He was in Artist Development at Warner Bros. Records in the late ’70s and early ’80s, working with Prince, the Pretenders, Talking Heads, Fleetwood Mac, the Ramones, and many others. He moved on to become Sr. VP of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music.

Today, he is managing partner of TAG Strategic, a digital entertainment consulting firm working with emerging businesses and multinational companies. Current and former clients include Hello Music, Amazon, Emblaze Mobile, Microsoft, StreamJam, Verizon, SanDisk, Motorola and UK Trade & Investment.

Ted Cohen is also an optimist. “I think the future of music looks pretty bright,” he said recently, making it the underlying theme of his keynote address at the SESAC conference held at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. In fact, he had many fascinating and very upbeat points to make about the music business in general and indie artist opportunities in particular.

In his hour-long presentation for the performing rights organization, Cohen took listeners on a quick rollercoaster ride of all aspects of the music business. At the start, he put today’s situation in perspective: “This is the first time in history where a working business model was replaced by people just saying ‘I’ll take something for free.’ We have moved from an era of consumer empowerment to an era of consumer entitlement,” and he got to the bottom line right away: “What we have to do is figure out how to monetize consumer behavior. It’s not about devaluation of music; it’s about the re-valuation of music. We just need to find the monetary sweet spot the public wants.”

Part of the solution may result from changing mindsets. One of his suggestions is to stop calling music “content.” He feels this term is misguided. “We experience music, we don’t consume it. If we consumed it, something would come out the other end.”

Another part of the solution is to recognize and embrace change. “Here’s the old way things happened in the music business. . . ”

Old Way:
* Write great songs
* Record in expensive studio
* Release album
* Release single
* Hire promotion
* Buy ad in Rolling Stone
* Make expensive music video
* Hit the road with tour support
* Schedule in-store performances
* Do some TV appearances

“Now, the only thing that is still on the list is the first one. . . .”

New Way:
* Write great songs
* Record at home
* Social networking for distribution and marketing
* Collect e-mail addresses & connect with people
* Make Flip video or phone-cam video

“Ten years ago, distribution was king. Now, distribution is trivial. Anyone can get it.
Today, it’s all about getting people’s attention. The trick is ‘rising above the noise’.”

In this century, everyone has access to music. The idea, according to Cohen, is to make certain that passive fans become active participants. That’s what makes social media networks more important for getting music out to people.

Cohen is also upbeat about “New revenue streams: pay per play, pay per view, subscription services, ad-supported music, brand-subsidized music — there are a lot of ways to go.”

He is especially keen on subscription services for music. “I like the subscription model, where you pay a flat fee each month and get all the music you want.” He calls music subscription “a lean-back experience” because the music is available when desired and you need do so very little to have access to millions of songs. “This is a recurring revenue stream for artists and music publishers,” he notes. Additionally, “Subscription encourages listening to more songs, the ‘deep cuts’ on an album, and it lead to listeners finding new songs.”

The subscription model in the midst of the new ubiquitous distribution approach means “There is no need to record an entire album. If you have three great songs, create the three-songs and put them online. It’s whatever you want to do. There’s no longer a reason to get 12 songs together, get them to a label and wait months for them to hit stores.”

Cohen has never lost his love for music. “The freshness of music today is what’s most appealing to me,” he has said. “If I’m listening to a lot of indie music that’s been delivered digitally, then a lot of it is very fresh – 20 to 30 days old at most. It’s exciting.”

A big issue with all the access to music is filtering. There are firms that attempt to search for music you like, but perhaps the best filters are other listeners. “Most people I know aren’t sharing files, they’re sharing playlists,” Cohen points out. It’s not that the algorithms don’t work. Cohen’s firm works with Hello Music and he’s happy to discuss companies like Echo Nest. Many of these firms “combine algorithms and social behavior – what kind of music do your friends like, what’s happening on the music blogs, and so on. The problem with algorithms is that they search for and find similarity. They don’t find uniqueness. If something is truly unique, it’s not matched to anything.”

Cohen is pleased that much of today’s technology is going to bring music to us wherever we want it. He speaks of “The Connected Home” and “The Connected Auto” and is eager to embrace the new methodology of distribution and communication.

