Techdirt. Stories filed under "diy"

Trent Reznor Talks To Techdirt About His Unconventional New Record Deal, And Why He Still Loves DIY

Mike Masnick — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:23:47 PDT

Contrary to what you may have been hearing lately, Trent Reznor still thinks there's a big future in "do it yourself" efforts for musicians these days (and he expects to do it again at some point). And, no, he doesn't think that bands need a label. Nor did he go back to a major label because they wrote some huge check. It appears that there have been a lot of bogus stories floating around in response to the news that Trent Reznor signed a "major label" deal with Columbia Records (part of Sony Music) for his new band, How To Destroy Angels. As we pointed out at the time, there's nothing wrong with signing a major label deal, if you know what you're doing, why you're doing it -- and especially if you have some leverage. We fully expected that Reznor, given his earlier statements about the major labels, went into this situation with eyes wide open.

And, indeed, Reznor has now shared (exclusively, with Techdirt) that this is exactly the situation.

Last week, there was some press coverage over some comments that Reznor made, in an interview with David Byrne, that some have interpreted to mean that he felt you needed a major label to be successful today.

Seeing that story spread, Trent Reznor and his manager, Jim Guerinot, asked if I'd be interested in hearing the full story, rather than the "latest scandal" version. Reznor, Guerinot and I had a very long conversation late last week covering a variety of topics, which would be impossible to cover in a single post, but let's get to the highlights. First off, as expected, Reznor's deal is not the same sort of record deal a nobody off the street would sign these days. Guerinot made that clear:

It's a licensing arrangement. The deal that Trent is able to do at this stage of the game is different than what he would have been able to do at 19 years old coming into his first arrangement.... There are always different levels of accommodation and leverage that you're able to do. For Trent, fortunately, at this stage of the game, he's able to license it and continue to own his masters... and, really, that's the most relevant thing about the deal.

Guerinot went on to talk about how the real crime of most major label deals (and even some indie deals) is that the artists never get their masters back. They knew that any deal Reznor made would include him retaining the masters:

The toughest thing is when an artist takes an advance, pays back the advance, and doesn't own his masters. That's always been -- and I've argued this with my friends who run major labels -- that is the single greatest difficulty and why so many artists don't trust labels. At the end of the day, artists have paid 50% of every video that gets made -- it's recouped against an artist account. But they didn't benefit from the YouTube deal. They didn't benefit from the creation of Vevo, despite the fact that it's their money that went to creating that.

This was not a "typical" deal. So why do this particular deal? A few key reasons -- some of which (perhaps ironically) came about because of his previous success. Reznor pointed out that he has a huge fan base... for Nine Inch Nails. He was worried that those fans are the only ones who would pay attention -- and that they'd not necessarily appreciate How to Destroy Angels or (worse!) think that it's "just a side project with my wife." He specifically worried that NIN fans would say "this isn't what we want to hear," and that would then limit their ability to reach a wider audience. However, he thinks that HTDA is amazing and deserves to reach an audience way beyond his existing fans. In the end, it came down to figuring out what the band's goals were and they decided that they wanted to aim big, and try to reach as many fans as possible. And they weren't convinced they could do that on their own. Reznor explains:

The main reason I do what I do is I want to do something that matters. I want to be able to create art that reaches the maximum amount of people on my terms.... That was a key component... That was why we wound up considering, and ultimately going with, a label, and not just a label, but a major label, for How to Destroy Angels. Because it came down to us -- us being the band now -- sitting around and identifying what our goals were. And the top priority wasn't to make money. It was to try to reach the most amount of people, and try to reach the most amount of people effectively, that doesn't feel like it's coming completely from my backyard. Because I don't want this project, ultimately, to just be dismissed as "side project" or... (*loud sigh*) "patronizing affair with Trent and his wife." Sounds terrible, you know?

There really is something fascinating about the fact that, in some ways, his massive success and following because of NIN almost forced him back into a major label to try to get away from that same pigeon hole.

And, contrary to some of the buzz, they insist that the deal wasn't about someone writing a big check. They note that all of the advance money is either going into the recording or directly to marketing, and not into the band members' pockets.

