:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Friday, February 08, 2008 ::

MP3 Friday

Benn Jordan (aka the Flasbulb) has been popping up all over the net recently as he takes his ongoing argument with Apple about iTunes royalties to it's logically conclusion. He’s giving his album away rather than let them charge for it and not give him a cut (he does own the rights himself). His analysis here gives a detailed breakdown of the income from the album from various sources, and he continues to torrent the album if you’d like it. I admit I’ve always found his music a little too derivative but why not download it and judge for yourself. He can also be an annoying forum troll at times. I think really he should have had a career in PR but if he can survive making music then good luck to him.

Auto-Tune Abuse in Pop Music - 10 Examples

Labels: Copyright, MP3

:: Dan 8.2.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

Sony has become the last of the four majors to agree to release its music DRM free

Labels: Copyright, DRM, FOSS, Music, News

:: Dan 19.1.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

RIAA satire on News Target:
On the heels of the RIAA's recent decision to criminalize consumers who rip songs from albums they've purchased to their computers (or iPods), the association has now gone one step further and declared that "remembering songs" using your brain is criminal copyright infringement. "The brain is a recording device," explained RIAA president Cary Sherman. "The act of listening is an unauthorized act of copying music to that recording device, and the act of recalling or remembering a song is unauthorized playback."

[thanks meatsock]

Labels: Copyright, Humour, IP

:: Dan 10.1.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

Free legal advice for the creative industries

The Rambler reports, "...copyright is becoming an increasingly important issue for anyone working in the creative industries. I’m frequently baffled (and increasingly concerned) that so many of the writers, performers and composers that I come across don’t have even the most rudimentary understanding of how intellectual property works, and how it is crucial to their professional lives ... So, it’s particularly timely for the Legal Advice Centre of the Queen Mary, University of London School of Law to expand its free pro bono advice to the creative industries, starting from 7th November."

It's an appointment only centre but it is free. Handy to know should you ever need it. Read the post linked above and keep in bookmarked in case you ever need it.

Labels: Art, Copyright, Law

:: Dan 29.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

"Why the record industry is terrified of Radiohead's new album
Radiohead are the latest – and greatest – band to shun the conventional CD release. Their new album is available online – and you don't have to pay for it*"
* Actually, you're asked to pay what you think it is worth, but you can make that as low as a penny, which was far as the press is concerned means it's free.

The album, In Rainbows, is released tomorrow as a download and you can pre-order a box set of double vinyl, double CD (including non-download bonus material), book, photographs etc etc for £40.

This has triggered debate in the office, as I'm sure it has in many other places.

The old school are arguing it will never take off as an idea because of the financial backing of a big labelled needed to make "quality" releases. But that doesn't take into consideration how the industry has changed over the last few years. Costs of recording albums have fallen through the floor, and high-quality recording equipment is now available at prices affordable to almost anyone. The upfront costs of making a recording can now be almost ignored apart from the most lavish of productions.

The public are also used to being able to get music free (illegally) and so want to see some justification for what they spend. Some people want to see lavish packaging to justify the price, others just want a crappy quality low-cost version that's good enough for listening to on headphones. Artists have to provide for both of these and everything in between (in this case the extremes are dealt with only). Considering how much you get with this Radiohead box the 40 quid seems like a good deal (even if Radiohead do bore the pants off of me and do very little that isn't recycling ideas from lesser known artists).

It's hardly a ground breaking idea; many people have done this already. Many vinyl only labels make all of their releases available for free as downloads (eg Clash / Kris as MP3s, there is another that gives away links to FLAC downloads with their vinyl but I can't remember their name right now).

However, I'm impressed to see such a big name doing it. Taking distribution away from the majors and allowing artists to connect directly to their fan base is the way forward. It's been working for Prince for years. The only thing the major labels can still contribute to this is the PR backing to break new artists, but increasingly artists can grow a fan base without that sort of financial backing through myspace or similar. The majors know this and hence every major band you can think of have an official myspace page in an attempt to retain credibility and to minimise exposure of lesser knowns. You wouldn't want an imitator getting your exposure now would you?

Other forms of media are going the same way, with journalism increasingly relying on bloggers. Just flick through any newspaper and note how much content is recycled from online material that is weeks old. It's rife from The Metro through to The Guardian. As Scott Adams predicted again last week:

"I also imagine the business model for bloggers changing. Now bloggers run ads and make money based on the traffic to their sites. In the future, I can imagine bloggers opting in for a system where they allow newspapers to grab their content any time the newspapers want, move it into the newspaper’s own content model on any given day, surround it with their own ads, and pay the blogger a percentage of ad revenue. In other words, every blogger (and cartoonist) would be self-syndicated, but newspapers wouldn’t print the same bloggers every day. They’d grab only the best writings of the day based on social voting and the newspaper’s own editorial opinions."

