Tag: artists rights

The Music Industry’s YouTube Problem | Music Ally

“Google are not music people, and that scares me.” This single quote from Colin Daniels, of Australian independent music firm Inertia, summarised a whole conference worth of anti-Google unrest at this year’s Midem, which spilled over onto YouTube too.

Whenever a YouTube exec appeared in a panel session, they were put on the defensive about the company’s approach to music and creators, often by pointed questions from audience members – and on one occasion, angry heckling.

After the last year of Spotify taking constant flak over streaming’s value to artists, at Midem that company was being praised – “everyone there are music people,” said Daniels before making his Google comment in a session on indie label strategies – while YouTube (and, more surprisingly, Facebook) were being attacked.

Music good, Big Tech evil. We’ve been writing about this clash for years now, but it was more open and more emotional than we remember at any previous Midem. Yet we also found a more positive, if challenging takeaway from this year’s conference: the music industry can shed its victim status and make these Big Tech platforms work better for rightsholders and creators.

READ THE FULL STORY AT MUSIC ALLY:
http://musically.com/2014/02/07/music-allys-midem-recap-the-music-industrys-youtube-problem/

RELATED:

Meet the New Boss: Google’s Kent Walker Shows Us What Monopoly Looks Like

Kent Walker’s Grooveshark Problem

Worshiping the Great God Scale: Google’s Four Great Lies as read to you by Kent Walker

by Trichordist Editor

U2 Manager Paul McGuinness on Artists Rights and Piracy

What needs to be done is simple, take the sites down and keep them down. If the pirates can manage to replace their sites instantly with legions of bots, Google, with their brilliant algorithm engineers can counter it.

We need the technology giants like Google to do the things that labels, the publishers, the artists, the writers repeatedly ask them to do. They need to show corporate and social responsibility. Take down the illegal sites, keep them down and clear the way for the legal digital distributers like iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, the new Jimmy Iovine Beats service, which promises to be a very serious competitor. Those services now exist, it is no longer acceptable to say that the music industry is not available, not making its wares available online.

We’re all aware in this room that subscription is now replacing downloading — legal or illegal — but we do need those mega corporations to make a genuine effort to cooperate and feed the industry that has been so good to them.

READ THE FULL STORY AT BILLBOARD:
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/global/5893877/u2-manager-paul-mcguinness-receives-billboards-industry-icon-award

RELATED:

U2 Exploited by United Airlines, Jet Blue, HP, State Farm, Westin, Urban Outfitters, Sprint, AT&T, Amazon, Disney Resorts, Crate and Barrel

 

by Trichordist Editor

90%+ Of Artists Are Undiscovered | Next Big Sound

A lot of interesting 2013 Year End Data from Next Big Sound. We’ve been hearing a lot about how artists are going to be “empowered” by the internet and have new “middle class careers” without record labels. Thus far at over 13 years in, the numbers tell a very different story. We see more exploitation and less empowerment for professional sustainable careers.

All of the artists in our system were then grouped according to these benchmarks, and we found that an overwhelming number fall within the Undiscovered stage, in fact more than 90%. Close to 7% of the artists we are tracking are still Developing, but only about 1% of all the artists in our system can be considered Mainstream or even Mega stars.

Piracy has eliminated the incentive for investment in anything other than what can become the largest, most mainstream, major cross platform merchandising brands. The record labels have “adapted and evolved” to the reality of the new digital marketplace by building brands instead of bands that can be monetized over various platforms, like you know… t-shirts, touring, merchandising, endorsements, sync placements, etc.

Welcome to the future piracy brought you.

READ THE FULL REPORT AT NEXT BIG SOUND:
https://www.nextbigsound.com/industryreport/2013/

RELATED:

If the Internet is working for Musicians, Why aren’t more Musicians Working Professionally?

The Smoking Gun of Internet Exploitation of Musicians and Songwriters

by Trichordist Editor

Blake Morgan Launches irespectmusic.org and #irespectmusic hashtag

Musician and artists rights advocate Blake Morgan has launched a new website, http://irespectmusic.org/ and the hashtag #irespectmusic

Blake is known not only for his music as a solo artist, and for the label he runs, ECR Music Group but also for his inspiring editorials on HuffPo:

Art and Music Are Professions Worth Fighting for

Pandora Needs to Do Right By Artists

We’re looking forward to seeing what he’s been up too…

BlakeIRespectMusic

RELATED:

Tim Westergren Emails Underscore Tension Between Pandora, Artists

Google, Advertising, Money and Piracy. A History of Wrongdoing Exposed.

Over 50 Major Brands Supporting Music Piracy, It’s Big Business!

by trichordist

David Lowery Talks Artists Rights | The BBC [video]

When he’s not on the road touring, Lowery is teaching students at the University of Georgia about the business of the music industry.

He is a vocal critic of that industry, and particularly how technology – from illegal downloading to new streaming services – has made it harder for artists to keep control of their work and to earn a living from it.