Beyond the fact that Reznor and Guerinot could negotiate a much better deal, they also pointed out that a hell of a lot has changed at the major labels these days -- as those labels have been seriously humbled. They noted that it's been six years since Reznor was last signed to a major and plenty has happened since then. Guerinot pointed this out:

My experience as a manager who works with a label is that, what's happened with major labels over the past six years, with the attrition of business, and the lopping off of the top end of the business, and the bringing in a lot of younger people... we're just dealing with a lot of people with enthusiasm and excitement and ideas. It seems that the next wave of personnel that has come through these doors, does not have a sense of entitlement and position and stature. They feel like they have to justify their existence. And I've just been really excited working with them.

Reznor echoed similar feelings:

After thinking about it for a while, we thought some sort of label might have a benefit for us [in getting the word out beyond NIN's fans], or some sort of team that's able to work this thing, and present it like some of the other bands we'd like to be mentioned in the same breath as, it might infiltrate the consciousness of people through the same means.

So why go to a major label rather than just bringing in a team of your own or perhaps working with an indie label. Reznor offered up a few reasons, with part of it being that he didn't feel like "setting up his own label," even if it was just a temporary one for this release. Separately, they felt that -- given the specific goals with HTDA (again, to become as widely known as possible) -- the best people for that probably are still at the labels. They admit that it's opened up some useful doors, such as some artists to work with on remixes that they probably wouldn't have been able to get to otherwise. Also, as has been suggested repeatedly, they really wanted help internationally, and doing it themselves was really difficult. They noted how their UK distributor had gone bankrupt and taken all of their money not too long ago, and they didn't want to have to deal with that kind of thing again. Reznor, again, on the decision:

It didn't need to be a major label, but we have a good relationship with Mark Williams, who's our A&R guy at Columbia... and he introduced us to the team at Columbia, and the lean and mean system that they have there. That coupled with what seemed like a reasonable deal, felt like, 'hey, let's try it.' We're not locked to it indefinitely. Let's just see how it goes.

But does that mean that the new internet world is no good? Or that DIY doesn't make sense? Not at all. In fact, I think they spent more time in the conversation focusing on all the awesome things that can be done online today that weren't possible when Reznor was starting out. They think that, for many, many, many musicians today, there are amazing new opportunities to use these online tools to do amazing things, with or without a label. He did point out that the challenges facing artists today have certainly changed. In fact, echoing the exact sentiment we heard at our artists & entrepreneurs working group, the toughest thing today is the lack of an easy road map, a "logical progression" to a music career -- but there are still a lot more opportunities. Reznor again:

What I think is great right now, is that it is the wild west. As frustrating and worrisome as it can feel to hear that we're 'in-between business models' -- which we've been hearing for at least ten years now. So, okay, all the old rules go out the window, let's press reset, let's look at what assets we have now that one didn't have before. That's what the good news is. This is what David Byrne focuses on his book. The stranglehold of distribution, the cost of making records, all of that has changed....

My advice today, to established acts and new-coming acts, is the same advice I'd give to myself: pause for a minute, and really think about 'what is your goal? where do you see yourself?' When I was coming up, things weren't disrupted, and there was a logical progression.... As a 22-year-old kid in Cleveland, it seemed to me that just playing out in bars, hoping someone noticed your band, and then offered you a record contract, while that's possible, I didn't know anybody, and didn't know anybody who knew anybody that that had ever happened to. The strategy, then, was let's work on getting a band, and something that means something, music that matters, music that I feel proud of, and a vibe and name and 'brand' of this thing, and then try to reach maybe some small labels that had music in the same vein of what I liked. It didn't work exactly that way, but that type of archetype of a plan led me to focus my energies on the thing that did start, and that fuse got lit, and it wound up happening.

If I were that person today, there's a hell of a lot of things that didn't exist then, that exist now. Like, YouTube. Like the ability to self-publish. Like the ability to reach everyone in the world from your bedroom, if they're interested. And I'd focus my efforts on what seems like a logical way to do that, that maintains integrity. If my goal is to compete with Rihanna on the pop charts, I'd think that requires going through a major label system with a powerful manager. That game....

It all comes down to what is it that you want to do? I think indie self-publishing and do it yourself is great. I will certainly do it again. But it will be in the context of what I feel is right for me.

