1. Give away free platform shoes (made overseas)
2. Distribute free (unsold surplus) Zunes with DRMed "Best of Disco Era" tracks
3. During ensuing confusion & public distraction of mass pain from twisted ankles... profit!
Balmer: "Brilliant! Wadda we call it?"
Gate$: "'Elevate America' has a nice ring to it, nobody will suspect a thing"
Balmer: "sweeeeeet! can I throw some of the platform shoes at people?"
G$: "mmmmmm, should make a nice thud"
So many people bashing the concept of MAP seems weird to me, since I'm familiar with the subject (part of my job). MAP agreements generally don't stop any owner/consumer of a product from doing anything. It's purely applied to retailers, not consumers that want to sell their used stuff.
Ummm, also, if you never signed a retailer contract with Sony (or whoever else), you're not bound by MAP & can sell your old PS3 for $1 if you want - any lawyer that threatens you (an individual, not a business) about it is full of s**t. (Disclaimer, IMNAL).
In fact, MAP is good for the underdog, the Mom n Pop shops. Think about it - that's why W-Mort & Coozco want to kill it, because it slows them down in their quest to crush their competition & take over the world. It's intended to create a level playing field, but does allow price to fluctuate under certain conditions (easy to do).
To those comments that say - "if I have my own store I should be able to sell at any price I want! How dare any manufacturer tell me what to do!" -- Well, if you really had a store, you'd be begging all manufacturers to implement MAP, just to help you out.
The big-box stores buy in huge volume so they get lower prices. But, small shops can't do this, thus their cost of goods is higher & they must sell for a higher price to stay alive. The intent is to help the small guys by keeping the price at a level they can survive on & stopping the big guys from undercutting, or worse yet, from intentionally selling at a loss just to kill your little shop (& some big stores like it too, because they don't like price wars either).
Applying MAP to eBay seems absurd, UNLESS it's for a big eBay merchant that sells new products.
The "A" in MAP is the key. Standard MAP agreements allow anyone to sell for any price, as long as they say something like "price too low to print" in ads.
Also, any item that's not new (as in perfect), e.g. demo, scratch'n'dent, b-stock, returns, unboxed, open-box, or any type of used - can be any price (you must state it's condition)...So, as long as it's not NIB, (& especially if you never signed a contract that contained MAP provisions) eBay stuff should be exempt.
- Well, that's all based on my actual experience & what our legal dept has explained in the past. If anyone can point out specifics (especially example contracts) that differ from what I've stated, please reply to this comment since I'd really like to know more - especially if there are other things going on, like with MAP somehow being incorporated into DMCA (which would be odd).
What a waste of money. For that kind of coin you could actually get out of the house, travel, see the world, & live a little (or a lot)...maybe even get laid.
Then, save some starving orphans.
P.S. "The things you own, they end up owning you".
- Tyler Durden
Independent labels are starting to worry the majors. In particular, Internet Radio plays a big role in this as it tends to help the independents & the majors would probably be happy to see it go away.
Specifically, in the genres we support, artists have had some great success on the Billboard charts in 2006. Most notably, Mindless Self Indulgence & Cruxshadows who each took a turn at knocking a major out of the #1 spot, yes that wasn't a typo, they each hit #1 on the dance singles chart for several weeks, knocking first Justin TLake, then Beyonce out -- to the majors, that's lost $ & lost prestige. And that's not all, several other artists from the "Goth" genre also showed up in the Billboard top 20 charts in 2006, pushing the pets of the majors down the ladder every time.
We play & promote ONLY non-major label artists, so they (& their labels) benefit from our existence. Independent labels seem to be more clued in to the impact of the internet & use it to their advantage as the majors blunder around like blind elephants suffering increasing brain damage from repeatedly bumping into walls.
I honestly don't remember what app it was that would identify & block stream ripping software. I found it after a google search and following many links regarding stream ripping in general. I think it may have been some company based in England. Come to think of it, I should have written it down or something - it cost money so I kinda blew it off at the time figuring I could find it again if I really wanted it.
Glad to hear you're doing well too. Non-commercial music is cool. What's your URL? I'd like to swing by & look at your site, & tune it to your stream. I'm curious about what type of music Church of Girl Radio plays:)
Thanks, you've changed my mind about people using streamripper type apps. As a broadcaster on Shoutcast (gothradio.com) I considered people doing that as bad but I didn't think about your point - if you're just using it for "time shifting" like I use my VCR for TV I wanna watch at another time, then that's cool. I was going to get one of the new apps that blocks streamripper, but now I won't. Seriously, you have given me a good new perspective. Thx!
Amazing - So much wrong information posted here! I must be the only/.er that actually RUNs an Internet Radio station. I own http://www.gothradio.com/ and things are going GREAT! (Obviously I'd love you all to check it out, but that's not the point of this post). We started 3 months ago & we're already having to upgrade to a new server & new streaming software to handle the increasing demand - and we haven't even started the promotion yet. Like 1 post said, internet radio is in its infancy as is our station - we have a lot of improvements planned & I bet other stations do too.
Own a cell phone? If the word "radio" means wireless (non-computer) listening, then here comes Internet *radio*. Anyone notice those new Verizon V-Cast TV ads. Guess what,
in a couple weeks our station will be available via cell phones, from most major carriers (I'll post details about it on the site when it goes into effect). You could even listen in your car. On a side note, ShoutCast doesn't report the number of listeners correctly, (but we love them anyway).
Maybe our success is due to our focus on non-commercial type music. The indie labels and bands that aren't going to get airtime on any "mainstream" station love us. Yes, you've gotta keep it legal & deal with BMI etc. I would love to address some of the other posts here, but want to keep this short(ish).
