GeekLimit

I’ve been away for a bit playing in GL’s sandbox and working on a new theme. I think I have the layout set, but I’m only about halfway through the CSS. It’s a work-in-progress, but feel free to check it out.
Anyway, I wanted to throw an idea out there and see what people think. If I get some support, I think I’ll do it.

GeekLimit Records

If you’re into the digital music scene, you’ve probably used iTunes and their locked-down, DRMed music. You may have even heard of allofmp3.com, a Russian site that offers tracks for about US$0.10. IMHO, iTunes sucks for many reasons, and although allofmp3 is a great service (and a good lesson in the viability of micropayments) its legality is in question. In fact, the RIAA here in the US is using its political influence to block Russia from joining the World Trade Organization until allofmp3.com is shut down. Nothing like stalling world economy to protect your dying business model…

Anyway, I’m debating building a web app that allows the artist to have an account, upload music, set pricing, and set what % of the sales go to whom. Also, you could have separate licensing fees for each song. Just off the top of my head, when you went to go buy a track, it would list this in the checkout for the pricing.

These prices would have been set by the artist who uploaded their music, for example, here is what I would have set my prices at for the following licenses. I may do more license types, but the pricing is entirely up to the artist:

What type of license would you like to purchase?

$0.01 Lifetime Ringtone Use (This ringtone will be used by you, and only you. You may transfer this tone to a new phone)
$0.10: Lifetime Personal Use (This song will be listened by you, and only you. You may not share this song)

$100.00: One-time Public Performance (You are allowed to use this song once in a public setting)

$250.00: One-time Partial Commercial Use (You are allowed one instance of commercial broadcast )

$500.00 and $50 per instance: One-time Full Commercial Use (You are allowed one instance of commercial broadcast use either partial or in the song’s entirety)

$500.00 and 0.5% of reported box revenue: for Partial Theatrical Use

$1000 and 1% of reported box revenue: for Full Theatrical Use
$0.00: First Year Traditional and Satellite Radio License (You are allowed to broadcast this song in its entirety for one year from its upload date)

$100.00: Subsequent Year Traditional and Satellite Radio Use (You are allowed to broadcast this song in its entirety for one year following its first year)
$0.03: One time Personal On-demand Use (You do not keep a copy of this song, it is delivered upon request)

OK, so to explain a little, all of those licensing options would be listed for the artist when they uploaded their song. Come to think of it, they could upload video or whatever else they wanted too. Once the artist has their prices set, they would also get to decide what % of money goes to whom. They’d have to give the site at least 1% so it stays in business, but the nice part of this is that the artist gets to decide what to do with the money. And here’s the cool part – the person buying the music gets to see it also. So in the case above, let’s say I purchased a Lifetime Personal Usage license of a particular song for $0.10. On the next screen, or maybe in my cart, I would see the following:

[song name] by [artist name]

[license type]

[price]

Benefactors:

music.geeklimit.com: 5%: $0.005 (the artist is more generous than the minimum 1%)

Salvation Army: 10%: $0.01

[artist name]‘s mom, for all the inspiration: 10%: $0.01

Sal’s Recording Studio: 10%: $0.01

Wendy’s Music Marketing, LLC: 25%: $0.02

[artist name]: 40%: $0.04
TOTAL: 100%: $0.10

See, the part I like about this is that it makes the entire business transparent. The artist gets to decide where the profits from their art go, and everyone knows it. After the artist sets the prices for the different license types, they get to decide what % goes to whom. Of course, everyone who is designated here would need an account on the site. This also opens up an opportunity to have an open marketplace for services related to the entertainment industry. Just imaging if you could browse the database of music videos and find the stuntman for a particular video you liked, only to find another one that can do the same thing, but cheaper.
If some artist is marketed great, look up who markets them. If the recording sounds like it was done on a tin can and string, stay away from other recordings done at Sal’s. If the artist is getting ripped off on marketing fees, everyone will know it. If the price of the song is high, you can see if it’s the artist that’s too full of themselves, or if their marketing campaign is to blame. Or maybe they just charge an extra $0.03 per song for their favorite charity!