Guerinot added some more thoughts to that as well:

The beauty about today is, in the absence of [a major label being interested in a musician], the contemporary way that you can distribute allows you worldwide distribution. You can actually make that happen.... Now, you can be a tree falling in a forest, but there was a point in time where you just couldn't even do that. There was no way for someone to watch your video, buy your record, participate with you, in Australia, if you lived in Southern California. That wasn't available. Now, it's very nice that someone has said to Trent, 'hey, we'd like to do x, y and z on your behalf,' but they just as easily at some point in his career might not do that. I think it's amazing that the world accommodates the ability to do that.

They also took on the idea that the "old way" was ever a great business model. Guerinot explained:

When you look backwards, everyone thinks 'oh, gee, they had the great business model.' I guarantee, if you talk to anyone who was making music in the 60s, they would tell you they did not have a great business model. As you moved into the 70s, 80s and 90s... nobody thought it was a great. Everything looks great in the rear view mirror. And everybody, as you go forward, keeps saying 'oh we need the new music business model.' We might already be in the new music business model! This might be it!... And as a guy who's supposed to help Trent navigate and ultimately get his music to as many people as he can, and honor and respect the way that he does that, it's pretty great right now. I mean, it really is. It's pretty great.

Finally, if there was one theme that ran through the entire discussion, which came up over and over and over again, it was that what was most important to Reznor was finding the path that would hopefully be best for getting fans to enjoy the music. And, while he noted that he really relished the challenge of trying to think through business models and new opportunities, in the end, it was more important to him, personally, to focus on the music at this time. He admits that all the other stuff let him "flex a different muscle in my brain" for the past few years, but he wanted to try to focus on the music for now. He says that it was fun, and had a sense of "wow I can do that!" when stuff succeeded, but he also worried that "I'm really not the best guy at figuring that stuff out," (despite earlier admitting he was "high on arrogance" at his own ability to figure some of this stuff out). And as he got more and more focused on solving that business model riddle, it became more and more engaging for him -- but he worried that, since he became so focused on it, he almost became too focused on that new challenge, rather than on the music.

I found this part of our discussion really interesting (and it included a little tangent discussion about the energy that goes into dealing with trolls...), because he was more or less admitting that all of the new opportunities out there were too enticing, and he wanted to spend more time figuring them out, but that process alone was distracting. Interesting stuff.

Oh, and, as for the recent revelation that Reznor is working with Beats by Dre on a new project, Reznor revealed just a bit of information on that... mostly off the record, but if all goes according to plan, it sounds like it's going to be very, very interesting, and not at all what you're thinking it's about.

In the end, the overall story was pretty much what I expected. For this particular project, with these particular goals, Reznor (and the rest of the band) felt that this deal made sense -- a deal that they were able to negotiate with some leverage, as a licensing deal, where they retain the masters. They get to work with folks who are enthusiastic and different than the "old guard," while still having the ability to market on a massive scale. But none of that changes the excitement that they feel for some of the new stuff and new opportunities that are out there, and they see lots of reasons for bands to keep experimenting. In fact, they used that word over and over again -- that this new deal was also "an experiment" -- no different than the experiments they've done over the past six years with different ways to release music -- and they were upfront that it might fail. "I'll keep you posted," Reznor promised, noting that, "I may have a very different story a year from now." So, stay tuned...

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Once Again: Just Because You Can Go Indie, Doesn't Mean You Need To

Mike Masnick — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:06:00 PDT

For years and years we've argued that there still is a role for labels -- even major labels, if they are able to do more reasonable deals that embrace new opportunities, rather than shun them. In fact, we've pointed to many different examples of pop stars on major labels doing creative things to connect with fans and give them a reason to buy. Nothing in that says that major labels have no place any more. What we have noted is that the overall market has changed and there are a lot more options. We've also noted that, historically, being used to their gatekeeper position, the major labels have treated many artists badly, signing them to questionable contracts, where very, very few of them end up making out well.

The reality today is that you don't need to go that route if you don't want to. That doesn't mean that there is no need for major labels at all -- even if some will confuse those two statements. It just means if you want to be a successful musician, it's now a choice, rather than a requirement. In short: major labels can and do play a role in helping some artists. Historically, I think they've done a pretty bad job of it (mostly representing their own interests much more than the artists'), but that doesn't mean they don't do certain things well. And for artists who need those certain things -- with radio play being a big one -- it may be reasonable to do a deal with a major, though, preferably with eyes wide open and (if possible) on their own terms, rather than the labels'. The point of what I've said all along is that you can now succeed without the labels if you want to. But for those who wish to use the labels, that should be an option to. It's just that the rise of alternatives should mean that the labels become more willing to change their terms to be less artist-unfriendly. It also likely means that we'll see more overall competition and that many artists will find alternatives appealing. As such, the majors will be forced to adjust over time, even doing more reasonable deals.

