Digital Music Investigation 03

Oct 20, 2007 NO. 0307 18, Digital Music Investigation Last.fm Last.fm Felix Miller Felix Miller Trent Reznor gives Rip-off Avoidance, Download & Share advice to fans Music 2.0 held its first Salon on September 11 9Sky Sets Up Digital Music Alliance 数字音乐观察第三期 数字音乐观察 Digital Music Investigation 编者按： 各位好，感谢您们对数字音乐观察和Music2.0的关注和支 持。本期刊物因为国庆长假的原因未能按时发布，不过我 们会提前发布第四期的专刊，希望各位予以谅解。 本期刊物新增了新闻摘要和特约专家栏目。此期专访栏目 与Last.fm首席执行官Felix Miller以电话访谈的形式交流了 关于Last.fm的现在和将来。不过令我们有些遗憾的是， Felix先生在部分问题上未正面予以答复，包括对中国市场 战略观点上，当然我们也理解他的立场。 作为Music2.0机构来说，我们更希望能以客观、独立的立 场去做这样的专访，让大家能真实的去了解一个数字音乐 企业、一个数字音乐服务…。 各位如对文章有自己的看法或者有对我们的意见和建议， 可以给我们邮件，邮件地址是NewsLetter@music20.org 再次感谢大家的支持！ Music 2.0 Group Oct.2007 Music2.0机构 Organizer Music2.0 Group 汤永钢、廖世恩 Editor-In-Chief Terry、Tze-Ern 陈 敢 Editor Isaac 商 亮 Designer Shang Liang 白 玉 Publisher Bai yu 翻 译：常 悦、黄 佳 Translator：Yvonne、Belinda www.music20.org Official Homepage www.music20.org NewsLetter@music20.org To Contribute By Email: NewsLetter@music20.org 数字音乐观察 Sony/ATV Music Publishing中国全资子公司索雅版权代理有限公司起诉空中网、龙腾阳光、全天通及广东飞讯四家 SP。北京市第一中级人民法院、北京市第二中级人民法院和广州市天河区人民法院分别受理的案件。 合作双方称：该排行榜将以专业的音乐态度、严格的评审规则、最具公信力的数据，填补中国“销量评选机制”的空 白。 九天音乐网将利用自身版权优势，向国内众多盗版音乐网站输出音乐内容。 据悉，成员网站不需要向版权持有者申请授权便能向用户提供正版的音乐服务，并能拥有自主广告位，带来广告收 益。 在推出基于web网页的音乐社区之后，新浪乐库联合客客吧公司推出KKTONE(客客通)客户端音乐播放器。 同时新浪旗下及时聊天工具UC亦推出结合乐库的UC2007音乐版。 EMI联合在线购买网站Click and Buy推出只做数字发行的歌曲合集，该合集收录了MIMS, Siobhan Donaghy and Unklejam等艺人的歌曲。同时，这些歌曲都是没有加载DRM保护。 因为新歌'Whatever U Like'在数字销售和电台广播两方面均变现不佳，美国流行音乐组合Pussycat Doll所属唱片公司 Interscope委托MediaDefender公司监控P2P传输中歌曲的流行程度，并可能据此选择另一首歌曲'Baby Love' 做为专辑的 主打。 在IPFI的力主之下，德国当地法院颁布命令关停6台德国境内提供P2P音乐下载服务的电驴服务器。 今年早些时候，IFPI在法国及荷兰亦采取过以上行动。 根据星巴克与苹果公司的合作，星巴克将在10月2日到11月7日之间在向在其店内消费的用户送出500万首歌曲。用户 可以使用这些“免费卡”在itunes网上商店下载Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Joss Stone和Dave Matthews等艺人的歌曲。 在线音乐分销商AnywhereCD的创始人Michael Robertson在其博客上宣布将关闭其网站的服务。因不看好AnywhereCD Mp3下载捆绑CD销售的模式，国际四大唱片公司并不愿意与其合作是AnywhereCD关闭的重要原因。 继Sony关闭Connect服务之后，Virgin宣布将在10月19日关闭面向美国和英国用户的下载服务。 亚马逊正式提供包括EMI、环球唱片及数千家独立厂牌在内的无版权保护MP3下载服务。 亚马逊的歌曲下载采用灵活的定价方式，销量前100的单曲售价为0.89美元，其他歌曲则为0.99美元。专辑的定价在5.9 9到9.99美元之间。 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 Vivendi集团CEO Jean-Bernard Levy 今日发表言论，认为Itunes与CP的分成比例不够公平。 根据Vivendi旗下的环球唱片与Apple的合约，环球可从每首0.99欧元的歌曲下载中获得0.7欧元的分成。 继与华纳音乐集团签约之后，社会化音乐推荐网站Imeem又与SONY-BMG达成合作协议，完成了与四大唱片中第二家 的合作。 iTunes开通Wi-Fi商店，用户可通过配有Wi-Fi设备的iphone购买音乐。 Local News Sony/ATV Music Publishing China representative sues 4 SPs including Kong.net, ColorMe, QTT, and Flying Mobile with proceedings at Beijing’s First Intermediate People’s Court, Beijing’s Second Intermediate People’s Court and The People’s Court in Guangzhou’s Tianhe District. China Mobile and Shanghai Media Group (SMG) announced a joint co-operation to host “China Mobile Wireless Music Charts”. To assure integrity and objectiveness of data, China Mobile has brought onboard a third-party monitoring house to monitor accordingly the statistics module and methods on gathering and analyzing wireless music downloads to become the “Billboard Music Charts” in China. 