Time On My Side --- Michael Hedges July 31, 2008 Maybe it escaped your notice but Mick Jagger just turned 65. Two days later the Rolling Stones ditched label EMI for Universal. Jagger has made no other comment on becoming eligible for a free bus pass in the UK. EMI said they were sad. Universal said they were glad. |
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A Shrewd Marketing Ploy By Prince, The Artist Who Formerly Sold His CDs In Stores But Now Has Given Away His Latest With A UK Sunday Newspaper, Has Music Retailers Raging Purple --- Philip Stone July 17, 2007 For Prince, the pop musician from Minneapolis, it was marketing bordering on the genius that has UK CD retailers furious but got the singer untold millions of $€£ in free promotion for his European concert tour. For The Mail on Sunday newspaper it was a marketing gem that probably cost around £500,000 ($1 million) and boosted its circulation by some 500,000 on the day. So, was it a win-win to give away Prince’s new Plant Earth CD and not sell it in the shops? For Prince, absolutely, For the Mail on Sunday the jury is still out. |
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“Five Years Ago, If You Wanted to Carry Around a Thousand Songs in Your Pocket You Carried a Radio. That Has Changed.” --- Michael Hedges April 30, 2007 Media consumers are dancing, en masse, to the new digital beat, awaited, predicted for a generation. Or, so it seems. Media people, those disposed to listen to their customers, have heard the patter turn to rumble and now stampede. Before the gathering dust cloud stifles their offices and golf courses many hope for an early escape to a Caribbean island. Very sorry: there is no buggy, car, airplane or rocket fast enough. |
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Another Bill Collector Pounds At the Internet Door --- Michael Hedges March 7, 2007 Media’s growth engine is the World Wide Web. Not a month goes by without another fact-filled report citing evidence that consumers really like accessing media content through the internet. Not a nano-second goes by without another industry that once made lots of money through traditional media attempting a new extortion on the internet. |
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Virgin’s Deal In the UK To Become A Quadruple Player – Fixed Lines, Mobile, Broadband, and Television – Is A Forerunner of What Will Occur Elsewhere. And Suddenly BSkyB Has A Real Program Competitor On Its Hands -- Watch Those Sports Rights! --- Philip M. Stone December 5, 2005 It’s the kind of deal that, when announced, seemed such a natural, and it propels Sir Richard Branson yet again into the limelight, this time as the biggest shareholder in a company that will deliver broadband to 2.5 million customers, that already has 4.3 million fixed-line accounts, more than five million mobile customers and 3.3 million cable TV subscribers. |
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Playing Nice To Get Lucky --- Michael Hedges February 10, 2014 Follow on Twitter Innovation is often seen as coming from young minds at hard labor fueled by Red Bull and pizza. Some of that is true, particularly the pizza bit. As digital markets mature the other source of innovation is much less frantic and involves coupling needs and wants by finding benefits for all. Of course, everybody wants to get lucky. |
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The Web Turns Professional On Purpose --- Michael Hedges April 17, 2017 Follow on Twitter A notable force in the rise of the World Wide Web has been its facility to engage people. Part of that is due to the ubiquity of internet and now mobile access. But people also just like to share their thoughts, personal and otherwise, and those of others in a rather non-binding way. Anybody can have a blog, website or pages on social media portals and invite others to their world, except in China and a few other places. Some of these are silly, some serious, a few actually become famous and make money. All of this could be coming to an end. |
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Politician Attacks "Crazy Loopholes" --- Michael Hedges October 17, 2014 Follow on Twitter Quotas legally requiring radio broadcasters to broadcast music locally produced or performed in a national language periodically rise to broad debate. The music industry generally loves the idea and radio broadcasters generally hate it. Supporters and critics often cite French and Canadian music content broadcasting laws as proving their respective points. |
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The Copyright Problem Best Solved By Consumers --- Michael Hedges February 18, 2019 - Follow on Twitter The European Commission, Council of the European Union and the European Parliament gave a St. Valentine’s Day treat to those hoping for fit for purpose digital age copyright rules. The EU Copyright Directive, officially Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, was last updated in 2001, three years before Facebook appeared. Failure to reach agreement on copyright rules after all these years would have caused an existential crisis. There are yet more steps but baring the unforeseen - debate within the Member States - this is the legal framework that will govern copyright legislation within the European Union with effects reaching beyond those borders for decades. |
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Lawmakers Toss Publishers Copyright Bill Under The Bus --- Michael Hedges July 5, 2018 - Follow on Twitter Internet freedom has suffered in recent years as trolls, bots, propaganda and hate speech tainted the concept. Still, there are more internet users every minute of every day, most generally pleased to access a sorts of news, information, music, videos, gossip and cat photos. While the internet has offered global access to anything that can be digitized, even dodgy stuff, proximity has been lost. This has not gone unnoticed. |
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