Music Industry
« Previous EntriesIs Jack White mad, clever, or just trying to fuck with record collector scum worldwide?
Monday, April 9th, 2012From the YouTube page: Three weeks before his “Blunderbuss” album hits the streets, Third Man Records decided to make the Jack White album track “Freedom at 21″ premier exclusively via flexi-disc records attached to helium balloons launched from the label headquarters in Nashville on April 1st, 2012. Envisioned as an experiment exploring non-traditional forms of [...]
Who Cares When Your Record Was Digitally Remastered?
Sunday, April 8th, 2012Excellent screed/rant by Dave Mandl over on Rumpus.net. Neatly explains the sore point of incorrect dating on music streaming and download sites. Who Cares When Your Record Was Digitally Remastered? – The Rumpus.net. Interestingly, one of the commenters says that the reason why the labels feed this incorrect information to the streaming databases is so [...]
Dynamic Range Day: Inside the Loudness War
Friday, March 16th, 2012It seems that today is “Dynamic Range Day”. I think that perhaps the effort needs a better publicist or marketer, I went to Hallmark to look for a “Happy Dynamic Range Day” card and the lady gave me very odd look. No matter, it’s an interesting and necessary effort. The Dynamic Range Day site has [...]
Long Reads: The Global Songwriter Shell Game: Why The Major Music Companies Are Getting Your Royalties
Friday, March 9th, 2012Major music labels tell us that it is bad that people “steal content”, so they’ve come up with another revenue stream, accepting royalty payments which thay are not due, from people who are not authorised to collect them and then not giving it to the people for whom it was collected…. The Global Songwriter Shell [...]
Do You Sell Used Items? – Trans-Pacific Partnership Proposes the End of the Doctrine of First Sale
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012IANAL, but I was fascinated by this in-depth history of the Doctrine of First Sale (which allows me to sell used records to anyone willing to pay) and analysis of the most recent attempt to blow it up. It’s slightly heavy going, with quite a bit of law jargon, but the thrust of the piece [...]
Alan Lomax’s Global Jukebox Goes Digital
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012The music Lomax collected has been available in 45-second snippets on the Cultural Equity web site for several years but is now being digitized in its entirety for streaming… Folklorist’s Global Jukebox Goes Digital- NYTimes.com. Share
The Pirate Bay puts up “The Promo Bay” – Does your band want to be in front of a billion eyeballs?
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012The Pirate Bay has many many many people looking at it every day. And now they are suggesting that perhaps it might be good for your band to be seen by those eyeballs. As Masnick asks “Would You Rather Fight Piracy… Or Have A Billion People Know You Exist?” – – See the easy-to-fill-in form [...]
PoOPlist will go dark for 12 hours Wednesday January 18th
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012Internet strike day is Wednesday January 18th. In a protest against the SOPA and PIPA legislation moving through the US Congress, many major sites (Wikipedia, Reddit, Internet Archive) will go dark for 12 hours. Of course, PoOPlist does not have the reach of these sites, but we want to do our small part to help. [...]
Youssou N’Dour announces Senegal presidential bid
Monday, January 2nd, 2012“It is a supreme patriotic duty,” Mr N’Dour said of his candidacy. “It’s true, I haven’t pursued higher education, but the presidency is a function and not a job. BBC News – Youssou N'Dour announces Senegal presidential bid. Share
There are two interesting things about this NYTimes.com article about Rock Music in 2011
Sunday, January 1st, 2012The first is that Jon Caramanica has written a very interesting and well-considered piece about the mainstream US* rock scene in 2011. I’ve had quibbles with some of his pet projects over the years, but here he hits a home run. It really is difficult to overstate the malaise in US mainstream rock this year. [...]
Recording industry and SOPA/PIPA supporters: are you paying attention? Louis CK: Over $1 Million In Sales In Just 12 Days For DRM-Free Download
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Techdirt and the NY Times both report: Louis CK: Over $1 Million In Sales In Just 12 Days For DRM-Free Download. This should be reported as yet another in the long list of projects which work because artists have used the CwF + RtB (“Connect with Fans and Reason to Buy”) model. Yup, Connect [...]
