I Downloader

understanding Indie

2011-05-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

being hip just gets harder all the time...
so many choices, so few people care.

here's a useful flow chart
to get you started...

and for much more on this story,
and help with difficult choices,
click here for further guidance
from Cracked.com

*

So you want to be a Rock and Roll Star

2011-05-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

...this infographic might help!

- 30 -

George Frideric Handel on Stealing Music

2011-05-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

When asked why he borrowed
material composed by Bononcini,
Handel is said to have replied,

"It's much too good
for him; he did not know
what to do with it."

the Iphone

2011-05-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

it came to me a flash of clarity,
after an extensive vision quest.

*

meanwhile, back in der Bunker

2011-05-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

...my first reaction when i come across
a story like this is...

what

the

fuck?

my second reaction is
"must read story now".
twice.

BMI the airline

my third reaction is to go:

what

the

fuck?

again.

BMI clearly NOT a rights
management company

and my fourth, of course,
is to post it here:

BMI also clearly NOT a rights
management company

BMI Says A Single Person Listening To His Own Music Via The Cloud Is A Public Performance

from the looking-to-the-sky-and-seeing-unlicensed-clouds dept

There's no time like late on a Friday to send out disturbing missives. Companies who need to let staff go often find it easier to let the week "play out" before handing out the pink slips. Congressmen who need to shove through some questionable legislation often wait until the papers have gone to bed, or at least a majority of the voting citizens.

Martin Berenson, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for BMI has decided there's no time like Friday evening to kick out an editorial about streaming music via the "cloud."

BMI remember the name!

can you beat that with a stick?

more fun than watching a mammoth drown in the La Brea tar pits,
back in the day, kids!

seriously though, these people
walk among us.

the truth is out there.

spread the word.

SOURCES

TECHDIRT
your #1 source in entertaining information

BMI
the airline

BMI
a global leader in rights management

don't take my word for it...
click here to ask Sex Pistols

TicketBastard

2011-05-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

if you love music, the chances are
that this monopoly has had an impact
on your life, primarily by picking
your pocket.

but are they the WORST company
in America?

Ticket Master:
Thief Extraordinaire
Robs People Blind

When all is said and done,
your $60 Barenaked Ladies ticket
is now $90.

That’s right, $30 in service fees.

over at The Consumerist,
they're having their annual competition
to find the worst company in America.

In Round One of WCIA 2011,
Ticketmaster slaughtered PayPal,
with nearly 80% of the vote.

Could the fee fiend be gunning
for a second year in the Worst Company
championship death match?

Meanwhile Sony showed renewed
strength in its victory over Dell.
Does the underdog have what it takes
to pull off an upset of this magnitude,
or is Sony just more fodder for
the Ticketmaster mill?

Is TicketMaster the worst company
in America?

Find out more at The Consumerist!

Isn't this Illegal?

*

the Top 10 Music Tours of 2010!

2011-04-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

well here's another interesting way
of looking at music...

looks like there's still a dollar
or two to be made in the music biz.

in the interest of complete disclosure,
i should probably say i only know
who 8 of these are...

and there's only one i might have paid
serious $$$ to see

you go, Ms. Gaga!

you can find a whole lotta fascinating cultural information like this at

Good Culture

.

The Music Industry Loves Artists

2011-03-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

"Look, my band - or GNR Inc - has had to do six audits of Geffen over the years because you know you sold this many records and they tell you you've only sold this many.

Why don't you just pay us for the f**king records?

Well, that's not how it works. They make it cost-prohibitive to sue.

The first time I became aware of it was 1994. There was a discrepancy of four million f**king records.

They were like "You can sue us, but it will cost you five million dollars and you might get half of that, so why don't we just settle for a quarter?" That's the way business is done. And we're on our sixth audit. That didn't just happen once.

Duff McKagan
bass player, Guns N' Roses

interview with Ben Rayner, Toronto Daily Star, 18/03/11

and the beat goes on.

What Will Happen to Your Intellectual Property When You Die?

2011-03-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

... an important question.
and one worthy of an answer.
here's one suggestion:

click me!

.

Downloading - What People Are Saying

2011-02-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

The RIAA has done an amazing job
of monopolizing the discussion
about downloading, in large part
by spending millions of dollars
on lobbying and "public relations".
With a little bit of Googling, though,
one can find instances where voices
other than the Industry's register.

***

Here's a poll from that hotbed
of radical opinion...
Billboard Magazine.

...where it seems that the Industry's opinion
is in the minority.

Over at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
they posed a question about the imposition
of fees/a tax on digital memory...

...where again, the Industry's solution
was not seen as desirable.

by a fairly substantial margin.

***

Meanwhile, around the web
there are more radical opinions,
of course... the Industry has something
of an image issue.

- and the beat goes on -

.

Artists should be paid for their work?

2011-02-21T12:45:00.000-08:00

one of the core catechisms of the current copyright situation is "Artists should be paid for their work".

among Artists, there is certainly consensus on this point and, in the way of these things, the Industry is more than happy to use this consensus to not simply push their agenda, but cover it up altogether.

"Artists should be paid for their work".

it's beautiful. in just 7 words, it lays claim to a pure moral high ground and occupies it.

even better, it sounds like it means something.

which i guess it does to some people.

but as someone working to bring musicians and audiences together, and creating digital content, i think this dog don't hunt.

it's a Hallmark moment that butters no parsnips, because it fails to answer one of the fundamental musical questions of all time...

***

how much is that doggie
in the window?

***

Artists should be paid for their work?

Sure...

so should Moms.

so should the wounded veterans
from our armed forces.

so should their families.

get in line.

and while you're waiting,
read this.

- 30 -

.

You wouldn't steal a ....?

2011-02-08T19:51:00.000-08:00

In 2004, the MPAA launched a campaign aimed
at insulting everyone who had purchased a ticket
to see one of their movies in one of their theatres.... as well as those who had purchased a DVD,
or rented one at an authorized outlet.

Similar in tone and spirit to the music industry's celebrated "Home taping is killing music" campaign of the 80s, "You wouldn't..." was nearly as well-received by audiences everywhere.

"You wouldn't..." was a bold, edgy remix of the entertainment industry's favourite and most enduring obsession - that on a good day, the rest
of us are stupid, greedy and amoral assholes.

Naturally, there was blow-back: people were annoyed, amused and sometimes even
inspired to parody...

It was pure catnip to the Demotivator crowd...

