Mike McCready

In Spain the government collects value added tax (VAT) on exchanges between retailers and consumers. It’s similar to the sales tax in that it’s an indirect tax that is collected from someone other than the person who actually bears the cost of the tax (namely the seller rather than the consumer). This is gripping [...]

The Washington Post has a story today that was all the buzz within the music industry yesterday and one that has been the topic of heated debate and controversy on various industry email groups I belong to. It’s about Warner Music Group hiring Jim Griffin, (a well known industry analyst and leading thinker) to [...]

Click on the below video from last Friday to see our friend, Hal Vogel on Fox Business to discuss the on-going Writers Guild of America Strike. See Hal’s bio below the video. Harold L. (Hal) Vogel is the author of Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysis (Seventh Edition) and of the companion volume, [...]

I’ve got some serious stuff to say on the subject and will do so when I can come up for air after the holidays. For now, take a look at this funny video I came across the other day.

I have got to get back to doing some serious posting but a friend sent me this and I thought it was funny enough to share. I can think of places I’ve worked where by following this system we’d have had a case of Bud Light every day. At least!! Anyway (and to make this [...]

It looks like we’re making a little bit of headway in our education system. According to the Education Department reading and math scores among third and forth graders have made improvements over the last couple of years. In 2005 only 36% of fourth graders were proficient in math and only 31% were proficient in reading. I [...]

I’m writing this on British Airways flight 487 from Barcelona to London’s Heathrow airport. This is the first time I’ve flown BA in several years. For the past few years I’ve always done this route with EasyJet but last week I’d finally had enough and vowed never to fly that sorry excuse of an airline [...]

Today I was pointed to a blog post from Ben Marshall at The Guardian where he is asking if Platinum Blue could save the music industry. The blog is here: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/08/according_to_software_designer.html Here’s the reprint: Could Platinum Blue save the music industry? For today’s web trawl check out Mike McCready’s software, which promises to tell record labels whether their latest release [...]

July 11, 2007, New York & Ilmenau, Germany Platinum Blue, the company that offers real world technology-based solutions to the music and media industries and the famed Fraunhofer Institute today announced a strategic alliance to develop new and innovative services. Both parties have enjoyed an informal relationship since Platinum Blue was founded in December 2005 and they [...]

Yesterday MyStrands announced they had raised a series B round of funding to the tune of $25M. As far as the market is concerned this is the equivalent of an acquisition because it effectively takes MyStrands off the block for the time being. The company is stating its desire to remain independent. That leaves [...]