The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability between different company’s players and music stores.

The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. The Internet has made such leaks far more damaging, since a single leak can be spread worldwide in less than a minute.

Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies.

Decius's comments are right on:

Steve Jobs speaks openly about DRM here, which is interesting, but he is obviously negotiating with European anti-trust entities in this essay. He presents a proposition that the two major European music companies license their music to him without a DRM requirement. Thats a bit "let them eat cake" I think. I'm sure he thinks the pressure that Europeans might put on those major music companies as a result of this essay will release some of the pressure on him, allowing him to find a better negotiating position.

Unfortunately, with regard to the passage I'm quoting, he's wrong. In order to have a DRM system you have to put the enforcement technology in the hands of all of your users. Those people can reverse engineer that technology, and spread their results via the Internet. DRM encoding systems can be just as blackbox as DRM enforcement systems, and you aren't handing them to as many people, so the idea that you can't tolerate the risk of those encoders being reverse engineered doesn't make any sense. You're already taking the greater risk that the decoders will be reverse engineered, and thats the fundamental crux of DRM. Furthermore, there is no reason why Apple couldn't support another companies DRM technology that already has shared encoders.

I am of the opinion, and have been for some time now, that the record companies are going to start abandoning DRM technology. I am also of the opinion that we need, and will get, a means of attaining blanket licenses to cover music downloads, as well as a reasonably elegant system for paying royalties.

I would be shocked if Apple is not expecting things to go this way as well. The line they are taking here actually puts more pressure on the powers that be to take moves to open licensing, then if Apple opened their technology. The big win for everyone is if it became possible to sell non-DRM'd tracks. Unless that happens, it is not to Apple's advantage to open their DRM technology.

Screw opening the DRM, open the licensing regime. Like Steve said:

Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.

Steve Jobs - Thoughts on Music

Those that were exposed to the Best of Bootie 2005 will be happy to know that the next Best of Bootie CD has been released. It can be downloaded for free off the Bootie website.

The Best of Bootie compilations contain the best mashup tracks I've ever heard. I just started playing the new collection, and it sounds like it blows the last one away. These make the perfect party albums. They really confuse and delight a crowd. Every song is guaranteed to be familiar sounding.

An entire underground music scene has formed around these type of works. The recording industry licensing regime makes it pretty much impossible to legitimately create and release these type of works. The overhead you have to devote to getting the rights is unbelievable.

Best of Bootie 2006

This music downloading service has an interesting business model. It's long overdue that someone try this.

All songs start off as free downloads, and the prices rise based on their popularity, maxing at 98 cents a track. If users recommend songs that become popular, users get a chunk of the revenue.

Amie Street

Swarms of online shoppers armed with new iPods and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed Apple's iTunes music store over the holiday, prompting error messages and slowdowns of 20 minutes or more for downloads of a single song.

Analysts said they didn't anticipate a rash of iPod returns because of the delays.

[ insert Zune joke here ]

Music denied -- shoppers overwhelm iTunes - CNN.com

Never have so few companies controlled so much of the music played on the radio and for sale at retail stores. At the same time, there are more bands and more ways to discover their music than ever. Music seems to have split in two - the homogenous corporate product that is spoonfed to consumers and the diverse independent music that finds devoted fans online and at clubs across the country.

BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES tells the story of American music at this precarious moment. Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country, hoping to understand why mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation. The answers they found on this journey–ultimately, the promise that the future holds–are what makes BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES both riveting and exhilarating.

At the heart of BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES are interviews with musicians, industry insiders, music critics, and fans that reveal how music has reached this moment of truth. Featured performances from a truly diverse group of artists, ranging from The Dave Matthews Band and Erykah Badu to Seattle street performers and Mississippi gospel singers show us that great music is always out there… as long as you know where to look. BEFORE THE MUSIC DIES will renew your passion for great music, and inspire you to play an active part in its future.

Check out the trailer. I just got back from a showing of this for music industry students. It was well received..

Before the Music Dies

Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley ceded his crown to Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain on Forbes.com's list as the top-earning dead celebrity.

The list, published on Tuesday, said grunge rocker Cobain earned $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006. Presley wound up in the No. 2 slot with $42 million, down from last year's $45 million.

Forbes.com bases its dollar amounts on licensing deals for using the deceased celebrities' work or image in advertising or elsewhere.

Rounding out the top five were Beatle John Lennon at $24 million and groundbreaking physicist Albert Einstein at $20 million, whose estate profited from such licensing deals as the popular "Baby Einstein" educational videos.

Other celebrities on the list include Theodore Geisel, better known as children's book author Dr. Seuss; rhythm & blues pioneer Ray Charles, silver screen legend Marilyn Monroe and reggae superstar Bob Marley.

It's Cobain over Elvis as top-earning dead celeb

"Lynwood," Yankovic's 12th album, debuted this month at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, his first top 10 album ever. Meanwhile, the Chamillionaire parody "White and Nerdy," reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, besting his previous high of No. 12 with "Eat It" in 1984.

"I literally danced a little jig (when I found out)," Yankovic says. "It's just a number, but I've been obsessing over it for a long part of my career. Even with, you know, millions of records sold, I've never been in the top 10, and it's always been a goal of mine."

For his part, Yankovic tends to credit the Internet. "The ("Nerdy") video has gotten a lot of attention, and the proliferation of places like YouTube (has) been a big help," he says.

