Joe Friend: Music

Music biz idiots

MSNBC: Labels to Net Radio: Die Now. Steven Levy. Instead of instating the kind of royalty already paid to songwriters by both broadcast and Web radio--about 3 percent of revenues--the tariff on digital music is based on the number of listeners . So it's possible for the fee to exceed revenues, especially in a fledgling business where ads are scarce. [Tomalak's Realm]

If you had any doubts that the execs in charge of the major lables are idiots, then this article will help push you over the edge. Amazing!

Music in Indonesia

Reading Janis Ian's essay on the music biz made me think. Here in Indonesia, locally manufactured releases of "big" music groups are priced for the local market. Now, most people can't afford to buy a CD, let alone CD players. So the popular format is still tapes. They range from Rp. 25,000 to 35,000 each, about US$3-4. CDs are also a good deal, US$7-8. But this is only a good deal to me, a wealthy person (by Indonesian standards) who is used to paying $15-18/CD. It is expensive for the Indonesian market. I think the biggest thing that the US music industry could do to drastically reduce copying of their product in the US is to reduce the price of CDs to $10 or less.

Collecting digital music the library method

When I was back in the US, I made good use of my local library system. Sure I checked out lots of books and some videos. But what I did most was check out CDs. The King County Library System in the Seattle are is online and linked together. So, from the comfort of my home I would log on and troll the catalogue for the entire system. Finding CDs that I wanted I would request them and have them delivered to my local branch. When they came in I would bring them home and rip them. Many, but not all, of these were CDs that I'd owned as records or tapes. I used Napster and other variants too, but the Library method was much easier.

Music biz be damned

This is a great piece about the horrid state of the music biz. Many others have pointed to it, but if you haven't read it and care about music then it is a must.

Rock & Roll Rebel

Mark Joseph, author of The Rock and Roll Rebellion, runs a great website and email newsletter. His book is about the challenge of being an artist and being a Christian and NOT being a Christian Artist. In other words, the difference of being an artist and being part of an industry. The website and newsletter focus on articles on the web that touch on this issue. He deals with music, books, and movies. It's great stuff. That said, I wish Mark would redo them both in weblog format. I loved his book and his columns, so I'd like more from him than just pointers to articles. I want his thoughts on these articles and issues. Come on Mark, jump in the water is warm.