Label:Life

The era of the blockbuster is so over. The niche is now king, and the entertainment industry – from music to movies to TV – will never be the same.

On March 21, 2000, Jive Records released No Strings Attached, the much-anticipated second album from NSync. The album debuted strong. It sold 1.1 million copies its first day and 2.4 million in the first week, making it the fastest-selling album ever. It went on to top the charts for eight weeks, moving 10 million copies by the end of the year. The music industry had cracked the commercial code. With NSync, a pop-idol boy band fronted by the charismatic Justin Timberlake, Jive had perfected the elusive formula for making a hit. In retrospect it was so obvious: What worked for the Monkees could now be replicated on an industrial scale. It was all about looks and scripted personalities. The music itself, which was outsourced to a small army of professionals (there are 60 people credited with creating No Strings Attached), hardly mattered.

More@wired

Speaking at Essence Music Festival’s empowerment seminars, she said that people should “demand more.“

When Jill Scott spoke at the Essence Music Festival’s empowerment seminars, she had something on her mind: the portrayal of black women in popular music and videos.

“It is dirty, inappropriate, inadequate, unhealthy, and polluted,” she said. “We can demand more.”

Scott was part of a panel that addressed the danger that the presentation of women posed to young girls. Actor Shemar Moore, rapper Common, and former video dancer Karrine Steffans were also part of the panel.

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A new study from marketing research company Ipsos Insight indicates that while file sharing may be down, it still constitutes a significant percentage of the music found on today’s portable digital music players. Yet music downloads from legal services have eclipsed those stemming from P2P and other unauthorized sources. In fact, the study indicated that more than 70 percent of such music stems from legal sources, and that music download services are on the rise. The numbers show how far the industry has come from the days when CEOs would argue that “the most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen’.” If that view was dubious before, it’s now outright ridiculous.

According to the study of more than 1,100 people, existing CD collections still provide the lion’s share of music on portable players, accounting for 44 percent of such content. Download-to-own sales accounted for 25 percent of music on portable devices, while unauthorized file sharing accounted for 19 percent. While the music industry may be pleased, the study also indicated that 6 percent of music stemmed from users “ripping” CDs owned by others—something the industry considers akin to raw piracy. With an average of 700 songs per player according to the study, approximately 175 songs per player have not been properly licensed or purchased in the eyes of the recording industry. (Of course, that number would be significantly higher if the RIAA’s views on ripping legally acquired CDs were ever enforced.)

More@arstechnica

The Music Industry (from now on only called MI) is putting a lot of pressure on the consumers. They release copy protected media but fail to realise that this is a punishment for the people who buy music. Even if you don´t download music from the internet you most likely know sources where to get that music for free, without DRM and in high quality. The commercial pirates as well don´t care about copy protection.

The only one who is really affected is the one who is buying CDs and DVDs. Releasing copy proctected media is not enough of course, the MI influences governments as well to outlaw people who copy CDs with copy protection or download them from the internet. They want you to purchase the same media three or four times if you want to listen to it at home, at your notebook, in your car and in your mp3 player.

more@ghacks

Interesting read, despite the bias. Makes you wonder if the big companies really know what goes on further down the food chain…

Academia Semillas del Pueblo is an LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) sanctioned charter school in the Eastside community of El Sereno with students from kindergarten through the eighth grade.

”[Academia Semillas del Pueblo is] dedicated to providing urban children of immigrant native families an excellent education founded upon their own language, cultural values, and global realities,” their official website says (www.dignidad.org).

Besides meeting all requirements for students in LAUSD schools, ASDP provides an ancestral Mexican (indigenous) school environment, based on the Mexika/Aztec concept of kalpulli, which caters to the mostly Mexican/Central American community in El Sereno. Besides English, they also have language classes in Nahuatl (native Mexican), Spanish, and Mandarin. While the majority of the students are Mexican/Central American, the Academia is open to all children of any race, culture, or creed.

Recently, KABC-AM talk radio, which the right-wing has used for years to spout their ugly divisive politics, has targeted ASDP for closure because “they do not instill ‘American’ values.” In particular, Scott McIntyre, a morning talk show host, claims the school is part of the “multiculturalism” push in this country, which has become a particular focus of attack by some US conservative fringe organizations.

Last week, their rabid attacks against ASDP led to death threats against the school and its children (even forcing students to go home).

More@xispas

Microsoft has spent the last few years getting smacked around by Apple in the digital-music market, and it must be getting tired of this treatment. So it’s doing something drastic: It’s throwing its own MSN Music store under the bus and launching a new music program that spotlights another company’s service.

Microsoft’s new Windows Media Player 11, released in test form last week, looks and works little like older versions of the company’s music and video organizer—starting with its front-and-center placement for Urge, a new music store from MTV.

Microsoft and MTV say this integration of software and store offers an ease and simplicity to match iTunes. But if a week’s trial of the service is any clue, Urge will have a hard time competing with such also-rans as Rhapsody, Yahoo and Napster, let alone Apple.

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The Holy Grail of online music sales is the ability to offer iPod-compatible tracks. Like the quest for the mythical cup itself, the search for iPod compatibility has been largely fruitless for Apple’s competitors, whose DRM schemes are incompatible with the iconic music player. For a music store that wants to succeed, reaching the iPod audience is all but a necessity in the the US market, where Apple products account for 78 percent of the total players sold. Perhaps that’s why eMusic CEO David Pakman sounds downright gleeful when he points out that “there’s only two companies in the world that can sell to them—Apple and eMusic.”

More@arstechnica

The French Senate’s recent move to dilute legislation to force firms including Apple to create platforms that can share digital content with rivals will not derail moves towards interoperability, an industry expert has predicted.

Salman Momen, head of media technology at Capgemini Latest News about Capgemini, telecom, media & entertainment, said that interoperability between digital music platforms is inevitable and is in fact crucial to the survival of the music industry.

He believes that the recent legislative moves in France mark the forerunner of a “massive shift” in how music is sold, stored and consumed, and pave the way for enforced cooperation between online music distributors.

“An interoperable digital rights management standard for music downloads would ultimately be a boost for record labels, recording artists and consumers,” said Momen.

More@e-commercenews

Interesting article…

But if Apple BOUGHT one of the major labels they would have control. In fact, they would have a lot of it. This includes control of the RIAA who would now have to answer partly to them.

More@mp3newswire

The recent debate over iTunes in the French parliament has raised concerns of over regulation of the technology. But laws designed to promote competition are in everyone’s interest, writes internet law professor Michael Geist.

Apple Computer has captured the lion share of the global digital music market through its ubiquitous iPod and hugely popular iTunes download service.

However, many consumers have been reticent to take the plunge due to compatibility concerns.

Apple, along with rivals such as Sony and Dell, use proprietary formats that limit consumers’ ability to easily transfer songs between competing devices.

Some music fans are fearful that their investment in digital music files will permanently be consigned to a single device that may become obsolete.

More@bbc