Tag: music business

  • Our ‘digital economy’ is still a circular firing squad

    Our ‘digital economy’ is still a circular firing squad

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    The British ISP industry has spent a small fortune of its customers’ money fighting the people who would, in a saner world, be its business partners – only to suffer a crushing defeat. On Tuesday Lord Justice Richards threw out BT and TalkTalk’s judicial review against the 2010 Digital Economy Act.

    Yet as trench warfare goes, they may consider it worth every penny.… Read More

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  • Why power follows platforms

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    This is a story with huge implications for the future of the web. Even if you don’t use Facebook or Spotify – I don’t – and couldn’t care less, you can nevertheless start to see how business relationships will develop.

    Last week’s alliance between Facebook and Spotify turns out to be a much better deal for Facebook than Spotify. While Facebook declined to anoint any one music company as its exclusive provider, and a dozen are signed up, it has … Read More

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  • Web requires Brunel-scale thinking

    Web requires Brunel-scale thinking

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    Three years ago I caught a glimpse of a new social network built around music. You could follow people, chat with them, and enjoy the same music stream in real time.

    There were many other clever things about it, such as a very slick integration of music news. But the killer feature, one that made it unique, was that you could also drop songs you liked into a little box, and keep permanently. This was genuine P2P file sharing. There … Read More

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  • Facebook, Tesco and music platforms

    Facebook, Tesco and music platforms

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    We all know why Facebook has such astronomical valuations. It is already as ubiquitous as Tesco. It is a place a billion people go to: whereas they only ever leave Google search, to go somewhere else. But people hanging around, poking, throwing cows, ignoring the adverts and goofing around doesn’t pay the rent. To increase revenue, Facebook needs to sell more stuff: products and services.

    A Facebook music “dashboard” has long been rumoured: it would be a way of tying … Read More

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  • Button it, Bob

    Button it, Bob

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    More hysterical shrieking reaches us about Apple’s new music feature, I’m afraid.

    Earlier this week a lone lawyer said that iTunes Match, which populates an online store with songs you already have, encourages infringement. Well, this one is even nuttier.

    It’s actually so spectacularly muddle-headed, I thought it might be is a good time to examine what did and didn’t happen this week, briefly – so we can see through the hype to the reality.

    Bob Lefsetz, the shouty publisher … Read More

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  • How NOT to do a music levy

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    The European Court has upheld the right of copyright businesses in the EU to ask for a ‘private copying levy’, but slapped down Spain for applying it indiscriminately. The Court was hearing a case brought by the Spanish music collecting society SGAE against a storage vendor called Padewan.

    Spain provides a case study in how to balls up a levy.

    Under EU law, member states may provide an exemption for a person making a copy of a work for private … Read More

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