I will not even waste my time linking to countless examples old DRM screwing consumers in countless ways - they are out there, this is the latest example. DRM does nothing for consumers and fans of music.

Copying the following from Listening Post because they have lots of good points I will highlight:

Microsoft Passes Buck to MSN Music Buyers on DRM Snafu
If you bought tunes from MSN Music, it may soon suck to be you.

Microsoft’s DRM-laden tracks allowed limited portability, but owners who upgraded their computers or operating systems still needed to reauthorize their already purchased music with MSN’s DRM servers in order to transfer it to approved devices. Now, because the Redmond brainiacs can’t (or won’t) manage that mess, those servers are going dark. And guess who’s going to pay for the portability?

That’s right, you. Last week, Microsoft announced it was deactivating its validation servers because the whole process was just too complex, which is somewhat humorous coming from a company with a mission statement claiming it wants to help businesses and people realize their full potential. Evidently, that lofty goal does not include following through with technological solutions Microsoft creates.

“Microsoft is asking its customers to spend more time, labor, and money to make degraded copies of music that was purchased in good faith,” Electronic Frontier Foundation executive director Shari Steele complained in an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer outlining ways the company could right its wrong. (Yeah, right.) “This outcome was easily foreseeable from the moment Microsoft chose to wrap MSN Music files in DRM. Microsoft customers should not have to pay for Microsoft’s bad business decisions.”

Too bad they will. If MSN Music fans want to transfer music they paid for to another computer or different device, they’re going to have to buy it all over again — or download it. And labels wonder why the wired world turns to P2P. It’s enough to make a music fan go crazy, like Steve Ballmer does in the video above. Crazy is as crazy does.

Pretty unanimous support, all against Microsoft, on this one across the board:
EFF Scolds Microsoft for Leaving MSN Music Fans Out in the Cold - Compiler

The Electronic Frontier Foundation thinks Microsoft ought to do more for the MSN Music customers who were recently, and rather abruptly, cast out the door. Although the EFF stops short of threatening legal action, in an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer the EFF says that Microsoft needs to issue a public apology, provide refunds or replacement music files and launch a “substantial” publicity campaign to make sure its customers know their options.

The controversy stems from Microsoft’s recent decision to shut down the authorization servers that work with the DRM music files purchased through MSN Music. By doing so, all the music that customer’s legally purchased through the MSN Music store will be trapped on a single computer.

Microsoft’s Final ‘Up Yours’ To Those Who Bought Into Its DRM Story - TechDirt

And from Hypebot:
I’ll let the evil corporate giant do the talking:

“As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers. You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.”

In simple terms, if you get a new computer next year; all the tunes you bought from MSN Music won’t play in it. “We will no longer be able to support…” sounds like “screw the consumer” to me.

There’s more out there but you get the point……

I think this is important. It may not take off, but the opportunities inherit for USB drives and music is significant in my opinion and certainly worth exploring.

Together they offer a means of tying the digital world to the real world. Tying retail purchases to social networks and fan clubs. They could be used to take fan clubs in new directions - a WillieLive USB bracelet to fan club members could entitle you to free downloads of all future concerts. Or what about VIP access for fans that show up wearing said bracelets?

I should note that all I REALLY care about is the music. I don’t care about the cover art [I have never bought a CD because it had a “cool” cover], I don’t even care so much about the liner notes, although I do miss them at times. But one could easily produce a Digipak like package with an included or even glued in booklet, but instead of a plastic tray to hold a CD in place, there is a tray to hold in a USB drive. And of course the booklet and art would also be included on the drive as high quality PDFs [?] from which the art and liner notes could be synced up with your music player/collection. The ideas/opportunities = endless.

A Few Ideas
While the idea of MP3s and lossless files [and whatever else they wanted to include: videos, websites, pictures etc.] on one format appealed to me initially [USB drives = better MP3/FLAC delivery device vs. CDs IMHO], I was more interested in the potential of USB drives tied to kick start some innovation WITH music.

Many venues/bands/labels have offered USB recordings of live concerts on your way out of the show. That’s a start. But what about coming in? What if having bought a previous live show USB drive, you plug it into a reader on your way in and get a discount on admission [or at the time of ticket purchase] for future shows.

