Music Distribution: Technology and The Value of Art in Society

Music Distribution: Technology and the Value of Art in Society
Sungwon Peter Choe KAIST Network Computing Lab
Network Computing Laboratory
Contents
Introduction
The Relationship Between Technology and Art
Historical Roles of Music and Musicians
The 20th Century

Technology and Music Rise of the Music Industry
The 21st Century

Disruptive Technologies Current state Future possibilities
Network Computing Laboratory | 2
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Technology = Art
Ancient Greek
Romanization
Techni
Meaning
Art
Art and technology differentiated only by time

E.g. printing press => novel
Or context
E.g. fireworks => guns
Instruments of
Destruction
Creation
Historical roles of music and musicians

Traditional Folk Music
Music part of life
social, communal, religious activities
Most learned to sing from childhood Little or no separation between performers and audience
Current roles of music and musicians

Music
Product
Complex legal restrictions (copyright, licenses)

Music owned by corporations, not musicians
Musicians
Profession
Distinction between performers and fans
Small number of commercial superstars Large number of poor artists
The 20th Century: Technology and Music

Cultural globalization
European colonization and American Slavery
Fusion of African rhythms & European harmony
Blues, Jazz, Rock, all popular music

New technology for new music
Electric Instruments (Electric guitar, keyboard) and Equipment
Big Band, Rock, Jazz
Recording technology
Collage music: Musique Concrte, Dub, Electronica, Hip-Hop.. Problems with copyright

Capitalism
Art given monetary value
Restrictions on music (intellectual property)
Copyright Licensing
Recording Technology
Physical mediums (record, tape, CD)
Allowed for global distribution Music no longer local/communal Allowed for packaging and selling of music
1970s: The Good Old Days
Long, long ago (the 1970s) In a country (USA) not so far away There were many small record companies
Owned by people who loved music
Then the CD was released

The music industry became profitable
Imperial Corporations bought up all the record companies

Source: PBS Frontlines The Way The Music Died
The Reign of the Music Industry

Four corporations control 82% of the global recording industry market Result
CEOs out of touch with music Music is manufactured
product is not art!
Warner 15% Indie 18% EMI 10% Universal 31%
Music choice is limited Music profits go to the corporations

not to the musicians!
Sony /BMG 26%
Source: wikipedia
The Music Industry and Musicians

In 2002, if a band sold 500,000 albums in the US:
Total gross of ~$8.5 million
Band gets: $161,909
Divided among 4 members = $40,477.25 each
Thats a best case scenario of a 15% royalty
Source: New York Daily News

The Music Industry and Musicians

Oh by the way, in 2002
30,000 albums were released
128 went Gold (i.e. 500,000+ albums sold)

Yep, thats 0.43%!
musicians not eating musicians eating
What about the 99.57% of other musicians who released albums?
Source: New York Daily News

The State of Music in Society Today

Shaped by 20th Century Technology
Capitalism
Monetary value on everything
Recording Technology
Distribution by sellable physical unit
Result: Controlled by Corporate Interests

Contracts, Copyrights, Licensing Limited choice Manufactured music
Genre mining (e.g. grunge)

Fans, even musicians have little control
This is how society values music??

The 21st Century: Technology and Music

The Internet = Disruptive technology
Music Pirating
Threatens the music industrys
Distribution model Business model Changes fans relationship to music
Free
More and more varied music available
Pirating Communities
The 21st Century: Technology and Music

Professional Recording and Other Music Software
Allows musicians greater independence from labels
Blurs the line between musicians and fans

E.g. Mash-ups
The Music Industry and the Internet

The Music Industry
Physical sellable unit (record, CD, etc.)
The Internet & Digitized Music

Infinitely reproducible and shareable information (mp3 file)
The Music Industry and the Internet

Kbler-Ross Five Stages of Grief
Denial (late 90s)
Pirating only on campuses
Depression (early 00s)

Pirating depressing sales
Anger (early 00s)

Suing companies (Kazaa, Grokster, etc.) Suing fans
Bargaining (present)
Selling individual files or monthly subscriptions (iTunes, etc.) Selling ringtones, etc.
(Acceptance)
The Music Industry Online

99 cents per song in the US
(cheaper in Korea- non-DRM track W700 at Soribada)
99 cents x 12 songs = $11.88

Hey thats about the price of a CD
Oh, wait
No manufacturing & packaging costs
No distribution costs
Wheres that extra profit going?

Savings for the user? Royalties to the musician?
The Music Industry Online

But Napster offers unlimited downloads for $14.95/month!
So?
They offer no added value There is no incentive not to continue pirating music
Lacks imagination
No exploitation of new technologies Same paradigms, just online
Future Possibilities
20th Century
Our values shaped by the structures of technology
21st Century
Can our values shape technology? How will we value art?
Possibilities: Free Music

Free Music
Inspired by Free Software movement
Targets restrictive music copyrights and licensing

Not necessarily free of cost Free Music can be freely copied, distributed and modified Values
Information should be free Creativity is inspired by those before and can inspire those that come after
But not a model
Possibilities: Open Music Model

Proposed by Shuman Ghosemajumder (MIT)
$10/month all-you-can-eat price point
Five requirements for a viable commercial P2P network:

Open File Sharing: users must be free to share files on their hard drives with each other. Open File Formats: content must be distributed in MP3 and other formats with NO digital rights management protection. Open Membership: content owners must able to freely register to receive compensation. Open Payment: users must be able to access the system using either credit cards or access cards purchasable anonymously in cash from retail stores. Open Competition: there must be multiple such systems which can tie into each others file sharing databases. It must not be a monopoly through legal design.
Possibilities: Open Music Model