One of the most widely shared was from an episode of the British television series IT:

[2.3]

Narrator: (Parodying the PSA shown before films) You wouldn't steal a handbag. You wouldn't steal a car. You wouldn't steal a baby. You wouldn't shoot a policeman. And then steal his helmet. You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet. And then send it to the policeman's grieving widow. And then steal it again! Downloading films is stealing. If you do it, you will face the consequences. (Man bursts in behind the girl downloading the film and point a pistol at the back of her head and a pool of blood is then seen on the keyboard)

Roy: (sitting with Moss in a dark room, watching the PSA) Man, these anti-piracy ads are getting really mean.

***

Naturally, things soon went on
to a variety of meta-levels...

...including at least one clearly influenced
by the music industry:

Unfortunately, i wasn't able to find any data about just how effective this campaign has been in teaching people how to be better people. according to industry sources, the sky is still falling so i guess the bottom line is "not effective enough".

go figure...

want to make your own? here's a blank

PLACES TO GO

http://www.ipos.gov.sg/topNav/news/pre/2004/Launch+of+anti+piracy+movie+trailer.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_wouldn%27t_download_a_car#You_Wouldn.27t_Steal_a_Car

http://thisrealitypodcast.com/?p=1241

- 30 -

Beatles, loogies and mangled memories

2011-01-31T22:57:00.000-08:00

ms. sorenson touches on some
of the ideas raised in recent posts here, albeit with a unique perspective
and a brevity i can only aspire to...

go to her site right now.
read stuff. learn stuff.
buy stuff. do it!

www.slowpokecomics.com

- 30 -

Ipod Upod 2011

2011-01-31T22:46:00.000-08:00

it's getting weird out there...

- 30 -

.

Artists should be paid for their work?

2011-01-31T00:04:00.000-08:00

"Artists should be paid
for their work."

it's a self-evident truth - hard-core
catechism in copyright conversations...

...a consensus-builder so true
it conjures a moral high ground
and occupies that contested terrain
in just 7 words.

nice one.

***

"Artists should be paid for their work".

beauty. it even sounds like
it means something.

***

not surprisingly, lots of Artists
eat this up with a spoon.
many can and will regurgitate
it at the drop of a hint.

***

for the Industry, it's a talking point,
sound byte, core message, mission
statement, free beard and a license to spin...

an injection of credibility,
that comes complete with a congregation
happy to "amen" as required.

sweet.

***

TAKE ONE

"Artists should be paid
for their work."

some might say this is a sad cliche,
a Commandment wanna-be that's
actually just a Hallmark moment.
useless, yet smug.

...be that as it may, Artists are suffering
in the pursuance of their respective Muses every day, and every night.

math must be done. eyes must be crossed. t's need be dotted.

there won't be any cheques
in the proverbial mail

until somebody answers
the musical question:

"how much is that doggie
in the window?"

source

***

TAKE TWO

"Artists should be paid
for their work".

Sure. Fine. Great.

Let's do it:

How much?

When?

Who's holding the money?

Who's signing the cheques?

***

What's 'work'?

***

What's an 'artist'?

***

TAKE THREE

"Artists should be paid
for their work."

right on.
no question.
abso-fucking-lutely.

amen.

So should Moms

and the children who grow up
and look after their Moms.

So should veterans.

So should their widows.

luckily for the Music Industry,
the line forms of the right.

- tbc -

Do Bob Dylan Fans Hate Bob Dylan?

2011-01-27T23:40:00.000-08:00

if you're trying to get a handle on just how much the Music Industry doesn't get people who love music, "About Bob" is a good place to start.

it is a site devoted to the music of Bob Dylan and no,
this doesn't mean you can go there and download all Bob's albums. what you will find there is an encyclopedia of Bob.

it's a place where people who really, and i mean really, care about Bob Dylan and his music. Bob doesn't know this much about his own life.

It is an amazing collection of information, assembled over i don't know how long...
No flash graphics, no fancy designs or annoying splash pages, just the skinny, collected and organized in ways that make sense and are easy to find.

What he did in any given year- the songs he wrote,
where he performed them for the first time, how many official and unofficial versions of each song there are in the world...

...when he recorded what song and who played on it... how many takes were laid down of that song...

it is amazing.

***

are you interested in transcriptions of the interviews Bob did, sorted by decade and available as PDFs? free?

ever wonder about what other artists have covered a song by Bob, or written one that referred to him, or even made fun of him? it's here...
there are listings of 5870 covers of 350 different Dylan songs by 2791 artists!

alphabetized.

now i'm not a Bob freak. i like a lot of his music, and i'm still listening 40 years later. i saw him perform in Toronto with the Band in '74. a minute on this site, and i'm looking at the setlist for that night.

Maple Leaf Gardens,

Toronto, Ontario, Canada,

10th Jan 1974

1. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I‟ll Go Mine)

2. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)

3. As I Went Out One Morning

4. Lay Lady Lay

5. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

6. Ballad Of A Thin Man

7. Stage Fright (The Band)

8. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (The Band)

9. King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (The Band)

10. This Wheel's On Fire (The Band)

11. I Shall Be Released (The Band)

12. Up On Cripple Creek (The Band)

13. All Along The Watchtower

14. Ballad Of Hollis Brown

15. Knockin' On Heaven's Door

16. The Times They Are A-Changin' – (solo)

17. Don't Think Twice, It‟s All Right – (solo)

18. Gates Of Eden - (solo)

19. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – (solo)

20. It's Alright Ma (I‟m Only Bleeding) – (solo)

21. Rag Mama Rag (The Band)

22. When You Awake (The Band)

23. The Shape I'm In (The Band)

24. The Weight (The Band)

25. Forever Young

26. Something There Is About You

27. Like A Rolling Stone

28. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I‟ll Go Mine)

Tapes: There is an Ex stereo tape of the show.

CD: Phantoms of my Youth (3, 19)

of course, like any good website, it has links to all sorts of variations on the theme of Bob. Dylan Stubs, for instance

here's what the tickets to the Gardens to see Bob and the Band that night looked like....

there's more information there, like posters
from over the years, set lists from his 2010 shows and of course more links.

if i wanted to know more about my night with Bob,
it would probably be in Bob Dylan Live in Canada A Concert History, 1962-2000 by Brady J. Leyser and Olof Bjšrner

but I probably won't. Like I say, I'm not hardcore.

if you want to really get your Bob on, there's also a bibliography of Bob, listing the titles of books about him, in 27 languages right here.

http://michel.pomarede.pagesperso-orange.fr/CW&C/pages/books.htm

or how about an interactive database of Bob Dylan albums, official and bootlegs?
that's right over here...

if you want to stay current with Bob, and with what people are thinking and writing about Bob, the site you want is Expecting Rain.

every day, there are upwards of 20 posts with links covering Bob and where he fits in to history and the bigger world. there are hundreds of thumbnails
and links to art about Bob.

there is an atlas of places mentioned in Bob's songs,
a message board where you can discuss himself with other interested parties, and it's all carefully archived back to 1995, when the site started, i presume.

all of which is free. all you have to do is be interested...