What if when you get home you plug in the drive and it launches a website only accessible to fans with a connected drive in place [almost every idea like this will be hackable – but we are exploring these ideas in a happy-carefree bubble of fake reality]? That site can offer anything the label or artist wants to share.

My biggest plan for USB drives extends that even further and ties it into a fan club, and at the next level an entire social network. What if venues or at least bands with laptops performing at them – have a USB input for members of a shared social network that one ups Facebook’s events – beyond simply stating you intend to be there, show up, plug in briefly and ….well you can get creative here, do they just get (fan) points, some benefits, free music, all the above?

All my potential concerns or fears regarding USB drives and connecting to social networks and fanclubs was erased when I read about a VISA experiment. In Korea, where “digital became dominant years ago” you can now use a USB Credit card. While I certainly do not know the particulars about the set up I am confident that if what they have is good enough for credit card transactions, then a similar set up will handle any security concerns related to any ideas in this post.

I have also seen business proposals for USB based shopping lists: users compile a list using software for such purposes onto a drive, take it to the store and plug it into the shopping cart display unit. Customers then get directions to items in the store they need, are offered coupons, and even recipe suggestions [up selling other products] for items they have on their shopping list. Combine such a service with the VISA USB drive and they can pay with the drive as well at the checkout. What types of related ideas could be used to encourage retail purchases in the music industry?

Delegate Passes/All the Info You Need - for festivals/events – that provide USB drives at registration which you then plug into systems that can update you over the course of the event [and that would of course include music from artists part of the event]. All print materials – focusing on greening aspects important to many festivals/events today, could be regularly updated when plugged into internet connected system w/show/venue changes etc.Take it a step further and develop a weekend command center for festivals into the drive. Twitter control, profile updates, http://sched.org/, maps, all the line-ups and everything else you need. Events could offer deals for fans that use the drives while also saving on costs for some print materials.

NIN used USB drives as a tool in the ARG promotion of Year Zero and I see countless ways to further embrace USB drives in future ARGs and marketing campaigns.

Positives, beyond ongoing use/experiments from bands and labels noted below, for USB drives and music include:

• Manufacturers and software developers increasingly see portable computing in our future. – which means more USB drive devices may be prevalent. There are many ways already to replace the need to carry even a laptop if you know there will be avalable computers where you are going. I have email, Thinking Rock [getting things done software] and a few other programs running off a USB drive now.
• Another key benefit to USB drives is that their ports are on every current computer - and ah, universal.
• Still a ways off but a faster and otherwise improved USB 3.0 is on the horizon
• Drive sales are now counted on the charts: USB music sales hit UK chart

Current Usage
While the format is still mainly in the realm of major level artists, you can find artists, and labels, at all levels exploring their use. Locally the only act I am aware of thus far is Shelter With Thieves.

Some Music USB Drive examples:

• Barenaked Ladies
• Willie Nelson
• Radiohead EMI
• Mars’ Volta
• White Stripes
• And Magnatune was doing it way back in 2005
• There are plenty of USB manufacturers and resellers out there, companies specific to the USB/music industry opportunities include All Access Today and Aderra
• This is one of the more hilarious examples I have seen: Band Sells Music on USB Drives with Character [from Korea].

The biggest downside of USB drives currently is their cost. Other issues not addressed include do fans want countless drives kicking around? Can’t be any worse than the useless CDs I have now can they? At least I could give the drives to friends and they could use them for other purposes, or you keep them in their nice Digibooks until you need them to get a discount to go to a show or need access to a members only section of a site – for which such perks could help such drives retain some value.

Getting back to costs - there is no guarantee such drives will replace CDs, in the coming months and years we should definitely see more labels and artists experimenting though as costs for drives continue to fall. In the end, consumer response will eventually dictate what role USB drives have in the future of music but if those in the music industry can not offer anything worthwhile or interesting….

The Quiet Revolutionary Awards aim to address two things. The first is, when related to music, great music. Simple [and subjective] as that.

The second is change - or more specifically, innovation. I am a believer in the theory of creative destruction as popularized by Joseph Schumpeter [I plan to do a post sometime on creative destruction itself as related to the music industry].