9Sky sets up a digital music alliance to share its existing licensed content with the local domestic pirated music websites. 9Sky will channel its licensed music through its partners’ gateway with an ad-revenue sharing deal. After recently launching a social networking site around music, SINA Music has partnered up with KKBar to introduce the KKTONE music client. SINA are also preparing to integrate its UC tools with its SINA Music for a UC2007 music edition. International News EMI Music U.K. has joined forces with the British arm of online-payment service provider Click and Buy to distribute digitalonly compilation album designed to promote the major’s up-and-coming acts such as MIMS, Siobhan Donaghy and Unklejam. The album will be launched DRM-free. Pussycat Doll’s Nicolas Scherzinger’s first single “Whatever U Like” isn’t selling well on online retailers or playing that great on radio. In this specific case, Pussycat Doll’s label, Interscope asked MediaDefender, a leading P2P Anti-Piracy Solutions, if pushing the track “Baby Love” is a good idea. 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 Under pressure from IFPI, the industry association got injunctions to shut down 6 local eDonkey servers. The German shut downs followed similar action in the Nederlands and France. Starbucks plans to give away 50 million free digital songs to customers in all of its US based coffeehouses to promote a new wireless iTunes music store from 2 October to 7 November. The “Song of the Day” cards can be redeemed at iTunes Store and will feature songs such as Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Joss Stone, Dave Matthews etc. AnywhereCD’s founder, Michael Robertson, in a blog post announced the closing of its doors. With a model of CD + MP3 bundle, the non-involvement of the 4 majors was probably a major factor for AnywhereCD’s closure. Following from Sony’s Connect’s closure, Virgin announces the closure of its digital download stores in the US & UK on 19 October. Amazon’s DRM free MP3 music download store launches with songs and albums from EMI, Universal and over 12,000 independent labels. Amazon will also offer a variable pricing structure - the tOp 100 best-selling songs are priced at 89 cents, and the rest at 99 cents. Most albums are priced from USD $5.99 to USD $9.99. Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy told reporters he believes the current contractual terms give too good a share to Apple iTunes. At present, Universal Music receives 0.70 euro out of the 0.99 euro retail price charged by iTunes. SonyBMG becomes the second major after Warner Music to do a deal with the ad-supported streaming music and video service, Imeem. iTunes launches the iTunes WiFi music store, music fans can start enjoying their music purchases immediately on their iPhone. 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 第一届Music2.0沙龙顺利举行 在music2.0全体成员的共同努力和各方人士的支持、帮助下，Music2.0终于在9月11日举行了第一次与各位行业好 友的沙龙活动。 与其说是一次沙龙，到不如说是一次与数字音乐业内人士的大聚会，因为活动从前期预计的20人到最后实际到场 人数的过百人，让Music2.0的所有成员又惊又喜，但幸运的是活动如期顺利进行，到场的包括有 等业内人士，对此次 活动表示了极大的支持。 作为此次活动的特邀嘉宾之一--LastFM的创始人Jonas，向中国的同行们介绍了LastFM网站的概况和特色，并与现 场的各位同行们进行了交流，表示期待与中国数字音乐同行们今后有更的进一步了解与合作。