erin8u4l: Making Money System

State of the indy music industry looks rosy, so why all the doom-and-gloom about music?

Cory Doctorow at 11:30 PM Wednesday, Dec 1, 2010

TuneCore's Jeff Price has a six-part series analyzing the financial state of the music industry from the point of view of an independent artist. Price offers compelling reasons to believe that although the labels are experiencing a severe downturn, artists as a group are earning more than ever, thanks to the Internet.

I have a feeling that the record industry's rejoinder to this would be, yes, more artists are earning some money from their music, and all told, there's more money going to artists than ever before, but there are fewer opportunities for an artist to sign up to a label like ours that controls so much of the distribution channel that we can guarantee large sums of money for these lottery winners.

In other words, the music industry today is much less winner-take-all, with the benefits diffused to a larger pool of artists at the expense of the few who did so well under the old system. This is what I mean when I say a good copyright system is one that encourages the broadest-possible engagement in culture: more music, from more musicians, reaching more people, at more price-points, in more formats. It's a win for free expression and for art, but it's a loss for some artists and the institutions that supported them.

I don't celebrate those losses: it's terrible to think of people who loved and lived for music losing their jobs (most of the people at labels aren't greedy tools deciding to sue 40,000 music fans; greedy tool-dom is confined to a few powerful decisionmakers). It's sad to think of the tiny pool of musicians who did so well taking a loss (though before we weep for them too much, remember that yesterday's winners are well situated to get even richer from merch, performance and licensing, even without the archaic recorded music industry and its shiny bits of plastic).

But copyright's purpose should be to get as much art made and available as possible -- it's not a full-employment scheme for administrators and marketing people and record-store clerks; it's not a lottery that makes millionaires out of a couple of lucky artists. There's nothing wrong with it doing those things, but they aren't why it's there: it's there to fuel expression and art.

The reality is:

* More musicians are making money off their music now then at any point in history.

* The cost of buying music has gotten lower but the amount of money going into the artist's pocket has increased.

* There are more people listening, sharing, buying, monetizing, stealing and engaging with music than at any other point in history.

* There are more ways for an artist to get heard, become famous and make a living off their music now than at any point in the history of this planet.

* Technology has made it possible for any artist to get distribution, to get discovered, to pursue his/her dreams with no company or person out there making the editorial decision that they are not allowed "in".

* The majority of music now being created and distributed is happening outside of the "traditional" system.

And to reiterate, sales are up...

Seeing that the Nielsen stats are readily accessible and accepted as legitimate, why then are we left with the impression that music sales and revenue are down? The simple answer is album sales and overall gross revenue from music sales (CD and downloads) are down. The increase in music purchases comes from the people buying individual songs. The decrease in revenue comes from a $0.99 song costing less than a $16.98 physical album as well as fewer purchases of physical CDs.

The State of The Music Industry & the Delegitimization of Artists

(via EFF Deep Links)

(Image: Diesel Sweeties tee)

Submitted by Bo Peng

Making The Last Use Of Reserve Currency Status

I suspect many in the mainstream academia haven't realized what QE2 is.
It is the last use of the dollar's reserve currency status, intended or
otherwise.

In a fiat currency system, inflation should be the
only risk, because fighting deflation should be trivial -- just print
money. This is a fundamental advantage of a fiat system over the old
gold standard. Unfortunately for the US, the dollar's reserve status
means the geopolitical border is not the dam holding the water as in
other countries. As Fed pours in more water, it leaks right out to
lowlands (good investment destinations) all over the world. Given the
current economic prospects in the world, the result is that QE2 cannot
stoke inflation in the US, but causes very unwelcome interference in
exactly the other places in the world where inflation is a big concern.

It's small wonder all the growth EM economies are engaging in the low-grade currency war of capital control.
To them, this is a defensive war for survival against the invading army
of dollars. If the low-grade war proves insufficient, they would
escalate the defensive posture. They have to.

Another
consequence, intended or not, of QE2 + reserve status is that all growth
economies are under tremendous pressure of currency appreciation. Some
may be able to resist it and muddle through until an easier day; others
will have to cave in, therefore caught in the catch 22 of either raging
inflation or shrinking economy, or both. And, of all the growth
economies, China arguably has the most capacity and strongest political
will to resist appreciation. In such a scenario, if the intended target
of Fed's fury is China, as hinted not so subtly by Bernanke, "collateral damage" would once again be the main theme, as has been in all recent offensives launched by the US.