***

Bob, of course, is a singular artist, with a music career spanning 50 years of activity...but there are all kinds of sites like this out there, for all kinds of artists and musicians.

there are people who could do PhDs in Lou Reed, or Trent Reznor or Britney Spears or Lee Scratch Perry. the list, like the beat, goes on, but what it speaks to is a profound level of interest in and engagement with the lives and work of musicians that is pretty special and unique.

***

these sites are worthy of mention and praise simply for what they are - incredible community-based scholarship. they are passionate testaments to how much music and musicians can mean to people around the world.

these are the kinds of gifts only true love inspires the giving thereof. only an idiot or a complete cynic could spend any time at all on sites like these and think that anyone involved would do harm to the subject of their fascination.

the people who pour so much time into creating sites like About Bob do so because they are profoundly moved by his music. they are not thieves, or pirates or anything as simple or as childish as 'fans'.

- tbc -

About Bob

Dylan Stubs

http://www.dylansongs.org/

Expecting Rain

It's all about Bob (Dylan)... or is it?

2011-01-26T01:53:00.000-08:00

if you're trying to get a handle on just how much the Music Industry doesn't get people who love music, "About Bob" is a good place to start.

it is a site devoted to the music of Bob Dylan and no,
this doesn't mean you can go there and download all Bob's albums. what you will find there is an encyclopedia of Bob.

What he did in any given year- the songs he wrote,
where he performed them for the first time, how many official and unofficial versions of each song there are in the world...

...when he recorded what song and who played on it... how many takes were laid down of that song...

it is amazing.

***

are you interested in transcriptions of the interviews Bob did, sorted by decade and available as PDFs? free?

alphabetized.

Maple Leaf Gardens,

Toronto, Ontario, Canada,

10th Jan 1974

1. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I‟ll Go Mine)

2. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)

3. As I Went Out One Morning

4. Lay Lady Lay

5. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

6. Ballad Of A Thin Man

7. Stage Fright (The Band)

8. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (The Band)

9. King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (The Band)

10. This Wheel's On Fire (The Band)

11. I Shall Be Released (The Band)

12. Up On Cripple Creek (The Band)

13. All Along The Watchtower

14. Ballad Of Hollis Brown

15. Knockin' On Heaven's Door

16. The Times They Are A-Changin' – (solo)

17. Don't Think Twice, It‟s All Right – (solo)

18. Gates Of Eden - (solo)

19. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – (solo)

20. It's Alright Ma (I‟m Only Bleeding) – (solo)

21. Rag Mama Rag (The Band)

22. When You Awake (The Band)

23. The Shape I'm In (The Band)

24. The Weight (The Band)

25. Forever Young

26. Something There Is About You

27. Like A Rolling Stone

28. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I‟ll Go Mine)

Tapes: There is an Ex stereo tape of the show.

CD: Phantoms of my Youth (3, 19)

of course, like any good website, it has links to all sorts of variations on the theme of Bob. Dylan Stubs, for instance

here's what the tickets to the Gardens to see Bob and the Band that night looked like....

but I probably won't. Like I say, I'm not hardcore.

if you want to really get your Bob on, there's also a bibliography of Bob, listing the titles of books about him, in 27 languages right here.

http://michel.pomarede.pagesperso-orange.fr/CW&C/pages/books.htm

all of which is free. all you have to do is be interested...

***

- tbc -

About Bob

Dylan Stubs

http://www.dylansongs.org/

Expecting Rain

Mastering is killing music

2011-01-22T22:56:00.000-08:00

music...do you sometimes feel like
you're listening more, and enjoying it less?

you might be a victim of:
a) bad mastering
b) brickwall limiting
c) bad equalization
d) trendy bullshit
e) all of the above

the correct answer is probably (e).

music has been getting louder and louder since
the days of the jukebox, but there have been
some quantum leaps...

the introduction of the CD saw a big jump in volume, the rise of grunge pushed it up a notch
and as in so many other instances*, a new piece
of gear known as the digital brickwall limiter,
which had the ability of adjusting volume levels in advance to max out the sound without going completely over the top...

soon, it became a kind of db warfare- instead of Mutually Assured Destruction, we got Mutually Assured Distortion- ie - everyone is doing it, so nobody felt they could be the first to turn it down.

how dumb is that?

***

what it adds up to is less 'space' in the music,
aka less dynamic range. no more quiet parts and louder parts. no more can you hear the 'sound of the room' that the recording was done in.

it's one of the lost acoustics in most music there days. it's Spector's Wall of Sound on steroids.

it's yet another one of those ironies in the the 'decline of the Music Industry', because as Brian Eno noted when CDs were introduced, one of the capabilities that came with digital was the possibility of having actual silence become part
of any recording...

was anybody listening?

***

it's too bad. we seem to be stuck in a world of music now where everything is turned up to 11, all the time. it's literally exhausting for the eardrums- they can only sustain a given volume level for so long before self-preservation sets in and they tune out... you can either stop listening, or turn it up a little more.

enjoy the hearing loss.

***

we're close to a point where you literally
can't hear the music for all the processing.

how weird is that?

* see also auto-tuner, etc

LEARN MORE

a musician and producer reacts

the Loudness Wars

the Loudness Wars explained

- 30 -

Who are the real pirates?

2011-01-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

it was many years ago that Bertolt Brecht
asked the eternal question...

"what is the crime of robbing a bank,
next to the crime of owning one?"

one might ask the same question
of the music industry these days,
when it comes to 'pirates'...

Edgar Bronfman Jr convicted
in Vivendi case

The Warner Music Group chairman, Edgar Bronfman Jr, was convicted today of insider
trading and fined €5m (£4.2m) over his conduct
as vice-chairman of French company Vivendi nearly a decade ago.

it seems that shareholders in Vivendi feel they were misled about the financial health of the company after an acquisition buying spree by the former Vivendi chief executive Jean-Marie Messier...

With Vivendi Universal SA on the edge of financial turmoil in 2002, Edgar Bronfman Jr. began selling shares in the company using inside knowledge that the business was in shambles, according to allegations made in a French court.

Mr. Bronfman is appealing the judgment
but in the meantime, he can take comfort
in the knowledge that it could have been much worse.

While $6.7 million US might seem like a lot of money, his fine would have been much larger
if he was guilty of downloading 100 songs from the internet...

read the whole story at The Guardian

and for more background, try the Globe and Mail

- 30 -

Mulve - a musician's response

2011-01-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

the 'piracy' issue often attracts lots of comments on sites around the web... far too much of which boils down to "oh yeah?", followed "yeah!", provoking yet another "oh yeah?", and so on ad infinitum...

here's one of the more intelligent responses i've come across, by a working musician...