WATCH THE FULL STORY ON BBC VIDEO:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25771368

by Trichordist Editor

Musician/Producer Michael Beinhorn Added to NAMM Artists Rights Panel Thu 1/23 – 3pm

We’ve just gotten word that Musician/Producer Michael Beinhorn has been added to the NAMM 2014 Artists Rights & Internet Panel.

Michael brings a unique perspective as a musician and producer whose work spans from such classic and ground breaking albums as Herbie Hancock’s “Future Shock” which featured “Rockit” to seminal rock albums for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marylin Manson, Hole, Soundgarden and to many more to mention.

Michael Beinhorn Discography

NAMM 2014 – Copyright, The Internet and You
http://www.namm.org/thenammshow/2014/hot-zone/copyright-internet-and-you-panel

Day: Thursday, Jan 23

Start Time: 3:00 pm (One Hour) 

Room: The Forum (203 A-B)

Presenter / Moderator: Gregory Butler

Why are content creators seeing less money than ever while their art is being used so widely? Join our panel of experts as they look at the challenges of navigating the new music industry, piracy and intellectual property.

Panelists:
* Lucy Miyaki of Tashaki Miyaki
* Manda Mosher of Calico
* Reinhold Heil, Film & TV Composer
* John Cate, fmr Tunecore CFO
* Tom Biery, Artist Management
* Brian McNelis, Music Supervisor / Soundtrack Album Producer

RELATED :

NAMM 2014 Artists Rights Panel, Actually Features Artists…

by Trichordist Editor

Google Can Bite Me | The Illusion of More

Never wanting to lose an opportunity to be bizarrely two-faced, Google is sending around a little graphic today to all you GMail users implying that stopping SOPA in January of 2012 actually enabled creativity to continue to thrive on the Web. Never mind that nothing in SOPA could have stopped you or me or any other would-be creator from uploading our works, ideas, or captured events to the Web; that’s just pesky reality.

But Google isn’t satisfied just to effect public policy in its own interests, it also wants to behave like the abusive and negligent father, who creepily shows up with a smile and a hug when his kid wins an award or becomes famous.

After all, this week isn’t just the anniversary of SOPA Blackout Day, it’s also the week Google received its 100 millionth takedown notice from recording artists who would rather not have their works exploited without permission or compensation. So, the whole, “we protected creativity together” message just kinda makes the skin crawl. Y’know?

READ THE FULL POST AT THE ILLUSION OF MORE:
http://illusionofmore.com/google-bite-me/

by Trichordist Editor

FCC Shelves Pandora’s Bid For South Dakota Radio Station | Billboard

In a setback to its music licensing plans, Pandora has received word from the FCC that for the time being it is no longer processing its application to transfer ownership of the broadcasting license for KXMZ, the Rapid City, South Dakota radio station it acquired last June. Pandora had hoped to take advantage of the lower rates that internet streaming services owned by terrestrial radio stations enjoy.

READ THE FULL STORY AT BILLBOARD:
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/5869791/fcc-shelves-pandoras-bid-for-south-dakota-radio

by Trichordist Editor

NAMM 2014 Artists Rights Panel, Actually Features Artists…

We’ve written here before how so called “Artists Rights” or “Artists & Copyright” panels at conventions such as CES and SXSW seem to be lacking any artists who are actually interested in protecting their rights and copyrights. So we’re pleased to see that NAMM has gotten it right and we encourage those going to the convention to drop in on the panel.

NAMM 2014 – Copyright, The Internet and You
http://www.namm.org/thenammshow/2014/hot-zone/copyright-internet-and-you-panel

Day: Thursday, Jan 23

Start Time: 3:00 pm (One Hour) 

Room: The Forum (203 A-B)

Presenter / Moderator: Gregory Butler

Why are content creators seeing less money than ever while their art is being used so widely? Join our panel of experts as they look at the challenges of navigating the new music industry, piracy and intellectual property.

Panelists:
* Lucy Miyaki of Tashaki Miyaki
* Manda Mosher of Calico
* Reinhold Heil, Film & TV Composer
* John Cate, fmr Tunecore CFO
* Tom Biery, Artist Management
* Brian McNelis, Music Supervisor / Soundtrack Album Producer

by Trichordist Editor

Don Henley Talks Google Versus Musicians | LA Times

In the technocratic world of Google (which owns YouTube), my musical brethren and I are no longer artists; we’re not creators — we are merely “content providers.” Copyright and intellectual property mean nothing to the technocracy. They’ve built multi-billion-dollar, global empires on the backs of creative, working people who are uncompensated. They’re wrecking entire industries.

…

There might be a legislative fix, but there seems to be no political will. Google alone has about a dozen lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Google spent over $11 million last year on lobbying and over $18 million the previous year. They spread the money and the propaganda around like manna, employing their favorite buzz words like “innovation.” Regulation, they say, will “stifle innovation,” and the legislators all nod in agreement. It’s an oligarchy, plain and simple.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT THE LA TIMES:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-don-henley-qa-20140115,0,5745299.story

by trichordist