In one of the longest-running rumors in the online music realm, Amazon.com has officially (and finally) announced that it will open a digital music store. The store will include EMI’s entire catalog and 12,000 other record labels, available as MP3s, all without that pesky DRM that everyone’s been arguing about for years.

While eMusic has been in the MP3 game for quite some time, this is significant because it is such a large online player offering the entire catalog of a major label without copy-restrictions. General competition is good, but having more online offerings for music sans restrictions is even better. What remains to be seen is whether the DRM-free model will ultimately help the overall bottom line. It has certainly worked on me (I’m still an eMusic subsrciber and rare user of the iTunes Music Store).

For more details and some exclusive information on timing and pricing, check out Hypebot‘s post on the subject.

So grab your afternoon coffee and check it out after the jump…

Ticket Scene:
Live Nation to offer event tickets [Variety]
This new is further evidence that Live Nation is pushing further into the ticketing side of the concert industry. I’ve mentioned it before, but the fact that their contract with Ticketmaster will be expiring soon makes me think that they’ve got some big plans on the horizon for this area of business.

Nokia, Live Nation Partner For Ticket Rush [Billboard]
I think this is a good step for the company. Anything that makes it easier for fans to buy concert tickets is good in my book. Live Nation has really been on the warpath, gobbling up concert venues and making big partnerships like this one. I think 2007 will be an interesting year as Live Nation hones its digital strategy and continues to push away from its Clear Channel roots.

Warner Signs Secondary Ticket Deal With Viagogo [Billboard]
Viagogo is basically a European version of Stubhub — which is the major U.S. player in the “secondary market” for event tickets (didn’t we used to call this scalping?). I find it interesting that labels are getting into this “secondary ticket market” game. They’re obviously interested in grabbing some of this extra cash generated by tickets after the original sale. But you’d think they might find a better way to deal with this. Why not offer the tickets for auction from the get-go instead of dealing with the “secondary” market auctions?

Ticketmaster Layers Free Downloads Into Ticket Purchases [Digital Music News]

And Bob Lefsetz immediately rips into them with another solid rant.

This move makes sense for both Ticketmaster and iTunes, but I still think that this isn’t nearly as potent an idea as the inverse for ticket sales — which I’ve previously discussed. Putting ticket sales alongside digital downloads and on social networks seems like an obvious next step, yet it has really taken off substantially. Two exceptions..

Social Networks:
iLike To Launch Concert Features [Billboard]
Social network/music discovery site, iLike.com, recently partnered with Ticketmaster to add concert ticket sales alongside artist tour dates and listings. Good move, but it would be much better if they weren’t only limited to Ticketmaster’s offerings. Wouldn’t it be great if people had what they really want: better alternatives to the infamous ‘Ticketbastard?’

Showclix is the other music social networking site that is attempting to put concert ticket sales in context with artist’s tour dates. But it is still quite young and has not generated as much press as MySpace, Last.fm, or even iLike.

Last.FM Augments Offerings with Streaming Video [Wired's Listening Post]
Another site making news this week is Last.fm, which is one of the most popular social networking sites for music. The site continues to build a dedicated following by adding great features and generally doing things right. Last.fm is now making another big leap by adding streaming videos to its online offerings. Although I doubt that it will truly be a “YouTube killer,” I think that Last.fm’s content partnerships will help combat any potential lawsuits and make for better quality video offerings (two issues that have plagued YouTube).

Snocap Spins Live Performances, Positions Show Downloads [Digital Music News]
And there’s always the social networking behemoth that is MySpace. Last September, Snocap and MySpace partnered to offer artists the ability to sell digital tracks directly from their MySpace page via Snocap’s ‘MyStore’ widgets. Snocap is now going to be launching a ‘live in the studio” series to offer live tracks as well.

Digital Downloads:
eMusic has been popping up quite a bit since it’s business model was discussed at last week’s NARM conference here in Chicago. Mainly at issue is eMusic’s lower payouts to labels and artists in comparison to iTunes. There were some reports late last week that suggested some key indie labels would be pulling their catalogs from the service. eMusic CEO David Pakman ended up having to defend eMusic’s business model on the company’s blog. If you want a more detailed take on eMusic, Hypebot has (finally) started its series on the digital music retailer, with lots of good info and analysis.

Phew! That’s a lot to digest!

I wanted to briefly congratulate Gov’t Mule for selling its one-millionth digital download through MuleTracks, its independent online music store (run by MusicToday). As a key player in the live music scene, it’s great to see a band like Gov’t Mule prospering by selling music directly to its fans.

