That’s the last sentence in a TechDirt post intriguingly entitled ‘Are The Record Labels Using Bluebeat’s Bogus Copyright Defense To Avoid Having To Give Copyrights Back To Artists?’

Then, “A federal judge in Los Angeles granted Capitol Records’ request for a preliminary injunction today against a San Jose-based website that had put the Beatles catalog online for digital downloading at 25 cents a track, without permission from the band or its record label.”

That’s the first sentence in a Los Angeles Times post slugged ‘Music download site BlueBeat hit with a preliminary injunction; site’s founder responds’.

Not  so intriguing, until one gets to that part of the story referring to’site’s founder responds’ where, from Bluebeat’s Hank Risen, one sees »»»

Can you comment on today’s injunction?

I’m shocked, because we worked with EMI directly, and the RIAA [Recording Industry Assn. of America], in secret agreements to create these works lawfully. We’ve been doing so for many, many years. We were about to provide the court with such evidence that EMI knew we had in our possession. We worked with these guys.

The evidence wasn’t presented because we haven’t had a hearing, and the judge made a ruling.

In Techdirt, “As you hopefully know, back in 1999, the RIAA had a Congressional staffer named Mitch Glazier slip four words into a totally unrelated bill on satellite retransmission of broadcast TV, literally in the middle of the night, that effectively changed the way copyrights worked on songs by major label artists,” says Mike Masnick. [Note: By an amazing coincidence, Glazier went on to become an RIAA lobbyist.]

This, “effectively took much of the control out of the hands of the artists and handed it right to the labels,” says Masnick, continuing »»»

Remember that the next time the record labels claim they’re representing the best interests of artists. The use of four simple words, buried deep within the bill, which no one other than the RIAA knew about (seriously, those who voted on it later said they had no idea), turned songs recorded by artists signed to record deals to works made for hire. That meant that those artists could not reclaim the copyrights to their songs later on via a “termination” right, as any other content creator could. Glazier, the staffer who slipped this into the bill, ended up going to work for the RIAA just three months after putting this text into the bill. He was apparently hired with a $500,000 salary. Not a bad payoff for changing a key component of copyright law in the middle of the night when no one’s looking.

Luckily, soon after this passed a few people did notice, leading to a big uproar from artists, and an eventual backtracking from Congress, who never did believe the RIAA’s line that this “change” just “clarified existing law” rather than changed it entirely.

But, it’s important to remember all of this when discussing termination rights for music. Back in October, we had discussed how the songs of many top musicians were quickly approaching those termination rights, and some of the major record labels stood to lose the copyrights on some of their biggest hit albums. Wired recently ran a similar article about this “ticking time bomb,”Mesanna pointed out one little factoid down at the bottom: and I wasn’t going to post it, because I wasn’t sure it added much new, until reader

The second option is to re-record sound recordings in order to create new sound recording copyrights, which would reset the countdown clock at 35 years for copyright grant termination. Eveline characterized the labels’ conversations with creators going something like, “Okay, you have the old mono masters if you want — but these digital remasters are ours.”

Labels already file new copyrights for remasters. For example, Sony Music filed a new copyright for the remastered version of Ben Folds Five’s Whatever and Ever Amen album, and when Omega Record Group remastered a 1991 Christmas recording, the basis of its new copyright claim was “New Matter: sound recording remixed and remastered to fully utilize the sonic potential of the compact disc medium.”

Now, of course that sounds ridiculous, to hear that record labels can get a new copyright on just remastering a work… but, that sounds an awful lot like the argument made by Bluebeat.com, concerning its “psycho-acoustic simulation” re-recordings of famous songs, that enabled it to claim a new copyright.

“Now, the record labels are crying foul about this, and the vast majority of copyright law experts say that Bluebeat’s claim has no chance at all,” says Masnick, adding:

“But, if that’s the case, then the record labels own attempts to get new copyrights on remastered albums to avoid the termination rights might also be in jeopardy. It seems like any argument that is made against Bluebeat can soon be used against the labels as well if they really do try to claim copyright on remastered albums.”

Stay tuned.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

TechDirt – Are The Record Labels Using Bluebeat’s Bogus Copyright Defense To Avoid Having To Give Copyrights Back To Artists?, November 19, 2009
Los Angeles Times – Music download site BlueBeat hit with a preliminary injunction; site’s founder responds, November 19, 2009

‘Workers of the World Unite’ was “one of the most famous rallying cries of communism,” says the Wikipedia, and the phrase has been lampooned over and over again.

However, with the first word replaced by ‘Music Lovers’, it’s no joke in 2009 as the entertainment industry, with the major record labels out front, subborns world governments in purely corporate interests.

The Hollywood and Big Music appointee in the British Labour government is ‘lord’ Peter Mandelson — unelected. Rather, he was inserted “by his friend Gordon Brown,” as KevinH points out in a Reader’s Write.

He’s been named Britain’s official government ‘face’ as national elections, expected in spring, approach.

He’s now demanding dictatorial powers to wield against  online music lovers. And if he gets them, it’ll be the thin end of a wedge which will eventually be used every time the government wants something, anything, done without public knowledge or consent.

We can’t let this happen and I’m proposing the formation of a global OMLC – Online Music Lovers Coalition.

Mandelson, Gordon Brown, and every other politician who believes vested corporate interests come before those of the people, must be shown we, and not they, call the shots.

‘The power to do anything’

Secretary of state Peter Mandelson “is planning to introduce changes to the Digital Economy Bill now under debate in Parliament,” said Boingboing yesterday, continuing:

“These changes will give the Secretary of State (Mandelson — or his successor in the next government) the power to make “secondary legislation” (legislation that is passed without debate) to amend the provisions of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988)”.

That would give an unelected official “the power to do anything without Parliamentary oversight or debate, provided it was done in the name of protecting copyright,” said Cory Doctorow in the post, going on »»»

Mandelson elaborates on this, giving three reasons for his proposal:

1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements (for example, he could create jail terms for file-sharing, or create a “three-strikes” plan that costs entire families their internet access if any member stands accused of infringement)

2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to “confer rights” for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc)

3. The Secretary of State would get the power to “impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement” (for example, ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright “militias” can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web)

“If we can’t stop this, it’s beginning of the end for the net in Britain,” says Cory Doctorow in the Boingboing post, going on »»»

It’s a declaration of war by the entertainment industry and their captured regulators against the principles of free speech, privacy, freedom of assembly, the presumption of innocence, and competition.

This proposal creates the office of Pirate-Finder General, with unlimited power to appoint militias who are above the law, who can pry into every corner of your life, who can disconnect you from your family, job, education and government, who can fine you or put you in jail.

But Britain is only the tip of the iceberg.

This isn’t a local issue, and Mandelson is no more than the UK front man for Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures, as they try to use their Three Strikes and you’re Gone scheme to gain control of online product and content distribution by turning governments into copyright agents, the bill footed by local taxpayers, and ISPs into enforcers, acting against their own clients.

Online Music Lovers Coalition

I’m proposing the formation of a global OMLC — Online Music Lovers Coalition — with individual chapters in countries such France, New Zealand, and South Korea where  entertainment cartel lobbyists with unlimited  and financial  and political resources have set up shop, usurping elected administrations.

We can use it to make it clear that in the 21st century our will, and not theirs, is what’s important.

This morning (November 20), at the National Press Theatre, 150 Wellington, Ottawa, at 10:00 am, UK recording artist Billy Bragg will join New Democrat Charlie Angus to “talk about how artists, not corporate lawyers, are taking the lead on establishing basic rules for the development of digital culture online”.

“The internet brings fans and artists closer together than ever before and brings great benefits to both,” said Bragg, a co-founder of the new artists-to-fans-to-artsts site, a2f2a.com. “Let’s not allow the record industry to keep us apart in order to protect their old broken business model.”

Let’s not.

Also present will be the Songwriters Association of Canada’s Don Quarles, and Wide Mouth Mason’s Safwan Javad, who’ll represent the Canadian Music Creators Coalition.

But the most important people of all,  the ones  upon whom everything political, musical, you name it, depends, are missing.

You and I. Because we have no one to represent us.

Corporate corruption is now endemic around the world with industry efforts to gain control of music on the internet only one manifestation of it.

We used to be called the Great Unwashed, the Silent Masses, but thanks to the net, that’s no longer true, and we’re no longer silent.

In the 21st digital century, we have a voice which can’t be ignored. The world is changing and as our online communities continue to grow, our powers of persuasion and our abilities to directly influence actions and events are expanding exponentially.

It’s called People2People Power and no one can stand against it.

Can an Online Music Lovers Coalition be put together?

I believe it can and if you agree, as a first step, no matter what country you’re in, email me at  p2pnet 2 shaw dot ca and let’s see if we can create a working group to hammer out the how-to’s and get the ball rolling.

10 years ago, this could never have happened, but the net is the Great Equaliser, so in the words of John, Paul, George and Ringo, let’s come together.

