Music Industry

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Music Industry, Music Technology February 22, 2010

Internet Killer is Still Alive – Won’t you please help?

A while back there was a leak of an EU memo referring to a particular chapter of the proposed ACTA treaty. Now the actual chapter in question has leaked.  The reliable Michael Geist has a reasoned analysis: Michael Geist – ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model. Yes, his analysis is more reasoned than my headline. It still appears  that this treaty seeks re-shape American law and also the laws of all other signatory nations.  Noticeable NON-signatories include Russia and China, where a huge percentage of the world’s piracy happens. If you are a US citizen, please…

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Music Industry, video January 31, 2010

People who died… NYT disses Lux Interior

NYT has a good musical video necrology of 2009: But Lux Interior is missing. Wonder if the Grammys one will include him. Wonder how the Grammys one will match up with this one. I suspect that there will substantially more MJ in the Grammy one, what with his kids showing up and all. You’ll have to tell me, as I almost certainly won’t be watching. Thanks to Lazygal for the spot.

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Music Industry January 26, 2010

Classic Album Covers – British Design on stamps

Now that the stamps are officially released, here’s a good page showing all ten of the stamps. Also includes details of  the custom franking you can get. Classic Album Covers – British Design on stamps 7 January 2010- from Norvic Philatelics Amazingly, I have a quarrel with only one of the choices. can you guess which one? Which ones would you argue with? Brief discussions of the project and each of the covers here (www.independent.co.uk)

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Music Industry, video January 20, 2010

OK (Go) – I’ll bite.

via Open Letter From OK Go – OK Go. A really good primer from one of the OK Go boys on the state of the music industry today. And why EMI / Capitol will not let YouTube enable the embedding code on their videos. OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

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IP, Music Industry January 3, 2010

Bono equates file-sharing with child porn. Idiot.

Quoting: But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content. Op-Ed Guest Columnist – Ten for the Next Ten – NYTimes.com

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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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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…

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Critics, Music Industry, WTF? November 19, 2009

NPR, NME (also P4k, Paste, Uncut) release “Best Albums of the ’00s” – Reliably, predicatably, play to own audiences

NPR: An important distinction: We’re not looking for everyone’s favorite albums or songs, but rather ones that had some sort of historical significance. These are the game-changers — ones that signaled some sort of shift in music, or ones that were particularly influential in some way. We’re looking for the albums and singles people will still buy, share, listen to and talk about for years or decades to come.” NPR: The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings is the plain, unadorned, list. You can see a written discussion of the list here. They take pains to say that these are “important”…

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Critics, Music Industry July 15, 2009

Latest Odds on Winner of Mercury Music Prize

The Mercury Music Prize is a “prestigious” prize awarded to an album made by a British or Irish act in the previous year. Current top 5: Florence And The Machine 5.00 Lily Allen 6.00 Bat For Lashes 8.00 Doves 8.00 Little Boots 8.00 I’m a little surprised by Lily Allen and Doves being so high up. Their stars had seemed to be declining. Florence and Doves apparently benefited from well-received performances at Glastonbury (despite the prize being awarded “solely on the basis of the music on the album”). You can see the full list at the: Ladbrokes betting line on…

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Music Industry May 21, 2009

TuneCore, Amazon Set to Unveil On-Demand CD Sales

They’ve been doing burned CDRs in the classical realm for a while. Now the virtual and “real” mucic scenes are merging. Good. The more options they give folks, the more likely that overall  music sales benefit.  TuneCore, Amazon Set to Unveil On-Demand CD Sales | Wired.com.

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IP, Music Industry, Music Technology March 14, 2009

Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a National Security Secret

SO, get ready to have you ISP monitor your traffic on behalf of the RIAA and to have your iPod checked at the border… (Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a National Security Secret | Threat Level from Wired.com.) Perhaps we should start a service where people can upload pictures of their record collections so that you could show the border guard a picture of some collection and say “See, I really do own all of the items on my mp3 player.”