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Actually,
There Might Be Free
A
bunch of stuff has been announ ced over the past month which
might, just might, change forever the messy dynamics of music
and video on the Net. Sometimes these things are announced
and never happen; all of these things, however, have at least
the smell of really happening, and happening before the end
of the year:
1. Musical artists selling music directly on MySpace: This
one is happening now. Wildly popular MySpace, partnering
up with SnoCap (the latest venture from Napster inventor Shawn
Fanning), is allowing bands to sell straight MP3s, unencumbered
by any restrictions, off of their MySpace sites. MySpace will
take a set fee per download and the band can set the price
anywhere above that. Previously, bands could post recordings
only for free download or for streaming. So, what does this
mean? This means that the estimated three million bands
on MySpace now have distribution, easy distribution, from
the one place most of their fans go to visit them. Because
the music is available as straight MP3s, the tracks for sale
have much more versatility and value than those for sale on
mainstream sites like iTunes, where files come all gooed up
with copy and format restrictions. Major labels, for now,
won’t let their artists sell on MySpace, because of the lack
of restrictions on the downloads. The competition from indie
bands will force them to rethink this.
The importance of this development cannot be overstated. ITunes
finally has a real competitor, and bands without a label finally
have a real horse to ride. And MySpace has given bands yet
another reason to turn their backs on major labels and go
it alone.
2. Major labels giving away music! Trying to compete with
free by suing customers and packing CDs with computer viruses
doesn’t seem to be working out so well, so the major labels,
years too late, are going to start “giving away” their music,
too. So far, EMI, Universal, and indie giant Koch have agreed
to allow a company called SpiralFrog to offer free downloads
of their music catalogs. Of course there’s a hitch—SpiralFrog
will attach advertising to the music files. While I haven’t
seen official details, what I’ve read indicates that listeners
will have to sit through a 90-second commercial before listening
to a song, and that downloaded songfiles will self destruct
after you’ve had them for six months. And you can bet that
these files won’t be playable on iPods. SpiralFrog is going
to launch this in beta version in December, but I think it’s
already DOA. Interesting in concept, but ultimately self-defeating.
It’s gonna be free, but it’s not gonna feel like free, not
while you suffer through the advertisements, not when you
can’t load the song into your iPod, and especially not when
your catalog disappears.
3. Fully licensed P2P free site! QTrax has announced agreements
with several major labels for an advertising-supported free
P2P site. The site will apparently run just like the old Napster,
or Limewire, or Morpheus, except you don’t risk getting your
ass sued for using it, because the site will be littered with
advertisements, and the labels will get a piece of that revenue.
This is the business model, in fact, that the original Napster
proposed to the labels seven years ago, and the labels rejected
it and instead sued Napster out of existence. What a difference
seven years and declining market share makes! QTrax’s Web
site only says that the service is “Coming Soon.” Again, expect
tons of restrictions on the files, and compatibility problems
with iPods.
4. A few days after industry dinosaur and Universal president
Doug Morris made snarling comments about suing YouTube because
it’s an evil pirates’ cove of infringement, Warners announced
a deal with YouTube whereby Warners would supply all of its
music videos to YouTube and, most significantly, will grant
a blanket license for individuals to post their own videos
using Warners music on the site. Like the QTrax deal, money
would come from advertising on YouTube pages where Warner
content is posted. This is the first large-scale embrace that
I know of by a Big Media company of amateur creators tinkering
with its stuff. Of course, Warners will, at least hypothetically,
make some money off of these amateur creations, but what else
did you expect? “Remix culture”, at long last, has been legitimized,
if only a little bit, by Big Media. Amazing.
If you’re feeling a little dazed by all this, join the club.
And it’s going to get weirder, I’m sure, before it settles
down to some sort of universally embraced stasis. Then again,
it may never settle down. The world of Internet music and
video may just continue to get more diverse and entropic,
and it will be up to you to figure out what paradigm suits
you best. Which is far from the worst result I can think of.
—Paul
C. Rapp
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