Music
“It’s totally cool if I only use 00:30 seconds- that’s not infringement”
Aug 26th
This is a phrase I hear all too often. For some reason, this has been ingrained into our heads throughout the years… The idea that doing something wrong is fine if you do less of something that is wrong is preposterous to me. That is like thinking that speeding in your car is OK if you only go 10 miles over the limit rather than 15… speeding is speeding and copyright infringement is copyright infringement.
The proper legal term for this is “de minimis” use. Or in the long form latin, “de minimis non curat lex” -meaning the law does not care about trivial things. This is in fact a common defense to a law suit (much like it’s more overused big brother Fair Use). This is not a RIGHT… but a DEFENSE. There is a big difference in these two words.
De Minimis VS Infringement
photocopying a cartoon and putting it on the fridge = de minimis
photocopying a cartoon and placing it in an advertisement or displaying it publicly even in a very trivial way= infringement
So how does this apply to musical recordings…? The fact is, the de minimis rule does NOT apply to sound recordings. As decided by the Sixth Circuit court of appeals in Bridgeport Music Inc. VS Dimension Films. The use of any part of a sound recording in sampling or otherwise is infringement. Whether you agree or not, this is in fact the law now.
For more information on this and other topics in copyright infringement check out this page
Bottom line is- if you are going to use music in any length, way , or form- Pay the owner of the intellectual property.
10 Most Disastrous Music Industry Deals via Digital Music News
Aug 18th
File this one under too good not to mention.
If you don’t already read Digital Music News, you should. This is the brainchild of Industry pundit Paul Resnikoff. Established in 2004 (I think) this is one of the places I go for my up-to-date music industry info… Today’s post (excerpted below) is just a taste of the daily fodder. Also featured daily is a Job Board for all of those looking for a gig. Overall a pretty great resource and a good excuse to re-post the following:
The 10 Most Disastrous Music Industry Deals
(1) Terra Firma’s acquisition of EMI, $4.7 billion (2007)
Even Guy Hands admits he made a colossal mistake on this one. One of the last super-leveraged buyouts before the bust, EMI has now become a $4.7 billion-plus toxic mess for Terra Firma.
(2) CBS’ acquisition of Last.fm, $280 million (2007)
Scrobbling is cool and all – and this is still a very cool site – but few would “recommend” this deal today. Amidst predictable ad monetization challenges, the company has since switched to pay-only in certain European countries, outsourced full-length videos, and bid adieu to the original founders.
(3) Bertelsmann’s investments in Napster, $100 million (2000-onward)
In retrospect, Bertelsmann was the forward-thinking maverick. But in the moment, that stance created a legal sinkhole for the company, accused of facilitating widespread infringement by keeping the P2P alive. The in-fighting lasted years before expensive settlements torpedoed Bertelsmann with hundreds of millions in losses.
(4) MP3.com acquisition by Vivendi, $372 million (2001)
Before MySpace was even conceptualized, MP3.com was setting huge records for IPO valuations, label lawsuits, and band profiles. Problems quickly followed the inflated purchase, and the site was quickly dumped by Vivendi Universal in 2003.
(5) The Robbie Williams 360-Degree Deal, $160 million (2002)
Williams loves being able to walk the streets of Los Angeles without being recognized. EMI, which structured the pricey deal, is somehow less thrilled by that freedom.
(6) The Sony BMG Joint Venture (2004)
The 50-50 JV was like “tying two sinking rocks together,” according to one executive, and this seemed like a dead weight from the beginning. Bertelsmann walked away, and the combination was ultimately purchased by partner Sony Music Entertainment by 2008.
(7) WMG’s Investment in Imeem (2009)
“We do not intend to make more digital venture capital investments,” WMG chairman Edgar Bronfman told investors after suffering a $16 million write-off on Imeem in 2009. MySpace subsequently scooped the property for well under $1 million.
