[Tim Wilson]

I’m curious — what are you trying to download that you can’t do in a browser?

[Tim Wilson]

The slight irony here is that The Beastie boys are pioneers of appropriating other people’s music AND PAYING FOR IT.

The Beastie Boys were sampling pioneers. Not that they were the first. They weren’t even part of the first GENERATION of samplers. But with the album Paul’s Boutique, they completely changed the nature of the game.

More precisely, it was the Dust Brothers who created the dense collages, but this was very definitely a Beasties project.

And they PAID for the samples. This was by no means common, and indeed a lawsuit a few years later around people who were NOT paying for samples set the market rate high enough that there won’t be another record anything like Paul’s Boutique any time soon. Maybe ever.

Before then, you might have one piece of a track, maybe a drumbeat or a bassline. The scratching sound in hip-hop records was the sound of pulling the needle back to the beginning of that musical interlude. Two turntables came into play so that you could keep the sound looped. Eventually, you could record these snippets and string ’em together as needed.

On Paul’s Boutique, there might be dozens of samples on one track — over 100 on the whole album. “Hey Ladies” was the closest thing to a hit from the album, and that track alone samples 16 other tracks from artists as diverse as Frank Zappa, Deep Purple, Afrika Bambataa, the Commodores, Sweet…and of course James Brown and George Clinton. Other songs sample even more tracks than that — and unlike the long loops in the first generation of turntablism, many of these are less than a second long, but still build to a cohesive whole.

The sheer audacity of the Beasties on this record was jaw dropping. The wit and proficiency made it almost heart-stopping. “Sounds of Science” in particular was built largely out of Sgt. Pepper samples — a bit of crowd noise from the title track and the oboe from When I’m Sixty-Four — but also pieces from The White Album and Abbey Road…and Shaft! An amazing album, completely different than the title track. More like lounge jazz, barely a beat on the whole thing — verrrrry downtempo, but insane feel.

Paul’s Boutique didn’t sell a ton at the time, although it eventually got to 2 million. Miles Davis was one of the record’s champions — he said he never got tired of listening to it. Also paying attention: Public Enemy, who The Beastie Boys were early supporters of. PE’s first tour was as The Beastie’s opening act, and their own sampling game went way, way up. And indeed, they pushed the Beasties to catch up with them.

Blah blah blah. Paul’s Boutique really is a game-changer though. It simultaneously redefined both hip-hop and rock and roll, and rewrote the relationship between them…and set the standard for PAYING for stuff, no matter how many checks you have to write. DO IT, because it’s the right thing to do.

The Beastie Boys also remembered what it was like to come up from the streets — they started doing all this in their parent’s basements, and played at parties before they could get real jobs…including one party with LL Cool J in attendance, who brought one of the mixtapes to his record label and said “Sign these boys.”

As a result, they were VERY lax about their work being appropriated by kids for their own purposes….

…but some of these sports drinks companies are multi-billion dollar companies. They had the dough, they had no excuses. The couple of million they paid was getting off easy…although I suspect that the “but I thought it was okay” kid perhaps didn’t get off quite so easily in the office.

Todd reminds us of a crucial point, though, that small businesses don’t have a couple of million dollars laying around, and rights holders are not at all sympathetic. They’re also highly motivated, and are using bots to sniff out violators that human enforcers alone would never find.

It’s worth noting that we quite regularly get takedown notices from record labels for reels in our library. We’re not the ones who make the demo reels, so our part in the proceedings is simple. “Done. Please let us know if there’s anything else we can do for you.”

I have no idea what further action the labels are taking with the people who made those reels, but you’d be surprised at the range of artists whose management is stepping in.

They ARE watching, and they ARE taking action, and it’s only a matter of time before they’ll catch up with you.

This is aside from the ethical imperative for artists to have each other’s back. 🙂

Anyway, I’m crazy about sampling, a centuries old craft that has gone by many names, now elevated to an art and science of almost incomprehensible creativity.

A coupla links:

The Dust Brothers talking about Paul’s Boutique, as well as Beck’s Odelay (another sampling masterpiece) and many others in illustrating their approach to incorporating old sounds into forward-sounding music

A sample breakdown from Sounds of Science

Since I mentioned Public Enemy, here are the sample credits for Fight The Power. I betcha didn’t remember that this originally came out on MOTOWN Records, on the Do The Right Thing soundtrack (appropriately enough in our conversation about paying artists when you use their work)…or that the song sampled Uriah Heep, among a dozen+ others.