I bring up all of this again, because there's a lot of attention this week over the news that Trent Reznor has signed some sort of deal with Columbia Records (owned by Sony Music) for his new(ish) band, How to Destroy Angels, leading a bunch of people to claim that he's "abandoning the DIY" market. You can see everything there is to know in the statement Reznor released last week, which doesn't go into many details, but it certainly hints at the idea that this is not a standard-issue major label deal:

Regarding our decision to sign with Columbia, we've really spent a long time thinking about things and it makes sense for a lot of reasons, including a chance to work with our old friend Mark Williams. There's a much more granular and rambling answer I could give (and likely will in an interview someplace) but it really comes down to us experimenting and trying new things to see what best serves our needs. Complete independent releasing has its great points but also comes with shortcomings.

I'll be interested to hear about the details eventually, because that certainly hints to there being much more to this than just "signing with a major." And there's nothing I disagree with in what he says. Being completely independent does have its great points, but it also makes certain things much more difficult. I don't think anyone's denied that. Of course there are also well known shortcomings when working with a major label. So, it's a case of tradeoffs, and when you have someone in a position to negotiate a more favorable deal that can hopefully minimize the bad side of a label deal, and get the good part, that seems like a perfectly reasonable strategy for those who want it. I think that Reznor likely would have been fine staying indie for this release, but depending on what he's doing, there may be perfectly reasonable arguments for doing this deal.

I know that there are some people who think that everyone absolutely should go indie, but I've never said any such thing, nor do I believe it. I think that going indie is now a much more viable option than it's been in the past, but going to a major label certainly does not preclude being innovative. In many ways, I think of it similarly to the way I view startups as well. It's less and less necessary to raise venture capital to do a startup -- but that doesn't mean that raising venture capital is necessarily a bad thing. There are certain opportunities that really require it. If you go in with your eyes wide open and can negotiate a favorable deal that lets you do what you need to do, more power to you. In the long run, I think that there are much bigger opportunities in focusing on better connecting with your fans, and historically major labels have sometimes made that more difficult. But if an artist sees good reason to work with a major, there's nothing inherently wrong with it.

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Filmmaker Using BitTorrent & TopSpin To Distribute Free Copies Of Older Movie To Promote New Skateboarding Documentary

Mike Masnick — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:04:00 PDT

Skateboarder and filmmaker (often focusing his films on skateboarding) Stacy Peralta is releasing his latest skateboarding documentary, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, about the Bones Brigade skateboarding crew -- Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill and Tommy Guerrero -- which Peralta helped put together in the first place. Rather than go the traditional route with releasing the movie (as he's done many times, including with the acclaimed skateboarding documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys), Peralta has decided to go direct to fans. The movie was shown at Sundance earlier this year, where it got some attention and had a bunch of opportunities to go with traditional distribution partners, but instead Peralta figured it was time to take control, noting that the DIY ethic of direct-to-fan is similar to the way skateboarding evolved in the early days:

As skateboarders, as people that have always lived on the outside, have always had to sneak over fences or through the back door, have always had to create our own terrain, we’ve decided to put that ethic towards how we release “Bones Brigade: An Autobiography.” We turned down all of the conventional offers for distribution when we came out of the festival in favor of doing it ourselves.

One part of this DIY approach is that to promote this new movie, Peralta teamed up with BitTorrent and TopSpin to help with direct-to-fan digital distribution and promotion. Via BitTorrent, people can download a "Bones Brigade Bundle," including a bunch of extras, and then using a TopSpin feature (either on the web, or directly in the uTorrent client), if you submit your email address, you can download an entirely free copy of the classic skate film, The Search for Animal Chin, which was released 25 years ago, and featured the members of the Bones Brigade. So the combined effort, from Animal Chin to the Bones Brigade documentary is sort of a "full circle" situation.

It's great to see more filmmakers really embracing both direct-to-fan, but also realizing that things like BitTorrent aren't automatically bad, but have a place in a marketing campaign as well. In this case, it's interesting to see Peralta using a combination of a few different tools to create an integrated and comprehensive campaign not only to market the new film, but also to distribute the old film (the first time it's officially available in digital format). Oh, and if you'd like to download The Search for Animal Chin, there's an embedded widget right below this sentence...

