Hits keep on comin'...

And so the story gets worse for major labels. On April 26, 2006 representatives from the Allman Brothers and Cheap Trick filed a class action lawsuit against their label, Sony BMG. The gist of the lawsuit is that the labels are not paying their artists enough for digital downloads, which is big, big business now.

The controversy centers over what a digital download actually is and the royalty rates payable to the artists associated with purchase. The transaction is one of two things: a 'sale' or 'license'. If the download is a 'sale' the artist gets 15% royalties. Conversely, if the single or album is a 'license' the artist royalties jump to 50%. Keep in mind these amounts are reduced due to deductions such as packaging, etc. But I'm sure you get the idea. Labels want the transaction to be a 'sale', artists believe it is a 'license'. Just another example of the major label trying to dick their acts. Thank God someone has finally stood up to these guys.

What all this leads to is that artists are getting anywhere from $.04 -> $.05 per download. That's it, NO JOKE. So there you go, I just gave you another reason to steal. Not only have these curmudgeons screwed the pooch when it came to embracing this new distribution model but not the public knows how much they are robbing their acts.

The labels will argue that they bore massive financial risk and so these monies should be recoupable, blah, blah, blah. NEWSFLASH, all consumers hear is that their favorite artists are not even making a nickel per download. Why should you pay for it when the money you spend does not even go the the act performing the song? The questions has to be begged.

Letter to Congressmen

Dear Congressman Mollohan:

I am writing to ask you to support H.R. 5273, the Network Neutrality act of 2006 as proposed by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). This bill will soon come to a vote in the senate. Congressman, the fight for the First Amendment of the Internet is on and Rep. Markey has thrown down the gauntlet with his bill.

The purpose of this bill is to prevent large corporations such as AT&T and Verizon from implementing tiered access controls of the Internet and the World Wide Web (www). The logic of the tiered-access approach is simple: broadband companies do the work of providing Internet access, so they should be able to charge what they can for it. These firms say they would be able to reinvest these funds back into building better lines, cables, infrastructure, etc.

The Internet has become a remarkable fount of economic and social innovation largely because it’s been an archetypal level playing field, on which even sites with little or no money behind them—blogs, say, or Wikipedia—can become influential. If the Internet turns into a zone of tiered access, it will be harder for noncommercial sites or startup companies to compete with bigger firms. This will directly affect many businesses in your district and our state. I am the founder, owner of a concert promotions firm in Morgantown, WV. Imagine I was presenting a show anywhere. Because of limited resources I was unable to pay the large ISPs a "special treatment" fee and as a result when potential concertgoers went to my website to get tickets they may not be able to access the page, load the page, etc. Thus causing my business to not be able to sell the tickets it needs to survive. I would lose acts to major corporations that could ‘foot the bill’. This is only a small example but project this across the state and country and you are looking at a potentially deadening consequence.

It should be very clear to anyone who votes on this issue that it is very black-and-white: Giant Multi-Billion Dollar Corporations vs. Everyone Else in America. How you vote will tell your constituents a great deal about where your loyalties lie. Please vote in favor of Network Neutrality. Thank you in advance.

Sincerely, I am

James Baldwin II

Huge nuts this takes.

I got this from my friend Peter Caputa's blog. He's a great blogger with thought provoking issues. Check it out. http://worcester.typepad.com/pc4media/

The White House actually let Stephen Colbert speak at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Check out these videos. http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-04-30.html#n19

Don't tell the majors, but this is how it works now.

We all know the major labels are behind the curve with respects to distribution, marketing, etc. when it comes to peddling records these days. I had my own experience over the weekend and once I sat down and thought about it I found myself wondering, "Damn, the future we talked about 5 years ago is upon us and these guys have no idea how to operate in the marketplace."

This is how I know.

Through MySpace I stumbled upon Gnarls Barkley. Having not heard of them yet I thought I'd listen to the tracks on their space and see what I thought. To my amazement it was something NEW, thankfully it didn't sound like anything I've heard in years. This record has infections beats and masterful lyrics that chase the music around every twist and turn. Gnarls is light years ahead of anything on the radio or that is being forcefead to us these days. For those of you not aware of this, this album was #1 on the charts in the UK without any physical product to accompany it. Say what you want but this IS significant. It seems that every month or so we hear about another act that is moving large units via the Internet. No mass marketing, no carpet-bombing (thanks to Bob Lefsetz for the term) of these artists.