At one point in his presentation, he recommended a book called “Ruling the Waves” (“Ruling the Waves: From the Compass to the Internet, a History of Business and Politics along the Technological Frontier” by Debora L. Spar). Cohen mentioned one example from the book, the way radio was as much of a “wild west” scene as much of today’s internet usage and payment battles. “Back when radio was new, you could have three stations broadcasting on the same frequency.” The result was chaos, “and nobody could be heard.” But with FCC regulation, each broadcaster gets assigned a specific frequency “and now all three broadcasters can do business and the
public is served.”

I checked out Spar’s book and found a relevant passage: “Governments provide the property rights that entrepreneurs eventually want, the legal stability that commerce craves, and the stability that society demands. For in the end, even pirates and pioneers want order. Once they have staked out their claim or claimed their loot, they want someone else to protect it. And that someone is usually the state.”

Hearing Cohen’s views on music, technology, rules, and breaking out of conventional approaches was a unique, exciting and valuable experience. I recommend watching for interviews, speeches and position papers from him. If he’s an example of “an old record company guy,” as one person described him, I wish there were a lot more of them.

Article Copr. © 2010 John Scott G.

The TERAPACK includes 10-day trial licenses of all EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP products except Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus (Platinum 24-bit samples are included), including their latest releases Hollywood Strings and The Dark Side. The trials are complete versions and include all instruments and samples, but with 10-day time limited licenses. Each 10-day license starts upon activation of the individual collection. Full licenses of any product can then be purchased from www.soundsonline.com or www.soundsonline-europe.com for permanent use.

The TERAPACK is supplied on a Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0 Gb/3.5″ internal hard drive with a 5-year manufacturers warranty for optimum performance. The hard drive houses all EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP virtual instrument collections and is used to test drive the 10-day trial versions. Both trial and full licenses can be run directly from the drive, saving installation time and space.

The TERAPACK includes EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP products Hollywood Strings, The Dark Side, Symphonic Orchestra Platinum, Symphonic Choirs, Symphonic Choirs Expansion, Quantum Leap Pianos, Stormdrum 2 and SD2 Pro Upgrade, Voices of Passion, Ministry of Rock, Fab Four, Goliath, Silk, Ra, and Gypsy. The TERAPACK is available for Mac and PC, is compatible with all major DAW platforms, and requires a separate iLok key for operation.

Pricing and Availability:
The TERAPACK is now shipping in limited quantities for $129 MSRP. TERAPACK customers can purchase full licenses online and through authorized resellers of the included products (except Hollywood Strings and The Dark Side) for 50% off the retail price through September 30, 2010. Complete product information, system requirements, and ordering information is available at www.soundsonline.com/terapack.

About EASTWEST
EASTWEST has been dedicated to perpetual innovation and uncompromising quality of Sample Libraries and Virtual Instruments for more than 22 years, setting the industry standard as the most critically acclaimed soundware developer.

The BFD2 version is also available as a download and as a DVD package at the same introductory price of $149. We also offer a crossgrade product to allow you get the second version at a low price. If you own either the Infinte Player or BFD2 version, you can purchase the other version for just $49.95.

The Whole Story:

Sonic Reality is proud to announce Neil Peart Drums Vol. 1: The Kit, a sample library for Infinite Player powered by Kontakt, as part of the Drum Masters series. Neil Peart, legendary drummer of the band Rush, has collaborated with Sonic Reality and producer/engineer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains) to bring the authentic sound of Neil’s “Snakes and Arrows” Custom DW® Drum Kit into the digital domain. With advanced features such as deep level dynamics, humanized random alternating hits, discrete multiple mic mixing and more, this deluxe sampled kit is an ultra-realistic recreation of Neil’s actual acoustic set as used live on tour and in the studio.

Now for the first time, e-drummers, keyboardists and composers can play rock drum samples with the iconic signature sound of drum legend Neil Peart and have a world-class, hard-hitting drum kit suitable for many styles of music from Progressive Rock to Heavy Metal! Producer Nick Raskulinecz engineered the sample sessions with over 20 channels of Neve® mic preamps, deluxe vintage tube mics and multiple room positions for one of the most elaborate sampled drum kits ever.

Neil Peart has been one of the world’s most acclaimed drummers for over 35 years. His virtuosic work with the band Rush has inspired drummers and expanded the school of rock drumming beyond all technical limitations. Peart is known for his intricate beats, fast hands and complex time signatures.

Neil Peart joined Rush in 1974, who has written and recorded rock classics such as “Tom Sawyer,” “The Spirit of Radio,” “Freewill,” “Limelight” and “YYZ.” The band continues to play around the globe to enthusiastic audiences of all generations.

