[CAnet - news] In France - download of music will be free - how the Internet is changing the music industry

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
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[A couple recent announcements today illustrate how the Internet is
radically changing the music business.  The music business is one of the
first of many industries that will be fundamentally be changed by the
Internet, especially with the advent of Web 2.0 open source and SOA. In my
books, any industry that is dependent on take down orders, clumsy security
protocols, lawyers and government lobbying for survival is a SELL. Think
movies, publishing and telecom. These exciting new developments in France of
course, in my opinion reflect the strong pro-competitive marketplace for
broadband that has been enforced by regulators and policy makers in that
country. The French teleco regulator is one of the most enlightened in the
world.  Thanks to various blogs and contributors including Benoit Felten, Om
Malik, Dave Farber and Dewayne Hendricks-  BSA]

In France, Music will be Free
http://gigaom.com/2007/08/22/in-france-music-will-be-free/

Neuf launches a "free" music offer as part of its triple-play package
http://www.fiberevolution.com/2007/08/neuf-launches-a.html

Artist promote thyself
Thanks to new Web businesses, musicians can reach a bigger audience  
-- and keep more of the profits for themselves

A full-time career in music seemed unlikely for Chris O'Brien, or at  
least one that would pay the bills.

But these days, the 27-year-old Medford musician is selling thousands  
of albums online, along with downloads from his debut CD,  
"Lighthouse," and he soon plans to offer T-shirts, tickets, and other  
merchandise on his MySpace page and personal website.

He credits at least part of his newfound business acumen to nimbit, a  
sales, promotion, and distribution company in Framingham that helps  
emerging artists build careers online.

"This is the era of the independent artist," O'Brien said. "It's  
easier and more doable than it ever has been. People are opting to  
remain independent because there's a lot more money to be had."

Nimbit is one of a growing number of businesses, including CD Baby  
and Musictoday, that have helped make it easier for independent  
musicians to make a living from their work and widely distribute  
their music.

It is the brainchild of Patrick Faucher and Matt Silbert, who worked  
for a Web firm, Stumpworld Systems, which developed some of the first  
e-commerce sites for bands such as Phish and Aerosmith.

About five years ago, they decided to design a platform to help  
budding bands, so they set out to take some of the features created  
for the major acts and build a suite of Web tools that independent  
artists could use.

Soon after, they merged with Artist Development Associates and added  
direct-to-fan sales, along with production and promotion services,  
creating a one-stop solution for artists to run their businesses.

In June, nimbit introduced its online merchandise table, the first  
portable Web store that lets musicians sell CDs, DVDS, MP3s,  
merchandise, and e-tickets from a single point of purchase, virtually  
anywhere online. The tool can easily be embedded in any website,  
blog, or e-mail that allows widgets.

"Increasingly, recording artists and consumers are uniting and  
circumventing traditional channels for creating and distributing  
music," said Mike Goodman, a media and entertainment analyst at  
Yankee Group in Boston. "These days, musicians can do business  
directly with consumers. They don't need a recording label. They  
don't need a store. They don't need Ticketmaster, the way they used to."

Just a few years ago, Steve Roslonek, of Wethersfield, Conn., was  
getting e-mail orders for his CDs and going to the post office once a  
week to send of the packages. His growing success as a children's  
musician made it almost impossible to keep up with the requests. With  
the help of nimbit over the past several years, he has earned more  
than $100,000 from sales of CDs, tickets, and merchandise.

The full article can be found here:
<http://tinyurl.com/yu8cg3>

This is another sign that disruptive business models are having an  
immense impact the traditional business models. The fact is that many  
of these industries have no idea how to compete with technologies  
they barely understand.


Survey says: only DRM-free music is worth paying for
By Ken Fisher | Published: August 05, 2007 - 10:32PM CT

<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070805-survey-says-only-drm- 
free-music-is-worth-paying-for.html>

One of the largest surveys of music consumers to closely examine the  
question of Digital Rights Management (DRM) has an important two-part  
message for the music industry. The first is that DRM is definitely  
turning consumers off music sales, and charging them extra to get rid  
of it may be an uphill battle. The second message is that knowledge  
of DRM and its problems is spreading fast.

Entertainment Media Research, working with media law firm Olswang,  
conducted lengthy online surveys with 1,700 UK music consumers,  
selected from a pre-existing panel of more than 300,000 music  
consumers in the UK (PDF: 2007 Digital Music Survey). What makes this  
survey important is the fact that it was aimed squarely at the music- 
buying public, not the anti-RIAA crowd, not the techno-libertarians,  
and not our general readership. I've been told more than once that  
the views on DRM found at publications like Ars Technica are "not  
representative" of the general public. Perhaps this was once the  
case, but it can no longer be maintained generally. At least in the  
UK, the dirt on DRM is out, and it's spreading.
First, the bird's eye view: 68 percent of those with opinions on the  
matter say that the only music worth purchasing is that which is DRM- 
free. Yet less than half (39 percent) are willing to pay a little  
extra for it, while 18 percent say that they'd rather save a little  
dough and keep the DRM if they had to chose between the two. In the  
middle is a mass of people with no opinion on the matter, because  
they're not sure what DRM is or don't know their preference. That  
will likely soon change.

Familiarity with DRM has grown significantly in the last year. In  
2006, more than half of respondents had never heard of DRM, but that  
number has dropped 16 percentage points in 2007, to 37 percent. The  
number of people who claimed to have a good or exact knowledge of DRM  
nearly tripled in that same timeframe.

Of those who have some idea of what DRM is, their views are largely- 
but not entirely-negative. 61 percent said that DRM "invades the  
rights of the music consumer to hear their music on different  
platforms." 49 percent called it a "nuisance," and 39 percent  
expressed concerns that DRM could have privacy implications. Despite  
this, 63 percent agreed that DRM "is a good idea because it protects  
copyrighted music from illegal file-sharers." In other words, the  
idea of stopping illegal file-sharing via DRM doesn't bother these  
consumers much, but the effect the effort is having on their own  
purchases is not appreciated.

This view isn't surprising. Few are those who, in principle, believe  
that all information (and content) should be "free"; the mainstream  
viewpoint is still staunchly in the "artists should be compensated"  
camp. This appreciation for the music business does not surmount all  
other concerns, however.

Consumers aren't interested in a "nuisance" for the sake of stopping  
file-sharers, and of course those of us who play closer attention to  
the world of DRM know that DRM actually does not stop file-sharing at  
all. As this general truth spreads, so does dissatisfaction.

The takeaway from the survey is that DRM's bad reputation is  
spreading among general music consumers, and there is a growing  
aversion to purchasing music that comes with DRM. Despite this, the  
general understanding of the struggle the industry faces with piracy  
is still somewhat positive among those same consumers. Still, given  
that file sharing in the UK is at an all-time high, it would appear  
that the the music industry needs to remove the digital locks on its  
tunes, and fast.


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