You're gonna go far, even if you're dead
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Wednesday, 19 March 08 - 09:11 PM (GMT -05:00) By Michael Keller in Our World |
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How many record execs does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
As you read this, you have to imagine a typical high-power, sell anything all the time voice. The only thing missing is "Which one's Pink?"
Radiohead "donation-only" album a huge success.
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Saturday, 20 October 07 - 10:38 PM (GMT -05:00) By Michael Keller in Our World |
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I previously spoke about music artists self-publishing to the internet experiment. An article at Mashable points out that Radiohead's donate-what-you-want downloadable album "In Rainbows" has received an average $8/album donation, bringing in $10 million in one week with 1.2 million downloads. This shows that music lovers are basically honest, and it shows a new "fair market value" for music that has nothing to do with the RIAA.
If you could build a car culture from scratch
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Friday, 12 October 07 - 08:49 PM (GMT -05:00) By Michael Keller in Our World |
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Interesting article in the New York Times today about a newly-developing market in India for small, cheap cars. Presently the lowest-priced cars run around $5000, and of course there's no problem selling expensive luxury cars to those that can afford them. But suddenly a bunch of auto makers are interested in providing a new, seriously low-end car for first-time car buyers.
But these cars still have to be family cars, with four doors and space for taking real humans and their stuff. Unfortunately, at this price the cars will not come with the safety features we expect: no airbags, no ABS, no crash testing. There's already a high accident and fatality rate in India, and critics expect this to increase it.
What if you could design your automobile culture from scratch? In the U.S. it's evolved, and those of us that have literally grown up in cars take issue with every infringement on our rights to drive however we want. But in India, where the majority don't have cars, how could you create a culture of safe driving?
First, these cheap cars don't need to go fast, especially if they are used mostly in the city. Set the maximum speed at 50 or 60mph. Require seat belt use, even to the extent of installing an interlock. If you can't afford passive safety features, you have to use the active ones.
If you can't install the safety features in the car, what other ways can you make the drivers and passengers be safer?
Yahoo Music GM explains why DRM sucks
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Tuesday, 09 October 07 - 08:41 PM (GMT -05:00) By Michael Keller in Our World |
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There's an interesting article at Ars Technica about some major rock artists becoming "free agents," unencumbered by the record industry's elephants. But while it's cool that Nine Inch Nails and other artists are planning on self-publishing to the Internet, a lecture to industry heads by the GM of Yahoo Music is the high spot for me.
"Want radio? No problem. Click play, get radio. Want video? Awesome. Click play, get video. Want a track on-demand? Oh have we got a deal for you! If you're on Windows XP or Vista, and you're in North America, just download this 20MB application, go through these seven install screens, reboot your computer, go through these five setup screens, these six credit card screens, give us $160 dollars and POW! Now you can hear that song you wanted to hear—if you're still with us," writes Ian Rogers.
It doesn't get any straightforward than that. The sales people want to make it easy for customers to buy songs, the artists want to make it easy for you to buy their music, it's only the industry execs that want to make it hard. Why? They're the ones who have the most to lose from piracy, since the artists get only token money from record sales. The artists make much more from touring, while the companies gouge us, charging $16 for a CD (interesting, you can buy a movie DVD for less and it cost a LOT more to produce), 99 cents for a single download (if the artist only has one good song per album, find a better artist!), heck $4 for a ringtone!
Artists who spent time cultivating a fan base, from the Grateful Dead to Frank Zappa to Dave Matthews to Phish have always been resilient and able to give away material without endangering their livelihoods. I'm pretty sure that every live performance by these artists are freely in circulation somewhere, without ever impacting their sales. One can only imagine how many new fans have been turned on by songs being passed around. Frank said he always sold more out of catalog than of his latest albums, but today, the music industry is built on the hit model, not the artist model.
While a bit dated (it predates iTunes), artist Janis Ian still has the best explanation for why the industry is afraid of downloads, legal or otherwise. And to them, a download with no DRM is an illegal download.
Ethanol Boom and Bust
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Monday, 08 October 07 - 12:46 PM (GMT -05:00) By Michael Keller in Our World |
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Interesting piece in the NY Times recently, Ethanol's Boom Stalling as Glut Depresses Price. Now I didn't know we had an ethanol glut, but that's because, as the story tells us, the investors (and this includes the corn farmers) jumped in quick to develop ethanol production without developing the rest of the chain: delivery methods (can't go through pipes so it's going to require huge train, truck and barge systems), storage facilities and, oh yeah, gas stations to pump the fuel. And of course, cars that can use the ethanol fuel.
But this reminds us that ethanol is not a panacea for our oil ills. Everyone points to Brazil's ethanol industry and independence from foreign oil, but Brazil's sugar delivers much better energy efficiency than the U.S.'s corn. Also, Brazil has greater resources for growing the sugar (including lots of land and cheap labor), while in the US, using corn for ethanol is going to drive up the price of food in general (most of our corn actually goes to feed cattle, although a lot goes to make alcoholic beverages!). While it's true that recent studies have shown that there is a net energy gain in using corn for ethanol instead of oil for fuel, they're based on maximum efficiency of production. It's certainly no help when the ethanol refineries burn fossil fuels (i.e. natural gas) to produce ethanol! There's also the question of the efficiency of the engines, they need to get at least the fuel mileage of existing gasoline versions to be any help at all. And of course, the industry is getting huge subsidies from Congress.
The question remains whether ethanol, which will take a decade or more to develop into an integrated fuel source, is the best move for America.
Bill Maher's "Pharmer's Market"
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Saturday, 06 October 07 - 10:28 PM (GMT -05:00) By Michael Keller in Our World |
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Bill Maher hits a home run with his New Rule on pharmaceuticals: "If you believe you need to take all the pills the pharmaceutical industry says you do, then you're already on drugs." Read the transcript, or watch it on Youtube.
Quote of the week: So ask your doctor if getting off your ass is right for you!... More items are available in my News Archive
