Showing posts with label mail on sunday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mail on sunday. Show all posts

17 December 2007

Copping a Load of COPU

As I've lamented before, open source usage in China is hard for us outside to gauge. Even the open source structures there are difficult to discern. So news that the Linux Foundation is linking up with something called the Chinese OSS Promotion Union is interesting:

COPU now has over 300 members, covering nearly all the domestic enterprises and public institution units in the field of open source, including all the Linux distributions including Red Flag, Co-Create, China Standard Soft, TurboLinux, and Sun Wah, universities (over 200), and institutes for scientific research, standard, law and industry. COPU also has over 20 multinational companies as its members who have their representative offices or branches in China including IBM, Intel, HP, Sun, Oracle, SAP, NEC, CA, BEA, Hitachi, Sybase, France Telecom, MontaVista, and Google.

26 July 2007

Truth Will Out

I was pleased to see that the story about Prince giving away CDs in various ways, and making money from live performances, is starting to get picked up by more news outlets. Obviously, when people are presented with a real-life alternative to making money from CDs, things become a little clearer.

But I was disappointed to come across this story about the Los Angeles Times killing a feature by Patrick Goldstein, one of its own reporters, that suggested it follow suit:

His The Big Picture column for Tuesday was killed, apparently by associate editor John Montorio. Goldstein's offense was to propose that the Times follow the lead of the U.K.'s Mail on Sunday (which distributed 2.9 million free Prince CDs) and partner with older artists to give away music in the paper. He argued it could help make the Times website a destination for fans and reduce the need for front page ads (which the editor of the Times himself calls a huge mistake.)

This was doubly stupid. First, it's a great piece. Here's the conclusion:

Giving music away doesn’t mean it has lost its value, just that its value is no longer moored to the price of a CD. Like it or not, the CD is dying, as is the culture of newsprint. People want their music — and their news — in new ways. It’s time we embraced change instead of always worrying if some brash new idea — like giving away music — would tarnish our sober minded image. When businesses are faced with radical change, they are usually forced to ask — is it a threat or an opportunity? Guess which choice is the right answer.

Spot on.

But spiking this piece was also stupid because it was bound to get out - both the piece and story about its spiking - and people like me were bound to spread the news. Thanks to this new-fangled Internet thing, truth will out - eventually. (via TechDirect.)

Update: And as further proof that you can't just bury this stuff, here's a New York Times piece about the incident.

02 July 2007

The Industry Formerly Known as Music

Prince has always been ahead of the pack. Now he's doing it again:

The eagerly awaited new album by Prince is being launched as a free CD with a national Sunday newspaper in a move that has drawn widespread criticism from music retailers.

The Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday that the 10-track Planet Earth CD will be available with an "imminent" edition, making it the first place in the world to get the album. Planet Earth will go on sale on July 24.

"It's all about giving music for the masses and he believes in spreading the music he produces to as many people as possible," said Mail on Sunday managing director Stephen Miron. "This is the biggest innovation in newspaper promotions in recent times."

And as if that weren't a clear enough signal, try this:

Prince, whose Purple Rain sold more than 11m copies, also plans to give away a free copy of his latest album with tickets for his forthcoming concerts in London.

In other words, he recognises that CDs are now little more than marketing elements for promoting his personal appearances, which are where the real money is generated. Moreover, being purely analogue, the overall experience of attending concerts cannot be copied, unlike recordings of the music played during them.

Sadly, the Industry Formerly Known as Music just doesn't get it:

The Entertainment Retailers Association said the giveaway "beggars belief". "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," ERA co-chairman Paul Quirk told a music conference. "It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.

"The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday."

Now, it wouldn't be that somebody's scared witless of the looming threat of disintermediation, perchance?