Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog

The White Book, by Ken Mansfield

Just when you thought you had read and seen everything about The Beatles...  Author Ken Mansfield provides one of the more entertaining and fascinating books about the Fab Four in years.  The White Book isn't just another Beatles book because Mansfield isn't just another music critic with a new angle; he's the guy who used to run the U.S. arm of Apple Records, the label started by The Beatles.

The White Book is loaded with stories and photos that I've never seen before, and believe me when I tell you I've gone through my share of Beatles books.  In addition to the many unique photos of the band, there are also pictures of memorabilia and letters.  It was interesting to read not just the facts about each event/document but Mansfield's behind-the-scenes explanations, the real insider's perspective.

Mansfield's music experience isn't limited to The Beatles and neither is the coverage in this book.  He dedicates the latter part of the book to his work with other big names such as James Taylor, Waylon Jennings, David Cassidy and several others.  The White Book is a wonderful book and one that every Beatle fan needs for their collection.

All You Can Eat iTunes: What Could It Mean for Books?

There's renewed speculation that Apple could be working on an unlimited music subscription model similar to the Rhapsody model.  The deal appears to hinge on Apple sharing part of the hardware sales revenue with the record labels.

As I mentioned in this post late last year, an unlimited content model for books could be a very interesting option for the Kindle.  Amazon probably wouldn't be too keen on sharing their hardware revenue with publishers but if it makes sense in the music world...

As long as Amazon is unable to keep up with Kindle backorders they probably have no incentive to consider a service like this.  But once manufacturing catches up with demand this could be the spark that really ignites the e-book market.  And keep in mind it would just be another option for customers to consider.  Kindle owners would be free to buy one book at a time as they always have, just like Apple would still offer single track sales even if they eventually add an all-you-can-eat option to iTunes.

Why I'm Probably Dropping XM Radio in 2008 (Hint: Zune Rocks!)

I owe Microsoft a huge apology.  I poked fun at them 18 months ago when they announced their Zune product.  To be fair, the first generation of the Zune was kind of laughable and it didn't take off.  That was then and this is now...

My son asked for an 80-gig Zune for Christmas and we wound up getting him one.  I couldn't understand why he was so interested in the Zune, but once he opened it and got it up and running I finally understood.  What a cool product.  The features are admittedly similar to what you'd find on an iPod, but with one significant difference: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you can't get an all-you-can-download subscription model on iTunes.  That's the key feature that's likely to win me over.

I mentioned my interest in unlimited content in this post last month.  I'm bringing it up again because I've now had my XM Radio device for a couple of years and I find myself using it less and less.  Why?  The channels are starting to sound like the same old thing, just like terrestrial radio.  XM is still light years better than the old AM/FM combo, but it's not the perfect solution for my musical interests.  I find myself wanting to press fast-forward far too frequently when listening to an XM station.  It's live radio though so that's not possible, of course.  For roughly the same monthly fee I pay XM today I could load up an 80-gig monster Zune and fast-forward to my heart's content.

Unfortunately, I won't be upgrading to a Zune anytime soon.  I simply don't have enough in my piggy bank to come close to the $250 price tag, I'm afraid.  Besides, I'm still getting a lot of mileage out of my "El Cheapo" MP3 player.  My hope is to scrape together enough nickels and dimes to get an 80-gig Zune later this year.  When I do, I'll see what I can get for my XM Inno on eBay.

In the mean time, Microsoft, I'm sorry.  You really surprised me with this very cool product.

David Byrne Summarizes Music Industry

David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) wrote an excellent Wired article summarizing the current state of the music industry.  He compares and contrasts six different distribution models and highlights the level of artist control in each.  For anyone who thinks iTunes is the artists salvation, be sure to check out the illustrations Byrne provides; they indicate that the inefficient CD distribution model is generally more lucrative for the artists, even with a higher artist royalty rate for iTunes sales.

As you read this article, think about the book publishing world, print vs. e-content, online vs. brick-and-mortar distribution, etc.  There are a number of differences, for sure, but there are quite a few parallels as well.

Who Needs a Pricey iPod? Not Me!