Right now …

Stay tuned.

Jon Newton – online citizen

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

government ‘face’ – Anti-P2P politician UK government ‘TV face’, November 16, 2009
protecting copyright – Biggest copyright sting in history, November 20, 2009
Boingboing – Leaked UK government plan to create “Pirate Finder General” with power to appoint militias, create laws, November 19, 2009
establishing basic rules – Billy Bragg, Charlie Angus, on digital culture, November 19, 2009

They’ll include Lily Allen, the famed chanteuse of doom whose online pronunciations prompted the members of the Featured Artists Coalition to unwisely back-track on their support of file-sharers; Elton John; Elvis Costello; George Michael; Kylie Minogue; Robbie Williams; and so on.

Citigroup Inc has already turned down Terra Firma Capital Partners’ bid to have EMI Group debt by slashed by 40% in return for a 1 billion-pound ($1.7 billion) cash injection, p2pnet reported yesterday, quoting ,” says Bloomberg News.

Now, “Terra Firma, the private equity house run by Guy Hands, has written its investment in EMI down by 90 per cent as it offers to put another £1bn into the struggling music group to restructure its debt,” says the Financial Times.

“Mr Hands’ offer to inject more equity into the company in return for Citigroup writing off £1bn of its £2.6bn loan has been rejected by the American bank, leaving negotiations between them deadlocked,” it says, going on:

“The size of the writedown on Terra Firma’s £2.3bn investment in EMI illustrates that Mr Hands has already accepted his stake in the heavily indebted music company has little more than option value.”

Not only but also, “The UK-based private equity firm is withdrawing about 10 Terra Firma executives that run EMI on a day-to-day basis after concluding that it has little chance of making back most of its money on the investment without the restructuring, and that they may be able to generate more value at other portfolio companies, a source close to the buyout firm said,” says the Wall Street Journal.

So what does all this mean to EMI employees such as Allen and Williams?

“According to sources inside and outside EMI, musicians are concerned that the company doesn’t have the money to properly market their material — most of the cash flow EMI generates is being used to service $4 billion in debt held by Citigroup,” says the New York Post, continuing:

“They have to rebuild credibility with the artist and management community about how well financed they are,” said one source at the label. “To the extent that they can’t put money behind records, that makes new signings all the more difficult.”

Another “red flag for artists is the high executive turnover rate at EMI, says the story, adding:

“Guy Hands, the CEO of Terra Firma, has replaced 80 of EMI’s top 100 executives since taking over the label in 2007. Terra Firma itself at one point had as many as 40 executives at EMI, though that number is now down to 10.

“Indeed, as music industry outsiders, Hands and EMI boss Elio Leoni-Sceti are seen as liabilities themselves. Leoni-Sceti was most recently a marketing executive with consumer giant Reckitt Benckiser.

” ‘They have no leverage with artists because they aren’t investing in artists and repertoire, they have no management to develop artists, and [Guy and Elio] have no relationships in the music community to build off of,’ said one source close to EMI.”

Meanwhile, Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman jr Edgar is moving to London, said p2pnet in June.

“Is he perhaps seeking a peerage as did another Canadian, Conrad Black? Sir Edgar Bronfman?” – we wondered, continuing:

“Stranger things have happened — but No. It’s  in all likelihood something far more prosaic. Bidnes.

Warner and EMI dropped efforts to merge in 2000, ‘after regulators opposed the plan,’ said Bloomberg News, in 2007, going on, “EMI again failed to combine with Warner in 2003, when a group led by Bronfman won the bidding for Time Warner Inc.’s music unit.”

But now … ?

Stay tuned.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

chanteuse of doom – ‘Offline, no-one can hear you whine’, November 17, 2009
p2pnet – Is EMI coming unglued (Part II)?, November 17, 2009
Bloomberg News – Hands’s Bid to Cut EMI’s Debt Said to Be Rejected by Citigroup, November 16, 2009
Financial Times – Terra Firma writes down EMI value, November 17, 2009
Wall Street Journal – Terra Firma Pulls Back At EMI, November 16, 2009
New York Post – EMI on shaky ground, November 18, 2009
p2pnet – Is Warner Music eyeing EMI? Again?, June 24, 2009
Bloomberg News – EMI Says Company Has Received Takeover Approaches, May 4, 2007

But a dollar and up, the de facto corporate standard charged by the likes of iTunes, is definitely not right.

Bluebeat, offering music downloads at 25 cents each, was unceremoniously taken down when EMI secured a temporary restraining order effective until November 20. On that date, court arguments as to why it should be allowed to start selling downloads again, or should it be be kept offline permanently, will be heard.

While we wait to see how that works out, TunesPro.com has gone online, brashly touting digital music files for six cents less than Bluebeat — ie, at 19 cents per, a price most  online music lovers will probably agree is pretty much what it should have been from the beginning.

Not only but also, there’s a further 10% discount for album buys)

And speaking of iTunes, it’s been “repeatedly criticised for raising the prices of music downloads”, TunesPro.com says in a statement interestingly entitled iTunes & Napster Blasted By Music Download Watchdogs, and going on:

“Single track downloads recently rose from 99c to $1.29 on iTunes which prompted competing music sites Amazon, Napster, & CDUniverse to also raise prices.”

Of course, with prices as low as 19 cents, or $2.39 for a compete album, plus a 10% discount, certain questions are raised, such as how is the company able to offer “individual songs for as little as 19c, with additional 10% discounts given to consumers who purchase full albums”?

And »»»

• Is that the price across the board?
• Can buyers share their purchases?
• Does it have arrangements with the major labels? If so, which ones?
• And last but by no means least, Do the artists get any part of this and if so, how much and how are they paid?

So we asked.

PS – Did we mention TunesPro.com is registered in the Palestinian Territories?

Stay tuned.

(Cheers, Monkey)

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

taken down – EMI boots Bluebeat off the net, November 6, 2009
statement – iTunes & Napster Blasted By Music Download Watchdogs, November 19, 2009

His ailing MySpace is in “late stage negotiations to acquire music streaming service iMeem,” says TechCrunch, also noting,  “MySpace is on a bit of an acquisition spree — they acquired iLike, another music service, three months ago.”

The acquisition hasn’t been finalized and “awaits approval from various stakeholders,” says the story, adding:

“We don’t know the price of the acquisition, but this isn’t going to be a big win for investors. iMeem has raised at least $25 million (that we’ve been able to track) plus at least another $10 million in debt. But the difficultly in making a free streaming music service work as a business model forced them to make some hard decisions.”

iMeem is, of course, aso the owner of Snocap, the DRM creation of Napster inventor Shawn Fanning.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

ailing MySpace – Why would anyone pay for MySpace music?, November 17, 2009
TechCrunch – MySpace Close To Acquiring iMeem, November 16, 2009

Fortunately, however, their attitude isn’t shared by most people in the world and it’s really nice to be able to tell you about a small group that’s teaching the Big 4 a thing or 10

Bill Hudson’s Feel Good Music Network recycles and distributes musical instruments and healing with live concerts  in the storm ravaged Gulf Coast area. And on Friday, he and fellow musicians Al Coffey and Craig Counts from Electric Woodshed will be heading to Chapmanville, West Virginia, to deliver guitars and fiddles to children at the Harts Intermediate School.

They’ll also be treating the kids to a free concert.

After some 25,000 miles and 12 trips to the Gulf Coast, the Feel Good Tour has collected and distributed more than 200 musical instruments to schools in the area.

With Dragonfly.com as sponsor, Bill started taking the tour to the Gulf Coast region soon after the devastating hurricanes of 2005.

“It started as a mission to use music as a healing force to ease stress and anxieties for Gulf Coast residents,” he says. Fellow musician Al Coffey joined, and they’re still “looking for that instrument in the closet that isn’t being used,” he says. “We do this by the net, live performance, word by mouth, and it’s gotten around.

“We’ve had donations from as far away as Alaska, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennslyvania, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.”

Bill goes on »»»

If someone has an instrument to donate, we go their homes to collect it, which makes it very personal.

Some tell stories about the people who use to play the instruments. Maybe a father has passed away, or a son or daughter who has left to collage and doesn’t play any  more. This way, the instruments are used again by children who need all the help they can get.

And they are used.

“I’m the Chorus teacher at St Tammany Junior High in Slidell, Louisiana,” says Brian Bosarge told Bill last year, adding:

“You and your wonderful group of friends surprised us with two generous donation trips.”

With music, life is worth living and as the Feel Good Tour motto says, “music should be shared freely”.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

a2f2a – a2f2a.com update, October 17, 2009

It exists  by swallowing weaker species, believing it will absorb their attributes, thus perpetuating its own  existence.

However, it’s moving in ever decreasing circles, with all that implies,  and in one of its last desperate attempts to  stave off its inevitable extinction, is attempting to market its droppings.