(8) WMG’s Purchase of Bulldog Entertainment, $16 million (2007)
Bulldog Entertainment Group was best known for coordinating tony concerts in the Hamptons. The company eventually cratered with estimated losses of $30 million.
(9) Any Deal Involving PlaysforSure…
This was a mistake that caused endless suffering, for music service (Yahoo Music, MTV Urge, Wal-Mart), player (Sony, SanDisk, Samsung), and consumer alike. In fact, even Microsoft bailed on its DRM-heavy solution with the launch of Zune.
(10) Best Buy’s Exclusive on Chinese Democracy…
Some comebacks are better than others, and Best Buy was left carrying a truckload of Guns N’ Roses CDs. That did little to kill the big box exclusive, however, as plenty of big-name artists have used the concept to shift serious tonnage.
For the complete article and to see others go here. Also be sure to follow them on Twitter for up to date coverage…
Autotune Is Not So Evil Now
Aug 9th
Full disclosure: I have been a longtime hater of Autotune.
For years, I have found Autotune to be repulsive… in pop music it makes up for singers’ inadequacies and in rap music it creates “music” for those who have no such talent. This disdain has been only further flamed by artists like T-Pain and Lil Wayne who have built entire careers around this technology (much like Zapp and Roger did on the back of the Talk Box (which at least required the singer to be able to hold a tune)).
Well now it is apparent. There is a fine use for this technology. Enter Autotune The News (@autotunethenews on twitter). I have know about these guys for a while as their antics using news footage of congress, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and the other list of Washington talking heads have brought about the random office chuckle, but not until now did they get that deep belly laugh… and a bit of entrepreneurial respect.
They recently took a seemingly innocent newscast featuring the near-victims of a home intruder in Alabama and remixed it… furthermore they posted it on iTunes and now it is No. 34 on the download charts!!!!!! That’s right folks… this tune beat Ke$ha’s “Your Love is my Drug” (like that is hard since she sucks).
Well anyways, here is a tale of witty folks with a cool idea making something of it. Enjoy the videos below… watch them in order to get the full affect. Also- be sure to follow these guys on Twitter… for more great parodies through the use of technology…
Subscribe to this… my personal case study
Jan 29th
Well, I know I have been a bad bad boy. My blogging as of late has been a bit lack luster and non-existant. If you are still reading. Thank You.
I have been in the process of working on my taxes over the past week or so and I had a bit o an epiphany. You see, when you are relegated to staying in the States while all of the talking heads of the music industry are in Cannes at Midem, you will find yourself enjoying the time you have by filling it up with things like tallying your own personal music tab from the past year for the purposes of writing some of it off (I am in the MUSIC business after all).
Point being… the buzz this year is all about Subscriptions. Subscriptions are going to save the music industry. Well- we knew this- that is why we created the Naxos Music Library years ago. Subscriptions are a very important part of our business model. It is good to hear all of this new buzz- But with the likes of Bob Lefsetz, Donald Passman, and other touting how this really could be the paradigm shift gives it a whole new value in my mind. The fact that you cant have a talk about digital music without Spotify coming up tells me that this is a move that is coming sooner than later.
Back to my taxes. I noticed a really interesting fact as I added up my tally from Amazon, , iTunes, eMusic, Classics Online, etc. The really interesting thing is I REALLY did spend more money on subscriptions this year than I did on a la carte purchases. This is a bit freaky to me as I spend a good deal of dough on music. But it is true. eMusic got the lion’s share of my money. This could be attributed to a number of things. 1st of all, I use eMusic as a discovery tool and as a catalog builder. I would never set out to buy Starship’s Greatest Hits, Gogol Bordello, or Boston, but eMusic facilitated this for me. These are what I consider great catalog fillers. I may not want to put them in queue on my iPod touch, but some time I may wish to hear them again and therefore I bought them… Move over to my iTunes and Amazon purchase patterns. The vast majority of music purchased through these outlets last year were singles. Radio hits. One Hit Wonders… whathaveyou. Call it what you want.. the crazy thing is I spent less on these than I did at eMusic. This tells me that I am either a) wasting too much money on eMusic.. of b) I would rather keep my monthly tab knowing that I can exhaust it on any mundane old albums my heart desires than go looking for those albums to pay for them in real time. I wonder if the rest of the music buying public would agree with this…?