Oct 09, 2010 at 05:37 by dg100

    Hi. I’m from a family of UK musicians. Some of you might be vaguely interested in how the “average” musician actually views all this and I have insomnia, so here’s another short novel. :)

    I’m basing this info on what I know of around 100 or so people’s views (mostly family and friends). Most of this isn’t from any formal polling or anything, just general recollection from the last few years of conversations.

    In case thinks this is the politics of envy, I should point out that – barring a few proper nutters convinced that rich people or the law can never be wrong – the consensus view of piracy is shared by almost everyone I know in the industry, including performing artists, studio professionals and a number of our music publishers’ own workers. This also includes some who have gained real money and fame from the current status quo.

    Piracy

    Very few musicians make any money worth the name from the studios, so it doesn’t make the slightest difference to most of us. So long as it’s not for profit, hardly anyone cares. On the other hand, we think pirates who do make money out of our work without paying us deserve to have their legs broken. Note the complete absence of a smiley at the end of that sentence.

    Most of us grew up copying tapes and have no problem with the idea. Most have no knowledge of bit-torrent, but those of us who are aware of it divide neatly into those who unquestioningly believe what the PRS, the newspapers, etc, have told them and those of us who use bit-torrent ourselves to keep up-to-date with the music scene.

    The division is (very roughly):
    60% don’t know and don’t care;
    30% think it’s a great idea;
    10% think the sky is falling.

    The few people I know who aren’t mental and do really object (about half a dozen in all) are all staunch right-wingers who resent piracy as a matter of moral principle, rather than because they believe it’s actually causing any financial harm.

    The studios and radio stations

    No-one thinks much of the studios, not even the people who work for them. Claims of studios being the cornerstone of music have no real basis in reality – it’s just PR puff. They’ve been saying the same things for years and it’s complete rubbish.

    The industry’s profits fill the pockets of it’s shareholders and of a few artists lucky and/or talented enough to reach the top and stay there. Everyone else gets shafted and everyone knows it.

    For all their self-promotion, their “investment” consists of loans made to artists which have to be paid back – and even then, it’s only if you fit the type they want to make money from – it’s very rare to find a label that has any interest in anything other than the latest formulaic tat.

    What they do want is the next-big-hit-that-sounds-exactly-like-the-last-big-hit and don’t care whether it’s any good or not. Support for whoever fits neatly into the most profitable niches (boybands, for example) is fantastic (if brief), but everyone else can sod off.

    It’s no accident that the top-rated radio-programmes in the UK are for “golden-oldies”. The studios learned a long time ago that they can and do make a lot of profit from talentless-but-marketable newcomers who can be given the worst deals and then instantly kicked to the curb when the novelty wears off.

    There’s much less profit to be had from talented performers who can become successful and then go on to make unreasonable demands, such as sleep or royalties or having some artistic input into their own music.

    It’s not a coincidence that the UK’s studios and industry bodies are so heavily in favour of a deliberately overpriced copyright-licensing regime that has forced vast numbers of live music venues to close their doors.

    All independent music, all talent is seen as a competitive threat.

    It’s only a matter of time before they look to stop public libraries from lending CDs, either by changing the law or going to download-only – and probably pay-per-play DRM’d downloads at that.

    They hope to make even more from piracy. If they can make it fly, they won’t even have to have any artists at all, they can just sell lawsuit-rights to the likes of ACS: Law, over and over, in perpetuity.

    No expenditure, just pure profit. The perfect publishing company for the people who own and run it. If they can do it, then they will do it. You just watch.

    Music

    The general consensus is that the studios and radio stations are mostly crap and have been killing music themselves for many decades, by swamping every outlet with over-hyped garbage aimed at increasingly undiscriminating audiences – that’s where the easiest, laziest money is, so that’s where they all go, to the detriment of any other consideration.

    What should be our country’s most thriving and diverse art-form is increasingly marginalised and irrelevant to everyone who isn’t fourteen years old. We don’t have a music scene, we have a small set of narrow, unchallenging music ghettos, all too often dominated by Britain’s least talented artists.

    There’s no consensus on what should be done to resolve music’s collective problems. But no-one I know with a trace of sanity thinks that stopping piracy has anything at all to do with it.

    Last word

    Regarding the post @118 by Anonymous:

    My family have been musicians for decades. Between us, we have over 150 years of experience, variously as studio- and independent-artists. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any musician anywhere actually quitting because of piracy.

    Making music is a calling and a pleasure and a human need. You quit because of family commitments, because you need a regular full-time mortgage-paying job, because of health or because your heart’s just not in it any more. None of these things have been changed by file-sharing.

    As listener’s, we don’t buy CDs or official DLs because we can’t “steal” them, we buy them because we want to support the artist – that hasn’t changed since the invention of home audio tapes and it’s not changing now.

    Home taping did not kill music and bit-torrent is not killing music.

pretty much covers the bases... one can only wish that thoughtful, experienced voices like this were more a part of the discussions, especially when it comes to creating legislation.

i wish i'd kept the link to this- if i can find it again, i'll post it...

and the beat goes on...

- 30 -

.

Bad Labels! No biscuit!

2011-01-22T00:46:00.000-08:00

Oh dear... it seems those music lovers at Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and the EMI Group may have gone a toke or two over the line. Again.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that a lawsuit, filed by a group of online music buyers who allege the four largest record companies conspired nearly a decade ago to fix prices of songs sold online, can now move forward.

The high court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by the labels--Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group--to block the suit, according to reports by Bloomberg and Reuters. Instead, the decision by a federal appeals court that the plaintiffs had supplied enough evidence to sue the labels will stand.

The lawsuit by the music buyers alleged that the record labels agreed to set a wholesale price floor of about 70 cents per song when competitors were offering songs on the Web for less.

A spokeswoman for Warner Music declined to comment. Representatives from the other labels and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) did not immediately respond to interview requests."

Read the rest of the story at CNET

and at p2p net...

- 30 -

.

Ring, ring, Cha-ching!

2011-01-21T23:53:00.000-08:00

Did you know that next to texting, ringtones have been the second most popular data service among cel phone users?

It's one kind of music downloading that the Music Industry is highly in favour of, and what's not to love? In 2006 alone, the revenues from ring tones were nearly $5 billion dollars, with people paying anywhere up to $3 for what is usually a 15 second clip of music.

According to Martin Bandier, CEO of EMI Music Publishing, his company collects about 10% of the retail price of ringtones. The songwriter gets paid a royalty from that.

