Breaking Google’s last taboo
Google has traditionally charged into other business areas with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. This isn’t always a bad thing: there are plenty of cosy industries that are ripe for a...
View ArticleFrench taxpayer to subsidise music buyers
The European Commission has approved a French scheme to subsidise music downloads for 15-25 year olds. The taxpayer will contribute €25 per user per year to every “Carte Musique” cardholder, which...
View ArticleLegal P2P fails (again)
“The EFF doesn’t have a plan, they barely have a theory,” Jim Griffin’s bold plan to take P2P file sharing out of the black economy, and into the one that deals with green folding stuff, flopped...
View ArticleHow NOT to do a music levy
The European Court has upheld the right of copyright businesses in the EU to ask for a ‘private copying levy’, but slapped down Spain for applying it indiscriminately. The Court was hearing a case...
View ArticleButton it, Bob
More hysterical shrieking reaches us about Apple’s new music feature, I’m afraid. Earlier this week a lone lawyer said that iTunes Match, which populates an online store with songs you already have,...
View ArticleFacebook, Tesco and music platforms
We all know why Facebook has such astronomical valuations. It is already as ubiquitous as Tesco. It is a place a billion people go to: whereas they only ever leave Google search, to go somewhere else....
View ArticleWeb requires Brunel-scale thinking
Three years ago I caught a glimpse of a new social network built around music. You could follow people, chat with them, and enjoy the same music stream in real time. There were many other clever things...
View ArticleWhy power follows platforms
This is a story with huge implications for the future of the web. Even if you don’t use Facebook or Spotify – I don’t – and couldn’t care less, you can nevertheless start to see how business...
View ArticleOur ‘digital economy’ is still a circular firing squad
The British ISP industry has spent a small fortune of its customers’ money fighting the people who would, in a saner world, be its business partners – only to suffer a crushing defeat. On Tuesday Lord...
View ArticleA Martin Mills interview
The Beggars Group office in a suburban street in Wandsworth doesn’t look much like a media corporation. There’s no chocolate ice sculpture in reception, and no giant video screens or inspirational...
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