Billboard reports:

Illustrating the ongoing effort by artists to establish direct digital connections with fans, jam band Gov’t Mule recently celebrated the sale of more than 1 million song downloads since October from its own Web site.

The site, operated by MusicToday, makes available every concert the band has performed since October 2004, all in unprotected MP3 format. MusicToday is owned by Live Nation and operates the fan sites and order fulfillment processes-both physical and digital-for a large number of artists.

Gov’t Mule Hits Digital Milestone [Billboard]

Gov’t Mule is one of many bands who continue to see the direct-to-fan approach as a way to succeed. Like many other bands, they’re finding success by offering tracks as MP3 or FLAC files, both file types that are free of DRM. We just saw eMusic hit a big milestone a couple weeks back, when it announced it had hit 300,000 subscribers. It reached this milestone also by selling unprotected MP3s, further exhibiting the larger trend of music being sold without DRM.

Anyone heard of any other bands or online retailers hitting similar digital milestones? I’m sure there are more out there…

(thanks to commenter, Ross, for reminding me that MuleTracks also offers downloads in the lossless FLAC format as well as MP3)

I really like my eMusic subscription. it provides me with a nice, reasonably-priced way to check out new music and independent bands. I offered a similar post to congratulate eMusic’s 100 millionth download (back in December when I was still running LMM). I like the eMusic model and have already downloaded a ton of tracks that I might not have discovered on my own.

But after being an eMusic subscriber for some time — and a live music fanatic for even longer — I have an eMusic gripe:

What’s with the weak catalog for eMusic live?

Read more after the jump…

What’s going on here? I haven’t seen anything new added to eMusic Live for months. Why has eMusic Live gotten so over-looked in comparison to other areas of their catalog? Do they think their subscribers don’t like live music? Are they too set on album-centric Indie Rock?

eMusic, I still love ya. But as a loyal subscriber, I’d like to see you expand your live offerings. So, here’s my crazy suggestion: try partnering with Nugs.net and its LiveDownloads.com sites.

Now I realize that Brad Serling’s little jamband soundboard empire might not really need eMusic. But I think a partnership could bring some solid benefits to both eMusic and Nugs.net. eMusic could quickly gain a core group of new subscribers by listing some key bands from the LiveDownloads catalog. Most of the fans of these bands are not only live music fans, but are generally prodigious music fans in general. Also, I think these fans would really embrace the idea of having a subscription model for their favorite bands’ concert recordings.

LiveDownloads.com might not have quite as much to gain in this partnership, but I think they could certainly make some gains by selling in bulk and gaining a lot more attention. One of my issues with the LiveDownloads model is that I just don’t always want to spend a full $10 on a show. With a subscription model, I know I’d be much more likely to grab a random concert recording of a band I’ve never heard before or download multiple shows from some of my favorites live acts. Who knows, Nugs.net might even attract some different types of bands into the livedownloads.com network?

Any other eMusic subscribers out there feel the same way?

It also gives users the ability to chat about the songs as they listen. But beyond the chatting feature, I’m not exactly sure how “Hype Radio” is all that different than the “pop-up flash player” option that Hype Machine still allows. I suppose it could eventually replace the flash player? Either way, it’s great to see the Hype Machine making some changes. Perhaps this is part of that whole “Hype Machine 2.0” thing we heard about a few weeks ago?

So that was pretty much my post until I caught the news about a decision by the Copyright Royalty Board. Next.Net has a good run-down no the issue, explaining:

Small Internet radio stations and startups who rely on cheap music streaming may be put out of business by a decision of the Copyright Royalty Board upholding an earlier ruling that would nearly triple the royalty rates on music streamed over the Web.

Although I try not to jump into every over-hyped “cause” without thoroughly looking at the other side’s argument. But after a few decent reads, I really think the smaller broadcasters and Internet radio stations have some good points. They’ve banded together to form the “Save Net Radio” coalition, and will be making a last-chance attempt at an appeal to the Board’s decicion.

The question that I have is whether this decision — if it goes into effect — will really hurt the fledgling web radio stations like this new Hype Radio? Will they be able to afford the higher royalty rates? Will they be less affected because the music they’re streaming is more independent and under the radar?

