December 2009

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Christmas Singles, Music Industry December 21, 2009

It worked! – RATMachine beats X Factor winner UK Xmas #1

Further to my last post, the winners have been declared and “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” is the Christmas refrain on the top of the UK charts. The Grauniad (look it up) has a good round-up of the news and reaction:  Rage Against the Machine beats X Factor’s Joe to Christmas No 1 | Music | guardian.co.uk One item of particular interest is that claim that RATM won on downloads alone. It makes sense, given that the campaign for RATM and against the X factor winner was launched and mostly conducted online. Also, it’s unlikely that…

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Christmas Singles, Radio December 17, 2009

Shock! Rage Against the Machine swearing on BBC Radio 5 live

The UK Christmas Number One Single tradition has lead to all sorts of silly stuff over the years (Oasis vs. Blur for one), but the last few years have been dominated by awful, treacly pop songs spewing from the “winners” (or “indentured servants”, take your pick) of  Simon Cowell’s X-Factor TV show. In the last few weeks a strong campaign has developed to make Rage Against the Machine the number one single this christmas.  The campaign is specifically targeted at the Cowell machine, so the choice of RATM is particularly apt.  The song the campaign has chosen is “Killing in the Name” ,…

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IP December 14, 2009

Secret negotiations will kill the internet.

Here’s a really informative timeline put together by Micheal Geist about the ACTA Treaty. The ACTA Timeline on Dipity. This treaty is supposed to deal with anti counterfeiting (starting with things like handbags) but has expanded to include a chapter on the internet. Looks like they are trying to get the hated DMCA rolled out around the world. It also looks like they are trying to insert a “three strikes and you’re out” provision for alleged file sharers. Of course, most file sharers are “caught” by extremely suspect technological means. And this is all being done in complete secret. You…

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Music Industry, Music Technology December 2, 2009

MOG – Perfected steaming online music gets close, really close. Must try.

Just a quick break from the salt mines  (making my way through a large collection of CDs, with an interesting jazz collection in the wings) to strongly suggest that you check out the new features of MOG. MOG has been around for a while in the music blogging/socializing sphere and they have just launched a streaming music service.  (US only for the moment, others soon come) This link is to the overview page and the guided tour. Free trial now going on (it lasts one hour) and after that the pricing is $5.00 a month or 6 months for $25.00  You…