Thanks! Good stuff. More on the Cary Sherman talk here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57450807-93/riaa-ceo-cary-sherman-walks-into-tech-lions-den/
More music industry data here (this was prepared for Wednesday's hearing on the potential UMG-EMI merger): http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/Studies.CaseAganstUMG-EMIMerger.pdf On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 11:37 AM, Jennifer Baek <[email protected]> wrote: > Forgive me if this is a little ranty. I'm at work, but wanted to respond. > > Statistics will be different depending on where its coming from. At > Personal Democracy Forum, Clay Sherman from the RIAA spouted statistics, > which may hold truth in some contexts. Sherman said there are 41 percent > fewer people describing themselves as musicians now then in 1999. John > Perry Barlow. who spoke after Sherman. said that he believes more people > than ever are earning a living from music because they don't have to deal > with music labels. Who's right?? > > I like to think that one's assessment of the harm to the music "industry" > depends on how you look at or want to define the industry: Is the industry > defined by record sales? Is the industry defined by record labels? Or is it > defined by how many musicians are out there making a living? How many > people are listening, attending, concerts, and/or buying merch? What is the > definition of *harm *and *who* is being harmed? I think it needs to be > clarified who's stakes we are *really* talking about before we can work > towards any sort of solution. > > Here's the link to his talk: > http://personaldemocracy.com/media/music-industry-digital-age > The argument made in this "Letter to Emily" seems quite dated. Even the > RIAA-guy recognizes that the music industry and the means of making revenue > are changing. The "music industry" is catching on that they should work to > meet consumer behavior and expectations, and part of this entails working > with technology companies and innovators to come up with new business > models to save the industry. Sherman cited things like Spotify, which more > and more of my facebook friends are catching on to, Rhapsody, etc. Hey, > these things work and people use it! Maybe it's not bringing the industry > to its former "glory." Yes, the BIG THREE are no longer the gatekeepers > exploiting, aggrandizing, and profitting off of artists. (How much do > musicians make from record sales anyways? Such a small %. I mean... there > is something called a 360 deal). Look, I don't really see *that *as such > a bad thing. > > I agree with Ali, SFC should release a statement-- or at the very least > tackle whatever misconception there is about free culture. We can > collectively work on one in an Etherpad! > > Thx for reading, > Jennifer > On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 11:13 AM, Ali Sternburg <[email protected]>wrote: > >> (Disclaimer: I've only skimmed, and I don't know anything about the >> author or the site.) >> >> I'm not even sure who and what he's referring to every time he says Free >> Culture (which he capitalizes) movement. People who don't pay for music >> but just because they're lazy and cheap and not because of principles? I >> think a response by the SFC Board or Core could be warranted. This article >> is getting a lot of comments and shares. (Example: I'm Facebook friends >> with Rivers Cuomo from Weezer for some reason (I think because we went to >> the same college and I saw a lot of friends were, I don't remember) and he >> shared it.) >> Alex, I've seen similar claims made related to the misconception of the >> public momentum against SOPA being primarily orchestrated and financed by >> Google, but I'm not sure if that's related. >> >> Alec, in response to those numbers, some excerpts from: >> http://www.techdirt.com/skyisrising/ (the annotated Google >> Doc<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qtoe_7a7qMIfmR7L8DueyLqtXxZwMYiRQycoHRyhVkM/edit?pli=1>version) >> >> *On the consumption side, music is also being consumed at near >> record-setting levels. According to Nielsen >> SoundScan<http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110106006565/en/Nielsen-Company-Billboard%E2%80%99s-2010-Music-Industry-Report>figures, >> the overall sale of music (including albums, singles, digital >> tracks, etc.) exceeded 1.5 billion transactions in 2010. That's up from 845 >> million transactions in 2000. These overall sales figures seem to rise and >> fall a bit over the years, but they don't necessarily >> drop<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/mar/12/demise-music-industry-facts>during >> economic recessions. >> * >> >> ... >> >> *In 2005<http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/the-broader-music-industry.pdf>, >> the IFPI estimated the global music industry to be worth $132 billion -- >> which included revenues from music in radio advertising, recorded music >> sales, musical instrument sales, live performance revenues and portable >> digital music player sales (among a few other income categories). By 2010, >> the IFPI estimated the market to be worth $168 billion, but it had also >> changed how it categorized some of the revenues and added categories such >> as audio home systems, music-related video game sales and music revenues >> from TV advertising (in addition to a few other categories).* >> * >> * >> *...