your music to blogs that may be interested. NEVER CHASE TRENDS. Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any – Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.

If you don’t know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don’t get it – find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig – good luck, you’re going to be waiting a while.

Hope this helps, and I’ll scour responses for intelligent comments I can respond to.

TR

TopSpin Media info:
[topspinmedia.com]

** quick update:
Thanks for the insightful comments already – when I get a moment (and a reliable internet connection) I’ll respond to some of your very valid points. Please keep in mind – these were just some thoughts I quickly wrote down and posted and not meant to be a complete guide by any means. I’ve neglected to get into publishing and some other things. I’ll update pretty soon.

You can read the comments and any updates here.

It’s difficult to assess whether or not Trent’s advice is sound, based on the fact that he never did it from the ground up on the indie front. He has seen the major side and the indie side, but only after his major label success (which is the exact argument he’s trying to refute above). At the same time, I would hazard a guess that he has more experience and knows more about the music industry from the artists’ perspective than you do, so you may as well heed his words.

Trent Reznor On What To Do As A New/Unknown Artist is a post from: wax&wires

If anything, she’s got a devout fanbase. If you have followed her at all, you’ll remember the “ReBellyon” from a while back. In response to Palmer accusing the label of pulling out shots from a music video in which her “belly looked fat,” fans began sending photos of their own stomachs to the label and various media outlets in protest of Roadrunner’s decision.

Fast forward to now: Amanda just posted on her blog about how she allegedly made $19,000 in 10 hours by using Twitter. Curious as to how? Here’s the post:

From: Amanda Palmer
Subject: twitter power, or “how an indie musician can make $19,000 in 10 hours using twitter”

this story has just been blowing people’s minds so i figures i should write it down.

1. FRIDAY NIGHT LOSERS T-SHIRT, $11,000
about a month ago, i was at home on a friday night (loser that i often am when i’m not touring, i almost never go out) and was, of course, on my mac, shifting between emails, links and occasionally doing some dishes and packing for a trip the next day. just a usual friday-night-rock-star-multi-tasking extravaganza.

i twitter whenever i’m online, i love the way it gives me a direct line of communication with my fans and friends. i had already seen the power of twitter while touring… using twitter i’d gathered crowds of sometimes 200 fans with a DAY’S notice to come out and meet me in public spaces (parks, mostly) where i would play ukulele, sign, hug, take pictures, eat cake, and generally hang out and connect. this was especially helpful in the cities where we’d been unable to book all-ages gigs and there were crushed teenagers who were really grateful to have a shot at connecting with me & the community of amanda/dolls fans.

i’d also been using twitter to organize ACTUAL last-minute gigs…i twittered a secret gig in LA one morning and about 350 folks showed up 5 hours later at a warehouse space….i played piano, filmed by current.tv, and then (different camera crew) did an interview with afterellen.com.
the important thing to undertsand here is that the fans were never part of the plan..,i basically just INVITED my fans to a press day, the press didnt’ plan it…i did.
i was going to be playing in an empty room and doing q&a with afterellen on a coach with only the camera watching.
it was like….why not tell people and do this in a warehouse instead of a hotel lobby or a blank studio? so i did.

it cost me almost nothing. the fans were psyched.

but back to the bigger, cooler story….

so there i am, alone on friday night and i make a joke on twitter (which goes out to whichever of my 30,000 followers are online)

one thing led to another, and the next thing you know there were thousands of us and we’d become the #1 topic trend on twitter.
zoe keating described it as a “virtual flash mob”.

the way twitter works (if you don’t have it) is that certain topics can include a hashtag (#) and if a gazillion people start making posts that include that hashtag, the topic will zoom up the charts of what people are currently discussing. it’s a cool feature.

so anyway, there we were, virtually hanging out on twitter on a friday night. very pleased with ourselves for being such a large group, and cracking jokes.

