Music industry


The musical history of the mp3

This decade will go down in music history, not for the tunes created but for the technological changes. Mp3s have reaffirmed that the music industry is about more than just capitalism, writes Eric Harvey.

Would you subscribe for streaming music?

As music companies struggle with what appears to be a declining market, one of the models being pursued is the idea of subscribing to a music streaming service in a similar way to which some people subscribed to cable/satellite television. Can it catch on? asks Tim Dunlop.

Australian indies and MTV

Last week, our music blog Johnny’s in the Basement published a guest post about a dispute between Australian indie music labels and the broadcasters MTV and VH1 Australia. Today, MTV has written a response.

Guy Rundle: IP, a whiter shade of property

Intellectual property is a fiction, and the way in which it is conceived changes over time, writes Guy Rundle. Just ask Men at Work.

Classical CDs went budget, why can’t Australian books?

Those authors and publishers who are busy defending protectionism so as to ensure an income stream should examine the fate of the classical music recording industry.

JB HiFi: no longer smashing prices on CD singles

With downloadable mp3s making the CD single obsolete, music retail giant JB HiFi has finally bitten the bullet and dumped them from their shelves.

Brisbane band sells music for tweets

Brisbane band Yves Klein Blue are offering fans free downloads of their latest single for free — under one condition: they must tweet about the lengths they would go to see the band play at the Splendour in the Grass festival next month.

Death of the music megastore

Once an icon of the west, music super-stores are now a sad casualty of the booming digital music market and shrinking bank balances. The NY Times visits New York’s last large-scale record store — Virgin Megastore — on its final day of business.

Why file sharing will save music and movies

Pirate Bay may have lost, but P2P is still the future of distributing movies and music.

Career relief: John Farnham sniffs out a worthy cause

Sound Relief is testament to the best of what’s great about the generosity of the music industry; but there’s some financial reward for many of the big boys involved, writes Ross Stapleton.

CDs: Alive, selling and better value than a new telly

Apparently music retailers are being flooded by consumers who can’t afford a new TV or refrigerator, writes Ross Stapleton.

Music industry propaganda hits a bum note

The digitial revolution in music distribution is starting to get nasty, writes technology blogger Stilgherrian.

What would you pay for Abbey Road?

Radiohead has told fans they can pay what they want to download their latest album, In Rainbows. Mental as anything? You decide.