I’m out of town this weekend, so today’s endnotes is a bit short. Enjoy!
The Cost of Free Music — The Arbiter Online, Boise State’s Independent Student Media, presents this well-written piece by Eva Hart (no relation) exploring the harm of illegally downloading music. Appearing less than three months after a similar student op-ed in the Harvard Crimson, it’s refreshing to see the next generation express such concerns. I had to laugh at this comment though: “How many hours does a song take to manufacture… Uh how about ZERO!” Did you know that in the time it took to write that last sentence, I was able to write 37 songs?
Conflict and Compromise: A Review of Selected Bill C-32 Position Papers — I spend a lot of time on US issues because that’s where I live, but for those interested in all things Canada, Kyle Lavender at IP Osgoode has a comprehensive collection of position papers on the Copyright Modernization Act (Bill C-32) currently making its way through the Canadian House of Commons. The bill tackles a wide spectrum of issues, unsurprisingly causing some lively debate.
Even Obscure Title Still Selling Mostly CDs and LPs — Some interesting statistics from Nielsen Soundscan. CDs still make a significant proportion of artist sales, but the percentage of digital sales goes down the more popular an artist is.
B.S. Chart of the Week: Propaganda by the Tech Industry Gets Dumber as They Get More Desperate — Record producer Moses Avalon takes on the “music biz revenue down = RIAA is evil” thought process.