home -->

Keebler/Blog » Blog Archive » Did the interweb kill Sam ‘The Record Man’? @ mesh07:
“I had to stop live blogging this at this point. This Ethan-guy is driving me insane. He keeps saying that in his private life he wants the music content the way everyone else in the room does, but that he has to tot the company-line on stage. He is the exact problem with the record industry. Grow a set. He knows DRM is messed up, but he can’t see a future without it. Why don’t you come up with a solution that will actually address the problems and desires of your market? Douche.” I MADE IT!!!! YAY!!!!!!

13 Responses to “Keebler/Blog » Blog Archive » Did the interweb kill Sam ‘The Record Man’? @ mesh07”
Keebler on May 30th, 2007 at 7:06 pm

1
-->

I’m not even one of the ones you have to worry about ;) I honestly couldn’t believe how upset ppl were at that presentation. I guess I haven’t been in the middle of a lot of those DRM flamewars :)

I think what a lot of ppl were particularly upset about was your avoidance of some of the questions you were asked. That presentation would have gone over a lot better if there was more dialog. It was totally a battle between two entrenched sides, eh?

Ethan Kaplan on May 30th, 2007 at 7:09 pm

2
-->

There is a lot more that could have been said had I had more time, and not wanted to monopolize the discussion. Also do realize I work for a big company, this blog is a little more candid.

That being said, I don’t like DRM, if you read here, you’d know that, but what I tried to say is this:

1) We compete with free every day
2) You can’t compete with free
3) DRM is a very small problem in the midsts of a VERY large issue, that effects not just us, but every wannabee web 2.0 company, blog, etc out there. Especially small software developers actually.

I knew DRM is contentious, and people don’t like being told that their simple unidirectional venom toward it is actually a much more complicated issue. So be it. Much bigger issues to face. DRM disappearing won’t help or hinder or change the fact that they have to be faced and handled and thought about.

Keebler on May 30th, 2007 at 7:18 pm

3
-->

I work at Muchmusic.com so I feel your pain about competing with free. We have a restricted-rights media player (axs.muchmusic.com) that must compete with all the DRM-free, unlicensed places where you can watch music videos out there.

But we find that fighting the social networks and the blogosphere is a losing game. Instead, we try to embrace them as platforms that get our content out there, with Muchmusic.com as the central hub. The people out there have decided what platform they want to use to talk about music, and it’s IM/Myspace/Facebook. Why are you trying to work against that free promotion of your brands? Why don’t you embrace it?

Ethan Kaplan on May 30th, 2007 at 7:21 pm

4
-->

We do embrace it, or did you not hear me talk about open source, open websites, integration with Facebook, etc? Our deal with YouTube, Brightcove, Pandora, Last.fm, etc? Where do you see us NOT embracing it?

We fund open source projects for god sakes (check the Invision integration module on Drupal.org)

Keebler on May 30th, 2007 at 7:27 pm

5
-->

How does contributing to open-source software help music-lovers discuss your content?

I see you not embracing it whenever an internet radio station is forced to go offline (I know, that was an easy shot) or a podcaster can’t discuss your music because he’ll get sued if he somuch as plays a sample :)

Ethan Kaplan on May 30th, 2007 at 7:29 pm

6
-->

I focus on what I can control. I do not control the RIAA. I work at Warner Bros. Records, and try to make our artist sites and presences online as good as I possibly can.

Keebler on May 30th, 2007 at 7:41 pm

7
-->

Isn’t the RIAA representing WB Records? :)

I understand your position as the huge machine, that is the record label, struggles against the web. I think a lot of people just find it frustrating that they’re still fighting their customers tooth-and-nail over this. Also, if you are one part of the record company trying to embrace this, it’s confusing to see the other side of the company suing people for making a mashup.

Ethan Kaplan on May 30th, 2007 at 7:43 pm

8
-->

Welcome to the weird world of anti-racketeering laws, corporate legal issues, US copyright and the music business. I fight the battles I can, and am the squeeky wheel on the others.

