What the HECK is going on with the Music Industry‽‽‽

Yes, THREE interrobangs!

But seriously, what is going on? It seems every day over the last week I've been reading about incredible change, and yet I'm still seeing business as usual.


First off is the whole debacle over Trent Reznor's remix site remix.nin.com. After butting heads with Universal (apparently releasing NIN samples in this manner would impact Universal's lawsuit against Youtube/Google, lol), Reznor just threw the site up anyway. Universal's control is weakened, but not completely absent as Reznor did make some small concessions. From LiveDaily.com:

The head-scratching apparently ended on Monday (11/26), when Reznor unveiled remix.nin.com, where an FAQ explains how the site is dealing with the aforementioned concerns about fans using unauthorized materials in conjunction with their NIN remixes. The site describes unauthorized materials as "samples of songs by other artists, or samples from movies, TV shows, or video games," and says that any remixes containing such elements "will be rejected during the approval process."
"Please understand that it is not our wish to impose these restrictions on your creativity or the functionality of this site, but we have no choice in the matter," the FAQ continues.

So Universal's been hamstrung, and apparently so has Warner. Hot on the heels of Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr's admission of mishandling music's digital conversion (add that to Doug Morris bumbling through his explanation of how these new intarwebs frighten his age-ed soul, via Wired), we're now witnessing an accelerating drop in CD sales. Warner specifically, is reporting a 58% drop in CD sales over this time last year, and a net profit of only five million dollars (as opposed to twelve last year, via Yahoo/Reuters).
Warner's plan is to get more involved in artist "packaging" including image rights, management, advertising, and touring revenue, but for a company that is, admittedly, reactionary and obstinate about change, one has to wonder if they can actually shift gears fast enough to stay relevant. Madonna has already left to pursue more non-traditional distribution, not to mention a whole slew of others like NIN and Radiohead. Will others follow their example, or stay with the current, failing business model?
[Cartoon from HijinksEnsue]


Lastly, EMI is considering pulling funding for the RIAA. One of the Big Four that support the fan-suing organization, it's looking to cut a significant portion of the $132 million it contributes to the RIAA each year. This would be a positive step in my opinion, and right in line with EMI's new radical stance (Idolator), but I can't let go of that number. One HUNDRED and THIRTY TWO MILLION dollars, every year! That's TEN times the profit Warner made LAST year on album sales. You really have to question an industry that will pay ten times what it makes to sue and harass the very customers it's trying to attract. [Story @ Ars Technica]


So, we've got all this news, newsnewsnews, and yet the RIAA is still blackmailing people, artists aren't getting paid any better for their work, and it still costs me $15+ for a new-ish album (unless I go "gray market", or locked DRM crappy low bitrate download). Great.

*sigh*

Enough bitching from me, back to work...

Sony euthanizes Sony Connect

So long Sony Connect, we hardly knew ye. I don't even use iTunes, so truthfully I've never come close to checking out Connect. I'm also not fond of content being locked down into a particular format that can only be played on a particular player. MP3 might not be technically the best, but man, I can play them on my grill if I need to.

This story from Arstechnica discusses some of the challenges facing Connect customers.

Sony's love for proprietary formats and desire to create a closed music-hardware ecosystem à la Apple did it in. Its insistence on sticking with a proprietary format supported only by its own digital audio players garnered little love from consumers distracted not only by the iPod, but by the large number of WMA-compatible PlaysForSure devices.

Sony has posted a Connect Music Service Phase Out FAQ, which offers technical guidance to those who purchased music from Sony's online story. Sony's SonicStage software and older hardware will continue to support ATRAC, but the company says that those who purchased DRMed ATRAC content should rip the music to CD and then re-rip it to MP3 if they want it to play on the new Walkmans. Sony also notes that consumers will be able to continue to use the music in their SonicStage libraries and on players supporting ATRAC after Sony Connect closes. The Connect eBook service will continue to operate after the music store closes.

At least Sony will continue to support DRMed music sold through Sony Connect. When Google decided to close the virtual doors to the Google Video Store earlier this month, the search giant informed its customers that the closure would render the videos unplayable, offering them a Google Checkout credit in lieu of an actual refund instead. After heavy criticism, the company then had a change of heart, promising to issue refunds for purchased videos along with the Google Checkout credits. That's one of the dangers of DRMed content—if the company behind it decides to get out of the business, you may be left unable to view or listen to your content.

That and this quote from the Digg story is just plain fun.

If a music store closes on the Internet and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? Sony has decided that it wasn't cut out for the online music business after all.

read more | digg story