OK, kids, it’s time to climb back into the Terrordome for another round of music biz news and cheeky analysis with yours truly. When you’ve observed this stuff for any stretch of time, you start to notice patterns, the most persistent being that the whole thing is fucked.

But let’s not be overly cynical. After all, music brings joy to the world. Joy, and sometimes even chlamydia.

• Want to sell music in this wacky new marketplace? Come up with an elaborate plan
  This post talks about how no one is making any money off recorded music (duh), but also suggests that the cure for this is to get out of the album/single mindset and go broadly (but strategically) conceptual. While I don’t disagree with the basic premise here, it’s a bit vague, and requires a skill set many musicians simply don’t have. I’m a musician myself, and I’ve increasingly looked for clever ways to leverage my brand (just threw up in my mouth) across my digital assets (oops, I did it again). And it’s worked really well! I’ve heard plenty of hucksters selling new strategies for musicians, and a lot of what they say boils down to “be interesting.” Unfortunately, a lot of artists that are really great at making music happen to be as dull as doornobs. On the other hand, Lady GaGa is “interesting,” but do I want to listen to her music? Negative.

• Cloud music gets better sounding
  And it’s made by Dolby! No, not Thomas Dolby. Although he did blind us with. . . science! This is a “High Efficiency AAC audio codec (part of the MPEG-4 standard) that “offers high quality audio at low bit rates,” and is “designed specifically to ensure no detectable deterioration in sound quality for music on bandwidth-constrained applications.” Maybe it’ll go some way to solving the “digital music sounds like ass” problem we talked about in the comments of my last post. Or not.

• Abbey Road Studios almost put up for sale; rescued by “historic landmark” protection
  EMI owns Abbey Road Studios. EMI is hemorrhaging cash. Hence the “for sale” sign. Well, there’s not gonna be any foreclosures on the horizon, ’cause the British Government has bestowed historic status upon the Fab Four‘s track-laying HQ. The Grade II classification doesn’t prohibit changes to the building but requires that “care must be taken to ensure that any alterations with respect to its character and interest are fully considered.” Which means it won’t be a Ben & Jerry’s like the corner of Haight and Ashbury. Still, I’d love to taste a cone called “Revolution Number Lime.”

• Google pulls music blogs; scribes to leave moms’ basements for first time in decade
  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is the gift that keeps on giving. Because of this legislation, Google is required to take down sites using its Blogger architecture that are in violation of copyright law, lest the search giant be liable for infringement. I don’t disagree with the basic premise that if you’re doing illegal stuff, you should be stopped from doing more of it, but everybody and their hipster brother knows that blogs are a major marketing/promotions engine for today’s music. As a semi-retired music writer who is still deluged with MP3s from labels who hope I’ll post their stuff, I find it a bit disingenuous that these notices of suspected infringement are sent at the same time the labels are pestering people to post tracks without negotiating licenses like they require for every other non-broadcast use. I’m just sayin.’

• Mommy, what’s a fair use?
  Well, my dear, fair use is a part of copyright law that recognizes that there are certain, limited conditions within which a copyrighted work can be used without requiring permission from rightsholders for “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research” without being considered unlawful. Does everyone’s favorite mashup master Girl Talk qualify for this exception? He seems to think so. The law, on the other hand, might not.

And that’s all you get. See you next time inside the Terrordome!

Casey Rae-Hunter is a musician, producer, writer and music/media/tech/policy wonk in Washington, DC. This post does not necessarily reflect the views of his employer. You can harass Casey at his site, The Contrarian.