music quick hits
i’m obviously still on the back end of the loop when it comes to the ongoing music business discussion, so in an attempt to catch up and keep myself a bit relevant, i’ve opted to skip the “essay-length” response once again (and i apologize to all those who were so looking forward to my dense, improperly capitalized prose 🙂 ).
first, i want to thank john beezer of weedshare for dropping in and saying hello. i’m glad he appreciated my back-of-the-envelope analysis of weedshare, and he did take a few steps toward answering the concerns i suggested participants in the system might have (both listeners and musicians). that’s a very welcome thing, i’m glad this little blog in the dark corner of the net helped shed some light on the adventures happening over there.
next, i want to assure you that i intend to make some comments on irate and magnatune and mercora and last.fm and several other things – but i do want to devote a bit of time to them, and it’s been a bit hectic here lately.
if you’re following the music business discussion among the blogs, i’d point you to this bit by kevin laws over at due diligence, and this and this over at the big picture. barry’s talking about irate, kevin’s talking about some of the reasons online distribution hasn’t happened yet. both are worthy of a visit. i’ll respond someday 🙂
the new york times has a recent piece [registration], on the history of the prices of various audio formats.
and one last thought, borrowed from an old article in slate:
In erecting bulwarks around their domains, the major music businesses have left no entrance for the serendipity that kept the pop industry lively (and profitable) for decades