同时，来自英国独立音 乐协会，R2G，London Calling，YOBO的代表们都对自身的现状进行的介绍，与在场的同行们分享了自己对于中国数 字音乐现状的看法。 此次活动在大家一片热烈的讨论声中顺利结束，虽然Music2.0的第一次活动略显粗糙，但抱着对数字音乐的热情与 对中国数字音乐的支持，今后Music2.0还将不定期举行各种关于数字音乐的活动，欢迎大家对我们的活动提好的想法 与建议，也请感兴趣的朋友继续关注Music2.0，关注中国数字音乐。 With the combined effort of the Music 2.0 group and the warm support of the general public, Music 2.0 held its first Salon on September 11. This Salon has represented not only a major milestone for the Music 2.0 group but it is also the first major gathering for the digital music industry within China. From an anticipated attendance of 20 individuals, it soon swelled over 100 confirmed attendees. The Music 2.0 Group was astonished on the magnitude and impact of its first Salon. The Salon proceeded smoothly from the beginning to the end, along with great support and encouragement from the public. One of the much anticipated speakers, LastFM’s founder Jonas Woost, kindly shared the current overview of LastFM and its unique characteristics. His interaction in the Q&A session with the Chinese audience was strong and engaging as he strove forward to deepen his understanding of the Chinese digital music landscape in further cooperation with its Chinese peers. Furthermore, the Salon showcased U.K.’s Association of Independent Music (A.I.M.), R2G, WMusic, iResearch, and YOBO to which all presented and shared their views on the China landscape of digital music. The first Music 2.0 Salon in China ended with highly enthusiastic and engaging discussions. As the first Music 2.0 Salon, there is ample room for improvements. And with the enthusiastic support from the industry, Music 2.0 Group will continue to hold various activities on digital music. On behalf of the Music 2.0 Group, I am pleased to welcome your feedbacks and suggestions on future activities. Please continue to show your passionate support to China's digital music arena and the Music 2.0 Group. 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 Trent Reznor： 互联网是音乐产业的下一个舞台 特约编者：Maths 九月九日北京流行音乐节的当天，在九寸钉（Nine Inch Nails)上台演唱之前，我在后台设法找到了九寸钉的主唱 Trent Reznor，与他聊了一些关于他对音乐版权和数字音乐发行的看法。 在今年五月，当Reznor在澳大利亚发现以下的情况后，他曾发表了其著名的反对他唱片公司（环球唱片公司）的 激烈言论。 “Year Zero 专辑卖到了34.99澳元（29.10美元），怪不得人们在窃取音乐。而Avril Lavigne的唱片在同一家店卖 21.99澳元(18.21美元)。 顺便说一句，当我向一个唱片公司代表询问此事时，他的回复是这样的，“那是因为我们知 道你们拥有一群真正的核心听众群，只要你们有东西出来，他们无论花多少钱都愿意去买。你知道，他们是真正的歌 迷。我们必须用打折扣来让人们购买的，是那些流行的东西”那么我想，对于真正的歌迷们来说，他们的回报其实就 是被欺骗挨宰。” 而在这个星期的北京，他再一次重申了他对唱片公司的反感，他声明：“我们会为环球唱片再做最后一个专辑， 然后我们会直接在我们自己的网站上向歌迷们出售专辑，价格比如在4 美元吧” 对歌迷倾注了全部热情的他，甚至在NIN网站上为迎接他们在中国的首次演唱还准备了一段中文，向中国歌迷们表 达了他真诚的问候： 鉴于中国的特殊情况，想从正当渠道获取西方音乐似乎不是件容易的事，所以我对我的歌迷有以下建议：如果你 可以买到我们的正版专辑，我对你们的支持表示感谢。如果你买不到，我认为从网上下载是比买盗版盘更可取的方 式。我们的音乐很容易从网上找到，而且你们应该可以不费力地找到我们的大部分歌曲。如果你听了我们的歌后觉得 喜欢，请与你的朋友一起分享。我为我的音乐倾注了我所有的心血，所以我真心希望更多的人可以同我分享它们。” Reznor 很坚决的表示，歌迷们没必要费尽周折支付不合理的价格以获取九寸钉的音乐，特别是在如今这个时代， 当所有可以想象到的音乐作品都可以通过鼠标点击在网上获取的日子里。 他表示，这个世界变的越来越小了，可是唱片公司却并没有利用这个机会把音乐方便的带到在歌迷面前。对于在 利益面前建立起的无形障碍，作为他表示出的意图和愤怒的证明，ReznoR 否决了一项由唱片公司策划的为歌曲 Capital G制作的欧洲maxi-single计划，而是选择了在未来某一时间发行Year Zero的remix专辑。这样的话，狂热的美国 歌迷们就不用被迫花30多美元进口包含新remix版的两个版本的一首主打歌曲了。 Reznor 还声明： “自从CD问世以来，尽管相对来说它的制作成本要比胶碟唱片低，唱片公司觉得大肆提高价格是合理的，同时艺人 手中传统式的合同意味着他们能够得到与以往一样的回报，甚至允许唱片公司投资于市场推广，冒取一定风险，那 么，这仍然还是非常大的欺诈宰人。” 