First of all, I really like Nina's article. A very good explanation of economic concepts.
But it got me thinking and I'll toss this out, not as a criticism but to get a discussion going.
Anti-rivalrous goods increase in value the more they are used. For example: language. A language isn't much use to me if I can't speak it with someone else. You need at least two people to communicate with language. The more people who use the language, the more value it has.
Let's look at language or religion. I think people who currently speak a certain language or practice a certain religion might feel the world would be a better place, or at least an easier place to navigate in, if everyone spoke the same language or practiced the same religion. Yet there is resistance to that. It doesn't appear that there is universal agreement that as more people share a culture, there is more value in that culture. If there were, don't you think we'd have more groupthink or at least more willingness for people to come to the table to talk about adopting some universal cultures?
I did read it. He says he wasn't chosen because he is a blogger, but how does he know that?
I was one of over a thousand people who made a suggestion – you can see it by following this link and searching for “stereo” – without realising that Imogen planned to invite 5 or 6 people to appear as extras in the video for the song. So it was a complete surprise to me, when I was one of the people she asked !
She could have very well recognized his name and out of the 1000 people who submitted suggestions, chose him because he is a blogger. His account doesn't say that 1000 names were put into a hat and she invited the first five names she drew. It doesn't say the selections were totally random. Perhaps they were, but I'm guessing that who made the suggestions played a role in who got invited.
Not that it invalidates Heap's concept, but looking at Ian Shepherd's blog, he writes a blog on music production. So I'd say he's media rather than just a random devoted fan.
He notes that he's a huge, huge fan already, and when she asked fans to contribute images and "5-word moments of clarity" to a special "interactive cloud" on her website, he did so. What he didn't realize was that she was then going to invite some of the people who contributed cool stuff to appear as extras in the video for the song.
I'm guessing he was invited not just because he likes Heap, but also because she assumed, correctly, that he would write about the experience. So I'd say this is a case study of some fairly traditional PR techniques. In other words, invite the media for an inside look at your projects whenever you can.
I'm very wary of radiation exposure, and try to avoid it. I would prefer not to have to go through TSA scanners.
But the x-ray body scanners haven't been used long enough to result in cancers in TSA employees, have they? It would seem to me that if there is a problem with exposure, it would likely have come from the luggage scanners, which have been used for years and, if not properly shielded, might have exposed people sitting next to them day-after-day, year-after-year.
Re: Re: Re: Re: But musicians also don't see what is coming
What I am saying is that the technology has directly impacted everyone in the musical chain. As recording technology became accessible to everyone with a computer, the need for recording studios lessened. Therefore anyone whose livelihood came from the studio felt the affects, and many studios have closed. High priced producers are not needed. Studio musicians are not needed.
As Broadway shows have used more recorded music, fewer orchestra musicians are needed.
The trend will continue. As the technology improves, the listener has more control over not just the music listened to, but also the music generated/created. The important relationship may evolve to represent the tool/machine and the holder of tool/machine. You love your music-making device rather than any artist.
There will always be music. There will always be entertainment. There will always been people relating to other people. But the situation where one person makes music and another person listens to that music passively and pays either for the music itself or the experience of being at a concert has changed with the technology and will continue to change. It will likely be that the music will become inseparable from everything around a person so that the musician is no longer distinguishable from the experience itself and won't be identified as the music creator. You won't necessarily know who was responsible for the music. It will just be there. It could have come from a box. It could have come from a person. It could turn out to be bits and pieces of music that had been written in the past and reconstructed by the box in such a way that you are not aware of an human touch behind it.
The idea of who is an artist and gets credit and who isn't an artist will change. The ramifications of that for those who think of themselves as professional artists will evolve. The lines will get blurred. It will likely become harder to distinguish between artist, audience, and machine.
And if the box that makes music is a lot cheaper than connecting with a musician, and no one has any spending money, the people formerly known as the audience may decide all they can afford is the box. But if that box is the ultimately music-making machine that gives them unlimited original music, they won't care. Think of it as one step beyond the cloud. Now, instead of having access to all the world's music, they now have access to that plus to all the music that can be created.
Re: Re: But musicians also don't see what is coming
Exactly the reason why all restaurants have died. Because everyone has the tools to cook at home. Oh, wait...
I was thinking about this a bit. Cooking hasn't been transformed by technology (other than microwaves) nearly as much as music, film, photography, etc., so I'm not sure it is a comparable analogy.
But it has been impacted by other matters. As people cut back on spending, going out to eat is one area that declines.