At the Monaco Media Forum, “I interviewed Jon Miller, the head of (Murdch’s) News Corp Digital, on stage,” says Rafat Ali on paidContent, continuing:

“I grilled him on MySpace’s future, the future of Google’s search deal, on Murdoch’s half-incoherent statements about Google (and the resulting media paroxysm about it), the news consortium that the company is putting together and progress of it, Hulu and how it fits in if/when Comcast buys NBCU, working for a media conglomerate vs a media mogul, and other interesting issues.”

The results are below (Ali apologises for syncing problems).

“Interesting how Miller’s remarks about supposedly blocking off Google is reverberating in other news sources, when he really didn’t say much beyond the fact that they are ready to take some steps in the next few months or quarters,” he says, adding, “But then, who cares about facts, when the interpretation is much more interesting, right?”

With that in mind, “Speculation arose this past week that News Corp.-owned MySpace Music (owned by Ruposaur Murdochus Corporatus) is considering moving to a paid model, as the cost of free streaming is making its current model unsustainable,” says Paul Bonanos  on Gigaom, going on Miller, “expressed some interest in such a move” in the Ali interview,  noting, “he believes in the ‘freemium’ music model conceptually, even if a practical and sustainable version hasn’t appeared yet.”

MySpace, meanwhile, “isn’t seen as a premium provider of anything — and MySpace Music is viewed as a place where clutter and advertising are tolerated in order to get something for free,” says the post, also asking:

“What could MySpace deliver that people would pay for?”

What indeed?

Fourteen months after the MySpace Music’s launch, “with the four major labels on board as equity partners, time appears to be running out for its free ad-supported model,” adds Bonanos.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

paidContent – Jon Miller On MySpace’s Future And Google Controversy, November 13, 2009
statements about Google – Google vs Murdoch, Twitter and Facebook, November 11, 2009
Gigaom – Would Anyone Pay for MySpace Music?, November 13, 2009

Presumptuous?

I’m a music fan and the group is backing a scheme which could — and would, if Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music get their way — criminalise me, and others like me, including my 13-year-old daughter.

In March, FAC members said they were strongly united against an entertainment industry inspired move to criminalise file-sharers.

Then six months later they did a complete volte-face in support of Lily Allen, who wasn’t even a member and who herself later admitted making mixtapes using songs from other artists and making them available as MP3 downloads, voting »»»

… overwhelmingly to support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files, sanctions to consist of a warning letter, a stronger warning letter and a final sanction of the restriction of the infringer’s bandwidth to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access functional.

“Big music and movie interests, and other content producers, are conducting a global campaign to put their interests ahead of citizens rights to use the internet and to not be subject to unreasonable and arbitrary penalties that do nothing for public interest,” as Internet New Zealand’s Jordan Carter recently exlained it.

In a Reader’s Write to my open letter to the FAC, “It is important to recognise that 3-strikes is fundamentally unjust/unethical given that no evidence is required,” said Digital Productions‘ Crosbie Fitch, continuing »»»

The victim is simply given two warnings (tipped-off as to what’s about to happen without any way of preventing it) before they are disconnected.

Now there will be some that suggest that 3-strikes should only be used against people who received any money during their infringement, e.g. a DJ, podcaster, e-bayer of an iPod, etc.

But, the problem with 3-strikes is that no evidence is required.

It doesn’t matter that you can prove you erased your iPod before you sold it.

It doesn’t matter that you can prove you only included CC music on your mix CD.

It doesn’t matter that you can prove the donation you received was for the previous week’s podcast. NO EVIDENCE is needed to disconnect you.

Your evidence of innocence has to wait until after your ISP has disconnected you, after your PC has been confiscated, after your assets have been seized, after you have located a lawyer willing to take on your case, after you have paid your lawyer to demonstrate at a tribunal that you have grounds to plead for an appeal against your disconnection, and then at your appeal your evidence can be presented (if you still have it).

Maybe, you will then be reconnected … until the next time.

There is NO SANCTION for 3 strikes, even for suspected terrorists, let alone suspected file-sharers. Read The Crucible to get a vague clue as to why incrimination upon suspicion/accusation is such an abomination.

If you thought being sued for copyright infringement in court was an injustice, wait until you suffer disconnection at the whim of the MAFIAA.

The sad thing is, no-one will notice your anguish because you’ll be disconnected, and as they’ll say “Offline, no-one can hear you whine”.

Stay tuned.

Jon Newton – music fan

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

open letter – Open letter to Featured Artists’ Coalition, November 16, 2009
available as MP3 downloads – Lily Allen, copyright pirate, September 24, 2009
Jordan Carter – New Zealand ISP says No! to 3 strikes scheme, November 9, 2009

The chances of Britain’s Labour government retaining power in the upcoming elections are zero. It tries to present itself as forward-looking and progressive, but  its continuing efforts to promote corporate entertainment industry interests above those of the people plainly demonstrate it has no clue about what’s happening in the digital 21st century, or how to function within it.

Your members, as well as artists from around the world, must make it clear to your fans, the people who keep you going, that you absolutely will not countenance the government-backed corporate Three Strikes scheme to turn them into criminals.

“The inaugural meeting of the U.K.’s Featured Artists’ Coalition (FAC) in London resulted in a unanimous vote among its members against any measures that criminalize file-sharing,” said Billboard in March, going on »»»

As well as discussing the general aims and logistics of the new body, there was also a unanimous show of hands against the idea of criminalizing file-sharers, according to those present.

There was concern about any legal body taking action against fans who were involved in file-sharing and preventing them getting broadband access to be informed about the activities of their favorite acts.

Today,  still quoting Billboard, I posted on a2f2.com which, not at all incidentally, is short for artists-to-fans-to-artists  »»»

The issue came up as artists discussed a planned response to the forthcoming Digital Britain report, the interim version of which has proposed a Rights Agency to enforce anti-piracy measures. In France, legislation is being debated to bring in a three-strikes system to potentially cut off broadband connections for those who infringe copyright – a measure to which the FAC is opposed.

Then, six months later, from the FAC »»»

Our meeting … voted overwhelmingly to support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files, sanctions to consist of a warning letter, a stronger warning letter and a final sanction of the restriction of the infringer’s bandwidth to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access functional.

What an about-face.

All of the attention is presently on Britain but, as I’ve said many times before, the Three Strikes plan is international with Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures, trying to foist it on governments around the world.

I believe artists — the FAC in particular — must come out firmly and definitely against the Three Strikes farce.

So please, hold another emergency meeting and this time, return to your original position.

It’ll take cojones, but it’ll be the strategically and tactically smart thing to do.

Even if it’s adopted, three strikes won’t last. Anywhere. It can’t.

And the backlash against anyone who supports it will be enormous.

We love you. But do you love us?

Show us you do.

Jon Newton – music fan

______________________________________________

Tim Rice-Oxley (Keane)
Jamie Turner
Adriano Buffone (Raygun)
Allan Bradbury
Helienne Lindvall
Tony Crean
Andrew Laidlaw (Luck Soul)
Isard Haasakker
Tony Morrelli (The Fire Escapes)
Jean-Baptiste Pilon (The Fire Escapes)
Mark Headley (The Fire Escapes)
Hal Ritson (The Young Punx)
Billy Bragg
Ben Ward
Karl Harrison
Howard Jones
Tjinder Singh (Cornershop)
Phil Simpson
Atheen
Steve Jones
John Reynolds
Sandie Shaw (via phone)
David Rowntree (Blur)
Ed O’Brien (Radiohead)
Alan Sharland (The Hoosiers)
Martin Skarendahl (The Hoosiers)
Steven Hogarth (Marillion)
Mark Kelly (Marillion)
Guy Chambers
Patrick Wolf
Sam Duckworth (Get Cape Wear Cape Fly)
Jamie Allen
Toby Sebastian
James Kelly
Beryl Marsden
George Jones
Ross Millard (The Futureheads)
Stax Dempsey
Rona Sentinar
Fran Healy (Travis)
Karl Addy
Nathan Taylor (The Young Punx)
Josh Allegro
Ali Howard (Lucky Soul)
David Arnold
Lucy Pullin (The Fire Escapes)
Annie Lennox (via phone)
Lily Allen (Not a Member of the FAC)
George Michael
Nick Mason (Pink Floyd)

Signed After the meeting;

