So the RIAA is going after music pirates (they call them thieves). Our company produces original content and we get pissed when people rip us off. We’ve even gone to court a few times. What I don’t understand is why the tech world can’t beat this (forget right or wrong for a minute). When the CEO of one of the big record companies gets around to embezzling a few million bucks, he or she will have no problem tucking them away in some off-shore bank. Why doesn’t some Arab country set up secure severs for music swapping? I guess what I’m asking is, is this technically possible? I guess the RIAA would go after the ISP (and everyone else) that makes it possible us to connect to servers in other countries. I just don’t like thinking that Big Business can beat down the Internet.
Category Archives: Media & Culture
WordPress adds audio playlists
Music Radio
The following thoughts on radio are by Bob Lefsetz. I searched –unsuccessfully– for the article or a website to which I could link.
“The only people who still believe in music radio are the conglomerates with monopolies and the major record labels. All the LISTENERS, the POTENTIAL listeners, think it’s a JOKE! If you’re listening to music radio, you’re the lowest common denominator. You don’t have a CD player in your car. Like everybody with any MONEY! And, unlike the sixties, almost NO ONE listens to music on the radio at home. Really. Pay attention. When do people listen to the radio at home. In the morning. It’s PERFECT. While you’re walking around the house, getting your shit together. And, is there any MUSIC in the morning? Almost none. Because the music being purveyed SUCKS! Music radio is a giant sinkhole. I can understand the majors wanting to reduce indie promo costs, but what I CAN’T understand is their reluctance to explore new avenues of exploitation. Look at the statistics. Music radio listenership keeps going DOWN! Kids especially don’t listen.”
Markets as conversations
I found this on Denise Howell’s weblog (Bag and Baggage). I’m unclear on whether these are her thoughts or David Weinberger but it doesn’t matter.
“The Bubble was never what the Internet was about. The Web is not primarily a commercial space, not even primarily an information space. The interest is not there because 800 million people woke up and suddenly decided they wanted to be research librarians. The bubble went away, but the Web absolutely didn’t. The Web remains interesting and important. Nobody would have said a few years ago we’d have 20 billion pages on the Web. It’s not just markets that are conversations, it’s businesses themselves.”
“Radio is a very sick canary in the coal mine”
“Radio is a very sick canary in the coal mine, and we’re about to infect television with the same disease”.
From FCC Commissioner Adelstein’s dissent on last week’s decision regarding broadcast ownership.
Mary Quass on radio and the Internet
Mary Quass is a really smart, really nice lady that’s been very successful in the radio business. I haven’t seen the full interview yet but today’s issue of RAIN pulled some excerpts from the May 26, 2003 issue of Radio Ink Magazine:
“This (Internet) is the first technology to mean that anybody can have a radio station as good as, if not better, than what’s out there today — and it has nothing to do with a license. I want to be in and out of the business by then… “
“When I go to the gym to work out, you know what I do? I listen to MP3s on my Rio. If I grew up with radio and I’m listening to MP3s, why should we expect young people to listen to radio when their lives are so packed with other things? That’s why, when the Internet becomes wireless, I want to be there.’.. “
“Radio has taken for granted that we will always have 96 percent of the adult population listening to this medium in a week. But we know that response rates and that kind of stuff are declining — not so much because Arbitron’s methodology necessarily is flawed or archaic, as much as it is that people want what they want when they want it.”
“It’s all about the product. If you have a great product and it’s in demand, people will use that product. If we don’t differentiate our product when the Internet becomes wireless, it will be a whole new ball game for all of us. We had better be ready, or the frustration we feel will only grow.”
You think?
Radio TiVo
“…the Radio YourWay might be the first one that actually functions like a TiVo. It’s an MP3 player with a built-in AM/FM radio recorder that can be set to record at specific times, and can save up to four hours of programming as MP3 files which can then be transferred to a PC when you run out of space.” I don’t listen to all that much (non-XM) radio these days but this is pretty damned cool. By way of evhead.
“Utterly selfish”
“After ten years of watching Web users, one clear conclusion is that they are utterly selfish and live in the moment. Giving users exactly what they want, right now, is the road to Web success.”
— Alertbox, April 21, 2003
18 Years
Yesterday the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and conviction of Joseph Amrine, 46, of Kansas City. He’s faced execution since 1986 for the stabbing of a fellow inmate. Over the years, the three former inmates who testified against him recanted. He was in for robbery, burglary and forgery and would have been out 1992 had he not been convicted of murder. If he walks free, he will become only the third Missouri death row inmate in modern times to be freed of his capital conviction. One of our reporters, John Davis, interviewed Amrine today. It runs about 15 minutes. You can also listen to the oral argument before the Missouri Supreme Court on February 4th. This strikes me as a good example of how the web –more specifically, streaming audio– enables a news organization like ours to go way beyond a 4-minute newscast with a couple of sound bites.
XM Radio to offer “real-time weather data
Starting this summer, XM Satellite Radio plans to offer “real-time weather data through a targeted service that will deliver information to map-display devices in boats, aircraft and emergency-response vehicles.” That’s according to a story in the April 18 issue of R&R (Radio & Records). In a letter to the FCC, NAB Sr.VP/General Counsel Jack Goodman wrote, “It appears that XM does intend to convert its service from an exclusively national program service to one that delivers locallay differentiated content.” Hmm. I couldn’t find the story online but will keep searching.