Mark Evans

Let’s Save the Hockey Night in Canada Theme Song

Update: CTV has acquired the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. The song will now be heard during TSN’s NHL broadcasts and during the 2010 Olympic broadcasts.

For anyone who’s a hockey fan, the Hockey Night in Canada theme song that precedes every Saturday night telecast on CBC is an inherent part of our culture and arguably our second national anthem.

Written in 1968 by Delores Claman, it’s an iconic tune that most Canadian could recognize within seconds, and it’s easily one of the most popular ringtone downloads.

So, it’s a bit of a puzzler that the CBC has decided to walk away from “our song” after declining to renew the $20,000/year licensing rights - the day after the sublime Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. It’s probably some bean counter trying to save our national broadcaster a few bucks while forgetting that Hockey Night in Canada is, by far, the CBC’s most lucrative property. That’s saying something given the, um, commercial mediocrity of many CBC shows.

With the theme song in peril, it’s encouraging to see that people are trying to use the Web to save it.

GiveMeaning, which helps people raises money for all kinds of great charitable causes, is now running a campaign to raise $20,000 - the licensing cost for one year. While it would be an impressive accomplishment if $20,000 was raised, the fact this campaign exists gives you everything you need to know about how some people feel about the theme song.

For more, check out the Toronto Star in which writer Chris Zelkowich suggests the CBC’s move stems from a $2.5-million lawsuit that Claman launched against the CBC four years ago that apparently has to do with ringtone royalties. You can download the ringtone here or here.

Technorati Tags: CBC, Hockey Night in Canada

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Feist is Fab But…

…..the experience of hearing her perform live, which I did last night, is so much more engaging, powerful and enjoyable than anything digital.

The ability for musicians to connect with an audience through their music and personality is what continues to make live performances the pillar of the music industry. At a time when many consumers want to pay little if anything for music, they will dig into their pockets for a concert - even dig really deep for a big star, which is what Feist will be soon if she isn’t already.

Playing in her hometown (Toronto), Feist was clearly “on” last night as was the audience. Even though there were 2,000 people there, it felt small and comfortable. The non-music highlight was her attempt to divide the audience into singing groups by using bicycles riders vs. non-bicycle riders. When that didn’t work, she moved on to area codes - much to everyone’s delight.

As the music industry scrambles to deal with its digitization, it is difficult not to get the feeling that it’s so obsessed with selling albums/singles that it forgets about live performances. You hear so much about the RIAA suing consumers for downloading music but little about how more bands have realized that if they want to survive and thrive financially and artistically, they need to get out on the road in front of the people.

It may be that music does want to be be free given consumers don’t see much value in it digitally. If that’s the case, the music industry and musicians have no choice but switch gears and make live performances the foundation of their businesses again. It’s a product that consumers will actually purchase.

Who knows, maybe a dividend along the way is that live performances resonate with consumers to the point where they are willing to pay for a CD, a high-quality digital track/CD, or an old-fashioned CD.

In many ways, Feist’s performance last night was a 90-minute commercial for her CD - and a pretty damn good one at that!

More: To listen to some of Feist’s music, check out her MySpace page. For the scoop on how the RIAA catches alleged music pirates, check out this story. To buy Feist’s new album, The Reminder, click here. The Leading Question and Music Alley have come up with five recommendations for the music industry to resuscitate its prospects.

Technorati Tags: Feist, Music

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Nothing Else is Working! Time for a Tax

So, let’s look at what the music industry has done over the past decade to battle the emergence of P2P and declining CD sales:

1. Essentially killed Napster rather than leveraging it

2. Launched a nasty legal war against consumers

3. Embraced technology such as DRM that consumers totally dislike

4. Gotten into bed with Apple, only to get pissed off once they realized Steve Jobs was taking over the business

Now, Warner Brothers CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. has decided to take another controversial route: he’s hired industry executive Jim Griffin to lead a lobby charge for a - wait for it - music tax that would applied to ISP bills, and possibly raise $20-billion.

It’s simple; it’s lucrative and, darn shootin’, it’s going to save the music industry from dire straits (as opposed to Mark Knopfler’s Dire Straits). At least, it will be all these things in theory.

But as Mike Arrington enthusiastically rants about, it’s also “crazy” and “dangerously stupid”. It’s a move that smacks of desperation because the music industry has blown the last decade by trying to hang on to a business model that is antiquated and ill-equipped for new digital era in which we work, live and play.