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DailyDirt: DIY Fast Food

Michael Ho — Fri, 3 Aug 2012 17:00:00 PDT

Some restaurants guard their recipes as if they were the blueprints for a nuclear bomb. But it's usually not that difficult to reverse-engineer some kind of copycat meal that tastes pretty good, and there are tons of foodies out there with blogs dedicated to replicating all kinds of famous dishes. Here are just some examples of folks giving away the secret recipes for a few fast food favorites.

A McDonald's chef shows everyone how to make a Big Mac at home and points out that the secret sauce is actually published on the company's website. Here's the big secret for the sauce: Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor). [url]
Making a a Taco Bell Chalupa doesn't look so difficult, but it takes a bit more effort than sitting in your car and shouting your order at a big menu sign. Now if someone wants to figure out a home-made Dorito big enough to be a taco shell... [url]
Some customers don't like Chick-Fil-A's political leanings when it comes to gay marriage, but they still want some tasty sandwiches. The Chick-Fil-Gay is just one solution to that problem. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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DailyDirt: DIY Space Satellites

Michael Ho — Thu, 2 Aug 2012 17:00:00 PDT

It's getting easier and easier to send stuff into low earth orbit, and more folks seem to be interested in doing it. So not surprisingly, there is a growing number of projects that offer to perform amateur experiments on small satellites. For students, the opportunity to send up experiments into space has been around for at least a couple years (via the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program), but now almost anyone can participate in a space experiment. Here are just a few examples.

SkyCube is a satellite project on Kickstarter with $1 sponsoring 10 seconds of the mission. For just $6, you can broadcast six 120-character messages from space! [url]
Whatever you can fit inside a ping pong ball can be sent up to the edge of space (100,000 feet) -- and anyone can make a PongSat. Presumably, though, they won't let you fill your ping pong ball with a combustible propellant and an altimeter trigger.... [url]
The ArduSat Mission has completed its Kickstarter campaign and put up a list of experiment ideas that could be run on its Arduino-based satellite. Some of the suggestions for experiments/apps aren't too exciting, but there's also a prize of $1,500 for the most innovative experiment or app for the ArduSat -- so someone is bound to come up with a few more ideas. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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Metal Band Chimaira's Frontman Talks DIY Versus 'Label Hell'

Leigh Beadon — Tue, 8 May 2012 15:23:00 PDT

The Metalluminati blog has a great interview with Mark Hunter, frontman of the metal band Chimaira. Hunter is apparently a known critic of record labels, but he has a thoughtful and measured view, and in this interview he discusses the pros and cons of the DIY approach for bands:

Example: For us, leaving Roadrunner in 2006 was necessary for the band to continue. We didn’t feel part of a team, so I simply asked our A&R Monte Conner to let us go. The pro was we got our freedom; the con was our career in the UK suffered drastically. While we paired up with good company after, Nuclear Blast had less of a presence in the country and our sales (both, album sales and live tickets) dwindled in the UK while they went up in the rest of the world.

I can’t recommend what’s right or wrong, I can only guarantee there will be unforeseen consequences to any path you take. Some labels might have a market cornered — like heavy metal in the UK — so you actually might be better suited to stay in that “hell.”

He also addresses the question of piracy and free distribution in general, and the beginning of his comment is very reminiscent of rapper/producer El-P's comments in his recent guest post, which is interesting since the specific question he was answering was about how hip-hop has been faster to embrace these things than metal:

Personally speaking, spending energy yelling at fans of music for their method of intake would be trite, not to mention hypocritical. Chimaira got popular thanks to Napster, Limewire, and various other file-sharing platforms. We embraced YouTube in the beginning, and were one of the first metal bands to make webisodes.

The full interview is a good read and includes links to some other great comments from Mark Hunter, who is clearly a guy with a lot of smart stuff to say about the music industry.