If you missed it, there’s been a ton of blog chatter about it. But if you don’t have time to read all the other posts, here’s a quick run-down of the key elements:

-EMI’s entire catalogue will be available on iTunes free of DRM (copy-protection)
-Tracks will be available at higher bit-rates (256 kbps in place of 128) – which should lead to better audio quality
-The new tracks will cost $1.29 (a $0.30/track jump up from the standard $0.99/track cost)
-Complete albums will be sold in the higher bit rate but at the same cost (automatically)
-EMI will also offer other retail partners the opportunity to sell unprotected file formats

So this is definitely big news, but my sense is that it is mainly a big deal because of the symbolism: a major label finally giving in and dropping its stubborn stance on DRM. In the current state of the music industry, that’s a big deal. Of course, my cynical side says this is just as much about creating additional hype. In practical terms, I’m pretty doubtful this move will create a huge change in consumer behavior, (especially with the higher price tags), but symbolism and hype can certainly be powerful forces.

Now the key element will be how the other Major labels react. Will another Major follow suit with a similar change? Or will all the big dogs just hold back and watch how the EMI’s experiment goes? I think it is the reaction to EMI’s change that will really be what make a difference…and as said, the reaction in terms of hype has already been deafening.

So the other Majors can now sit back and watch how the “no-DRM experiment” works out. They might eventually jump in the game with their own experimentation, but they may see that it’s effects are small and hold off even longer. So I’m not so sure this will have the big over-arching effects that most consumers really want to see.

A few more observations after the jump…

Does the major music-buying public really care?
Honestly, I don’t know. I think the DRM debate tends to get a bit blown out of proportion, especially in the blog world. I know I care, but I know plenty of people who don’t or who don’t even know what DRM is. So is this just the latest hype in the blogosphere or will it open the average consumer’s eyes?

Incentives to buy albums (rather than individual tracks):
Some of the more interesting developments are Apple’s recent policy changes that offer incentives to buy albums. Hypebot reports:

In a move that other retailers are sure to mimic, iTunes will offer full album downloads for the current $9.99 price and 20-30 cent song “upgrades” to DRM free for those who have bought tracks previously.

Apple also recently revealed the “complete my album” option that allows consumers who’ve bought a few tracks from an artist, buy the full album at a reduced rate. I think these are both solid, artist-friendly moves that other digital music retailers will definitely seek to replicate. Speaking of other retailers, a lot of folks think that this move might actually help their situation in terms of competing with the iPod/iTunes behemoth.

Higher Bit Rates
This is probably the most surprising news. And as somewhat of a nerdy audiophile, I think I dig this news more than the average consumer. And, I think most readers of this site probably feel the same way, considering the number of folks who have probably downloaded music in a lossless file format from the Live Music Archive or grabbed a FLAC torrent off of Etree. So to all of us audiophiles, this will likely appear to be a step in the right direction. But I’m not sure anyone in the general public will significantly alter his/her buying habits because of a higher bitrate.

Higher prices and consumer confusion?
If anything, my sense is that the higher price tags and additional options might just make the buying process more confusing. The added options create a level of complexity to the purchasing process — one that consumers might just not want to even think about. Just think about the process…”should I shell out an extra $0.30/track or just grab the $0.99/tracks?” And that doesn’t even factor in the enormous amount of people who just opt for “free.” Lastly, hasn’t Steve Jobs been completely set against “Variable pricing” since day one? Isn’t this just another form of variable pricing?

From the LMB perspective
While all of these are key elements and considerations, I actually have a completely different take. When I really put on my “live music blog” hat, I start thinking along these lines:

There is just so much fuss over the sale of these little digital tracks (I mean look at the sheer amount of media attention this story has garnered)…..so much hemming and hawing about easily copied bits of code and how to balance all these competing interests — from the major labels’ stubborn stance against unprotected Mp3s to the rabid music fans that think any kind of DRM is another nail in the coffin of “Fair Use.” And, again, these are the people who tend to be the more lawful customers (we’re hardly even talking about the dreaded “file-sharers” who play a huge role in the minds of Major label CEOs everywhere!).

Yet, what’s fascinating to me is that so many of the bands that end up on the pages this site hardly even need to deal with these issues. Sure, they’d like their albums on iTunes, they might have some tracks up on eMusic, but most actively touring bands know where their bread and butter is: playing concerts! They promote themselves by giving away lots of music and getting people to shows, allowing fans to tape and trade live recordings, and generally by getting fans interested, involved, and obsessed…This was an almost accidental “business model” utilized by the Grateful Dead, later perfected by bands like Phish, and now put to use by thousands of bands in a variety of innovative ways (and not just those in the “jamband” category either!).

