Category Archives: media

Revenues flat due to DRM MP3s

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No, of course not.

But REUTERS, the esteemed organisation that it is, used a Billboard article by Antony Bruno to propose just this (second paragraph, even).

In 2007, the majors will get the message, and the DRM wall will begin to crumble. Why? Because they’ll no longer be able to point to a growing digital marketplace as justification that DRM works. Revenue from digital downloads and mobile content is expected to be flat or, in some cases, decline next year. If the digital market does in fact stall, alternatives to DRM will look much more attractive.

At least the article has a good look at the 1Q2007 market we’re all returning from holiday periods to face, reviewing:

  1. Amazon
  2. Limewire
  3. MySpace
  4. eMusic
  5. Yahoo! Music

By volume, I think MySpace has a chance of driving demand for liberated MP3s.

By quality, possibly David Goldberg’s deals with Sony BMG and EMI Music could influence the marketplace.

Ashwin Navin muses

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It’s a selectively-edited interview, but Ashwin Navin, co-founder of BitTorrent publicly puts forth “common sense”.

I actually don’t think that if content owner and content rights holders take an inventory of the way that people want to consume content and embrace, rather than fight it, DRM almost becomes irrelevant. If people can use content in the way they want offline and online they won’t care about DRM, because the content is consumed in a flexible use case.

Yes, absolutely: this statement means two things though.

  1. With good use-case-management, via “DRM” platforms, people won’t really see the mechanism that lets them watch what they want, how they want
  2. If the original rights-holder publishes legitimate unencumbered media, they could combat the existence of illicit unencumbered media.

And as the interviewer emits surprise at the possibility of point 2, Navin explains that

[…] There’s huge amounts of value for publishers to license a TV show over and over again. Today they can’t stomach the risk of allowing content to be published free and clear of DRM. But eventually they’ll realize that’s the way people are going to consume it anyway, so they might as well profit from it.

Media houses coming to grips with the freedom ethic of digital content will prosper.

Chronosynchronous release

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The article pulls in too many directions for me to be able to form a strong view on the author’s, and subjects’, viewpoints.

I understand that each part of the value-chain has its own incentive, but if you look at the key “reasons” from top to bottom, you get a view on how fragmented the industry is.

In an attempt to bolster consumer interest in paid video on demand […]

“[…] What we are really interested in seeing is whether this increases the buy rates.”

“we believe that they will be very cautious in introducing any new less profitable service that could be cannibalistic to the rental and retail channel.”

The experiment is a result of pressure by the cable industry to test paid video on demand so that it could get a slice of the revenues immediately after theater release.

Well, is it about consumer interest or business (self) interest?

The answer is both. Generally, it’s hard to find a consistent view on what on-demand means. What it provides, or what it produces.

It provides a method for producers to get closer to the audience, if the network agrees to carry the content immediately after completion/release.

It produces revenue streams that are less convoluted, if the rights-holder or “seller” can agree to take a revenue-share.

But it also means that release windows become less relevant. If people already check “vcdquality.com” (or equivalent) for “release” dates, why not knife the bootleg by providing low-resistance methods of seeing the real thing?

Leaks of new songs difficult to plug

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…and some in industry don’t care | Chicago Tribune

In some cases, industry people are leaking music online, such as the recent incident in which tracks from a Mastodon recording were released by a retail worker, who was subsequently fired.

Or, as I experienced in 2001 to 2003: some label managers paid to have “studio burns” of albums released onto filesharing networks to gauge reaction in advance of the release.

You can use the community to your advantage; the corollary is that it is not piracy if it is endorsed by the label.

8 Things You Need To Know About PS3 versus Wii

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Some of the language might be considered (mildly) Not Safe For Work, but this sounds just like the conversation two teenaged acquaintances had with me at the weekend.

Console supremacy wars roll around again!

Only one console will do this for you:

Speeds pace of evolution if touched

Read the article to find out which one.

Or read this post to see what might happen…uhh…to you…