And of course, the link that REALLY matters, one of the four or five best music videos EVER:

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AND, one of the best uses of pop music in a movie, EVER. Certainly one of the top couple of character introductions ever. And yes, people will be playing “Sabotage” in 300 years.

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[Tim Wilson]

A historical footnote about Apple manufacturing in the US — they opened a 150,000 sq ft facility in Carrolton, TX in 1980 to ramp up production of the Apple II. My father ran it.

The first Macs were actually made in Fremont, CA, and the first Lisas in Cupertino. Both of those were shut down, and manufacturing for them was moved to Carrolton. I’d have to look this up, but I’m remembering another California plant (Orange County somewhere?) that made peripherals. It was all over by 1985.

In the early 90s, though, Apple had a much bigger facility in Colorado — maybe twice the size of the one my father ran in Carrolton — and one almost as big as that near Sacramento. Again, this is just from memory, but I’m thinking that in the mid-90s, most, if not all, of the Macs being sold in North America were made in the US.

(Apple had opened a plant in Cork in 1980 that had been doing the heavy lifting for Europe.)

I want to say it was only maybe 10 years ago that Apple closed the last of its US manufacturing.

Anyway, that’s just off the top of my head, but whenever anybody mentions Apple manufacturing in the US of A, I think of dear old Dad.

[Tim Wilson]

Larry distributes all his stuff through iTunes as his primary platform.. Things like the web are there because nobody should have all their eggs in one platform….

…but he’s among a small handful of high profile TRUE podcasters still out there.

I misspoke a little bit in my last post, though. I didn’t mean to say that people are no longer creating episodic online content. Of course they are. Tens of thousands of them. But unless you’re pushing out syndicated content, it’s not TECHNICALLY a podcast…but if that word makes you happy, go for it. People know generally enough what it means, now that I think about it, it has probably replaced the word webisode in a lot of people’s minds.

But you asked, what’s a podcast, and that’s the answer. Syndicated content (audio, video, PDF, eBook, etc) meant to be viewed on devices, managed automatically.

Just explain to your viewers that they won’t find it at the iTunes store, but will have to either download it manually into iTunes to load onto their phone, typically over a physical connection to their computer, or they’ll have to view it through another app (YouTube) or a browser.

[Tim Wilson]

In general, podcasts are things that are syndicated through platforms like iTunes. The “pod” comes from iPod, where you’d plug in your iPod to your computer, and it would automatically download the latest episodes of the podcasts you’ve subscribed to.

The content of podcasts can be not only video and audio, but also PDFs and eBooks. The primary characteristic is syndication to a device.

My guess is that podcasts, like everything else in iTunes that isn’t an app, are dramatically declining.

I don’t know about you, but I barely even use my phone browser anymore, except for access to features not included in the apps I use. I don’t remember the last time I saw someone using a phone to look at Facebook/Words with Friends, or email. For me, it’s tumblr, but as much as I used to enjoy podcasts, and as much impact as the COW got from podcasts we produced, I just can’t imagine caring anymore.

And if I’m going to listen to anything for any length of time, it’s music. (I’m a Spotify addict.)

What about any of you? Do you listen/watch podcasts anymore?

Even Netflix, HBO Go and what have you. I don’t do any of that on my phone anymore. It’s fun, and I still have the apps loaded, but pretty much everything else interests me more.

I think YouTube is a great platform. I definitely watch YouTube on my phone, and I love that on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3, I can run YouTube in the background while I do other stuff, but my YouTubing is almost entirely driven by links from social media. So you’re definitely on the right track with that, Mark.

But for all the reasons above, I’d avoid the word podcast myself. It sounds like you’re shooting for a very old target. “Webisode” is an okay word, but I think that the good old “episode” works great. Presumably the series of YouTube clips has a name, so it’d be “check out the latest episode of ‘Mark Says Go,’ with your host Mark Suszko.” Or whatever.

Am I nuts? Are folks here still syndicating content for iPods/phones via iTunes? Either sending or receiving?

[Tim Wilson]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Too bad. It’s the best kind of music.”

No argument from me. Outside the COW my language is filthy.