In short as summarized on Wikipedia, creative destruction is

the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation

If the music industry wasn’t ripe for some creative destruction no industry is.

Categories for this first year’s awards include:

• Artist [Local, Canadian, International]
• Magazine
• Label
• Individual [Canadian, International]
• Blog/Website [Canadian, International]
• Double.Zero = The Worst of the Worst

INDIVIDUAL
Canadian – Michael Geist
If a movement stops the Canadian version of DMCA being passed in Canada this year, you can be certain he will have had something to do with it.
THE source for Canadian matters related to copyright [thus covering much in music news of late ranging from lawsuits to existing laws impact on slowing innovation] Mr. Geist is spearheading a charge against any Canadian DMCA legislation. Legislation which a Moncton Times and Transcript editorial characterized as “one of the most regressive pieces of legislation ever enacted by the U.S. government” and urges Canadians to speak out against a Canadian DMCA.
For that alone you should thank him.

See:
Anti-Canadian DMCA Momentum Begins to Build
The Canadian DMCA: What You Can Do
Mainstream Media Picks Up Where It Left Off on Copyright
Fair Copyright Facebook Group

Coverage via Boing Boing:
Challenge Canadian MPs: “I will not break fair dealing” pledge
Canadian MPs who are vulnerable on copyright — how we’ll win the war on the Canadian DMCA

International - Ian Rogers
Before the holidays I stumbled upon Ian Rogers blog. I had heard and read numerous mentions of a talk he had given earlier in the year which you can find on his blog at Convenience Wins, Hubris Loses and Content vs. Context, a Presentation for Some Music Industry Friends.
Most recently he posted anther talk he gave, Talking To The Music Industry Again, The Aspen Live Conference.

Ian Rogers must be one of the most forward thinking minds in music right now (explaining why he is not employed at a major label). Go Read the Convenience Wins post. There’s an open mind.

His endorsing of open media standards [second link posted] is itself very important. There’s simply too many worthwhile points between both posts to mention. Just read them, and keep an eye on his blog this year.

TechCrunch thinks Yahoo! is up to something big in music and others are already asking if Ian Rogers is the one who can help save music.

He is also a serious music fan [which is probably part of why he is indirectly on this list], for a sample of his tastes see Music Is The Best, 2007 Edition

Yahoo! coverage via TechCrunch:
Yahoo May Offer DRM Free Music For Free
Yahoo Releases Browser Based MP3 Player - and it’s now part of A Quiet Revolution

MUSIC BLOG/SITE
Canadian - i (heart) music
The gentleman behind the site clearly does (heart) music - focusing almost exclusively on profiling Canadian acts, and getting bonus points for digging through Radio3 archives to share sessions with us, and running the annual Hottest Canadian Artist poll - he does good.

He has also covered a good number of east coast acts as of late including:
Sleeping on Wintersleep
Nathan Wiley - A Wiley one
Anything for a Buck 65
Jesse Dangerously - Living Dangerously
Laura Peek - Take a Peek
Holy Holy Fuck
The Got To Get Got got it good

International - The Daily Swarm
Daily Swarm gets the nod for seeing an opportunity and seizing it. Not even a year old [!!], the Daily Swarm has already cemented a place for itself in the online music community. They break real stories and cover a wide range of industry news from all perspectives. Recommended daily reading.

Blog I miss the most: IndieHQ
It is still there but the folks are busy. Hopefully sometime this year they can get back at it.

BAND
Local - Risky Business
Mainly due to their ability to find ways to tour the US, Canada and Europe multiple times in the past two years with almost no local support/assistance that would accompany most bands from this region achieving similar goals. A call to bands that the opportunities are there if you are willing to make the necessary sacrifices, work hard and do what YOU need to do to achieve your goals.

Honorable mention: Video blogging their tours, recording and firing off videos left and right budgets be damned – they released some vinyl, set up their own free download system to pair with vinyl sales and received some industry recognition along the way. They, of course, are the Superfantastics

Canadian - Jane Siberry now Issa
More a historical observance than for recent [2007] activities, except for the point that others recent note-worthy activities are repeats in part of what she was doing years ago. Having been getting attention for pay what you want set-up back in 2005 [and again in 2006], here is to the former Ms.Siberry, a true innovator with her music and the selling of it.