The scene which can laugh at itself will go far
Friday, December 16th, 2011Now that the NY Times is telling your parents about “Skrillex and dubstep taking over America”, it’s time for a little corrective action. (Dubba Jonny – “Not Another UKF Dubstep Tutorial” from the Various Artists compilation UKF Dubstep 2011) Share
Do you think BitTorrent downloads offer you some privacy? Think again…
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011Go to this site: You Have Downloaded, and see if they’ve seen you. Enter a title into the search box, see which IP address it’s gone to. See what else that IP sucked down. There’s a useful explanation of the system at the ZDNet blog Share
Elvis Costello says (paraphrasing) “My new record is too expensive, perhaps you should steal it”
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011OR On his official site, Elvis Costello (or his minions) have posted a funny screed about the ravishing cost of his new recorded music fetish object (formerly known as “a record”). His point is that the Super Deluxe Edition is overpriced at $202.66, even if does include a whole bunch [...]
Why Universal Music Sued Its Insurer Over a $14.4 Million Payment to Musicians
Monday, November 21st, 2011It appears that at least one of the major labels has found an innovative new business model. You just cannot overestimate the venality of these guys. From the article: … In other words, UMG put out albums without artist permission, held back royalties from these artists, and then finally paid out when faced with a [...]
Graham Parker and the Rumour are back, Judd Apatow’s got ‘em
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011Fascinating interview with the ubiquitous Steven Goulding (drummer for Rumour, Mekons, Gang of 4, etc etc) in which he mentions that GP + The Rumour are rehearsing for a film, record and possible tour. Graham Parker and the Rumour are back, Judd Apatow’s got ‘em (MusicFilmWeb.com) Share
Why does folk music collector Alan Lomax have a copyright interest in “Takeover” by Jay-Z?
Saturday, September 3rd, 2011Why does folk music collector Alan Lomax have a copyright interest in “Takeover” by Jay-Z? A fascinating step by step breakdown of just that question of on Ethan Heins Blog › Jay-Z and Alan Lomax. And a pretty persuasive argument for how screwed up the US copyright system is. Share
ISPs to Disrupt Internet Access of Copyright Scofflaws
Friday, July 8th, 2011ISPs to Disrupt Internet Access of Copyright Scofflaws (Threat Level Blog, wired.com) And all on the say so of the content industry. ISPs have said that they will not cut people off, and we are talking about a “six-strikes and you’re throttled-or-something” regime… but even the French 3 strikes law eventually involved the judiciary. More coverage [...]
RIAA Accounting: How To Sell 1 Million Albums And Still Owe $500,000
Friday, July 8th, 2011The always excellent TechDirt has a breakdown and an embedded video from an entertainment lawyer about record label contracts. RIAA Accounting: How To Sell 1 Million Albums And Still Owe $500,000 I knew about some of these line items, but “reserves” and “breakage”? We should all keep these numbers in mind the next time a [...]
RIP Darryl Pandy
Sunday, June 12th, 2011Darryl Pandy sang the vocals on one of the first “proper” house record most of us ever bought or heard. It was Farley jackmaster Funk’s “Love Can’t Turn Around”. It was the commercial hit version of the earlier JM Silk track “I Can’t Turn Around” (which itself was a version of an Isaac Hayes track). [...]
Updated: Google Music Beta – Request your invite
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011My last post was about the Amazon Cloud Player. Now Google has done the same thing. I am waiting for my invite. The About Google Music page has links so you can request your invite too. (US only for the moment) The video below gives a quick tour. Features include a playlist maker. It will [...]
The best report ever on media piracy (now with video)
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011Joe Karaganis, program director at the Social Science Research Council and vice president at the American Assembly discusses their report “Media Piracy in Emerging Economies.” And another good write up about it here http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/29/the-best-report-ever-on-media-piracy/ Share
Could this be the stupidest, most ignorant, article ever written about Google, the web and cultural artifacts?
Monday, April 11th, 2011I mean, really, even for the Daily Mail, a consistently horrible rag, this is a real prizewinner: Google threatens to destroy not only pop sensation Adele, but Britains film and music industries | Mail Online. Share
Spotify Announces US Launch; Closing European Service To Fund It
Thursday, March 31st, 2011Spotify Announces US Launch; Closing European Service To Fund It. An article on Techcrunch, so very elegant in its simplicity. Hats off! Share
“The 30 Greatest Hip-Hop Demos”
Thursday, March 24th, 2011Chairman Mao over at complex.com does a fine job of ferreting out some real gems. Some are rough as hell, as you’d expect, others are smoother. The thrill of discovery persists in all of ‘em. Most of the demos have more than one track, so there’s the opportunity for some extended listening. There’s also the [...]
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