Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders

Implications of DRM-Free Distribution by Major Labels

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on February 2, 2008

 
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David PakmanSummary: If you would like to get an industry executive’s perspective about the decision by all four major record labels to abandon DRMs, this interview is for you.
  
Our guest today is David Pakman who is the CEO of eMusic. His company is the largest seller of online music in the DRM-free MP3 format. However, the eMusic catalogue historically was limited to independent record labels. Now that the majors have decided to sell DRM-free tracks it looks like a good time to catch-up with David to see what the implications are for eMusic and the industry at large.  Read more…

Two Years Ahead of the Record Labels

Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on January 4, 2008

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About two years ago we published a research report entitled Digital Music Goes Mainstream concluding that it was in the best interests of the record label industry to abandon digital rights management (DRMs). You can get a copy of the February 15, 2006 report by clicking on the preceding link. 

Over a year later EMI decided to sell DRM-free tracks, followed by Universal in the autumn, and Warner Music just last month. Finally Business Week reports that Sony-BMG will be the last of the four major labels to throw in the towel sometime during the first quarter of this year.

In our analysis DRM abandonment will benefit the industry for two reasons. Read more…

Advertising-Supported Internet Music Distribution

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on November 27, 2007

 
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If you would like to learn about an advertising-supported website with free legal MP3 downloads, this interview is for you.

Our guest today is Peter Rojas who is the Founder of Rcrd Lbl which is a website where you can legally get MP3 music downloads of sponsored artists at no charge. Peter is the founder of other successful Internet businesses including Engadget and WebLogs.    Read more…

A Record Label Succeeds With DRM-Free Sales

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on October 1, 2007

 
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If you would like to learn how the leading classical music record label is benefiting from DRM-free music download sales, this interview is for you.

Our guest today is Klaus Heymann who is the Founder of Naxos which is the World’s leading classical music record label. In the United States last year the company generated 20% of its income from digital downloads and services as compared to only 8% in the prior year. Read more…

Doubling Recorded Music Sales Every Year

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on June 5, 2007

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Summary: If you would like to learn about an online seller of recorded music that has been doubling its sales annually, this interview is for you.

Our guest today is David Pakman who is the CEO of eMusic. His company is second only to Apple’s iTunes in terms of revenues generated by digital download sales. His secret is that eMusic does not use DRMs and they offer an attractive price. Read more…

Interacting With a Podcast Audience

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on June 1, 2007

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If you would like how you can record podcasts that enable audience members to phone-in with questions and comments, this interview is for you.
 
Our guest today John Havens who is an executive with Blogtalkradio.com as well as a columnist about podasting at About.com. Read more…

Obsolesence of Radio

Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on May 31, 2007

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If you would like to learn how satellite radio might become obsolete, this interview is for you.
 
Our guest today is Avikk Ghose who is the Vice President of Business Development at Mercora.

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