Mike Butcher

I’m writing an article for a magazine (The New Statesman), provisionally titled “What have videogames ever done for us? A look at the economics of videogames in the UK”. I’m looking at the variety of jobs, how old the industry is here, who’s involved, what research is being done here (both in terms of R&D and possibly academically), investment, numbers of companies, exports, and what they are doing to make money. Plus, possibly the things the government has done, should do. etc. And is it possible to include online games in any of the above? If you have any thoughts, contacts or opinions on the above, email mike at mbites dot com (thanks).

Update: The piece has now been filed – thanks for your contributions, if you sent any.

For my money, Gary Hayes offers an excellent explanation and graphic. Key quote: “We are heading towards a rich media personal hub that points to and houses all of our ’shareable’ content. But the current 2D web, mostly linear to linear linking, is about to be enhanced by virtual environments in which we meet as avatars, interact as 3D moving objects that takes sharing, collaboration and communication to the next, predictable level.”

I heartily recommend this Orwellian analysis of what is going on in the world – and where it all started – by the author Martin Amis: “The age of horrorism: On the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, one of Britain’s most celebrated and original writers analyses – and abhors – the rise of extreme Islamism. In a penetrating and wide-ranging essay he offers a trenchant critique of the grotesque creed and questions the West’s faltering response to this eruption of evil.”

Reaction is coming in on the Myspace decision to sell non-DRM MP3s from unsigned bands registered on the site. The Register: "We reckon it's the record companies that should be more woried about MySpace than Apple at the moment, though. If so-called "MySpace phenomena" such as the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen continue to emerge through self-promotion and are given unprecedented direct selling access to their MySpace-addicted audience, where do the big guys fit in exactly?"

The New York Times: "… for the four major labels, which must approve each retailer that sells digital versions of their music, the new store could represent a challenge. The MySpace store would let labels set their own prices for songs, which they have complained that iTunes does not let them do. And all of the major labels have put their catalogs into Snocap’s database, which uses an audio fingerprinting technology to prevent people from selling songs they do not own. The MySpace store will sell music in the MP3 format, however, which allows them to be played on the Apple iPod but does not offer any copy protection… For each track it sells, MySpace will charge a band or label a fixed fee of around 45 cents, which it will share with Snocap." Business Week: "Unlike iTunes, where all tracks are 99 cents, musicians set their own prices. MySpace and Snocap say they will take a cut just large enough to cover the costs of the materials and provide a tiny profit; the lion's share of the sale goes directly to the artists. That's a sweet deal for independent bands like The Format, a Phoenix pop band that participated in a test of the storefront. The band has listed 12 songs for sale at 79 cents each. Already, lead singer Nate Ruess says he has received loads of e-mail from fans saying they appreciate that they can get the music directly online. "We got burned by our old label, and you realize you don't need these things when you have something like Snocap," Ruess says."

Technorati Tags: Mediabites

Reaction is coming in on the Myspace decision to sell non-DRM MP3s from unsigned bands registered on the site.

The Register: “We reckon it’s the record companies that should be more woried about MySpace than Apple at the moment, though. If so-called “MySpace phenomena” such as the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen continue to emerge through self-promotion and are given unprecedented direct selling access to their MySpace-addicted audience, where do the big guys fit in exactly?”

The New York Times: “… for the four major labels, which must approve each retailer that sells digital versions of their music, the new store could represent a challenge. The MySpace store would let labels set their own prices for songs, which they have complained that iTunes does not let them do. And all of the major labels have put their catalogs into Snocap’s database, which uses an audio fingerprinting technology to prevent people from selling songs they do not own. The MySpace store will sell music in the MP3 format, however, which allows them to be played on the Apple iPod but does not offer any copy protection… For each track it sells, MySpace will charge a band or label a fixed fee of around 45 cents, which it will share with Snocap.”

Business Week: “Unlike iTunes, where all tracks are 99 cents, musicians set their own prices. MySpace and Snocap say they will take a cut just large enough to cover the costs of the materials and provide a tiny profit; the lion’s share of the sale goes directly to the artists. That’s a sweet deal for independent bands like The Format, a Phoenix pop band that participated in a test of the storefront. The band has listed 12 songs for sale at 79 cents each. Already, lead singer Nate Ruess says he has received loads of e-mail from fans saying they appreciate that they can get the music directly online. “We got burned by our old label, and you realize you don’t need these things when you have something like Snocap,” Ruess says.”

Technorati Tags: Musicbites

MySpace is to sell songs from nearly 3 million unsigned bands, reports Reuters. Thats’non-DRM’d MP3s, by the way. The bands will be able to set the price for each track, with MySpace and tech partner Snocap taking a cut of the sale, reports Wired. However, the move probably won’t affect Apple, as CNN and MySpace itself seems to think. As tbites points out – guess what – MP3s can be loaded onto the the iPod and iTunes software. Apple will make far more out of the hardware sales. Kerching!

Technorati Tags: Musicbites

Mashable is reporting that MySpace will soon be selling music downloads from the 3 million unsigned bands that have set-up shop on the hugely popular social network – a move that further enhances the disruptive nature of MySpace on the music industry.

Curiously, MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe is quoted as telling Reuters:

“Everyone we’ve spoken to definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be that alternative.�

An alternative to iTunes it may be, but as the songs sold on MySpace will be good old-fashioned (and DRM-free) MP3s, they will work just fine on the iPod – which is of course where Apple makes most of its money anyway.

It's mylo, says Joi Ito. The Sony mylo ships in the US September 15. No plans for distribution in Japan. Key quote: "The mylo is a nifty little device that does wifi, Skype (you can hold it up to your ear or use a headset), GTalk (no voice), and Yahoo Instant Messenger. It also has a browser (Opera, no flash), has a photo album, plays mp3 and Windows Media Player music, and plays video formatted in the weird mp4 video format that the PSP uses. (I think. I have yet to successfully convert and play a video file.) I used it for Skype on a conference call today and it worked really well with Skype-Out. For some reason I don't seem my contacts list on Skype. The other IM clients seem to work fine (GTalk and Yahoo IM)." It will be interesting to see if the Mylo takes off on Wi-Fi's college campuses and Universities, give than 'the kids' no longer email, and mainly do IM. Bummer for the mobile networks…

Interesting: “While some researchers focus on alarming fertility rates in poor countries, which grew by 16.3 percent from 1995 to 2005, the US population grew by 10.6 percent in that period, or 29 million people, the report noted. Europe during that time grew by 504,000 people, or less than 1 percent…. Americans consume like no other nation — using three times the amount of water per capita than the world average and nearly 25 percent of the world’s energy, despite having 5 percent of the global population; and producing five times more daily waste than the average in poor countries…. Martha Farnsworth Riche , a former US Census Bureau director and a current fellow at Cornell University’s Center for the Study of Society and Economy , believes that US population increases are partly to blame for environmental headaches attributed to global warming.”