There’s an ecosystem of major labels and radio and physical distribution based on ripping off acts.  Will this sustain when the cost of production is [...]]]> I’d say worst to first, but more accurately it’s nowhere to triumph.  Could this happen in the record industry? Not only can it, it will.

There’s an ecosystem of major labels and radio and physical distribution based on ripping off acts.  Will this sustain when the cost of production is essentially zero and physical distribution is almost dead and radio is moribund? Look at it this way.  Could Simon Cowell leverage “X Factor” into a whole new label, a powerhouse he could build upon?

Of course.  If he was smart.

In other words, Simon Cowell is leaving money on the table.  But the twentysomethings who are going to take over this business will not.

Just like the iPhone looked nothing like a RAZR, the new record industry powerhouse will look nothing like Sony, where Doug Morris is wooing L.A. Reid to overspend like it’s still 1999.

The new powerhouse will be more like a manager, an agent on steroids, who takes twenty percent for maximizing revenue using new tools.

What are the new tools?

1. iTunes

Anybody can sell on an equal basis.  Just pay a low flat fee price to Tunecore.

2. YouTube

It’s completely free.  Not only that, if you can generate views, you can make money.

3. Bandcamp/Topspin

It’s fascinating that the major labels did not think of this and do not own this.  Doug Morris and Universal build the money-losing Vevo that doesn’t generate enough cash to cover costs and pisses off consumers with advertisements and these two entities succeed based on fulfilling customers’ desires.  Yes, consumers want product, a plethora of it, just not what the major labels think they do.  They want t-shirts and vinyl and books and autographed merchandise, there are a zillion price points and a ton of revenue.  You know how you know Topspin is good?  The majors labels use it when they pooh-pooh almost all technological innovation.  But Topspin and Bandcamp do not limit their infrastructure to those with big bucks and relationships, they’re open to everyone.  The majors won on exclusivity, controlling distribution, those days are completely through and that’s why the major label ecosystem is dying.

Exhibition is still in flux.  Is it Pandora or Spotify from the cloud or a new service?  Rights holders have held back development by insisting on insane payments but at some point in the future a new service with new music might develop or the rights holders might become so desperate they make equitable deals…or an unknown with an unknown product akin to MTV may come by and sideswipe everybody.

Artists want two things.  Exposure and money.  Can you get them heard and seen and can they get paid.  If you can deliver this, they sign up.  And smarter younger artists will sign with someone new, their own age, as opposed to the forty and fiftysomethings tied in with the old system.

Want to make it in the new music management world?  Be honest, be trustworthy and deliver.  And acts will flock to you.

The iPhone was a better operating system.  The app market didn’t flourish until down the line.  There were stumbles along the way, like how to pay for the device, but people flocked to it.  It was a hit.  All we need is a hit act which doesn’t make a deal with the usual suspects and we’re off to the races.  Just like Wal-Mart exclusive deals killed superstars signing with majors, a new hit act doing it for itself will kill the major labels.

Arcade Fire is a start.

But the breakthrough will be something more popular, something easily consumed, something with Top Forty appeal.

The labels should be very afraid.  They’ve already lost fifty percent of their record sales in a decade and now they’re about to lose just about everything.  This is what happens when you refuse to see the future.  This is what happened to Nokia.

The rate of downloads [...]]]> Nokia’s defensive move to make its Ovi maps and navigation free is already seeing strong customer response. Since launching Jan. 21, Nokia (NYSE: NOK – News) said today that people have downloaded the service 1.4 million times, and the one million mark was hit in just a week.

The rate of downloads are staggering, and will presumably surpass Google’s Android user base since Nokia’s reach is much larger. “We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s EVP. “When we announced free walk & drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than even we predicted.” There’s no doubt that the program is also helping to get the word out about its Ovi Store, which is now averaging one million downloads a day.

Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG – News) started providing free navigation services on the Motorola (NYSE: MOT – News) Droid, and has rolled it out to many more devices since. That prompted Nokia to stop charging for its mapping services. It’s still not clear how Nokia will make money from giving away the software for free. Nokia got into the maps business after it spent millions on acquiring Navteq. Nokia said its strategy is to “lead the market in mobile maps, navigation and location-based services.” Vanjoki: “This is great news for our 3rd party application developers.  Within a matter of days there is an installed base of more than 1 million active users all potentially hungry for new and innovative location-aware apps. For the operators too there is a growing opportunity to sell more data-plans and a complete navigation package to existing and new customers.”

Nokia provided a list of the top five countries where maps are being downloaded the most. They are very representative of the company’s global reach: China, Italy, UK, Germany and Spain. The service covers more than 180 countries and is available in 46 languages. For now, current users will have to download the app to their devices. At least 12 devices are supported. Going forward, all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with high-end walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost.

