From Video Games To The Music Industry: Guitar Hero's Effect

In my previous blog post entitled, "An Obsession Over Stars: Industry and Economy Booster", I mentioned how the music industry was benefiting financially from the obsession that the American public has with celebrities such as Britney Spears. This week I explored the blogosphere to find what others were saying about the music industry and how it could be saved. One of the blogs that I came upon is found in The New York Times, which was written by David Edery, a worldwide games portfolio manager for XBOX Live Arcade, a research affiliate of the M.I.T. Comparative Media Studies Program, and author. His blog entitled, "Can Guitar Hero Help Save the Music Industry? A guest Post", offers a lot of valuable information with hard evidence that he has found while doing his research for his book. Guitar Hero and Rock Band, which were both created by Harmonix, allow its users to "play" their favorite songs with different peripherals such as a guitar (see left), drum set, or a microphone. The games come preloaded with a wide range of songs from different times of the music scene. Mr. Edery mentioned that the president of Universal Media Group claims that songs that were included in Guitar Hero will sell two to three times better than average. Another example is when Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (see right, below) generated more revenue for Aerosmith than any of their individual albums. Mr. Edery also mentions the deal that has been developing between MTVN and the Beatles that would create an entirely new music game based on the Beatles' music. A product such as this one which is expected to be released for the 2009 holiday season will generate a lot of revenue for the music industry. My second article is found in USA Today, it is entitled, "Bands' sales are feeling the 'Guitar Hero' effect", and it is written by Mike Snider. Mr. Snider makes mention of the Guitar Hero effect, which is when a song appears on Guitar Hero and its digital downloads increase exponentially. One of the biggest genres that is being affected is classic rock, with artists such as Kansas seeing an increase of young teenagers in their shows. Guitar Hero has also recreated interest in old music tracks that no longer have had any marketing attached to them, which has created revenue that was and probably would no longer exist. In addition to posting my comments directly on these blogs, I have also posted my comments below.

Can Guitar Hero Help Save the Music Industry? A guest Post
Comment:
Mr. Edery,
First and foremost I would like to thank you for taking the time to write this very informative blog. In your post you have mentioned almost entire positive that have come out of having such a game as Guitar Hero. It is a fact that a lot of artists have seen their music sales increase after being included in Guitar Hero and other artists have gone as far as creating their own version of Guitar Hero. The biggest example being the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game, which produced more revenue for them than any of the individual albums, as you mentioned. I was wondering if there were any negative outcomes, for artists or the music industry, that were coming out of video games such as Guitar Hero and Rockband. Has there been any backlash among fans? Maybe they feel like their favorite band has sold out to mainstream corporate America by allowing their music to appear in video games. You said that not only had digital download sales increased but also full album sales. Currently it appears that everyone is benefitting and generating revenue by Guitar Hero, but will there be a time when Guitar Hero's download sales will cannibalize the sales of digital downloads and full albums? I was wondering if in the future, the consumers would be willing to spend money on duplicate copies of the same song? For now it seems like the video game industry is the new medium to be used for distribution and marketing of new music. This can already be seen by the influx of copycat video games, will the music industry's record labels have to come together or will maybe each create their own video game to distribute their artists music? I believe that if this sort of thing happens, the novelty feeling will disappear for the consumer and such video games will become unpopular and obsolete. I hope to read your next blog post and see if how you expect the music industry to react to such technology and how it will change their business models for the long run.

Bands' sales are feeling the 'Guitar Hero' effect
Comment:
Hello Mike,
I wanted to say thank you for writing your article on such a current and popular trend that has hit the consumer and music industry by surprise. In your article you mentioned the Guitar Hero effect, which is the increase in sales for an artist after they appear on the Guitar Hero video game. I wanted to ask if you had come up with that term or if someone else created it? In your article you mentioned how some underground or not so well known bands had seen an increase in sales after the release of Guitar Hero III. I was wondering if the increase in sales was greater for groups that were well less known in comparison to mainstream popular artists? I was also wondering if you believe that all artists were seeing Guitar Hero as a platform they wanted to be on. I am not sure if solo artists such as Justin Timberlake or Kanye West would benefit from games such as Guitar Hero or Rockband, seeing as their band is usually not the most important part of their performances. You mentioned that only song had shown a drop in sales, was this due to the fact that the fans of that artist felt betrayed by their favorite song being commercialized for the whole general public? I cannot wait to see how the music industry reacts to such new technology and if these videos games do end up being the saviour to such a struggling industry. I hope you keep us updated on any new developments that occur.

