What We Can Learn From P*Star
When I say “rapper”, what do you think of? Probably not a preteen girl spittin’ rhymes about how she isn’t ready for a boyfriend yet. This documentary might change that.
P*Star Rising is a documentary by Gabriel Noble that follows the growth (literally) of a 9-year-old female rapper from Harlem named Priscilla Diaz, stage [...]
Ask Terry Lickona Your Burning Questions
PBS Engage is inviting users to ask questions of Terry Lickona, renowned producer of the long running music program Austin City Limits, Monday at 4pm. Lickona will answer user submitted questions in an hour-long chat from SXSW.
Submit questions by 4pm or join the discussion live. If you are in Austin for SXSW, you [...]
Creative Commons Doesn’t Cannibalize Sales
Chris Anderson recently posted “The best selling MP3 album of the year was free” on The Long Tail blog. Apparently, Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV was the best selling MP3 album of 2008 despite being released under a Creative Commons license that allowed for free, legal sharing.
The album grossed more than $1.6 million in revenue [...]
RIAA Strong-arms ISPs Instead of Customers
Image by chazlarson
TechCrunch today reports that the RIAA is changing tactics:
Instead of dragging music downloaders and file-sharers into court, it has somehow convinced ISPs to take on the role of digital policeman (and jury and judge).
The original story in the Wall Street Journal has full details, but the gist is that the RIAA will provide [...]
Will "Repo!" Steal Hearts?
Image from shellEProductions’ PhotostreamDoes anyone else hate the phrase “Instant cult classic?” Instant classic is like instant chocolate brownies. It might temporarily fix your chocolate craving – but it’s nothing like a dessert you spent a couple hours baking from scratch.
Well, NPR is also a little skeptical of the idea that someone [...]
Radiohead’s Pick-Your-Price a Success?
Image from WikipediaThe Chicago Tribune has a good set of numbers from the Radiohead “In Rainbows” release. As you may recall, Radiohead offered the album as a download in advance of the physical release and allowed fans to choose what price to pay for the album (if at all).
A few highlights:
$8 million from [...]
Dr. Horrible MP3s available from Amazon
Image from BobbyPromFor those of you who prefer your internet-musical-extravaganza soundtracks sans DRM, the Amazon MP3 store is now offering Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog soundtrack. We’ve talked before about Dr. Horrible before, and I am a fan, but I do think it’s a little strange that the soundtrack costs $8.99 when the entire [...]
Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem: DRM done right? Or yet another failed attempt?
Here’s what we know so far. DECE will announce details at CES in January. The general principle is something along the lines of a digital rights locker in the cloud that keeps track of what content you have purchased and have rights to play.
Image from Night Star RomanusThe major goals [...]
Royalties for Digital Goods
Image by jblyberg
Seth Godin recently posted on his blog about the Kindle ($359 from Amazon). He mentions publisher resistance to lowering prices on digital books, similar to studio or label’s resistance to lower prices on film, tv, or music. They all claim that lower prices would mean less revenue for the artists, authors, [...]
Anybody who Legally Downloads Music is an Idiot…
Photo by Carolyn Coles
That’s what record store owner John Kioussis told Steve Guttenberg of The Audiophiliac.
Do you agree with Kioussis? Is legal digital music so bad that it’s not worth obeying the law?
Certainly there have been arguments made that draconian DRM has limited the appeal of legal sources for downloaded [...]