他认为，真正的歌迷是用来支付并支撑唱片公司老板们手里的支票薄的。这也正是来自“人民公敌”(Public Enemy)的Chuck D所表达的观点 ——巧的是，“人民公敌”是这次北京流行音乐节的另外一支主要表演乐队。 值得注意的是，HMV仍在以18美元的全球价格向众多市场卖着音乐，而进口的价格已经达到荒唐的25美元，甚至 更多。这就让人猜想在是不是盗版CD的行情里也已经到这个价格了。 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 Reznor 还认为，DRM技术派生出许多音乐格式，包括来自iTues的，但是它们并没有很好的为歌迷服务，他完全可 以理解歌迷们为什么会宁愿又回到无处不在的BT与P2P网络中去下载DRM-free的Mp3。 为了避免这个误导性“音乐要免费”运动很容易易把Reznor的态度误认为是一种对免费下载的认可，他特别的强 调说，相信一定有种方式，在不以非合理的价格支配，不向歌迷施加障碍，及不滥用他们信任的同时，音乐人照样能 得到应有的回报。因此，九寸钉建起了自己的网站，不仅与歌迷们直接的沟通，并且能够在与唱片公司合约结束以 后，较容易的掌握他们的音乐在市场上合理的价格评估。 那么关于音乐呢？ Reznor 又补充说：我们不知道在中国会有什么期待，因为这是我们第一次来这里，所以我们带上了全部的乐器与 设备。我们不想在任何方面做任何的妥协，只想给歌迷们带来完完全全的九寸钉音乐体验。我想我们可能已经为这次 演出亏了一些钱了。可那是多么精彩的一次演出啊，这可能是至今在中国最为美妙的演出之一，这要感谢北京流行音 乐节的组织者Jason Magnus，他将九寸钉(NIN)， 人民公敌(Public Enemy)，纽约娃娃(New York Dolls)，雷蒙斯 (Ramones)的Marky，和中国的独立摇滚人崔健等众多激进的音乐人聚在了一起同台演出然而，在这个数字时代里，音 乐世界的下一场激情演出很可能会在互联网上上演，而Trent Reznor已经为它搭建好了舞台。” Trent Reznor: Internet will be key to music distribution I managed to catch Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor backstage foR a chat on his views on copyright and digital music distribution just before they played at the Beijing Pop Festival on 9 Sep. In May this year, Reznor famously launched a tirade against his label Universal Music in Australia when he found out: “Year Zero is selling for $34.99 Australian dollars ($29.10 US). No wonder people steal music. Avril Lavigne’s record in the same store was $21.99 ($18.21 US). By the way, when I asked a label rep about this, his response was: “It’s because we know you have a real core audience that will pay whatever it costs when you put something out - you know, true fans. It’S the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy.” So, I guess as a reward for being a “true fan” you get ripped off. “ And this week in Beijing, he again reiterated his disgust with the labels by stating “We will pUt out one last album for Universal and after that we will sell albums directly to fans from our website at (say) $4 an album”. In full empathy with their fans, he even prepared a Chinese language section on the NIN website In preparation for their first ever concert in China, with a heartfelt message to his Chinese fans which translates as follows: 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 “As for the special situation in China, it does not seem to be easy to obtain Western music via legal channels, so I have the following suggestion for our fans: If you can find and buy our legal CDs, I express my thanks for your support. If you cannot find it, I think that downloading from the Internet is a more acceptable option than buying pirated CDs. Our music is easy to find on the Internet, and you might not need to spend much effort to find most of our songs. If you like our songs after you’ve heard them, please feel free to share it with your friends. As I have put all my effort and heart into my music, I sincerely hope that more and more people can share the enjoyment with us.” Reznor is adamant that fans should not have to jump through hoops of fire and pay unreasonable prices simply to get NIN’s