The Music Industry's New Digital Problem

I was recently sent this article from Business Week speaking of the growing digital issues facing the Music Industry. Streaming VS Downloads... that is the question...

My take on this is that Streaming Services need to be paying the right's holders whether it be through a pro-rata share of advertising profits, PRO's, or what-have-you. I wonder though... Is it the streaming media's fault for declining sales, or are the declining sales are part of a larger shift in the music purchase paradigm? It would be arguable that terrestrial radio could have ruined record sales in the earlier parts of the 20th century... No-one was complaining then. What is so different about streaming internet radio and other services? I guess that answer will help us get to the bottom of this sinking music industry economy.

Kindle 2.... yes thank you

I have been eyeing up the Kindle and other e-reader competition for some time now, but I think I am now in love. Amazon has just released the http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m3S2MQK38RR1UD (original). This is the all-in e-book/everything reader of 2009! This thing just looks cool... and from the reviews I have heard about the Kindle 1, this has got to be better and full of awesomeness! There is a bit of debate going around right now on whether or not the platform is legit as there is a new "text to speach" function that could supposedly trample on author's rights regarding recordings of their books.. as compared to downloads of their book text... I am certain this will be heavily debated. What I am also certain of is I want a Kindle 2 regardless of the outcome.

Microsoft is musically Inept

I really hate Microsoft.

Just when I was beginning to embrace my PC, they go and screw everything up by trying to get into the music game. They are making their fore' into the music "production" arena with "Microsoft Songsmith" . This flaming piece of crap actually writes your backup music for you after hearing the melody sung through a microphone. Consider it a "Speak & Spell" for music. What's worse, the musical accompaniment is terrible…just terrible ( It almost reminds me of the crappy old Casio demo song Wesley Willis used to back up all of his music) .

 

I am really glad Bill Gates is doing what he can to de-evolve our musical enlightenment. When will they learn? Windows Media Player, the Zune and now this… I really wish they would have stopped at Excel and Microsoft Word.

 

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Musicbox- Phenomenal… just awesome

Anyone with any interest in digital media, music, new technology, or ears and a brain need to check this out. This is the thesis of a MIT grad student mapping music using it's metadata. All the info is there… it amazes me that just now we are finally doing something cool with it.

In all fairness, I didn't discover this on my own… I learned about this at Techcrunch. This is really cool and someone with a TON of startup capitol ought to be able to do something with this technology. [read: I met the creator of the "music genome project" several years ago and doubted it's application. Still kicking myself for that..] This is very cool!

 

Demo Video is here