You’ve got to read this story from the "Wall Street Journal".\u00c2\u00a0 About Brightcove.<\/p>\n
The problem the major labels are facing isn’t one of piracy, but one of LICENSING!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what you do in the modern era.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of shining the light at yourself, instead of trying to get your own house in order, you go on the ATTACK!\u00c2\u00a0 Which is a true head-scratcher in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 Because this attack is on the CUSTOMERS!\u00c2\u00a0 I mean go on attack in Washington, D.C.\u00c2\u00a0 Hit your suppliers.\u00c2\u00a0 Hit people on the inside.\u00c2\u00a0 But to go after those who ultimately keep you in business makes NO SENSE!\u00c2\u00a0 Talk to anybody running a record company.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll tell you it’s all about retail, where the transaction takes place.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll tell their junior employees to work in a record store.\u00c2\u00a0 So why can’t these people get their heads around the concept that they’ve got to pay attention to the transaction in CYBERSPACE, on the INTERNET!<\/p>\n
There’s demand.\u00c2\u00a0 Make no mistake there.\u00c2\u00a0 Thousands of products are introduced into the marketplace every year and get no traction.\u00c2\u00a0 But people want music.\u00c2\u00a0 Not EVERY production, but a healthy number.\u00c2\u00a0 Why can’t P2P be seen as DEMAND?\u00c2\u00a0 Why can’t 60 gig iPods be seen as devices to FILL?\u00c2\u00a0 Why do those in control want a walled garden, keeping the product from those who want it?\u00c2\u00a0 Wouldn’t it behoove them to open the doors and let people GET IT?<\/p>\n
Brightcove is a middle man.\u00c2\u00a0 You go to their site and sign up to distribute copyrighted video content on YOUR site.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a one page contract.\u00c2\u00a0 Suppliers include such low-level, irrelevant names as REUTERS!<\/p>\n
How come Reuters can see that it benefits them to get their wares in front of as many eyeballs as possible and the music companies wear blinders?\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, music should be available EVERYWHERE!\u00c2\u00a0 At a CHEAP PRICE!\u00c2\u00a0 So people CONSUME IT!<\/p>\n
How come the TV companies are licensing all their product ALL OVER the Web and the labels still aren’t?\u00c2\u00a0 Shouldn’t Disney be worried about pissing off its AFFILIATES?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what we heard for years, that the labels couldn’t take steps in cyberspace for fear of pissing off their retail partners.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, seemingly all of those large partners have gone bankrupt.\u00c2\u00a0 And there hasn’t been any attention paid to the indie store in EONS!\u00c2\u00a0 And the main wholesale customer, big box retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 Who are the labels protecting?\u00c2\u00a0 Do you think Best Buy’s gonna shut its doors when the CD expires?<\/p>\n
We’ve got to go back six years to Napster.\u00c2\u00a0 Thomas Middelhoff wanted to license the music industry’s wares to Napster.\u00c2\u00a0 End result?\u00c2\u00a0 His company Bertelsmann and the investors in Napster were sued by the likes of Universal and are STILL IN LITIGATION!\u00c2\u00a0 To what purpose?\u00c2\u00a0 So that Universal can put a few bucks in its coffers?\u00c2\u00a0 Aren’t these dollars DWARFED by what they would have received if they’d made a deal for their music on Napster HALF A DECADE AGO??<\/p>\n
And don’t tell me it’s about teaching people a lesson.\u00c2\u00a0 Then why is Shawn Fanning the labels’ best friend?<\/p>\n
No, the problem is music publishers who won’t go to a percentage rate.\u00c2\u00a0 And major labels which won’t give a high enough percentage to them anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Allowing the cost of music to COME DOWN so more people can acquire MORE MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 This fight within gets no coverage, but IT’S WHAT’S IMPORTANT!<\/p>\n
And then there’s the iTunes fiasco.\u00c2\u00a0 Wherein the labels want variable pricing.\u00c2\u00a0 Which if you don’t think means HIGHER PRICES you just fell off the turnip truck.\u00c2\u00a0 The key to success, to greater revenue, is LOWER PRICES!<\/p>\n
How much music should a person own?<\/p>\n
In the future, they’ll possess MUCH MORE THAN THEY DID IN THE CD ERA!\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, this is ALREADY TRUE!\u00c2\u00a0 Why not CHARGE FOR IT!<\/p>\n
How about a one page contract in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to sell our wares, here’s the deal.<\/p>\n
Hell, let the online retailers sell the product for whatever they want.\u00c2\u00a0 As long as they GUARANTEE a gross payment.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck the iTunes model.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to sell music, do it YOUR WAY, just make sure I get a billion dollars from you every year (plus royalties\/additional payments if you’re TRULY successful).<\/p>\n
Then Apple could sell the iPod with the music ON IT!\u00c2\u00a0 Or with a coupon to download a THOUSAND TRACKS!\u00c2\u00a0 Think of the stampede to the Apple Store (or apple.com!)\u00c2\u00a0 People would LOVE this deal.\u00c2\u00a0 And make the prices so low, that DRM is unnecessary.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like HBO is cheap enough per month that you won’t tape or burn a disc of it for a friend.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not worth the HASSLE!<\/p>\n
Stop the suing of customers.\u00c2\u00a0 Focus on legislation.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the threat thereof.\u00c2\u00a0 To get the music companies to create easy, coherent, possibly even COMPULSORY licensing!<\/p>\n
Every step of the way the music companies have thwarted innovation.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve made it so entrepreneurs could not come up with new ways to distribute music, for fear of being SUED!<\/p>\n
The answer isn’t lawsuits, it’s LICENSING!<\/p>\n
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