Monthly Archives: April 2017
Spotify Acquires Blockchain Startup Mediachain
Spotify announced yesterday that it has acquired the blockchain startup Mediachain Labs for an undisclosed sum. For those watching the music/blockchain space, this is big news indeed. Here’s a passage from the whitepaper I recently published on blockchain technology for music: DSPs [digital music service providers] have become the “big boys” of the music industry, […]
The P-Word
I’m reading a fascinating book called Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper. It’s a wry and informative look at the field of lexicography, written by a lexicographer at the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster. One of the most interesting facts I learned from this book is that dictionary definitions are meant to capture the […]
In Music, DRM Is Back While Ownership Is Going Away
The RIAA’s annual revenue figures for recorded music are a goldmine of information about the state, health, and direction of the music industry. The 2016 figures that the RIAA published at the end of March generated a few common headlines in the trade and business press: Recorded music revenue in the United States is finally […]
Kobo Gives the Shelfie Story a Happy Ending
The story of Shelfie, the Vancouver-based print and e-book bundling startup that ceased operations back in January, has a coda, and quite possibly a happy ending after all. Shelfie’s fellow Canadians at Kobo had agreed to maintain the Shelfie service so that users could access their DRM-protected e-books and transfer their e-book libraries to the Kobo […]
Ad Networks’ Smokescreens Against Objectionable Websites
This may seem like a side issue from our usual subject matter here, but the current furor over programmatic Internet advertising is worth talking about anyway. To me it’s a prime example of the lengths that industries will go to make it look like they are doing the right thing but actually aren’t. For those […]
New White Paper: Watermarking Technology and Blockchains in the Music Industry
A new white paper that that explores the combination of blockchain technology and digital audio watermarks for improving rights management and royalty processing in the music industry.
Copyright and Technology 
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