Nice logo. Shame the business model is based on theft, huh?
As noted in this earlier post, high profile file ‘sharing (or stealing?) service’ Limewire lost a federal case brought against them by outraged record companies.
The death blow/shut down order was suspended in May while the victorious owners and licensees of the intellectual property at issue and the thieves who built a business distributing what wasn’t theirs, tried to see if they could work it out. From the earlier report:
The record labels and LimeWire are to meet with Judge Kimba Wood on June 1 to determine the next steps, such as a possible deal to work together going forward.
I thought at the time: Never.Going.To.Happen.
So, today:
LimeWire file-sharing service shut down by court — NZ Herald
Goodbye Limewire. Thanks for sharing. (Oh, not really.)
While I have no particular feelings about the loss of Limewire I do feel the recording industry needs to wise up.
They’ve long had the technology to “cut” custom CDs instore to allow people to actually buy their own party mixes. Because this wasn’t available people were obliged to format shift instead. We then got to the point of every new PC being shipped with a CD writer. Totally avoidable.
iTunes changed their internal format so that music bought at the store couldn’t be used with tools like AcidFX. In my house I have a teenager who likes to create her own mixes – in the same way she dresses dolls at StarDoll.com. She’s not selling, hell, she’s hardly ever saving her work. She just wants to play. Up until now any music she’s wanted to use with AcidFX has needed to be sourced via Limewire – even when she has a bought copy of the same song.
iTunes need to adjust their music pricing. A Katy Perry single is currently NZ$2.39 and for kids that is still expensive. If the music channels bore the cost of the expensive videos rather than seeing them as a marketing gimmick then the costs needed to be covered would be
* itunes infrastructure allowance
* production: payments to the artist and production team
* minimal art work
* profit
No longer would there be payments for cutting CDs, printing and shipping. We’ve seen what iTunes can do for the cost of software. Now lets see it at work for music.
==================
On a vaguely related topic, can you believe that Sony have only just discontinued production of the Walkman? I appreciate that not all countries have the high rates of PC ownership that we have in NZ but when was the last time you bought a cassette?
Good thoughts, thanks for sharing.
Yes, I agree with you the dinosaur of the recording industry needs to shape up. As a book publisher myself, I have and do gaze into the misty future of digital distribution — as Joni Mitchell sang on Both Sides Now: “Well something’s lost but something’s gained in living every day”.
It IS the future and the recording industry got slammed by it. Your suggested model looks OK.
(Although funny about the music channels — surely they don’t PAY to show those? Never occurred to me!)
“iTunes changed their internal format so that music bought at the store couldn’t be used with tools like AcidFX…
Interesting about iTunes — I thought they’d ditched DRM? Do you mean AAC/MP4 can’t be ‘mashed’ or just that the tools are based on MP3?
iTunes is Apple’s way of selling iPods … see graph:
Although iTunes revenue is growing — but maybe more is coming from Apps for iPhone/iPad than music? What do you think?
Interesting note somewhere recently that 60% of Apple’s revenue comes from products that did not exist three years ago. That’s how the future is created.
The audio books seem to be .m4a but songs we’ve bought have names like “01 Hot N Cold.m4a.sfk”. Maybe there is an export facility we haven’t found yet?
I’ve noticed magazines are selling copies of their mags as applications and as I haven’t yet worked out how to copy an app from one handset to another (without involving itunes) it seems to be a solution that publishers can embrace. Now they just have to allow folders on iPads so I can group my apps!
Ever since the days of Geocities (before they had PHP and while they still had cities) we’ve been trying to work out how to protect intellectual property online. I don’t like the locked down OS (what no
cmdcommand?) but I can see its advantages.If Android can provide the same level of security we may enter a new era where reading matter and protected property is made available for “handsets” while productivity tools and actual doing-stuff-programs get put onto computers.
I’d be happy with that.
re formats: You know iTunes has a converter, right? You can select import preferences for your target, then select a track and Advanced/Create MP3 version (where ‘MP3’ changes with your selected import preference…
As for copying onto multiple devices… again using iTunes, you can ‘authorize’ up to five computers … and iTunes help says:
We plug a few iPods into one iTunes account .. one is synced with the Mac, and the other two are manually managed — sharing music from one iTunes with several satellites.
Apps — haven’t got enough iOS devices to speak knowledgably Yet. – P
Interesting points Sarah … publishers still haven’t got their heads around the idea of ‘perfect’ lossless, digital copies, and how the distribution of those for free, as a pirate ‘industry’ has put the skids under the middleman model. People LIKE sharing …