Into Tech

It still amuses me how often when we talk about specific music business models, defenders of the old system rush in to explain why any particular example is an exception. For years, we showed examples of less well known musicians embracing these kinds of new business models, critics would complain that they might work for unknown musicians who have “nothing to lose” and need attention more than anything else, but it would never ever work for a big star who has too much to lose. Then, of course, we talked about big time musicians like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails embracing these kinds of models, and the critics said “well, sure, it works for them with their well recognized name, but it would never work for unknown artists.” Hell, someone said that just yesterday in response to a post here, leading another commenter to jokingly (I hope) coin the phrase “Masnick’s Law”, which is loosely defined as

“in any conversation about musicians doing something different to achieve fame and/or fortune someone will inevitably attempt to make the argument that ‘it only worked for them because they are big/small and it will never work for someone who is the opposite,’ no matter how much evidence to the contrary might be readily available.”

I might expand on that definition a bit to have it go beyond just big/small. People will keep looking for excuses why each example is an exception, (big/small just being an easy such reason) to the point that they’ll eventually miss the fact that all of those exceptions are the rule.

Anyway, based on all of this, it will be interesting to see how Girl Talk’s new album does. Girl Talk is a one man DJ once mentioned (positively) in Congress as an example of why traditional copyright laws might not make sense anymore. With the release of his latest album, he’s decided to use a Radiohead-style model, with a few improvements. That is, rather than just a pure “give it away and pray,” he’s giving people an additional reason to buy — though I think he could still put together a better model. His is set up so you can pay what you want (including nothing at all) and get 320 kbps MP3 files, but if you pay over $5, he offers FLAC files as well, and at $10 you’ll also get a copy of the physical CD when it comes out. If you pay $0, he does ask that you fill out a little survey explaining why. There still are some problems with this model (it’s still a little too much like a give it away and pray model), but overall, it’s quite similar to Radiohead’s experiment.

Now, of course, all the folks who insisted that Radiohead’s model would never work for a relatively obscure musician are supposed to now insist that this model won’t work at all for Girl Talk, right? But what happens if Girl Talk is actually happy with the results, whether in direct payment amounts or in the fact that it gets him more publicity? Will they finally admit that the model isn’t just an exception?

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There are those that love Sony’s Rolly dancing robot and those who think the Rolly should be used like the rugby ball it looks like and booted off the nearest cliff.

Well, Sega and Hasbro have teamed up with an unusual Rolly rival which takes a new look at music-themed bots.

The striking looking A.M.P. (Automated Music Personality or Ampbot) stands 2.4 feet tall, making it a much different proposition to the tiny Rolly straight off. It stands on two large wheels and comes with an iPod/MP3 cradle on its back.

Many people take their skinny laptops and whiz-bang MP3 players for granted these days but just over 50 years ago, digital music was a much different prospect.

The BBC has unearthed what it believes to be the oldest computer generated music recordings but, before you go dusting off those dancing shoes, it’s Baa Baa Black Sheep.

Last year, a private equity firm took over the major record label EMI and announced that things were going to be different. It wasn’t going to be anti-fan. It was going to look on the success stories of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails not as a threat, but as an opportunity. It even threatened to leave the RIAA and the IFPI unless it pulled back on suing fans. It then went out and hired internet savvy executives who would (hopefully) contribute a different perspective to the running of a major record label.

But, in the midst of all of this, it hasn’t really backed down from a variety of ridiculous lawsuits. For example, it’s been a part of a lawsuit against an ISP that refuses to spy on its users and cut off those who do unauthorized file sharing. We also noted last year that it had sued Michael Robertson’s startup, MP3Tunes. Now we tend to have a lot of fun accusing Robertson of having the same marketing strategy with every company he starts: piss off some established company, get sued. It seems to happen with pretty much every company he starts from MP3.com to Lindows/Linspire to SIPphone. So it really wasn’t a huge surprise to see MP3Tunes sued — though, it’s difficult to see how a personal music storage locker that doesn’t allow sharing could possibly be infringing.

However, now it appears that the “new” more “friendly” EMI isn’t just suing MP3Tunes. According to Boing Boing and Michael Robertson, it’s trying to extend the lawsuit to go after Robertson personally, saying that he should be personally liable. As you probably know, one of the purposes of a corporate structure is to limit the liability of the executives of a company. To go after Robertson personally makes very little sense unless the idea is to intimidate. Many executives will quickly settle in such circumstances so as to not open themselves up to such a huge liability. On top of that, the chilling effects are tremendous. Others won’t even think of starting innovative services, for fear of being personally liable in a lawsuit.

Unless EMI pulls back its lawyers, I think we can safely conclude that the “new” EMI hasn’t really changed much from the old EMI.

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The mainstream MP3 market is a cut-throat place for any company so all you can really do is mess around with the shape, boost storage or cut prices in order to stand out. Philips thinks going square will help its chances.

This is the new Go Gear range of 2GB and 4GB portable audio players, two with integrated FM tuners and two non-FM players. They all have a 128 x64 OLED display with a ‘mirror finish’ - like those 1980s shades - but when you touch it, all the track information appears.

As kids toys go, Lego gets around more than most and with a new Lego Mp3 player on the block it looks likely that Lego will remain one of the most modified objects available.
This is the Homade MP3 i-Player which looks like a Lego brick, weighs a featherweight 26g and joins a growing family [...]

Hot on the heels of Amazon MP3, social networking site MySpace has announced plans to launch a music download service to rival iTunes.
Called MySpace Music, the service has the backing of Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal which will act as partners in the venture. It will offer DRM-free downloads, paid for videos, free music [...]

A US company called PDASmart has launched a new battery for the iPod 5G 30GB player that promises to significantly extend your viewing and listening pleasure.
The company claims that initial tests for the battery have yielded 48 hours of continuous music playing and a whopping 24 hours of video playback. For anyone with [...]

Philips has beefed up its Streamium family of wireless audio products with the addition of a new flagship, the WACS7500, which comprises the WAC7500 main unit and WAS7500 satellite units.
The replacement for the WACS7000 is 20mm thinner and finally adds Internet radio support via a wireless network. Philips has hooked up with BlueBeat, Live365 [...]

You can see it now: white linen-topped tables in a smoke-filled room, soft jazz from the bored band behind you, men in suits, ladies in long dresses and the lushes asleep on the bar counter.
You step into the stage spotlight, take that ancient metal-grille microphone in your hand, suck in a deep breath [...]