Digital Music Group Merges With The Orchard

Well, this is big news to me, because Sick Room is distributed digitally by DMI...

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This is a living example of Long Tail Economics, by the way.

U.S. H1 Album Sales Down 15.1%

More dismal news about record sales...

The mid-year ended with the U.S. music industry still reeling from the downturn in physical goods. According to Nielsen SoundScan, album sales were down 15.1% for the year to nearly 230 million units in the six-month period ended July 1.
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UK's Rough Trade Tries to Fight Back Against Declining Music Sales

In the face of a huge industry downturn, Rough Trade gambles on plans to open a huge (almost 54,000 square feet) retail outlet in London...

If you want to lose a lot of money, current wisdom suggests that opening a record shop would be a good way to do it. Better still, open the biggest music-only shop in Britain and spend a fortune on fitting it out with a top-of-the-range PA system and bespoke furniture created by one of Britain’s top architects � exactly what Rough Trade plans to do when it opens its new, 5,000-square-metre branch, designed by David Adjaye, in east London later this month.

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Howard Hello & Greenness

Today marks the official release of the Howard Hello & Greenness split double CD on Sick Room Records. This is truly an incredible piece of work. One disc is five new songs from Kenseth Thibideau (Howard Hello, Rumah Sakit, Sleeping People, Pinback, Goblin Cock) under his moniker, Howard Hello. The other disc contains 4 new songs from Greenness (featuing Sick Room co-founder Mitch Cheney) as well as 11 collaborative tracks from a number of talented folks. All artist proceeds will go to Childrens' Musical Education in St. Augustine, Florida...

Howard Hello & Greenness

Global Music Market Shrinks by 5%

Global Market Shrinks By 5% In 2006, Says IFPI
July 03,2007

By Lars Brandle, London

The global recorded music market in 2006 slipped by 5% year-on-year, according to new figures published by the IFPI.

The combined market of physical and digital music dropped to $19.6 billion last year, down from $20.7 billion in 2005, the IFPI reports in "Recording Industry In Numbers 2007."

Against a backdrop of shrinking CD sales and piracy, however, the value of physical music shipments was down 11% to $17.5 billion last year.

The results "reflect an industry in transition," IFPI chairman/CEO John Kennedy said in his opening message.

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The problem with DRM

DRM (digital rights management) is a set of technologies used by publishers and copyright holders in an attempt to try and control how their content is used, both physically (as far as copy protection for CDs etc.) and digitally via technical protection measures, a "wrapper" of specific code added to the material that restrict the use and access of the media on certain electronic devices.

The wikipedia page on DRM is a good place to start for a quick overview.

In 1998, the US Government passed the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), an amendment to US copyright law, which basically outlaws the circumvention of DRM systems.
http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

One of the main controversies surrounding DRM is the notion that it may interfere with the fair use doctrine, an integral part of US Copyright Law, that allows reproduction of copyrighted material under certain conditions:
Copyright act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

The major players in digital music, iTunes, Napster, RealNetworks, and Microsoft, all incorporate some form of proprietary DRM into their systems, which can create problems for users that wish to access the music across platforms, or on remote devices, even while operating underneath fair use guidelines. The main question is, as long as the online providers have control as to the use of their products, do we really own the music we purchase?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put out a simple guide to let folks know exactly what restrictions are implied when purchasing music online from the major companies, and also places like emusic.com, where people can buy DRM-free music:

The Customer is Always Wrong: A User's Guide to DRM in Online Music

Happy Birthday!

OK so today (7/01/07) is my 33rd Birthday! So as a present to myself, It is also going to mark the official launch date of this here blog. Look, mom! Baby is a blogger!

I have already been posting for a couple of days, just to let some content build up, but yeah, this is a beginning. To read the purpose of this whole mess, you can scroll down to the bottom, or go here.

Even in the last couple of days I have been reading a lot and learning some stuff and thinking about it, so the ball is rolling.

Welcome!