CDs

Statistics I discussed recently from the Australian Council for the Arts note that digital sales in Australia are set to out do CD sales this year. Interestingly I have been reading a book by an Australian scientist this week (just for a bit of fun) called Great Myth Conceptions in which Dr Karl Kruszelnicki talks about the myth that emerged when CDs were first released, that CDs they were indestructible. Of course we all know that they are sensitive to heat, dust and scratches and that indeed they are far from indestructible.

He does, however, give a very informative run down on how CDs work:

"A compact disc is a 1.2mm-thick disc of transparent polycarbonate (as used in bullet proof glass), with a diameter of about 12 cm. It stores the information in a five-kilometer-long spiral of raised rectangular bumps on the surface. These bumps are about 0.5 microns wide (about 100 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair) and one-eight of a micron high... Because it is virtually impossible to see tiny transparent bumps on a transparent disc a thin layer of metal (usually aluminum, although gold and silver have been used) is laid on top of the polycarbonate. This shiny metal reflects the laser beam, so that it can read the little bumps."

Further Reading
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Great Myth Conceptions (2008) http://www.amazon.com/Great-Myth-Conceptions-Temptations-Series/dp/8172237308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346751440&sr=8-1&keywords=great+myth+conceptions

FMC: Win-Win When? Copyright and Innovation in the Digital Age

I am a big fan of the US organisation called the Future of Music Coalition. They are an artist focused association that lobby the US government and industry for changes to laws and practices that promote musicians welfare. They have been vocal supporters of Network Neutrality, payments for recording artists for terrestrial radio air play and frequently run conferences on topical issues.

Recently I viewed the panel discussion from their DC Policy Day held on 11 February 2009. The speakers were:

Rick Carnes President, Songwriters Guild of America
David Carson General Counsel, US Copyright Office
Zahavah Levine Chief Counsel, YouTube
Steve Marks Executive VP and General Counsel, RIAA
Hal Ponder Director of Government Relations, American Federation of Musicians
Gigi Sohn President, Public Knowledge
Walter McDonough General Counsel, Future of Music Coalition (moderator)

I was particularly interested to hear of the intentions of the new administration with respect to the role of the Copyright Czar, the potential to revisit the DMCA and the possibility of copyright reform with respect to sampling.

The close relationship and the campaign contributions made by the content industry to the Democratic Party was one point raised by Gigi Sohn, as was the need to be careful in making senior appointments to the new government. Discussion also turned to the policy reasons behind the inclusion of broadband infrastructure in the stimulus package.

Zahavah Levine agreed with the panel that the current priorities of the administration may make it difficult to get much needed copyright reform, which for YouTube focuses largely on the difficulties in gaining publishing licenses for people to use sound recordings in their personal videos that are uploaded. The difficulties lie largely in locating the owners of the rights, the multiplicity of rights that apply and the lack of legislative clarity on fair use, with the best solution being the blanket licensing of these rights.

Hal Ponder speaks of the move to introduce terrestrial radio performance rights and notes the sliding scale of royalty payments designed to reduce the burden on small radio stations because of their importance in ensuring that niche artists retain access to public broadcasting.

I laugh at Steve Marks suggestion that the RIAA's approach is always balanced.

Take a look for yourself:


The clip goes for around 1.5hrs.

More Information
Future of Music Coalition <http://www.futureofmusic.org/> 20 March 2009

Future of Music Coalition, DC Policy Day 2009 (11 February 2009) <http://www.futureofmusic.org/events/dcpolicyday09/schedule.cfm> 20 March 2009

Future of Music Coalition, Network Neutrality Fact Sheet (May 2008) <http://www.futureofmusic.org/articles/NNfactsheet.cfm> at 20 March 2009

Future of Music Coalition, Fact Sheet Public Performance Rights for Sound Recordings <http://www.futureofmusic.org/articles/pprsrfactsheet.cfm> (March 2008) at 20 March 2009

The ideal music store

Following on from my presentation on the impact of institutional factors on the production and reception of political music I have been thinking about what attributes would make the ideal online music store. Here is the list I have come up with so far:

• Complete catalogue available in all jurisdictions
• Open access for all musicians/copyright holders to upload tracks
• Run on as a non profit or cooperative business structure ensuring artists are paid equally
• No use of digital rights management technology
• Comprehensive search parameters which include artist name, song title, genre and themes
• Offered both as a subscription service and on a per download basis
• Ability to download both individual tracks and albums
• A minimum of 30 second sample streams but preferably at least one free full track stream
• Integrated with other services including Wikipedia, YouTube, discussion forums, and lyrics
• Ability to access, download and print album art and liner notes for each track

No music service at present offers all of this – eMusic comes the closest but does not have a complete catalogue, I have been prevented from downloading tracks because of my geographical location, there is (for now?) limited integration of outside sources and there is no option to download album art or liner notes. Nonetheless it is the best music service I have experienced so far.