The Music Producers Guild
John B
Claudia Brucken (Propaganda)
Rick Wilde
Zita McHugh
M B Gordy
Mohammed Yahya
Jon Hopkins
Barry Coffing
Vinny Peculiar
David Ravden
Nik Ledgard (Dry Riser)
Matthew Lintott (Dry Riser)
Pete Bembridge (Dry Riser)
Jack Oram (Dry Riser)
Chad Mcloughlin
Gina Langton
Tony Christie
Sean Fitzgerald
Irving David (DWFM Beckman)
Julianne Reagan (All About Eve)
Stuart Ongley (SGO Publishing)
Judy Dyble
Jonas Kroon
Irwin Sparkes (The Hoosiers)
Robbie Williams
Robert Vale
Jerry Vale
David Cloyd
Rob Boyd (The Hillfields)
Sharon Corr
George Sarah
Bob Hansmann
Rich Wilde
Milinda Allen
Dr Robert (The Blow Monkeys)
Dirk Henry (The Kokoon)
Ben Beer (Sealife)
Chris White (Composer)
Producers Managers Group (PMG)
Marco Pirroni
Brian Campbell (Clinic)
Morty Buffham (Manager of UK Heights)
Andrew Kremer (Composer)
Sharon Dean (Respect Music)
Sarah McQuaid
Gary Clark (Artist, songwriter, producer)|
Marc Marot (Manager)
Keith A. Newstead
Blake Morgan (Engine company Records)
Tom Green (’Another Fine Day’)
Neil Preston (MP Records)
John Verity
Bart Schram (Mindgames)
Koen Gisen (An Pierlé & White Velvet)
Darren Hayes (Savage Garden)
Scott Coe (The Haunted Aquarium)
Miranda Dickinson
Noora Noor
Ali Hakimi (Bush Studios)
Colin MacIntyre (Mull Historical Society)
Rik Hudson (Violet Bones)
David Blake (JFXmusic)
Jo Hilditch (Hilda)
Alastair Blackwood (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Oscar Mancino
Kevin Hewick
Sean Genockey (Music Producer)
Sam Obernik
Patrick Weyland-Smith (Patrick And The Deep End)
Matthew Lee (Lapskin)
Colin Waterson
Simon Emmerson (The Imagined Village)
Helge Krabye (Homeless Balloon)
Terence McLeod
Fiona Branson
Jake Morley
Jon Attwood (Yellow6)
Adam Donen
Matthew Seligman
Alex Callier (Hooverphonic)
James Reynolds (Public Symphony)|
Dobs Vye (Public Symphony)
Benjamin Evans (Deal Maker Records)
Lyndon Coyne (Bandito Records)
Sofia Hagberg (End of the Road Festival)
James Blunt
Findlay Brown
Brad Rabuchin
KT Tunstall
Kelly Dickson (Mamafeelgood)
Curtis Roush (Film Music Producer)
Mark Muggeridge (Journalist and artist manager)
Sandy Dworniak (This Much Talent)
Tom Jones
Amy Studt
Sam Hammond (Ten Bears)
Russell Lewis Warby (William Morris Endeavor Entertainment)
Carlos Ruivo
David Gilmour
Jools Holland
Ulrich Schnauss
Ken Andrew (Middle of the Road)
Joseph Mount (Metronomy)
Luke Soloman (Freaks)
Tom Shore (Britten Sinfonia)
Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys)
Chris Lowe (Pet Shop Boys)
Kirsty Hawkshaw
Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest)
Rob Halford (Judas Priest)
Jayne Andrews (manager for Judas Priest)
Gill Vance (singer/songwriter)
Simon Reid & Louise Stanners (Reid & Stanners)
James Carrington
Tim McConway (Booger Red/The Lunar Society)
James Mathe (Monasteryo)John (JJ) Johnson

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Billboard – Featured Artists Opposed To Cutting Off File-Sharers, March 12, 2009

November, 2009

Pictured on the right after a discussion with environmentalists, he’s the front man for Big Music and Hollywood plans to use their Three Strikes and you’re Gone scheme to gain control of online product and content distribution by turning governments into copyright agents, the bill footed by local taxpayers, and ISPs into enforcers, acting against their own clients.

In the process, one of his most outstanding achievements has been to pit members of a new independent music coalition against their fans, the people who keep them and their music alive.

Said Mandelson in a letter to Indiana Gregg, recently »»»

We propose to legislate to ensure that consumers whose broadband account has been identified in connection with alleged copyright infringement would be alerted by letter.  This would set out the legal position but also provide pointers for help and information on, for example, how to protect wireless networks properly, where to find legal sources and routes of appeal.  This letter would come from the Internet Service Providers (ISP) concerned, not a law firm.  This should help address many concerns about individuals being wrongly identified, not having the correct information or indeed feeling pressured by the threat of legal action.

For those individuals who choose to ignore the letter, they will receive a number of further warnings before they are ultimately addd to a list of those subscribers most frequently alleged to have breached copyright.  Rights holders will be able to use a court order to obtain the details of these individuals and then take targeted legal action as appropriate. This should ensure that individuals have ample opportunity to change their behaviour, take appropriate action to, for example, secure their wireless connection or indeed appeal.  It would also mean that only those who chose to ignore the warnings and who appeared to continue to infringe copyright on a large scale would face legal action.

In a strange and dangerous (for Featured Artists’ Coalition members)  reversal, the plan, the UK component of a  carefully orchestrated global project, is now also supported by the FAC.

And in a comment post on artists-to-fans-to-artists site a2f2a.com, “It’s a front to weave in a new set of laws which will ultimately lead to legislation towards the personal ID system and ‘internet passports’,” says Gregg, adding:

“And although half the web thought I was a little crazy last year for mentioning it, here we have Kaspersky’s point of view only a year later: http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/security/0,39044829,62058697,00.htm?tag=mncol;txt.”

Now, “Lord Mandelson will become the ‘public face’ of the government by giving regular televised press conferences as it tries to sharpen its message in the run-up to the general election,” says The Independent, going on:

“The Business Secretary is expected to answer journalists’ questions on camera once a week following a review announced yesterday of the way the Westminster lobby system works.”

In what has  to be at least a partial explanation for his continuing blunders, as well as becoming unofficial ‘Minister for Information’ and heading the department for business, he’s an adviser to Gordon Brown, “and sits on 35 Cabinet committees.”

Thirty-five committes?

No need to stay tuned.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Indiana Gregg – ‘Three strikes’ Mandelson to Indiana Gregg, November 9, 2009
carefully orchestrated global project – Three strikes world-wide, and a global DMCA, November 4, 2009

Now, “Citigroup Inc. rejected a request from Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. to reduce EMI Group Ltd.’s debt by 40 percent in return for a 1 billion-pound ($1.7 billion) cash injection, two people familiar with the talks said,” says Bloomberg News, going on:

“Guy Hands’s (right) private equity firm offered to provide the extra money if Citigroup agreed to reduce the record label’s 2.5 billion-pound debt by a similar amount, said the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private. Citigroup spurned the offer because it would have forced it to write off some of the debt just as EMI’s profit rises, one person said.”

And that’s left EMI “to be run by its own executives, although Hands-appointed non-executives like Lord Birt and former Northern Foods chief executive Pat O’Driscoll remain in place,” says the London Evening Standard, adding:

“Since the takeover, EMI has suffered along with its rivals from the downturn in the music industry and the growth of online piracy.

“It has also been hit by feuding with a string of stars unwilling to be managed by ’suits’, with Joss Stone the latest to hit out at her own recording label.”

So, have things finally come unglued at EMI / Terra Firma?

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

p2pnet – Terra Firma, EMI: out of tune? -  October 29, 2007
Bloomberg News – Hands’s Bid to Cut EMI’s Debt Said to Be Rejected by Citigroup, November 16, 2009
London Evening Standard – Citi snub for EMI plan, November 16, 2009

Why not?

Because, says Times Labs Online which prepared it, “compiled from a PRS for Music report and the BPI,” it make two things clear »»»

1. that the growth in live revenue shows no signs of slowing; and,
2. that live is by far and away the most lucrative section of industry revenue for artists themselves, because they retain such a big percentage of the money from ticket sales.

And hopefully, says the article, “this analysis …  sheds some factual light on the claims and counter-claims that are paranoically sweeping across the music industry establishment, not least that put forward by the singer Lily Allen in this paper recently – and the BPI – that artists are losing out as a result of the fall in sales of recorded of music.”

Even more striking, perhaps, is the discovery that, “revenues accrued by artists themselves have in fact risen over the past 5 years, despite the fall in record sales,” says Times Labs, continuing »»»

It’s interesting too that, overall, industry revenues have grown in the period – though admittedly not by much – which arguably adds strength to the notion that, when the BPI releases its annual report claiming how much ‘the music industry’ has suffered from the growth in illegal file-sharing, what it perhaps should be saying is how much the record labels have suffered.

“For other people in the industry, not least artists, the future arguably holds more promise,” it adds.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Times Labs Online – Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing?, November 12, 2009

Well, I didn’t actually meet him — he’s in New York and I’m in BC, Canada — but thanks to Bill Hudson, a friend of mine who knows him, Pete and I had a long, thoroughly enjoyable (for me, at least ) telephone conversation.

Connections.

I went online in the mid-1990s because I wanted to connect with other musicians. This was just after I’d discovered MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), soundcards and software synthesizers. (And email ).

As I posted here, “I could be an entire band AND use the Net to share MIDI files with people around the world. It meant jamming online. Very cool. So how could I NOT have heard about P2P? And how could I not want to be a small part of this online communications revolution which I could see was going to allow ordinary people take back their rights?”

