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Forums > Music Business: P2P - Peer To Peer

A professional artist's take on p2p

trancesepted	Date: February 6, 2006 @ 8:40 AM link doesnt work so ill paste whatevers left on the cache. Dean, Katie. "Winwood: Roll With P2P, Baby". Wired News. Lycos Inc. Jul 9 2004. _Winwood: Roll With P2P_ Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steve Winwood dipped a toe in largely untested waters this summer by giving away a track from his latest album on peer-to-peer networks. The experiment appears to be working out. In the past month, Winwood's label has seen a noticeable increase in record sales thanks to a promotion that included releasing a free song and video over file-trading services. The campaign was part of an experiment in whether peer-to-peer can be used to create buzz around an artist and drive up sales. Winwood's independent record label, Wincraft Music, said sales of About Time have sold up to eight times the number of records in some regions since June 15 when an audio file of one track, Dear Mr. Fantasy, made its way on to peer-to-peer networks. At the same time, a video of Winwood performing the song live and another video of a rehearsal were distributed on Limewire, eDonkey and RazorPop. The album has also been promoted through television commercials. "There's really no other medium that can reach the quantity of people in such a meaningful way in such a cost-effective manner," said Lisa Protter, a spokeswoman for the Jun Group, a marketing firm which coordinated the release of the digital media files. Winwood, a Grammy-winning musician who recorded his first hit, "Gimme Some Lovin'" as a member of the Spencer Davis Group in 1963, was once the epitome of the major label artist. His musical career included stints with the groups Traffic and Blind Faith and culminated with the solo album, Back in the High Life, which earned Grammy awards for best male pop vocal and record of the year in 1986. Now, as an independent, Winwood has more freedom to try novel ways of promoting his music. For the About Time album, his label agreed to go along with a marketing company that pitched the idea of working with P2P networks. The Winwood downloads are sponsored by entertainment program Access Hollywood. At the beginning of each file is a small promotion for the show. Hearst-Argyle Television conceived the idea as a way to promote both the TV show and musician. The music files drive traffic to the TV show's website, where a fan can buy Winwood's album and learn more about him. "I look at peer-to-peer as a way to create more chances for people to actually hear the music and become aware of the music," said Marv Danielski, vice president of marketing for Hearst-Argyle Television. "There are some artists who are not going to be heard on the typical radio stations. We're not dealing with an artist like Nelly or Beyonce who gets all the airplay." Based on early results, Kevin Morris, general manager of Wincraft Music, said the P2P experiment appears to have worked out well. Still, Morris said it is difficult to identify the overall effect of P2P because some of the increase in sales could be attributed to television advertising. Yet he maintained that the file trading networks are "a good way to promote new releases and create a buzz around an artist." Although Wincraft credits the P2P promotion for helping to increase sales of Winwood's album, it certainly hasn't vaulted the release to the top of the charts. But for indie artists, every bit of publicity counts. "Every artist would do this if they were able," said Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, which monitors downloads on peer-to-peer networks. "I've never met an artist that wasn't looking for every possible opportunity to expose more people to their music in new ways." Using data from BigChampagne, and factoring in estimates for downloads from discussion groups, chat rooms and FTP servers, Jun Group estimated that 2.5 million copies of the song have been downloaded. "We were surprised at how much interest there was, particularly for the video files," said Garland. "I would expect to see more and more creative new attempts (from artists) to reach an audience online." The success is encouraging to peer-to-peer advocates at a time when some members of Congress seem poised to Chuck D the technology completely. "The major record companies are very quick to single out peer-to-peer for all their financial woes," said Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "I hope they are equally willing to recognize the unique marketing opportunities that peer-to-peer offers artists like Steve Winwood." The Recording Industry Association of America declined to comment. Winwood isn't the only artist to embrace P2P. Rapper Chuck D expressed strong support for P2P at a congressional hearing, referring to the technology as "power to the people." "You can't stop peer-to-peer technologies, so the industry really faces an overwhelming challenge," Garland said. "Here, Steve Winwood offers us yet another good example of why the Internet works."
trancesepted	Date: February 6, 2006 @ 8:41 AM http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:zBbL5wFWFIgJ:www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64128,00.html%3Ftw%3Dwn_tophead_3+%22steve+winwood%22+p2p&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a
GeneHilbert	Date: February 6, 2006 @ 9:51 AM Touché Steve..... Here’s a John Barleycorn to you
TameasDust	Date: February 6, 2006 @ 11:17 PM "Suing music fans is not the solution; it's the problem," says the chief executive of the Canadian music label, which will pay for the man's defense. By Antone Gonsalves TechWeb News Jan 27, 2006 06:50 PM A major Canadian record company has taken the unusual step of hiring a defense lawyer for a man accused by the U.S. record industry of downloading hundreds of songs illegally. The Nettwerk Music Group said it would pay for the defense of David Greubel, a father of four children who is the defendant in a complaint filed by the Record Industry Association of America in a U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas. Greubel is accused of having on the family computer 600 music files suspected of being illegally downloaded from file-sharing services. Among the files is the song "Sk8er Boi" by artist Avril Lavigne, who is a client of Nettwerk. "Suing music fans is not the solution; it's the problem," Terry McBride, chief executive of Nettwork, said in a statement this week. In defending the RIAA's action, spokesman Jonathan Lamy said Friday in an email, "Stealing another person's property is theft, it's against the law and breaking the law must carry consequences or no one will think twice." Lamy said downloading music illegally deprived labels, songwriters and musicians of their "hard-earned royalties." McBride, however, disagreed, saying litigation doesn't benefit artists. “Litigation is not ‘artist development,’" McBride said. "Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love. The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists’ best interests.” Nettwerk has hired Chicago-based Mudd Law Offices to represent Greubel. Attorney Charles Lee Mudd Jr. has represented individuals subpoenaed and sued by the RIAA since 2003. The record company said it would also pay any fines should the family lose the case. The RIAA is seeking a $9,000 stipulated judgment as a penalty, but would accept $4,500, if Greubel pays the amount within a specific period of time, Nettwerk said. The record company became involved when Greubel's 15-year-old daughter Elisa contacted Nettwerk rap artist MC Lars, saying she could relate to his tune, "Download This Sing," because her family was being sued by the RIAA. "You can't fight them, trying could possibly cost us millions," Elisa Greubel said in an email, according to Nettwerk. "The line, ‘they sue little kids downloading hit songs,’ basically sums a lot of the whole thing up. I'm not saying it is right to download, but the whole lawsuit business is a tad bit outrageous.” Mudd declined Friday to discuss his legal strategy against the RIAA, until he files his response to the complaint, which is due Feb. 24. In general, however, Mudd said the RIAA has "misused" U.S. copyright law, and said the people he has represented against the industry trade group are average Joes who get caught in litigation for doing something they didn't realize was illegal. "The people I represent are not the thieves that the RIAA has made them out to be," Mudd said. "They are consumers using consumer products and software -- average individuals like you and I who find themselves in a situation that they had no idea they would be in." Mudd claimed that nearly all his clients would have stopped downloading music, if they had received a warning from the RIAA before it filed a lawsuit. The current case is unusual in that Greubel, through the backing of Nettwerk, may have the money to fight the RIAA through the courts, Mudd said. Cases similar to Greubel's have seldom even gone to trial, with most defendants avoiding further litigation by agreeing to pay the RIAA. http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticl e.jhtml?articleID=177104855
BlackMage	Date: February 11, 2006 @ 3:12 PM