By , November 16, 2012.

The record label is dead: long live the record label — Despite over a decade of predictions of its imminent demise, the record label still plays a vital role. As Francis Moore of the IFPI points out, from the group’s latest study, record labels worldwide invested $4.5 billion last year developing and promoting recording artists, and over 70% of unsigned musicians want to be signed to a label.

With new channel investments, YouTube becomes even more like TV — Last year, YouTube invested $100 million toward original content for its site. This week, it announced it will only continue to fund 30-40% of those channels, according to GigaOm, making its renewal rate strikingly close to that of broadcast TV.

The Real McCoy: Should Intellectual Property Rights be the New Civil Rights in America? — That’s the question Raymond Millien asks in this must-read article from IP Watchdog. Also check out part 2.

The Education of Senator Wyden: Don’t break the artists…You can’t get away with the old RIAA Booga Booga Booga or that you’ll make it up on volume — Oregon Senator Ron Wyden gave the keynote address at this week’s Future of Music Coalition Summit. As Chris Castle puts it here, “Senator Wyden’s speech writers wrote a speech for him to give in 1999. It does not play in 2012.”

Radio-active: Internet Broadcasting and Artist Compensation [VIDEO] — Also from the FOMC Summit, video of the panel discussion on the Internet Radio Fairness Act, featuring Kurt Hanson of AccuRadio.com, David Lowery of University of Georgia/Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Michael Petricone of the Consumer Electronics Association, Patricia Polach of the American Federation of Musicians, and Colin Rushing of SoundExchange.

A Musician’s Perspective on Pandora [PDF] — The ad appearing in Billboard Magazine this weekend, signed by 125 artists. The range of artists represented on the list is notable; many different genres and a mix of newer and more established musicians. Says the ad, “Let’s work this out as partners and continue to bring fans the great musical experience they rightly expect.”

How to avoid accidental dealings with pirates — David Hahn, writing at iMediaConnection, provides three suggestions for helping brands avoid providing revenue to illicit sites. Hahn notes, “As RTB continues to grow and scale, it’s increasingly difficult to appeal to a brand’s goodwill alone to stop appearing on torrent sites. It’s more than likely that these brand marketers have no idea their ads are supporting these sites, and they’re probably horrified when they learn of the placements.”

Why Doesn’t MTV Play Music Videos Anymore? [VIDEO] — From sketch comedy duo Brian and Maria comes this (slightly NSFW because of language) funny video explaining the lack of music on MTV.

Google’s Serial Obfuscation: Music Canada, BPI, Billboard Question Whether Google Has Really Lowered Pirate Sites Search Rankings — The Trichordist sees little evidence that search rankings for illegitimate sites have dropped since Google announced in August tweaks to its algorithm to lower the rank of sites receiving large numbers of takedown notices.

Copyright and Technology 2012 Conference — December 5th in New York City is the annual Copyright and Technology Conference. Featuring a keynote speech by Rob Levine and panel discussions on both technology and law and policy. Registration is currently open. Be sure to also check out David Newhoff’s podcast interview with conference chair Bill Rosenblatt.

1 Comment

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