Dear Audience...

January 3, 2009 -- I don't get a lot of feedback from you, so all I have to go by is the traffic. I sort of lost my purpose at the end of 2006, but I did listen to those that wrote in and took your advice seriously. It seems we are back on track. Thanks.

EMI Offers Free Tunes -- Then Sues You

January 2, 2009 -- MP3Tunes is being sued by EMI for infringement. MP3Tunes owner Michael Robertson has entered in his defense the fact that EMI's recent catalog, including many songs MP#Tunes is being sued for offering urls of, are freely available online. EMI's distributor has been using this method to offer songs to music blogs, radio and other purposes.

Link goes to Recording Industry vs The People, where direct links to several EMI songs are available, "free to everyone (except, apparently, MP3tunes)". They were part of the court records and are now public information. I tried a couple. They still work, but I didn't hear anything worth keeping. (Read More)

Guitar Hero Widens Musical Horizons

January 1, 2009 -- My 12-year-old daughter really wanted a Guitar Hero game, so I got her one for Christmas. She's already into Expert Mode. I still struggle with Easy. More importantly, in a week, we both have significantly widened our musical horizons. (Read More)

The Sensitive Female Chord Progression

December 31, 2008 -- "It's simple enough for the music theory-inclined: vi-IV-I-V. No good? Well, for a song in the key of A minor, it would be Am-F-C-G... The magic of the Sensitive Female Chord Progression lies in the way it can be played over and over and return smoothly to the first chord each time." Apparently, sensitive males can use it, too. (Story at Boston.com)

Microsoft's Really, Really Bad Idea

December 30, 2008 -- I dislike Microsoft almost as much as the RIAA, but Microsoft is scarier because when they have a bad idea, the company you work for will buy it immediately and you'll have to deal with it every day. Metered computing is next, the Big Brother you can believe in. (Read More)

Bonus Update -- December 31 -- Every first generation 30GB Zune is dying today.

Extra Bonus -- January 1, 2009 -- DRM killed the Zunes.

RIAA Beatdown May Be Webcast

December 27, 2008 -- When the case of Sony v Tenenbaum resumes in January, we may get the pleasure of watching as Harvard Prof. Charles Nesson dissects the RIAA's lawyers and logic. Today's newsflash is that Nesson has filed a motion requesting the trial be broadcast on the Internet. This will allow him to use it for teaching purposes later in his law classes.

The RIAA is the plaintiff, so they get to present their case first. This allows them to choose the specific order of topics, points of law, their evidence, their premise and their basic legal ability which Nesson will nail to the wall. There could be a whole semester of material in this.

Developing a Better Strategy

December 27, 2008 -- I want to talk about the 10 million "unsold" songs again from a slightly different perspective, namely that independents have a much greater advantage than I previously realized. (Read More)

2008 Year in Review

December 26, 2008 -- In my little corner of the universe, the year seemed to have a recurring theme -- "an iTunes competitor that plans to offer music from all the majors for a $5-per-month subscription fee." (Read More)

Reader Mail -- Here's an Idea...

December 25, 2008 -- Jason writes in to offer a solution to the RIAA problem, which turns out be not entirely novel, yet not without merit, either. (Read More)

Ten Million Unsold Digital Songs

December 23, 2008 -- If you finally achieved retail distribution this year but still didn't sell a single copy, well, you're not the only one. (Read More)

In related news, iPhone Fart App Rakes in $10,000 a Day.

Warner Music's Divine Wisdom

December 22, 2008 -- Elvis, the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, the Monkees, U2, Madonna, Hannah Montana, The Jonas Brothers -- It seems to me that most popular acts become popular by going through a period where you almost can't escape them. Warner Music has a new take on the star machine where you try to ensure no one can find your acts. (Read More)

RIAA Gives Up on Lawsuits... to Be ISP Nazis

December 20, 2008 -- It's going to be pretty tough to out-stupid the lawsuits. But we can count on the RIAA to go that extra mile.