Equally, how could I avoid hearing of the depredations of the corporate music industry — ie, Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US) – as they terrorised their own customers, even calling children as young as 12 criminals and thieves?

More connections.

The late Bill Evans was already famous online as the first person to seriously attempt to take Big Music on, detailing their vicious attacks on their own customers as they attempted to gain control of the net as their exclusive distribution vehicle. He and I became friends and through him, I came to know Bill Hudson, one of the first people to sign up for a2f2a and another musician who’s a devout believer in the concept music should be shared freely.

He and I were talking on the phone about project he’s involved in. Under it he, and other like-minded people, collect musical instruments to give to children in America’s still-recovering storm-ravaged Gulf Coast, also working to organise live concerts to help take people’s minds off their troubles.

Billy Bragg, too, believes in the restorative power of music and has his own project called Jail Guitar Doors, which aims to provide musical instruments to help rehabilitate people locked up in jails.

Bill Hudson and I were saying how interesting it was that both he and Billy are deeply involved in projects which depend on the power of music to make positive change, and Pete Seeger’s name came up.

The Pete Seeger Connection

‘Iconic’ is these days used to describe virtually any performer, irrespective of standing. Rarely is it deserved. One of the exceptions is, however, Pete Seeger, the iconic American folk singer and activist.

“A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early ’50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly’s ‘Goodnight, Irene,’ which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950,” says the Wikipedia, going on:

“In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, and for environmental causes.

“As a song writer, he’s ‘best known as the author or co-author of ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone?’, ‘If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)’ (composed with Lee Hays of The Weavers), and ‘Turn, Turn, Turn!’, which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world.”

The Wimoweh connection

At the age of 91, Pete’s still going strong and in May, along with the dozens of musicians who showed up at Madison Square Garden to celebrate his 90th birthday were Dave Matthews, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello, Roger McGuinn, Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie — and Billy Bragg.

Bill Hudson said he’d mentioned a2f2a to Pete and thought it’d be interesting if he and I connected. And when I phoned to arrange a time, Pete’s wife, Toshi, told me she and Billy Bragg were ‘kissing friends’.

Pete wasn’t around at the time because “he’s in the studio, recording,” she told me, giving me a time and a day when I could be sure of reaching him.

When we later connected, he told me the studio was a small one in the town where he and Toshi live, and that these days, his ‘live’ performances are mostly for local children.

During our talk — it wasn’t an interview — he mentioned two things in particular, Mbube (Wimoweh) being one, and his support of the Committee for Public Domain Reform Plan — “Every country needs a public domain commission to help decide what money goes where” — being the other.

“When Pete Seeger was recording songs like ‘Wimoweh’ with the Weavers folk quartet in the 1950s, he didn’t give much thought to the fact the people who originally created the music generally got nothing in return,” said a Reuters story back in 2004.

It went on, “Now Seeger is lending his name to the Campaign for Public Domain Reform, an effort to create a system for part of the royalties from folk tunes to reach the corners of the world where the songs originated.”

He was 85 at the time, and he’s still lending his name to the cause. The item goes on to quote him as saying, “When a song is in the public domain and you record it, it’s standard practice in the music industry to say ‘adapted and arranged by’ whoever sings it. Why let the record company keep all the royalties? They didn’t write the song.”

So who did?

“Seeger said he was once told by Joseph Shabalala of the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo that when the word ‘traditional’ is used, ‘it means the money stays in New York’.”

I already knew about Mbube (Wimoweh) .

Pete told me he was shocked when he learned the royalties by-passed the African author, Solomon Linda, but he also recognised this wasn’t unique.

He’d collected book and record royalties for a childrens story he’d written in 1952. Called Abiyoyo, it depended on an old Xhosa lullaby, and now half the royalties go to the Ubuntu Fund dedicated to Xhosa children living near Port Elizabeth in South Africa.

While we were talking, I was online looking for Campaign for Public Domain Reform, which I found within minutes.

It kicks off with a statement signed by Pete for the Committee for Public Domain Reform:

“Old songs, worldwide, now in the Public Domain are often ‘adapted and arranged’ and the new song copyrighted. We propose that a share, .01 % or 99.99 %, of the mechanical, print, and performing royalties go to the place and people where the song originated. Every country should have a ‘Public Domain Commission’ to help decide what money goes where.”

Written in January, 2006, it goes on »»»

Plan for implementation proposed by Music In Common:

The duties or functions of a Public Domain Commission would fall under three main categories. Preservation and Development, Resource Allocation and Accounting and Accountability. Each category is further defined below.

1. Preservation and Development – The Conservatory

a. Canon formation

b. Archive/library

c. Masters/teachers

Exemplary works held to be so by general acclamation of the community, tribe, ethnic group or nationality involved would be assembled and performed by similarly exemplary masters of the tradition.

These might be recorded in both print and sound forms but they would necessarily be carried on in oral form to be passed on as they have already been for generations or centuries. (this has been accomplished in some cases, has been partially done in others, and has yet to be undertaken systematically in still others)

2. Resource Allocationa. Funds for training youth

b. Funds for exemplary performance (regular festivals, customary events, etc.)

c. Funds for instrument building and performance space construction and maintenance

d. Funds for sustaining Master crafts people (instrument builders, performers and composers)

To ensure the traditions are kept vital and alive new generations must be introduced to them in a way that honors the music itself as well as those who maintain its highest forms of expression.

Infusions of new energy and enthusiasm must be balanced with the mastery of the spiritual and practical skills needed to perform the music well. Structures suited to local conditions and histories should be constructed to ensure long-term sustainability.

3. Accounting and Accountability

a. Monitoring the health of the music, the musicians, and the community it arises from and serves

b. Monitoring the uses to which the music is put in the rest of the world

c. Collecting funds generated anywhere

d. Dispersing funds correctly according to the principles outlined above

Through international agencies, performing rights societies, governmental bodies or combinations of all three, the uses of music can be monitored and evaluated. That the Public Domain be maintained in the public interest and available to all, as is a library, should not mean that moneys generated by sale somewhere not be returned to their source of inspiration: namely the peoples or countries whence they arose. Indeed, it would be one function of the Public

Domain Commission to ensure that two apparently contradictory purposes are served: to ensure preservation and development of a “natural resource” for the benefit of all and at the same time limiting use by those seeking to profit from it and ensuring that a reasonable portion of those profits are returned to the source to sustain it.

Ultimately, accountability to the local Public Domain Commission should be the rule. Thus, a universal principle would be applied locally by those entrusted to do so.

The composition of the Public Domain Commission should include music makers (musicians, composers and instrument builders) recognized as masters of their crafts. It might also include musicologists, historians and others sufficiently trained to ensure traditions are honored and healthily maintained.

Educational and administrative functions corresponding to local conditions need to be constructed but oversight should always include music makers.

A UN Public Domain Commission

There are three areas where a UN Public Domain Commission would be useful in the implementation of these proposals:

Origins, Jurisdiction and Rights Designation

The origins of much of the world’s music precede the formation of present-day Nations. Indeed, much of the world’s music continues to be made and used by tribal, ethnic or other groupings that reside in different countries simultaneously. Furthermore, there are cases where no national body is recognized or trusted by ethnic groups whose music is in question. In such situations a UN Public Domain Commission might afford the best solution.

This should not, however, be merely a juridical “court of appeal”.

On the contrary, the principal function of such a body would be to ensure the preservation and development of the music in question in accordance with the needs and wishes of the people actually involved in making it. If no local entity has the capacity or authority to carryout this task then the UN Public Domain Commission should undertake it.

In determining a specific music’s origin the following questions should be answered:

Who makes the music now?

For what purpose is it made? (sacred, festive, work, education, etc.)

How will this be preserved and developed in the future?

In determining what kinds of rights are applicable a UN Public Domain Commission should use the Conservatory model proposed above. The Conservatory’s basic function is to ensure that the makers and users of the music in question continue to flourish.

Prohibition or limitation of use is a secondary function only useful in the context of the successful fulfillment of the first. This means:

Resources from taxation, charitable institutions or profitable sale should be directed, first and foremost, to the preservation and development of the music and music makers involved

Access to music should not be limited unless those who make and use it specifically designate it secret, sacred or otherwise unavailable to the world at large (in which case its unauthorized appearance would not only constitute simple theft but desecration subject to human rights protections)

Respect for the work, skill and creativity that have been and continue to be invested by those involved. This requires public education within and beyond the communities in question to ensure that all who hear the music know the history and present circumstances of the people who made it.

The document concludes with “Pete Seeger’s examples,” including the Wimoweh tragedy, and ending with »»»

Another example: in 1955 I put together a song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”. The basic idea came from an old Russian Folk song, “Koloda Duda”. Some royalties for the song will now go to the national folk song archives in the Moscow library.