An Obsession Over Stars: Industry and Economy Booster

In my previous posts I have written about how the music industry is affected by online music services such as iTunes, Amazon Music, and Wal-Mart's MP3 Store. This week I decided to write about the obsession that the American people have with celebrities, as it can be seen lately with Britney Spears new album, and how those obsessions translate into money not only helping the music industry but also the economy as a whole. During these hard times any money that comes into the economy is good no matter where it comes from, but can we really stand by and do nothing while these people's lives are being destroyed? Artists have an understanding when they start their careers that at some point in their careers their life will no longer belong to just themselves, it will become public domain but I tend to disagree on how much of their lives should be available to the public. Although everyone seems to be benefiting from these current events, we will have to wait and see how long before a big incident occurs and makes us think twice about the real cost about obsessing over celebrities lives.

One of the celebrities that has the biggest following has been Britney Spears (see left), and her crazy life has caused an even bigger interest in what she does every minute of her life. A report on the Daily News says that Ms. Spears has helped boost the economy by $110 million to $120 million a year, apart from her music sales. The music industry, which includes her record company, promoters, and others have raked in up to $40 million. Although law enforcement and the judicial system has benefited with the publics obsession over Ms. Spears, by paying overtime to its police officers and court officers to protect her. The general has not benefited at all, in fact they are the ones who will have to pay for all these expenditures with their taxes. This obsession over her life has caused her to go crazy and in return more money keeps getting made off her life, this trend is a vicious circle that does not stop. The fact that she has children now has not made the public back off, her own managers seem to be informing the paparazzi on where she is going to be during specific times of the day. The money being generated of course helps a lot of people but at the cost of an individual's life. This is where I have to disagree with the music industry and the way in which they use their artists.

This entire obsession over celebrities and artists has caused a change in who has power in the music industry. Hundreds and thousands of blogs have been created on the Internet, which deal with music gossip and celebrity gossip. One of the biggest and most popular is PerezHilton.com (see right), which is maintained by no other than Perez Hilton himself. His status on the blogosphere has become so big that the music industry has started to give him a lot of power in regards to upcoming artists that he thinks are worthy of getting attention by the public. This article mentions how not only does Perez Hilton write about gossip but he has also been credited for boosting an artist's sales and image profile by writing about them in his blog. The article also says, "Warner Bros. Records was in negotiations to give Perez Hilton a development deal that would make him an executive on the label", which would be a huge change that demonstrates how the music industry sees the future of doing business. Managers want their artists to be featured on such blogs to increase their presence in the media, even though that press might not always be positive. This overexposure tends to help with sales of music albums and concert tickets but this raises the question again of how far managers will go to make a dollar, without taking into consideration how their clients, the artist will be affected.

Not everyone agrees with the power that celebrity gossip blogs and their authors are receiving, and it is to no surprise that the biggest opposition are artists themselves. Artists are saying that they are not sure if they want their careers in the hands of people who making a living on writing about gossip stories. Artists also understand that if gossip writers start joining the executive boards of record labels, this trend of having their personal lives on display for the whole public will never end. Even within the artist community, there is no consensus about how they feel about gossip blogs and their creators. For example the group N.E.R.D. likes the fact that there are bloggers such as Perez Hilton because they feel like their demographics go hand in hand with each other, and that any information being posted on those blogs only helps expand their fan base size.

In an industry where money has become the main objective, unconventional ways of generating revenue will keep coming up. Without disregard to their artists and their lives, record labels will keep using them until they are of no more value to them and then the record labels will move on to the next big thing, artist, that will generate more money. This trend that has set itself as the norm cannot stay intact forever. I believe that artists will unite and demand from their managers more respect when it comes to their personal lives. Artists will stop performing nonstop and will use their demand from fans and their celebrity status as a bargaining tool in order to get better treatment from their management teams, but as long as the American people want their gossip and record labels receive their money, I see no end in sight to the maltreatment and abuse of artists by their labels and managers.

