People’s Champion: Behind the Battle from Trent Babbington on Vimeo. Fascinating doc about the “Eli vs Envy” rap battle which blew up in 2008. “I’m the best, mayne. I deeeeiid it” Long pause Long pause
ISPs 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 on ArsTechnica: Major ISPs agree to “six strikes” copyright enforcement plan. Ars also has a breakdown of The six ways you can appeal new copyright “mitigation measures”
The 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 label boss says he needs legislation allowing him to charge copyright violators with a crime and not merely a civil offense. When label bosses whine about how “no artist will want to make music if they can’t get paid”, ask that boss if his artists…
One of my most looked-forward-to albums this year: From the record label hype: sbtrkt’s debut album pulls off a series of impressive feats: it’s bursting with fresh ideas, and yet it sounds immediately familiar. it’s sound-patterns and rhythms can easily soundtrack the ecstatic hands in the air dance floor moments as well as reliving the monotony of the morning commute. its influences are incorporated with subtlety and sophistication: dense enough to interpret, light enough to dance to. while he has had multiple releases in single and ep forms, this is his first full-length, and about that he says “this release…
Darryl 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). Sure it was an important track because it was one of the very first house tracks to bust out of the Chicago scene and become an international hit, but for me it was important for a couple of more personal reasons. It was the first…
From the clever folks at Stanford: A novel method of digital scratching is presented as an alternative to currently available digital hardware interfaces and time-coded vinyl (TCV). Similar to TCV, the proposed method leverages existing analog turntables as a physical interface to manipulate the playback of digital audio.
My 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 be interesting to see if Google can match the clever algorithms used by Pandora, iTunes and the rest. Early reports suggest that the service lets you store 20,000 songs. I cannot tell if that is a space cap or merely a “number of tracks” cap….
Engadget has a good round up of the various online streaming and cloud music options: Streaming music breakdown: how Google Music and iCloud will affect today’s options. I signed up for the Amazon Cloud Music service the first day and I’ve been really pleased so far. 5 gigs free to start and then after I bought one mp3 album on amazon they automatically added it to the cloud and expanded my free cloud to 25 gig (mp3 items you buy on amazon can be automatically stored on the cloud player and do not count towards your space quota). I then…
Joe 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/
I 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.
“Well loved albums > Well thumbed tomes”. A fun and fascinating set on Flickr. Famous records imagined as book covers by a pretty good graphic designer. Apparently, they will soon be available as a set of postcards. The Record Books – a set on Flickr.
Rusko’s new “single” arrived digitally today. While he has been in LA for almost two years now, some prominent members of the dubstep scene have been throwing no so well disguised darts at him, accusing him of foisting “brostep” on us. With this single’s A-side “Everyday”, he continues the move towards the summer festival and the girls which he began with Hold On. It’s almost clinical how this one makes you put your hands in the air and feel the sun on your neck. The single version included above is almost so basic that you can imagine it being used…
Spotify Announces US Launch; Closing European Service To Fund It. An article on Techcrunch, so very elegant in its simplicity. Hats off!
Chairman 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 opportunity to marvel at the amount of talent which did not survive past the first few recordings… The 30 Greatest Hip-Hop Demos | Complex.com.
Rainbow Noise Entertainment is a lesbian owned record label specializing in LGBTQ music artist with an independent name and mainstream appeal; But it doesn’t stop there… We are also committed to representing LGBTQ dancers, models, comedians, and entertainers with something to be proud of.
After the recent arrest of a man for owning a site which merely linked to potentially infringing content, TorrentFreak has a well reasoned look at some of the constitutional issues surrounding the recent domain name seizures: 5 Reasons Why the US Domain Seizures Are Unconstitutional | TorrentFreak.
Groklaw is a very useful, very dense site covering the intersections of law and technology. PJ’s work has been invaluable in advancing understanding of the complexities of the ways in which law, and IP law in particular, influence the world we live in, the culture we consume and the technology we use to do it. From the article: The White House is asking us to give them ideas on what is blocking innovation in America. I thought I’d give them an honest answer. Here it is: Current intellectual property laws are blocking innovation. President Obama just set a goal of wireless access…
Robyn at Radio City Music Hall – Feb 05 2011 The crowd was absolutely fabulous. There were light-up swizzle sticks in the overpriced drinks. As Will said, the Gentlemen’s Lounge was probably the gayest place in town this night. When I came out of the stall I wanted to scream “enough with the skinny jeans, boys!” And at least one of them seemed to appreciate the prospect of a bit of upstate rustic rough. I was flattered, but I think he was pretty far gone already. Robyn had two drummers and two keys and nothing else. They were definitely voice…
Conductor: www.mta.me from Alexander Chen on Vimeo. Impossibly cool! NYC Subway trains API describes art on screen and has a fun musical surprise too. Speeds up over time and is different each time you launch. Run it in multiple tabs for even more fun. Requires scripting, flash, HTML 5 and sound. MTA.ME.