Lady GaGa doesn’t mind if people steal her music, she makes it up in touring http://bit.ly/c6bufi

Lady Gaga admits she’s fine with people downloading her music in unauthorized forms because she makes it up in touring revenue:

She explains she doesn’t mind about people downloading her music for free, “because you know how much you can earn off touring, right? Big artists can make anywhere from $40 million [£28 million] for one cycle of two years’ touring. Giant artists make upwards of $100 million. Make music — then tour. It’s just the way it is today.”

The music, and the record contract, have rarely been the source of a band/artist’s revenue. The Label always seems to have as many costs applied to the artist as the artist generates in revenue. Mick Jagger said, last week, that the Record Labels never pay out. So touring is/has/will be a primary source of a musician’s income. Plus other reasons to buy stuff from the artist at a profit.

The music – free to distribute in infinite amounts – is a promotional tool for something scarce: performances.

James Murdoch needs remedial Copyright intervention. Totally gets it wrong. http://bit.ly/d7zSa3 Hard to imagine the staggering ignorance.

In fact this is such a long takedown of Murdoch’s speech that it’s hard to quote just one egregious example. James Murdoch willfully (or just plain ignorantly) gets the purpose and practice of copyright wrong; puts up false strawmen to tear down; and just so comprehensively gets it wrong that it’s just plain frightening that he is likely heir to one of the major media companies.

Read the whole thing, and weep.

Required Specs Could Make Google TV Too Pricey? http://bit.ly/dtdZnU Maybe to start with, but it’ll all get cheaper over time.

Requirement for a hefty (for a TV) processor and RAM would make Google TV equipped sets fairly expensive compared to their rivals. But we all know that digital electronics comes down in price over time.

In the interview, Dureau said that connected devices needed more memory than regular HDTVs for buffering while streaming over the web. “If you do the math on decoding an HD video signal, it actually takes a lot of memory — 100 to 200 Mbytes. If you start looking at connected devices in the market that support streaming over the Web they basically have quite a bit of additional ram for buffering,” he said.

At least one consumer electronics manufacturer has decided against introducing the Google TV platform into its connected devices because development of those products would be too pricey. In March, Panasonic EVP Bob Perry told Bloomberg that the Android OS would require too much processing power to make it a viable solution.

Amanda Palmer , OK Go Get Together To Celebrate Being Dropped From Their Record Labels http://bit.ly/aYO7WB Better off solo than with label because it allows them to better connect with fans, and give those fans a reason to buy something.

For both these artists the label was a hindering factor, not a help.

It’s yet another reminder of how the role of the major labels is totally changing. Historically, the only way to be successful in the music business was to get a major label deal. They were the gatekeepers, and without a deal, you were out of luck. Being dropped from a major was effectively the end of your career as a performer with a very small number of exceptions. But, these days, artists are realizing that there’s so much more that can be done without major label help, and that actually being on a major can hinder or block those opportunities, that it’s become a cause for celebration when you get “dropped” — or, perhaps, more accurately, freed!