June 27, 2007

Pro:

We don't make any real money from selling it anyway, so why not give it away?

People already buy the tracks we give away. "Silence," "The Long Night," and "Ocean Blue" are usually our top tracks at iTunes, even though we offer free 192k mp3 versions of those songs on our website.

The increased exposure might lead to licensing opportunities -- ads, film, or TV, which is probably our best shot at breaking even or making a modest income from the music.

More attention from bloggers, etc. We've gotten a fair amount of attention in the past from music bloggers, but they might be more interested in spreading the word about a "free album" as opposed to a few free tracks.

Ego boost: If we're unlikely to make money from our music, having more people hear it is something of a consolation, might get us on more iPods, total number of listeners on Last.fm, iLike, etc.

Con:

Would it make us seem desperate or less "real?"

You get what you pay for. Do people appreciate it less if they don't have to pay for it?

We wouldn't be the first to do it, so it might not get us that much attention anyway.

Bloggers, reviewers, and radio might take us less seriously: "not a real band, just another group giving away mp3s..."

June 22, 2007

June 21, 2007

June 20, 2007

"...it will be simply a question of time when the amateur disappears entirely. The tide of amateurism cannot but recede, until there will be left only the mechanical device and the professional executant."

June 18, 2007

MR. MOSSBERG: You put out a press release this morning [May 30] that you have begun to sell these non-copy-protected songs on the iTunes store from EMI.

MR. JOBS: Right now it is just EMI, but there are zillions of independents that are also jumping on the bandwagon. As fast as we can get their stuff encoded, you'll see more and more on there. I think over half the songs we offer on iTunes will be offered in what we call iTunes Plus, which is our DRM [digital rights management]-free, higher-quality audio versions, by the end of this calendar year.

MR. MOSSBERG: Any other movement on the record labels coming?

MR. JOBS: We're working with them. The music companies ship 90% of their music DRM-free today, because all CDs are DRM-free. We've gone to them and said, "Look, you're shipping 90% of your music DRM-free. Customers are willing to pay a little bit more to get their downloaded music DRM-free, and why don't we do this?" We were successful in persuading EMI, and hopefully over the rest of this year will be successful in persuading most or all of the rest of the labels.

Slacker says it has another advantage. Most Internet radio operators are currently facing a major increase in the royalty rate they owe to artists whose songs they play, an increase so dramatic that royalty rates in some cases eclipse the company's total revenues. Most operators, including Pandora, are complaining that the higher costs may put them out of business. They're busy lobbying Congress to change the recent rate increase, imposed by the Copyright Royalty Board, a Washington, D.C.-based panel of judges.

But Slacker says it already has a higher royalty rate built into its business model. Rather than paying statutory license fees, Slacker cut deals directly with record labels. Like satellite-radio broadcasters, Slacker will turn over an undisclosed percentage of revenue in royalties, rather than paying per song and per play.

June 15, 2007

June 12, 2007

Given the strengths and weaknesses of its plans, I could see a fully functional Lala luring more than a few music fans away from subscription services and webcasters. But I'd be surprised if it found a way to make more than $140 million in its first two years, which is the amount of royalties Nguyen said the service will be paying the labels and music publishers.

Lala's pricing model, too, runs counter to the way the music industry has done things. Prices will be "dynamic," or based on demand for a particular title and other factors, including the existing content of a user's personal music library.

June 05, 2007

I suspect that many here would not have gone out and bought this but as it's here we download it.