I wonder if cinema and TV will catch on and keep market share with something other than interruption commercials and DRM-protected downloads?

Thank you both for your contribution to the discussion.

The mp3s for the In Rainbows download were encoded at 160 kilobits per second, which is only half of CD sound quality. Of course, the download is available for free which makes it more difficult to complain, but I wonder if the sound quality shouldn’t be better, considering that the only other option right now is the pricey box set.

Basically it’s the sound richness only achieved with Vinyl, in the convenience of digitized media. I have compared The White Stripes’ “Icky Thump” release from 2007 in both formats and personally feel the sound quality (on my computer, in my headphones, AND in my car) is better on this .flac format. While I don’t actually own the CD, I can’t really say if CD quality is better, but I’ve always been of the impression that .mp3 is equal in quality to music on a studio-made compact disc.

In regards to this article… SHWING! I am taking a course at Cal State Fullerton on Entertainment and Tourism studies, though I don’t know what the “Tourism” part of the class is…

Last week we had a guest speaker, DJ Khalil (who you can hear on Jay-Z’s latest album, G-Unit, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre’s upcoming album and various other artists such as Busta’ Rhymes and The Game will be releasing tracks by this producer).

DJ Khalil gave us the history of DJ Khalil and how he got signed to a contract working directly with Dr. Dre and his pantheon of producers who churn out nothing but beats day in and day out. He talked about how eventually he started getting recognition with Dre, then Jay-Z, and now that he’s been more or less “stamped” with their approval, he’s really starting to work in the industry. The problem, says Khalil, is that there isn’t much money in it. Firstly, if you sample any recordings, then you have to “clear” that original recording and pay that artist practically any amount they want as a part of your publishing percentage. The artist then gets his cut, and then you, the producer get yours. There’s other pieces of the pie being doled out to those involved, such as the studio, but the point he was trying to make was that with record sales pitifully low, and even if he, the producer, creates nothing but original tracks, he still isn’t going to make any money off anything less than a HUGE hit SINGLE.

Interestingly, the money, as Khalil said, is in this hit single concept. No longer are whole albums necessary. If you release one hit, kids start paying $2 per ringtone. Artists like 50 Cent and Soulja’ boy are making MILLIONS of dollars no ringtones alone.

And that’s just the ringtone revenue. I think you get the picture. Music models are changing drastically to reflect the “viral” nature of what’s popular online. Thomas Friedman, in his book “The World is Flat”, makes several references in various contexts to this new concept.

What it all boils down to though, as Jerad made clear in his blog, is that the producer and consumer of music have cutout the middle man, and this leaves them free to create and consume a superior product. Who doesn’t love that? Well I guess the RIAA…but on a long enough time-line I don’t think they’re going to last this one out.

Of course, this formula can work for a band like Radiohead who has a strong, established fan base. I’m not sure if smaller unknown bands could succeed with the same concept, they may be in more need of a record company to advertise and distribute their music, especially in the face of deplorable radio and “music” TV broadcasting.

Downside as a consumer: I love the idea of a packaged CD with a booklet. (Luckily Radiohead will be releasing one by early next year.) Also, MP3s can never replace CDs in terms of sound quality. Of course, I’m hoping they won’t charge 18 bucks for it, afterall, that is part of what’s killing the music industry. I once read in Rolling Stone that people stated they would stop downloading free music illegally and would buy CD’s again if they were more in the range of 10-12 dollars. Sounds like a fair deal to me…