The use of file sharing technology and a collective licesning regime would help to achieve many of these goals and would be a starting point on which to add additional features. This would ensure the opennes of communication and maximise the opportunities for the production and reception of all music including the political.

Specific Strategies

Toward the end of my presentation on whether political music is still being heard I raise five specific strategies that can be employed which will enhance the reception of political music.

These include:

Firstly, allowing dedicated space on digital music store sites for music with a social justice, environmental or political nature. This could be in the form of feature artists but I don’t think this is the most effective way of enhancing the reception of this form of culture.

Rather I propose combining the power of web 2.0 technologies such as blogs or wikis to allow users to develop themes therefore incorporating a range of styles and songs and compiling them together to provide more comprehensive access to political music. By bringing together the songs, their context and linking with other tracks that refer to the same issues, it is possible to remove the additional steps needed to research, find and buy political music.

eMusic and Yahoo have recently taken steps to incorporate Wikipedia pages and YouTube videos into their music sites, however from what I have read this appears to be limited to artist biographies rather than providing the context in which political songs were written or linking songs of a similar kind together.

Amazon and IMDB have also recently launched a music focused wiki called SoundUnwound that anyone can edit. While integrating YouTube videos, from the beta version of the site it seems that this will also be artist specific.

Secondly, discussion forums could also be linked to digital music stores to encourage greater participation in the discourse of political music. By increasing the discussion around songs of this nature a greater level of peer production can be achieved providing a context and a forum in which to express personal perspectives on the music. Many lyrics sites provide an opportunity to discuss the interpretation of political songs but are removed from the music.

Thirdly, search engines could also be developed which can search lyrics or imbedded tags to provide increased access to oppositional culture. This would enable users to search for themes rather than just genres or artists and provide results based on content.

Yahoo has recently begun integrating full length streams to its standard search engine but the search parameters are limited to artist names and song titles. Up to 25 tracks can be streamed once each in a one month period.

Fourthly, grass roots political campaigns should be entitled to link to and use political music on their websites. Provided this was for registered charities or incorporated associations (genuine non profits) there should be no impediments to the use of music to educate, illustrate and empower members of the public.

Statistics in both the United States and Canada indicate that more people purchase music when they are exposed to it. Adopting this strategy requires an acknowledgement that not all free downloads or streams equate to a lost sale. For political music this would equate to radio air play or television exposure that this form of culture currently lacks.

While I dont think it is necessary, limitations could also be imposed such as restricting the number of songs each organisation could stream at one time or imposing an arbitrary limit such as 10,000 streams per song. This could most easily be achieved through an exception to copyright infringement under the Copyright Act.

At present there is a distinct separation between activism and protest music. Breaking down this barrier would result in both increased awareness of issues as well as greater exposure, consumption and use of political works.

When one looks at material relating to the civil rights era in particular as well as other movements from the 1960s it becomes evident that the protests and other campaigns that took place at the time directly integrated with political song with many works being performed and sung on mass as part of the protest. With the exception of the Get Up Mobs version of ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ which was a song recorded and released as part of a Get Up campaign at the time of the apology to the Stolen Generation, it is difficult to find examples in recent times when songs were linked directly to political issues.

Finally, another important change that would improve access to protest music would be the development of a central repository or archive. This should not be limited to works that have entered the public domain but should offer the public streams of content. This could be operated by a non profit association incorporated in numerous jurisdictions around the world and could integrate with wikipedia pages which discuss specific social events or concerns.

Further Reading
Digital Music News, eMusic Goes Under the Knife; Makeover Unwrapping Soon (17 July 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/071608emusic> at 18 July 2008

washingtonpost, Yahoo to open music to other services (11 September 2008) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091101997.html>at 14 September 2008

Digital Music News, Yahoo Music Starts Opening Up; Early Blueprints Revealed (12 September 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091008yahoo> at 14 September 2008

Digital Music News, Aaliyah to ZZ Top: Amazon, IMDb Launch Music Wiki (4 September 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/090308amazon> at 4 September 2008

Songmeanigngs.net <http://www.songmeanings.net/> at 10 October 2008

Yahoo, Yahoo hopes to boost search fortunes with new music search (19 September 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080919-yahoo-hopes-to-boost-search-fortunes-with-new-music-search.html> at 21 September 2008

CNet News, Yahoo adds full-length music tracks to search results (18 September 2008) <http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10045466-2.html> at 21 September 2008

Get Up, From Little Things Big Things Grow Campaign (January 2008)
<http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/MakeThisAHit&id=329> at 10 October 2008

Digital Music Stores are on the right track

Some recent changes to the digital music scene are worth mentioning and relate to the discussion I raise regarding specific strategies that will help political music to be heard in the digital environment. Firstly there has been some integration between music services and external sources of content, secondly there have been some changes allowing more flexible use of general search engines and thirdly there has been some progress with respect to allowing the streaming of content prior to purchase.

eMusic was the first to announce and begin to integrate outside content into its service with Wikipedia pages and You Tube videos being made accessible from artist's pages. This was recently followed by an announcement by Yahoo that similar measures would be undertaken.