Digital Music Distribution: The Music Industry's Future

In my previous blog posts I have mentioned how the music industry has been struggling to generate revenue with the continuous decline in CD sales. In my post entitled, "MySpace Music: The Music Industry's Saviour?", I mentioned how this new service had generated about $800 million dollars on paper already for the music industry. This week I explored the blogosphere to discover the other services that could generate revenue for the music industry. Recently Wal-Mart came back into the news by relaunching its MP3 store. The addition of Wal-Mart's MP3 store (see right) add competition to the digital music distribution mix, it allows consumers the ability to be able to buy music from other companies besides Amazon and iTunes. Wal-Mart is also introducing their service with lower prices for individual songs, $0.74 and $0.94 compared to the usual $0.99. This new pricing strategy that Wal-Mart might become beneficial to not only the labels but also the consumers. The lower prices set by Wal-Mart might cause Apple and Amazon to also lower their prices to maintain their current market share and be able to compete with the lower priced songs. If lower priced songs cause more consumers to legally buy songs instead of downloading them illegally, the music industry might see an increase in revenue. I searched and found the following two blogs that gave me an insight into what the current trend and future is for the music industry, regarding digital distribution. The first blog that I found was entitled "Wal-Mart MP3 store relaunches", and it is part of CNET's Digital Noise blog. The author is Matt Rosoff, a well-regarded blogger who specializes in how technology affects music. The other blog post that I found is entitled, "Outsourced Distribution Makes Perfect Sense", it is found on coolfer blog site. This blog offers analysis on the music industry and is a well respected and widely read source of analysis and news. In addition to posting my comments directly on these blogs, I have also posted my comments below.

Wal-Mart MP3 store relaunches
Comment:
Thank you for such a concise and informative post. I appreciate the fact that you reported on such a current and relevant issue that affects the way the consumers are able to obtain their music in today's digital music age. You decided to write about the relaunch of Wal-Mart's MP3 store, which in the past used to be one of the biggest music stores available to the consumer. Not until recently when they decided to close their online store, did consumers learn about the negative aspects of owning digital songs as opposed to actual CD's. When Wal-Mart decided to close their MP3 store, they decided to keep their DRM system in place for a couple of months but within the last 2 months they decided to turn off that system which would mean that thousands of songs that consumers had bought would become useless. This caused a huge uproar and Wal-Mart later decided to not turn off that DRM system to allow users to had legally bought those songs to keep them and still be working. Do you believe that after Wal-Mart received all that negative publicity and all those letters from the consumers, they realized how big of a market digital music sales really is, and is that the reason they decided to relaunch their MP3 store? In your post you also mentioned that they are offering top hits at only 74 cents per song but standard pricing would be 94 cents, which is still cheaper than most other online stores. Do you believe that they are doing this in order to steer customers away from the iTunes music store and Amazon music store? And how do you think iTunes and Amazon will react to this new pricing strategy introduced by Wal-Mart? You made a very clear point when you mentioned that AC/DC's new album was exclusive being distributed by Wal-Mart, yet their new album was not available in their online store. Do you believe that this is the cause of AC/DC's own management ideas or Wal-Mart prefers to keep those highly anticipated albums in their brick and mortar stores only to increase foot traffic. Wal-Mart also tends to have a very negative image among many people because of how they have made small business go bankrupt and their use of cheap labor in other countries. Would this negative image keep consumers from using their new online store even though it's cheaper? I would like to see a follow up post that shows if Wal-Mart's new music store is successful and how it compares to the other big online music stores.

