>play Music panel will discuss the current state of digital music and the emerging path as the business models change. Is free the new business model? Giving things away for free isn’t new, people have been giving away software, books, ideas, knowledge, art all for free. There is a great study on the economics of open source by Professor Eric Von Hippel of MIT. The argument applies to any creative work that previously had a price but is now given away.  In a recent article Michael Arrington of Techcrunch says, albums and singles will cease to be the source of revenue and will become marketing tools for other services (like concerts).

I will be very much interested in asking one of the panelists, RealNetworks , who have a subscription model, how the “free music movement” will transform their business model. Will Rhapsody/RealNetworks and others such services will become marketing channels rather than remain as digital music stores?

Join us at >play on October 27th to ask your questions.

Technorati Tags: >play, play conference, haas, berkeley, digital music, drm, rhapsody, realnetworks, music subscription

I caught the second half of this month’s BayCHI program and saw the presentation by John Buckman (of Magnatune and BookMooch). John led an entertaining interaction reviewing the evolution of applications he’s designed and built.

I was previously aware of the interesting approach MagnaTune takes toward selling music, but I left very excited about BookMooch, a service for trading in books you don’t want anymore, in return for credit that can be used to get books you do want. I have a ton of books stacked up that aren’t worth my time to sell. I’ve long-intended to give them away to friends, but that’s time-consuming as well. Trading them in for books I haven’t read seems even better. Has anyone else tried BookMooch?

Services like BookMooch, LaLa’s CD-trading service, and Netflix (essentially the world’s largest DVD library) take advantage of inefficiencies in other markets, impact demand for both physical goods like books and CDs and digital goods like e-books and mp3s, and provide customers alternatives to limitations on their media experience effected by DRM.

I wish I could figure out some sensible way to work John into the >play conference, as I thought his presentation style was fun and engaging (I’m guessing the audience members who kept interrupting him agree). Maybe we could talk him into scheduling a visit with us in Berkeley during the school year (please let me know if you would enjoy talking with him).

P.S. The anal-retentive side of me loves how he thinks about all sorts of little things, like using http://bookmooch.com by default instead of http://www.bookmooch.com. It’s never been clear to me why so many sites include the “www.”

Bluegrass musician (and one of my favorite virtuosos ever) Dave Grisman recently sued Warner and Universal Music--as well as their online partners (Apple, Yahoo, etc.)–for distributing Grisman’s music online without his consent. Grisman set up his own label years ago, called Dawg Music, and that entity holds the copyrights to his recorded songs. According to the lawsuit, Warner and Universal do not have the right to distribute those songs online and have been with holding royalty payments from online sales to Grisman. The online partners are guilty by association, and, according to the law suit, are also on the hook for reparations.

My favorite part to all this? The labels are being sued for piracy! Who woulda’ thunk it!

Interesting blog on Digg’s retraction of its taking down a post on how to unlock copy-protected DVDs. Perfect example of how digg needs to listen to its core audience: the techophiles that made the site what it is today. Also shows you why youtube did so well in the first place– by not pandering to copyright protection.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/the-day-the-digg-users-revolted/

Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, writes this letter to all of internet-dom. This a direct response to the Copyright Royalty Board’s recent decision to triple internet music licensing fees.

To read his letter and sign (or not) his petition, click here.

So I ask all of you: Is there a way for internet radio to work? Does the fact that broadcast radio pays $0 for fees mean that there’s still hope? Could the untold numbers of internet radio stations band together in a tour-de-force and push more negotiation?

As a very big fan of internet radio (my fave being SomaFM of course), I wouldn’t mind all THAT much if the stations I listened to adopted a more broadcast-type model (ad supported)- seeing as the only other option is radio silence.

What do you think?