I can not confirm that, because I obviously didn’t die, yet. However, Tim Renner, the author of the book “Death is not so bad.”, accompanied a whole industry sector on its dead march: the music industry. As former CEO of Universal Music Deutschland he know what he is talking about. He tells in this book the story about a industry which (in parts) is not acting for its customers but against them.

The book is a must-read! So read it and you’ll have a good time!

What a statement:

Half of all music sold in the US will be digital in 2011 and sales of digitally downloaded music will surpass physical CD sales in 2012, according to a Forrester Research report, “The End Of The Music Industry As We Know It.”

But the most interesting insight is shown here:

(picture taken from Marketing Charts)

“People buy, what they like” is the message here!

And:

Social networks. DRM-free music enables every profile page on MySpace.com or Facebook to immediately become a music store where friends sell friends their favorite tracks.

Remember this post from yesterday?

Have a good time!

What? Am I crazy? Am I schizophrenic? Did I not said, that DRM is the problem? Yes, it is, because in case of music DRM does not satisfy the needs of the customer but of the producer. It brings no benefit to the consumer. The opposite is true: the buyers are limited in the usage of their purchases.

In the case of virtual goods, where most goods are produced by the consumer (the prosumer), DRM is a must-have! Users revolt if DRM does not work! Take for example Second Life. The residents demonstrated, because their business was threaten by a simple programm called CopyBot.

So now imagine a world where people can buy music and are allowed to resale it (e.g. in different compilations). In such a (virtual) world people call for DRM! Brave new world ;) Have a good time!

Someone heard me! DoubleTwist is the name of the company and the name of the product. Their slogan is “liberate the media!” and this is what their software does: it frees your music from DRM. Ok, there are other solutions to do that. What fascinates me is the option to send my pictures, music etc. to my friends via the Facebook application Twist me! (click on the picture on the right side to view a preview).

The desktop application (right side) also integrates my Facebook friends and their photo albums. Via DoubleTwist I can share and sync my pictures, my videos and even my iTunes songs (if I would have one) with my devices and even more important with my friends! Media is social, again!

Enjoy this application and have a good time!

The very short history of information: The information age began when people drew pictures on walls in caves. The information was stuck to that place. Then people used stone tablets. The information became mobile. Then someone (the Chinese) invented the letterpress printing and finally Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. The information was immaterial. Then the music industry developed DRM: digital-rights-management or in other words, a technology, that sticks information to a thing (i.e. a computer). The stone age began.

So have a good time with Wilma and Fred (a.k.a. content producer who still think DRM is the solution and not the problem)!