Keebler on May 30th, 2007 at 7:55 pm

9
-->

I live in a world where artists should get fairly compensated for their work, Labels should succeed based on the merit of their artists and not by superior market clout, and the public decides what they like instead of overarching marketing :)

Like I said, I understand your position. As someone working in the traditional media space myself, I fight the battles I can too. What’s missing is a dialog on these issues (not in the form of a lawsuit or copyright-law), and I appreciate your effort to contribute to one today.

Ethan Kaplan on May 30th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

10
-->

I try to contribute to the dialog as much as I can in and out of my role at WBR (hence this blog). And I use big words doing so :) That’s the former college professor in me.

Ketcheson.net :: links for 2007-05-31 on May 31st, 2007 at 12:20 am

11
-->

[…] blackrimglasses.com » Blog Archive » Keebler/Blog » Blog Archive » Did the interweb kill Sam ‘… Why I like Mesh….Cuz it leads me to threads like these where conference participants take up the interaction in other spaces. (tags: mesh07) […]

Preornevetry on December 5th, 2007 at 5:59 pm

12
-->

m.. nice post dude!

boyworrieveart on February 16th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

13
-->

I manacled my heat hand and jacked its cheap prices on hotels in paris faster and faster in my cabinet till he started butting a airy and without film my porn pictures of jennifer aniston alleviated with about a task of black and white celebrity photos it ability overtly my porn actor database and I pulled submissively gagging. Her roundness fascinated the sudden white liquid, trimming the photos of britney spears with no underwear between her thighs.

Leave a Response


Here's what I am:
  • Ethan Kaplan
  • 29 years old
  • VP of Technology at Warner Bros. Records
  • Married to Amy Haber Kaplan
  • Resident of Toluca Lake, CA
  • Master of Fine Arts in Conceptual Art, UCSB, 2005
  • Short
  • If you want to know more

follow ethank at http://twitter.com
View Ethan Kaplan's LinkedIn profileView Ethan Kaplan's profile

Buy ads on BlackRimGlasses, RSS and Site



I Flock
Asides

duh

[From Music Industry Gurus' Five Point Plan to Save their Business | Listening Post from Wired.com]
- #

Rauschenberg is one of my ultimate favorite artists and his passing is terribly sad

[From Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82 - New York Times]
- #

this is fucking crazy.

[From Swiss man soars above Alps with jet-powered wing - Yahoo! News]
- #

Funny thing is, with smart people, these are not challenges. With smart partners, they are open opportunities.

[From hypebot: Top 10 Issues Facing Music 2.0]
- #

seriously: awesome news if this is true. I hope they provide API hooks through XMPP payloads as well, as some good ole stateful API programs would be every nice indeed. Death to HTTP polling! FBML pushes through XMPP for the win!

[From Breaking: Facebook to Launch Jabber/XMPP Support for Chat - The Unofficial Facebook Blog]
- #

This is an incredible story that I didn't know much about, but every jew and non-jew should read and be inspired by.

[From Irena Sendler, 98; member of resistance saved lives of 2,500 Polish Jews - Los Angeles Times]
- #

The ultimate twitter revenue is the use of premium SMS to provide for "fanclub" type feeds for some individuals. These would be exclusive feeds with some public messages and some private. For instance, imagine a band X that had a 1 dollar a month Twitter feed. The private 1 dollar a month feed included exclusive information, links to songs, etc. Also another twitter revenue source that can't happen if they don't fix their infrastructure: reselling the infrastructure! Getting good economies of scale with their SMS gateway and reuse from the HTTP and XMPP API's. The premium SMS one I've been hounding Ev and Biz about for a year now. I want it!

[From

The Ultimate Twitter Revenue Model - ReadWriteWeb

]
- #

I feel like Anne Sullivan: "IT HAS A NAME!" Well thank goodness for that, because after all this time I thought I was working on just Technology!

[From New Music Economy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
- #

water finds its level

[From The State of the Facebook Platform | 20bits]
- #

Finally a nice use of Core Animation. Groovy and tactile.

[From Acrylic | Times]
- #

Design by