music – least of all in this day and age when every conceivable work of music could be made available a click away online. As he pointed out, the world is getting smaller but labels are not taking advantage of this opportunity to put this music conveniently in front of fans. As proof of his intent and anger at artificial borders being upheld for profit, Reznor vetoed a labelplanned European maxi-single for the song Capital G opting instead to release a Year Zero remix album at some point in the future. This way, fervent U.S. fans would not be forced to have to spend $30+ to import a two-song single that includes one new remix. Reznor also stated that “Since the CD came on the market, even with its relatively lower production costs compared to vinyl, labels saw it fit to increase prices exorbitantly while artists’ age-old contracts meant they got The same amount as before - and even granting that the labels invest in marketing and take risks, it is still a great rip-off”. In his view, true fans are being made to pay to sustain the fat paychecks of label execs. These were the exact same sentiments that have been expRessed by Chuck D of Public Enemy before –coincidentally Public Enemy was the other headlining act at the Beijing Pop Festival. As a point of note, HMV is still selling music at global rate prices of US$18 in a lot of markets wIth imports going for the ridiculous price of US$25 and more. Makes one wonder if this also falls under the pirate CD category! Reznor also thinks that DRM infested formats including the ones from iTunes do not serve fans Well and he totally understands why they would instead resort to downloading ubiquitous DRM-free mp3s from BT and P2P networks. Lest the misguided ‘music wants to be free’ movement conveniently hijack Reznor’s stance as an endorsement to freeload, he emphatically states that there has to be a way that musicians are compensated without imposing barriers to fans and abusing their trust by commanding unfair price premiums.. Hence NIN has built up an outstanding website not only to communicate directly with fans but with a view to making it easy to access their music at a fair price once NIN’s label dues are completed. And what about the music? Reznor reaffirmed his commitment to carrying on making the kind of music that’s brought them this far and which they still believe in. He also panned label executives who are panicking at the downturn in the music industry and subsequently try to force artists to adopt “flavor of the month Timbaland productions” as the panacea for their self-inflicted afflictions. Reznor further added, “We didn’t know what to expect in China as it is our first time here, so we brought all our equipment along. We didn’t want to compromise in any way and wanted to give fans the full Nine Inch Nails experience. I think we might probably have even lost some money on this show” And what a fantastic show it was – probably one of the more amazing shows seen in China. Credit to Beijing Pop Festival organizer Jason Magnus who moved mountains in China to put together a radical non-conformist line-up of NIN, Public Enemy, New York Dolls, Ramones (Marky) and rebel Chinese rocker Cui Jian amongst others. However, in this digital age, the next radical act in the music industry will probably be played out online and Trent Reznor has already set the stage for it. 