The Constable on October 24th, 2008
There’s a new article over at Ars Technica discussing how the legal use of P2P is growing at a faster rate than illegal use.  Of course, the fact that illegal use is already so immense does make it quite easy for legal use to grow at a faster rate (a much lower baseline).
What’s the most interesting about the article is that P2P is seeing some very legitimate uses.  As we’ve said before: if people pay attention to technology and distribution models that gain popularity as a way to steal content, they may start noticing that the technology isn’t always created solely to “steal” but instead as a better way to distribute (and may have help businesses better serve their customers, if they can figure out how to give customers what they want - and then build a business model around it).
The Constable on September 5th, 2008
In a somewhat surprising move earlier this year, popular lyrics website Metrolyrics.com opted to move out of the so-called legally “grey” zone and go completely legit.  According to an article recently posted on Business in Vancouver, the site’s decision to do a sublicensing deal with Gracenote they have not only increased their traffic to over 23 million visitors since last December, but they have also doubled their CPM cost to advertisers.
The reason for the increase in CPM, according to the article, is the fact that many advertisers have shied away from advertising on unlicensed lyrics sites due to concerns over the legality of such sites. Now that the site is licensed and paying songwriters and publishers a licensing fee, advertisers who previously would not advertise on lyrics sites are advertising on metrolyrics.
With the success they’ve had, is it possible that more lyrics sites will join the legal realm through licensing deals including royalty payments?  Or is the fact that not even gracenote (who boasts over 800,000 songs) has rights to every single song ever enough to deter many other sites from doing so, since one they decide to go legit they would also be deciding to turn off a lot of content?
The Constable on August 25th, 2008
I have to admit, I haven’t had much time to research this site since I just came across it this morning… so consider this more of a note to myself than anything.
A kind of P2P music file sharer / iTunes / social network, Grooveshark.com “is an online music community that rewards you for sharing, reviewing, and discovering new music.” The more music you share, the more credits you get to download music from other people. Beyond this, the built-in social aspect of the site allows people to organize, filter and recommend music for each other - and the most respected users are automatically highlighted so as to give the best experience for casual users.
As for the legal portion… frankly I don’t know how this is set up. At first glance it appears that users can upload anything they want, and then the music is available for sharing or download.
Here’s the info from their one-sheet for the labels:
User Music Experience
- User-generated music bios, reviews, a la Wikipedia
- Demand-based Pricing ($.99, $.75, $.50, $.25)
- Users receive $.25 for every song they sell
- 100% virus-free, high quality files at high speeds
- Massive library via patented p2p architecture
- Custom music recommendations for music discovery
Label Licensing Benefits
- No hard drives or CDs required to upload content
- $.25 user credit incentivizes users to buy more music
- Song recommendations, artist promotion for partners
- Fans are paid to market your artists and bands
- Content is spread virally and legally from fan to fan
Label Content Management
- Full control of pricing, payment, file quality (bitrates)
- Sales reporting and comparison between competitors
- Artist metadata information input and development
- Access fan and user geographic & demographic data
- Full take-down and opt-out of content distribution
Terms
- Revenue split for songs sold in the system:
- 50% - Label
- 25% - Grooveshark User
- 25% - Grooveshark Administration Fee
- • Label provides full metadata information
- • Label pays publishing fees for any content sold
- • Grooveshark pays all PROs related to streaming
- • Grooveshark pays all hosting, integration fees
I haven’t been able to find an option yet for labels to opt out of the system, but I’m not going to say it doesn’t exist. However, I find it hard to believe they are doing this without first gaining approval. If they are simply posting songs, then selling them, and then trying to get contracts, that’s going to be a major problem.
I’ll try to spend some more time on the site later and give a better overview at that time. In the meantime, if anyone has any experience with Grooveshark, please give your opinions in the comments below.
All said, it does look pretty slick. I’m excited to do some research.