So, in the context of the live music scene, when bands can find success by selling a mix of concert tickets, recordings of those concerts, and merchandise, doesn’t all this seem like a lot of fuss over tracks that sell for $0.99 a piece or less?

Haven’t had enough? Read more:
Hypebot has solid in-depth coverage

Digital Music News is on it

Coolfer(includes a link to the webcast of the press conference for the truly obsessed) and also has some analysts’ reactions

Engadget has a solid write-up that formulaically pokes holes in the entire charade to show us it’s a bit more of a ploy….and they’re already looking to Microsoft’s Zune for the next DRM-change.

Bob Lefsetz, as usual, thinks this move is ‘irrelevant!’ in yet another classic Lefsetz rant. He then proceeds to call out Steve Jobs on the European politics of the decision with some great points.

Fred Wilson has a pretty positive take.

I’m sure there’s more, but these are our favs.

Last week, I briefly noted the big hullabaloo over Apple’s Steve Jobs writing an open to letter to the major labels castigating them for continuing to use DRM. Since then, there have been a lot of great responses across the web. These were two of my favorites:

• Wired’s ‘Cult of Mac’ blog wonders why iTunes doesn’t already sell some MP3s?

• Micheal Robertson, original founder of MP3.com, responds with a challenge to Jobs to back up his rhetoric with action, including suggestions to open up the closed iPod/iTunes system, make iTunes for Linux, and sell music in open formats (similar to above)

• Michael Robertson is also the head of another digital music company, MP3tunes.com, which has just announced that it will offer free unlimited music storage for anyone through its music locker technology, called “Oboe” (a Q&A about the new service is available here). So What’s the catch? Well, there’s only a few: 1) it’s ad-supported, 2) files cannot be copy-restricted and 3) they must be under 10MB

• EMI is looking at possibility of saying goodbye to DRM and releasing music as unrestricted MP3s

• Will the Beatles catalog go digital?

• Could music sold without DRM end up costing us less?

• A new study Says P2P music piracy has little affect on CD sales (which continues to be widely-held belief and a relentless talking point by major labels and the RIAA)

• Apparently, not everyone’s poo-pooing the major labels. The White Stripes may sign to Warner Bros (WMG)

• Also, WMG and social networking site Last.fm recently inked a partnership, Last.fm’s first deal with a major label. Good move by WMG in my opinion.

• And last but not least, one of my favorite indie labels, Ropeadope Records, has officially launched its innovative digital-only imprint.

I particularly liked Andy Hurwitz’s letter to the Ropeadope email list (available after the jump)…

“Hey humans –

Wanted to share my giddy feelings about ropeadope digital – our new imprint that launches today. While we will still release a few traditional cds (the Harlem experiment and marco benevento live at tonic are in the mix as we speak) the digital only label will be the big thing. Why? (i) it doesn’t pay for us to put out cds anymore – in case you didn’t hear, the music business is a scam and we’re trying to create our own model; (ii) it’s better for the artists – they will keep ownership of their recordings (we just get a short license to sell them on line) (iii) it finally let’s us get back to why we started ropeadope in the first place – finding great music and putting it out regardless of whether or not the distributors or retail likes whether it sells ten copies or 10,000 copies. But really, from a practical perspective who buys CDs anymore? We looked around our fake-office where we have teenagers and guys in their late 40s and nobody was buying CDs!

Not to mention the fact that there’s nowhere left to buy CDs even if we wanted them! To us, it was a no-brainer. Is this the future? Nah, we feel like it’s the present. The disc is dead. Long live the disc. Today we are proud to release our inaugural class of 6 – the first batch of ropeadope digital – a little sumpin’ for everyone – from hip-hop to avant rock, new breed r&b to old school jazz – we’ve got the goods. And it don’t stop, On the first Tuesday of every month we’ll release 2 new “records” (next up next month you’ll taste the flavor of Philly’s hip hop phenoms the “burn down all-stars” and Iceland’s minimalistic treat “sketches for albinos”……so put some helmets on your ears and get ready for the ride. it’s gonna be fun. Get started with a few hors d’oeuvres – click here to download a free sampler of this month’s releases. Click here to buy the records.“

Andy Hurwitz
Ropeadope Records”

—————————–

Think you’ve got a heady link for us? Feel free to send them our way at vibes@livemusicblog.com and we’ll try to take a look…

This meme has been toiling around the Internets over the last 24 hours and music fans, techies, and digital music gurus have largely hailed it as a significant step towards ending DRM (jobs the “hero”??).