Ironically, the increasing popularity of texting has seen the ring tone business decline in recent years. It seems people are phoning each other less and texting each other more- if your phone doesn't ring so often, it stands to reason that hearing a snippet of one's fave tune might decline in importance.

Ringtone revenues reached in $881 million in 2007, and peaked at $1 billion in 2008... but by 2010 had declined to about $750 million. Some feel that the market will have dropped to $0 by 2016.

Fortunately, just as the earnings from ringtones were declining, along came the ringback. A ringback tone is a song, voice message or a series of digitized sounds heard by callers as they wait for the call to be answered.

Ba da bing!

The ringback is a real upgrade on the original ringtone - unlike ringtones, which 'live' on your phone, ringbacks are delivered over the phone network, which makes ringback music much harder to pirate.

Ringback revenue has more than doubled since 2005, and it brought in almost $200 million for music labels in 2009. It's the kind of easy new money that the Music Industry usually fails to mention when they talk about how dire their situation is these days...

Here's BMI's perspective:
Ringback tones are sold by all major carriers and retail at prices between $1.99 and $2.50 per tone with the vast majority of tones selling at $1.99. The fee allows the subscriber to use the tone for anywhere from 90 days to 12 months. With only one exception, all major carriers require a monthly recurring subscription fee to the service, which is required before a subscriber can purchase a tone. The monthly recurring charge ranges from $.99 to $5.00. Carriers representing more than 75% of U.S. wireless subscribers offer the monthly subscription services at $.99 or less.

FYI - here are the most popular ringtones of 2010

1)   Run This Town ~ Jay-Z, Kanye and Rihanna
2)   One ~ Metallica
3)   Stickwitu ~ Pussycat Dolls
4)   Way of Life ~ Lil Wayne
5)   Fast and Furious (Theme Song) ~ BT
6)   Party Like a Rockstar ~ Shop Boyz
7)   Miss Independent ~ Ne-Yo
8)   I'm Yours ~ Jason Mraz
9)   Ride ~ Ace Hood
10) Remix of 007 Theme
11) Nokia Dying Ringtone
12) My Heart Will Go On - Remixed
13) Waka Waka ~ Shakira
14) Theme of Harry Potter
15) You're Beautiful ~ James Blunt
16) Airplanes ~ B.O.B
17) Not Afraid ~ Eminem
18) Find Your Love ~ Drake
19) OMG ~ Usher
20) I Like It ~ Enrique Iglesias

SOURCES

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/most-popular-ringtones2010.html

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_17/b3930012.htm

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/01/18/ringtones-requiem/

http://www.mobileddl.com/search/cricket%20ringtones/1.html

http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/538252

- 30 -

Free Music... that's not free

2011-01-20T23:00:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting
moment in music!

THE MOMENT

The Universal Music Group has donated
over 200,000 master recordings
to the Library of Congress.

Coming in at more than 5,000 linear feet of shelf space (over a mile), it includes metal and lacquer discs, as well as master mono tapes of released and unreleased versions of recordings by an amazing collection of American artists, including Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey, Billie Holiday, the Andrews Sisters, Connee Boswell, Jimmy Dorsey, the Mills Brothers, Guy Lombardo, Ella Fitzgerald, Fred Waring, Judy Garland, and Dinah Washington, among others.

Among the tracks are songs like Louis Armstrong singing "Ain’t Misbehavin’", the Mills Brothers’ doing "Paper Doll", Les Paul’s "Guitar Boogie"
and der Bingles 1947 version of "White Christmas".

THE PLAYERS

The Universal Music Group is a unit
of Vivendi, a global media and communications company. UMG owns the most extensive catalog
of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists
and their recordings.

It is the world’s largest music company,
responsible for roughly 29 percent
of album sales in the U.S. alone.

Among their current sub-contractors are musicians like U2, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Eminem and Lil Wayne.

The Library of Congress is the oldest
federal cultural institution in the United States.
It currently has more than 3 million sound recordings in its collections.

WHY IS THIS A GOOD THING?

I'm glad that this has happened. This music is important. It should be preserved, and in the best possible ways, so that people who are interested can find it, and hear it.

> The fact that the Library of Congress will archive this collection. and care for this music, and make it available - albeit in a very limited form - is a good thing.

It's a subject close to my heart, every since I learned that in Canada, our musical heritage is being left to rot. An awful situation, which at one point, I even tried to interest other people in: The Old Weird Canada.

Whatever.

> This action by Universal may inspire other corporations who own priceless collections of master recordings to also pass them along to the Library of Congress. With this precedent, and what should be a boilerplate template in place, it should be easy for other corporations to do the same thing.
Indeed, they may have a real incentive to do so.

> However imperfect the understanding under which the Library receive these treasures, the fact that they will be preserved and be available to listeners is a good thing in the world.

WHAT RESERVATIONS COULD YOU
POSSIBLY HAVE ABOUT THIS?

i'm so glad you asked.

like all good press releases, this one leaves
a few things out:

> it fails to mention that the Universal Music Group retains the copyright on all of these songs.

like this...

Under the agreement negotiated during discussions that began two years ago the Library
of Congress has been granted ownership of the physical discs and plans to preserve and digitize them. But Universal, a subsidiary of the French media conglomerate Vivendi that was formerly known as the Music Corporation of America, or MCA, retains both the copyright to the music recorded on the discs and the right to commercialize that music after it has been digitized.

and this...

The collection bequeathed to the Library of Congress does not, however, include recordings from the vaults of some of the important blues and soul labels that MCA acquired on its way to becoming the largest of the “big four” record companies. For example master recordings of both Chess Records (and its subsidiary Checker, Cadet and Aristocrat labels) and Motown Records (and its Tamla and Gordy subsidiaries) are excluded from the agreement, at least initially.

and this...

The exact monetary value of the collection is not known, and a formal assessment has not yet been made. But in addition to the savings that will be gained from no longer having to store the discs, Universal could be in line for a substantial tax write-off as a result of the donation.

***

like any good press release, this one conjures more questions than it answers.

? what are the costs of digitizing/archiving this collection?

? what cost sharing arrangements are in place vis-a-vis the commercialization of these archives post-digitalization? can the Library of Congress recoup expenses?

NOTE ALSO:

The Library will be able to stream these tracks from a website it is constructing for that purpose so people will be able to hear them... which is important, because as the press release notes:

"only an estimated 14 percent of pre-1965 commercially released recordings were currently available from rights holders. The study also found that of the music released in the U.S. in the 1930s, only about 10 percent of it could be readily accessed by the public."

How does this tie in with other problems of accessibility mentioned elsewhere on this blog?