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 Music2.0独家专访： Last.fm首席执行官Felix Miller谈中国市场战略 （左起：Martin Stiksel, Felix Miller, Richard Jones） 我们Music2.0机构(music20.org)有幸与全球最大的互联网社会化音乐服务网站Last.fm的首席执行官Felix Miller,，就 Last.fm的数字音乐服务以及他们未来的中国市场战略进行了电话交流。Felix表示对中国数字音乐市场充满了期望，他们 也将在中国积极寻求更多的合作。 Q:什么是Last.fm，它都有什么功能? Felix: Last.fm是现今为止最新的专为满足个性需要而设计的音乐网站。只要键入你喜欢的歌手名字, Last.fm就会从自己庞大 的音乐库中调出一个播放列表，包括该歌手在内的海量同类曲目尽收眼底。 Last.fm拥有比任何社会化音乐网络都庞大的媒 体音乐库，包括了来自全球四大唱片公司中的三家和数千个独立音乐人的作品。下载一个Last.fm的客户端软件,它可以与 iTunes和iPod同步(我们称之为“记录歌曲”，scrobbling)，之后 Last.fm.会为用户建立个人页面，并基于个人的不同音乐收 听偏好源源不断的为使用者推荐新的音乐。 Q:能透露一些关于Last.fm的相关信息吗，像音乐库里有多少首歌曲，平均的访问量是多少，以及在中国的发展情况？ Felix:目前, Last.fm每月的活跃用户数量超过两千万，平均每个月有五亿首的歌曲被记录(每个月我们从五亿次的歌曲同步中 得知人们都在听些什么). Last.fm的乐库容纳了超过一亿首的歌曲和超过一千万的歌手。而且这个数字还在增长,由于随着每 天社区里的音乐记录不断被人更新，新歌的信息就会自动保存到我们的资料库里。我们的用户目前记录歌曲的频率达到每 秒200次，自网站建立至今,Last.fm已经创造了180亿次的歌曲记录。 Q:Last.fm现行的音乐理念是什么？ Felix:人们热爱音乐，我们则乐意帮助那些热爱音乐的人找到好的音乐。我们的网站建立之初,就继承了在这方面的先驱 Napster的理念。我们发现Napster已经可以做到为歌迷找到他们真正需要的音乐了。互联网上有大量的歌曲，但是人们缺乏 找到这些资源的有效途径，也不知道如何去发现他们喜欢的新音乐。这些问题音乐媒体不去理会；音乐杂志接二连三的停 办，所以也不大可能；而且你也不能指望电视和电台那些只锁定主流音乐的媒体。最后，当Napster没有了，无论是网上还 是网下，人们找音乐的平台也就没有了。所以那时我们打定主意自己来做. 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 Q:在你们的用户中，人们抱怨最多的是什么？ Felix: 应该是歌曲和歌手名称的拼写错误吧,这也正是我们新的“指纹识别系统”正在努力的方向. Q: 什么是你们面临的最大挑战？ Felix:现在,正有一些初出茅庐的年轻人跃跃欲试，他们的确有些关于音乐网站方面的好点子。比如Facebook，你完全不知 道这个从哪冒出来的无名小卒竟一越成为能与MySpace这样的大网站相抗衡的对手。我们完全没办法去预测哪个年轻人的 想法就一定能赶上个大机遇。但是这就是互联网有趣的一面。尽管如此,我们还是很有信心Last.fm在行业竞争中是相对安全 的。 Q:Last.fm目前的商业模式是什么？ Felix:我们的商业模式来自广告,会员制和订阅服务。 Q:由于对广告严重依赖，扣除在唱片公司、出版商和宽带方面的开支，你们真的有一个仅靠销售很少广告就能确保稳定赢 利的销售模式吗？ Felix:如果商业模式不健全的话我们是不会用的。Last.fm的商业运作从刚起步发展到现在已经有五年的历史了，我们成长的 脚步也日益稳健。 Q:Last.fm接下来的半年有什么新的打算，特别是在中国的市场？ Felix:在接下来的几个月里Last.fm将有一系列大动作。本周，我们的Now Form A Band成功上线,这是我们的一个“追求好音 乐的商业活动”。旨在鼓励年轻音乐家通过互联网的免费工具来随心所欲的创做自己的音乐。活动主题的灵感来源于1976 年的punk fanzine(一个地下音乐杂志) Sideburns' call口号---“三个和弦组支乐队。” 时隔三十年,我们的口号是“三个网站 可以组支乐队”。此外，我们新近在唱片业杂志《音乐周刊》（Music Week）上刊登了“流行榜”，上述活动主要围绕着 这一榜单进行。最近一次将在Spitz举行的筹款晚会演出，即“流行榜”现场音乐会，我们开始对的上榜乐队做演出宣传， 预售票被抢购一空。现在，我们希望能进一步激发音乐人的创造力，掀起一场音乐DIY革命。如果想了解更多详情，请登 陆网站Nowformaband.last.fm。 在中国市场我们也不会仅仅局限于内容的本地化和网站的汉化，近期我们在日本与Nifty达成了合作，他们将采用我们的 Widget服务，显然我们在全球都会寻找类似这样的合作。 Q:哥伦比亚广播网(CBS, Columbia Broadcasting System)斥巨资两亿八千万美金收购了Last.fm，使人们对Last.fm进行一翻认 真打量之余，还同时引发了一些争论，诸如“版税”许可，保护网络电台许可日等等，还有像CBS的影响力会不会压倒 Last.fm的置疑。Last.fm对这些倍受关注的问题持怎样的看法？ Felix:我们非常感谢这笔投资!这个好消息使我们每个人都倍受鼓舞。但是公司的日常运转依旧如常。 Q:Cathy Fink在近期的声明中提到，去年Last.fm作为小型网络电台与SoundExchange组织达成了一个折扣协议，并交付五千 美金版税。SoundExchange执行主席John Simson称，协议允许Last.fm从2003年起，在年收益在二十五万美金以下按百分之 十、年收益超过二十五万按百分制十二交纳相关费用。我能否就此推测Last.fm在去年仅赚了5万美金？ Felix:关于详细数字我不便透露，但是我们一直在尽力确保自协议生效之日起，歌手、唱片公司和代理商都能收到相应款 项。 Q:Pandora, MyStrands 和 Napster都相继进入了无线/移动音乐市场，Last.fm现在或以后在这方面是否有意参与？ Felix:显然这是这些年来我们一直在考虑的。很期待在无线领域有所突破.在无线音乐方面,至今还未发现有适合Last.fm 的成功模式, 因为Last.fm的模式是无法简单的复制到无线领域上用数据去收费的。 Q:最近有报道称Last.fm正在研发“指纹识别”声音数据库，这是不是出于现有的方式在过滤信息方面的弊端？