I'm a big fan of the Creative Labs family of MP3 players.  My 40-gig Creative player is now 3 or 4 years old and works as well as the day I bought it.  My son has one too and my daughters both have Flash RAM models that they absolutely love.

I found myself in the local Apple store recently and was enamored with the iPod touch product.  Very cool, but I couldn't see myself taking that $300+ device out with me while I mow the lawn, for example.  (On a related note, I asked a co-worker this week if he is an Apple fan.  He said he must be, because his family owns 4 iPods, but then he also noted that 3 of the 4 are broken...)

I've been thinking about getting a smaller player that fits in my shirt pocket but I hate it that all the Flash-based ones have such limited capacity.  I keep wishing someone would include an SD card slot to address this issue.  Yeah, I know...the manufacturers want us to feel the need to upgrade from 2 gigs to 4, 4 gigs to 8, etc.

My wish came true this week.  Fry's is selling a 1-gig player with an SD slot from GPX for $19.99.  Yes, that's right.  $19.99.  This thing is as ugly as the iPod is beautiful, but I don't care.  I'm not going to sit around staring at it all day.  I just want it to produce great sound.  And boy, does it ever!

I loaded it up last night and then stopped back by Fry's this morning to pick up the first of 2 or 3 2-gig SD cards (on sale for $14.99).  I plan to load them up with different genres of music so I can just pop one in to fit my mood, press "random" and enjoy my wonderfully inexpensive solution.

If I buy 2 more cards I will have invested $65 plus tax and probably won't need to buy another device for another 3 or 4 years, depending on how long this one lasts.  Heck, even if it only lasts a year, for $20, how could I possibly complain?!

62% Paid Nothing for Radiohead Album

An experiment like the Radiohead project is bound to have pros and cons.  This report indicates that 62% of those who downloaded the album in a 4-week period last month didn't pay anything for it.  The price they chose was zero.  That was certainly a viable option, although it's disappointing to see that the majority chose it.

Does that make this experiment a failure?  Far from it.  There are a lot of numbers swirling around out there and even if you could pinpoint the total revenue to date, don't you need to wait and add in the sales from the physical CD product to get the full picture?  The band certainly came out ahead for every copy that was bought at a price higher than their per-unit royalty amount.  And who knows how many people will come back and buy the physical CD/box product after downloading the music alone

Based on what I've seen so far I think this was a worthwhile venture for the band and I'll bet they agree.  But, it's important to factor in the CD sales before making any sort of judgment.  More importantly, what about all those people who never listened to Radiohead before, downloaded the album for free and are now fans, ready to buy future products, attend concerts, etc.?  We'll never know the impact of this segment.

Booksquare on Radiohead and Stephen King

Kassia Krozser writes the Booksquare blog, one of the most insightful and entertaining publishing blogs on the planet.  In a post from earlier this week she talks about the successful recent Radiohead experiment and compares it to the not so successful Stephen King experiment with The Plant several years ago.

Kassia stresses the importance of using a model like this to build a mailing list and selling other products and services.  I couldn't agree more, but, I also feel something is missing here.  All these authors out there, struggling on their own to build enough traffic, repeat visitors and visibility seems like a formula for frustration if not failure.

I'm wondering if a better model isn't one where authors work together to create a single site where all of them can reach out together.  HarperCollins is doing this with their AuthorAssistant program, but even that might be too narrowly focused; if you're not an HC author where can you turn, for example?

So here's an idea for some enterprising person: Create a site where all authors can come and create their online presence, build their mailing lists, offer their additional content, etc.  Offer useful templates and examples newbies can use to help them build their site as quickly as possible.  There's strength in numbers with this and a federation of author sites is likely to be much more successful than everyone trying to do it on their own.  Plus, if designed properly, this site could help introduce visitors to new authors/books that they otherwise might never have come across.  Think of the sizable mailing list this could generate...

What Can Be Learned from Guitar Hero?

Well that's certainly an odd question, isn't it?  After all, what does the wildly popular video game Guitar Hero have to do with book publishing world?  I asked myself that question after I read this article in the latest issue of BusinessWeek.