Outsourced Distribution Makes Perfect Sense
Comment:
First of all, I want to thank you for keeping your readers up to date on current trends in the music industry and for compiling information from various sources and putting it together in nice and informative posts. You mentioned in your post that digital distribution has been getting all the attention but the physical world needs a huge overhaul in how business is conducted. I agree that labels and distribution companies no longer need to manufacture and distribute the same amount of CD's as before because of the sharp decline in music CD sales. I was wondering why I had not heard anything about these companies making changes to adapt to the present trends in consumer shopping. You mentioned how EMI is seeking to outsource (see left, above) its operations to reduce costs, but do you believe that in the long run this is going to be the right way to go? As CD sales keep dropping, the number being manufactured will also keep dropping, but this will cause a higher cost per individual CD because the fixed costs will not be spread over a larger number of CD's. Will this trend in fact make prices to go up for CD's, and if so, will customers just stop buying CD's altogether. I do like your idea that labels will have to come together and join their operations to reduce costs and increase efficiency but that as you mentioned that does raise a lot of questions regarding employee loyalty and even artist loyalty. In the end I believe that the way for the labels to go is full digital distribution but many hardcore music fans might not appreciate the fact that they will no longer be able to hold a hardcopy of their favorite music. Only time will tell when and if music CD's become obsolete.

Indie Artists and Fans Unite: MySpace Listens and Changes its Service

In a previous blog entry I mentioned how MySpace had the ability to generate a huge amount of revenue for the struggling music industry with its new MySpace Music (see left below) service. Although the music industry would surely benefit from this service, the independent labels and artists were the ones hurt because they were left out of it. In the previous blog, I expressed my belief that MySpace was going to face negative repercussions for excluding independent artists from their new service; especially when independent artists were one of the biggest reasons why MySpace had become so popular. I mentioned that I personally believed that MySpace would change its service within a few days or weeks, to allow independent labels and artists back into the MySpace Music service. A recent article on StarTribune.com puts it best, "A month after irking part of the independent recording community by launching its online music service mostly with major labels, MySpace Music has made a deal to almost double the amount of indie tunes available through the service." MySpace finally realized that what they had done was not in the best interest for their company's image and profitability. They decided to listen to all the reports and complaints that people were having about this issue and make a change for the better. Although independent labels and artists are now happy to be back on the MySpace Music, the major labels might be feeling a little bit uneasy since now they will confront competition from the hundreds if not thousands of independent artists on MySpace.

The top major labels make up a huge percentage of all the music that is sold throughout the country but they depend on a fewer or limited number of artists to generate their revenue from. Although the major labels do not necessarily need the revenue that will be generated by MySpace Music, that revenue stream would be a great help for an already struggling industry. In a comment I left previously, I had mentioned that the music industry had already made $800 million dollars already on paper; well not the top record labels might be feeling a little nervous about the fact that no longer will they be the only ones getting a pay off from the MySpace Music service. As much as the top labels want the music industry to do well, they definitely do not like losing potential revenue to other labels and specially not independent labels. Although the top major labels will definitely cringe with this current development, the fans will definitely be ecstatic about the fact that they will once again be able to discover new and true raw music that has yet to be changed to fit into what is found popular by mainstream America. As I mentioned up above, MySpace Music decided to work a partnership with independent labels and artists, the big partnership was between MySpace Music and the independent digital distributor IODA. The IODA (see right below) is a distribution company that takes care of distributing, marketing, and other technology issues for all of its independent labels and their respective artists. MySpace Music having formed this relationship with IODA increased its independent labels on its service to the thousands. An article on Billboard.biz says, "MySpace Music's executive director of strategy and business development, Frank Hajdu, told Billboard.biz that MySpace Music is dedicated to the indie artist community." This comes as a shock since at first they denied all the allegations that they had left out independent artist out of their new music service when it fact they had; this quote does make independent labels feel reassured now that they will not be forgotten anymore. I personally believe that MySpace should be dedicated to the indie artist community because without them, MySpace would have never achieved the status and number of users that it has today.