One of the central arguments of the presentation I will be giving in early October is that this sort of integration is essential to political music as much of the lyrics relate to specific events and social history. More immediate access to this information and the direct association of this sort of material with the music would remove many of the steps needed to establish the context in which oppositional audible culture is produced and thus enhance the exposure, consumption and use of this form of music. Unfortunately early indications suggest that the integration of these sources will not be comprehensive but rather limited to artist biographies and clips relating purely to the songs themselves.

Yahoo, in partnership with Rhapsody, has also recently announced and begun allowing for full length tracks to be searched for through its general search engine. Again this is an important improvement simplifying the process of locating and accessing political music. However reports suggest that this will only allow songs to be searched for by artist name and song title. Whilst an improvement on what is available now, in order to enhance access and use of political music I argue that there needs to be more comprehensive search facilities which would enable the lyrics or embedded tags to be searched to locate material based on content.

Yahoo will also be allowing a limited number of tracks to be streamed once for free (25 per month) prior to the music being purchased. This is similar to the recently launched MySpace Music (only available in the USA at the moment) which will allow an unlimited number of streams of songs but will require purchase through Amazon in order to retain copies of tracks. In the case of MySpace Music the streams are ad supported with revenue sharing arrangements with copyright holders.

Whilst all music suffers from the pay-before-you-try model, as political music is commonly not accessible through mainstream media such as radio and television, this form of culture, and indeed many independent artists (if they are given equal access to these services), will benefit from this change of strategy.

The translation of political expression into social change requires interpretation and application. I argue that these efforts of allowing streams of songs are positive but for political music, greater exposure, consumption and use would more easily be affected through greater affiliation with legitimate non profit associations. I envisage allowing these sites the ability to stream related songs from their websites as one means to increase the communicative capacity of this form of music.

These steps whilst not across the board nor in themselves sufficient to ensure that political music is being heard, are nonetheless positive changes that can be built on in the future (if there is the commercial incentive to do so).

Further Reading
Digital Music News, eMusic Goes Under the Knife; Makeover Unwrapping Soon (17 July 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/071608emusic> at 18 July 2008

Yahoo, Yahoo hopes to boost search fortunes with new music search (19 September 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080919-yahoo-hopes-to-boost-search-fortunes-with-new-music-search.html> at 21 September 2008

CNet News, Yahoo adds full-length music tracks to search results (18 September 2008) <http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10045466-2.html> at 21 September 2008

ArsTechnica, MySpace Music extends right hand of fellowship to Big Four, middle finger to indies (25 September 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080925-myspace-music-extends-right-hand-of-fellowship-to-big-four-middle-finger-to-indies.html> at 26 September 2008

TechDirt, Independent Record Labels Missing From MySpace Music (25 September 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080925/1530262378.shtml> at 26 September 2008

The Register, MySpace Music hears the antitrust song (18 September 2008) <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/myspace_music_antitrust/> at 21 September 2008

Digital Music News, MySpace Music Goes Live; All Majors On Board (25 September 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/092408myspace> at 26 September 2008

Silicon Valley/Associated Press, MySpace rolling out music service (24 September 2008) <http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_10548663?nclick_check=1> at 26 September 2008

The Register, MySpace Music hears the antitrust song (18 September 2008) <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/myspace_music_antitrust/> at 21 September 2008

TechDirt, MySpace's Music Offering: Ignoring The Elephant In The Room (12 September 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080912/1514312256.shtml> at 21 September 2008

The Babel Objection

One of the areas I discuss in my presentation on the regulation of political music is the relative obscurity in which this form of expression is presently placed. One of the changes I have made to my paper is to include a reference to the text The Wealth of Networks by Professor Benkler of Harvard University.

Benkler considers criticisms raised regarding the democratising potential of the internet and in particular examines the ‘Babel objection’. In Chapter 5 he discusses the idea of information overload and states:

The cornucopia of stories out of which each of us can author our own will only enhance autonomy if it does not resolve into a cacophony of meaningless noise... Having too much information with no real way of separating the wheat from the chaff forms what we might call the Babel objection. Individuals must have access to some mechanism that sifts through the universe of information, knowledge, and cultural moves in order to whittle them down to a manageable and usable scope [Ch 5 pg 22-23].

