p2pnet - rss feed: Big Music and p2p
p2p news special / p2pnet: “If you look at what Warner just announced in Germany, the studios are finally starting to embrace peer-to-peer,” Weiss said. “We’ve said all along that we could be an ally of the content companies.”
The above quote was attributed to StreamCast Networks ceo Michael Weiss in a Video Business Online article slugged Studios, tech companies team up with Both look at developing digital distribution business as the sub-head.
Partnered by Bertelsmann AG (BMG) and its subsidiary Arvato, America’s Warner Bros plans to push In2Movies, an alleged corporate peer-to-peer business, and we wondered, “Where does P2P come into it?” - given that p2p is a two way street and that Warner is a one-way company – it’s way.
StreamCast and its Morpheus file sharing application are synonymous with p2p, and Weiss gave p2pnet his views in more detail.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
P2P and the music industry – Allies?
By Michael Weiss, StreamCast Networks
I’ve maintained forever that P2P can be the entertainment industry’s greatest allies. But first, let’s define “P2P.” It’s a software technology (peer-to-peer) and StreamCast is a software technology company. Morpheus is our product. Let’s call this ‘the Technology.’
P2P also represents a community (people-to-people) formed by users of P2P software technology. Morpheus also symbolized a vibrant community.
Unfortunately, a big part of the Morpheus Community ‘feeling’ was lost because of the reality of defending a gargantuan lawsuit, resulting in us having to make some compromises to pay legal bills.
We learned that the Community doesn’t shy away from telling us what they don’t like, so we’ve made changes whenever we could in response. The lesson here is: the P2P Community is strong and powerful, or put in common marketing terms, the customer is always right! We know that so we’re working diligently to try to re-create that exciting sense of “community” that lived before the Grokster vs Morpheus case.
How can P2P (the ‘Technology’ and the ‘Community’) be entertainment industry allies?
1) The P2P Community has become the biggest and most efficient focus group for the record labels to identify and promote popular new songs and find the best new artists to sign based upon what consumers like. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of artist development.
The labels have long claimed that 90% of the artists they release are losing money for them and this is offset by the few megastars that break through each year.
Embracing P2P fully, working with P2P Technology companies and, perhaps more importantly, embracing the P2P Community, can take most of the guesswork out of the A&R process, save the labels a mint, and provide consumers with more of the music they really want to hear and are willing to pay for.
2) The popularity of songs being shared using P2P (the Technology) is used today by many labels as a vehicle to get traditional radio airplay – and it’s certainly a lot less riskier than resorting to payola.
Instead of working with third party research firms to determine what’s popular with P2P users (the Community), the labels could (and should) develop a working relationship with P2P companies (the Technology) to provide an efficient way of reaching out to biggest music fans of all.
The labels will find the P2P companies are more than willing participants in helping to create an environment where artists can thrive and work hand in hand in creating the type of research and marketing that can expose new artists to a world-wide audience.
3) If history is any indicator, the century old battle of Old Media vs New Technology will play out with similar results -
Phase One: Old Media will always try to stop New Technology (remember Overpeer; spoofing?);
Phase Two: Once Old Media finds it can’t stop New Technology, they’ll try to control it (’the current phase of lawsuits and legislation’);
Phase Three: Once Old Media realizes they can’t stop or control New Technology, they’ll embrace it and make more profits than ever before.
Ultimately, Old Media will embrace P2P ( the Technology) and the results will provide lower distribution costs (say goodbye to UPS trucks, CD returns by retailers, CD pressing plants, record store personnel, etc), more efficiency (in the A&R Dept) and reduced bandwidth costs for digital distribution (i.e. Warner in Germany).
The offset in costs for the record labels increases profit margins and exposes rabid fans to more music. P2P Technology will also provide a more level playing field for indie artists by lowering their cost to market. P2P can certainly fuel an entirely new golden age of creative expression-with the cream rising to the top.
4) All the independent research released to date shows that P2P users (the Community) are largest consumers of music. In fact, last year Forbes Magazine reported that 70% of people purchasing music through authorized on line music stores like iTunes did so after first sampling the music through P2P (the Technology).
Why not make this music available for purchase through P2P (the Technology) and skip making consumers take that extra step of going to an on-line music store to purchase?
Why not give P2P users (the Community) the option to purchase with P2P (the Technology)?
So instead of suing P2P (both the Community and the Technology), the entertainment industry should embrace P2P (both the Community and the Technology) for all the good that can come of it.
Also See:
Video Business Online - Studios, tech companies team up, February 10, 2006
February 22nd, 2006 at 7:39 am
The record industry just needs to live with the fact that p2p applications are the new radio. Every CD I’ve bought in the last 4 years has been becuse I downloaded songs from it first.
They are allies and they always were.
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:34 am
seems to me you splice and dice the facts manipulate etc turn the issues upside down to suite ya selves.p2p more abtly describes pirate to pirate or porn to piracy. on one hand ya say ya want music ta be free on the next ya say if the music industry embraced p2p it will be all fixed. fact is theres millions of people pirating via p2p who never have any intention ta pay for ANY content for any price. the internet and the quality of digital transmission and recording dismiss the dismal arguments that p2p is like a video recorder or a xerox. thats pure opportunistic BULLSHIT spin. people steal digital copies because they can. simple weakness of their nature. if morpheus kazaa and all the other digital disease ridden apps want ta really sell mainstream content they should have not tried extortion and backmail tactics to do that. i have watched this piracy thing for years now and have a good knowledge of all the issues and remember all the contradictions of these so called p2p sites. fact is intellectual property copyright is an integral part of economies the world over. where not just talking music here were talking any creation that can be recorded on any 2 dimensional or digital media. morpheus kazaa limewire et all are responsible for the damage they have done. most p2p apps are blatant copyright stealing devices why would or should mainstream business have anything ta do with them.they say theyll be good and filter out infinging works if they get licences.well the onus is on them ta do that irrespective of licences or not. its called INTEGRITY values and ethics. pure and simple. now ya all have a good day