Because I think we're going to see continuing recession, I think families are going to continue to be frugal and if they can save money by staying home (not going out to eat, not going to concerts, not going to movies), I think they are going to do it. So anything that entertains them while being low cost will get a boost. So I expect DIY for creativity, lifestyle, and entertainment to continue. I'm a big fan of the sharable movement and I think spending in general will go down as people find a way to get by with less.
Re: Re: Re: But musicians also don't see what is coming
Here's an example:
TribecaFilm.com | Future of Film | Filmmaking With a Participatory Audience: "Fortunately, the tools to pull off this type of interactivity were being developed simultaneous to our film becoming a reality. 100 years ago there was no screen, only a stage. Today we carry screens in our pockets. The internet is evolving at a mind-blowing pace. ... Through our website, we've opened a door to a new interactive audience passionate about collaboration, and they've responded. Initially they took part in casting rolls, determining locations, naming characters, deciding on their looks. Then they joined our crew during production and now they are creating scenes for our final cut (and there's more to come)."
The wall between creative and audience/consumer is blurring. That's a good thing.
Re: Re: But musicians also don't see what is coming
Exactly the reason why all restaurants have died. Because everyone has the tools to cook at home. Oh, wait...
Exactly the reason why movie theaters have died. Because everyone has the tools to watch movies at home. Oh, wait...
Music falls under entertainment. The entertainment dollar gets shifted around. Karaoke replaced live music at many bars. The movie business has changed, too. Theater movies shifted more to teen audiences.
YouTube has greatly expanded who makes videos. Now people you have never heard of can become YouTube stars. That is happening in music and will continue to happen in music. Music won't disappear, but the people making and sharing bits of it will continue to expand until the lines blur and everyone is doing it to some degree or another. Instead of Warhol's 15 minutes of fame, it will be 15 seconds of fame for everyone.
We've seen this happen over the years with photography. Everyone has a camera. Everyone takes photos. Many people share those photos. The need to hire professional photographers goes down. Now you can crowdsource and just browse flickr and find what you want.
Crowdsourcing has also changed the design industries.
The trend in all the creative fields is to open up opportunities to everyone, and many people are taking advantage of that.
I think it's denial on the part of "professionals" not to see that creativity can and does come from everyone these days. And if it hasn't yet, it will as the technology develops. This is a great thing. Everyone can participate.
It's the same with journalism and writing. We're seeing journalism open up to citizen journalists. News outlets are reducing their staffers and taking more submissions from average people. One can argue that only professionally trained people can be writers and journalists, but there's more participatory journalism anyway. The trends are there for music, too. In fact, if music doesn't become available to everyone, then technology isn't keeping up.
Most people focus on the music industry and how they didn't anticipate changes. But I see the same reactions with musicians when you tell them that technology will likely replace them. Fans won't need to be fans anymore. They will have tools that allow them to create their own music. The musicians come back and say that only they can make listenable music and not everyone has talent. But I don't think that will protect them from changes in music.
(1) A lot of popular music today doesn't really take a lot of talent to create.
(2) Music tools are getting smarter so what the users don't have in terms of talent or training can be provided with the right programmed tools.
(3) Fans like feeling like rock stars themselves and don't necessarily care if what they create is art. Why do you think karaoke has been so popular?
However, they can effectively prevent any organization from preserving works that are in danger of rotting away, but are still under copyright.
I believe archival copies can be made, so I would recommend that organizations go ahead and make copies for preservation reasons. Don't wait for the laws to be sorted out.
And along with that question, let me point you all to this. I've bought many of these books. They are collections of native, folk, and historic designs that anyone can use. I am assuming that there are, in fact, royalty-free designs that come from public domain sources.
When I first read about this, I, too, was wondering how the tattoo artist could claim copyright on a traditional design. Aren't there some designs which have been used for so long they are automatically in the public domain?
This isn't news, but if we are going to talk about privacy, I think Facebook should be included in the mix.
Facebook's Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over: "Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told a live audience yesterday that if he were to create Facebook again today, user information would by default be public, not private as it was for years until the company changed dramatically in December."
The musician who tours in today's new music industry is going to find themselves in a much better position financially than those focusing on distribution and their online presence.
The economics of touring can be brutal, though. When fuel prices go up, not only do the bands have to spend more money to get from gig to gig, their fans have less money to spend on ticket prices. That's why I expect touring to take a hit.
Re: When the law stops representing the wishes of society
Why do we stand idly by while laws are enacted to curb filesharing sites and threaten their webhosts?