Of course, other parts of the site would make sense too. File formats would be open and un-DRM’ed, etc. How would the site protect against piracy? It wouldn’t. By offering music/movies at a reasonable price, I have a firm belief that people would pay for high-quality, quaranteed-authentic recordings, rather than waste their time downloading inferior copies off of the P2P network. Even more so when they can plainly see and understand why a song costs what it does.

Any ideas, thoughts, volunteers?

via BoingBoing:

The RIAA and MPAA have been jostling to get the broadcast flag *and* the audio flag into the monster telecoms reform bill.They got it into the official Republican version, which is being considered in committee tomorrow (Thursday). But Senator Sununu (R-NH), who peppered the MPAA and RIAA with tough questions when they spoke to the committee, has filed an amendment to get the flags thrown out.

We think Sununu is in with a chance – Democrats are angry at the anti-consumer tone of the final bill (which also lacks strong network neutrality provisions), and Republicans are chafing at entertainment industry’s yearn to over-regulate.

These are the bills that the Corruptibles cartoon describe – not futuristic theories about what Hollywood could do, but actual laws being considered right now.

If you’re in the States below, call your Senator NOW, and ask him or her to support the Sununu amendment to remove both TV and audio flags (he also has an amendment to modify the audio flag, so be clear you want to kick out both flags). If your Senator is a Republican, warn them about giving the FCC extra powers. If your Senator is a Democrat, explain how bad this is for consumer rights. Either way, tell them that entertainment industry requests have no place in a telecoms reform bill, and they need to be kept out.

Chairman Ted Stevens (AK), (202) 224-3004
John McCain (AZ), (202) 224-2235
Conrad Burns (MT), Main: 202-224-2644
Trent Lott (MS), (202) 224-6253
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), (202) 224-5922
Gordon H. Smith (OR), (202) 224 3753
John Ensign (NV), (202) 224-6244
George Allen (VA), (202) 224-4024
John E. Sununu (NH), (202) 224-2841
Jim DeMint (SC), (202) 224-6121
David Vitter (LA),(202) 224-4623
Co-Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (HI), (202) 224-3934
John D. Rockefeller (WV), (202) 224-6472
John F. Kerry (MA), (202) 224-2742
Barbara Boxer (CA), (202) 224-3553
Bill Nelson (FL), (202) 224-5274
Maria Cantwell (WA), (202) 224-3441
Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ), (202) 224-3224
E. Benjamin Nelson (NE), (202) 224-6551
Mark Pryor (AR), (202) 224-2353

I don’t usually do the ‘latest news’ thing, I prefer the ‘original content’ style. But this is important, so try not to sound like a lunatic when you call, more like a concerned, knowledgeable citizen.

Well, it had to happen sometime. Someone finally noticed that the new era of web interactive-ness that is “Web 2.0” doesn’t exactly mean you have to just do good. Enter the dark side of ‘Web 2.0′: online extortion.

Extortr lets you upload incriminating evidence (photos, videos) and set your price. An anonymous email gets sent to the target, and if they don’t pay up to your demands by the deadline, the evidence goes public. So far it seems to be popular with the brits, since the ransoms are all being listed in pounds.
Expect to see these guys become very popular, very quickly, both in the online community and with law enforcement.

edit: OK, so the site is actually a joke, albeit one that is a pretty good idea. What’s really sad is that this site addresses what most “2.0″ sites should be doing: providing a new, better, more efficient service than 1.0. Most sites that claim to be 2.0 are all effects and graphics.

Though this is not something new, I noticed that we have nothing about it, and decided to include this small intro and review here as I really like it a lot and think that readers will also appreciate this cool stuff which is related to music.

Team, a group of musicians + Music + Internet + Awesome Idea = Pandora

They put forth a question: Can you help me discover more music that I like?