Note about Kontakt Player and Infinite Player:

Remember that while Kontakt Player 4.1 itself is FREE from Native Instruments (we provide it to you for convenience), these third party sounds do require a “gateway” for them to be played in Kontakt Player or the full version of Kontakt. The gateway that unlocks Sonic Reality sounds with NI’s service center is called the “Infinite Player”. You must have the Infinite Player in order to play Sonic Reality sounds.

For purchasers of this product, a complimentary Infinite Player license will be provided to all new users of the Infinite Player. For exisiting Infinite Player users, your license already supports this product.

Requirements: Operating System
* Windows XP
* Mac OSX
* Vista
* Universal Binary.
More information: www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=4432 .

TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 represents a new level of software and hardware integration that makes DJing more versatile, more intuitive and more fun. The full-featured controller combines a four-channel mixer section with ergonomically laid-out high-quality control elements and an integrated audio interface, all designed to professional specifications. All relevant functions including looping, cueing, effects control and track browsing are immediately accessible on the robust and portable hardware, while dynamic multi-color backlighting, LED status displays and comprehensive level metering allow DJs to focus on their performance rather than on the computer screen.

The included TRAKTOR PRO S4 software offers the full feature set of TRAKTOR PRO, further expanded through powerful new performance functions and an optimized user interface that offers superior usability under all conditions. Two flexible Sample Decks can add up to eight simultaneous one-shot samples or beat-synced loops to the mix, opening up creative remixing and mash-up possibilities that go far beyond conventional DJing techniques. The unique Loop Recorder also allows DJs to capture and overdub audio loops from the live mix, cue signal or an external input on the fly, and drop them back into the mix at any time.

The dual touch-sensitive jog wheels on the KONTROL S4 hardware offer extremely precise and responsive deck control due to a new patentpending electromagnetic technology, complemented through Native Instruments’ high resolution NHL protocol that provides superior performance over conventional MIDI. The integrated low-latency 24bit/96kHz audio interface is based on the acclaimed AUDIO 4 DJ, and provides professional signal quality to match the most high profile club systems. External time-code control via turntables and CD decks will be enabled through a future software upgrade. To accommodate touring DJs, a professional flightcase that doubles as an adjustable performance stand will also be available as an accessory for TRAKTOR KONTROL S4.

TRAKTOR KONTROL S4 will be available this winter for a suggested retail price of $999 / 899 EUR. The TRAKTOR KONTROL Case will be available at the same time for $189 / 169 EUR.

THE DARK SIDE provides inspiration for all composers and artists that are looking for unique instruments, designed to work for everything from alternative to symphonic rock, and of course, film, TV, and game music production.

THE DARK SIDE includes a vast, 40 Gigabyte collection, including dark and eerie instruments, and highly processed drums and percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboard, strings, and effected instruments, all organized into instrumental groups so you can create complete tracks.

Creativity without limits!

“THE DARK SIDE idea came to me when I was mentoring a young alternative group about some demos they sent me. To my ears, the tracks didn’t sound tough enough for their intended market, so I told them they needed to toughen up their sound,” said Doug Rogers, Founder and Award-Winning Producer at EASTWEST. “I looked around for sounds that could accomplish this and found absolutely nothing, even in our own vast collection. I saw this huge, gaping hole in the market that needed to be filled. Then and there, I decided to make it my next project after my recent pristine orchestral productions, a complete aural turn-around.”

Rogers partnered with Grammy Award-Winning record producer David Fridmann, who’s unconventional (and successful) work with the likes of MGMT, The Flaming Lips, and Weezer to name a few he had admired. Fridmann’s “no rules” style of production was exactly what Rogers was looking for to help produce THE DARK SIDE instruments.

Once they got started, they were like bulls in a china shop: mass aural destruction was the name of the game. They turned traditional instruments into highly processed drums, percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboards, strings, and FX, all organized into instrument groups for easy audition and recall.

Rogers and Fridmann not only tapped into a wealth of recording and producing experience for THE DARK SIDE, but had the gear to match. Many individual instruments were processed through 5 or 6 effects units, some of the vintage and esoteric tube variety owned by the pair.

THE DARK SIDE more distorted and mangled instruments are intended to be used with cleaner instruments to make them really stand out in a mix, or to disturb the senses. With today’s brick-wall limiting, distorted instruments may be the only product trick left to make an instrument stand out in a mix, a successful production technique used often by Radiohead, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, etc.