Is it reasonable to bitch people out for downloading music that the Industry is not making available?

and if I had nothing but time, and/or was getting paid to do this thinking, the question i would put on the final would be:

"how does this agreement differ from the agreement between the Smithsonian Institute and Folkways Records? Discuss.

this and a number of other ugly truths can be found at the original source of this article on the New York Times

Folkways and the Smithsonian

the source

the source of the source

the view from tech crunch

the view from Tech Dirt

- 30 -

.

That's Evil...

2011-01-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

... and now they're whoring Howlin' Wolf,
singing for Viagra.

you know the Wolf ain't cashing
any cheques on it... but he knew
all about this kind of thing...

there's a word for it-

- 30 -

.

No Song Is Illegal

2011-01-17T05:15:00.000-08:00

at some point in this copy right
or wrong situation, a lot of musical questions start coming up, including:

what kind of mind makes it illegal to enjoy a song?

what kind of people bust campfire girls, grannies and students for possession of music?

why are their spin doctors not laughed out of the building whenever they show up with their absurd statistics?

is the music industry any different from the police industry and the drug industry?

and if i was a legislator, i would like to put a few questions to the Industry itself, like...

how many of the alleged downloads
are theoretically "your music"?

how many of the alleged downloads are from completely legitimate sources?

how many of the files being downloaded
can be purchased from you today?

what are the demographics of "the pirates"?
who are these uploaders & who is downloading them?

why do you have such a bee up your butt about music you haven't cared about for decades, if ever?

but i'm not a legislator,
so here's a question from me:

how long is it going to take you to figure out
that all those music blogs out there
could be the best friends you ever had?

more where they came from,
but that'll do for now.

questions like these trouble me, and i'm troubled about the discussions we're not having about some pretty important issues, with a very long tail we will have drag into the future with us.

the Music Industry has positioned itself in a fashion similar to the Holy Roman Church in medieval Europe. Big surprise. they are the font of reason, with a double-shot of moral authority back.

RESPECT

when it comes to loving the Artists,
the Industry might not walk the walk,
but they have certainly bought the talk.

if all the money the Industry has invested in this process has done one thing well, it has put a long term lease on the vocabulary of the conversation and straight-out bought the box we're going to have it in...

it has "defined the issues" so effectively that there are only their issues. there is no room left at the table for any other arguably less self-interested voices.

they have created an urgency where none existed. Canada represents a whopping 2% of the international music market. passing this legislation will not change that fact. this one's not about the money. this one signs up for the digi-Coalition of the Willing.

the war on sharing is an American-driven war. another big surprise. more accurately the War on Sharing is a project of the music and film divisions of several trans-national corporations.

it's a remix that drops DC in for New York, New York, to the effect that if you can get something like this passed there, you can get it passed anywhere. it's up to you, DC, DC...

make no mistake about it -

we will get the legislation they want...

and there will be inspiring sound bites about how Canada, our Canada is no safe place for "pirates".

and how we were once laissez-faire, but now march in the first rank in the war on sharing, doing our bit to constipate the internet..

this legislation will pass in Parliament because
good and evil are all laid out. it makes everybody look good, it sends a message that Canada is open for business and there's no bad guys here except 'the pirates'.

you can even mention how you care so much about Canadian artists, you've given them their own level playing field. it's almost like giving them money, except it's free.

***

but between then and now, can we call a cease-fire on all those earnest sermons about how this is for the Artists, and pointing out other crumbs that may or may not fall from the tables of our betters?

it's too depressing.

- 30 -

the illustrations for this rant have come from a variety of pirate places that used to exist on the net.

if you like looking at album covers,

you really want to go to:

LP Cover Lover

Incredibly Strange Albums

the Worst Album Covers of All Time!

Valuation - a PPS

2011-01-16T16:39:00.000-08:00

it just happened again tonight!

i'm home alone, watching the Habs kick some prime New York butt, and they blow one of those whistles that means we're going to commercial.

...and sure enough, up pops a commercial for the the SunLife post-retirement plan. where once there was an OK hockey game, now there is a room full of rich old white people at a cocktail party bursting into song.

not only song, but dance... and not simply dance, but a routine.

these rich old white people, who've clearly been hoovering the free liquor, go into an energy bunny full-on honky pantomime of the Temptations.

OMG, it's a 21st century minstrel moment
- a Pat Booney Geritol remix a la Glee!

***

the song they are miming to is Get Ready.

originally, it was a classic Motown moment:
the Funk Brothers playing a song written and produced by Smokey Robinson, with Eddie Kendricks singing lead over David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams and Otis Williams harmonies.

how good a song is Get Ready?

good enough that after the Tempts charted with it in '66, it would be covered by The Supremes, Dusty Springfield, Smokey with The Miracles and Rare Earth, who charted even higher than the Tempts did with it four years later in 1970.

the Proclaimers have done it, which makes my brain hurt just to think about and mercy me, even Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas has humped it. it was also Ella Fitzgerald's last record to hit the US charts in '69.

***

a song that can do all that and survive is a song built like the proverbial brick shit house.

***

at one point, the images in this SunLife appropriation cut to the people at the party
who are watching this all unfold.

among the faces are a black man and a black woman. they look like they are tripping...
like "what the hell am i supposed to do with this?"

it's a brief moment, but a deep one and it's certainly a fair question, but i can't answer it.

***

Get Ready was a total feel-good song- one that makes you want to move, and maybe even sing along.

now it's a song that says no matter how much you've got, you need more. you may already have a better life already than 99.7% of the people on the planet, but you can have more.

you know you want it,
and baby, you so deserve it...

watching the gyrations of these smug Boomers, one can't help but share their awareness that looking this good is not going to get any cheaper in their days ahead...

and given how well-fed, well-fixed and pampered these people are, it's a safe bet that the off-ramp to the dirt nap is still a long way down the road...

which may be why this is an ad for a "post" -retirement plan. i'm not even sure what that is. does it mean the money to retire on is already in the bag, or what?

***

anyway, you can bet the licensing fees for this
were not cheap, and that the copyright holders are probably OK with it. no piracy here. no infringements.

it's all good.

***

but is it?

the reason that the song "has value" is because
it was a dream team of creative people working together to create something special. but that's not the only reason...

the song also has value because millions of people welcomed it into their lives. they listened to it, and danced to it and bought millions of copies of it so they could hear it again and again.

but according to the law, none of us have any
rights in this situation. the fact that a piece of our lives has been appropriated to make one more financial institution seem more warm and fuzzy is a non-issue.

this idea that the song has value because we - the audience, the listeners, the 'fans' - invested it with meaning has no standing in a court of law. like so many other acts of cultural and emotional piracy, this moment of musical necrophilia is strictly legit.