A letter she wrote on why she was pursuing the donation based model. She also shares stats on sales.

International - Radiohead/NIN
Enough has been said about both acts in the press, on blogs and anywhere comments can be shared.
Both artists tried new ideas, Radiohead’s biggest was the donation based release of In Rainbows initially. While NIN launched an impressive ARG based campaign for Year Zero [see Wired below] – receiving praise such as it being “the way a viral campaign should be run”
While it may be difficult for indie acts to follow those two examples, there are plenty more between those two artists alone, and the idea of embracing experiments and trying new things can be applied to artists at any level and perhaps that is most important to remember.

LABEL
We’re throwing this one out to any and all indies that in these crazy times still start up, try new ideas, embrace new technology, and support true artists. The majors with all their cash and resources have never looked more helpless or lost.

MAGAZINE
Wired
The best music magazine you ask? Well for all out music coverage, maybe not - but in a time of great change in the industry Wired has been one of the best sources of stories and general coverage of issues related to the music industry today. It should come as no shock [if you have been playing attention to what’s happening in the real world as related to music] that the best music coverage came from a tech focused magazine.

In recent issues they have interviewed Beck, NIN, Thom Yorke and featured David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars. All artists with decade plus careers still experimenting, pushing boundaries, remaining relevant and aware of the times.

With coverage also mentioning: Sellaband, Terry McBride, Pitchfork and plenty more.

Honorable Mention: Paste
Not only having a CD sampler with each issue, but covering a wide range of music, they tried a pay what you want experiment of their own last year [sadly for US customers only], and then offered free gift subscriptions as well.

Double.Zero (0.0)
The Worst of the Worst in 2007:
This year gave us so many options it was really one of the toughest calls to make, so instead of leaving it to anyone company or individual, all the following people and/or organizations have plenty to learn in 2008:
SoundExchange – these are the people couldn’t find Public Enemy to pay them. But they did much worse last year than offer pathetic excuses regarding their inability on that point.

Doug Morris [representing all major label CEOs]–
“But I am not going to allow any of the people to infringe upon the rights of these artists and songwriters. That’s my job”. Doug Morris

That was cut and pasted from an interview with Mr. Morris on Reuters, and came be found in his response to the last question. Typo, misplaced punctuation, young music downloading intern transcribing, who knows. I don’t care really as I think it aptly fits.

“These devices [mp3 players] are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,” UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. “So it’s time to get paid for it.”

“Its interesting that the record business doesn’t get any sympathy” - Doug Morris

Then there is also this embarrassing interview conducted with Wired. A must read if you have not seen it yet.

RIAA – where would we start really?

All the major labels – due to their ties to the RIAA alone, but the lack of innovation, waste and excess, and general cluelessness amounts to more than enough reason to wish them a quick demise to be replaced by rising indies.

Thanks for reading over the past year, I am already looking forward to doing this post next year now and seeing who stands out as an innovator - will Guy Hands shine or sink - what new companies are about to rise out of obscurity and change the way the industry works - if any -and what will artists do this year? Paul McGuinness has kicked off the year in fine style with his attempt to earn a Double.Zero placing for this year.

Should Will be an interesting year.

These are amazing times!!

The one cruel irony for music lovers, or at least those that love their music loud/via earplugs/headphones, is that the thing they love can rob them of the ability to enjoy it.

I’ve lost track of the hours I have spent at the Rock Garden with bands blasting away in the back ground. Dozens of raves sans ear plus, as well as who knows how many concerts and bar shows where more often than not I was without ear plugs. Add to that the hours spent listening to music with headphones, and just cranked on the stereo since I was little kid and the odds are good I have suffered damage.

It is funny as this subject came up earlier this week and then just now browsing Delicious, I noticed a number of recent links saved regarding hearing loss. They are all old, but such advice does not really stop being practical. Here’s just a few you may want to consider browsing to remind yourself to watch volumes [typed as the Hot Snakes is currently BLASTING at me - ok so I just turned it down a touch…see how long that lasts…], take ear plugs to shows, give your ears a break when jamming/recording/ at shows.

