MusicAlly publishes a fortnightly trade report on the impact of digital technologies on the music business, with the emphasis on business. The free sample issue is more concerned with intellectual property rights, licensing and “what’s to be done about file sharing” than about music per se. The most interesting and music-related features for me are those on whether ringtones are really as important in the market as singles (Musically says not — phew); and about how a niche band like Phish is demonstrating that actually you can make money by selling downloads (in this case “official bootlegs” with no copy protection), with its profitable LivePhishDownloads site.
Being cheeky, it’s hard to resist pointing out that the 15 page £40 newsletter offers a lot fewer bytes/£ than your average CD — and no studio costs — but is probably still better value than consulting a lawyer who’d charge a similar amount for picking up the phone and breathing down it once. For only £20 you can pick the brains of MusicAlly’s Paul Brindley and two other industry insiders in Soho next Monday (event details and, after 24 Nov, report) , but unfortunately I’m on a course on Monday evening.
(Related postings on this site on the impact of technologies on music can be found here and here.)