And guess what … they come up with this solution that creates a playlist matching to which artist you like, or the song you like … and it actually works … simple and elegant solutions.

The Music Genome Project’s database is built using a methodology thatincludes the use of precisely defined terminology, a consistent frame of reference, redundant analysis, and ongoing quality control to ensure that data integrity remains reliably high. Pandora does not use machine-listening or other forms of automated data extraction.

According to their website:

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

No matter what, they are definitely one of my preffered DJs … it even beats live streaming radio broadcasts (personal or professional).

There are of course few more features that I would like to see in future.

And those licenses/patents instances once again makes your pleasure $%^&** … u know!

As this is not a stand-alone application, it means that you can use it on any OS, as long as your browser has support for Flash.

I have been searching now for a few weeks for my own personal .com domain name so i can overthrow Geeklimit start my own coding and web development. All the good names like taoski.com have already gone and therefore I am stuck searching for something catchy, “web 2.0″ and unique sounding.

However. Do domain names really matter any more?

I can’t think of the last time I passed on a URL to someone in a manual way eg. by mouth. I usually advise them to “check my blog” or “check my del.icio.us links” or something similar. I have even asked people to search Google for “Taoski” to find my blog. Its much easier than reciting “http:// … etc etc”.

All of my important information is now kept online, somewhere. Bank information, credit card details, passwords, addresses, my calendar, my email and even my family tree.

In a world where a person can be defined by an online nickname or avatar and mobile phone numbers are programmed into handsets once and then accessed by the persons nickname or phonebook entry, how important is it to keep information simple for others to interpret? It is no longer a case of making your website name “catchy” or “sticky” you just have to make it easy for people to find you on Google and also easy for them to keep a copy of the website name or URL. Online services such as Del.icio.us and Bloglines allow you to copy and subscribe to the information you find and then it is available anywhere! The use of social linking sites and RSS feeds have overtaken the web recently – and I think they are great!

I foresee an age where all of our personal information could be accessed by some sort of online ID. Our phone numbers, website URLs, addresses and inside leg measurements could be stored centrally and read back by anyone at any time. Not a great thing for those privacy activists out there – but this would probably be an optional service to use.

I remember when personal information services such as Bigfoot were available dierctly through windows (and probably still are). This was one of the first options to sign up to a centralised database of “internet users” so you could find your friends email address. It’s a shame it never took off properly, but with people swapping ISPs every few months and online laws changing all over the world, it’s no suprise that it was not taken up more.

You’ll see. “Google Me” – the “people search engine” will be the next big thing. Remember, you read it here first.

As the other members of Geeklimit will know (from my whining, sweating and general angst on IM) I will be leaving my tech support job at the end of the month.  I have worked for this company for 13 years and as I am only 34 I feel my skillset can still grow and be nurtured by another company foolish fortunate enough to employ me.

Since I decided to leave, I have been asked to design quite a few websites for various people.  This is not a real issue as I have a bit of experience with making websites from the past.  I have CSS, HTML, Photoshop, illustrator and Dreamweaver skills too.  I studied art and Graphics Design at school and college too before I fell into fixing PCs.

However, how much do I charge?

The sites I have been asked to make appear that they will be of a general nature, a few pages with just text, images and links.  Nothing too fancy.  So I did a quick search over the net and found that:

• Some places appear to charge around £100 for the home page and a smaller amount for any subsequent pages.
• Some places charge by the hour – sometimes up to £80 per hour!
• Some places charge about £250 for 5 pages.
• Some places charge about £500 for 5 pages!

Where do I start?

“Help me web designers…. you are my only hope….”

Right now USA Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the First Amendment of the Internet — a principle called “network neutrality” that preserves the free and open Internet. Congress needs to hear from you today or they will hand over control of what you do online to companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not even going to start on Sony, RIAA, etc. We’ve all heard the stories, and Techdirt does a better job at covering the legal tech news than I can. But the latest news is something I really have a soft spot for: using technology for what is right, and refusing to take compensation for it. If something I did isn’t working correctly, I regard it as my Geekly duty to make it work correctly. it’s good business, and the right think to do.

