February 26, 2010

Q1 2009 30.5 cents
Q2 2009 33.4 cents
Q3 2009 34.2 cents
Q4 2009 39 cents

February 24, 2010

February 19, 2010

2 CD set + DVD costs 13.99 on Amazon, or just downloading the MP3 costs 9.49. My emusic plan is 35 downloads for 15.89...so it costs more to download the tracks here than to buy the actual discs, rip them myself, keep the cd as backup and in addition have the DVD?

February 11, 2010

...to hear the Dead tell the story, it's true that they did all of those things, but they really had no idea what they were doing when they started doing all that; that "the musicians who constituted the Dead were anything but naive about their business" is a stretch. They blew gobs of the money they earned on all kinds of crap early on, including playing the goddamn pyramids in Egypt, starting a record label (I think), and the "R and D" of putting their "wall of sound" stage audio together. In fact, if I remember right, they HAD to tour for a couple of years in the early seventies or they were going to go broke. They didn't become enormously profitable until the 1990s.

February 10, 2010

As Barnes and other scholars note, the musicians who constituted the Dead were anything but naive about their business. They incorporated early on, and established a board of directors (with a rotating CEO position) consisting of the band, road crew, and other members of the Dead organization. They founded a profitable merchandising division and, peace and love notwithstanding, did not hesitate to sue those who violated their copyrights. But they weren’t greedy, and they adapted well. They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales. According to Barnes, the decision was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time.

February 08, 2010

One could argue that publishers aren't affected by Amazon's pricing. They continue to receive 50% of the cover price for each digital copy Amazon sells, the same as physical books sold at a local bookshop. (Astute observers will correctly point out that Amazon is actually losing money on bestsellers under this arrangement.)

What irks publishers is a concern that Amazon is conditioning readers to believe that digital books are worth less, about 60% less, than the physical copy. Such a steep price cut could have a dramatic impact on the book business in the future, when digital sales become a bigger portion of overall industry revenue. (They currently account for less than 5% of retail book sales.)

February 04, 2010

When the iTunes store launched, it was the only game in town for major label content. (There might have been other digital stores at the time, but none had gained any real traction for selling major label material.)

Pirated digital music was easily available before the launch of any digital music store. Hence, a legal download store was something of a lifeline for the major labels, even if the initial pricing wasn't to their liking. As far as I know, pirated e-book content isn't yet widely traded yet, though there is a huge supply of free public-domain material.