For whatever reason, the music industry still believes consumers should pay for music even though consumers have been telling them for years, they’re only willing to pay a little bit or nothing at all. Look at how P2P services are still thriving, and how Russia’s AllofMP3.com was doing really well by selling albums for about $3 as opposed to $20.

So where is the money in music if consumers don’t want to pay for it? How about live performances - a neat concept dating back several centuries in which people pay for the privilege of becoming to see a musician(s). The amazing thing amid the glut of free music, consumers are happy to pay a premium price to see major performers. Hell, they’re paying $250 a pop to see The Police.

There’s also merchandise sales, access to special Webcasts, special boxed sets (Trent Reznor did pretty well recent by selling 2,500 copies of a $300 “ultimate-deluxe edition” while offering free downloads of nine songs from Ghosts I-IV), and other things that will require some creativity and risks.

In other words, there is life beyond selling CDs or digital tracks.

My friend, Mathew Ingram, makes a great point that if the music industry manages to somehow push through a music tax, how long would it be before the movie and television industries starting to look at a tax. And what about newspapers, magazines and photographers?

At the end of the day, I’m not at all surprised the music industry is exploring a tax. They missed the digital boat as it sailed away over the horizon. Sadly, they’re trying to force it to come back but using a tax but this approach is stupid, outdated and provides more evidence the music industry just don’t get it.

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Tags: Edgar Bronfman Jr., Jim Collins, Music, Warner Brothers

Artists Still Trying to Push CDs on Consumers

According to Forrester Research, half of all music sold in the U.S. will be digital by 2011, and digital music sales will surpass CD sales within the next four years.

In the midst of a digital revolution (evolution?), it is interesting to see artists still intent on offering consumers the option to buy CDs, which are quickly becoming as antiquated as cassettes tapes (remember them, those little plastic things that - unlike CDs - took a beating and kept on ticking?).

For all the attention that Nine Inch Nail is getting for offering a free download of nine songs from its Ghosts I-IV collection and a $5 download for all 36 songs from the album, it’s still trying to sell packages that includes CDs, including a $75 “Deluxe Edition” and a $300 “Ultra-Deluxe Edition”. Radiohead did the same thing earlier this year amid its successful pay-what-you-can marketing bonanza by offering an $80 special disc box that includes two CDs and two vinyl records.

If CDs are on life-support, why do artists continue to sell them? I mean, they’re just so 1990, right? Truth be told, there’s still lots of demand - at least for now - amid the ubiquity of iPods and the continued enthusiastic usage of P2P services. As long as consumers insist on buying these antiques, the labels and artists are going to serve them, including “premium” packages for the consumers will be pay more for scarcity.

There is at least one artist willing to give up the CD, and embrace digital. Daniel Lanois’ new album, Here is What Is, is only available in digital format on redfloorecords.com. Lanois’ jump into digital is so complete he’s offering the album in two formats - .mp3 and .wav (Lanois, a renown music producer for the likes of U2 and Bob Dylan, thinks that .wav offers a richer sound). The Toronto Star had a story on Langlois last weekend.

More: CNet has an extensive story on the music industry yesterday that looks at everything from P2P and DRM to social networks and the future of music labels. As well, the New York Times has a story looking at NIN’s “innovative Web pricing plan”.

Technorati Tags: Daniel Langlois, Music, Nine Inch Nails

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Another Model for the Music Biz

Mathew Ingram, friend and fellow mesh conference organizer, has an interesting story in today’s Globe & Mail about how talented Canadian singer Kathleen Edwards is auctioning a 160GB iPod on eBay that contains her entire library of recorded music with the proceeds going to the Alicia Ross Memorial Fund.

Here’s a description of what the auction winner will get:

An engraved 160GB iPod Classic - Proceeds going to the Alicia Ross Memorial Fund through Project Canoe - www.canoe.org MUSIC - My full catalogue : Failer, Back To Me, Asking For Flowers - Bonus tracks: 2004 Starbucks Compilation: a cover of Tom Petty’s “Face in the Crowd” 2 Alternate versions of songs on Asking For Flowers: “Asking For Flowers”, “Scared At Night” 2 unreleased songs: “Lazy Eye” and “I Can’t Give You Up” Bandmate Jim Bryson has also contributed his latest release, “Where the Bungalows Roam” PHOTOS -10+ Photographs of me VIDEOS -Music Videos for 1. In State 2. Back To Me 3. 6 O’clock News 4. Hockey Skates -Video for “The Making of Asking For Flowers” We’ll ship world wide! Also, the winning bidder will be eligible for 2 tickets to any Kathleen Edwards headlined show in 2008 (City/Date are the Bidder’s choice).