how do you “hang out” on the internet? well, we collectively came up with a list of things that the government should do for us (free government-issued sweatpants, pizza and ponies, no tax on coffee), AND created a t-shirt.
thank god my web guy sean was awake and being a loser with me on friday night  because he throw up the webpage WHILE we were having our twitter party and people started ordering the shirts – that i designed in SHARPIE in realtime) and a slogan that someone suggested: “DON’T STAND UP FOR WHAT’S RIGHT, STAY IN FOR WHAT’S WRONG”. neil gaiman and wil wheaton joined our party. the fdnas felt super-special.

by the end of the night, we’d sold 200 shirts off the quickie site (paypal only) that sean had set up.
i blogged the whole story the next day and in total, in the matter of a few days, we sold over 400 shirts, for $25/ea.

we ended up grossing OVER $11,000 on the shirts.
my assistant beth had the shirts printed up ASAP and mailed them from her apartment.

total made on twitter in two hours = $11,000.
total made from my huge-ass ben-folds produced-major-label solo album this year = $0

2. WEBCAST AUCTION, $6000

a few nights after that, i blogged and twittered, announcing a “webcast auction” from my apartment.
it went from 6 pm – 9 pm, my assitant beth sat at my side and kept her eyes on incoming bids and twitter feed.
while we hocked weird goods, i sang songs and answered questions from fans. we wore kimonos and drank wine. it was a blast.

people on twitter who were tuned in re-tweeted to other fans. the word spread that it was a fun place to be and watch.
we had, at peak, about 2000 people watching the webcast.

at the suggestion of a fan early in the webcastm anyone could, on demand, send us $20 via paypal and we would chew,
sign and mail them a postcard. we sold about 70, and we read all those names at the end of the webcast and thanked those
people for supporting us. here’s how the sales broke down:

all the items were signed by moi and hand-packed by beth and kayla.
the items and highest bidders were as follows:
hilary, ukulele used on the european tour: $640
jake, “guitar hero” plastic guitar controller used in album promo shoot: $250
lary b, copy neo2 magazine, plus two post-war trade slap-bracelets & a crime-photo set: $230
devi, glass dildo, with subtley-sordid backstory: $560
liz b., “hipsters ruin everything” t-shirt, made by blake (get your very own here!!!!): $155.55
shannon m., my bill bryson book, a short history of neary everything: $280
nikki, huge metal “the establishment” sign, used at rothbury festival for the circus tent i curated: $450
j.r., purple velvet “A” dress used in the dresden dolls coin-operated boy video shoot: $400
jessie & alan: who killed amanda palmer vinyl: $100
nikki: wine bottle, auctioned BY REQUEST!!! $320
shannon w., torn-to-shit vintage stockings used in the who killed amanda palmer/ michael pope video series: $200
jodi,
school-note-book break-up letter, written to amanda from jonas woolverton in 7th grade (i still haven’t emailed him about that….): $250
daryl, ANOTHER wine bottle, by request, that we had LYING AROUND: $320

and…………..

reto emailed, having barely missed the wine bottle, and asked us to send him “something funny” for $129.99. we sent a heath ledger statuette.

total made on twitter in 3 hours, including the postcards, was over $6000.
again, total made on my major-label solo album this year: $0

3. TWITTER DONATION-ONLY GIG, $1800
a few days later, i twittered a guest-list only event in a recording studio in boston, to take place a week later.
the gig lasted about 5 hours, all told, with soundcheck and signing. i took mostly requests and we had a grand old time.
first come, first served. the first 200 people to ask got in, for free. i asked for donations and made about $2200 in cash.
i gave $400 back to the studio for the space and the help. we sold some weird merch. i think we should call it an even 2k.

total made at last-minute secret twitter gig, in about 5 hours = $2000
major-label record blah blah blah = $0

…..and for fun, and to thank my fans for being awesome, i’ve been doing some twitter perfomance art, including answering their questions by magic-markering my body until it’s covered, and displaying time-lapse make-up application advice….but that’s another story.