He goes on to note that there are two primary mechanisms by which the Babel objection is overcome in the digital environment. Firstly, instead of isolated sites and users, there is a tendency for common interests to cluster (such as through interlinking) to establish both a core group of sites relating to certain themes as well as other more loosely connected but associated sources. He refers to this as a Bow Tie structure [Ch 7 pg 27]. Furthermore, peer recommendation, editing and filtering mechanisms assist to order the information on the internet to ensure that it is both diverse and manageable [Ch 5 pg 24].

He then goes on to refer directly to the improvements that the networked information economy provides with respect to music:

Instead of relying on the judgement of record labels and a DJ of a commercial radio station for what music is worth listening to, users can compare notes as to what they like, and give music to friends whom they think will like it. This is the virtue of music file-sharing systems as distribution systems [Ch 5 pg 25].

While I agree with the sentiments expressed with respect to music generally, when one examines the digital environment with a distinct focus on political music it becomes apparent that there is not a high level of clustering, filtering or peer recommendation.

In proposing specific strategies such as:

1. The allocation of dedicated space for political songs on digital music sites and the integration of weblogs, wikis and discussion forums,
2. Modifications to search engines to allow songs to be searched by imbedded tags or key words,
3. Allowing non commercial uses by genuine non profit websites, and
4. The development of a central repository or archive,

my goal is to create a digital environment which enables clustering, peer recommendation and filtering in order that oppositional audible culture may overcome the Babel objection and realise its true communicative capacity.

Further Reading
Yochai Benkler, ‘The Wealth of Networks’ [Paper Friendly Version] (2006)
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wealth_of_networks/Download_PDFs_of_the_book> at 10 September 2008

Integration

One of the points I make in the draft presentation concerning the regulation of political music in the digital environment is that to overcome the silencing of this form of culture there must be far greater integration of discussion forums, Wikipedia pages and similar formats that allow for information to be shared with respect to political songs.

I was reading with interest only today that some digital media stores are attempting to do this. First it was eMusic that updated its site to incorporate Wikipedia pages alongside artist and album pages. In the past few days it has been reported that Yahoo is to do this as well and should launch an updated site within in six weeks. MySpace music is also integrating music into its site, combining advertising with streaming content in a social network environment.

These are all excellent developments and will certainly make some difference to the discourse surrounding music generally and by implication will assist listeners who seek out political music. It is not however the complete solution. There continues to be limitations which prevent an open exploration and discussion to take place.

eMusic for example only allows short samples of songs to be played prior to downloading, restricting the exposure of listeners to songs prior to selection. While eMusic will also inetegrate content from sites like Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia, it has appears as though this content will be limited to that which relates directly to the artist.

MySpace music will allow streams of songs from user’s websites provided they display advertising. I wonder whether an artist will have the chance to refuse advertising, whether only songs that are deemed worthy by the advertisers will be used and how the store intends to deal with music that is licensed under a non-commercial use license.

True integration of music that would best allow political music to be heard would enable some grouping of similar songs by multiple artists that address a common theme. These sites whilst providing increased opportunities for discourse and exploration will nonetheless fall short of providing the basis enabling political music as a genre to find its feet – these approaches remain largely artist centric rather than issue focused.

To further enhance the opportunities for political song there should be a dedicated effort to cross reference songs with issues and to link artists together to form a web. I wont be happy until I can go from J.B. Lenoirs’ eMusic profile to his Wikipedia entry, then onto a Wikipedia page about the Vietnam war followed by an entry relating to music of that era and back into eMusic to get it without having to stop and search each separate step along the way. When we can truly navigate around these forums to gather music and information at the same time, political music will have a far greater chance of realising its potential.

This attempt at integration is fantastic but nonetheless is in its infancy.

Further Reading
Digital Music News, eMusic Makeover Starts Rolling; Album Pages First (22 July 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/072208emusic > at 14 September 2008

Digital Music News, MySpace's Music Offering: Ignoring The Elephant In The Room (12 September 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080912/1514312256.shtml> at 14 September 2008

Digital Music News, Manic Monday? MySpace Music Around the Corner... (12 September 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091108myspace> at 14 September 2008

washingtonpost, Yahoo to open music to other services (11 September 2008) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091101997.html>a t 14 September 2008

Digital Music News, Yahoo Music Starts Opening Up; Early Blueprints Revealed (12 September 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091008yahoo> at 14 September 2008