• Anderson downgrades Long Tail to Chocolate Teapot status

    by

    “The end came quickly,” as authors of morbid weepies like to say. On Monday WiReD magazine editor Chris Anderson effectively admitted game over for his “Long Tail”, the idea he’s been dragging so lucratively around the conference circuit for the past four years. In as many words, he downgraded it from “the future of business”…

    Continue reading »

  • How to destroy the music business

    by

    Put yourself in these hypothetical shoes for a moment. My goal is to make as much money as possible by doing as little work as possible. I have no creative talent except for generating and recycling marketing buzzwords. I have no technical knowledge or ability – but I can get my head around a Twitter…

    Continue reading »

  • Baidu sorry for medical scam ads

    by

    Unlicensed music distributor Baidu has admitted taking money from unlicensed medical companies. Baidu dominates the search business in China, the bulk of its revenue coming from pay-for-placement in its search pages, which it calls “Page Rank Bid”. The company says it will now stop the practice, which accounts for 10 to 15 per cent of…

    Continue reading »

  • The BBC’s Tragic Twitterers

    by

    Here’s a conundrum. Top Media People want to come out of the shadows and get “closer to their listeners” – it’s what the Web 2.0 people urge them to do. BBC people in particular are obsessed with being seen to be bossy or “out-of-touch” – especially since three out of four license payers have a…

    Continue reading »

  • Police vet live music, DJs for ‘terror risk’

    by

    A dozen London boroughs have implemented a “risk assessment” policy for live music that permits the police to ban any live music if they fail to receive personal details from the performers 14 days in advance. The demand explicitly singles out performances and musical styles favoured by the black community: garage and R&B, and MCs…

    Continue reading »

  • OFCOM mulls legislation to save DAB

    by

    Parliament may need to step in with new legislation, to save the digital radio fail whale OFCOM admitted today. OFCOM’s Peter Davies made the comments in front of a critical audience at the Radio Academy’s Radio At The Edge conference today. Davies was put on the spot by moderator James Ashton. After years of trying…

    Continue reading »