In 1960 I put a melody and three words, “Turn, Turn, Turn” to a poem in the Book of Ecclesiastes, written 252 BCE. The English translation was done in London 400 years ago. I have decided to send some royalties to an unusual group in Israel which is trying to bring Arabs and Jews together.

In the USA all the royalties for the song “We Shall Overcome” have gone, for 40 years, to the “We Shall Overcome Fund” which every year gives grants for “African American Music in the South”.

Bernice Johnson Reagan (Sweet Honey In the Rock) is the chairperson of that fund.

Disconnection

So —- is there now a long list of countries with their on Public Domain Commissions, oranised under Campaign for Public Domain Reform banner?

There isn’t.

And nor will there be as long as the major labels retain their iron grip on the music industry.

In March this year, “A coalition of high-profile rock stars say they’re turning their works loose online so people everywhere can enjoy their music without fear,” I wrote, going on »»»

The group, called Rockstars ‘R US, includes Paul McCartney, Cliff Richard, Yoko Ono, Barry Gibb, Petula Clark, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, and singing US senator Orrin ‘Terminator’ Hatch.

“I already have so much money I’ll never be able to spend it in a million years,” says Gibb. “Why would I want more?”

Music lovers around the world, “will now be able to share out music with each other without worrying they’ll be sued,” says Clark.

They’re among 4,500 artists who recently celebrated a “major victory” when a European Parliament committee sanctioned plans to boost copyrights to 95 years.

“I’m absolutely fed up with singing Living Doll but I have sung it constantly since 1959 because every time I sing it live it generates sales of the original record and royalties to me,” said Richard. “But it’s about to fall into the public domain anyway, and I made enough money out of it to buy three Rolls-Royces and a chateau in France,” he said of his change of heart. “So why worry?” -

Declared Yoko Ono, “We’re hoping this will encourage other super stars who’ve become multi-millionaires from copyright royalties to follow our example.”

“Enough is enough,” says Ulrich. “I have a lot to answer for and this may help. It’s time to thank all those fans who made us rich.”

It was, of course, a spoof piece.

[This was first published in a2f2a.com.]

Jon Newton - p2pet / a2f2a.com

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

November, 2009

The first,he says, “suggested that people who download music via peer-to-peer services spend more money on music than their non-filesharing peers” .

The second “insisted that the net drop in CD and download sales overall has increased concurrent with, and as a result of filesharing,” Andrew says, going on »»»

It’s difficult to argue with either, since they’re both backed by respectable-seeming research and surveys – and yet they can’t possibly both be true. Until you realise the fundamental logical flaws in both positions: the presupposition that unauthorised downloading of music has a causal effect – indeed, is the only causal factor – on the fortunes of the music business.

Clearly, as soon as you take a step back and think about it logically, so-called ‘piracy’ cannot possibly be anything more than one of a whole range of factors affecting the music industry as a whole, simply because the world is a complicated place and people are complex and interesting.

There are political, economic, social, cultural and technological factors all influencing the industry’s affairs — and it stands to reason that different influencing factors are pulling in all sorts of different directions.

To blame piracy for the decline of music revenues — or to single out pirates as the main source of income — overlooks that complexity, and merely provides a PR sideshow to the main story (that almost never gets covered in the mainstream press), which is that the entire ecosystem of music business is changing.

In the print age, sheet music was the main way in which we consumed music, and new technology threatened that orthodoxy. In the electric age, it was recorded music. We’re now in the digital age, and while recordings are still a significant driver of music business revenue, it is (as sheet music did before it) rapidly losing its hold as the main source of music business income.

But just as the music industry as a whole didn’t suffer (in fact, it boomed) when sheet music gave way to the recorded music business (though it’s worth reiterating that you can still buy sheet music, and some businesses do very well out of producing it), I suspect that the music business as a whole will figure out a way of surviving and thriving when it grasps the opportunities inherent in the new technological environment.

In fact, there’s evidence to suggest that’s already happening.

Chief Economist for the UK’s PRS For Music, Will Page has declared that overall revenue of the British music industry is up nearly 5%. Not the record industry, mind you – the music business. Those two things are not synonyms.

“And while it’s easy to find scapegoats and heroes in this story, that’s never going to be the full picture,” says Andrew on Music Think Tank, adding:

“Peer to Peer filesharing platforms may well have an important role to play in this narrative, but it’s a complex and interesting one — and not the simplistic black hat / white hat me.”

Not only but also, back in 2005, “New technologies always threaten the old, established ones whose owners do everything they can to maintain the status quo,” I said, adding, “Eventually, though, they cave in, and go with the flow and peace reigns (until it happens all over again .”

Jon Newton

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Music Think Tank – 9 out of 10 dentists, November 9, 2009
p2pnet – Through the mirror backwards: p2pnet interview, October 4, 2008

“The Big 4 have since blown hundreds of millions of dollars on one scheme after another designed to provide a vehicle capable of carrying Big 4 product to the satisfaction of the Big 4,” said p2pnet, going on:

“Then along came Sweden’s Spotify, billed as a, proprietary peer-to-peer music streaming service that allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums with almost no buffering delay.”

A little more than a year ago, it seemed the music labels had “finally relented, and were willing to experiment with free streaming music to users,” says TechCrunch. “The future looked bright.

“2009 is the year of reckoning. The European launch of Spotify, which offers users free streaming music on demand, was an affirmation of the trend. Soon Spotify would launch in the U.S., too, the company said.”

And, “No wonder the majors speak so highly of Spotify,” said Helienne Lindvall in The Guardian, “they receive 18% of shares in the online streaming service. “It’s just a pity that artists won’t get to see any of this … ”

Well, there is that. But what else is new?

The major record labels and the bigger indies, “seemed unusually positive about Spotify, which made me think that they must have received a pretty hefty payment and/or equity in the company,” she said, and, “Sure enough, the other week some of my suspicions were confirmed when it was reported that the majors received 18% of Spotify shares.”

She went on »»»

One of the main reasons why majors have been hesitant to offer their music to start-ups is that they’ve seen companies like YouTube and Last.fm build businesses, only to sell them off for big bucks without sharing the money with the copyright owners whose music they used.

A source close to Spotify told me he has serious doubts that their business model will add up and that it’s a case of “spot the idiot”, ie “find somebody stupid enough to buy it before realising that it’s too costly to run and that the numbers don’t add up to making a profit”.

However, “There’s no firm evidence that people will ever be willing to pay to stream music in significant numbers” and this in turn, “exposes a fundamental flaw in the business model: the more people pay for a subscription (thus avoiding the ads) the less attractive the service becomes to potential advertisers. And the more ads it runs, the less music lovers will want to use the service,” reckoned Luke Lewis on NME.

“Indeed,” he stated, “I’m convinced the ‘free’ aspect of Spotify is unsustainable. Across the media, people’s faith in the ad-funded free content model is faltering”.

He pointed out Rupert Murdoch was already planning to charge for content, and that giant advertising company Google was developing a system of micropayments.”

Advertising, “will never cover Spotify’s costs: its only hope of success is in attracting subscribers in huge numbers,” said NME, going on »»»

You might say: who cares if it’s profitable? To its most devoted fans, Spotify represents the achievement of the elusive “celestial jukebox”: the limitless-music paradise that David Bowie predicted in 2002, when he said: “Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity.”

But while it might look like utopia for music fans, if Spotify is to have a future, it needs to be a viable business. For now, funding is still pouring in – the company employs 30 people, and has offices in London and Sweden. It was recently valued at over £200 million.

However this is, Lewis added, “an entirely theoretical, phantom value,” and, “There’s every possibility Spotify could go the way of Spiralfrog, or Pandora, or any number of music services which once looked promising, before fading away when the investment dried up.”

Now, Spotify is saying its much-touted US launch is “delayed”, says TechCrunch.  And in the background Qtrax is floundering, not that that’s anything new.

“They don’t want to launch here [the US'] with a paid-only model, and the big labels are signaling that they won’t have it,” it says, continuing »»»

From the NYTimes last month, quoting Sony Music: “We like Spotify as our partner in Europe, but we would like them to move more toward a paid subscription environment.”

And that isn’t the only bad news. MySpace Music is “almost certainly” going to severely restrict free streaming to users, say multiple sources, and move to a paid model. “They are spending $20 million/month on streaming royalties, and that just isn’t sustainable,” said one source with knowledge of MySpace’s relationships with the labels. Other sources have said that MySpace’s royalty payments are much lower, but don’t deny that the service is a cash hole.

MySpace won’t comment on this story, but they have a deadline to all this. The Google search deal is up next year, and $300 million/year in revenue will evaporate. Changes need to happen soon. The last payment of $75 million is due on June 20, 2010.

Stay tuned.