Slashdot Mirror
The real plan:
1. Give away free platform shoes (made overseas)
2. Distribute free (unsold surplus) Zunes with DRMed "Best of Disco Era" tracks
3. During ensuing confusion & public distraction of mass pain from twisted ankles... profit!
Balmer: "Brilliant! Wadda we call it?"
Gate$: "'Elevate America' has a nice ring to it, nobody will suspect a thing"
Balmer: "sweeeeeet! can I throw some of the platform shoes at people?"
G$: "mmmmmm, should make a nice thud"
So many people bashing the concept of MAP seems weird to me, since I'm familiar with the subject (part of my job). MAP agreements generally don't stop any owner/consumer of a product from doing anything. It's purely applied to retailers, not consumers that want to sell their used stuff.
Ummm, also, if you never signed a retailer contract with Sony (or whoever else), you're not bound by MAP & can sell your old PS3 for $1 if you want - any lawyer that threatens you (an individual, not a business) about it is full of s**t. (Disclaimer, IMNAL).
In fact, MAP is good for the underdog, the Mom n Pop shops. Think about it - that's why W-Mort & Coozco want to kill it, because it slows them down in their quest to crush their competition & take over the world. It's intended to create a level playing field, but does allow price to fluctuate under certain conditions (easy to do).
To those comments that say - "if I have my own store I should be able to sell at any price I want! How dare any manufacturer tell me what to do!" -- Well, if you really had a store, you'd be begging all manufacturers to implement MAP, just to help you out.
The big-box stores buy in huge volume so they get lower prices. But, small shops can't do this, thus their cost of goods is higher & they must sell for a higher price to stay alive. The intent is to help the small guys by keeping the price at a level they can survive on & stopping the big guys from undercutting, or worse yet, from intentionally selling at a loss just to kill your little shop (& some big stores like it too, because they don't like price wars either).
Applying MAP to eBay seems absurd, UNLESS it's for a big eBay merchant that sells new products.
The "A" in MAP is the key. Standard MAP agreements allow anyone to sell for any price, as long as they say something like "price too low to print" in ads.
Also, any item that's not new (as in perfect), e.g. demo, scratch'n'dent, b-stock, returns, unboxed, open-box, or any type of used - can be any price (you must state it's condition)...So, as long as it's not NIB, (& especially if you never signed a contract that contained MAP provisions) eBay stuff should be exempt.
- Well, that's all based on my actual experience & what our legal dept has explained in the past. If anyone can point out specifics (especially example contracts) that differ from what I've stated, please reply to this comment since I'd really like to know more - especially if there are other things going on, like with MAP somehow being incorporated into DMCA (which would be odd).
What a waste of money. For that kind of coin you could actually get out of the house, travel, see the world, & live a little (or a lot) ...maybe even get laid.
Then, save some starving orphans.
P.S. "The things you own, they end up owning you".
- Tyler Durden
Disclaimer - I'm the owner of an internet radio station.
Independent labels are starting to worry the majors. In particular, Internet Radio plays a big role in this as it tends to help the independents & the majors would probably be happy to see it go away.
Specifically, in the genres we support, artists have had some great success on the Billboard charts in 2006. Most notably, Mindless Self Indulgence & Cruxshadows who each took a turn at knocking a major out of the #1 spot, yes that wasn't a typo, they each hit #1 on the dance singles chart for several weeks, knocking first Justin TLake, then Beyonce out -- to the majors, that's lost $ & lost prestige. And that's not all, several other artists from the "Goth" genre also showed up in the Billboard top 20 charts in 2006, pushing the pets of the majors down the ladder every time.
We play & promote ONLY non-major label artists, so they (& their labels) benefit from our existence. Independent labels seem to be more clued in to the impact of the internet & use it to their advantage as the majors blunder around like blind elephants suffering increasing brain damage from repeatedly bumping into walls.
I honestly don't remember what app it was that would identify & block stream ripping software. I found it after a google search and following many links regarding stream ripping in general. I think it may have been some company based in England. Come to think of it, I should have written it down or something - it cost money so I kinda blew it off at the time figuring I could find it again if I really wanted it.
Glad to hear you're doing well too. Non-commercial music is cool. What's your URL? I'd like to swing by & look at your site, & tune it to your stream. I'm curious about what type of music Church of Girl Radio plays :)
Thanks, you've changed my mind about people using streamripper type apps. As a broadcaster on Shoutcast (gothradio.com) I considered people doing that as bad but I didn't think about your point - if you're just using it for "time shifting" like I use my VCR for TV I wanna watch at another time, then that's cool. I was going to get one of the new apps that blocks streamripper, but now I won't. Seriously, you have given me a good new perspective. Thx!
Amazing - So much wrong information posted here! I must be the only /.er that actually RUNs an Internet Radio station. I own http://www.gothradio.com/ and things are going GREAT! (Obviously I'd love you all to check it out, but that's not the point of this post). We started 3 months ago & we're already having to upgrade to a new server & new streaming software to handle the increasing demand - and we haven't even started the promotion yet. Like 1 post said, internet radio is in its infancy as is our station - we have a lot of improvements planned & I bet other stations do too.
Own a cell phone? If the word "radio" means wireless (non-computer) listening, then here comes Internet *radio*. Anyone notice those new Verizon V-Cast TV ads. Guess what, in a couple weeks our station will be available via cell phones, from most major carriers (I'll post details about it on the site when it goes into effect). You could even listen in your car. On a side note, ShoutCast doesn't report the number of listeners correctly, (but we love them anyway).
Maybe our success is due to our focus on non-commercial type music. The indie labels and bands that aren't going to get airtime on any "mainstream" station love us. Yes, you've gotta keep it legal & deal with BMI etc. I would love to address some of the other posts here, but want to keep this short(ish).