oh man

things are getting very, very interesting
out there and in here alike

in here 76design is preparing a massive music biz strike
but more of that in a moment…

meanwhile, out there…

• out there we have the RIAA finally winning its first lawsuit against a music fan - a single mom who may now be fined over $200k for having a small collection of downloaded mp3s on her computer!
• out there we have Prince giving away millions (yes millions!) of free copies of his latest CD as newspaper inserts
• out there we now have Radiohead pushing the envelope by treating its new recordings as shareware, allowing users to download mp3s at will and to pay as much as they choose for them, from zilch to whatever
• and out there we have this awesome blog post by Bob Lefsetz, music industry veteran and renowned music biz analyst, in which Bob calls it like it is, pointing to the desperate need for a new business model in the music industry, and ripping the pathetic failure of the mainstream music biz to develop one.

At one point Bob rants:

“The public is no longer unsophisticated. One reason fans are paying Radiohead is because the money is going directly to the band. If they buy the major label product, they believe the money goes to the man, who is SUING THEM!

The fan has no interest in the label’s business model. The fan is just that, SOMEONE DEDICATED TO A BAND’S MUSIC!

How do you get someone dedicated?”

And this - dear readers - is where the rubber hits the road. Very soon now, by the end of this year at the very latest, 76design will unveil a revolutionary music industry platform that specifically addresses these fundamental questions and issues. Bob Lefsetz gets it. He understands exactly where we’re at and why. Bob is asking the right questions at the right time. We at 76design are about to answer them.

Sounds like a lot of hype, right? Well it’s not. Our platform offers fans and bands a simple, efficient and revolutionary new way to manage a mutually satisfying musical economy. It’s so simple and obvious that when we launch people will be kicking themselves and asking why nobody else did this before. Because it is a win-win situation for everyone. Everyone except the labels.

Our secret project is in full production but it is still under wraps. I can’t wait til we get to show you what we’re cooking up. It’s really going to shake things up. In a couple months Bob Lefsetz will have something very new and very exciting to write about.
js