I dont know if this proves any of the great music business thinkers’ concepts as this still neglects the difference between my eMusic subscription and a Spotify subscription. But it does make one thing evident. I WILL spend more money on music by the Album than I will by the single and eMusic’s model of giving me an allowance each month will continue to feed my album fetish. This is mostly a behavioral thing I suspect- but I still find it incredibly interesting.
Ok- thats all for now- I will try to be a better blogger in 2010.. Thanks
Oh.. and Happy 2010.. here’s a video to celebrate.
Music City Interactive (http://www/musiccityinteractive.com)
Nov 14th
I want to tell you about Music City Interactive. MCI is a site that was dreamed up over some great greek food with my friend Tony Groticelli. Tony and I were commenting on the fact that there were multiple factions of tech-minded folks in Nashville.. but they were quite scattered. I mean… we have Barcamp , Podcamp, Geek Breakfast, Digital Nashville, and probably a dozen other gather places for like-minded geeks but there was not one place you could go to find information on all of these… let alone learn about other interesting happenings around music city.
We decided that we would try to do something about it. We would establish a blog aggregator. A “Mashable” for Nashville’s music and technology set. Hence the brand spanking new blog: Music City Interactive. This is very young and at this point.. we are still REALLY working out the kinks, but the idea is- we will have multiple bloggers who write on various issues surrounding technology and music contribute via their RSS feeds. Here in one place- you will be able to find and learn about (hopefully) every facet of the music, social media, technology and where they all intersect.
CHECK IT OUT! More on this later.
Billboard Hollywood Film and TV Conference
Oct 31st
Well I just returned from the Billboard Hollywood Film and TV conference in LA. Boy let me tell you… this was a conference room full of naysayers. At a time when there are more opportunities for music… how is it that we can’t seem to correctly monetize it? This article I found on twitter points to many of the concerns happening at present in the industry. Shrinking budgets and growing costs are making breaking into the film world even more difficult than it has been in the past. It seems that when we as property owners give one concession price-wise… the studios begin to think this is going to be the modus operandi for remainder of their deals…
As an interesting contrast to this, we at Naxos are actually doing quite well in the licensing game. I attribute most of this to the fact that we are incredibly diversified in the licensing business. I feel we are lucky to have intellectual property that bodes well in so many different areas. Perhaps this is the silver lining to having such a niche product… after all Classical Music is not for everyone… But there IS a market for it. and I am thankful for that.
While there were many panels and events surrounding the conference.. several stick out to me as being the most valuable for my conference experience. Notably, the Music Supervisor Roundtable- the “State of the Union” , the Thursday keynote featuring Sasha Baron Cohen and his brother/composer Erran Baron Cohen, the behind the scenes look at “Glee” and last but not least, the “Music for Commercials and Beyond” panel featuring the creatives behind such popular commercials as the United Airlines, talking babies, and milk rock opera. <vids below>
Suprisingly the Baron Cohen’s were quite interesting. Erran actually is a classically trained trumpet player and composer and composes all of the music for his esteemed brother’s films. I never began to think that they actually gave a damn about the music in their productions- but it actually has quite a bit of bearing on their productions. This to me is a great thing!
Sasha Baron Cohen and Brother
The” Glee” panel was equally interesting as it addressed the marketing challenges of creating the series. Imagine taking the greatest rock songs ever written and then trying to convince the publisher that it is a good idea that you arrange it for show choir and put it on Fox. This is the challenge they faced at the inception of the series… Once they got the series running- the apparent crossover appeal of this music was realized when they began seeing massive single sales after each night’s episode. The theme song this week was RIAA gold certified and this is without any “real” record promotion. Their complete album drops in three weeks and they expect it to be a top 10 seller quickly! This is a great example of cross promotion between TV and the record industry. This to me is a huge success story.