These major labels think they can control what we consume. Push the act to radio for perceived mass listeners, create a street team, and hell start an email blast campaign. Do they think we don't have shit detectors when it comes to solicitations for our ears. We do! The fat bastards don't control what we listen to anymore. With the Internet we do that ourselves now. When we find something good we tell everyone we know about it. We're human that's what we do, talk to other humans about things we like and dislike.

I was back in my hometown this weekend and saw many people from high school or college that I had not seen in a while. I told everyone of them about Gnarls Barkley. Why? Not because I'm on a street team for some label, I simply believe in the music. I directed them to their Website and MySpace page. I have since talked to some of these people, some of them liked it some not. That's not the point here though. THIS is how it is done these days. We don't care about the everyman group on the radio these days. XM radio take note of this. People are going to jump ship and head to Sirius if you keep homogenizing your stations. The power is in the hands of the people, US. The labels have oppressed us since my freshman year in college, eight years ago, when Napster was king. No more, their is good music on the way again and the public has taken over.

JUST IN: Democrats lose House vote on Net neutrality!

By a 22-to-34 vote, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected a Democratic backed Net neutrality amendment that also enjoyed support from Internet and software companies including Microsoft, Amazon.com and Google.---We are all fucked!!!

read more digg story

Branding on MySpace

This is in response to a Jeff Clavier's blog. http://blog.softtechvc.com/2006/04/the_ny_times_on.html#comments

Brands are correct. Users are not on MySpace with the intent to purchase. However, I would argue that brands should realize that selling to these people are the best prospects for marketing efforts. First reason, you're building a direct relationship with individuals. This helps with long-term brand recognition and repeat customers. Second, with respect to the low CPM, MySpace users engage in the most powerful marketing: Peer-to-Peer. This demo. is an elusive, finicky, sometimes hard to reach group. If you have even a tiny percent of the 70+ million users telling their friends about your product or service that is invaluable.

Any company that remains a skeptic or a cynic will only be left behind by forward thinking companies who utilize the MySpace phenomenon.

You NEED to read this.

Next week a congressional committee is going to take up a debate on Network Neutrality. I know, I know this isn't about the music biz, although it can relate. But this is important to all of us, and since you're reading this on the internet you certainly have a vested interest.

Net Neutrality is a contemporary buzz-word for keeping the internet free and fair to everyone, whether you are a corporation or an individual. Quick example: You want to search for [insert anything here] on Google. Currently you go to the site as quickly as your ISP will allow and everything is fine. The net is neutral. If a few large telecom companies have their way next time you go to Google to do a search for said item you may get an error message in your browser. Why? Because Yahoo paid a higher premium to your ISP than Google did, therefore your ISP makes it harder to use Google hoping to direct you to Yahoo. This is called tiered access and pricing. Imagine if you tried to call your cell phone provider and you constantly got a "all circuits busy" message. Would you then switch to a company that you could get through to someone. Over time, yes. Fortunately this does not happen because of the "common carriage rule". Same service, same quality to all.

Imagine what this can/could do to hundreds of thousands of small businesses. Assume you are an independent record label trying to compete against the likes of Sony, BMG, Warner Bros., EMI, etc...These companies pay huge amounts to companies like Verizon or AT&T to make sure access to their sites run smooth, inherently assuring that access to your India label falters. You see where this is going. One of the great things, hell, the premise the internet is created on is that anyone can have unfettered access to the information/websites they want, like a public utility. Tiered access will turn ISP into gatekeepers for the internet. Thus controlling vital parts or our economy and innovation.

Anyone who believes in the Internet and its advantages and uses should be concerned. Many watchdog organizations out there are taking heed to this and are trying to influence lawmakers on Capital Hill. If you are interested in helping out here is a link you should be interested in. http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/letter.html