另外， Last.fm能不能详细的说明一下你们是如何处理错误信息的？ Felix:我们每秒钟都在接收大量的信息,处理起这些数据是有很高的难度的,但是我们的“指纹识别”系统将会逐渐解决这些 问题. 详情的信息,可以登陆http://blog.last.fm/2007/09/10/fingerprinting-update 4 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 数字音乐观察 Music2.0 Interview: Last.fm CEO Felix Miller on China Strategy Q:What is Last.fm about? Felix: Last.fm is the last music website you'll ever need. Type in an artist you like and Last.fm will immediately start playing you similar music, drawn from the biggest music library of any social music network – including tracks and artists from three of the four major labels and thousands of independents. If you download the Last.fm software, you can sync it to your iTunes and iPod (we call this 'scrObbling'), so that Last.fm can build a personal music page for you, and recommend you new music based on your listening habits. Q:Can you disclose some information about Last.fm, how much songs, traffic or usage do you see on an average day, and in China? Felix: Last.fm currently has over 20 million unique active users per month and 500 million scrobbles a month (500 million times a month people tell us what they listen to). Last.fm knows over 100 million different tracks and over 10 million different artists. This database continues to grow as the community uploads (scrobbles) more information to our databases daily. Our users are scrobbling at a rate of 200 scrobbles per second, and Last.fm has logged 18 billion scrobbles since we started. Q: What is Last.fm's current music philosophy? Felix: We want to help people find good music, music that they genuinely love. When we started, it was just after Napster, and we could see that Napster had fulfilled a real need amongst music fans, because there was so much music out there and people didn't know where to get hold of it, or how to discover new music that they'd like. The music press wasn't doing it, magazines were closing all the time, and you couldn't rely on TV or radio either unless your tastes were very mainstream. Once Napster was gone, there was no platform, online or offline, that fulfilled that need, so we decided to make it ourselves. Q: What are the most requested features from your users / community? Felix: It's probably moderation of incorrect spellings for tracks/artists – which is what our new fingerprinting system is working on. Q: What is the greatest challenge to your success? Felix: Right now, there's some kid out there with a great idea for a music website. Just as Facebook came out of nowhere to challenge Myspace, there's no way of knowing if that kid's idea will catch on big time. But that's the great thing about the web. Even so, we think Last.fm is pretty safe from challengers! Q: What is Last.fm's current business model? Felix: We built the business model from day one on advertising, affiliates and subscriptions. Q: With such a heavy reliance on advertising, can you really build a sustainable model selling so few advertisements on your pages can make them a profit after paying the labels, publishers and bandwidth? Felix: If it wasn't sustainable we wouldn't be doing it. We've run Last.fm as a business from the