Previously, Greystripe was supporting both the iPhone App Store and the Android Marketplace, but expanding to Nokia [...]]]> San Francisco-based Greystripe has added Nokia’s Ovi store to the list of mobile platforms that can tap into its mobile ad network. Likewise, Greystripe said it is adapting 1,200 game titles from its Gamejump.com entity for the Ovi store.

Previously, Greystripe was supporting both the iPhone App Store and the Android Marketplace, but expanding to Nokia (NYSE: NOK – News) makes sense. Nokia has the largest smartphone marketshare globally, and while many consider its application storefront to be trailing, just last week, the company said Ovi downloads have hit one million a day. Greystripe does not support RIM’s BlackBerry platform, which is considered the second-largest smartphone platform worldwide.

Originally, Greystripe focused on creating free, ad-supported Java-based games, which it distributed through sites, including its own Gamejump.com. But more recently, Greystripe has branched out to support iPhone and Android applications. Despite its emphasis on smartphone platforms, it said that its Java-based games are still downloaded on its network about 250,000 times a day. Those games will work fairly easily on Nokia’s Symbian operating system, and will likely see more downloads because of the increased reach.

Developers that are distributing their apps on Ovi will have the choice of both pre-and post-roll full-screen ads. While advertisers like the Navy and JCPenny were named in the press release as two brands that are looking for the broad reach that Nokia has, those seem like unlikely choices given that most of Nokia’s dominance is outside the U.S. or in emerging markets.

For the third year running, the most popular phone was still the old classic, [...]]]> Finland is sometimes called NokiaLand because the company Nokia comes from Finland and due to the fact that many people in Finland have a Nokia phone. A recent study shows that Nokia´s market share in Finland is 86%.

For the third year running, the most popular phone was still the old classic, the Nokia 3310 with a 5% market share. In fact, the 56 most popular phones were all made by Nokia. At the high end of the range, the most popular phone was the Nokia N70. Nokia held an overwhelming 99% share of the smartphone market in Finland.

From the other manufacturers, Korean phone manufacturer Samsung held about 4% the market, Sony Ericsson 3%, Benq-Siemens 3%, and Motorola less than 0.5%. Other manufacturers made up 1% of the market and 3% of the phones in the study were not identified.

Nokia’s market share has hardly changed in the past three years. Samsung and Sony Ericsson have slightly increased their market share, while Motorola and Siemens have lost out, researcher Antero Kivi told the Finnish news agency STT.The study was conducted in autumn 2007 and was based on information on four million mobile phones from telecom operators Sonera, Elisa (including Kolumbus) and DNA.

Mobile trends in Finland

The findings also showed that Finns change their mobile phones every 2.7 years. There were about 1,000 different phones being used in Finland. According to Kivi, the other manufacturers don?t have a model comparable to the Nokia 3310.

More than 70% of the phones in use had a colour screen and half included a camera. Manufacturers have great expectations regarding the gps feature on the latest models but the study showed that so far this has failed to take off. Only 2% of Finns used phones with gps last autumn and there were still only a few gps models available in the shops.

The third generation 3G phones gained an 18% share of the market, which was more than double the figure in 2006. The market share of the Symbian operating system also increased significantly from 12% in 2006 to 18% in 2007.

The Apple proclaimed that Nokia copies iPhone and its interface in meticulous. The company does not intend to put up with allegations Nokia in patent intrusion and launched castigatory action.

Apple has launched a counterclaim against Nokia, accusing the Finnish manufacturer of mobile phones in violation of 13 patents, reports [...]]]>

The Apple proclaimed that Nokia copies iPhone and its interface in meticulous. The company does not intend to put up with allegations Nokia in patent intrusion and launched castigatory action.

Apple has launched a counterclaim against Nokia, accusing the Finnish manufacturer of mobile phones in violation of 13 patents, reports Associated Press.

Recall that in October, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple, reproachful it of illicitly using technology related standards, GSM, UMTS, WLAN, modes of transmission, speech coding, security and encryption for mobile handsets. Total Nokia measured desecrated 10 of its patents.

Documents counterclaim Apple mentioned technology among the mobile gadget with a private computer, data transfer, conferencing, energy and others. Additionally, two patents, which, according toApple , broken Nokia, related to the interface iPhone – colors and textures of elements, and ways of scrolling, zooming and rotating images on the screen.

“In the fight with Nokia is trying to make us pay for freely licensed technology, but she uses other people’s creations, – said Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell. – Nokia has opted to copy the iPhone, especially its extremely popular patented design and user interface. The argument Sewell quoted the executive vice president of Nokia, Anssi Vanjoki, uttered in 2007: “If the world will see something interesting, we are proud to make a copy.