Prompt's TechBlog

This week's news that EMI plans to drop the copy-protection software from downloaded tracks marks an important turning point in the commercial relationship between music labels, artists and fans.

When Napster launched in 1999, the music industry came to view fans as the enemy; as thieving pirates who needed to be hunted down and punished for illegally sharing and downloading music. Two years passed before anyone thought that the thieving pirates might welcome the opportunity to buy music legitimately online. And when that thought did come, it didn't come from the music industry. It came, of course, from Silicon Valley, and Apple has been cashing in ever since.

But the digital rights management (DRM) software slapped on to legal downloads showed that, while it was happy to take their money, the music industry still didn't trust its customers. In any relationship, a lack of trust in the other party is an unhappy state of affairs, which is why EMI's decision represents a major moral victory for fans.

Elsewhere, however, artists and fans have been enjoying a far more symbiotic and egalitarian relationship, partly due to new social media platforms. Social networks like MySpace have allowed fans to interact directly with their favourite artists. Industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails have actively sought to involve fans in their music by giving their approval to online fan remix competitions, while the Beastie Boys recently invited fans to submit their own footage of the band for a concert DVD, appropriately titled 'Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!'.

(I very much like the prim and proper use of the semicolon in that title, incidentally.)

The other day I noticed one of my favourite bands, Voxtrot, endorsing a competition held by Spanish music site Buffet Libre and mp3 blog Stereogum to remix one of their singles. The Stereogum blog has nothing to do with the band, and its activities - posting free mp3s for fans to download - are, well, more than verging on the illicit. However, the band recognise the influence of mp3 blogs, and prefer to encourage them rather than sue them.

Voxtrot's friendliness towards the mp3 blogs - despite singer Ramesh's concerns about the dehumanising effect of the internet, ironically expressed in his own blog - will serve them well next month, when their debut album launches. The inevitable blanket coverage across indie music blogs will provide Voxtrot with a massive amount of online 'media' exposure, effectively creating a huge grass-roots promotional campaign for no marketing outlay.

Despite its initial slowness to adapt to fans' behaviour on the internet, the music industry now seems to be leading the charge in the use of social media for marketing purposes. Marketers from other industries would do well to watch and learn.

Tags: EMI | itunes | voxtrot

Labels: music, web 2.0

'I saw your face in a crowded place, and I don't know what to do', whined squaddie-turned-popstar James Blunt in the inexplicably popular 'You're Beautiful'.

Oh, James. Did no one tell you about MySpace? As this San Francisco Chronicle article notes, Web 2.0 has somewhat altered the playing field regarding affairs of the heart.

It would only have required a little light stalking on Blunt's part to find out the girl's name. A quick Google search might turn up her MySpace page, which would inform him of her likes and dislikes and who she likes to hang out with.

Assuming she's a classy chick, her MySpace page might link to a proper blog, perhaps written with Blogger or LiveJournal. Here the hapless James could find out what she eats for breakfast, what she watched on telly last night, and what her cats look like. He might scour her Flickr stream for photos of her laughing in sun-dappled meadows, and check out her last.fm profile to see what music she's listening to right now.

(Hopefully not his!, you cry, sensibly.)

Having absorbed months or even years of her personal history, our hero might start to engage the young lady in conversation via witty, delicately flattering blog comments. After a suitably decorous period, he might email her at the address in her sidebar. At length they might move to instant messaging, for hours of unchaperoned flirting.

After weeks or months, they might arrange to meet up to see if they like each other in real life. She might no longer be quite such a mysterious angel, but there might be half a chance of it leading to something meaningful. And half a chance that Blunt might not inflict any more icky lovesick maunderings on the music-buying public.

Which, frankly, would be for the best.

Labels: music, web 2.0