With five days and two hours to go, the bidding is fast and furious with the top of 20 bids at $1,010.

If music is becoming a commodity, artists - and labels - need to be a lot more creative if they want to make money. While I’m certainly not suggesting that auctioning/selling iPods with your entire music catalog is going to become wildly popular or lucrative, it does illustrate how some out-of-the-box thinking could go a long way.

If you do it properly, consumers will happily spend money on music and/or music related products. Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want got a lot of attention last year but it apparently also led to pretty impressive sales of its “physical” box set that included the new Rainbows album on CD, two vinyl records, a CD with additional songs, photos, artwork and lyrics.

Who knows, maybe if Apple keeps lowering the price for the iPod shuffle, you’ll be able go to a concert and buy all of an artists music and a shuffle for, let’s say, $30 to $50 depending on the size of an artist’s catalogue.

Update: The Toronto Star has a story looking at how with CDs on the decline, there may be a concert glut as bands go on the road to generate revenue.

Technorati Tags: eBay, Kathleen Edwards

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Music Industry: Help Save Us, ISPs!

For the decade, the music industry has been trying - and mostly - failing to battle the scourge of piracy.

They’ve gone after the facilitators (Napster, Kazaa, etc.) and carried out a nasty legal/lawsuit strategy against their customers. But despite all the effort and money spent, the music industry has made little progress in stemming the digital tide.

So, what’s their next offensive tactic? Who can the music industry bring into the anti-piracy fold? Encouraged by moves made by the French government, the IFPI believes it’s time for the ISPs to become more pro-active in helping the music industry crack down on all those evil pirates out there.

In a press release, the IFPI proclaims: “2007 was the year ISP responsibility started to become an accepted principle. 2008 must be the year it becomes reality”.

In particular, the IFPI wants the ISPs to engage in the “systematic disconnection of infringers and the use of filtering technologies” to stop “copyright theft”, while alleging that 80% of ISP traffic comprises distribution of copyright-infringing files.

Question: Why must the ISPs become the front line policeman for the music industry, which has yet to come up with a new business model that reflects the digital reality in which they now operate? Is the music industry that desperate that they need the ISPs to help them? Or do they simply realize that lawsuits aren’t doing the job?

In terms of the ISPs, what are they going to do: monitor every single packet at a time when they’re having a difficult enough time trying to provide enough bandwidth for legitimate activity such as video streaming and downloads. At the very least, it looks like an awful lot of work an aggravation for the ISPs.

Don’t get me wrong, stealing music is wrong. But there has to be a better, more creative way to convince consumers not to download music for free. Of course, it may be that music should be free or really inexpensive while the music industry would make money in other ways - concerts, merchandise sales, etc.

For an in-depth look at the IFPI report, check out paidContent. You can download the IFPI’s full report here.

Technorati Tags: ISPs, Music, Copyright

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Will the Listeners Become Buyers?

There’s lots of excitement about Last.FM’s announcement that people can now listen to full-length songs and albums after signing licensing deals with the major labels and independent artists.

For music lovers, this is clearly a great move - and it’s in keeping with one of the most exciting trends within the online music business: the ability to listen to whatever music you choose through services such as Songza, Jango and, now, Last.FM.

It’s the ultimate jukebox - and, for the most part, it’s free.

The question is whether people flocking to Jango (one million registered users in the last six months and counting), Songza, et al will become music buyers. If the ability to sample pretty much any song you want is now available, will it encourage consumers to actually consume/buy music - be it CDs, digital tracks or online subscription services?

(Note: You can listen to a song on Last.FM three times before getting prompted to sign up for its new online subscription service.)

It may be that purchasing music is dead or, at best, a low-price commodity (10 cents a track perhaps!). Maybe the upside to more choice and access than ever is it gets people excited about music and exposes them to musicians they would never have taken a chance on before. This, in turn, could lead to more demand for concert tickets, merchandise such as boxed sets, schwag, etc.

Update: Sadly, LastFM’s new offer isn’t available in Canada but what else is new!

Technorati Tags: Jango, Last.FM, Music, Songza

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Jango and Twitter Rock the House. Why?

For the past few days, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Jango.com, which lets you create customized stations to stream music. It’s very cool.

Since Jango launched six months ago, it has attracted more than one million users. Pretty impressive.

Meanwhile, Twitter has tripled its user-base in the last six months. (Twitdir.com is a good place to track the number of users and other metrics.)