From the Washington Post:

The new plan, while ending the era of problem-ridden legal attacks, appears to circumvent the law and instead put the power directly into the hands of RIAA. The group says it will work directly with Internet service providers to go after people it believes are illegally sharing files. RIAA will notify an ISP, which will then warn the user and ultimately suspend or discontinue his access if a change is not observed. "Major ISPs" are said to be on-board with the idea.

Effectively, RIAA has turned itself into the sheriff, and your ISP into its deputy. Based on the same data gathering and user identification methods that have come under fire from the start, RIAA will now be able to get your Internet access limited or discontinued on its own if it for some reason flags you as an illegal filesharer.

Proving that you violated a law that doesn't exist has gotten so tedious. The courts expect this thing called "evidence," and they refuse to let you collect fines just because someone is dead.

Now the ISPs will let the RIAA be in charge of the Internet. No proof required. No annoying defense attorneys. It'll also solve the problem of critics and competition. "No Internet for You!" (Read More)

Last month's recordings of The Hurricane have reached the evaluation stage. I asked the band if they wanted me to "protect" these songs or let you hear them while they decide what is and isn't done yet. They laughed. Seven new songs -- On the Music Page.

RIAA Seeks $1 Million for Sharing 7 Songs

December 16, 2008 -- In today's news we have a blogger who actually knows that people are being sued for sharing, not downloading, which is a step up from CNN and most other sources.

"Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson and his students will defend Rhode Island residents Arthur and Judie Tenenbaum from RIAA that is accusing their son Joel of sharing a total of 7 songs on Kazaa file sharing network. The damages Joel and his parents are facing could be more than $1 million."

The RIAA has decided to "make an example" of the Tenenbaums. So far, they've ended up paying five- and six-figure attorney's fees to every other person they tried to make an example out of. This time, they're going to be greedy as well as incompetent and arrogant. They're gonna sue file sharers for $1 million each. But only the ones foolish enough to possess RIAA music and stupid enough to share it.

The reason the RIAA feels the need to set an example at this point in time is because they're trying to convince the universities to pay them $5 per student per month to make this lawsuit stuff all go away. And some of the schools think it's a good idea. Not that they ever questioned the validity of the lawsuits in the first place. All the college kids getting sued were paying up anyway.

The case is on pause until January and will probably drag out as long as the RIAA can possibly milk it for publicity before dropping it on the eve of a trial and writing a check to the Tenenbaums for $100,000 or so. To make an example.

Note to MySpace, Facebook Friends

December 14, 2008 -- Got a MySpace friend request yesterday from Tom Barger and Leland Sklar. I've known Tom for quite some time, but I've never met Leland, who I consider to be a rock star. This would be an instant green light, but I didn't know I even had a MySpace page. I know I've got a Facebook page, and I've got friends requests from two Ricks, both of which are my friends and pretty much rock stars as well.

The problem is that I'm running Netscape 7, and those sites have now "improved" beyond my browser's capabilities. Why don't I upgrade? Because I don't want to buy ProTools again. The version I have is perfect.

Word is I might get my child's used iBook after Christmas because Santa is reportedly bringing her an upgrade, which would solve this problem. She's got a better computer than I do, but you can't record with it.

Sony Violates Child Privacy Laws

December 12, 2008 -- The story is at Wired, which emphasizes Sony's intentional disregard for children's privacy. This is exactly the sort of concern for the public we have come to expect from Sony, which is why it gets the headline. Remember that the next time you hear the RIAA lecture about morals.

But what caught my eye was at the end of the story. Sony has 1,100 different music sites instead of one giant one with everything.

One explanation is that every artist has their own web site and Sony owns them all. This changes the perspective. With only 1,100 acts, Sony controls 25% of the global market share. EMI is still clinging to 7-9 percent on the strength of Coldplay alone.

Of course, the entire market is half of what it used to be. Theoretically. There are hundreds of thousands of independent acts whose sales have never been counted. If they sold even 10 copies each, we're talking millions of record sales that never enter into the equation of what the market is.

That needs to change.

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