As many expected it, MySpace ended up changing their whole service on October 23, 2008 in order to adapt to the true music culture that lives on the Internet, the independent non-mainstream music. MySpace would have truly lost its dominance in the social networking arena if it did not correct its mistake of not allowing other music on its service beside that of big record labels. MySpace had no choice but to listen to its users and a large group of artists in order to remain popular, which is really their first goal because if they are no longer popular no one would go to their site and in return there would be no revenue generated from music being played on their site. Independent artists in return now have a place once again where they can upload their music and create their fan base, they can market themselves and their upcoming shows which will lead to their popularity increasing among thousands of potential fans on MySpace. Now since everyone's needs and demands have been met to an understandable level, the top major labels earning revenue from their streamed music, indie artists being able to create and upload music; and fans being able to truly find diversified music in one location, the question that remains is whether this service will last in the ever fast changing online music distribution world or will it just fade away like many other services have before. Another question I raise is the fact that since independent artists will now have the chance to reach thousands fans, will they now become mainstream musicians or will they keep the indie vibe alive? I personally believe that whenever something gets mass media attention, it tends to loose its appeal to the people that live for underground, uncomercialed music. Once artists start making money, the also forget about their love for the music and it becomes merely a way of making money and getting rich. We will have to wait in order to truly see the effects that this music service will have on independent artists, but until then everyone can benefit from MySpace's change to its music service.

The Music Industry Collection: News, Resources, Gossip, and Everything Music

This week I went on a quest across the Web to look for websites, blogs, news sites, and organizations that provide important and current relevant information regarding the music industry. I have found twenty of these resources, which I have added to my linkroll (below and to the right). I will be using the Webby standards, which judges websites based on content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, and overall experience; and also IMSA criteria to evaluate these resources, in order to see what is good and bad about each one. The first three websites I will be discussing are AIMP: Association of Independent Music Publishers, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and National Music Publishers' Association, which all three deal with the publishing of music and provide information regarding royalty rates and links to other music industry related organizations and services. The first website being directed towards the independent musician and writers and the latter toward musicians and writers that belong to a major label. AIMP: Association of Independent Music Publishers has a clean interface and is very aesthetically pleasing, it provides links and tabs to specific locations within the site which makes it easy for users to find what they are looking for. The one thing I do not like is the fact that to reach some portions of the site you have to register as a member. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers has a simpler website design, on its main page it lists the top stories regarding publishing and it also offers many links to get to specific locations. I would like to see the color scheme and design be changed to make it look current and not as a straight to the point website, where there is no interactivity with the user. Third, National Music Publishers' Association has a nice design that makes the site interesting visually. It provides information regarding music publishing and news updates regarding laws that affect music publishing. I did not like how the menu bar had many drop down menu bars which made things a little bit harder to be found. I believe that if it provided direct links, the site would be more user friendly. The next two sites I found where SoundExchange and the U.S. Copyright Office, they deal with song ownership (copyrights), and royalty payments. SoundExchange (see right) is the official organization that has been designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to collect and distribute digital performance royalties. I like the fact that its interface is also very simple and has very few links/menu bars which makes it easier for the user to find what they are looking for. The color scheme that it employs makes the website fit into the image that digital media has, young and futuristic. The U.S. Copyright Office is a government website, and that can be seen by the layout and colors that were selected. It offers various links to forms and other information regarding how to copyright and laws. The website is very informative but not very interactive, I would like to see the website become a Web 2.0 site, were music and forms can be uploaded directly instead of having to be mailed using traditional snail mail.

The next group of sites are news sites that provide an aggregate of all the news that is going on regarding the music industry, music, musicians, and technology. The first two, Sony BMG Music Entertainment - News and Universal Media Group - News provide news that is relevant to their own labels, regarding artists signing, music album sales, and other news. Sony BMG Music Entertainment - News has a nice interface that causes the user to be engaged with the site but the fact that the site employs a lot of flash code, makes it a little harder to get to specific places quickly. On the other hand, Universal Media Group - News has a very simple interface which provides direct links to all their news articles and other sections of the site. HITS: Daily Double provides news and sales charts and other valuable information but the fact that the main page has an intro flash "game" makes it hard for the user to get in quickly. The user must also provide their name and e-mail address every time in order to enter the main site. last100: Audio has a simple two column interface but the fact that the right hand column is full of ads makes it very unattractive. The Los Angeles Times - Entertainment & Hollywood Business News and MTV Music News and Headlines both provide music news but tend to be more geared towards individual artists, trends, and gossip. The Los Angeles Times - Entertainment & Hollywood Business News has a very sleek interface and makes use of pictures very well but it also uses a lot of ads to generate revenue which sometimes get in the way of important information. MTV Music News and Headlines (see left below) is also very young and futuristic and also employs the use of a lot of pictures to make its articles stand out. There are a lot of links to get to specific sections of the site quickly but it also has some banner ads and its site tends to be crowded and too busy. Music Connection - Music Industry News and Music Industry Today are both news aggregates which feature news relating to the music industry. Both sites are very simple in design but the first makes use of pictures to give an idea of what each article is about and the latter requires a membership to view any articles which greatly reduces the usability of it. Music Industry Newswire provides news not only about music, artists, but also technology and products that are being introduced into the market. It has a lot of links that enable users to reach popular stories, staff, and other information very quickly. It uses a small google ad banner which does not interfere with the site at all. The site might benefit by making things come more alive instead of just being plain text.