TOTAL MADE THIS MONTH USING TWITTER = $19,000
TOTAL MADE FROM 30,000 RECORD SALES = ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

turn on, tune in, get dropped!!!!!

Amanda Palmer Makes $19k In 10 Hours On Twitter is a post from: wax&wires

After falling out of the genre for a while, I was shocked to see FBR bathing in cash after Fall Out Boy’s success earlier this decade. They had released Jimmy Eat World’s self-titled EP back in 1998, but hadn’t really established a legacy of success up to that point. Since then, they’ve had more than a few successful artists: Yellowcard, Jimmy Eat World, Fall out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Cobra Starship, Paramore, etc. many of whom were on the Decaydence imprint started by Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy) and FBR founder John Janick in 2004, which is also the year that Elektra Records went dormant.

Now owned by Atlantic (WMG), Elektra will be revived by Janick and Atlantic Executive VP of A&R, Mike Caren (who is creditted with launching the careers of T.I., Flo Rida, Twista, Juvenile, Asher Roth, and other hip hop artists). Janick, who championed intimate artist and fan relations at FBR, should be able to bring a bit of high touch to a label notoriously terrible at artist relations, even coining the moniker “neglectra” by its own artists in the late 80s.

The new label has made some key signings, including French duo Justice, Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green, and UK Dance artist Little Boots (PS, check out this vid of Little Boots).

We are planning on building an eclectic brand. We’re looking for artists with potential. We’re not an incubator label, we’re going to develop artists and get them to the next level.

- John Janick

It’s great to see the rise of Janick. As indie labels falter all around, he has continued to rise. From starting his own label in a dorm room back in 1996, Janick will now be heading one of the more storied labels in music, with a legacy 6-decades long. From what I’ve read, Janick also plans to still head up FBR.

Elektra Records To Be Fueled By Ramen is a post from: wax&wires

Well, fastforward to now. Danger Mouse, most notorious for being half of the Gnarls Barkley duo, is in the midst of a legal dispute with EMI. He’s completed a new project with Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) that is hung up on the label end.

The album also features a who’s who in indie rock, featuring artists like James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils.

As a next step to get something out, as well as drum up a strong amount of publicity, Danger Mouse will be releasing the album artwork for Dark Night of the Soul with a blank CD-R in lieu of the album itself.

Danger Mouse’s new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.

The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited edition, hand numbered 100+ page book which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’

Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI.

Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.

So there’s no clear statement to go download the songs and burn them, but that would be the implication.

To catch a listen of Dark Night of the Soul, head over to NPR, where there’s a stream. There’s also a lot of good info on the NPR site about the ablum.

New Danger Mouse Album = Blank CD-R is a post from: wax&wires

Few people are still arguing that you need a major label to make it as an artist these days. But as an independent artist, how do you compete with free? How do you get your music out there and create a loyal fan base?

It’s a solid half hour long, but Masnick does a good job at keeping it entertaining, and it’s very informative.

TechDirt’s Mike Masnick On The “Reznor Business Model” is a post from: wax&wires

In case it’s not clear enough, payola is bad news bears because it creates a structure in which only bands with major label backing have a realistic shot at getting radio airtime. Ever wonder why your local college radio station and public radio have such a broader range of content? There you go. Well, we’re running out of graves for the few indie radio stations left, so it seemed about time for a check-in on big radio.

Back in April of 2007, the FCC and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer put a beat down on major radio to shut down the practice of payola. They hit the radio stations with about $12.5 million in fines and required that they set aside over 4,000 programming hours for independent artists. Maybe big radio just thought “indie” referred to the genre rather than the label, because they haven’t changed their ways.

The Future of Music Coalition just released a report comprised of four years of research finding virtually no change in radio practices between 2005-2008.

FMC looked at each playlist and calculated the “airplay share” for five different categories of record labels to determine whether the ratio of major label to non-major label airplay has changed over the past four years. The data in the report indicates almost no measurable change in station playlist composition over the past four years.

While that may prompt many a cynic to conclude that payola is alive and well, FMC has another, albeit related, explanation.