The success of Jango and Twitter got me thinking why they’ve managed to become so successful while scores of similar services have nowhere near the same amount of popularity. What makes Jango and Twitter so compelling? Do they have characteristics that others are struggling to achieve?

What Jango and Twitter have in spades is they work really well. They have a straightforward mission, and avoid trying to be all things to all people.

Jango and Twitter are also both user-friendly and addictive. The more you use them, the more you want to use them - and so it goes. Jango, for example, has got me listening to music again, while Twitter has been a pleasant surprise as an effective communications tool (if used with some discipline!)

And more thing: Jango and Twitter are free. Formula: excellent services + user-friendly = free = in theory, popular.

The challenge facing Jango and Twitter is whether they can turn lots of users into lots of money.

Jango, which has raised $2-million from angels, has a business model built on the idea that it will attract lots of users/page views, which it can use to attract advertising. Jango will also make money by selling music and by offering a premium service without ads. (Check out GigaOm, for a post on Jango’s business model, and a look at how other music services are trying to generate revenue.)

Twitter, on the other hand, remains a business model mystery but no one seems to be too worried about it right now. According to people such as Jason Calacanis, it’s all about building critical mass. Once you get critical mass, then Twitter can figure out how to make money - or so it goes.

In the meantime, Jango and Twitter will continue to become increasingly popular as they move beyond early adopters. From a number of different perspectives, they offer some valuable lessons for online companies looking to be successful (at least when it comes to users).

More: WebProNews has an interesting post on how easy it is now to build a Web applicaton by looking at Groupzz.com, a meta-search engine for music.

Update: The New York Times has an interesting story looking at one of the risks of innovation is whether anyone will embrace it.

Technorati Tags: Jango, Twitter

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Oscar Peterson: Jazz Virtuoso, Tech Geek

Just before Christmas, Canada lost one of its greats - jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, who recorded with everyone from Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong to Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole.

Peterson, however, was, in his own way, a geek whose enthusiasm for technology was clearly evident in a state-of-the-art recording studio in his basement that featured electronic keyboards, synthesizers, sequencers and computers It was through this connection that I got the opportunity to interview him a few years ago.

It all started with Nokia Canada, which happily discovered Peterson was a fan of the Nokia Communicator but couldn’t find one in Canada. Rather than wait, Peterson called Nokia Canada, which was more than happy to add him to the company’s beta testing group.

Presented with a golden marketing opportunity, they approached Peterson about whether he’d be willing to spread the word. After Peterson agreed, I got a call from Nokia’s Doug Dawson, who asked if I would be interested in meeting with Peterson.

At best, this was probably a tenuous technology story because lots of famous people use technology. But this was the one and only Oscar Peterson, so there was no way I was going to pass on the chance to meet him.

After the arrangements were made, I drove to Peterson’s home in suburban Toronto where we talked for about 30 minutes. He was gracious and fascinating, and while it’s wasn’t a sizzling story, it was probably one of the highlights of my journalistic career - after all, you don’t get the chance to meet truly great people that often.

Technorati Tags: Jazz, Nokia, Oscar Peterson

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Can the Music Industry be This Stupid?

Now, this is incredible…and incredibly unbelievable.

According to the Washington Post, the music industry has filed a lawsuit against Jeffrey Howell for copying 2,000 songs onto his computer - from CDs he owns. The RIAA alleges these are “unauthorized copies”.

It’s a move that smacks of desperation. It’s a move that will only further alienate consumers, who are tired of buying the over-priced crap being pumped out by the music business. It’s a move that just might cause many people, who want to do the right thing by buying digital music, to stop buying music period.

It’s about time the music industry gave up the idea of selling music because it’s a commodity that consumers want to pay increasingly less to acquire. Yup, if the music industry was smart, they would give music away as a marketing freebie.

Then, they could focus on selling products and services that consumers value such as concert tickets, merchandise, limited-edition CDs, DVDs, Webcasts, etc. If people are willing to pay $200 to see the Police on tour but nothing for any of the Police’s music, what does that tell you?

More: Larry Borsato describes the RIAA’s move as a “grasping at the last straw”, and provides some interesting facts on how much artists actually make from selling CDs and digital music. Scott Karp is even more damning, calling the lawsuit a “desperate, senseless, lunatic attempt to save the collapse of their business” - while suggesting the music industry will be the first traditional media business to be destroyed by digital technology.

Technorati Tags: Music, RIAA

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