Skip to content →

Category: music

Inconvenience Doesn’t Scale

Ian Roger’s of Yahoo is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it any more. He’s not going to spend any more of Yahoo’s money on Music Industry control of the user’s experience of digitial music. Roger’s piece was well timed, first Prince, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, then Oasis and Jamiroquai. The RIAA has won a lawsuit, but they’ve lost the war. This is a general truth of interaction design: inconvenience doesn’t scale. Only a small percentage of users will tolerate a high level of inconvenience and friction. The music industry has never been creative, they’ve fed on the creativity of others. Because they can’t innovate, they call their lawyers.икони

Comments closed

Music Unchained

Prince gives away thousands of free CDs to support his tour. RadioHead decides that fans should pay whatever they want for their new CD. Nine Inch Nails starts selling directly from their website. There’s CD Baby, and even the Pod Safe Music Network. Something is happening, and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?

With very few exceptions, musicians don’t make money by selling recorded music. Musicians make money by playing live shows. Records are promotional items. Don’t buy advertising, give records away. Music isn’t a recording, music is live. It’s different every time.

Comments closed