I went to the UK launch of Chris Anderson’s new book ‘FREE‘ last night which unsurprisingly was a very busy event since he is a bit of a digital media pop star. With being a celebrity come the critics that have to proof that your ideas are in fact rubbish and that try to find examples where “The Long Tail” does not work and where “FREE” destroyed jobs.
I’m not one of those guys. However I had to think of something when Chris was talking about some of his ideas last night. They gave out free copies of the book (an abridged version, not the full one) so I can even quote him now. He is writing:
“What the Internet does is combine all three, compounding the price declines with a triple play of technology: processors, bandwidth, and storage. As a result, the net annual deflation rate of the online World is nearly 50 percent, which is to say that whatever it costs YouTube to stream a video today will cost half as much in a year.”
Although I agree that the above applies to any technology costs this does not work for any licensing expenses. The licensing fees for content is already the biggest expense for many services that stream or otherwise deliver content to consumers. Although there is certain evidence that the cost of content is going down (the PRS has recently lowered they per stream royalty for music streaming services) I don’t believe that this trend will keep on going at a rate of 50% per year.
Nevertheless, Chris Anderson’s book ‘FREE’ looks like another must read for anyone who is interested in how technology changes moder day economics.
Those who listen to my show on a regular basis (and understand German) will see that Gerd Leonhard and myself share many ideas about the future of recorded music. He put together a brief overview on his thoughts in the YouTube video below.
It’s a great summary and there is a lot in those 10 mins – might be worth watching twice.
EDIT: as just pointed out by Chris, there is of course a second part to the above:
I mentioned this in my show already: I find it very hard to add anything new to the Michael Jackson ‘discussions’ – it almost feels like it has all been said: obviously a great loss for music regardless of the controversy. The first album I owned was “Thriller’ on cassette tape.
1. Plastic Operator ‘Folder’
2. Sia ‘Electric Bird’
3. Ben Gibbard ‘Thriller’
4. Michael Jackson ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’
5. Fol Chen ‘Cable TV’
6. Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons ‘Beggin’
7. The Crystal Method featuring Emily Haines ‘Come Back Clean’
8. Tortoise ‘Minors’
9. Clark ‘Rainbow Voodoo’
10. Tujiko Noriko ‘Call My Name’
11. AGF ‘My Most Amazing New Patch’
12. Royal City ‘I Called But You Were Sleeping’
Because of the tube strike in London we had to cancel this event but we have now confirmed a new date.
We look forward to seeing you on the 1st July 2009 at the William to discuss Videos & Music. You can find all details below:
In all our previous OpenMusicMedia sessions the focus has primarily been on music – we talked about recommendations, live music, different ways of consuming recorded music and of course how the whole ecosystem of music works (or not) and what has to happen to make it work in the future.
For our next night we want to discuss an art form which has always been closely related to music: videos. We have invited Caroline Bottomley who is the founder of Radar Music Videos, “a music video commissioning platform and music video director network” to present us with her ideas on the future of music videos. She will be explaining why her website is important for musicians and video producers and from there we will try and explore how digital technology has been affecting visual content.
As always the conversation will kept very broad – topics we want to talk about include:
Do artists need music videos these days?
Is it easier of harder to get exposure for your music videos in the age of YouTube?
What makes a video ‘viral’?
As always this will be an open discussion and you will set the topics for this night. We’ll be starting the discussion at around 7pm but feel free to be there by 6pm and have a drink with us. You can find all the details below, if you have any questions, leave a comment or contact us via twitter.
The event is free to open to everyone but if you can please RSVP at our new Facebook group.
Wednesday, 10th June 2009 1st July 2009
6:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Brazil. What a great time I had. Dancing, swimming, meeting great people, learning.
I like it when places still surprise you even though you think you know something about them already. Real poverty for example: we (Westerners) think that we have seen the stats and therefore know about poor people but it’s not until you really see it that you start to understand.
