Note the comments on the NPGMC in the middle of the article.


http://www.business2.com/...15,00.html



MEDIA NOTES

Something Phishy This Way Comes
Leave it to a reunited neohippie rock and roll band to show major labels how to sell music via the Net.
By Jimmy Guterman, January 08, 2003

It's easy, during these postboom times, when we're more concerned with severance packages than options packages, to get cynical about the Net. Rather than see it as enabling closer and more effective relationships with customers, many longtime media industries still -- in 2003 -- view the Net as a threat to all that was good and protected in their pre-Internet businesses.

The music industry sure acts this way, blaming unauthorized downloads for its many self-inflicted wounds and releasing a series of Net-based distribution systems that seem to have been designed by those who want to make online delivery as cumbersome and unpleasant as possible.


Performers are closer to their audiences than any record company is, so shouldn't they be able to show record companies the way? Some have been trying to do so -- often with results as poor as those of the major labels. The Artist Once Again Known as Prince, no lover of major labels, is wrapping up the second year of a $100 annual service that sells his most devoted fans music either not available elsewhere or before it's available elsewhere. One suspects it hasn't been a huge success (membership figures are said to be confidential). Much of the Purple One's insular work available through his service -- piano solos, extended jazz workouts, live leftovers -- would never be released by a major label in the current climate, and fan sites report that many of those who have signed up have been frustrated by the much punier offerings in year two, compared with what was available the first year. So as much as Prince would be thrilled to teach the major labels a lesson, he hasn't.


But given the steep price of his service, Prince appears to have assumed (the former glyph never responded to repeated e-mails) that the people most willing to pay for music on the Net are likely to be committed fans, not casual ones. That brings us to Phish, the reunited neohippie quartet from Vermont, which seems to have only obsessive fans. After a two-and-a-half-year sabbatical, the group returned to the stage with a sold-out New Year's Eve performance at Madison Square Garden. First thing Jan. 2, barely a day after the end of the long show, the band launched a new website, www.livephish.com, where fans could, for a small fee ($14.95), download CD-quality files and create a homemade three-disc set of the complete show. A booklet and artwork for the CD labels were included. If you needed supplies like cases or blank CD-Rs, you could buy them via the "dry goods" section of the site. Everything a fan might need was right there. This, my friends, was the beginning of the future of legitimate digital distribution of pop tunes.


Whatever you think of Phish's music, the band members are clearly savvy businessmen: They sensed their audience's appetite for material that's not available either via normal channels or in a timely fashion, and they're satisfying that appetite. (Live albums can come out months or years after the actual performance.) This only works for established acts, of course, but it often takes a major act to get people's attention in a new medium -- like with Stephen King's brief foray into e-books.


Best of all, for both Phish fans and the music industry, is that the Madison Square Garden download is not a one-shot deal. Since the first of the year (I write this on Jan. 7), the band has released similar download products for the three shows they've played since the Garden. It must be working. So, which major label will be the first to help an artist release a high-profile live album just hours after a performance? Which major label really wants to crack the Net?

This idea has some really good things going for it. Most of us "Prince fans" love collecting live tracks, so this would give us what we want. Most of the complaining, about this years NPGMC, was that there wasn't enough stuff. This would do the trick.

althom said:

I had lots of misgivings about this idea (ask Bart!), trying to see what Prince would have to fear from such a practice or even if he's interested in the extra money at all (he's supposed to be less interested in "the world", according to BibleTeacher), but I think this would be a profitable venture. It would give Prince more financial resources with not much of an effort, and he could then concentrate on his major projects.

I'd love 2 see this happen!

I hope it is the future.

Just leave the live stuff alone. =-)

No overdubs. Sometimes the imperfections are what make it so perfect and beautiful.

And by not touching anything up, and us buying it direct, it kills the bootleg market while making Prince a hefty sum.

=-)

Prince offered us X...

See the future
Say it will be

PS : Many thanks to "Olivier" and Bart, who took the time to explain even though I was so doubtful at first.
[This message was edited Fri Jan 10 4:20:12 PST 2003 by Aerogram]

Let it be known...

Of course, Prince would need to address the server problems that marred the first year. People in the known say that using the SHN format is the best way to keep file sizes down while offering CD quality.

"Billy" from AMP provided these useful links :

http://www.softsound.com/Shorten.html
http://www.etree.org/shncom.html
http://research.umbc.edu/...hnfaq.html
http://home.att.net/~mkw/mkwact.html
http://www.etree.org/mkw.html