***

the only reason this song, like so many others even matters is because we made it matter...but it doesn't matter now. it's just one more musical memory reduced to so much aural Epicac. it's just business as usual.

the idea that this ongoing whoring of a shared heritage might be a contributing factor to an overall decline in the "value" of music - real or perceived - is not going to be discussed in at any marketing meetings or in any boardrooms any time soon.

it's just business.

Valuation - a post-script

2011-01-15T01:45:00.000-08:00

...part of what bugs me so much about the
whole 'valuation' thing is some articles i've run
into online, where Industry spinners poo-poo
the idea of charging less for downloads.

the spin boys are quick to say that is not going
to happen. it seems you can't cut the price of a download because it would 'devalue' the music.

make it, you know... cheap. common.

like over-pricing something is a sign
of respect, somehow.

perhaps to them it is, but not to me. a buck
is something i earn. it is more real to me than whatever these people are thinking.

one MP3 file more or less doesn't mean very
much to me at all...nor does it matter that much,
i suspect, to a lot of other people.

the fact that the Industry presumes to lecture me about music and value, both monetary and spiritual, infuriates me.

i've lost count of the number of songs that used to mean something to me that now i don't even want to hear anymore. sometimes, they are songs i've travelled with for decades- songs i "valued" highly.

those songs have no value to me now. i don't remember what they used to mean to me,
or recall the times in my life they'd conjure up.

all those songs do now is annoy me.

when i hear the intro, all they make me think
of is running shoes, electro-gadgets, cleaning products or maybe a TV show.

i don't want to hear those songs anymore. i don't particularly even want to hear those bands much...
too bad for me. there aren't many songs, or even bands one likes for a long time, and thanks to all the whoring in recent years, my list is getting pretty short.

in fact, about the only thing i'm less interested in hearing than those songs is a sermon from some corporate mount about music and values.

it's like whatever, man. it's all about the benjamins. right?

Valuation- What's Music Really Worth?

2011-01-14T17:36:00.000-08:00

as we all know, the experience of a note, a voice,

a drum, an orchestra can lift the human experience to a higher plane and bring people together like nothing else on the planet.

some might go so far as say music is priceless.

***

if you're one of them, you way wish to avoid
any encounters with the Music Industry.

***

one of the signs that the MBAs have taken over that sonic asylum is the frequency with which words like 'value' and 'valuation' come up. it's boardroom talk for "what's do you think you can get for it?"

***

there are a number of areas where valuation plays
a decisive role in modern music. at the top, it's a question worth millions of even billions of dollars.

the English company EMI owns more songs than anyone else in the world, including including Tamla Motown hits and Jagger/Keith Richards songs. last year, their songs generated generated £419.6 million aka $664,265,520.69 USD.

according to a recent report on The Times Online, artist payments take up 54.8 per cent of its revenues from its songwriting catalogue, leaving 45.2 per cent for itself — equating, in theory, to £189.7 million last year, aka $300,472,495.49 USD.

The Times article cited the story of "Chrysalis, which owns copyrights to songs by David Bowie, Blondie and OutKast, was the first music company to value its publishing catalogue in 2001...

...The music and radio group redid that exercise this year, and disclosed that its publishing catalogue was worth £190 million — after a valuation from Houlihan Lokey, the investment bank. Its income after payments to songwriters — known as its “net publishing share” (NPS) — was £11.3 million, and its profit margin is between 25 per cent and 30 per cent."

source

how sweet it is...

right now there's a little war going on at the top between Sony and BMG. i read about it on coolfer.

"The warring parties could not even agree on the valuation of Sony BMG, the world’s second-largest music company, with Sony indicating that the business was worth $1.8 billion (£920 million) and Bertelsmann preferring a figure of $2.4 billion..."

the value in this case is generally computed by extrapolating the historic earning power of said copyright over 4-5 years into the future. with money like this involved, no wonder people take it so seriously.

***

then there's the valuation that hits closer to home for most of us... how much does it cost me to hear music i want to hear?

in terms of that valuation, it was "how low can you go" this year, led in part by Amazon.com's Daily Deal pricing- that $3.99 price tag lofted titles like Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" to the top of the charts.

elsewhere, a single tune can cost you $1.29 at a variety of outlets, or maybe 79 cents per download, on top of a $9.95 monthly subscription fee.

all of which is remarkable close to what i paid for a 45 rpm single when i was a music-loving child - $1 CDN.

quibblers might point out that back then i was actually getting 2 songs for a dollar, as well as a physical object made up of petroleum and a paper sleeve, often with 4 colour artwork that had been shipped across the continent to the store at the mall in my small town...

if i still had some of those singles, and if i hadn't played the ass off them, they could be worth 10 to 100 times what i originally paid for them if i could find the right buyer... say on eBay.

the value of a used MP3 is virtually nothing. until, of course, you find yourself in court.

***

if you steal - ie shoplift - a CD from a store and get caught, in Canada the charge will be Theft Under $5,000.

The Crown Attorney in Ontario generally treat this type of theft less seriously than other types of criminal charges. Generally a shoplifting allegation is considered to be on the lowest end of the criminal law spectrum- with murder at the opposite end of the spectrum. If you have been caught shoplifting, you may be able to avoid a criminal conviction without even going to trial if you are a first time offender.

source

What kind of penalties are we looking at?

In general a misdemeanor is punishable with fines of less than $1000 dollars and less than one year in jail. Felonies are punishable with fines of over $1000 and multiple years in prison. There are also other punishments involved such as restitution, community service, probation etc...

Realistically the punishments involve little to no jail time, fines, and probation.

source

if you have "stolen" an MP3 file, though, you may already be fucked.

***

"stealing" in the digital world is a bit of a conundrum. unlike the tradition essence of theft, you have not deprived anyone of the use of their 'thing'.

if i go next door and take my neighbour's lawn mower, for instance, they can't cut their grass.
their life is clearly the poorer because i have deprived them of the use of something they owned.

in the digital world, if i make a copy of a sound file, the original still resides with the owner. they are still able to enjoy the use of it.

be that as it may, if i have downloaded a copy of a sound file, it's the contention of the Music Industry that the damages are gi-normous. the valuation of this data goes literally through the roof.

Thomas-Rasset was found liable for illegally downloading and distributing 24 copyrighted songs last June and was ordered by a federal jury to pay $1.92 million in damages to six music labels...Tenenbaum, a postdoctoral student at BU, was found liable last July for illegally downloading and distributing 30 copyrighted songs. He was ordered to pay $22,500 per song by a federal jury in Boston.

source

think that $22,500 for a single song is a bit extreme when stealing an entire CD of songs from a store would maybe net you a fine of less than $1,000 or some community service hours?

how about $80,000?

