MP3Tunes Update
Some of you have asked for the answer to the mystery of my high ranking: whether I made a ton of money, or nobody goes to mp3tunes. Well, the numbers are in, and I am now extremely wealthy. Tens of people bought my mp3s last month, and at .65 a pop, well, you do the math. I’m nearly a hundredaire, and I now occupy three slots out of the top ten song list. Thanks to all of you who took the plunge and dropped a buck, I really do appreciate the support. If you haven’t bought yet, why don’t you just stab me in the neck instead? Because it would hurt me less…
New Song
I didn’t write this one, it’s a cover of a Destiny’s Child song. I don’t usually do covers, but the lyrics to this song are so freaking hilarious, and it’s been stuck in my head since the first time I heard its delicious groove on the FM radio. I’m not totally happy with the mix, but it’s probably not wise for me to mess with it anymore, so it will just have to do. Check out the banjo and the highly danceable remix section.
I don’t know if posting a cover like this is illegal or not, I’m kind of hoping for at least a cease and desist letter. I always like to hear from fans/haters, so please let me know what you think.
MP3Tunes
Now this is fun. MP3Tunes.com is one of the online music stores that carries my stuff, and I was just checking my ranking in the various charts, which is something I do every couple of minutes. If you want to see an example of complete domination of a teeny tiny niche that nobody wants a piece of anyway, go there and click the Top Songs button. Then click the Pop genre. Then click the Quirky sub-genre. At this writing, I occupy 14 out of the 15 top spots. Either sales are going crazy and I’m going to get a big check in the next couple of months, or nobody’s using MP3Tunes to buy music. You should be able to guess which one I’d prefer – if you have a moment, and 88 cents, why not buy a song or two? Then email it to someone you love.
Now, I know the iTunes store is great and it integrates really nicely with the iPod you all have, but think for a second. When you buy a song from the iTunes store, it’s in a format that restricts how you use that song. You can only play it on devices that support that super secret format, and you can only play it on a certain number of computers. Maybe this doesn’t present a problem for you because you only listen to music on the iPod. Or maybe you think it’s OK to have to spend a few minutes burning a CD and then ripping it to mp3 again so you can get the music to play on your mp3 streamer device or whatever. But you paid for that song. It’s your 88 cents and it’s your damn song and you should be able to do whatever you want with it. That’s why we all need to show MP3Tunes a little love…
Record Company Losses
Seen on Slashdot: here’s an interesting article from Michael Geist, a Canadian law professor looking at the claims made by the CRIA (like the RIAA but in Canada) that file sharing has caused profit losses for record companies and artists. Looking at the CRIA’s own numbers, he points out the claimed losses of 2 billion are actually more like 432 million total over the last 5 years. He suggests that these losses are not necessarily related to file-sharing – people are listening to music less, big outlets like Wal-Mart are carrying fewer titles, and the average price of a CD has dropped by 8%. The punchline is that this accounts for only about 2 million per year in royalties, which is more than offset by the private copying levy (a few cents from the sale of each blank CD are collected and distributed to artists to protect them against file sharing losses).
When you also consider how artists may actually benefit from file sharing, and I certainly do, it’s hard to figure out what all the fuss is about. As Lessig points out in Free Culture, not all file sharing is stealing. Some of it is unquestionably something else. Until we figure out what that something else is, it’s really a bad idea to make it illegal.
Also, please buy my CD.
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