Author: Trichordist Editor

Trichordist Editor

The End of Quiet Music | The New York Times

There’s a lot to take away from the recent opinion piece in the New York Times from Alina Simone about the new (but not better) realities for musicians and creators. Here are two paragraphs that have resonated with us, asking the important questions about where we are, and where we are going.

Instead of helping these musicians, we tell them they just have to adapt to the new realities of the music economy. And short of embedding MP3s in toilet paper, they have. Bands have demonstrated remarkable creativity in trying to monetize whatever they can to make up for the inability to, er, monetize their music itself. They will come over and play Xbox 360 with you or personally record your outgoing voice mail message.

We’ve placed the entire onus of changing-with-the-times on musicians, but why can’t the educational, cultural and governmental institutions that support the arts adapt as well, extending the same opportunities to those whose music provides the soundtrack to our lives? If they don’t, Darwinism will probably ensure that only the musical entrepreneurs survive. I can’t say if the world of music will be better or worse off if that happens, but it will certainly be a lot louder.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/the-end-of-quiet-music/?_r=0

by Trichordist Editor

Why Copyright Infringement is Theft | Copyhype

This post by  Devlin Hartline at Copyhype was Cross-posted on the Law Theories blog.

In the never-ending copyright debate, one often comes across certain words the usage of which both sides vehemently disagree upon. One such point of contention is the use of the word “theft” to describe copyright infringement. Ars Technica ran an article a few years back where Vice President Joe Biden was quoted as saying that “[p]iracy is flat, unadulterated theft.” Copyhype’s Terry Hart had a post a week later discussing the infringement-as-theft meme, mentioning the fact that even Justice Breyer, a copyright skeptic, had referred to deliberate infringement as “garden-variety theft.”1 The response from the other side of the debate was predictable, with the usual suspects demanding that copyright infringement is not theft—though the skeptics conspicuously neglected to define the word theft or to actually explain why it’s wrong to refer to infringement as theft.

READ THE FULL POST AT COPYHYPE:
http://www.copyhype.com/2013/09/why-copyright-infringement-is-theft/

by Trichordist Editor

Grand Theft Auto V : How Profits Soar when Piracy Is Managed.

Both the PS3 and the XBOX 360 have anti-piracy and digital rights management mechanisms in place that lock out users who are detected to have loaded cracked or unauthorized versions of the games.

It’s no wonder then that Grand Theft Auto 5 is the fastest selling entertainment product to reach one billion dollars in gross revenue. In just three days the game that took over $250 million dollars and years to produce had set a new record.

This is what we should all be looking at. This is the kind of wild imagination, innovation and investment that is possible when piracy is managed into acceptable levels. Of course we know there may be people who find functional work-a-rounds, but they are largely the exception, not the rule, and the numbers pretty much prove it.

What is interesting about the release of GTA V is that it looks more like the release of an iphone than a new album or movie. In other words, it is a digital entertainment release with the same potential of sales as a piece of hardware (or pre-internet piracy entertainment products).

This alone illustrates the possibilities for the size and scope of the digital entertainment market with adequate (not perfect) anti-piracy measures in place. You’ll also note that the #2 and #3 fastest selling products are also console video games which employ the same anti-piracy mechanisms.

With an estimated production/marketing budget of $265 million, GTA V is not only the most expensive video game of all time, but also more expensive than most of today’s Hollywood blockbusters. Considering this, it seems only fair to compare GTA’s commercial success to that of Hollywood movies.

READ THE FULL STORY AT STATISTICA:
http://www.statista.com/topics/868/video-games/chart/1501/most-successful-entertainment-products/

by Trichordist Editor

SoundExchange and BandPage Collaborate to Put $2M in Unclaimed Royalties in Musicians Pockets | Music Industry News Wire

Music Industry Newswire reports on some good news!

WASHINGTON, D.C. /Music Industry Newswire/ — SoundExchange, a music industry non-profit focused on distributing digital performance royalties to recording artists and record labels, and BandPage, a leading solution for musicians to manage their presence online, recently teamed up to notify recording artists of unclaimed royalties with SoundExchange.

Together the two groups identified more than $2 million in unclaimed digital performance royalties for thousands of BandPage musicians who have not yet registered with SoundExchange. Bandpage musicians with unclaimed performance royalties will be notified by BandPage directly via email.

READ THE FULL POST AT MUSIC INDUSTRY NEWS WIRE:
http://musicindustrynewswire.com/2012/08/07/min5749_140533.php/soundexchange-and-bandpage-collaborate-to-put-2m-in-unclaimed-royalties-in-musicians-pockets/

by Trichordist Editor

Hotfile’s Loss Will be Indie Filmmakers’ Gain | Vox Indie

Ellen Seidler at Vox Indie takes a detailed look at how the recent decision in the Hot File case will effect indie filmmakers and other creators.