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p2pnet – What’s going on at Spotify?, September 14, 2009
TechCrunch – Free Streaming May Soon Be History: Spotify Delays U.S. Launch, MySpace May Move To Pay Model, November 11, 2001
The Guardian – Behind the music: The real reason why the major labels love Spotify, August 17, 2009
NME – The problem with Spotify, September 11, 2009have
charge for content – Google vs Murdoch, Twitter and Facebook, November 11, 200
system of micropayments – Google micro-payments system, September 11, 2009
Qtrax is floundering – Qtrax blows it again …, November 11, 200

It’s on again, off again, up again, down again, and now it’s failed to meet a launch date.

Again.

CEO Allan Klepfisz (right) says he now expects the Australian launch “to take place later this month,” says the Financial Times, going on:

“Qtrax came to prominence in January 2008 when it staged a lavish event at a music conference in Cannes, promising a revolutionary plan for the first advertising-supported free legal download site.

“It was forced to admit, however, that the agreements it had claimed to have with big recorded music companies had not been finalised.”

In February, “Qtrax says it has deals with Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA, members of the Big 4 organised music cartel, just like other corporate efforts to cash in on the online music phenomenon,” reported p2pnet.

But, Warner Music, “undermined that claim, declaring in a statement that it ‘has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax’s recently announced service’,” said the Associated Press, going on:

“Universal Music Group and EMI Group PLC later confirmed they did not have licensing deals in place with Qtrax, noting discussions were still ongoing. A call to Sony BMG Music Entertainment was not immediately returned.”

According to Klepfisz,  “Artists and record labels” are, “supporting Qtrax to stem a losing fight against stolen music,” said new.com.au.

“Warner Music Group and Qtrax, the worst fake-P2P music service this side of iMesh, have inked a deal that covers WMG’s catalog,” said Coolfer,  comparing a then current press release with another from September 2006.

The difference?

“In 2006, WMG called Qtrax ‘innovative’,” said the story, whereas this year’s, “could muster only the words ‘unique’ and ‘legal.’

“It’s like Qtrax gave WMG a pair of socks for Christmas.”

Now, “Qtrax is an absolute disaster,” CNet News has a music industry executive stating. “It’s an embarrassment.”

“What’s noteworthy about the most recent Qtrax setback is that typically Allan Klepfisz, the company’s founder, will do damage control with the media,” says the story, but this time,  “a music-sector heavyweight is out in front”.

And that’s ex-RIAA boss Jay Berman, “a Qtrax adviser”.

Qtrax “last week announced a deal with Baidu, the Chinese search engine,” says the FT.

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Financial Times – Blow to Qtrax as Aussie launch is delayed, November 10, 2009
p2pnet – Qtrax — ‘death knell’ for CDs, January 28, 2008

Associated Press – Qtrax Aims to Offer IPod-Friendly Tracks, January 28, 2008
The Register – $30m blown on Desperation Derby, January 27, 2008
Coolfer – WMG & Qtrax….oh, nevermind, February 11, 2009
CNet News – Former RIAA chief tries to save Qtrax image, November 11, 2009

She’s been villified and insulted and accused of being a greedy blond out for all she can get, to considerably understate the situation.

The reality, however, is very different.

She’s the mother of three kids — Julia, 15, Christian, 12, and Sophia, 10, and in addition to being a successful artist with 32 years of experience, is also an extremely intelligent and highly skilled entrepreneur who, in April 2008, founded Kerchoonz with her husband, Ian Morrow.

“The primary focus was to allow free music that would be able to compensate artist through advertising revenues allowing artists to set a price on their downloads and/or give away their music for free and take a cut of the advertising,” she told me. “Artists would be able to sell their tickets, merchandise from their profile page as well as in the general ’shop’ area of the site.  So, we started cracking forward with this idea.”

Kerchoonz — Yup, it sounds like a sneeze — is currently in beta.

Here’s Part I of a two-part post. Tomorrow I’ll run Indian’s thoughts on the world of music in the 21st digital century.

Woman at work was originally published in a2f2a.com.

Woman at work

Indiana says she’s been a musician since she was six years old, starting out with the piano and later playing trumpet.

“At university, I worked as a professional performing vocalist and dancer,” she says. “I moved to France in 1994, gigging and raising a family.”

In 2004 she teamed up with her now husband, Ian Morrow, an din 2006, the two launched their own label, gr8pop, a year later releasing Woman At Work.

“Within weeks, and with a lot of television coverage, airplay, tours,  and a good bit a press, we discovered that the result of our marketing efforts was primarily on sharing sites and social networks and as a small independent label were unable to break-even,” she says, continuing »»»

This was the point where gr8pop nearly became insolvent.

In June 2008, I sent a routine email to The Pirate Bay asking them to take down links to my album, Woman At Work, which was released  in April 200.

From my point of view, TPB  was  simply ‘just another site’ on my list of hundreds.  Most of the sites wrote back and said, no problem, we’ve removed the file.  But, after about 6 emails to TPB, Peter Sunde emerged at around 2am one night and a fury of email exchanges took place. I knew that writing to p2p sites wasn’t going to change my life or the fact that our label had nearly gone bankrupt a year earlier; but, in my mind, it was more of a moral issue that I was defending. We had started new business and sold some property, raised new investments and things weren’t bad in 2008 when I was writing to TPB.

In a year’s time, we had gone from being nearly insolvent to doing rather well with a couple new projects in the works to boot.

Having had consulted with the PRS/ MCPS a year prior to the TPB emails, I’d been told that writing to sites deemed ‘illegal’ was the only thing an artist could do to defend their work.  Plus, I was on a mission.  I truly believed (and still do)  that websites that use music, film, and media to attract  users and generate revenue should be contributing to the compensation of the creators.

This is why over the past couple of years, we’ve been lobbying for a public license on the web along with a levy on ISPs net profits.

Kerchoonz aims to compensate artists for the streams of their music via advertising revenues. Kerchoonz has likewise developed a platform where musicians can upload their music and set their own price for their downloads, physical merchandise, and even their CDs.  This platform will be released  within the next month or so.

The Kerchoonz philosophy is that sites that use music as a medium to generate traffic should compensate artists for their work.  The site has focused mainly on independent artists and labels.  However, we have been in negotiations with the four major labels as well meeting with them on several occasions and negotiating proposals.

So, Indiana adds, “you might say that I have some insight from several sides of this ‘rubiks’ cube here having been involved in the technical,  business,  label, and of course, a performing artists and songwriter’s point of view, not to mention that I’m also a fan of music and a supporter of artists.

“I was a musician well before the internet became ‘public’;  But, there are some things that perhaps I’ve talked about openly a bit too early … ”

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

November, 2009

That’s Britney Spears over the miming row that surfaced during her first Australian tour.

“I came to Australia for my fans,” she’s widely reported as saying.  “Some reporters have said they love it and some don’t.”

Discussing the “brouhaha Down Under,” it “turns out she MIMES!” – says the Lefsetz Letter’s Bob Lefsetz, going on »»»

In order to deliver on the audience’s expectations.  She’s got to be the Britney from TV.  Perfect in every way.  Dazzling them with her dance moves.  And it’s almost impossible to dance like that and sing.  Have you ever talked to one of those fucks who calls you when he’s on the treadmill?  You wonder if they’re going to have a heart attack during the conversation!

But what does the audience expect?  A show, a tightly choreographed presentation, something you watch and ooh and ahh to?  Or a musical performance, that penetrates your body and mind?

Last time I checked, I didn’t see Widespread Panic on TV.  Look at MediaBase, they’re not in the Top Forty either.  By nineties standards, they don’t exist.  But it’s 2010.

In the MTV-era, you had to look good.  Your video had to be visually interesting.  To the point where in the nineties, they wouldn’t trust so-called “artists” with creative issues, too much money was at stake.  Write with the usual suspects, the pros, to create something we know we can sell.  And we’ll employ one of the usual suspect directors to create a sleek clip.  Hell, if we don’t get it right, we’ll scrap it and redo it!  You only get one chance to make an impression.  If it’s not exactly right, you’re toast.  Kind of like the new album by Mariah Carey and the pushed-back opus by Alicia Keys.  The initial singles stiffed, and the labels wanted to whip up a frenzy in order to sell a hundred thousand albums right away!  Thus, the release delay.  If you’re phenomenally lucky, you can ultimately sell a million.  Still, you might mean nothing on the road.  Is this a game you want to play?

Sure, there are old warhorses like Ms. Carey, but most of the acts are brand new.  Thrown up against the wall and then discarded.  They all have one thing in common.  They want to be FAMOUS!  They’re no different than the idiots on reality TV.  They want to appear on TMZ and Perez.  Then they’ll think they’ve made it.  But that making it is very different from the old paradigm.

In the old days you played music to get out of the mines, to get away from having a boss, so you didn’t have to wear a suit and tie to work.  Shit, you ultimately have more freedom going to college and learning how to code than subjecting yourself to the starmaking machinery today.  Look at Justin Timberlake.  He sacrificed Janet Jackson.  He couldn’t admit he was complicit in Boobiegate and that it was no big deal.  He issued a lame mea culpa the same way a truant student tells a principal what he wants to hear.  Whereas the rock stars of yore had a foolproof reaction to bullshit, to the system … THE MIDDLE FINGER!