I was there for the Porto Musical conference and did a talk on digital music. It’s nice to see how people react to my ideas and thoughts, there seem to be a real energy in the music business in Brazil.
I was blown away in many ways and am sure that I will be back soon.
Sorry for the delay in updating my shows, it’s not the jetlag but the 24 hours of travelling that kills you.
Playlist 17/06/09
1. The Wave Pictures ‘Bumble Bee’
2. Fink ‘Sort Of Revolution’ (The Cinematic Orchestra Remix)
3. Cougar ‘Stay Famous’
4. TRV$DJAM ‘COACHELLA 4′
5. Vetiver ‘Strictly Rule’
6. Grizzly Bear ‘Owner Of A Lonely Heart’
7. Chad VanGaalen ‘Willow Tree’
8. Beth Jeans Houghton ‘Night Swimmer’
9. Grasscut ‘High Down’
10. Riceboy Sleeps ‘Happiness’
11. The Fugees ‘Ready or Not’
12. Moderat ‘Seamonkey’
Playlist 24/06/09
1. Phoenix ‘Lisztomania’
2. Vetiver ‘Strictly Rule’
3. The Flaming Lips ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
4. The Twilight Sad ‘Three Seconds of Air’
5. Finn ‘Dew’
6. Lykke Li ‘Tonight’ (YN Piano Version)
7. Riceboy Sleeps ‘Happiness’
8. Grizzly Bear ‘Owner Of A Lonely Heart’
9. La Roux ‘In For The Kill’ (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey Remix)
10. TRV$DJAM ‘COACHELLA 4′
Today I talked a bit about the idea that the internet is ‘free’. There will be a blog post following up from this but essentially my point is that there seems to be this mind-set that all content on the internet is free. I argue that we might not pay for it directly when we consume it but that someone will have to pick up the bill.
Take this podcast as an example: it might seem free to you but in reality you are (probably) paying to access the internet and I pay for any streaming costs.
1. Tears For Fears ‘Mad World’
2. We Fell To Earth ‘Lights Out’
3. Grizzly Bear ‘Two Weeks’
4. Eels ‘My Timing Is Off’
5. Bibio ‘Haikuesque (When She Laughs)’
6. Beth Jeans Houghton ‘NIGHT SWIMMER’
7. Withered Hand ‘Oldsmobile Car’
8. Sharon Van Etten ‘Consolation Prize’
9. Phosphorescent ‘It’s Not Supposed To Be That Way’
10. Zoey Van Goey ‘City Is Exploding’
11. Jason Lytle ‘Ghost Of My Old Dog’
12. Metric ‘Help I’m Alive’
13. Simian Mobile Disco ‘Audacity of Huge’ (feat. Chris Keating)
14. Moderat ‘Seamonkey’
Many of my readers will of course be aware of Seth Godin but for those who haven’t heard of him: make sure you check out his blog, his books and start with the talk below from TED.
If you feel like me and you need some inspiration at work after a long weekend just watch this:
Coldplay’s ‘LeftRightLeftRightLeft‘ album gave me a good excuse to play ‘Viva La Vida’ – a track that normally wouldn’t make it on my show.
The fact that this album is available for free download on the artist website is a great example of a well known artists wanting to ‘own’ the relationship with fans of their recorded music. No doubt that all musicians have some direct relationship with their fans but the recorded music part of that would normally be controlled by a record label.
I went to the UK launch of Chris Anderson’s new book ‘FREE‘ last night which unsurprisingly was a very busy event since he is a bit of a digital media pop star. With being a celebrity come the critics that have to proof that your ideas are in fact rubbish and that try to find examples where “The Long Tail” does not work and where “FREE” destroyed jobs.
I mentioned this in my show already: I find it very hard to add anything new to the Michael Jackson ‘discussions’ – it almost feels like it has all been said: obviously a great loss for music regardless of the controversy. The first album I owned was “Thriller’ on cassette tape.