MPAA victory against Hotfile is a victory shared by all content creators hurt by online piracy

The best news in the fight against online piracy since Megaupload’s demise came yesterday as the MPAA annouced a big victory in their copyright infringement lawsuit against Hotfile, a cloud-based cyberlocker website known to harbor pirated movies, music, books and more. Though specific details of the court decision won’t be released for another two weeks, the judge issued a summary judgement in favor of the plaintiffs.

READ THE FULL POST AT VOX INDIE:
http://voxindie.org/hotfile-loses-copyright-infringement-case#sthash.WB0oxGhx.dpuf

by Trichordist Editor

Music Piracy – An Artist’s Opinion | Sara Tiemogo

Music piracy is stealing. And it does hurt the musician. Over the past decade, we have gradually shifted from physical distribution to digital distribution with the advancement of mp3 players, specifically the advancements of Apple and it’s “iProducts”. Digital distribution now accounts for more than 52% of the music industry in the US.

But there was a time during the shift when people had difficulty placing “value” on a digital product, with tangible products being of more value. This is what led people to believe that they aren’t really “stealing”, because a file can be duplicated an infinite number of times and not “cost” the musician anything. But it does cost us.

READ THE FULL POST HERE:
http://saratiemogo.com/blog/music-piracy-an-artists-opinion/

by Trichordist Editor

Getting the Government Out of Songwriting: Voluntary Licenses Should Replace Consent Decrees or Compulsory Licenses

This is an absolute MUST READ for all songwriters.

Music Technology Policy

[Editor Charlie sez, this article originally appeared in the Huffington Post.]

Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is holding a useful series of thought provoking hearings before the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet reviewing the current state of the U.S. Copyright Act. The most recent hearing in this series was on September 18, entitled “The Role of Voluntary Agreements in the U.S. Intellectual Property System“.

This is a very important subject to songwriters. It is not widely known that songwriters are highly regulated by the government through two primary mechanisms — the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees dating from the middle of the last century and the compulsory mechanical license dating from 1909. The Congress should consider abandoning both in favor of voluntary licenses.

Terminate the ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees

ASCAP and BMI each grant blanket licenses for the exclusive right to publicly perform…

View original post 626 more words

by Trichordist Editor

Google attacked by MPs over failure to curb music and film piracy | The Guardian UK

Company accused of ‘derisory’ attempts to stop many illegal downloads amid concerns over level of influence in coalition

Google will be criticised by MPs for making “derisory” attempts to curb music and film piracy and using its “perceived power and influence” at the heart of David Cameron’s government to shore up its position.

The Commons culture, media and sport select committee accused the search engine of offering the thinnest of excuses to avoid taking action against widespread piracy, a problem that the committee claimed is costing the creative industries millions of pounds in lost revenue a year.

Tory MP John Whittingdale, the chairman of the committee, said his fellow MPs were “unimpressed by Google’s continued failure to stop directing consumers to illegal, copyright infringing material on the flimsy excuse that some of the sites may also host some legal content. The continuing promotion of illegal content through search engines is simply unacceptable, and efforts to stop it have so far been derisory.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/26/google-mps-music-film-piracy

by Trichordist Editor

Kim Dotcom slammed as ‘chubby Che Guevara’ at music body the BPI’s annual general meeting | The Gaurdian UK

We’ve recently posted about the number of artists speaking out about being exploited by internet corporations. Here are some recent rumblings from across the pond…

Former Longpigs star and current co-CEO of Featured Artists Coalition Crispin Hunt calls for labels to reveal Megaupload mogul ‘as the self-interested privateer that he is’

“No artist with anything worth saying wants to live in a medieval world of cottage industry that Kim Dotcom and co prescribe, retraining as a plumber in the day and making bedroom albums, uploaded to an ocean of mediocrity along with the 10,000 other works of genius uploaded to SoundCloud every day, eking a living from selling CDs and t-shirts at poorly-attended gigs, peopled by an audience of well-wishing friends, who all crowdfunded their mates’ albums, exhausted at the choice of 30 gigs a night to see in Norwich alone, and bored by the endless tours of ageing dads on stage who would much rather be settled down watching Later with the kids than donning Paul Weller-style Indie Man Hair and flogging around the toilets of Britain in a splitter, whilst some kid rips the life-work of their youth from HulkShare because he wants to spend his money on Gran Turismo 25.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GUARDIAN UK:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/04/kim-dotcom-crispin-hunt-piracy-bpi

by Trichordist Editor