Open Music Model weaknesses
Like iTunes with open standards
No added value
No non-philanthropic incentive not to pirate Doesnt exploit new technologies
Towards a new music distribution/business model

Values
Music is art not just product
Music belongs to all people
Goals
Musicians should be given fair compensation Music should be freely shareable Music quality should determine its success Make money
(Capitalism still rules, what ya gonna do)
The Anymusic Platform the NCLab approach

Sell added service not music
You can pirate music for free anyway
What service?
Ubiquity
Access to any music from anywhere
Social Networks
Music profiles built from users statistics (like last.fm) Music discovery and recommendation through the network
Ubiquitous Services & Social Networking

Find clubs, stores that play music you like
Have stores, clubs play music based on customers profiles (Charge for business subscriptions)
In the park near HongDae
younga I wonder whos nearby Music neighbor? Lets seethe Wow, she likes a lot of what shes listening to same music I do But Hey, this song Architect? whos Spiral is great! Im Illgonna message her check them out HongDae, Seoul
Spiral Architect - Insects retrieving song

sungwon: spiral architect is awesome! younga: yeah, right? music neighbors you younga: oh, youre sitting just over friends there? why dont you come here and talk to me? sungwon: ok! ^^
sungwon HongDae, Seoul
Anymusic - Musicians Perspective

Upload their own music to share Automatically promoted
Social networks Genre playlists, etc.
Receive compensation proportional to popularity

From user statistics
Independence from labels

(Cheap professional recording software) Anymusic for promotion and distribution Free to own copyright/not to copyright at all
Anymusic The Money

Sell information and service, not product
Limitless growth!
Data is the real source of revenue

Users music listening habits Users location data Aggregates and correlations of the above
Anymusic in Businesses (bars, stores, restaurants)

Monthly Business subscription
User aggregategenerated playlists
In this bar are Anymusic users who like
Soul Jazz Fusion Classic Rock
The bar can then (automatically) play a mix of such music

Jazz
Soul Fusion
Classic
Rock
Anymusic in Businesses (bars, stores, restaurants)

Genre/Mood playlists
User requests (via personal devices)
User bookmarking
user hears a song she likes checks her device to see what it is marks it as a favorite
Store music profiles searchable by users

Jazz
Soul Fusion
Classic
Rock
w/ description
The Future
Almost anything possible What values do we keep/create?
How do we use the technology available to us?
Values
Environment
Technology
Extra Slides
Historical roles of music and musicians

Western Art (Classical) Music
Highly-trained musician class
Musicians supported by patrons or churches

Audience often separate from performers/composers Audience mostly wealthy upper classes
Possibilities: FairShare
Proposed by Ian Clarke (Freenet)
Patronage system for copyright-less world
Patrons invest in artist

45% goes to artist 45% goes to previous investors 10% goes to system maintainers
Not a complete model

Discovery? Distribution?
Doesnt exploit new technologies
Related Businesses: Last.fm

Web Service/Social Network
User profile of:
Most listened to artists This week Overall Etc.
Provides plugins for music players

Sends every song to central server which updates user profile
Last.fm Software
Goals
Show how the relationship between technology and music changes not only the music itself, but also how society listens to and values music
The 20th Century: Superstars

Superstars
Increasing scale
Elvis Presley The Beatles Led Zeppelin KISS
Made possible by
Media (recording and broadcast technology) Radio, TV and records broke down local/communal barriers
Shared national (global) cultural identity
Capitalism Marketing entertainment
Distinction between work and play
Merchandising
Current Distribution Methods

Method Cost Benefit To User
CD artwork, liner notes, bonus material (video) Convenient (if no DRM)
Physical Media (CD) $12 MP3 (pay per song) 99 cents/ song
MP3 (subscription)
$15 / month
Convenient (if no DRM), Unlimited downloads
Mobile Phone direct $1.99 / song (V Cast) Very Convenient, download ubiquitous MP3 (pirated) Free Unlimited downloads, Convenient, No DRM, Free

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Music Distribution: Technology and the Value of Art in Society

Sungwon Peter Choe KAIST Network Computing Lab

Network Computing Laboratory

Historical Roles of Music and Musicians

The 20th Century

The 21st Century

Network Computing Laboratory | 2

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Art and technology differentiated only by time

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Historical roles of music and musicians

Network Computing Laboratory | 4

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Current roles of music and musicians

Complex legal restrictions (copyright, licenses)

Small number of commercial superstars Large number of poor artists

Network Computing Laboratory | 5

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

The 20th Century: Technology and Music

Network Computing Laboratory | 6

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

The 20th Century: Technology and Music

Network Computing Laboratory | 7

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

The 20th Century: Technology and Music

Network Computing Laboratory | 8

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

1970s: The Good Old Days

Then the CD was released

Imperial Corporations bought up all the record companies

The Reign of the Music Industry

Music choice is limited Music profits go to the corporations

Sony /BMG 26%

The Music Industry and Musicians

Thats a best case scenario of a 15% royalty

Source: New York Daily News

The Music Industry and Musicians

128 went Gold (i.e. 500,000+ albums sold)

musicians not eating musicians eating

What about the 99.57% of other musicians who released albums?

Source: New York Daily News

The State of Music in Society Today

Result: Controlled by Corporate Interests

Genre mining (e.g. grunge)

This is how society values music??

The 21st Century: Technology and Music

Network Computing Laboratory | 14

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

The 21st Century: Technology and Music

Blurs the line between musicians and fans

Network Computing Laboratory | 15

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

The Music Industry and the Internet

The Internet & Digitized Music

Network Computing Laboratory | 16

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

The Music Industry and the Internet

Depression (early 00s)

Anger (early 00s)

Network Computing Laboratory | 17

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

The Music Industry Online

99 cents x 12 songs = $11.88