Digital Audio Insider -- the economics of music and other digital content


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Digital Audio Insider is David Harrell's blog about the economics of music and other digital content. I write from the perspective of a musican who has self-released four albums with the indie rock band the Layaways.

My personal website has links to my LinkedIn and Google+ pages and you can send e-mail to david [at] thelayaways [dot] com.

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July 10, 2006

Monday Odds and Ends
by David Harrell
Monday Odds and Ends
Thierry Rayna, an economist at the University of Bristol, has written a long piece exploring the economics of selling vs. renting music online:
As the durability of music is thus not homogeneous and depends on the consumers' preferences, market segmentation is likely to occur. We showed that renting is more likely to attract young consumers due to their taste for novelties. However, in this market segment, renting firms compete with both radio and pirate channels, and the relative lack of financial resources of the consumers in this segment means that they are more likely to choose the two latter rather than renting firms. On the other hand, we showed that, as selling firms are more likely to be chosen by more mature consumers, the direct impact of piracy is lower. More particularly, we demonstrated that the main competitor of selling firms is, in fact, the traditional Audio-CD market. Our analysis shows that, on the contrary to renting firms that face an intense competition from their main competitors -- the pirate channels, online firms selling music have some strong advantages over the Audio-CD market and are expected to gain a significant market share from the firms supplying Audio-CD.
Here's a link to the full article (a 42 page PDF).

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Businessweek's Byte of the Apple blog has more on Microsoft's music player strategy:
In a nutshell, Microsoft will focus on one of Apple's clear vulnerabilities: the relative inability of iTunes and iPod users to discover new music. Sure, you can share iMixes, but most iTunes users for the most part log on to buy songs they already know they want to buy.

The new Microsoft service, and the marketing to back it up, will likely focus on community-oriented capabilities--specifically, the ability for users to wirelessly "see" each others playlists and get a certain number of "free" streams of songs they want to check out. In other words, the WiFi capabilities won't be focused only on letting people satisfy the immediate, urgent immediate need to log on to some wireless digital music service--something that hasn't taken off, despite efforts of carriers such as Verizon and Sprint. Rather, the wireless capability will seek to exploit the most powerful "recommendation engines" around: your friends.

---------

More details (schedule and speakers) are now up on the Bandwidth Conference site.

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    THE LAYAWAYS

    Out Now -- "Maybe Next Year" -- The New Holiday Album:

    <a href="http://thelayaways.bandcamp.com/album/maybe-next-year">Joy To The World by The Layaways</a>

    "This is a sweet treat, deliciously musical without being overbaked for mass media consumption." -- Hyperbolium

    "Perfect listening to accompany whatever holiday preparations you may be making today." -- Bag of Songs


    O Christmas Tree - free mp3 lyrics and song details
    Away In A Manger - free mp3

    Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or Bandcamp. Listen to free streams at Last.fm.



    album cover art from The Space Between

    <a href="http://thelayaways.bandcamp.com/album/the-space-between">Keep It To Yourself by The Layaways</a>

    "...about as melodic and hooky as indie pop can get." -- Absolute Powerpop

    "Their laid-back, '60s era sounds are absolutely delightening." -- 3hive

    "...melodic, garage-influenced shoegaze." -- RCRD LBL

    Where The Conversation Ends - free mp3
    January - free mp3
    Keep It To Yourself - free mp3

    Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or CD Baby, stream it at Last.fm or Napster.



    album cover art from We've Been Lost

    <a href="http://thelayaways.bandcamp.com/album/weve-been-lost">Silence by The Layaways</a>

    "The Layaways make fine indie pop. Hushed vocals interweave with understated buzzing guitars. The whole LP is a revelation from the start." -- Lost Music

    "Catchy Guided by Voices-like rockers who lay it on sweetly and sincerely, just like Lionel Richie." -- WRUV Radio

    Silence - free mp3 lyrics and song details
    The Long Night - free mp3

    Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.



    album cover art from More Than Happy

    "These are songs that you want to take home with you, curl up with, hold them close -- and pray that they are still with you when you wake up." -- The Big Takeover

    Let Me In - free mp3
    Ocean Blue - free mp3

    Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.

    More Layaways downloads:

    download the Layaways at eMusic download the Layaways at iTunes

    the layaways website