It’s funny when people view technology as being all evil or all good. Technology is a tool, the way a hammer is a tool. You can use the hammer to build a house for charity, or to beat someone to death. Along these same lines, there have been a few stories this week that are nice to see, primarily because people (and media) are starting to see the technology for what it is, and are holding the people, not the tech, responsible.

Here are my main 2 candidates for the past week to show what I’m talking about. Feel free to post your own.

Using Technology to promote Good

Outing theives of a Sidekick via the digg and ‘moral mob’ effects
Using Technology to promote Evil

Using Patents to stifle innovation

Astroturfing (Hiring people to act like grassroots organizations)

Selling yourself as ‘of the people’, when you’re not

The Gray Area

Admitting that what you’re wrong…but not doing anything about it…yet

Right now, it looks like the evil side is winning. :-\ However, it seems like if you leave it up to the Geeks, they’ll usually do the right thing. Usually…

Google has yet again offered for free what others decide to outrageously charge for. Welcome to Google Spreadsheets, an online spreadsheet application that can work with both .csv and .xls files. Once again, this is all about the true meaning of Web 2.0 – making the internet more valuable. With the addition of Writely, this is signaling the beginning of a web-based Office-type application.

Microsoft Office is currently in a rebuild, and estimates were that sales would be expected to reach $20 billion by 2011. With the inevitable addition of document management to GMail, these numbers will be seriously jeopardized. After all, why spend the estimated $679 on Office 2007 Ultimate Edition when 99% of what you do is simple document creation? This is nothing but bad news for Microsoft, count on either severe price reductions or serious sales problems. In the meantime, Microsoft shares don’t seem to be responding well to the latest news from Mountain View, CA, and are down a half-percent in the last 30 minutes, to $22.38. Google, however, has gained 5% in the two hours since the announcement of its tap into the $20 billion Office cashflow.

Add this latest development to Google Earth, an application that negates Microsoft’s Terraserver, and Google’s recent jostle to the 3D modeling space with its acquisition and free offering of SketchUp.

One could easily see the conversion of this 3D design software to 2D to compete with Adobe’s vector-based design application, Illustrator. Add this development to the addition of PDF translation in Google’s search portal; Adobe is being pressured on multiple fronts.

2006 is shaping up to be the year that Google goes after all of the heavy hitters in the industry, simultaneously.

My predictions for 2006-2007

1. Google Adds document management to GMail by adding online storage and a ‘My Documents’ sidebar.

2. Google launches G Office to bring together the office apps Writely and Spreadsheets.

3. Google adapts SketchUp to be a basic 2D, vector-based design application to compete with Illustrator.

4. Goobuntu is confirmed as being in development/available for beta, with the help of Sun Microsystems. It will be offered as an installed OS by Dell. Microsoft Vista prices drop from their estimated $450 to XP Home’s $200. It won’t be enough.

5. A network appliance will be launched to locally host your own G Office web application, with limited success.

6. Further development into municipal WiFi will result in a slew of Google app ports for mobile devices, such as GMaps and GLocal.

7. Development in Mobile apps will result in concentration on local, location-relevant searches for Froogle, GMaps and GLocal.

8. GMaps will integrate public transportation as optional routes to the user.

9. Google Groups will be refined and integrated into the Gmail app, which is now more like Google Portal than a mail app. Corporate users will be able to have private groups for online collaboration. Around this time, IBM will start gearing up, as they’ve owned this sector for years.

10. Google will get tied up for a few years in the legal system as companies go after them for being a monopoly, a victim of their own successes. It will be determined that there was adequate competition in the marketplace, but the ‘don’t be evil’ model won out over the ‘force them to a product, then charge what we want’ model.

Oh,

11. Google hires me to manage the think-up-ideas-and-make-them-into-prototype-apps department in R&D. I realize I forgot all of my possessions as the plane lifts off an hour later.