Random Monday: File Sharing, Wagner’s Beard and Wages from 1870
A roundup reflecting on things read over the week.
- Wizard of Oz
Justin Locke provides a very interesting analysis of the Wizard of Oz Story. It is an excellent lesson in overcoming fear.[...] the process of growing up requires not just facing your fears, but also facing this great disappointment: that these distant powerful beneficent institutions and creatures are really just childhood fantasies. The witches are all bluff and smoke, and even more important, the wizards are no more clever or powerful than yourself.
- File-sharing actually boosts sales?
In “The RIAA Has Got to Stop” columnist John C. Dvorak provides an interesting counter-argument to why file-sharing might actually be a good thing. This runs contrary to my previous notion that file-sharing basically amounts to file-stealing.According to a study done by the BBI Norwegian School of Management, those who freely download music from file-sharing sites and elsewhere buy ten times more music (yes, they actually pay for it) than people who do not participate in file-sharing systems. In fact, the figure that the report cites for the amount spent by the file-sharing subculture is so high that the record industry doesn’t believe it.
- Selling music online
In a related item from the ChicagoTribune.com, the author (?) writes about how the band Radiohead has affected the business model for selling music.By selling the Rainbows album on its web site for whatever the customer deemed a fair price, the band circumvented the usual way that music is produced and sold.
- Wagner’s beard
Over at Mahler Owes Me Ten Bucks, Chantal Incandela ponders on the “neard” — that funny neck-beard that Richard Wagner sported. I agree — what on earth was he thinking?
- A blast from the past
Putting things into perspective, Miss Mussel takes a look at musician wages from the 1870′s.
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