Five years ago, would anyone in the music industry have thought that this game would help create a new revenue stream?  Sure, it's a tiny revenue stream, but (a) it's a start and, more importantly, (b) as the article notes, it's an excellent promotional tool for other revenue streams.  Games also represent the sort of sticky experience advertisers and media types love.  People tend to spend hours and hours playing these darned things and the opportunities to expose customers to new products, services, etc., are endless.

Am I suggesting that we can somehow weave the content of a programming book into a video game?  Of course not.  But what about content that's more relevant and can become part of the product experience?  For example, maybe there are some great tips in Guitars For Dummies that could find their way into this product.  I'm not talking about random content placement; perhaps the game could evolve to where knowledge of this information is required to advance to the next level, earn points, etc.  That exposure raises brand awareness and probably results in additional book sales.  Simple, but effective.

Yeah, I know that's a bit of a stretch, but this model is worth keeping an eye on.  You can bet the music industry is paying attention.

Why Universal's Total Music Idea Won't Work

When I first read about UMG's Total Music project I thought, "yeah, that's for me."  But the more I think about it the more I realize they'll never pull it off.

UMG wants to create a new iTunes competitor that's totally free...well, sort of free.  They essentially want to mimic the "razor and blades" model, but in this case, the blades (songs) would be free once you buy the razor (player).  I love it, so where can it go wrong?

For starters, the hardware vendors would have to pay the labels $5/month as long as that player is in service.  That means the hardware companies need to build that cost into the price of the unit.  The BusinessWeek article linked to earlier says the typical player is used for about 18 months before the owner upgrades to a newer model, so they figure the music will cost about $90 over the life of the player (18 months x $5/month).

That sounds reasonable on the surface, but what sort of player price does that create?  When you factor in retailer discounts it quickly becomes something north of $100 that's added to the typical non-iPod pricing levels you see today.  That means these Total Music devices would likely cost more than an iPod.  I figure there are two types of consumers out there buying players: One group, and obviously the largest group, willingly pays a premium for the Apple name while the other group won't pay the premium.  Which one of these is going to switch to Total Music?  If you're willing to pay a premium you're probably more likely to buy an iPod, not a Total Music device.

Then there's this whole 18-month life cycle question.  While the majority of consumers probably do upgrade every 18 months or so, I'll bet many of those old units become hand-me-downs for someone else.  Some wind up unused in a drawer but many get sold on eBay or passed along to a friend, child, etc.  In these cases, the proposed $5/month revenue stream from hardware vendor to label doesn't end at the upgrade point.  Would the hardware vendors really sign up for an almost endless $5/month payment liability?  I doubt it, and even if they could cap it at, say, 24 months, then the artists would raise a stink for not getting paid for their songs in those later months/years.

It would be fun to see someone challenge the Apple/iTunes monster.  I'm just not convinced this is the right formula.

Kids & Intellectual Property: Where Have We Failed?

Here's a disturbing article from The New York Times.  On the surface, it's yet another story of the mean, old RIAA going after a supposedly poor, defenseless college student for stealing a song or two.  The more I thought about how this particular student reacted and what he said though, the more irritated I became.

Here's a college student (Zachary McCune) at one of the nation's finest institutions admitting that he had been warned before and "his eyes glazed over", "it was a campus cliché" and he "quickly forgot about it."  This is the sort of person who gets pulled over twice for speeding, is issued warnings both times and then becomes outraged when the third incident results in an expensive fine.

This experience pushed McCune into action: He co-founded the local chapter of Students for Free Culture.  Great idea.  I tend to agree that the language and spirit of our laws need to be revisited from time to time, especially when technology comes into play.  The group apparently has roots tied to Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture book.  (It's a great book and I reviewed it earlier here.)

Although Lessig presents numerous interesting cases and models, I seriously doubt he'd ever advocate stealing content.  That's the point students like McCune need to understand.  It's perfectly fine to swap and share in the open source world, for example, but you need to respect IP ownership in the world of copyright.  So by all means, go ahead and build, contribute to and otherwise support the exchange of free content and ideas via the use of the Creative Commons license, but don't try to apply the exact same terms to other products that are protected under other models.  I firmly believe both can co-exist and thrive, but only if everyone abides by the laws.

This reminds me that I need to sit down with my own kids and make sure they're clear on all this...