The next two sites are blogs which offer personal insight into music and its industry. Coolfer: Music and the Industry offers discussions about the changing music industry and how business is affected by new opportunities. The site is very aesthetically pleasing and the articles within it provide a lot of links back to referenced information. There are very few ads but a lot of relevant links that can help users find the information they are looking for. The next site, Digital Noise: Music and Tech is a blog that is found within CNET news' section. It discusses the authors personal preferences over new music technology. Since this site is part of a bigger professional news website, it does have a good design but also makes use of banner ads to generate revenue. The blog posts also allow users to leave comments which makes it a good interactive site for the user. The next two sites deal with piracy and musician's rights. MusicUnited.org is an informative site that discusses how music piracy affects artists and songwriters. The site is very young looking and it offers direct links to various sections of the site. I would like to see it become more interactive instead of just being informative, maybe include flash animation or games that would help younger users see why piracy is wrong. Recording Artists' Coalition: A Voice for Artists' Rights provides information to artists about their rights in the music industry and it also addresses other legal policies. The site has an urban feel to it which makes it attractive to those who are trying to fight the "system". It has links at the top that take it to specific locations but besides that it is a lot of text which makes it uninteresting and overwhelming to look at. Lastly, the Recording Industry Association of America - Consumer Trends and Billboard: Music Business both provide information about the music industry on a deeper level. The Recording Industry Association of America - Consumer Trends provides statistics about sales and trends in the market that allows marketing and executives to make decision regarding what kind of music should be put out into the market. The website is very simple to use because it provides links to different types of reports and for each year, all information is easily accessible. Billboard: Music Business is geared toward the younger generation by using lively colors and photo slideshows. All of its information is very well organized into groups and subgroups which makes it easier to find very specific information quickly. The bad things about this website is that it also makes use of banner ads and popup ads which might frustrate the user and decrease the usability factor of this site. I believe that by using all or a combination of these sites, great knowledge can be gathered about what is happening in the music industry, what kind of resources and rights artists have to receive their earned royalties, and about music trends today.

MySpace Music: The Music Industry's Saviour?

In my previous blog entry entitled, "Backstage Music: Analog to Digital Television: The End of Concerts and Live Sports Broadcasting?," I brought up the negative repercussions that the analog to digital transition was going to have on not only the music industry but the whole entertainment industry as a whole. This week I explored the blogosphere to discover one the options that the music industry was pursuing to generate more revenue, the partnership between MySpace and the top major labels: Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner, and the smallest major label, EMI. This partnership would create MySpace Music (see right), which would allow users to stream music for free in an ad-supported environment. Although the exact details of this partnership have not been disclosed, some in the music industry do wonder if the revenue generated by ads would be enough to warrant such a partnership were music is in fact given to the end user for no actual cost. MySpace Music also created a partnership with Amazon to offer users the ability to purchase songs directly from within MySpace Music, without ever having to leave the site. The files offered by Amazon (see left below) would be DRM-free and therefore be able to be used across any portable media player. I personally believe that users will not purchase any music from their store because of the fact that they can always listen to music for free online. MySpace Music is not pleasing the music industry as whole, the Indie Labels have felt betrayed by this new partnership with the major labels. Indie labels are accusing MySpace Music of not only leaving them out of this new service, but also going as far as not allowing them to upload original music which they own the copyrights to. I believe that MySpace Music is committing a big mistake by "kicking to the curb" all the independent labels and musicians which helped to create what MySpace is today. Independent labels and musicians do not have the resources as the major labels do, so they depend on word of mouth promotion and social sites such as MySpace to generate their fan base. Not only are the independent musicians being affected, but also the users because not everyone wants to hear generic mainstream pop music; and if only mainstream music is provided then users might feel the need to go elsewhere to listen to their music which in return would be a big hit to MySpace. I found two blogs that dealt with this topic, one being TechCrunch which has been featured on various news programs such as CBS, their blog entry entitled "MySpace Music Puts The Industry On The Right Track," and the other techdirt which specializes in analyzing different industries, their blog entry entitled "Independent Record Labels Missing From MySpace Music." In addition to posting my comments directly on these blogs, I have also posted my comments below.

