{"id":2447,"date":"2009-12-03T12:02:30","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T20:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2009-12-03T12:03:56","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T20:03:56","slug":"too-much-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/03\/too-much-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Much Joy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
From: Scott Hudson
Subject: Too Much Joy on Digital Royalties
Date: December 1, 2009 1:55:33 PM PST
To: Bob Lefsetz<\/p>\n

Hello Mr. Lefsetz,<\/p>\n

I was forwarded this link earlier today, and I believe you may find it interesting how Warners handles digital royalties on bands no longer on their roster.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.toomuchjoy.com\/?p=1397<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

_____________________________________<\/p>\n

I didn’t read this e-mail until 8 PM.<\/p>\n

And I immediately tweeted about it.<\/p>\n

There are two kinds of people.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who use Twitter and those who don’t.<\/p>\n

Please don’t fall into the second category.<\/p>\n

This ain’t no MySpace, this ain’t no Facebook, this is information, plain and simple.<\/p>\n

Forget the hype, that it’s those without lives listening to the minutiae of others.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, there are those who update their whereabouts on a regular basis.\u00c2\u00a0 And those who think Twitter is purely for hype.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I’ve now learned that Ian Rogers is not a discerning listener.\u00c2\u00a0 Makes me wonder about Topspin.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s constantly tweeting that the music of every act the company works with is good.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s utter hogwash. Especially when the tunes are outside his normal flavor field.<\/p>\n

Yes, you can learn a lot reading between the lines.<\/p>\n

But you can also gain a ton of information.<\/p>\n

First and foremost, you must make Twitter comprehensible.<\/p>\n

Use Tweetdeck<\/a><\/p>\n

When it asks to install Adobe Air, just say yes. Adobe Air powers all the hip new software, like the New York Times Reader<\/a> (It’s free if you’re a print subscriber.)\u00c2\u00a0 The Reader is much faster than your browser.\u00c2\u00a0 And more comprehensible.<\/p>\n

And that’s what Tweetdeck is all about, comprehension.\u00c2\u00a0 It makes Twitter understandable, listing the tweets of those you follow, those that reference to you…\u00c2\u00a0 There are a lot of "hidden" tricks in the app.\u00c2\u00a0 Like click on someone’s name, and a column appears delineating all their details.\u00c2\u00a0 Play around.<\/p>\n

But only if you’ve got a lot of RAM and a fairly new computer.<\/p>\n

As for competing products…\u00c2\u00a0 Start with Tweetdeck.\u00c2\u00a0 Power users have favorites, but I don’t want to overwhelm you.<\/p>\n

So, I got this e-mail about the Too Much Joy royalty statement and upon reading it immediately tweeted about it.<\/p>\n

And then my Tweetdeck notifications went berserk.\u00c2\u00a0 People were retweeting my tweet.<\/p>\n

In other words, the word was spreading.<\/p>\n

How fast and how far?<\/p>\n

To the point wherein minutes, the Webpage referenced was inaccessible, a data error showed up if you got anything at all.<\/p>\n

Sure, this illustrates that if you’ve got information to purvey, be sure to have enough horsepower to get it out there.<\/p>\n

But more importantly, that interesting information spreads like wildfire.\u00c2\u00a0 Instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 And far.<\/p>\n

How far?<\/p>\n

I’ve only got a fraction of my regular e-mail list following me on Twitter.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t want to overload your inbox, especially with just raw information.\u00c2\u00a0 So I tweeted as opposed to e-mailed.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until the middle of the next day that I got a single e-mail about this Too Much Joy post.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, those relying on nineties technology, which e-mail is, were a step behind.<\/p>\n

Notice, "Hits" didn’t write about it.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that they’ve buried the hatchet with Lyor\/Warner and don’t want to piss anybody off.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned "New York Times" doesn’t think this is a big enough story and has no infrastructure anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got Ben Sisario writing about the music business and..?\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, if something is written on one of their blogs…NO ONE READS THEIR BLOGS!<\/p>\n

But if you’re a musician, if you’re a dedicated follower of music, this Too Much Joy post was pure gold.\u00c2\u00a0 Proof that the major labels’ business paradigm is theft.\u00c2\u00a0 Plain and simple.<\/p>\n

Tim Quirk just wants what is owed to him.\u00c2\u00a0 A statement.<\/p>\n

Warner can’t even deliver that.\u00c2\u00a0 And when the company does, it’s inaccurate.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Tim reveals the fallacy of recoupment.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not dollar for dollar, but based on your royalty rate.\u00c2\u00a0 So, you might still be underwater, but your company can be rolling in dough!<\/p>\n

Believe me, you can automate these processes.\u00c2\u00a0 You can deliver accurate royalty statements on time.\u00c2\u00a0 But the major labels don’t want to. Apple has a history of everything I’ve purchased.\u00c2\u00a0 But somehow the label can’t find this info.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just data.\u00c2\u00a0 Computing power and the Internet can put this at your fingertips.<\/p>\n

What happens first?\u00c2\u00a0 Do the labels enter the twenty first century or do musicians avoid them?<\/p>\n

We already have our answer.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the latter.\u00c2\u00a0 Major labels sign few artists, and screw them in the process.\u00c2\u00a0 If they can’t account to you on digital sales, raw data, do you really trust them with other revenue streams in your 360 deal?<\/p>\n

The labels are old school.\u00c2\u00a0 And everybody knows it.<\/p>\n

Except maybe the mainstream press.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is just as ancient in its thinking as the labels.<\/p>\n

I was frustrated, I thought this story had no legs.\u00c2\u00a0 But then I read this "Billboard" article: <\/p>\n

\n
\nA Not So Funny Warner Royalty Statement<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(and why can’t "Billboard" render properly in Safari, since Macs are the platform of choice for musicians) interviewing Mr. Quirk.<\/p>\n

The story was picked up by the "Village Voice" blog, "Daily Swarm", "Hypebot", me and the "Onion AV" blog.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you don’t know the power of the "Onion AV", you probably run a major label.<\/p>\n

The word got out.\u00c2\u00a0 Not via the mainstream.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who needed to know saw it.\u00c2\u00a0 So, unlike straight news stories that have no traction because someone shortly thereafter gets kidnapped or killed, the target audience read and digested Tim Quirk’s story.<\/p>\n

How you gonna convince people not to steal when you’re stealing yourself?<\/p>\n

The record industry never pondered that question.<\/p>\n

You could have been there first.\u00c2\u00a0 You could have seen the story on Twitter.\u00c2\u00a0 As opposed to being the last to know.<\/p>\n

What do you not know?<\/p>\n

That’s what’s killing the major labels, what they don’t know.<\/p>\n

And we live in an information society.\u00c2\u00a0 And your so-called enemy, the public, now has access to all kinds of data.\u00c2\u00a0 Great info finds its audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Great music finds its audience also.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever think that the reason few new acts break is because the music’s not good enough?<\/p>\n

I know, that’s heresy.\u00c2\u00a0 Stone me.<\/p>\n

But if you hear something good you tell everybody you know.<\/p>\n

Via social media.\u00c2\u00a0 Via Twitter.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From: Scott HudsonSubject: Too Much Joy on Digital RoyaltiesDate: December 1, 2009 1:55:33 PM PSTTo: Bob Lefsetz Hello Mr. Lefsetz, I was forwarded this link earlier today, and I believe you may find it interesting how Warners handles digital royalties on bands no longer on their roster. http:\/\/www.toomuchjoy.com\/?p=1397 _____________________________________ I didn’t read this e-mail until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business","category-online","category-the-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Dt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions\/2449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}