As the project progressed, they realized the instruments would work for almost every style from alternative to symphonic rock, and THE DARK SIDE name was chosen as a play on words between both styles of music. However, these instruments would be equally at home in Dance, Electronica, and even Hip Hop.

THE DARK SIDE includes EASTWEST’s PLAY 2 software, which can operate standalone or as a plug-in inside popular DAW hosts that support VST, Audio Units, and RTAS.

Pricing and Availability:
THE DARK SIDE is available for Mac and PC for $395 MSRP. Complete product information, demos, and ordering information is available at www.soundsonline.com/the-dark-side.

Version 4.1 of Bounce Metronome Pro adds several new metronomes. Includes polyrhythms with mixed note types such as 4/4 over 4/3, additive mixed meters 4/4 + 7/8 etc. Other new features including Go Silent Briefly, Custom Conducting Patterns, Instruments for individual beats and beat boxing, Flamenco Clock, Drum Rudiments, etc etc.

With it’s crisp and precise Gravity Bounce Conductor visuals, it’s like having your own conductor to help you learn even the most tricky rhythms and to help you keep time.

NEW SINCE VERSION 3.2

POLYRHYTHMS WITH MIXED NOTE TYPES

This plays rhythms like 4/4 over 4/3 – it’s like a 4 over 3 polyrhythm but you count 4/4 in both parts – so the 4/3 though it has three beats to the measure of the 4/4 rhythm, is played with emphasis every four beats, so has a measure that is a third longer than the 4/4.

FLAMENCO COMPAS “CLOCK”

Plays the 12 beat pattern – basically a 6/8 alternating with 3/4 – which is needed for practice of many Flamenco rhythms, shown with the 12 at the top for first beat and in clock like format as the balls bouncing inside the clock to show the beats.

MIXED METERS WITH MIXED NOTE TYPES

This lets you play rhythms like 4/4 + 7/8 or 2/4 + 3/8.

NEW WINDOWS

The Conducting patterns window lets you set your own custom conducting patterns – there I just mean the order of the beats such as 3 1 4 2 – doesn’t yet let you rrecord a conducting pattern e.g. with mouse or video and play it back.

The Label Beats lets you label individual beats as you like, including a beat boxing feature and an option to auto convert beat boxing syllables to corresponding non melodic percussion instrument sounds that get played on the same beat.

OTHER NEW FEATURES SINCE 3.2

Up / Down arrow key cycles through list of tempi (and optionally time signatures) you set for it. You can also cycle through time signatures at the same time as you change tempo – e.g. 80 bpm in 4/4 then 30 bpm in 3/4 with 2 subdivsions then 120 in 6/8 or whatever.

Go Silent Briefly – The idea here is that you continue to play when the sound stops. Then when the sound comes back again, aim to be exactly in time with the metronome, or as close as you can get to it.

One reason to do this is to help you to learn to keep a steady tempo without a metronome. You can also use it when you learn tricky rhythms e.g. polyrhythms etc, to see if you can keep them going during the measures when the metronome is silent.

Option to select separate instruments for each beat in the rhythm:

New features for the Gradually Changing Tempo – you can now do a stepping progression. E.g. suppose you have set it to gradually increase in tempo by 2 bpm over a period of time, then gradually drop down again by 1 BPM. Now you can also set it to repeat that endlesesly as e.g. 100 102 101 103 102 104 … Then you can set a maximum tempo to stop the stepping progression at, and also set what happens when the progression ends.

You can now export the animations with sound.

More information: www.bouncemetronome.com/ .

Many of Bierce’s ideas hold true today, such as his definition of an idiot as “a member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.” Perhaps best of all is his description of a corporation as “an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.”

With a tip of the hat to Bierce, I have some new definitions that affect everyone in the music business:

copyleft
-verb

1. To baffle or bewilder.
2. To make less clear; to make more indistinct.
3. To confound.
4. To associate by mistake.
5. To fail to distinguish between two opposing viewpoints.
6. To mix-up, disorder, or combine in mistaken ways.

Example: “False statements and angry charges tend to copyleft the issue of copyright, which is the goal of those seeking to erode the laws protecting intellectual property.”

