Cory Doctorow: A DRM Dissertation

If you've been on the Internet in the past few years, you'd be hard-pressed to have not heard of Cory Doctorow. He also writes for BoingBoing, as well. This article may not be new, but it's ever so relevant. It happens to be directed at Microsoft, but Sony (and others) are also prominently mentioned.

I can only wonder if the buggy whip manufacturers association were as powerful as the music industry; we'd all be paying a buggy whip avoidance tax on every new automobile, and be paying an entire industry to exist without contributing any value whatsoever. And yes, music industry, I'm looking at you!

Hulu walking in dodo tracks

*sigh* This reminds me of my experiences when I was trying to use Pandora for my online music listening pleasure. What there was of it, anyway. Seems for their free service there's a limit on how many times you can skip a song. Funny, but after hearing the same song a half-dozen times, I sorta get tired of it and want to listen to something else. But, Pandora's great, omniscient music suppliers don't think I should have the right to limit--especially if I'm getting it free--the content I want to listen to.

Nevermind I was visiting various online music purchase sites to buy the shit they were putting up for me to listen to. No, it doesn't count that I'm actually doing what they want. It's more important to stick their dicks in my music selection. Well, I dropped Pandora instantly. Sorry, I will only play the game the way I want.

I haven't been terribly impressed with Hulu, mainly since they don't keep the content up long enough. If I want to go back and catch something, I cannot depend on finding it there. Besides, I have a 42" HDTV (no, this is not a brag), and I'd much rather watch a TV show on the big screen with surround sound. My PC's sound system might be good, but it ain't that good. So, tell me again why I can't watch what I want, when I want?

It's probably something about diluting the brand. Disney likes to release movies on DVD every ten years or so. Apparently they think their overall revenue will be best if they don't have their entire catalog available, all the time. Gee, I don't know if that's true, or not, but in this age of digital, non-scarce entertainment resources you'd think they would want to compete fulltime against the pirates, instead of never. When you limit access to your content, you don't drive up demand. Demand is what it is, and it's transitory. All you do when you keep your fans from getting to your stuff is drive them to go elsewhere.

Are you listening, Pandora? Are you watching, Hulu? Disney?

iTunes: Now with more money-grubbing goodness

Yeah, the news is talking about a planned price increase on iTunes, where some songs will soon cost $1.29, instead of $.99. I don't shop iTunes, so it doesn't directly affect me.

I still haven't figured out why some tracks on Amazon.com's MP3 downloads cost $.89 and some cost $.99. Their cost to distribute is exactly the same. Either you make money at $.89, or you don't. I'm guessing that they do make money. But I over-simplify, because I'm not including the greedy record company's interests in this equation. So, how is it that the record company gets to set prices, anyway?

Sure, there's a price point that maximizes profits, but I really doubt they've found it because of all the wailing and gnashing of teeth going on in the recording industry. They continue to complain that piracy and P2P are destroying their business, but yet whenever they have a chance to legitimately sell something at a price someone is willing to pay (despite being able to obtain the content for free), they insist on punishing their best customers by raising prices.

If it was really true that you could make more money on the popular tracks by raising your prices, then you really should raise your prices. Keep raising them until your sales maximize. Alternatively, if you raise prices and your revenue drops off, let me suggest you might want to lower them. Of course, here we are talking a non-scarce commodity--MP3 digital music. With this, the only reason to ever raise prices is greed. That's it.

I don't know why iTunes (run by Apple, in case you've been living under a rock) is raising prices on some songs, other than both they and the record companies are simply greedy and want to suck as much out of their customers as possible. That's OK, as long as you don't care if I don't play along.

Artists don't like online music sales. Meh.

You know, I think they're very misguided in thinking they can force the public to buy music only on their terms, but truthfully I only buy albums--online or not.

What I have done is become much more selective--especially with CDs priced higher than I would like. Kid Rock would absolutely lose out with me, because I wouldn't buy his hit single under any circumstances. Maybe he doesn't care about me (and that's fine, because I don't care at all about him, or his crappy music), but he's really not looking at the big picture.

He should want the most number of people to listen to his music, because by maximizing the total number of ears hearing your stuff, you will automatically have the best chance of also maximizing your long-term earnings potential. By insisting the only way to "enjoy" his music (an exercise I leave up to the reader) is via the CD, then he's leaving out a rather large number of ears.

For the learning impaired, more ears equals more earnings potential. That is all.

Band: After The Ice

I'm not sure if someone else suggested them or if I found them on my own. But you really should check out After The Ice. Here is their official web site. You can find their album on Amazon.com MP3 Downloads, but I found them on Jamendo. This means you can download their EP for free. But it's even worth paying $3.96 for.

Their web site has a cool art gallery exploration game, with the prize being you find their Mixer. It's a Flash-based music-making "game" that I found very interesting, though somewhat limited. Let's hope they add sounds and instruments and let you mix and match them.

The final song on the EP, "Tube Screamer" features the talents of their lead vocalist, who is quite talented. I'm keeping my ears open for their LP--they're that good!

Just remember I told you about them.

This is your daddy's rock & roll!

Check out Mandrake Root. Shades of Deep Purple or maybe Kiss (when they were good). They definitely rock like nobody's business.

Like I said, this is your daddy's rock & roll.

BTW, these guys hang out on Magnatune.com. Check it out. Lots of good music. Cheap. And the artists get 50%. I have a download subscription ($54 for six months) and I download bunches of music. So go there, and get down.



The Seventh Mirror by Mandrake Root

I especially like "One in a Million" and "1000 Color Rain". "Love on Wheels" is most evocative of Deep Purple. Whoof!