It’s a not-quite-annual tradition: Something unexpected (but perhaps not unplanned) happens at MTV’s Video Music Awards and the Internet can’t stop talking about it. But Viacom’s copyright lawsuit means that you’ll have work a bit if you want to see for yourself on YouTube.
In the old days, back at the beginning of this decade, news that a band’s new album had leaked on the Internet before it went on sale was a big deal. And it occasioned lots of wailing and hair-pulling in the music business. But that was when people bought CDs. Now it’s a way to raise money for charity.
I’m still skeptical that “The Performance Rights Act,” which would require radio stations to pay musicians–or at least, music labels–whenever they play one of their recordings, will ever get through Congress. Not because it’s a bad idea, mind you, but because the music business seems like an unlikely candidate for Washington aid. The bill, however, did take one big step forward today.
Call me a crusty skeptic, but I think it’d be hard for entertainers to get Washington to help them out in the best of times. So my gut is that there’s little chance that Congress will pass something called “The Performance Rights Act,” which would force radio stations to pay musicians–or at least, music labels–whenever they play one of their recordings.
YouTube and Sony Music Entertainment have signed a deal that will keep the music label’s videos and music on the site. The contract accomplishes what YouTube and Warner Music Group have been unable to do–figure out a way to keep the label’s music on the world’s biggest video site while sharing revenue with both sides.
Earlier this month the music business got a rare piece of good news: Apple announced that it had posted “record” sales at its iTunes music store around Christmas. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming: I’m seeing more and more evidence that Apple notwithstanding, the industry’s last few months were bad even by the industry’s own terrible standards.
Give the music industry credit–a decade after the original Napster, it’s now standard practice to let fans listen to an entire disc worth of new music, for free, before it ever gets to stores. The latest example: Britney Spears’s new album, “Circus,” which you can listen to at iMeem.com. Or at the bottom of this post, via a groovy embeddable player.
At this point, it’s going to be difficult to find a media company that hasn’t gotten a bump from Tuesday’s election and the run-up before it: Local TV got ad dollars; national TV got ratings; the New York Times’ Wednesday edition became a collector’s item; it was a record day on Digg and Twitter; etc. And one more: Google’s YouTube, where users are furiously uploading versions of Obama’s victory speech.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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