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UK Community Gives Up Waiting For High Speed Broadband: Digs Its Own Fiber Trenches

Mike Masnick — Mon, 9 Apr 2012 21:06:00 PDT

Providers of high speed broadband love to talk about how they're providing private networks that shouldn't be regulated at all, but they tend to ignore the fact that they usually rely on government subsidies in the form of rights of way -- the legal ability to dig the trenches (or string cables on poles) to run the key infrastructure. Now, of course, we've heard of various muni-broadband projects, but one community in the UK apparently got so fed up with waiting for a big broadband provider to bring service to their village that they not only started setting up their own system, but they literally got dozens of residents to help them start digging the 51 mile-long trench where the fiber optic cable that connects them to the wider internet will lie. Talk about taking matters into your own hands...

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DailyDirt: Defend Yourself! (Or Give Peace A Chance...)

Michael Ho — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:00:00 PST

John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War is over)" song used to be routinely played on the radio towards the end of the year, but it seems that folks either "like" or "really hate" holiday songs (and that Baby Boomers are still in control of popular holiday music). In any case, if you received a shiny new "Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle" last weekend, here are some other advanced weapons that you might shoot your eye out with.

Automated attack drones might sound like science fiction, but lethal autonomy is becoming more practical as technology provide better sensors and recognition software. Landmines already kill indiscriminately, so "smarter landmines" are better, right? [url]
Build your own laser pistol at home, you scruffy-looking nerf-herder! Remember: Do not look at laser with remaining eye. [url]
If you think Tasers are effective non-lethal weapons for police officers, then check out Photonic Security Systems' SMU 100 laser rifle which is designed to (temporarily) blind people from up to 500m away. Just watch out for rioters carrying around big mirrors.... [url]
To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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DailyDirt: Give Me Liberty... Or Give Me Robot Armies?

Michael Ho — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:00:00 PDT

The robot apocalypse, depending on whom you believe, is steadily approaching. Robots are already fighting in battles all over the world, so maybe it's not such a crazy idea that they'd stop taking our direct orders someday. Here are some interesting examples of fighting machines that could be looking for John Connor in the near future (or alternate past).

Libyans have started to create a DIY robot army from spare parts and recovered munitions. Just watch out for the whiny slave-boy without a dad building a protocol droid... [url]
Microaviary drones are built to mimic the flight characteristics of moths, hummingbirds, hawks and other flying animals. These aren't the drones you're looking for. Move along. [url]
Some soldiers are already giving out purple hearts to robots... But perhaps a purple power adapter would be a better analogy? [url]
Giving robots a personality could be a good idea. As long as that personality is more of a Johnny5 ("Need more input!") and less of a Terminator ("Fuck you, asshole"). [url]
To discover more interesting robotics-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Murakami Releases His Own eBook Without His Publisher

Dennis Yang — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:40:19 PDT

With the increased adoption of the iPad and the Kindle, eBooks are finally becoming a viable alternative to traditional paper-based books. And with this shift, comes an opportunity that some publishers may not like -- it is now easier than ever for authors to self-publish their works. Popular Japanese author Ryu Murakami announced that he will be self-publishing his next novel directly to the iPad, sidestepping his publisher in favor of working directly with a software publishing company on this eBook. Murakami's eBook, "The Singing Whale," will include video content and music by composer Ryuichi Sakamoto that will hopefully leverage some of the strengths of the new platform. By self-publishing, Murakami has the chance to make more money from this book than he has with his previous deals. That said, he's also assuming the risk that it loses money; in order to break even, Murakami needs to sell 5,000 copies of the digital book, which is priced at around $17. To be fair, $17 seems a little high for an eBook, but Murakami's eBook attempts to justify the cost by incorporating video and music, elements not typically found in the run-of-the-mill eBook. But, even if this experiment doesn't succeed, Murakami will probably be just fine -- his publisher, Kodansha, reports that they are in talks with the author about publishing "The Singing Whale" as a traditional book. Since Murakami clearly has other options at this point, undoubtedly those negotiations will play out more favorably for the author. We've seen a few interesting new models arise for book publishing in the recent past, so hopefully this is a sign that we will start to see even more.

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Even In A Digital Age People Like To Build Stuff -- Like Real, Physical, Stuff

Mike Masnick — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:51:58 PDT

Over the past few years, there's been a bit of a renaissance of the "DIY" culture towards building all sorts of "stuff." It's sometimes unfortunate when so much focus in the tech world is just on the latest in what's happening online, in that it ignores all sorts of other interesting things going on. The NY Times is noting a return to having even software and internet developers practice building physical things as well, in part just to get them to start thinking outside the (computer) box when thinking about how to design digital things. Think of it as cross-training for the digital developers mind.

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