MySpace Music Puts The Industry On The Right Track
Comment:
Hello Michael,
Thank you for such an informative blog post. I really appreciate the fact that you not only shared your personal experience with the new MySpace Music service abut also mentioned how this service is a good business model for the music industry. You mentioned, "That 40% may be worth as much as $800 million already, on paper at least," where is this value coming? I was also wondering what your view was on the reports that Indie Acts were being left out of this deal and more importantly, were no longer being allowed to upload their music to MySpace. I understand the fact that MySpace is a new medium, which everyone wants to use because of the huge number of users that it has, but do you think that traditional advertisement by the record labels will ever stop? Will artists solely depend on their MySpace page or will there continue to be posters and other advertisement or their new music? You mentioned that all music should be free because anyone can copy a song, but what about the people that still want to physically own their music or for those who want to purchase legal downloads; would these users really be interested in being restricted to only being able to listen to music online on services such as MySpace Music? If the new way to go for music distribution is free, do you believe that record companies will just altogether stop manufacturing actual hard copies and solely distribute on ad-supported services, and if this is the case would they be willing to keep partnerships with Apple and other paid services, when they can just make a bigger profit with ad-supported services and not actually have to give any products to the end-user. If this is the case the music industry will be able to generate more revenue, solely by eliminating the costs that come along with manufacturing, distributing, and promoting physical copies of CD's. Seeing them from the artist's perspective, I do not know whether they would be happy to put in so much hard work into their productions when in fact they would not be able to see their final products in brick and mortar stores. I think that there is some nostalgia that comes along with seeing your final product in stores and therefore musicians would push to keep that distribution channel open. I believe that only time will tell how the music industry overcomes the downfalls that the digital age has brought, and we will just have to see and wait how users will react to MySpace Music.

Independent Record Labels Missing From MySpace Music
Comment:
Thank you for such a concise article about the treatment of Indie Record labels by the new MySpace Music service. I agree with you completely that Indie Artist contributed a lot to the growth and popularization MySpace. MySpace used to be a portal for hundreds if not thousands of Indie Artists who wanted to expose themselves to the masses in order to create new fans, generate buzz, and sell their music. Many musicians did come out of their Indie phase and were shot into the mainstream music industry because of their MySpace pages. One example I can think of is OneRepublic, which had a MySpace artist page, which caught the attention of Timbaland. Now with the new rules that have been put into place, it seems like new Indie Artist cannot create or upload their music which means a lot of artists will not have the opportunity to be exposed to producers and fans, therefore cutting their chances of making it big in the music industry. I know a lot of MySpace users liked the fact that they were able to find new and unsigned bands, because they were able to offer music which was "real" and not part of mainstream. I was wondering if you believed this new music service was going to cause have any negative ramifications for MySpace, such as fans and users leaving their social website and going to another one or Indie Artists coming together and openly endorsing another social website such as Facebook. You mentioned in your post that after posting your article you received a call from MySpace insisting that your story was not true and that they were in fact still allowing the same freedom of their service to Indie Labels. I was wondering why MySpace keeps insisting that this reports of them not allowing Indie Record Labels to be on their service to be untrue, when a lot of independent and prominent news sources are reporting the same facts. Do you believe that the huge amount of interest in this topic has caused MySpace to rethink their agreement with the major music labels and to allow Indie Labels back on their service? Maybe the major labels are afraid of the competition and want to monopolize that service but I do believe that in the coming days if not weeks, Indie labels will again be a huge part of MySpace Music.