Glee Panel- Lea Michelle
Of course one cannot go to the Billboard Conference without matriculating to the Hunnypot party. This year’s party was no disappointment. Once again at the “Heights” club on Hollywood Boulevard, PJ Bloom and his band of wild misfits brought tons of great bands, djs and networking with the creme de la creme of the film music industry. Great times were had by all and the party was rocking properly when “The Crystal Method” took the state at 11:00. From then on- they rocked my face off with some of the rawest beats I have heard in years. They made me miss and appreciate my old friend, Electronic Music… once again.
Crystal Method
All in All, this was a great experience once again. Every year, I find that I meet more creatives and find more connections in the vast film industry. This is definately a conference to visit if you are interested at breaking into this industry. Contacts abound.
Making your way as the “conductor” of your success
Oct 7th
Today as I read my daily liturgy of various blogs and blog posts I stumbled upon a short statement brought forth on Hypebot.
“Raise Your Baton” was the title of this post. This struck me on a number of levels as both a musician, lover of classical music, business person, and last but not least… the son of a conductor (not train, but music).
In this short post he spoke of the vast amount of resources available and the ease at which one can enter the business community these days whether it be as a record label, publisher, artist, or tech startup. He goes on to surmise that trying to do it all yourself will drive you nuts and the smartest of entrepreneurs should surround themselves with capable people who can help achieve and accomplish the task at hand. The smartest entrepreneur will raise their baton and become the conductor of the project.
This analogy is really great. Some of the people I respect most in this world were the ones willing to admit they didn’t know how to do everything. One such person always used to say- “I don’t know how to do everything… that’s why I surround myself with experts like youself (moi?)… who do.” Until now I always took this sentiment to be nothing more than a nice statement.. but in fact he is right. He IS the conductor. You see, as Bruce Houghton points out- the conductor doesn’t know how to play every instrument in the orchestra… but he(she) does know how to read music and he knows what the symphony should sound like. The source of my admiration IS the conductor of his business and it’s success.
So how do you become the conductor? Bruce accurately puts it as this… ” Start by learning your business. Assemble the players. Then raise your baton.” How simple… and perfect! Music to my ears.
Digital Music News’ Paul Resnikoff on new advances in music composition and the challanges they pose to traditional copyright interpretation
Oct 1st
As I was reading my daily dose of Digital Music News I stumbled upon this provocative adage to copyright and one challenge that we face moving ahead thanks to the advances of a California professor’s new composition software. This is but one point of the idiosyncrasy of composing a law in real time to keep up with our technological advances AND protect intellectual property owners… This is an uphill climb and is all but impossible to keep up with despite the CRB and copyright office’s best attempts. Now without further ado … Paul Resnikoff…
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What ‘Sounds Like’ Even More Disruption Ahead…
Despite the complicated debates, copyright infringement is essentially simple concept. A piece of intellectual property is owned by one party, and its unauthorized use by a third party is subject to penalty. That is, in theory – ‘casual’ piracy happens billions of times monthly, and plenty of debates arise over ownership (orphan works, splits, other disputes), or intent (Satriani v. Coldplay, for example).
That just scratches the surface, and volumes of literature are dedicated to the subject. Moreover, the body of law is being interpreted and created in real time. But outside of those mainline discussions, plenty of smart workarounds exist for those unable or disinterested in direct, expensive licensing processes. And it’s not infringement, as long as proper statutory publishing rates are paid.
Jump into a karaoke bar, and sing-a-longs frequently feature generic video scenes, lyrics and underlying (ie, publishing) tracks – not the recordings themselves. Or, hop onto the iTunes Store, and ‘sounds like’ versions of songs employ similar statutory workarounds. In fact, when Kid Rock withheld his content from iTunes, entrepreneurial studios quickly created sounds-like versions to capture sales from confused fans.