But we take seriously that the COW is in schools, places of worship, government facilities and workplaces where that stuff really doesn’t fly. There are whole COUNTRIES that will shut us out if we don’t take this kind of thing seriously.

So we do.

Outside the COW, though, have at it.

[Tim Wilson]

[Craig Alan] “I think they are buying the brand/the image/the personalities.”

I swear I’m not grinding on you personally, but this is by far the biggest deal in Apple’s history, it’s by far the most important. It gets to the absolute core of the company that Apple thinks it is today, and the kind of company it wants to become.

So I’m curious. When Tim Cook says “This is all about music,” why do you not believe him? Spotify is passing iTunes in music revenue, doubling year on year, while iTunes is declining faster than even CD sales. Beats Audio gives Apple a chance to stop the bleeding in what had previously been one of the most lucrative parts of their business.

Not that the Beats brand and personalities aren’t a big factor, but every bit of evidence that I’ve seen points to this being, exactly as Tim Cook said, “all about music.”

I’m surprised that so many people are finding this hard to believe. The numbers are easily available to even a cursory Google search, and they’re truly ugly for Apple.

Beats is also not a write-off. They’re profitable, on revenues of $1.5 billion.

So, what are you seeing in either what Tim Cook is saying, or what he’s NOT saying, that lead you to believe that he’s trying to mislead us when he says the deal was about music?

Or are you not reading the links I’m posting? LOL There’s a stupid number of them. I can see how normal people have better things to do with their time. LOL

Not that it colors the “Apple doesn’t care about pros / Apple is completely committed to pros” debate one whit, one way or the other. But for seeing Apple’s view of the big picture, this story is one of the 2 or 3 most important in the company’s history. Again, going forward, I think it will be by far the single most important deal that Apple has ever made.

I love kremlinology as much as anyone here, but I don’t see any reason to believe it’s anything other than what Tim Cook says it is….which yes, includes brands and personalities…but per TC, it’s “all about music.”

As a kremlinologist, though, I’m also happy to be pointed to any numbers to suggest that there’s something else afoot. 🙂

[Tim Wilson]

Sorry I had to edit your post, man. We don’t allow parental advisory music in the COW.

HOWEVER, I left the link there for anyone who wants to piece it together, because it’s a GREAT choice. The perfect observation.

But NSFB language. Not safe for Bessie. 🙂

[Tim Wilson]

And that’s in New York.

[Tim Wilson]

[Michael Phillips] “Tim – All great points that I agree with, I was just commenting that the music streaming side only represented only $500M of the overall deal,”

I wasn’t disagreeing, or thinking you were disagreeing with me. I just found a couple of interesting articles I hadn’t seen before, and they expanded a number of points in my previous post.

I was also making the observation that a lot of people are still scratching their heads about this deal, when I think it’s a slam dunk.

I don’t think I’m being especially insightful or contrarian or anything else. I think this IS the story. I just happened to be one many folks who happened to be looking in the right direction, which even a lot of first-tier media sources hadn’t been. Maybe because Spotify started in Europe, and has only been in the US since 2011 I think. Maybe the news was more visible to people with smaller corners of the industry to cover.

Or maybe it’s just that I’ve been a Spotify subscriber, and I LIKE the idea of Netflix for music. There’s simply no question that this is a more lucrative approach for the future. It doesn’t even require any persuasion, the way that early iTunes did. People are jumping on this model for exactly the same reason they’re jumping on Netflix.

Because this is Netflix for music. I keep coming back to that point because it’s the key to all of this. It’s not an easy business to develop, or Apple already would have…but it’s absolutely critical to Apple’s music business, which is why there were talking to Jimmy and Dre about this for a very long time already.

re: headphones, just a few minutes ago, I saw that Beats accounts for 40% of that market. Right now, Apple ain’t making any money on those white earbuds. Sure, you can buy ’em, but for the most part, they’re a huge expense for Apple. They’ve now got a premium product that they can charge real money for, and Beats headphones don’t have to be any better than they already are for Apple to keep charging $200-300 retail for the top of the line. Pretty much all that Apple has to do to cash in is sell them in Apple stores.

The Beats brand is already strong enough that Apple doesn’t even have to offer them in white with an Apple logo…although I bet that that’s an option in time for the holiday season. 🙂