The playlist data analysis underscores how radio’s long-standing relationships with major labels, its status quo programming practices and the permissive regulatory structure all work together to create an environment in which songs from major label artists continue to dominate.

So in essence, with their “risk-averse programming practices,” and culture of payola-tainted music selection, big radio simply doesn’t know how or where to fit in new independent artists, try as they might. Think of them as the Detroit Lions. It’s not that they don’t want to win, they just don’t know how not to lose because it’s all they’ve ever done.

So what are some steps to take in order to help reshape terrestrial radio?

I don’t think terrestrial radio will be a major media market for too much longer, as internet radio becomes more readily available on the go. I also think that internet radio is daring, and even forcing, terrestrial radio to become more creative and risky with their content or die. FMC suggests that radio stations expand the “number of voices on the public airwaves.” I think this is the biggest key to whether or not terrestrial radio can be salvaged. By increasing the number of DJs, you’re giving an opportunity for more variety to be heard, assuming you stop making every DJ play the same 20 songs on a loop. Then, think through what terrestrial radio has that internet radio doesn’t. For most music shows, it’s the DJ. The personality and song selection of the DJ will be what wins people over; something they won’t find on last.fm or Pandora. DJs that are hip to local music on the rise, have good energy, and engage their audiences well will connect to a listener base that net radio can’t yet reach. It’s worked with Talk Radio, and it could be the saving grace of our FM friends.

Photo: Mark Sebastian

If Payola’s Been Slain, Why Does Big Radio Still Sound The Same? is a post from: wax&wires

I was glad to see that Jonny Greenwood at least cited the positives as to why they signed to a label. Given that by now the marketplace has changed and the labels have changed, thus the perspectives from many of these musicians have changed since the days they signed on the dotted line. To assume that the major labels are the devil incarnate, and have been from day one, is a misconception though. If it were as such, all of the successful musicians we know, that now campaign against the majors, would have to be cited as fools for having gotten on board with the bigs in the first place.

I’m not for or against the major label. I think whether or not a given artist would be better off independent is completely dependent upon how hard they are willing to work to get their product out there, how long they hope to stay on the scene, and how much of their artistic freedom they are willing to bend on.

With regards to the music industry and music distribution, I think a new means of music acquisition can only happen as fast as the consumers allow it to. So long as labels see force feeding bands to the radio working, they will continue to do it. Independent terrestrial radio is on its last legs, and I think terrestrial radio in general will be soon to follow. With the increasing availability of wi-fi, and the infinte access to custom tailored stations that comes with it, we’re only counting the days until AM, FM, and Sattelite are all brought down by net radio.

VIDEO: “Why Radio & Music Industry Sucks Nowadays” is a post from: wax&wires

Artists used to tour with the goal of selling more albums, which were their primary source of income. With revenue from album sales in the toilet, have the tables turned to where an artist’s primary income is earned from live performances? We’ve already seen artists going indie to try and increase their cut from album sales. Clearly, that’s an indicator to the fact that the old model of artist sustenance is not going to cut it today. If that is the case, is Rapino on to something by trying to capitalize on other aspects of an artist’s market?

[From WSJ]

It was well after midnight and Jay-Z was presiding over a private dining room at Katsuya, the Philippe Starck–designed Los Angeles sushi restaurant, following a sold-out show at the nearby Hollywood Palladium. The concert marked the historic 1940 venue’s reopening, after a yearlong, $18 million renovation—it is now operated by concert-promotion giant Live Nation. Seated on the rapper’s right was 19-year-old Hayden Panettiere, star of the television series “Heroes.” Jay-Z’s bodyguard, a towering 34-year-old veteran of the Dutch Special Forces named Norm, watched over the phalanx of security guards keeping paparazzi at bay on the sidewalk outside. Lakers center Andrew Bynum, who had spent much of the concert dancing shirtless with three young women, had disappeared.

When Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino strode into the restaurant, Jay-Z had a waiter squeeze in an extra chair on his left. He then gestured for the server to fill Rapino’s glass with Armand de Brignac “Ace of Spades” rosé—after having told another guest not to even look at the $500 metallic-pink bottle of Champagne. But Rapino, 43, isn’t just any music exec, despite his three-day beard, black T-shirt, jeans and leather motorcycle jacket. He has suddenly become one of the most closely watched figures in the music industry.

Read the full story.

Michael Rapino Wants To Replace The Record Label With Live Nation is a post from: wax&wires

The struggling music units of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG merged in 2004 so that a combined company could better fend off illegal file sharing and shrinking CD sales.

The new recording company, named Sony BMG, was expected to wield the kind of resources that could challenge Universal Music Group as the largest of the four top labels. Sony BMG would own a chunk of U.S. music sales almost as big as Universal’s.

To say the deal failed to deliver on the promise is probably an understatement. More than four years after the merger, there isn’t a more troubled major label around.

Read the full story.

Sony Music Woes Extend To Digital Sales is a post from: wax&wires

Jim Griffin is leading the charge for an ISP fee to be rolled into each ISP client’s bill in order to compensate record labels being victimized by illiegal P2P downloading services.

Critics of the program have argued that such a structure would be extortion, to the effect that you’re essentially paying a record label not to sue you when you download their songs. I think that’s a bit extreme, and at least appreciate that Warner is making a concerted effort to figure out how we can make music profitable in the digital age (without litigation of course).

I have two main qualms with the system as described:

1) File quality assurance. With P2P clients, the file you get is always hit and miss. I remember bands that used to re-tag their songs as being by different artists in order to try and swindle people into downloading their music in an effort to create a fan base. For example, if I had a new and unknown shoe-gazer band, I might tag my song as being by My Bloody Valentine or Smashing Pumpkins in order to get people to download it and hear my music, when they were infact under the impression that they were downloading some unreleased Pumpkins tune. You’re also not guaranteed any type of bitrate, meaning you could spend time hunting down a song only to find that you just downloaded a clipping, monophonic, bit-crushed version of a live bootleg recording. Lastly in this category is how to enforce that only music gets downloaded instead of software, video, etc. In addition to record labels and entertainment groups, do you also need buy in from any digital media product provider out there?

2) Imposition. I’m not too keen on the idea of the $5 fee being put on my bill each month regardless of if I use P2P services or not. Essentially, you’re forcing the masses to absorb the costs from the actions of a growing, but still relatively small, few. Even with the fee, I’m not likely to get my music on a P2P client simply because of the file QA problems mentioned above.

Now onto Choruss. Griffin’s OneHouse Digital registered the domain for Choruss.com earlier this year, though there’s nothing up yet. College campuses have been chastised as the most prolific abusers of copyright. When I was in college, one of my suitemates got hit with a subpoena regarding some content he downloaded on P2P client Kazzaa. The University stepped in and took the heat for him, but then installed a lot of watch dog software on his PC and limited his net usage on campus. Some universities have really gone to bat for their students, like UCSC, actually winning a case against the RIAA claiming that they should not be obligated to release students’ personal data.

Enter the Choruss. Choruss applies Griffin’s ISP-fee-based model on college campuses. A small fee, rolled into each student’s tuition, would go to record labels in exchange for a covenant by the labels not to bring litigation against the university’s students. A nonprofit tech advocate Educause has been presenting the unlimited music plan to colleges accross the country using a really cheesy (but informative) PowerPoint presentation:

Nice.

We live in an age where people essentially choose whether or not to pay for music based on their own moral compass. The only thing that will get the music freeloaders to pay for their music might be some sort of enforced fee like Griffin proposes. Let’s see how Choruss pans out, and what tweaks it might need. Record labels are drowning, and we’ve been standing around describing the water for the better part of a decade. Griffin’s proposition may be the first step in finding some little blow-up orange floaties.

Major Labels in Favor of P2P… Sort of… is a post from: wax&wires