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For 10 years, music execs have waged a war against digital file sharing -- and software like Napster and websites like The Pirate Bay -- which have decimated the industry’s profits. But recently, there are signs from Europe that the battle over free music may be changing.
Twenty years ago a series of lawsuits criminalized the hip-hop sampling of artists like Hank Shocklee and Public Enemy. And yet, two decades later, artists like Girl Talk have found success breaking those same sampling laws. OTM producer Jamie York talks to Girl Talk, Shocklee and Duke Law professor James Boyle about two decades of sampling - on both sides of the law.
Recorded music might be easier than ever to get for free, but seeing live music is getting more and more expensive. Veteran concert promoter John Scher says this is due to a decade of consolidation. He says not only does it hurt fans who can’t afford tickets that ultimately it’s an unsustainable model.
A recent Pew Internet survey found that three out of every four teenagers who download music agree with the statement, "file-sharing is so easy to do, it's unrealistic to expect people not to do it." We spent some time this week talking with high school students in Manhattan to find out what albums teenagers are listening to, and, more importantly, how they got them.
The music charts have traditionally relied on album sales and radio plays to rank songs and albums. So what do the charts mean today when there are so many other ways to listen to music? OTM producer Mark Phillips reports that charts as well as the very notion of popularity are changing.
A frequent refrain in the music industry is that the future is not about selling CDs, but about creating relationship between musicians and fans. If it's true, musician Amanda Palmer is a good case study. One half of the band The Dresden Dolls, she explains that she raised $19,000 from her fans on Twitter in just 10 hours.
Highlights from Past Shows
That the war in Afghanistan is getting attention at all right now from the media is downright surprising. Forgotten, undercovered and just plain ignored, coverage of the war there filled only about one percent of the news hole in 2008. But, as PEJ associate director Mark Jurkowitz explains, there’s been a sea change.
As people get the H1N1 vaccine, there will inevitably be cases of seizures, heart attacks, strokes and miscarriages -- all unrelated to the vaccine itself. Centers for Disease Control media relations director Glen Nowak says his agency is reminding reporters about the difference between correlation and causation.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