It’s definitely a bold move by Jobs to call out the Majors on DRM, and I think I agree with Bruce at Hypebot that it’s probably more about posturing against the big labels than actually making any significant change. Of course, Jobs hasn’t told us music fans anything new. Wrapping tracks in restrictions software doesn’t work and, if anything, punishes the folks who are actually willing to legally purchase digital music.

A lot of folks have been saying DRM will die by the end of 2007, but I’m not so sure. The major labels for years have been stubbornly avoiding any possible changes while they figure out what the hell to do in the digital music era. We’ll see what kind of affect this has…but I remain skeptical. Then again, most of the music we’re into at Live Music Blog comes from bands who have largely avoided involvement with major record labels, so maybe this ain’t so big a deal. What do you folks think? Do you care?

Check out a run-down of links after the jump…

Steve Job’s essay “Thoughts on Music”

Microsoft spokesman says Jobs’s essay is “irresponsible”

Bob Lefestz has a great reaction
(probably my favorite response so far)

Hypebot’s take

BitPlayer’s got detailed coverage(with response from RIAA)

Wired’s Listening Post

“Music Futurist” Gerd Leonard (says DRM is dead)

• As always, Bob Lefsetz provides his blunt and snarky take on the recording industry that’s dying and trying to stay relevant.
• Bruce Houghton of Hypebot also has some solid 2007 predictions
• Rags Gupta (of Digital Music News) also chimes with his thoughts on 2007
• and Jherskowitz also shares some insight into what 2007 will bring

I tend to agree with most of Hypebot’s predictions, as I feel more connected to the independent and DIY bands/artists, and obviously to bands that focus most of their efforts on concerts and touring. So, yes, the DIY model (which will continue to depend highly on a band’s abilities to sell concert tickets and create undergound buzz), will continue to gain momentum.

And although Bob Lefestz thinks the SnoCap/MySpace partnership is irrelevant, I think the idea of selling digital tracks directly to fans is still a great idea that has not fully taken hold, but it needs a better offering than the MySpace/SnoCap option (as I’ve suggested in an earlier posts here and here). Perhaps Musicane or ReverbNation will make some inroads? While I’m no digital music guru, this is an area where I’ll offer my own prediction: one of these players (or a new one) will develop a similar way to offer artists the option to sell concert tickets directly to fans from a website widget or similar service. Nothing crazy or totally original. But given the aforementioned importance of touring and ticket sales for the majority of independent artists, to me, this is a no-brainer.

warning:
it’s a long post, but by all means, please read on…

The biggest story and ongoing debate seems to be around the potential of various major labels finally doing away with the copyright-restrictions (aka DRM) on their digital files, and going with the popular MP3 format.

1/8 Update:
Wired just published an in-depth look at this very issue: “Who’s Killing MP3 and iTunes?“

The DigitalMusicWeblog has been on this topic almost weekly for the past few months (or maybe more?), and recently donning 2007 “the year of the MP3” and predicting a “big boulder of MP3” will cause major labels to finally acquiesce. The main issue is that copy-protected files are not playable across all platforms. This issue is also known as “interoperability” and has been a pain for anyone without an iPod trying to tap into the iTunes Music Store, or less-annoying, any iPod user trying to make use of Windows Media Audio files.

But as eMusic has found, offering open MP3 files, free of restrictions, can be a winning biz model. eMusic recently hit its 100 million download mark and has done so with a focus on independent music available as MP3s. eMusic’s openness and trust has one over a good amount of fans so that it is now the number 2 digital music store after iTunes, thought iTunes is still miles ahead in terms of numbers. iTunes customers may not know or may not even care that the files they buy are copy-protected (with certain exceptions for burning CDs and sharing files to a certain degree).

But do most music fans and consumers really care? One music blogger Axehole, recently shot back against the plethora of music bloggers compaining about DRM and hailing eMusic’s open model. Axehole suggested that the DRM and MP3 debate was too esoteric for most consumers, way overblown, and was really just secluded to the Internet music nerds and tech-savvy bloggers. I definitely think that a large swath of the digital-music-buying population does not know or care about this issue.