very beginning – and that was 5 years ago, and we're going from strength to strength. Q: What can we expect from Last.fm in the coming 6 months, especially in China? Felix: There's lot of big developments happening on Last.fm over the next few months. Just this week we've launched Now Form A Band, our "campaign for better music". The campaign aims to galvanise young musicians into taking control of their music, using the tools freely available on the internet. The campaign title is inspired by punk fanzine Sideburns' call to action in 1976 – "here's three chords, now form a band." Thirty years later, we're saying: "here's three websites, now form a band." The campaign is another part of our current activity focused around our 'Hype' chart, which has recently begun to be published in record industry magazine Music Week. We're starting to promote bands from the Hype chart live, most recently at our sell-out fundraising event at the Spitz. NOw we want to inspire musicians just starting out to embrace the DIY revolution. You can find out more at nowformaband.last.fm. we have partnerships with sites like Nifty in Japan, who use our widgets, and obviously we're looking to do that with sites around the world. so it'll be more than just localized content and site translations. 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4 数字音乐观察 Q: CBS purchase of Last.fm for a staggering $280 million has not only placed Last.fm under the magnifying glass but also increasing controversy, e.g. "royalty free" license, savenetradio day of license etc, CBS' possible influence over Last.fm. How is Last.fm coping with the new found attention? Felix: We're coping fine thanks! It was to be expected after such big news. But it's business as usual in the office. Q:Cathy Fink recently made a statement that Last.fm got a discounted rate as a small webcaster and paid less than $5,000 in royalty rates to SoundExchange last year. A deal SoundExchange's executive director John Simson states that allowed Last.fm to pay 10 percent of revenue up to $250,000 and 12 percent above that since 2003. Can I assume that Last.fm only made $50,000 last year? Felix: I'm not going to start discussing exact Sums of money, but we've always done our best to make sure that artists, labels and collection agencies are paid since day one. Q:With PandorA, MyStrands and Napster all making a play into wireless/mobile music, what is Last.fm's current and future plans for wireless? Felix: Obviously it's something we've been considering for years. Watch this space! Q: Last.fm recently reported it was developing an audio fingerprinting database, is this because the existing metadata acquisition methods weRe ineffective in filtering informations? In addition, can Last.fm elaborate on how Last.fm handles false metadata information? Felix: With the vast amount of information we're receiving every second, metadata was always going to be tricky, but our fingerprinting system (which is now up and running) will solve these problems. You can find out more here: http:// blog.last.fm/2007/09/10/fingerprinting-update 2007-07-20 Music2.0 NewsLetter 4