Copyright isn't a cause that is going to determine I vote for. I'm much more interested in health care and clean tech issues. However, I, too, wonder when people are going to get out and vote for what they believe in. Politics depends heavily on political funding and in the US right now the laws favor big organizations that have the money to pour into campaigns. Let's see what we can do to change that.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I'd like to see actual 2010 concert revenue
most other industries are still struggling to get back to prerecession numbers but the music industry seems to be back at its highwater mark and growing.
That's what I am curious about. I don't think the live music portion is continuing to grow. I haven't seen the actual 2010 figures for Canada or the est. figures for 2011, but I think there have been cutbacks and will continue to be cutbacks. It makes sense to me as fuel and food costs increase, something has to give, and going to concerts is a relatively easy spending item to drop from one's budget.
Re: Re: I'd like to see actual 2010 concert revenue
It's the overall figure that is significant
And what the overall figure shows is that music industry income is the same as it was in 2004.
I think music spending has been and will continue to be hit by the overall economy. More money going to necessities and less going to discretionary spending. That's why I am particularly interested in concert income. I don't think it will be a growth industry.
I'm curious what the actual revenue numbers of live music in Canada turned out to be. The above graph only shows estimated 2010 figures. Also live and publishing aren't growing as fast as recorded music is declining.
Another question I have about the graph (maybe it was already answered somewhere). It shows mobile devices. Does this mean the sale of hardware?
I use it, but I am careful not to supply information if I am not sure how it will be used.
Here's the most recent action Facebook did without my permission. There was a pop up from Facebook suggesting that I make my Facebook page more secure. This wasn't about setting my page to https, which I have already done.
It was taking me through steps to supply more contact information. I suppose the "reason" was to give Facebook more ways to accurately identify me in case someone tries to hijack my account. One of the questions was to ask for my cellphone number. Google has done this as a way to log in if you have forgotten your password, so I thought it was a reasonable request and I gave it to Facebook.
About a week later I happened to look at my profile and my contact info. My cellphone number was there. I have never entered my cellphone number on my contact info page on Facebook. I can only assume Facebook thought it was doing me a "favor" by providing my number to my friends. I took it down, but Facebook crossed the line, making me that much more wary of the company.
You know, that's actually a great news article. But I would be concerned if places such as ASCAP don't come in to collect licensing from places such as NuevoStage.
I assume all of these venues are already paying ASCAP/BMI/SESAC. They are being used for music, just currently not every night. So if they have any music at all, the PROS have come calling.
On the post: Culture is Anti-Rivalrous
Why isn't there universal adoption of culture?
But it got me thinking and I'll toss this out, not as a criticism but to get a discussion going.
Anti-rivalrous goods increase in value the more they are used. For example: language. A language isn't much use to me if I can't speak it with someone else. You need at least two people to communicate with language. The more people who use the language, the more value it has.
Let's look at language or religion. I think people who currently speak a certain language or practice a certain religion might feel the world would be a better place, or at least an easier place to navigate in, if everyone spoke the same language or practiced the same religion. Yet there is resistance to that. It doesn't appear that there is universal agreement that as more people share a culture, there is more value in that culture. If there were, don't you think we'd have more groupthink or at least more willingness for people to come to the table to talk about adopting some universal cultures?
Thoughts?
On the post: Imogen Heap: Connecting With Fans By Having Them Help Her Create New Album
Re: Re: He's also media
I was one of over a thousand people who made a suggestion – you can see it by following this link and searching for “stereo” – without realising that Imogen planned to invite 5 or 6 people to appear as extras in the video for the song. So it was a complete surprise to me, when I was one of the people she asked !
She could have very well recognized his name and out of the 1000 people who submitted suggestions, chose him because he is a blogger. His account doesn't say that 1000 names were put into a hat and she invited the first five names she drew. It doesn't say the selections were totally random. Perhaps they were, but I'm guessing that who made the suggestions played a role in who got invited.
On the post: Imogen Heap: Connecting With Fans By Having Them Help Her Create New Album
He's also media
He notes that he's a huge, huge fan already, and when she asked fans to contribute images and "5-word moments of clarity" to a special "interactive cloud" on her website, he did so. What he didn't realize was that she was then going to invite some of the people who contributed cool stuff to appear as extras in the video for the song.
I'm guessing he was invited not just because he likes Heap, but also because she assumed, correctly, that he would write about the experience. So I'd say this is a case study of some fairly traditional PR techniques. In other words, invite the media for an inside look at your projects whenever you can.
On the post: New Documents Raise More Questions About Safety Of TSA Scanners
Cancer can take years
But the x-ray body scanners haven't been used long enough to result in cancers in TSA employees, have they? It would seem to me that if there is a problem with exposure, it would likely have come from the luggage scanners, which have been used for years and, if not properly shielded, might have exposed people sitting next to them day-after-day, year-after-year.