Once "Nerdy" hit outlets like YouTube, there was no stopping it. "We knew with 'Nerdy' that he'd hit on something incredibly relevant to different generations," Dan Mackta, senior director of marketing for Zomba Label Group, says. "Kids were discovering him like a new artist."

Plus, with the advent of download services, Mackta says, suddenly Yankovic can be a singles artist again, and indeed, "Nerdy" has been safely tucked into iTunes' top five for the past few weeks.

"I'd kind of written off the chance of ever having another hit single, since record labels weren't really releasing commercial ones," Yankovic says. "As much as people are griping about the Internet taking sales away from artists, it's been a huge promotional tool for me."

This is excellent. Weird Al deserves it. He had a very bad run of luck through 2003 and 2004. In 2003, Eminem dissed him, leaving me hoping that Eminem would go the way of Coolio. In 2004, while on tour, both his parents died because of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a closed chimney flue on their wood burning fireplace.

It's also great to see the role the Internet has played in his recent success. In no small way, Weird Al reflects the nature of pop culture more than any other artist I can think of. Every few years Weird Al whips out a load of absurdity for us to enjoy, amuses the hell out of everyone, then crawls back into a hole for awhile so we don't get tired of him..

Anyone who does not love Weird Al is just wrong.. :)

'Weird Al' Yankovic finally hits the top 10 - CNN.com

Reconstituted punk pioneers the Stooges have spent the past week recording their first album since 1973 with producer Steve Albini in Chicago.

Pop, drummer Scott Asheton and guitarist Ron Asheton are joined by bassist Mike Watt, who is subbing for Dave Alexander. Watt is chronicling the sessions in explicit detail on his Web site.

Among the tentatively titled tracks scheduled to appear, Watt describes "ATM" as "the most what I'd call 'riff-oriented' of all the tunes," and says Brendan Benson may add harmony vocals to "End of Christianity." "O Solo Mio" is said to be "the real ballad ... of the bunch, but way more driving than any kind of 'ballad.' "

"It's neat to see how they all three work," Watt writes. "The best I can do is help them let me help do what I can with the bass, follow their direction and keep my head together. Anything else is crazy. I like the way Iggy and Ron get everything they can for the tune right after me and Scotty record with them, so each tune can live in world that's pretty whole and unto its self."

Oh wow, this could be amazing.

While pondering how excellent a new Stooges album could potentially be, check out the contract rider for their current tour on The Smoking Gun. It may be the best contract rider ever...

Stooges recording first album in 33 years - CNN.com

This just in via the LA Times... Apparently, Live Nation, the bastard child of Clearchannel, is pondering taking it's ticket sales away from TicketMaster.

This is a cross-post from the MOG Music Community, where I've started a page. I've been meaning to post more of my musings about music industry related topics. I've been encouraged by several people to do it there, although I'm going to cross post everything. [Update: There is a followup post too with more details about how live booking in the corporate promotion world works.. ]

Here is the rest of the post:

The article cites the current high cost of ticket prices as the primary reason behind Live Nation's thinking. They want to bring down the ticket prices so they can grow the number of people coming out to shows. I'm not so sure about that... I have trouble believing that they want to charge less money, they just want to pocket more of it. I can think of several way they can accomplish that, here are a few of them:

1) MERCH MERCH (concessions and) MERCH!

TicketMaster, being the monopoly it is, has very little reason to innovate. Not much has happened since buying tickets over the Internet became all the rage. There isn't much in the way of "package deals" going on. I'm guessing that Live Nation is looking at their experience with the House of Blues (which they own now too), and thinking how to maximize their revenue by pushing more merchandise and concessions at their first point of sale. People pay a lot more money for their own table and dinner at the HoB shows. Would you be more likely to plunk down $60 for a ticket if you got your concert t-shirt, in your size, at the same time as you picked up your ticket on will-call? Sure you would.. The result would be Live Nation getting further into the merch revenue stream. What about if you got a few drink tickets with orders of six or more tickets? Damn straight..

2) Work the most scarce and sought after for all it's worth...

The VIP booths/boxes, the best seats, etc.. What if there was an auction system for this stuff? In most large venues, the VIP booths/boxes are largely given to corporate sponsors or gotten via deals offered by American Express to their high-rollers. What if you and 30 of your friends (or your company) could put in bids for a booth/box when everyone favorite act is in town? If they can foster competition for those prized spaces, it's a safe bet the overall price paid for them would go up. Is TicketMaster going to make something like this happen? Pro... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Live Nation to dump TicketMaster | MOG Crosspost

Willie Nelson and several members of his band were issued misdemeanor citations for drug possession early today during a traffic stop in Saint Martin Parish.

The traffic stop was conducted on Interstate 10 near Breaux Bridge.

Trooper Willie Williams says troopers smelled a strong odor of marijuana when the driver opened the bus door.

Lay off Willie, seriously. It's not like he is going around doing bumps of cocaine and drinking while destroying hotels.. He is traveling America and singing songs about freedom. I can easily see how having a pound and a half of marijuana on the tour bus fits into that equation... He spends almost all his time on the road, bringing joy to millions, and putting his power behind causes that help people. I have trouble thinking of any artist who deserves to be an American cultural icon more.

Did you know Willie Nelson has a company that develops biodiesel?

Willie Nelson cited for drug possession (again)