But what happens when a derivative work is created, one that resembles the original but is different? In pop music, copycat artists and songs happen all of the time, and they are perfectly legal. But as technology becomes more powerful, unique identifiers employed by successful composers can more easily be isolated and replicated.
Just recently, ArsTechnica author Jacqui Cheng profiled a computer-based composition technology called ‘EMI,’ or ‘Emmy,’ a software package created by University of California Santa Cruz professor David Cope. Emily essentially identifies and replicates a number of signatures unique to a particular composer, then creates a derivative work – sounds like Mozart, Beethoven, Cream, whatever. The package has since been succeeded by a more original computer composer called ‘Emily Howell,’ which attempts to move beyond derivative to truly self-generated works.
That seriously challenges the concept that ‘real’ music can only be created by real brains, not computers. But machine-based dissection and creation technology may also become part of the disruptive digital music fabric, and further upend traditional copyright concepts in the process.
American Idol + Ellen Degeneres = FAIL
Sep 11th
Well everyone,
It was announced this week that Ellen would be the new American Idol judge replacing Paula Abdul. No matter how you feel about Paula, it is hard to even infer that Ellen has 1/10th the musical prowess of her predecessor. This coupled with the news I just received of Ellen’s utter disrespect for music and the makers of music through her show’s refusal to pay royalties on the music “featured” on her show tells me that she no more belongs on AI than I do as the King of England.
According to Digital Music News, All four majors have now filed suit demanding that royalties be paid. The show’s producers have denied royalties to the copyright owners because they “did not roll that way.” This pathetic disregard for music, music makers, and copyright law proves to me that she has no place anywhere near this industry.
Her appointment as a judge on American Idol proves to me that the show’s producers are catering to the lowest common denominator, looking for the popular vote and continuing to dumb down this show until it falls into the oblivion. Let’s face it, it has been going down ever since season 1 and with this move it will continue to do so. No offense is meant to Ellen, as I do find her funny enough however she would be better suited alongside “The Hoff” on America’s got talent… save the music judging for musicians.
Okay I’m Done. Happy Weekend Everyone.
PS: Sorry about my laziness in posting lately… my cup overfloweth.
New Developments
Jul 28th
It has been a busy summer! I have enjoyed my fair share of boating trips, business travel and just plain summer fun. While I have been hard at work and play, I have also been working on a few things in the interwebs.
So for my 9-5 (more like 6:30am – 11:00pm) I have been tossing around the idea of starting a licensing-centric blog. DUH- I already have one of those- but this would be a more refined, professional concoction of randomness than the fine blog you are currently reading. This would be a kinder, gentler blog. (well, right now- it’s more like a blog-ette) This blog would be centered on the licensing of music… specifically Classical music, but not confined to the genre specifically. There will ultimately be a great deal of cross-posting as many of the topics I cover there will be of interest to Is This Binding. Plus I have high hopes that having another presence in the blogosphere will help drive traffic to my other muse, NaxosLicensing.com . that site is still under construction- but will ultimately be a one-stop destination for licensing Classical, World and Jazz music for film, TV, advertising, etc.
I am also quite proud to say that the Naxos Music Library- the product for which I was originally hired at Naxos has now officially come of age. In just 5 years it now features more than 500,000 tracks (that’s a HALF MILLION- people!!!) of Classical, Jazz, Folk, World, Jazz, and Rock music… a virtual college music library/public library music collection! In that time- we have also managed to make sure that this service has matriculated to the very top research institutions in the world! Basically every major University you can name is a subscriber and a great deal of public libraries are as well. It is now utilized in more than 28 different countries! <proud papa moment> If you havent ever checked it out- be sure to go take a look… there is free trial access available… take it for a test-drive.
Ok- that’s all for now… Til next time