On the post: The Many Killers Of The Music Industry: The Analog Era
Re: Re: Re: Re: But musicians also don't see what is coming
As Broadway shows have used more recorded music, fewer orchestra musicians are needed.
The trend will continue. As the technology improves, the listener has more control over not just the music listened to, but also the music generated/created. The important relationship may evolve to represent the tool/machine and the holder of tool/machine. You love your music-making device rather than any artist.
There will always be music. There will always be entertainment. There will always been people relating to other people. But the situation where one person makes music and another person listens to that music passively and pays either for the music itself or the experience of being at a concert has changed with the technology and will continue to change. It will likely be that the music will become inseparable from everything around a person so that the musician is no longer distinguishable from the experience itself and won't be identified as the music creator. You won't necessarily know who was responsible for the music. It will just be there. It could have come from a box. It could have come from a person. It could turn out to be bits and pieces of music that had been written in the past and reconstructed by the box in such a way that you are not aware of an human touch behind it.
The idea of who is an artist and gets credit and who isn't an artist will change. The ramifications of that for those who think of themselves as professional artists will evolve. The lines will get blurred. It will likely become harder to distinguish between artist, audience, and machine.
And if the box that makes music is a lot cheaper than connecting with a musician, and no one has any spending money, the people formerly known as the audience may decide all they can afford is the box. But if that box is the ultimately music-making machine that gives them unlimited original music, they won't care. Think of it as one step beyond the cloud. Now, instead of having access to all the world's music, they now have access to that plus to all the music that can be created.
On the post: The Many Killers Of The Music Industry: The Analog Era
Re: Re: But musicians also don't see what is coming
I was thinking about this a bit. Cooking hasn't been transformed by technology (other than microwaves) nearly as much as music, film, photography, etc., so I'm not sure it is a comparable analogy.
But it has been impacted by other matters. As people cut back on spending, going out to eat is one area that declines.
Here's some good data. Visits to U.S. Restaurants Decline in Spring for the Eighth Consecutive Quarter, But Rate of Decline Slows Over Year Ago, Reports NPD
Because I think we're going to see continuing recession, I think families are going to continue to be frugal and if they can save money by staying home (not going out to eat, not going to concerts, not going to movies), I think they are going to do it. So anything that entertains them while being low cost will get a boost. So I expect DIY for creativity, lifestyle, and entertainment to continue. I'm a big fan of the sharable movement and I think spending in general will go down as people find a way to get by with less.
On the post: The Many Killers Of The Music Industry: The Analog Era
Re: Re: Re: But musicians also don't see what is coming
TribecaFilm.com | Future of Film | Filmmaking With a Participatory Audience: "Fortunately, the tools to pull off this type of interactivity were being developed simultaneous to our film becoming a reality. 100 years ago there was no screen, only a stage. Today we carry screens in our pockets. The internet is evolving at a mind-blowing pace. ... Through our website, we've opened a door to a new interactive audience passionate about collaboration, and they've responded. Initially they took part in casting rolls, determining locations, naming characters, deciding on their looks. Then they joined our crew during production and now they are creating scenes for our final cut (and there's more to come)."
The wall between creative and audience/consumer is blurring. That's a good thing.
On the post: The Many Killers Of The Music Industry: The Analog Era
Re: Re: But musicians also don't see what is coming
Exactly the reason why movie theaters have died. Because everyone has the tools to watch movies at home. Oh, wait...
Music falls under entertainment. The entertainment dollar gets shifted around. Karaoke replaced live music at many bars. The movie business has changed, too. Theater movies shifted more to teen audiences.
YouTube has greatly expanded who makes videos. Now people you have never heard of can become YouTube stars. That is happening in music and will continue to happen in music. Music won't disappear, but the people making and sharing bits of it will continue to expand until the lines blur and everyone is doing it to some degree or another. Instead of Warhol's 15 minutes of fame, it will be 15 seconds of fame for everyone.
We've seen this happen over the years with photography. Everyone has a camera. Everyone takes photos. Many people share those photos. The need to hire professional photographers goes down. Now you can crowdsource and just browse flickr and find what you want.
Crowdsourcing has also changed the design industries.
The trend in all the creative fields is to open up opportunities to everyone, and many people are taking advantage of that.
I think it's denial on the part of "professionals" not to see that creativity can and does come from everyone these days. And if it hasn't yet, it will as the technology develops. This is a great thing. Everyone can participate.