Synonyms: confuse, mystify, nonplus, disconcert

(Also: copylefted, copylefting, copyleftation, copyleftatory)

crecom
-noun

1. Stupid person; a fool.
2. An imbecile, moron or half-wit.

Synonyms: idiot, fool, cretin, patsy

EFFuscate
-verb

1. To make a situation bewildering or mystifying.
2. To muddy the waters; to deliberately make something obscure, opaque or unclear by adding unneeded data.
3. To make an issue overly complicated so as to hinder intelligent discussion.

Example: “Nefarious groups always attempt to EFFuscate the public’s view of the law with extraneous information.”

Synonyms: obfuscate, muddle, perplex, befuddle, cloud the issue

(Also: EFFuscator, EFFuscates; EFFuscation -noun)

fanning
-noun

1. Someone who takes advantage of any opportunity to achieve an end with no regard for principles or consequences of the means.
2. One who puts expediency above morality.
3. The act of adapting actions or decisions to convenience while sacrificing ethical principles.

Example: “Seeing the opportunity to deprive others of their rights, the fanning moved forward without a care in the world.”

Synonym: opportunist

(Also: fanningistic)

lessig
-noun

1. Someone whose words do not match his or her actions.
2. A person who pretends to have virtues, beliefs or principles.
3. Someone whose private life, opinions, or statements are contradicted by his or her public life, opinions or statements.
4. Pretending to have desirable or publicly-approved attitudes.

Example: “The smug professor was a lessig for urging the destruction of copyright while publishing books protected by copyright.”

Example: “It is lessigocrisy to erode copyright laws after accepting money from corporations which would profit from such an occurrence.”

Synonyms: hypocrite, charlatan, cheat, con artist, deceiver, fraud, mountebank

(Also: lessigocrisy, lessigocrisies)

pubnoledge
-verb

1. To mislead or create a false appearance.
2. To hide or mask the real nature of something.

Example: “The organization led the gullible to false conclusions by pubnoledging and prevarication.”

Synonyms: dissemble, feign, sham, pretend, misrepresent

Who’s Who
Note: names have been unchanged to identify the guilty.

Copyleft is a clever play on the term “copyright” but that’s where the wit ends since it is just a scheme to create confusion about intellectual property rights. There are provisions in current copyright law that offer the same protection and flexibility in licensing as the permits cobbled together by these groups. Some of the people involved in the copyleft movement are undoubtedly well-meaning but they are simply dupes of large corporations seeking to undermine existing copyright provisions which date all the way back to their being mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.

Creative Commons is an organization with a communal and wholesome-sounding name that masks its true purpose of undermining copyright law and eroding the protections it offers to creators. Basically, they offer licenses for people to copy and distribute work using vague descriptions, hazy legal clauses and HTML tags. Everything they offer is available under current copyright law, so the end result is confusion, making their efforts superfluous and disingenuous. The corporations funding Creative Commons seek to avoid paying the price for infringing on your copyrighted material.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is also is funded by corporations interested in escaping penalties for copyright infringement, most notably technology firms who benefit from your purchases of computers, electronic gadgets, stereo systems or Internet access. Their goal is to create and spread a culture of misinformation that erodes the rights of creators in every aspect of law and digital communication. To see why they do this, just follow the money. Without content such as music, films, books, photos, news stories, articles, poems and the many other copyrightable forms of expression, Internet access is empty while computers and gadgets are mere shells of metal and plastic. What’s an iPod without music? A hi-def display without movies? Internet access without news, information and art? Worthless. The high and enduring value of the copyrightable works of expression is what gives the gadgets value in the first place and gives you – the consumer – urgent reason to purchase them. With press releases, white papers, action alerts, and legal filings, the EFF chips away at the rights of songwriters and music publishers. The EFF is the leading organization in spreading Internet-related disinformation.

Shawn Fanning is a perfect illustration of someone who was educated far beyond his ability to act morally. In 1998, he unleashed the blatantly illegal Napster. In a notable example of failing upward, he went on to head SnoCap, an attempt to foster “legal filesharing.” After raising $25,000,000, the firm was sold to iMeem, reportedly for less than five million dollars. News Corp’s MySpace eventually bought iMeem but long after Fanning had left to head ThreeSF and its Rupture video game service. Both were acquired by Electronic Arts, which now employs Fanning, presumably with lots of people keeping an eye on him.

Lawrence Lessig is a highly-paid professor and lecturer who eloquently argues against the rights of songwriters, authors and creators to earn a living from their work. He has thus far dedicated his life to destroying the principle and practice of copyright, yet his own books are all protected by copyright and are all offered for sale in physical and online stores.