* >> >> *But, despite the increasing production and consumption of music, the >> music industry doesn't seem rosy to everyone. The revenues from recorded >> music, such as CD sales, have been falling >> steadily<http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/news/e3i868d104ace88f495a07f9534916589ed>over >> the last several years. This shouldn't come as a huge surprise, >> either. Historically, music has been sold on various kinds of physical >> media: vinyl records, 8-track tapes, cassette tapes, CDs and other less >> well-known formats. Each of these formats has seen its peak, and each of >> them may someday cease to be sold entirely -- though that time has not come >> yet even for vinyl (as there are >> signs<http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/digital-music-leads-boost-in-record-sales/>that >> vinyl records still have plenty of useful life left and their sales >> were up ~41% for 2011). Still, as the CD format wanes, the revenues from >> selling CD albums are diminishing, too. The problem, it seems, is that >> consumers are buying more single >> tracks<http://musicbusinessresearch.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/the-recession-in-the-music-industry-a-cause-analysis/>now >> instead of entire albums and that consumers have an expectation that >> digital music tracks should be cheaper than purchasing plastic discs. The >> result is that the number of single digital tracks purchased is rising >> (initially with double-digit >> growth<http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/16/us-global-idUSTRE50F6NE20090116?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&rpc=69>), >> but the revenue from selling single tracks isn't >> matching<http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1047366&c=1>that >> of the peak years of selling CD albums. This trend was apparent >> in 2007 <http://www.economist.com/node/10498664?story_id=E1_TDQJRGGQ>, >> as the volume of physical recorded music was dropping (also by double digit >> percentages). The problem here is that the major labels have been relying >> on CD sales as their main income stream and are only just starting to >> diversify their revenue and business models. Interestingly, a former >> executive at Universal Music, Tim Renner, has said that the major labels >> had a chance to diversify their income streams when "they had the money and >> could have built the competence by buying concert agencies and >> merchandising companies." However, this hindsight isn't necessarily the way >> forward for the major music labels now.* >> >> On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 9:44 AM, Alec Story <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> The letter quotes some numbers: >>> >>> Recorded music revenue is down 64% since 1999. >>>> >>>> Per capita spending on music is 47% lower than it was in 1973!! >>>> >>>> The number of professional musicians has fallen 25% since 2000. >>>> >>>> Of the 75,000 albums released in 2010 only 2,000 sold more than 5,000 >>>> copies. Only 1,000 sold more than 10,000 copies. Without going into >>>> details, 10,000 albums is about the point where independent artists begin >>>> to go into the black on professional album production, marketing and >>>> promotion. >>>> >>>> >>> This is the first time I've heard that - everything else I've seen has >>> suggested that big media companies have been growing just fine in the past >>> decade. Can anyone who knows better comment? I'm sure that some of the >>> revenue decrease is just due to the un-bundling of the album. >>> >>> On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 10:04 PM, Alex Leavitt <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >>>> Don't have much time to respond with anything lengthy at the moment; >>>> mainly wanted to share, since it garnered so many (supportive) comments. I >>>> think my main criticism is the characterization of the "free culture >>>> movement" as led by corporate stakeholders (eg., Megaupload, Google, etc.). >>>> I really felt like that came out of left field, but I've also never seen >>>> that critique before, so I'm wondering if anyone had additional thoughts. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 6:54 PM, Rich Jones <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Interesting, Alex - would you like to share your opinions and start a >>>>> discussion? >>>>> >>>>> This is the author, for those interested: >>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lowery >>>>> >>>>> R >>>>> >>>>> On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 6:33 PM, Alex Leavitt >>>>> <[email protected]>wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/letter-to-emily-white-at-npr-all-songs-considered/ >>>>>> >>>>>> Alex >>>>>> >>>>>> --- >>>>>> >>>>>> Alexander Leavitt >>>>>> PhD Student >>>>>> USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism >>>>>> http://alexleavitt.com >>>>>> Twitter: @alexleavitt >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> Discuss mailing list >>>>>> [email protected] >>>>>> http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >>>>>> FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Discuss mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >>>>> FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Discuss mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >>>> FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Alec Story >>> Cornell University >>> Biological Sciences, Computer Science 2012 >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Discuss mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >>> FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Ali Sternburg, J.D. >> [email protected] >> alisternburg.com >> @alisternburg >> <https://twitter.com/#!/alisternburg> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss > > -- Ali Sternburg, J.D. 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