alex 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (129)

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 09:42am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The real problem is...

  Ok. Here's one:
  
  A system where royalties are paid on sales of tracks can lower the cost of bringing new music to market. It means that a label can release a record relatively inexpensively in the hope that it will one day become profitable. In the absence of such a system, a band would want to be compensated up front for the time that they have worked on the album, knowing that is the only payment they will receive.

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 08:20am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The real problem is...

  I agree with you about there being different viable models around that suit different people, and that's a great and exciting thing.
  
  In my opinion, an artist being paid more if their music is popular is a nice (and somehow fair) concept. I would agree wholeheartedly that the 50 year term is ridiculous and should be shortened and sampling should be sorted out and all sorts of other issues, but I don't think the fundamental idea of paying for a piece of music, or paying a licence to broadcast a piece of music is flawed (and certainly not to the point of calling it "welfare"!)
  
  I also don't agree that there are many artists getting "ridiculous sums of money for something they did long ago". Nobody's making great money from sales, and even fewer are making any significant amounts from streaming (but it's getting better).

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 07:11am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The real problem is...

  I haven't heard any well-explained alternatives that sound better than the current system of labels being paid when their music is played, so yes, I'm going with copyright. (not that I'm closed-minded or some sort of maximalist)
  
  Just to mention your point about a a small, laughable trickle comes down to the actual artists - I think you may be making the mistake of confusing the music industry with the major labels (something I read all the time on techdirt)
  
  Pandora pays their licence fees to soundexchange, who don't make a profit and pass those fees directly on to the labels. In the case of the majors, that may be through the RIAA. In the case of independent labels, it is given directly to them.
  
  It's not uncommon for small indies to do 50:50 splits with their artists and it's also not uncommon for labels to pass the entire rights of recordings back to artists after a set time. The industry is not full of wankers. It's really not.

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 06:54am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The real problem is...

  So the fundamental difference is between streaming and downloading. Providing a downloadable mp3 file should have a cost, but if that download is in a streaming format, the cost should be waived?

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 06:49am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The real problem is...

  Why don't you release your games under creative commons?

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 06:26am

  Re:

  ugh - i've just double-checked in the SEC paper and the guy in the other article has it wrong. He says "0.0025 cents" but it is actually a maximum of "$0.0025". The actual rates listed are:
  
  2011 - non-subscription: $0.00102 subscription: $0.00170
  2012 - non-subscription: $0.00110 subscription: $0.00200
  2013 - non-subscription: $0.00120 subscription: $0.00220
  2014 - non-subscription: $0.00130 subscription: $0.00230
  2015 - non-subscription: $0.00140 subscription: $0.00250

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 06:12am

  Re: Re: Re: The real problem is...

  Are you saying that we shouldn't have copyright in the first place and that one should only have the right to sell something (eg. music, software, books, art) once, like Ford do with cars?

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 05:33am

  Re: The real problem is...

  the point is that licensing should be extremely cheap or free
  
  You think Pandora should have an annual turnover of something like $200m but they shouldn't have to pay anything for the content that makes their product good?

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 03:11am

  Re: Re:

  Your maths looks sane to me.
  
  The other side of the coin is that Pandora need to convince labels that they want to have their music on there, as that is the core of their product. As the fees stand at the moment, for every 1m plays of a track, the maximum a label will get is $25 (in reality, I would guess it's lower than this figure, though I don't really have a clue how the fees get split up). If the fees are lowered, they risk having a bunch of labels pull their content from the service.
  
  This has made me think of this techdirt article which I agree with the sentiment of, but I think can also be applied to this topic.
  
  If You're Arguing That Pandora 'Deserves' Their Business Model To Work, Your Argument Is Wrong

• On the post: SEC Told Pandora To Be More Explicit In Its IPO That Its Business Is Likely Unsustainable Due To Crazy Licensing Rates

  

  alex ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2011 @ 02:08am

  The article you linked to says that Pandora pays a maximum of 0.0025 cents (a 400th of 1 cent) per listener per play.
  
  Is that it or are there other fees they have to pay? That doesn't sound like much at all to me.

• On the post: London Riots? Blame The Blackberry!

  

  alex ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2011 @ 02:09am

  If people want to speak out, they'll figure out a way to speak out.
  
  The weird thing with this is, nobody actually has anything to say - and certainly no unified message. They're just angry, and smashing stuff up and stealing stuff.
  
  The government don't even know what to say or how to respond because they don't understand it... Very interesting (and frightening) times.

• On the post: Let Them Tweet Cake

  

  alex ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2011 @ 01:59pm

  wonderful article. thanks =]

• On the post: The Advantage Of Copycat Startups: Will Rolling.fm Keep Turntable.fm Innovating?

  

  alex ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2011 @ 08:47am

  Re:

  agree...though I'm guessing it's just a matter of time before it's blocked outside of the US.
  
  I couldn't try turntable.fm for that reason but had a little play in rolling.fm yesterday.

• On the post: Google Being More Aggressive About Bad Patents; But Should It Go Even Further?

  

  alex ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2011 @ 04:59am

  Interesting stuff.
  
  Do Google have a history of suing other companies for infringing their patents?

• On the post: Court Shuts Down Zediva: Apparently The Length Of The Cable Determines If Something Is Infringing

  

  alex ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2011 @ 12:53am

  Re: Re:

  It's the only way based on what? Have you objectively assessed the alternatives?

• On the post: Court Shuts Down Zediva: Apparently The Length Of The Cable Determines If Something Is Infringing

  

  alex ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2011 @ 12:49am

  Re: Re:

  Ok, but where do the reforms come from? Where are the writings about what is most broken in the system and the suggestions of how it could be better?

• On the post: Court Shuts Down Zediva: Apparently The Length Of The Cable Determines If Something Is Infringing

  

  alex ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2011 @ 11:36am

  madness!
  
  What is the answer to this broken copyright stuff? Is there any way it's going to get reformed and improved?

• On the post: Why People Pay More For Access To Infringing Content

  

  alex ( profile ), 01 Aug, 2011 @ 02:55am

  nice article!

  I agree with your points totally.
  
  I think Spotify have cracked it with the music service that's better than piracy, but nobody has done it for movies yet (well, certainly not here in Germany) - iTunes do movie rentals but the selection is meh.
  
  There's a massive gap in the market for a company doing movies-on-demand properly - but I'm guessing it's not likely to happen any time soon due to licensing issues. Shame.

• On the post: Getting Past The Myth That Copyright Is Needed To Produce Content

  

  alex ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2011 @ 01:34am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Sorry but I have no idea what you're talking about.
  
  Please give an example of 2 countries with different approaches to copyright. Also please explain how you measure innovation/creation/progress.

• On the post: Getting Past The Myth That Copyright Is Needed To Produce Content

  

  alex ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2011 @ 03:16am

  I don't really get how copyright "harms the wider market, decreases competition, and cuts out any chance of a "middle class" in the market."
  
  If a small record label wants to release an album, what difference does it make to them that the big 4 hold copyrights on their catalogues?
  
  I agree that copyright isn't the only business model, but I don't follow how it harms the wider market.

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