Link Roundup, October 21

I keep accumulating links about music online, partly from listening to podcasts, partly from reading mailing-list messages, and partly from noticing shared items on Facebook.
Here are a few links to recent pieces I found interesting.

• Snocap CEO on layoffs: 'pioneers take arrows' | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
• Snocap's association with MySpace could have had a greater impact on the recording industry. It seems, though, that there's a difference between music discovery and sales of recordings.
• Universal Music Takes on iTunes
• Are labels really getting new ideas?
• Homepage | Jam Sessions | Ubisoft
• A music-playing "game" for the Nintendo DS, used in performance by Montreal's DJ Champion.
• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Madonna signs radical record deal
• Touring is where some musicians make their money.
• Free? Steal It Anyway - Forbes.com
• Radiohead's initiative shows that convenience is key.
• Apple, Tesco 'most to blame' for music biz crisis | The Register
• The economies of the recording industry should be reassessed.

Participation/Performance Playlist

Community Through Participation

Pop Geek Jonathan Coulton Succeeds by Giving Music Away

one advantage of giving away your music becomes readily apparent: The fans know all the words.

Not that the principle is really new but this is a good example of something we were discussing in class recently.

Online Businesses on Music

Been saving several links to share with you, having to do with music online, specifically with financial issues. My previous post should provide some context for my thinking about those issues. This post is an attempt to bring a few recent links together. Hope we can discuss some of those issues in class or in the forums for the course.

Opinion and, possibly, insight:

• Convenience Wins, Hubris Loses and Content vs. Context, a Presentation for Some Music Industry Friends at FISTFULAYEN
• An open letter to the RIAA

People and sites:

• The Powergeek 25 — the Most Influential People in Online Music
• Download This: YouTube Phenom Has a Big Secret
• Facebook Working On a Music Platform For Bands; Not iTunes Killer, But MySpace; Apple Tieup

Music distribution, business models:

• Brier Dudley | Amazon's unlocked music still might get you sued
• First Radiohead...now Nine Inch Nails bids adieu to music label
• Has-beens jump on free downloads bandwagon
• Band releases album on floppy disk

Of course, many other things are happening in the online world, in terms of music.

Where to Start with my Other Music Blog

I set up this Ethnomusicology blog to post items relevant to the course ANTH398D Selected Topics in Anthropology: Ethnomusicology. Thought these blogging activities might complement what we do in class and through Moodle. I tend to think a lot about music while I'm browsing and blogging tends to influence my teaching, so the connection was obvious.

But there's another music-related blog to which I contribute: blog.criticalworld.net. This other blog is associated with CriticalWorld, a site dedicated to Thinking Globalisation Through Music. (Though that blog is part of CriticalWorld.net and though I have been involved with CriticalWorld for a while, my blogging activities there are completely autonomous.)

Through that other music blog, I tend to think a lot about financial issues relating to music in the context of "Digital Life." These issues have been mentioned in class so I thought I'd give something of a rundown of several of my very own blog entries about these issues. This is not meant as a shameless plug, a "vanity post" or an anthology. My hope is that looking at these entries, you might understand my approach a bit more.

For instance, I've been having fun with "business models" relating to music in a broad context:

• New Models for Music as Business
• New Models for Music as Business: Attali Got It!
• New Models for Music as Business: Brazilian Tecno Brega
• Fun with Music Business Scenarios
• New Models for Music As Business: Majors Edition
• New Models for Music as Business: NIN Edition

As is probably obvious to anyone, one of the main targets for reflections about music-related businesses is the so-called "Recording Industry":

• RIAA’s Landslide Victory
• Thinking Back on the Record Industry

Digital Rights Management (copy-protection on commodities related to copyrighted items) is a frequently mentioned issue:

• Majors, Indies, and DRM
• DRM-Freedom and Artist Recognition
• Effects of EMI’s DRM-free Downloads on Apple’s iTunes
• The Premium for DRM-freedom

As I mentioned in class, there are things to say about ringtones:

• Reactions to Ringtone
• Cost of Ringtones (Rant)

Some of my posts tend to be playful:

• Music and Coffee: “Fair-Trade” and The Global Order (Draft)
• The Day The Music Undied?
• Zune Debacle: The Silliness Which Goes On Going On

And, overall, I've set up broad categories to classify posts on that blog:

• Fresh for Direct reactions to news pieces and current events
• Soapbox for Rants, monologues, tirades, personal reactions, advocacy
• Sandbox for Playful, fun, distracting, collaborative items
• Ongoing for Open discussions of items relevant to CriticalWorld
• CriticalWorld for Events, activities, internal links to the CriticalWorld site and contributors

Of course, I'd appreciate your comments on any of these items and my hope is that some of them can generate discussion.