Deaf sentence - focuses on choosing earbuds/headphones

Music Making Fans Deaf? - How the iPod generation may be losing its hearing without even knowing it

And this is an article posted in some forum, but worth reviewing for advice from a doctor.

The mouse lemur is much like a music stealing pirate (probably a little bit cuter). It steals the nectar of flowering trees in Madagascar’s seasonal forests. The nectar is not intended for the lemurs but for other forest dwellers - insects - such as moths. The moth’s in turn usually end up being eaten by the lemurs however.

The importance of the moth to the flowers is that they pollinate other flowers as they go from tree to tree. The lemur, stealing the nectar and killing the pollinator moths would clearly seem to be an enemy of the flowers.

Except in eating the nectar (as well as attacking and eating the moths), the lemurs themselves become covered in pollen and themselves become pollinators as they go from tree to tree.

Thus: pirates = pollinators

Let’s flashback to a post on Team Love records I made last year (an argument for free music: exhibit A) and grab a quote from that post from Team Love founder Nate Krenkel:

We thought downloading could be used more as a promotional item. Something exponential is going on. The more music is downloaded, the more it sells.

Nature, as illustrated countless times throughout the Planet Earth series, is well accustomed to accepting the circumstances of its environment and adapting accordingly. It is amazing to see so many examples of species benefiting from the most inhospitable environments in the world and flourishing.

When one adapts to the environment it finds itself in success is clearly possible. This ability to adapt, innovate and flourish is a point major labels - and indies - floundering wondering what to do should take note of.

Point 2: Quality Sells
I have already purchased one Planet Earth box set as a gift, and will be buying a copy of my own (seen the episodes on TV, at friend`s places, rented etc.) because it is such a quality program I will look forward to returning to in the future.

Quality will always be worth paying for.

And we’re just as excited as that little guy is!
And we’re as late as….aaaahhh we’ll just leave it as late. Belated even!

Belated. Happy belated birthday to us. This blog made it through its first year sometime at the end of October. The majority of my family is known for belated birthday wishes, well cards and gifts. We usually call [chat online?!] each other at least.

We’ll consider this our birthday present.

Its been fun - via online means at least, I’ve met plenty of great - music loving - people.
I’ve learned a hell of a lot about what’s happening in music.

Still picking away at changes too - part of not writing lately has been figuring out what the focus of this was again [local*], and working on appearances as well - added weekly updates of CDKU’s charts, a link to Zunior’s free weekly sampler, maybe a few other things coming.

To anyone who took the time to read [or comment, or send me emails/links]: Thank you.

* few other things too but…starts (t)here

German Prosecutors Tell Entertainment Industry They Won’t Help Going After P2P Users - TechDirt

We’ve never quite understood why in the US and some other countries, a civil matter between businesses and their customers should require help from public law enforcement….Public prosecutors in Germany are apparently telling entertainment industry lawyers that they won’t help the industry track down file sharers, noting the “obvious disproportionateness” of trying to go after people for file sharing, and noting that unauthorized file sharing was merely “a petty offense,” while pointing out that, despite industry claims to the contrary, “there was no evidence that substantial damage had been done.”

Brits reject copyright term extension for music! - Boing Boing

This is the first time that I know of, in the history of the world, that any country has given up on extended copyright terms. In the US, the Supreme Court found that 98 percent of the works in copyright were “orphans” with no visible owner and no way to clear them and bring them back into the world. Extending copyright dooms nearly every author’s life’s work to obscurity and disappearance, in order to make a few more pennies for the tiny minority of millionaire artists like Cliff Richard (and billionaires like Paul McCartney)

Last week when I posted iPod “You’re a Criminal” Tax Coming I completely missed the post from Michael Geist which addresses the issue in more detail with an historical perspective and questions about what is to come.

Just one reason artists should care:

The decision will presumably be appealed, virtually guaranteeing years of litigation that promises to divert millions of dollars earmarked for artists to lawyers instead.

I’m painting the ceiling at the Rock Garden, hoping to manage to get at least the first coat done on a minimum of half the ceiling. And I plan on posting here today a fair bit - these goals are actually my plans for the next two days. I have a back log of items I wanted to post and hope to clean through those as well.