Public Knowledge is a group funded by corporations interested in creating complete digital copies of millions of published works without any say of the rightsholders. As the Copyright Alliance puts it, they seek to “dramatically reduce copyright owners’ abilities to exercise their rights of reproduction, distribution, public performance, and the creation of derivative works. This would harm not only creators but the U.S. economy, exports, employment, and culture.” As such, PK and others of their ilk are decidedly unpatriotic.

Article is Copr. © 2010 by John Scott G.

Over the past week, a number of speculations, crazy stories, “we won’t miss them” comments from non-customers (=trolls), and mean-spirited comments about company exec Victor Wong being injured in a balcony collapse filled the blogosphere in the circles that follow electronic music instruments. I found the comment that somehow the “old” company over-spending on facilities to meet with clients in the music business was the cause of the financial crises, and then somehow the financial crises of the company had something to do with Wong and more than 20 other party guests being injured. Really?

Other folks sent me personal messages like, “If you only knew the REAL story of Open Labs,” as if there were some deep dark insider story of devil worship and pimping going on in addition to building music instruments. All small companies have unique interpersonal situations, working conditions, management shake-ups, and staff migrations. One blogger wrote that the products need to be cheaper, made in America, and with free lifetime support. Of course this was one of the people who wanted to take up 10 hours of phone support time on stuff he should have looked up himself, but then complains when he can’t get instant tech support on why his monitor doesn’t change resolutions properly (um, try using the video control panel?). Sheesh. The vitriol from so many was really a surprise to me. Certainly there are people out there who “hate” the products they don’t use, and others who complain about their waitress not bringing them lemon in their tea (“you never asked for lemon, sir”), but really amazing how abusive and violent some of these people write about a company simply having some hiccups in a tough economy.

All of this hullabaloo started from the classified in the Texas newspaper:
Original auction announcement in the Statesman: NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OPEN LABS, INC. MUSIC PRODUCTION EQUIP. Notice is hereby given that substantially all of the assets of Open Labs, Inc. will be sold at a public foreclosure sale to be held at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 4, 2010, at the offices of Open Labs, Inc., located at 3701 Drosset Drive, Suite 150, Austin, Texas 78744. The assets of Open Labs, Inc. consist primarily of the patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other IP associated with the following Open Labs products: NeKo XXL 61-Key Music Production Stations, NeKo QX6 61-Key Music Production Stations, MiKo LXD 37-key Music Production Stations, MiKo QC6 37- key Music Production Stations, DBeat Mobile Music Production Stations, SoundSlate Rack Units, SoundSlate FW Rack Units, Open RiFF 2.0 Software, MimiK Software, and other Open Labs products. The assets to be sold also include furniture and equipment, office supplies, artwork, and musical collectibles. For more info, contact Greg Young, Okin Adams & Kilmer LLP, 7004 Bee Cave, Bldg 1,Ste 110, Austin, TX, 78746, 512-681-3732.

Generally the comments from those who said they were in the know was that the bank and/or investors who had put up money one year ago wanted their money, and when the one year payment was due, the money wasn’t there and so they put the assets and IP (intellectual property) up for auction to recoup their investment. Unofficial statements after the Aug. 4 auction in Texas, indicated that some of the existing staff/owners bought back the IP with the help of new money, and this new group makes up the de facto “new ownership” and everything is moving forward.

In fact, customers were receiving product all week, warranty work was being performed, tech guru Michael Corley was helping customers who didn’t want to read the manual (“RTFM”) or understand which jack on the back was for MIDI, and which was for a mic (seriously, some of the wing-nuts in the OL forum make me want to cry as to the future of the music business; and go ahead, call me a cry-baby troll-boy and I’ll kick YOUR ass).

Late Friday night (Aug. 6), a statement was finally posted on the Open Labs website, which reads as follows, and so far is the only truly official statement regarding the whole issue:

“Thank you for being a customer of Open Labs products. As you probably heard, there are new owners of Open Labs. The primary reason we acquired the assets was the outstanding relationship that the artists and producers had with the old company.

The Open Labs Team and Owners.”

Here’s hoping the “new” company returns to full power, and has shiny new gear to demo at the upcoming January NAMM show. I truly think they have a unique product, and the deliverables are more than the sum of their parts.

