MetaFilter posts tagged with Wired and business

Stop making sense of this business of music

psmealey — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:01:41 -0800

David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars Where there was one, now there are six: Six possible music distribution models, ranging from one in which the artist is pretty much hands-off to one where the artist does nearly everything. 1. At one end of the scale is the 360, or equity, deal, where every aspect of the artist's career is handled by producers, promoters, marketing people, and managers. 2. Next is what I'll call the standard distribution deal. The record company bankrolls the recording and handles the manufacturing, distribution, press, and promotion. The label, in this scenario, owns the copyright to the recording. Forever. 3. The license deal is similar to the standard deal, except in this case the artist retains the copyrights and ownership of the master recording. The right to exploit that property is granted to a label for a limited period of time — usually seven years. 4. Then there's the profit-sharing deal. 5. In the manufacturing and distribution deal, the artist does everything except, well, manufacture and distribute the product. 6. Finally, at the far end of the scale, is the self-distribution model, where the music is self-produced, self-written, self-played, and self-marketed. No single model will work for everyone. There's room for all of us. Some artists are the Coke and Pepsi of music, while others are the fine wine — or the funky home-brewed moonshine. And that's fine. Sometimes a corporate soft drink is what you want — just not at the expense of the other thing. I like Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man". In the recent past, it often seemed like all or nothing, but maybe now we won't be forced to choose.

Learning to Love PowerPoint

kirkaracha — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 09:43:32 -0800

Learning to Love PowerPoint Wired and the New York Times feature David Byrne's DVD/book Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, which contains art he created with PowerPoint. The title's a reference to Edward Tufte, who has his own opinion of PowerPoint (which was remixed by Aaron Swartz).

Diamonds are...forever?

pizzasub — Wed, 13 Aug 2003 06:08:31 -0800

Mass-produced diamonds Two startups are threatening the De Beers diamond monopoly. They plan to use the money they make from their mass-produced diamonds to "reshape the computing industry". Interesting stuff.

Brilliantcrank — Tue, 24 Oct 2000 18:55:31 -0800

Is the Revolution really over? According to Wired it is, “…one day, the digital revolution was over. The big media companies wrested control of the Internet from the kids in the horned-rimmed glasses.” Derek has his comments on this but to add my own, nothing new and exciting happens anymore.

The Internet has become synonymous for pink slips, mergers, and legal battles.

I know there was a previous link to this article but I was inspired by Derek to bring a different matter to the table.