In
summary, Fed's dogged efforts in stoking inflation have caused and will
continue increasing the risk of bringing all growth EM economies to a
halt, significantly increasing policy risks in the rest of the world as
each country tries desperately to deal with the capital tsunami, and all
the while with huge doubt in whether it could reach its domestic goal
of stimulating employment and housing. In other words, Fed is screwing
the world for a slim chance of helping the US economy.

This is
emphatically NOT a moral criticism. But it does represent a significant
abandonment of the responsibilities on Fed's part as the issuer of world
reserve currency.

Let's go back a little in history. Right on
the heels of WWII victory, in 1944 US dictated Bretton Woods that
established the dollar as a proxy for gold in the free world. The
"proxy" part was only convenience, of course, as to be expected and
proven by Nixon in 1971. The arrangement made sense: the US would
provide security blanket, and the rest of free world would pay for it by
accepting and holding the green paper printed by the US. It's the same
idea as gangs collecting protection fee in NY, no cynicism intended.

Fast
forward to Berlin Wall collapse. Now the fundamental premises of the
dollar's reserve status were gone. Europeans quickly realized this
change and created the Euro; why should they continue paying for
protection when there's nothing to protect against? The US has made
numerous fantastic efforts in creating threats (by "creating" I don't
necessarily mean create; often times you just have to doze off for a
second and the enemy will help you out): perpetual terrorism, WMD in
Iraq, perpetual war in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan, Iran, North Korea,
China, even Somali pirates (now it gets really pathetic). But none of
them could ever live up to the high expectations set by USSR.

After
10+ years of trying, it's become clear that this is futile. Nothing
works; none of those idiots could do it. But with the reserve currency
status comes its responsibilities. Win-win is BS-BS; there's no free lunch after all. The time has come to end Bretton Woods II.

Now Zoelick's surprise proposal of a new gold standard makes perfect sense.

With
QE2 the Fed is saying: Ah fuck it, you don't like USD as the reserve
currency? Well guess what? We don't like it, either. So let's drop it
and from now on it's every man on his own. Good luck.

Good luck everybody. We all need it.

advertising enlargment

Cory Doctorow at 11:30 PM Wednesday, Dec 1, 2010

The reality is:

* More musicians are making money off their music now then at any point in history.

* The cost of buying music has gotten lower but the amount of money going into the artist's pocket has increased.

* There are more people listening, sharing, buying, monetizing, stealing and engaging with music than at any other point in history.

* There are more ways for an artist to get heard, become famous and make a living off their music now than at any point in the history of this planet.

* Technology has made it possible for any artist to get distribution, to get discovered, to pursue his/her dreams with no company or person out there making the editorial decision that they are not allowed "in".

* The majority of music now being created and distributed is happening outside of the "traditional" system.

And to reiterate, sales are up...

Seeing that the Nielsen stats are readily accessible and accepted as legitimate, why then are we left with the impression that music sales and revenue are down? The simple answer is album sales and overall gross revenue from music sales (CD and downloads) are down. The increase in music purchases comes from the people buying individual songs. The decrease in revenue comes from a $0.99 song costing less than a $16.98 physical album as well as fewer purchases of physical CDs.

The State of The Music Industry & the Delegitimization of Artists

(via EFF Deep Links)

(Image: Diesel Sweeties tee)

Submitted by Bo Peng

Making The Last Use Of Reserve Currency Status

bench craft company rip off secrets

Cory Doctorow at 11:30 PM Wednesday, Dec 1, 2010

The reality is:

* More musicians are making money off their music now then at any point in history.

* The cost of buying music has gotten lower but the amount of money going into the artist's pocket has increased.

* There are more people listening, sharing, buying, monetizing, stealing and engaging with music than at any other point in history.

* There are more ways for an artist to get heard, become famous and make a living off their music now than at any point in the history of this planet.

* Technology has made it possible for any artist to get distribution, to get discovered, to pursue his/her dreams with no company or person out there making the editorial decision that they are not allowed "in".

* The majority of music now being created and distributed is happening outside of the "traditional" system.

And to reiterate, sales are up...

Seeing that the Nielsen stats are readily accessible and accepted as legitimate, why then are we left with the impression that music sales and revenue are down? The simple answer is album sales and overall gross revenue from music sales (CD and downloads) are down. The increase in music purchases comes from the people buying individual songs. The decrease in revenue comes from a $0.99 song costing less than a $16.98 physical album as well as fewer purchases of physical CDs.

The State of The Music Industry & the Delegitimization of Artists

(via EFF Deep Links)

(Image: Diesel Sweeties tee)

Submitted by Bo Peng

Making The Last Use Of Reserve Currency Status

http://www.ddfghhdfxd.com/]advertising

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Making Money System

No comments:

Post a Comment