12/8/08

Music News Bulletin - 08/12/08

Terry McBride Explains How Nettwerk Puts Fans In Control
"Mark Glaser has an absolute must-read interview with music label Nettwerk's CEO Terry McBride. Nettwerk, of course, has been one of a few record labels that really understands how the market has been changing, and has moved aggressively to take advantage of that. The label, which represents some top artists like Coldplay, Barenaked Ladies, K-OS and Avril Lavigne, got a lot of press a couple years back when it agreed to pay for the defense of some folks who were sued by the RIAA for file sharing. But, much more interesting was how it was actively embracing the changing market while other record labels were trying to hold back the tide. I don't agree with everything McBride has to say, but he's a lot closer to understanding where the music market is heading than pretty much everyone else we've seen in the recording industry.

You should really read the entire interview, but a few highlights are things like where he points out that musicians and record labels should be selling the overall brand, not the music." [TechDirt]

This Kraken fights for good December 4, 2008
"If you're up on your pirate lore, or perhaps have your Pirates of the Caribbean plot flow-chart handy, you'll know that sea-faring criminals are no friends of Johnny Depp-devouring monsters. As it goes on the high CGI seas, so follow the stormy waters of the Firefox add-on world. Yesterday's Pirates of the Amazon plug-in, which adds torrent links to songs and movies in the Amazon.com store, is met today by The Kraken, a plug-in that adds Amazon.com links to torrent Web sites.

The Kraken is extremely simple and there's no configuration required. When you visit popular torrent Web sites The Pirate Bay or MiniNova and search, Kraken will insert its own results box at the top of the site's search engine results that links back to Amazon.com. Kraken did not work with ISOHunt, Torrentz, or TorrentReactor when I checked them." [Download]

Three Major Record Labels Join the 'Choruss' December 08, 2008
"U.S. universities are getting a glimpse at a plan that would build a small music-royalty fee into the tuition payments they receive from students. If successful, the model — proposed by digital music strategist Jim Griffin on behalf of Warner Music Group — could be expanded to make ISPs the collector of such micropayments, eliminating some of the most irksome and contentious issues dividing the music industry and its customers.

An industry source told Wired.com that the independent nonprofit organization that would collect funds from universities and ISPs and disburse them to copyright holders will be called Choruss and that three of the four major labels have signed on, with Universal the remaining holdout. A simple whois lookup revealed that Griffin's OneHouse Digital registered the Choruss.com domain in August." [Wired]

'We Didn't Want to See the Future': Q&A With Ex-Sony Lawyer Steve Gordon 12/03/08
"Steve Gordon was in the room the day Sony executives learned about Napster. He also took part in some of the decisions on how to deal with the advent of digital music. Now, he's written a book on how to succeed in the new digital age. Blake Glenn interviews him.

In 1999 at a Sony (NYSE: SNE) Latest News about Sony Music corporate meeting, the room was filled with Sony executives and attorneys from across the globe. At one point, one of the Sony attorneys gave a presentation on two music services. One was the Sony music service and the other was a tiny, fledgling service." [TechWorldNews]

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