Distance Ed Ideas -

• Ahoy, Matey Dept. - How the Music Industry Can Survive Piracy & File Sharing
  USA Today's technology writer Kevin Maney looks at how the music business can survive -- even thrive -- with the rampant piracy of content in countries like China. In China, most CDs on the market are pirate editions, so the recorded music serves to promote the concerts and endorsement deals for musicians. Maney argues that in China there will never be income from recorded music. Think that this is just in China? Think that it's just the downloaders who are "stealing" from artists? Take a look at what former Byrds member Roger McGuinn has to say about the recording industry of the 60s and what he's doing today. (And though he isn't mentioned in this article, Bela Fleck follows the ideas discussed in the column. Fleck makes a good living touring, and he allows audience members to freely record his shows.)
  
  It is clear that the music industry is simply not going to be able to save itself by prosecuting pirates and file swappers. Take a look at this article from the Times of India. It's essentially the same story in India as Maney found in China, except that the Times story looks at movies and books as well as CDs. (BTW, a pirate is someone who produces hard copies of copyrighted works that are sold for a profit; file swappers give away copies of media content for free.)
  
  Rocker Bruce Springsteen's response to the file sharing crowd has been to release his latest album on the DualDiscs format that has a CD on one side and a DVD on the other. While Springsteen's new album will sell at the normal price, most discs in the new format are expected to sell for $1 to $3 more than a plain CD. The idea here is to give consumers a reason to buy the legitimate product rather than just download the songs. Giving consumers what they want -- what a concept!
  
  Dan Stapleton, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, argues that file sharing is only hurting the major labels (if indeed it is actually hurting anyone). He says that he has discovered most of the alternative bands he likes through mp3 files legitimately posted to the Internet to promote themselves. He argues that the real influence of file sharing has been to move the power center of the music industry from the major labels to independents.
• Why The Music Industry Deserve Ashlee Simpson
  Within the last few weeks (I'm too lazy to check) I mentioned that the new Dave Matthews CD has copy protection on it that keeps legitimate buyers from uploading the music onto their iPods. What a great concept! Alienate the people who actually want to buy your product. Force them to go to illegitimate sources to get what they want instead of selling it to them.
• Rappin' With The Troops
  During the Vietnam War, the great songs about the war came out of the protest movements. During World Wars I & II the great songs came out of the popular commercial music industry. But the first great collection of songs about Gulf War II (aka the War With Iraq) is a rap CD produced by a group of soldiers while they were in country. An absolutely fascinating story about the album Live From Iraq produced by Sgt. Neal Saunders during the year he and his fellow soldiers spent fighting in Iraq. (They call themselves 4th25) This is a side of the war that neither the left or right has been telling. The link above is to the transcript of the story from NPR's On The Media. But do yourself a big favor and listen to the audio stream instead.
  
• Why Be a Journalist Dept. - That ain't workin' that's the way you do it, get your money for nothin' and your chicks for free....
  The WP's David Segal talks about how he became a rock critic, what he got from the experience, and why he's now doing something else. This is a must-read for anyone who has wanted to write about rock 'n' roll. Filled with lots of flashbacks to my time as the arts & entertainment editor for my college paper. It's also just a great story about rock music and the rock industry. Also, Segal did an online chat today, and there's a photo gallery as well.
  
• Surf the Edge Dept. - Music Videos Leave MTV for Broadband
  For the last 20 years, conventional wisdom has held you need a music video on heavy rotation on cable network MTV in order to have a hit record. But with MTV becoming more of a young people's lifestyle network, many artists are taking their videos online in addition to trying for airplay on the network. One more example of how the music industry is going through an incredible period of change. This is all a part of a bigger trend of music promotion and distribution moving out of the hands of the record labels and into the hands of artists and audience members. (And the record labels' response has been to make file sharing a crime!)
  
• Grateful Dead Showing Music Business How It's Done
  Years before Napster, ripping and burning, and the recording industry suing listeners, the Grateful Dead had established what should become the model for making money in the 21st century music business -- using recordings to promote the live touring business. And when you tour, give loyal fans a good show for the money. The Dead really died 10 years ago when lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia passed on, but the band lives on through materials being released from its tightly guarded vault. Interesting stuff from the NYT.
• The More Things Change Dept. - Payola Back in the News
  Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, record company reps were notorious for paying DJs to play their records on the air. the government held hearings, and everyone agreed that this was a very bad thing. While I don't know that the so-called payola went away, it at the very least went underground rather than being an open part of doing business . But in 2001, Salon.com ran an extended series of articles by Eric Boehlert that looked at how the process has come back in the age of radio consolidation. But a little over a week ago, New York's attorney general announced that Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $10 million in fines for bribing radio stations to play its artists on the air. (PBS News Hour)
• Does Music Radio Have a Future in the Era of File Sharing and iPods?
  Blogger (and Wired editor) Chris Anderson asks whether broadcast radio has any relevance in determining what music young people listen to. He writes:
  
  I grew up in an era where radio largely determined music culture and was by far the strongest marketing vehicle for new artists, but I suspect that my kids won't think of radio as a music medium at all. Given the numbing effect of Casey Kasem and America's Top 40 on my adolescence and early music taste, this may be no bad thing.
  
  He brings this up in an entry about a new radio format known as Jack FM. I'm not entirely clear on what this format represents, but it apparently involves a longer playlist than a typical Clear Channel station would have, and it doesn't have DJs.
  
  This brings up an issue that I've been giving some serious thought to in my ethics class. Is file sharing a replacement for buying music, or is it, through the use of portable MP3 players a replacement for radio? I think it matters.
  
  This interesting discussion comes from a fascinating blog called The Long Tail focuses on how mass communication is changing now that we no longer need the same types of mass media distribution channels that we've had in the past. (This is way too simple of an explanation, but Anderson explains it here. Thanks to Media Daily News for the link.
• BBC Starts Arabic Language TV Service; Shuts Down Several Eastern European Language Radio Stations
  The BBC has long been known for its endless number of local-language radio stations, both on regular broadcast frequencies and shortwave. But with the fall of communism and opening up of the Eastern European press, the voice of the British Empire has decided to shut down several of its Eastern European stations. And the newest priority is sending television programming and news to the Arabic speaking world. The story ran on this last weekend's edition of NPR's On The Media. Link will take you to both text and audio.
• The Long Tail of File Sharing
  File sharing is generally seen by the public as those meddling kids sharing stealing liberating rock and pop music so they don't have to pay for it. Most of the media coverage tends to deal with the RIAA lawsuits against young people trading recent big hits, with the occasional story about indie musicians who thrive through promoting their music over the Internet while they make money by touring.
  
  But a story from NPR's All Things Considered takes a long-tail look at file sharing. Put away all the talk of teens, Britney, and profits. What about the 70 percent of all recordings made before 1965 that can't legally be purchased anywhere. Does that music and talk have to just disappear? According to Joel Rose's excellent story, many of these vintage recordings can't ever be reissued because it would be impossible to track down who owns the rights to the recordings. And since copyright law has now been written to essentially keep anything with potential economic value from ever passing into the public domain, almost the only way you can put archives of this content on the Internet is by breaking the law. (It's actually quite complicated, and if you are really interested in the issues involved, take a loot at this LOC publication.) Apparently many collectors of vintage recordings used the old peer-to-peer file sharing services to swap these old recordings.
  
  Do yourself a favor - take the time to listen to the audio version of the story, don't just go for the print version. Lots of great vintage recordings!