However, though definitely esoteric, this issue is beginning to bubble up to the mainstream, as even the AP recently took notice. And it appears that several major labels may be beginning to change their tune on the necessity of copy-protected files and may even license one of the larger P2P file-sharing applications. Perhaps it has been the success of eMusic, the continued dominance of Apple’s iPod (which plays all MP3s as well as the various iTunes-only formats), or maybe it was a recent interview with Bill Gates, who suggested we should just continue to rip CDs to avoid the problems of DRM-laden tracks (but avoided outright confrontation with the major labels)?

Of course, the reason major labels may give in on MP3s is a mix of all of these issues plus the more important notion that continuing to sell files in multiple formats is just an untenable model that consumers tend to reject. In fact, DigitalMusicWeblog thinks that the major labels offering open formats like the MP3 may, in fact, be THE cure for the recording industry’s latest ills.

While offering MP3s may not convince everyone to start picking up the latest top 40 hits in droves, this take makes some sense. Consumers just want “shit to work” and for it to be as simple as possible, and that points us to the MP3 format (for better or worse). And as more folks continue to go digital, these issues will continue to bubble up as more important and more applicable to most people’s lives when it comes to the music and other content they purchase.

And people are DEFINITELY going digital all over the place. Hypebot and Coolfer reported on the Digital Media Association survey that found this to be the case. And then there’s this latest piece from the Wall Street Journal (no sub required for this story). The article discusses the change in the way that family’s give out an allowance to their children. May seem way off the mark, but what it mentions about kids and how they are continuing to do a large part of their purchasing online, is a key part of this equation. These are the kids that are or will be music fans in the next 5 to 10 years. They will have grown up with iPods and digital music files and will EXPECT all these files to work across whatever platform they use or WILL use in the future. We’ll see what happens, but my prediction is that this esoteric debate over MP3s and DRM continues to bust out into the mainstream and affect various music fans. As people begin to buy new MP3 players, transfer to new PCs, convert from PC to Mac (or vice versa), these concerns over interoperability and what happens to one’s digital files, will become a bigger issue.

With that, I think it’s clear that the smaller, independent outlets will continue to lead the digital charge. It is already happening beyond the eMusic’s of the world:

• It looks like Amazon.com has a music store in the works and will sell MP3s
• InSound, the mainly Indie Rock-focused online store, recently announced it would start selling albums in digital format
• 7Digital has been making inroads, especially in the European markets
• and (on a smaller level, but closer to him in terms of LMM’s niche), the groovy jazz label Ropeadope recently announced it would go ALL digital in 2007 (sidenote: interestingly enough, I didn’t think this was all that big or surprising of news until Wired’s music blog, the Listening Post, dedicated an entire post to the label’s plans. Ropeadope’s a great label, especially for live music fans of the jazz/groove/hip-hop genres, so it’s cool to see them leading the innovative digital charge; go Ropeadope!…and look at that, only a few minutes later and now Coolfer has taken notice of Ropeadope’s digital move!)

2007 will definitely bring some exciting changes in the digital music world. I tend to agree with most of the aforementioned predictions when it comes to the promulgation of MP3s. While all these changes will be important for live music fans (as they’re also just generally ravenous consumers of music), here at LMM, we’re more interested in the ways that these changes will alter the live music landscape. But those thoughts will have to wait for another post. For now, check some of this out and get back to us with some comments and personal experiences below.

Here’s to an exciting 2007!

Speaking of DRM, the debate appears to be seeping into the mainstream, with both Reuters and USAToday putting out stories on the subject. Interesting to see this finally slip into the traditional media outlets. Perhaps the burgeoning interest is a result of Microsoft announcing the release of its own MP3 player, Zune, and its accompanying “closed” music system based on the DRM-laden WMA format. Of course, I am not placing all (or even most) of the blame on the tech companies, since they’re just reacting to the major labels dinosaur-like mentality and doing what they can to strike licensing deals; but these articles rightly point out that DRM just ends up hurting paying customers and ultimately doesn’t even work to stop people from circumventing the restrictive formats. Someday we will look back on all of this and laugh…hopefully!

There are two other solid articles discussing recent moves in independent music. The Boston Globe discusses the rise of the “Indies” on the web, while Pitchfork ponders what it actually means these days to be “independent.” Hopefully, I don’t need to put scare quotes around “indie” for now on…but, oops, I just did (twice!).

And if you haven’t heard enough about Google’s $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube, here are a few additional discussions about what might be in store for the future of GooTube:

• “Big Media Sharks Swirl Around Freshly-Acquired YouTube” – (via Digital Music News)
• Wired looks at the potential positive side of the Google purchase.

So, what else is going on out there in digital music land? Drop a comment and let me know your thoughts.