It's the same with journalism and writing. We're seeing journalism open up to citizen journalists. News outlets are reducing their staffers and taking more submissions from average people. One can argue that only professionally trained people can be writers and journalists, but there's more participatory journalism anyway. The trends are there for music, too. In fact, if music doesn't become available to everyone, then technology isn't keeping up.
On the post: The Many Killers Of The Music Industry: The Analog Era
But musicians also don't see what is coming
(1) A lot of popular music today doesn't really take a lot of talent to create.
(2) Music tools are getting smarter so what the users don't have in terms of talent or training can be provided with the right programmed tools.
(3) Fans like feeling like rock stars themselves and don't necessarily care if what they create is art. Why do you think karaoke has been so popular?
On the post: The One Situation Where Record Labels Fear Federal Copyright: Old Sound Recordings
Re: Re: Laws
I believe archival copies can be made, so I would recommend that organizations go ahead and make copies for preservation reasons. Don't wait for the laws to be sorted out.
On the post: Maori Angry About Mike Tyson's Tattoo Artist Claiming To Own Maori-Inspired Design
Re: A cross, swastika, a quilting pattern, etc.
Dover Design Library
On the post: Maori Angry About Mike Tyson's Tattoo Artist Claiming To Own Maori-Inspired Design
A cross, swastika, a quilting pattern, etc.
On the post: Privacy Is Not Secrecy; Debunking The 'If You've Got Nothing To Hide...' Argument
Can we bring Mark Zuckerberg into the discussion?
Facebook's Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over: "Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told a live audience yesterday that if he were to create Facebook again today, user information would by default be public, not private as it was for years until the company changed dramatically in December."
On the post: Oh Look, The Overall Music Industry In Canada Has Been Growing As Well...
Re: All the more reason to stay independent...
The economics of touring can be brutal, though. When fuel prices go up, not only do the bands have to spend more money to get from gig to gig, their fans have less money to spend on ticket prices. That's why I expect touring to take a hit.
On the post: Oh Look, The Overall Music Industry In Canada Has Been Growing As Well...
Re: When the law stops representing the wishes of society
Copyright isn't a cause that is going to determine I vote for. I'm much more interested in health care and clean tech issues. However, I, too, wonder when people are going to get out and vote for what they believe in. Politics depends heavily on political funding and in the US right now the laws favor big organizations that have the money to pour into campaigns. Let's see what we can do to change that.
On the post: Oh Look, The Overall Music Industry In Canada Has Been Growing As Well...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I'd like to see actual 2010 concert revenue
That's what I am curious about. I don't think the live music portion is continuing to grow. I haven't seen the actual 2010 figures for Canada or the est. figures for 2011, but I think there have been cutbacks and will continue to be cutbacks. It makes sense to me as fuel and food costs increase, something has to give, and going to concerts is a relatively easy spending item to drop from one's budget.
On the post: Oh Look, The Overall Music Industry In Canada Has Been Growing As Well...
Re: Re: I'd like to see actual 2010 concert revenue
And what the overall figure shows is that music industry income is the same as it was in 2004.
I think music spending has been and will continue to be hit by the overall economy. More money going to necessities and less going to discretionary spending. That's why I am particularly interested in concert income. I don't think it will be a growth industry.
On the post: Oh Look, The Overall Music Industry In Canada Has Been Growing As Well...
I'd like to see actual 2010 concert revenue
Another question I have about the graph (maybe it was already answered somewhere). It shows mobile devices. Does this mean the sale of hardware?
On the post: How Facebook's Dreadfully Executed Smear Campaign Against Google Has Increased Scrutiny Of Facebook's Own Privacy Issues
I don't trust Facebook
Here's the most recent action Facebook did without my permission. There was a pop up from Facebook suggesting that I make my Facebook page more secure. This wasn't about setting my page to https, which I have already done.
It was taking me through steps to supply more contact information. I suppose the "reason" was to give Facebook more ways to accurately identify me in case someone tries to hijack my account. One of the questions was to ask for my cellphone number. Google has done this as a way to log in if you have forgotten your password, so I thought it was a reasonable request and I gave it to Facebook.
About a week later I happened to look at my profile and my contact info. My cellphone number was there. I have never entered my cellphone number on my contact info page on Facebook. I can only assume Facebook thought it was doing me a "favor" by providing my number to my friends. I took it down, but Facebook crossed the line, making me that much more wary of the company.
On the post: The Music Industry Is Desperate For A Few Good Technologists
Re: Re: You don't need major labels
I assume all of these venues are already paying ASCAP/BMI/SESAC. They are being used for music, just currently not every night. So if they have any music at all, the PROS have come calling.
Next >>