The same thing can happen with music. It is already the way many compilation / hits albums are put together, gathering lots of smaller labels / artists material together and reselling it under a larger brand.

You will never stop new talent emerging, regardless of how little financial reward is available. In fact, less financial reward would probably be a good thing for the industry. It will hopefully stem the flow of talentless wannabies and tabloid fodder (Doherty, Winehouse, the Gallergers et al.) that currently fill the media and the charts. If music is only being made by people who do it for the love of it, rather than people who see it as a business (see Pop Idol) then that can only be a good thing.

Artists have been experimenting with working out what they can charge for their work. The music industry is in turmoil and in another generation's time will be barely recognisable compared to what it was before. Asking the people who buy the music to pay what they think it is worth is a very brave move but a sensible step towards the new model.

Something vary similar is also happening with software. People generally dislike and distrust Microsoft, but continue to use their products due to their monopoly. They are regarded as a necessary evil now, but will they retain that position? There will always be an underground of users willing to make that extra bit of personal effort to get a product that does what they want rather than what someone else wants them to do with it. These are the GNU/Linux OS users, the people who want their music without DRM, and the people who would rather read and contribute to /., indiemedia, or thenewsisnowfree than any of the traditional news feeds.

Photography is similar. Some of the best photography I've seen in recent years has been on Flickr, published under CC licences by people who are happy to do it for the love of it rather than for the financial rewards (although many Pro photographers also use it to get exposure**). Thanks to this my own photography has been in the Schmapp! Travel guides to London, Bath, Liverpool, and Plymouth, and thenewsisnowfree network has used my photography of Bristol airport security, Bristol Kite Festival, and graffiti in a London hotel room. My pictures would never have got there any other way.
** Pun unintentional

Media and software alike should be made by the people, for the people. Not by corporations, for the profit. But you know that already. Otherwise I doubt that you'd be reading this.

Rant over.

Labels: Copyright, Media, Music

:: Dan 9.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

Free Our Data: Make taxpayers' data available to them
"...government-funded and approved agencies such as the Ordnance Survey and UK Hydrographic Office and Highways Agency are government-owned agencies; they collect data on our behalf. So why can't we get at that data as easily as we can Google Maps or the Xtides program?"

From the blog:

• Want to put maps online cheaply? Get a paper licence and scan them
  
• Crown Copyright: time for an end?

OS Explore portal includes useful user generated route maps like pubcrawls! Note that, "any “walk” you submit becomes OS’s property. ... In other words, OS can resell your stuff if everyone creates walks it likes. Not exclusively, but for itself. Which in fact is exactly the same as we want the OS to provide its data to us, the citizens. Except that things seem to have gotten turned on their head, and OS is acting like a big media company such as MTV wanting to piggyback on the submissions of its viewers. ... Still, it’s movement, of sorts. But what we really want is an API so we can create mashups."

Labels: Copyright, FOSS, Law, Maps

:: Dan 26.9.07 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

Trent Reznor, never the most eloquent speaker, makes comment: "STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these mother****ers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right."

Edit [by Dan]: Australian blogger, and one of my favourite frequent reads, The Null Device picks some other quotes here.
I found another great example of this when I was looking for the new PJ Harvey 7" at lunch time. Two track PJ Harvey 7" in slipcase, £4. Four track 7" EP in nice gatefold sleeve by some band I've never heard of, £2. Is Polly more bankable so they can get away with it? Can they justify it as making a loss on the new artist who is being subsidised by the established artist? Or are they just taking advantage of fans?

Labels: Copyright, NIN

:: Spokesy 18.9.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

GOOD COPY BAD COPY
- a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture

A Fair(y) Use Tale

Pixel Pirate II - Trailer

Lawrence Lessig on Free Culture

Labels: Copyright, Video

:: Dan 8.6.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

The Rambler on Fisking Robin Gibb.

Labels: Copyright, Music

:: Dan 5.6.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...

"The RIAA claims to collect royalties from Internet radio on behalf of musicians, but that is a lie. The fact is, the RIAA (acting for the big record companies) demands payment even if the musicians have said their recording is freely sharable. And the musicians don't get this payment unless they join the RIAA -- and give an impression of supporting it."
[via rms]

Labels: Copyright, RIAA

:: Dan 8.5.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
...