Jazz Odyssey

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

A blog post on the New York Times website leads to a study done by the University of Washington regarding DMCA takedown notices.  Here is an excerpt from the overview:
Although the implications of being accused of copyright infringement are […]

[Read more →]

Ian Rogers posted his advice to Guy Hands at his blog and it makes for some very interesting reading. His core premise:

“With the disappearance of advantaged label competencies such as superior production, distribution, and marketing, reconfigure your labels to be based around affinities and focused narrowly enough to serve roughly the same audiences from […]

[Read more →]

Pew has just published a new study on consumer purchasing habit,s and the impact of the Internet as well as traditional media on their decision making. Clearly, the digital arena continues to grow in importance but it is only one part of the media mix, and carries different weight among different consumer groups.
Click here […]

[Read more →]

Ahead of the actual discussion led by Jim Griffin at SXSW Friday, Wired has posted and overview of a notion that has been whispered about in the hallowed halls of the major labels for years…a fee imposed on ISPs that provided end users with an “all you can eat” music service. Read Music Industry […]

[Read more →]

This article from Fortune/CNNMoney.com about who is using digital marketing more effectively for campaigning should be discussed at every major label marketing meeting.  The entire article is worthwhile, but this particular Q&A exchange between Fortune and Publicis CIO Rishad Tobaccowala hits the bullseye.  The major labels have historically taken a more Clinton-esque approach despite public […]

[Read more →]

From Mashable: “The Web-based social music service of great renown has assembled a nifty thing dubbed the SXSW Group page, where site members can nab themselves their very own “Band Aid.” What’s a Band Aid? Simple. A list of bands whose SXSW shows you might be interested to catch while down in Texas. The names […]

[Read more →]

The ever astute Paul Resnikoff offers his viewpoint on the brewing battle between publishers and digital music provider MusicNet. This is a perspective worthy of consideration. Back in the early 90s when I was in the wholesale end of the music business, it seemed like the CD price wars at retail and the […]

[Read more →]

Real Time - WSJ.com: “…the key point isn’t the idea of releasing a steady stream of music instead of an album a year at most — that’s an interesting discussion, but not a new one. Rather, it’s asking what music fans will most readily pay for. Debates about serializing music tend to revolve around the […]

[Read more →]

“Qtrax launches today making available 20-30 million tracks floating around on P2P’s available for free and legal download via its new ad supported service.  All four major labels have signed on.
Users download and launch a player that runs ads while they search for and download tracks.  DRM prevents the tracks from being burned and counts […]

[Read more →]

Billboard Magazine’s Antony Bruno reports: “According to label sources and pirate network tracking firms, fans downloading full albums from BitTorrent sites almost universally choose files that include scans of the CD booklet over those that don’t.
Of course, there is little that can be done with those scans other than view them on a computer. Imagine […]

[Read more →]

“Sixtyone is different from most read-submit-vote-comment sites because it has an elaborate point system…When you sign up, you get points; each time you vote up a song, you spend 5 points, but if others vote for the song and it gets popular, you earn your points back. Furthermore, you can earn free points by listening […]

[Read more →]

No single model will work for everyone. There’s room for all of us. Some artists are the Coke and Pepsi of music, while others are the fine wine — or the funky home-brewed moonshine. And that’s fine. I like Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man.” Sometimes a corporate soft drink is what […]

[Read more →]

One of the early complaints about the WiFi sharing ability on the Zune was the rule that limits playback to 3 days or 3 plays on shared tracks. The Zune team eliminated the 3 day rule but left the 3 play rule intact with the latest firmware update. Many musicians who record their own music in the garage would prefer to share it free of this 3 play DRM restriction. Now there is an easy way to do it.

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

A historic moment for artists, fans and the entire music industry. More commentary to follow, but the key points are in this press release.

[Read more →]

Apple has added a “Complete My Album” feature to iTunes that gives customers who have bought a single the opportunity to purchase the remaining tracks from that album at a discounted price (within 6 months of the original purchase).

[Read more →]

An interesting and essential read…

[Read more →]

Interesting editorial in Wired today speculating that Apple will develop a new line of inexpensive iPod shuffles pre-loaded with new albums, and/or artist catalogs and other artist-specific content. The article goes on to suggest that these iPods could become the new CD Sampler, with labels paying iTunes to include tracks from their developing artists.
This […]

[Read more →]

Slashdot reports on a new article reinforcing the effiiciency of P2P as a content distribution mechansim…
“So how could additional P2P traffic actually be a good thing for the Internet? Carnegie Mellon’s Zhang points out that because peer-to-peer networks exploit both the downlink and uplink capacities of users’ Internet connections, they distribute content more efficiently than […]

[Read more →]

Jon Pareles offers his take on user generated content in today’s New York Times:

It’s on Web sites like YouTube, MySpace, Dailymotion, PureVolume, GarageBand and Metacafe. It’s homemade art independently distributed and inventively promoted. It’s borrowed art that has been warped, wrecked, mocked and sometimes improved. It’s blogs and open-source software and collaborative wikis and personal […]

[Read more →]