Analog to Digital Television: The End of Concerts and Live Sports Broadcasting?

Technology has become such a huge part of our daily lives, that sometimes we cannot even remember how we were able to be productive in the past. During the last couple of years, technology has been evolving at an extremely fast pace, with the introduction of personal media players, smart phones, computer assisted vehicles, and for the most part it has been received with open arms. Not until recently, when the government decided to make the transition from analog to digital television signals mandatory, has a whole industry come together to oppose and express their feelings about a technological advancement and the negative implications that it would bring to millions of people. To the average American television viewer, the transition from analog (see right) to digital televisions is of course a good thing because for now there will be more channels available and they will be in high definition; all of these new upgrades being available free of charge. Of course nothing is ever really free, the government will be spending about $1.5 billion dollars in an informational campaign and incentive program.

Since television broadcasting companies will be ending their analog transmissions, the US Government decided to auction off the soon to be free air space to the highest bidders. This is where the entertainment industry stood up and noticed what was about to happen. Production companies and touring companies realized that the "white space" that they use on a daily basis was about to be licensed for other products, such as wireless Internet and public safety services. These new services and products would operate in the same frequency that is already being used by thousands of professional audio microphones, which are currently not only used by ESPN/NFL, television broadcasters, and other large production events such as concerts, but also by schools, churches, and your average garage band, effectively classifying all these wireless microphone products as illegal. To accommodate the new FCC regulations, wireless microphone makers have had to spend thousands of dollars in R&D to develop new products that operate in different frequencies and to certify their new products with the FCC.

Not only is the entertainment industry complaining to the FCC, but groups that support the use of unlicensed devices on the new white space filed complaints against the major wireless microphone producers and vendors, such as Shure Inc., Nady Systems Inc., Sennheiser Electronic Corp., B&H Foto & Electronics Inc., and Amazon.com to name a few. These groups allege that microphone producers have sold thousands of microphones and purposely marketed to consumers as legal, when in fact they are all operated illegally on certain frequencies. The above mentioned companies have responded by saying that they have asked the FCC to clarify to them on how to instruct their customers on what the proper use of these microphones would be after the digital television transition. So far the FCC has not given an answer because they say that more tests need to be done to.

As previously stated, production companies are among the users that will be affected by the analog to digital transition. In fact they are one of the largest wireless microphone users that not only depend on these devices to be able to produce great entertainment shows but also for their livelihood. Production companies tend to use wireless microphones in almost all live production shows, which include music concerts, live sporting events, theater, and even presidential debates. For example in music concerts, the user of wireless microphones and other equipment allows the performer to have a bigger stage and interact freely with the audience. It allows for the use of much bigger venues, such as arenas and stadiums, which in return give a higher profit for the artist and production company because of the fact that more people can attend these events. Wireless microphones and other equipment such as in-ear monitors also allow the musicians to roam freely around the stage and not be restricted to a specific space on stage. This freedom allows performers to put together more elaborate and entertaining productions for their fans. For example, without the use of wireless microphone, artists would not be able to do such stunts as flying over the crowd while they sing or running around from one side of the stage to the other. Wireless microphones not only allow the performer to do things that years ago were not possible, but it also allows a different environment to be created for the audience in which they are truly submersed into a different reality for the length of the show.

Another example would live sporting events such as football, were wireless microphones are used in abundance. Not only do the announcers and broadcasters (see left) use wireless microphones to conduct interviews, inform the audience of the plays, penalties, and other information throughout the game; offensive player and defensive players make use of wireless devices while they are on the field, which allows them to communicate with the coaching staff throughout the game. Without the use of these wireless devices, the game would not be as fluid as it is today. As a personal user of wireless microphones and other equipment, I can only hope that the FCC makes plans that takes our industry into consideration, not only because we live off such devices but also for the average sports and music fan that has come to enjoy the way concerts and football games are produced today.