Editor’s Note: updated 1:35pm PDT to correct typo of the auction announcement from June 30 to July 30, 2010.

Admittedly, difficulties abound. There are still many nefarious organizations and rogue portions of the population seeking to destroy copyright and erode royalty rates. So far, the fight continues against them, but while creators are still able to earn money from their copyrighted works, this is an ongoing battle that must be waged.

Liars, mountebanks and thieves do keep attacking us, yet songwriters and music publishers still receive performing rights payments from ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC; mechanical royalties; online payments from SoundExchange; licensing to film, TV, commercials; legal downloads; streaming; and more.

In fact, in the new 6th edition of “Music, Money and Success” (Schirmer), authors Jeffrey Brabec and Todd Brabec present a list of music income sources that includes 66 categories, “ranging from all of the traditional media to music in videogames, apps, electronic greeting cards, downloads and streams, interactive dolls and toys, celestial jukeboxes and more,” Todd Brabec points out. Some of these revenue sources have very small royalty rates, but that will change over time.

In the Cloud & In Your Phone
Meanwhile, there is a lot of speculation about cloud-based sites. “Apple will soon make use of the technology they obtained when they bought Lala.com” is a phrase I hear in many places. Revenue from something like that could be quite a boost for an industry that has taken it on the chin in the last decade.

In addition, the use of music and film in mobile communications is set to exponentially expand as the telecoms offer 4th generation (4G) phones, and while statutory rates have not been established in the mobile2mobile marketplace, there is already a move to develop fee structures to assure payment to copyright holders.

Keeping Track
Once we clear away the fallout from the theft sites and the insidious corporate apologists who attack copyright at every turn, we return to an issue that has been at the heart of the record industry since, well, since the start of the record industry: how to track sales and divide up the money.

By all accounts, iTunes gives a very good accounting of download sales, but to receive your share you may have to go through a third party such as a record label or a firm like TuneCore. Record companies have control of the balance sheet for physical sales unless and until individual artists have a way to see the data.

Missed Payments
Payments for music broadcasts on TV have traditionally relied on data from cue sheets, but these are notoriously inaccurate. As one music royalty consultant put it, “Payments in many areas can range from ‘correct’ to ‘best guess’ to the CPA version of ‘WTF?’”

For music and movie files sent illegally via computer, the ISPs (Internet service providers) are sheltered from prosecution because of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). This is something that must be changed in the future, but for now, owners of music, films, literature and art can only petition Congress to remove the “safe harbor provision” (which is Title II of the DMCA, by the way).

Still, there are signs that a change is coming. In fact, music sales, broadcasts, file transfers, and streams may all be tracked automatically within a few years’ time. Several companies are moving forward in this area, usually using one of two methods: digital watermarking or digital fingerprinting.

Watermarking and Fingerprinting
Here’s a quick look at the difference. In watermarking, an inaudible identifying code is embedded into a music master. “Digital watermarking works with still images, audio, and video content,” writes Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies and author of “Content Identification Technologies.”

Rosenblatt also notes that watermarking “involves modifying the ‘noise’ portion of the content in a file so that it contains some data, called the payload, in such a way that the user’s perception of the content is not impaired.”

Watermarking is helping musicians, songwriters, music publishers, and distributors of motion pictures. Members of the Digital Watermarking Alliance include aquaMobile, Civolution, Digimarc, ISAN-IA, MarkAny, Media Science International, Université catholique de Louvain, Verance, and Verimatrix.

By contrast, fingerprinting involves simply analyzing what might be called the sonic DNA of a song. Included in this audio analysis are tempo, frequency, average power in each frequency band, and acoustic resonances. Rosenblatt again: “The basic idea of fingerprinting is to examine a file, compute its fingerprint as a set of numbers, and look them up in a database of fingerprint values to determine the identity of the content.”

Audio fingerprinting is less vulnerable to attacks and distortions than watermarking, according to Pedro Cano in his study, “Content-Based Audio Search.” He goes on to reconfirm that fingerprinting “requires no modification of the audio content.”

Not DRM
Some people hear the words “watermarking” and “fingerprinting” and immediately
think of the DRM fiasco of several years ago, but there is a very real difference.

“Traditional DRM prohibited content from being used on certain players or devices,” states Hunter Williams, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development/Distribution & Research Operations at SESAC. “What we are trying to do here is to track content as it moves freely through various modes of commerce and media formats. Rather than prohibiting, we are trying to enable the use of content while helping rights holders make informed decisions as to how to best monetize that content.”