Hell, John Lennon said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus and didn’t bother apologizing.  He tried to explain, but the media wasn’t listening, because it was too dumb.  Whereas in the sixties, before the Born Again conflagration, there was no doubt the Beatles were bigger than Jesus.  But you can’t speak the truth.  Hell, you still can’t speak the truth!  Just look at our inane political system!

Let me ask you …

If I told you you could wear whatever you wanted, your jeans, your favorite shirt, hit the stage to adoring fans whenever you played and get all the dope and sex you wanted, would you say yes?

This was the equation back in the golden era of classic rock.  And it was all centered on the music.  If you were good enough, you could rape and pillage across the world, for years, in the case of Robert Plant and Mick Jagger, FOREVER!  Just by being yourself, you earned the keys to the kingdom, you lived in an alternative universe, even better than the real one.

Widespread Panic lives in an alternative universe.  One where everything the dying media says is important is irrelevant.  They hold the record for sell-outs at Red Rocks (with 32).  They’ve been at it for twenty plus years, and they’re bigger than ever.

Twenty plus years…  Many of the Top Forty idiots aren’t even that old.  Do we really think they know how to play?  That they’ve got something to say?

Now I won’t say the Panic show was without visuals.  There was a giant disc behind the band that featured geometric shapes, turning and twisting like at the Fillmore.  And there was a plethora of animated spotlights.  But the attraction was the music, plain and simple.

Nobody dressed up for the gig.  The audience looked just like me.  Wearing jeans.  Getting psyched up for the gig had nothing to do with makeup, nothing to do with outfits, it was about head space.  Were you willing to show up, relax your mind and float downstream?

Aided by substances both legal and illegal?

Sure, everybody seemed high, whether each and every one of them was or not.  You see, they wanted to be set free.  That’s what the music used to do, that’s what you’re missing at the Britney show.  Britney’s delivering a movie, Widespread Panic is delivering a dream.

There was a drummer and a percussionist.  A keyboardist dropping in delicious fills.  Dave Schools held down the bottom like he had a monopoly on mud in the delta.  But what was most fascinating was the guitar interplay between John Bell and Jimmy Herring.

Jimmy’s amps said “Fuchs” and “Tone Tubby”.  This was not generic, the equipment had been hand-selected, to deliver this exact tone.

There was no click track, nothing was prerecorded.  But the band instantly found a groove and laid down in it, pulling the entire audience along.  And the electricity was palpable.  It was like every attendee was plugged into a socket, causing them to twist and turn, jump and groove to the music.

Music.  That’s what’s been sacrificed.  You didn’t used to go to the show to hear the expected, but the unexpected.  The band was good enough to pull you along whether you knew the material or not.  It was an ADVENTURE!

That started at 8:15 and ended at midnight.  You couldn’t complain you didn’t get your money’s worth.

So here’s the part where you tell me what Widespread Panic is missing, how it can be changed into a Goliath, a household word.  But the band DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK!  Don’t you get it?  THEY’RE DOING IT THEIR WAY!

And their way is pretty good, better than yours, because almost a quarter of a century in, they can still work, they can still live the lifestyle, they can still feel the rush of the audience’s applause.

You can play the old game.  But it doesn’t pay the dividends it used to.  Rihanna may be big in the mainstream, but more people want to see Widespread Panic.  If not today, definitely tomorrow.

We’re rebuilding.  And we’re starting with music.

It’s a much slower build.  Flash, explosions, sexuality get instant attention.  But do you really care who won the third season of “Survivor”?  “Big Brother”?  The endless string of one hit wonders run together.  Those who make music first and foremost, who follow their instincts, their creativity, are the ones who stand for ages.

You may get screams at a Britney show, but you don’t get the passion you experience at a Widespread Panic gig.  At a Panic show fans feel the music.  They want to get closer.  They don’t want to watch, they want to be a part of it!

“And listeners are key,” says Lefsetz, adding:

“Great performers feed off the energy of their audience.

“How can you do that when your entire act is on hard drive?”

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

November, 2009

The question comes in a Wall Street Journal item which says, “The Beatles and their heirs have refused to make their songs available on the Apple iPod or other devices.”

Given that Paul McCartney, the only surviving Beatle to have maintained any kind of profile on or offline, is among other antique rockers such as Cliff Richard (right) who want rights extended to 700 years, or so, it’s hardly surprising Beatles tunes aren’t on the handful of Big Music supplied sites which are trying to peddle the same thing to the same people at the same rip-off prices.

“For two days last week, it seemed that the last holdouts had relented, making their music available digitally,” says the story. “It then turned out that the owners of the Beatles had not changed their minds. Instead, the cut-rate 25 cents a song was the result of what a federal judge called a brazen violation of copyright law.”

It refers to Bluebeat, the US download site which was offering Beatles (and other) tunes at close to reasonable prices.

But EMI, which owns the Beatles stuff, soon put a stop to that.

“You’d think rock ancients such as Paul McCartney, Cliff Richard (right), U2, Yoko Ono [Yoko Ono?], Barry Gibb, Petula Clark and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa [?] already have enough cash stashed away to keep themselves, their children, their children’s children, their children’s children’s children’s, and so on, in luxury,” said p2pnet when news of the 700 year copyright agreement broke. (Or was it 95 years? It was one or the other.)

But No, “The greedy sods want more,” we posted. “They were among 4,500 artists who last year signed a newspaper advertisement  demanding the UK government extend the copyright in sound recordings to 95 years and now they’re, ‘celebrating a major victory’ because a European Parliament committee says it’s OK to boost it to 95 years,” said Times Online.”

“Members of Britain’s new Featured Artists Coalition want the European Commission to help them recover their rights to their own music,” we posted here and in a2f2a.com.

As things stand, an EC “use it or lose it” copyright clause means recordings revert to performers if the producer or label no longer wants to market the recording — but only  after half a century, we said, adding:

“However, FAC members, including Billy Bragg, today met with senior civil servants at the Intellectual Property Office in London in a bid to get the cause whittled down to 35 years”.

Even more recently, “I agree with the artists,” said Paul Kamp, vice president, business development and corporate counsel at Backbone Networks.

“As a compromise, perhaps push for a shorter term, ie 15 years and have the artists pay for publishing and distribution,” he suggested.  “If it means something to the record companies  I am sure they can come up with the fee to pay the digital distributor.  There seems to be no reason to hold back on publishing the older works.”

Meanwhile, “The downside of the open architecture of the Web is that there has been a Mao-like aspect, devaluing the effort and creative genius that went into creating songs and other works,” says the WSJ, adding:

“Digital rights have not yet progressed to the point where people can access and share their favorite works in an economically reasonable way. This isn’t the fault of the bands or the fans.

“Digital technology will someday evolve from this early stage of enabling piracy and easy copyright violations to a more advanced stage in which new technology supports economic incentives for digital creating and sharing.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Wall Street Journal – Money Can’t Buy Me Beatles, November 9, 2009
extended to 700 years – Not-So-Golden-Oldies score copyright win,  February 13, 2009
put a stop – EMI boots Bluebeat off the net, November 6, 2009
Times Online – Musicians celebrate victory as go-ahead given for copyright to be extended to 95 years, February 13, 2009
whittled down – Use it or Lose it: 15 years, not 35, November 5, 200

But it’s “left iTunes embarrassed,” says the Guardian.

According iTunes mouthperson Adam Howorth, an asterisk is “imposed by an automated database that checks words against a list but can’t distinguish the context,” says the story, quoting him as stating »»»

We have an automated system which looks for potentially off words and asterisks out certain ones based on the rules, and wop is one of those.

In the context of this music it is an error.

Thus,  it censored ‘doo wop’ to ‘doo w*p’,”

But, “A search of iTunes reveals that the asterisk substitution does not apply only to the 1950s genre, but to any track or album that mentions the racial slur wop, including Lauryn Hill and, those famously inflammatory artists, Prefab Sprout,” says the Guardian, adding:

“While the system may go too far in one direction, it also seems to have failings in the other. Honky, a term that mocks white people, derives from honky tonk music, played in American piano bars in the early twentieth century. There are still many tracks, by acts like Jools Holland, the Rolling Stones, James Brown and the Beach Boys with honky tonk in the title. But the word honky, despite being on iTunes banned list, remains uncensored. Howorth isn’t sure why honky has passed censorship when doo wop hasn’t.

“It’s not the first time iTunes has faced criticism for unnecessary censorship. Last year ‘a database glitch’ was deemed responsible for censoring a plethora of artists and titles including Girls Aloud’s Long Hot Summer and Avril Lavinge’s Hot, the problem being ‘hot’ was too, well, h*t to handle.”

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Guardian – iTunes censors ‘doo wop’ songs, November 6, 2009