Mediaguide’s Lubin agrees: “Mediaguide’s implementation of watermarking services is not analogous to a DRM process. We strictly provide watermarking for airplay monitoring services.”

TuneSat’s Chris Woods, EVP and Chief Operations Officer, echoes that view: “TuneSat is not a DRM encoder. We do not restrict content usage or imbed unique identifiers into audio files. TuneSat is an independent data provider that facilitates the monetization of our clients content by providing near realtime performance data.”

Music lovers need not fear DRM from fingerprinting or watermarking technology.

TuneSat
Back at the turn of the century, a service called Shazam was using audio fingerprinting for song identification through cell phones. Today, technology from that firm are with TuneSat, and as of this writing they monitor 110 national network TV broadcasters in the US and 65 TV channels in the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

“The keys to TuneSat’s success reside in our proprietary technology as well as the ability to detect music in a ‘dirty audio’ broadcast environment,” states Woods. “Even when you have music that is mixed in with or buried under a voice over, sound effects, or ambient noise, TuneSat will detect the song. The music might even be imperceptible to the listener and TuneSat can recognize it and report on it,” Woods added.

If TuneSat has the reference file of your music on their computer servers, they can detect the use of it after only about three-to-five seconds’ playing time, even in a scene with dialog, explosions, wind blasts, and so on.

Nielsen BDS
Yes, this is the same Nielsen organization as in television ratings and Billboard magazine charts featured. Also using a fingerprinting approach, BDS monitors more than two thousand radio stations (terrestrial and satellite) as well as music video channels throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

SESAC began working with BDS in 1994 to track Latin music, and then expanded their association two years later to include all music formats. While relying on BDS to track songs on radio, SESAC recently signed TuneSat to monitor music on television broadcasts.

“SESAC has been using watermarking in conjunction with fingerprinting since 1998, first through our relationship with Aris, which later became Verance, and now through Ruby DS,” states Williams. Ruby DS (the DS stands for DigSound) is a web-based system for watermarked files from a firm called Activated Content. “We continue to support the idea that an all-encompassing tracking solution will involve a combination of fingerprinting and watermarking technologies,” Williams adds.

Landmark Digital BlueArrow
Owned by BMI, Landmark Digital has developed an audio fingerprinting system called BlueArrow and is employing it for radio, TV (terrestrial, cable and satellite), and the Internet. They are also using it to monitor mobile uses of music, although it is not yet clear how BMI writers and publishers are to collect from this.

MediaGuide
Founded by ASCAP and ConneXus Corporation, Mediaguide combines proprietary digital fingerprinting and watermarking technology to monitor and measure music and advertising airplay on more than 2500 commercial, non-commercial and college radio stations.

“Mediaguide is at the forefront of offering a hybrid approach to monitoring radio,” states Steve Lubin, CEO, MediaGuide. “We developed this methodology to serve the differing requirements of our customer base that includes record labels, music publishers, production music companies, artists, advertisers, media buyers and broadcasters.”

According to the firm, they are tracking nearly three hundred million song and advertising detections each year.

Interaction Needed
Thus far, no one wants explain why these services are not recognizing the data gleaned from each other’s monitoring. Still, the very fact that we are getting closer to full-time tracking of music use is great news for every songwriter and music publisher.

The Future
While looking back at music revenues for the past decade-and-a-half is depressing, try looking in the other direction. If you look forward, there are new opportunities for copyright owners practically everywhere. Factor in the growing movement towards needed enforcement of intellectual property rights and the ability to have real-time 24/7 monitoring of music use, and you begin to see a very pleasing picture.

“Content owners will continue to look to tracking technologies like TuneSat to protect and monetize their assets,” Woods states. “This will be critical to their survival in a rapidly evolving digital environment,” he adds.

With the spread of digital fingerprinting, the establishment of rates for mobile use of copyrighted content, and a minor amendment to Title II of the DMCA, the motion picture business will avoid disaster and the entire music industry will be flourishing.

For more information:

www.activatedcontent.com

www.bdsonline.com

www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org

www.landmarkdigital.com

www.mediaguide.com

www.tunesat.com or www.wearelistening.com .

EDITOR’S NOTE: updated 11:15am PDT, to correct sentence, changing word executives to technology, as so: “Today, technology from that firm are with TuneSat….”

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