Last year, a federal jury ruled Thomas-Rasset, a mother of four from Brainerd, willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs. She was ordered to pay $1.92 million in damages, or $80,000 per song. Last week, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis reduced the verdict to about $54,000 in damages, calling the jury’s penalty “monstrous and shocking.”
source

who disagrees with Judge Davis? the RIAA and US Department of Justice :

The Department of Justice says the jury’s $222K damage assessment in the RIAA lawsuit against Jammie Thomas is constitutional, in what appears to be a fairly serious blow to American file sharing defendants [updated in light of comment].

Thomas had been found guilty of sharing 24 songs on the Kazaa file sharing network — an average of $9,250 per song. She and her lawyer argued that the damages were unconstitutional, given that those 24 songs would have cost only $23.76 on iTunes.

source

***

does it pay to have friends in high places?

you betcha!

***

value, it seems is akin to beauty...
it exists in the eye of the beholder...

or in this case, perhaps, the ear,

or maybe the imagination...

***

but here's thought...

...perhaps it's not the the lawyers
and accountants or even the courts
who decide the value of music.

...perhaps it's us.

the listeners.
the audience.

the 'fans'.

maybe, since we are the ones
who give music meaning,
we are also the ones who decide
if it has any value at all...

and if so, how much.

***

because no matter how great an Artist
you may be, without us "your music"
is nothing more than "your hobby".

...and all those in the copyright cartel
would do well to remember
that without us, "your" music
is just a bunch of data...

nothing more than ones
and zeros that ultimately
add up to nothing.

just a thought.

- 30 -

Music - Not Dead Yet, but Not Well Either

2011-01-14T01:30:00.000-08:00

COMRADES

The geese are flying
over the Volga.

Soon it will be spring.

Year-end figures cited by Billboard's live music editor Ray Waddell tracked a 26% decline in North American concert grosses and a 12% decrease in attendance.

***

At one point in July, Live Nation's stock, which reached a 52-week high of almost $17, had fallen below $9.

read all about it!

- 30 -

Mendacious Bodacious Piratical Infringers!

2011-01-14T01:19:00.000-08:00

CRIA is, and i quote...

"The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is a non-profit trade organization that was founded in 1964 to represent the interests of Canadian companies that create, manufacture
and market sound recordings.*"

...and according to the president, CRIA is very concerned about people taking music without permission or payment of any kind.

He says "It's common sense: when people
can take music without paying for it: legitimate sales suffer, careers suffer."

pretty clear stuff.

righteous, even.

one thing CRIA is not is an organization
that squanders its members money
on fancy pants design!

***

one of the many things CRIA does is send messages to people it believes are sharing files
that include CRIAs music. it's worth a read...

Warning

“It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. While we appreciate your love of music, please be aware that sharing copyrighted music on the Internet without permission from the copyright owner is illegal.

When you do so, you hurt the artists, songwriters and musicians** who create the music and the other talented individuals who are involved in bringing you the music.

“More than 40,000 Canadians work hard producing and supporting the music you appear to enjoy, including producers, engineers, retailers, music publishers, distributors, manufacturers, record companies, concert promoters and broadcasters.

“When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: Don't distribute music to others on a file-sharing system like this. For further information, please go to www.cria.ca.

“Remember that you need music and music needs you.”

***

(cue CRIA)

i'm serious- if you type "CRIA" into
Google image, this is what comes up

***

BUT wait- if all this true,
what the hell?

how does it come to pass that Warner, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal Music - the 4 Riders of the Sonic Apocalypse (Canada, Ltd.) and the biting end of CRIA- end up facing a class-action suit for copyright infringement?

what's up with that?

***

FLASHBACK

it was just over a year ago, i was reading the business section in the Toronto Daily Star and i noticed this Michael Geist column:

Record industry faces liability
over 'infringement'

here's a few highlights that really bought my eye:

"The infringer has effectively already admitted owing at least $50 million and the full claim could exceed $6 billion. If the dollars don't shock, the target of the lawsuit undoubtedly will: The defendants in the case are Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada, the four primary members of the Canadian Recording Industry Association....

...The class action seeks the option of statutory damages for each infringement. At $20,000 per infringement, potential liability exceeds $6 billion.

wait for it...

These numbers may sound outrageous, yet they are based on the same rules that led the recording industry to claim a single file sharer is liable for millions in damages.

GEIST click here to read the whole thing. i'll wait....

END OF FLASHBACK

***

anyway, the reason i was reminded was because a year and a month after reading Mr. Geist's article, i came across this headline while zooming down the information super-highway today:

Canadian Record Labels Pay $45 Million to Settle Piracy Claims

here's the latest:

Faced with the certainty of a conviction for infringement, the CRIA has instead decided to settle the charges for $45 million.

“This is a very positive outcome for all parties,” said Graham Henderson, President, Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), on behalf of EMI Music Canada, Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada.

“I commend the counsel representing rights holders and the major record labels for their constructive approach in reaching an agreement and their diligence in working through highly complex issues.”

The proposed agreement also establishes a new mechanism that will “expedite” future royalty payments to copyright holders.

read the whole story right here

***

what the hell, indeed...

on the surface what we seem to have here is one more ironic tale of industrial hypocrisy, the shabby truth behind the shiny lies, with the Music Industry picking the pockets of the Poor Starving Artists, ho hum... but is it?

one can only hope not, and the signs and omens are that this is not the case:

-when it's mouthpiece for the music companies being sued making win-win in the press, i'm catching a whiff of gorgonzola wrapped in gym socks from somewhere.

- according to Mr. Geist, who i regard as a highly credible source in all this, "the infringer has effectively already admitted owing at least $50 million".
...so how is it a year later the plaintiffs settle for less than the infringer had already copped to?

- with the potential for damages around $6 billion dollars, using the Industry's own numbers and legal precedents, the settlement is less that they copped to before the sit-downs started?

- where are the plaintiffs in all this? i have seen no artists dancing in the streets?

- whatever happened to the full audit that was a part of the plaintiffs original suit? instead, it is proudly announced that the settlement includes "a new mechanism that will “expedite” future royalty payments to copyright holders."

oh. weren't they already supposed to be doing that before, and anyway, according to contract law? it doesn't seem like it should count as a big deal.

- so when it came to the big sit down, were there lawyers for the Big 4 on both sides of the table, or what? was $45 million all they needed to take care of the big royalty earners besides themselves?

- how much did this epic mediation cost?

what the hell?

FOOTNOTES

* discerning eyes will no doubt have discerned
the absence of 'artists'

** discerning eyes will have re-discerned
the new high profile of artists, etc.

Believe Your Own Press Kit #4 - the Killer App!

2011-01-13T15:46:00.000-08:00

“Our digital business is way ahead of other creative industries, with 30 percent of music sales coming from digital channels” Strain said.

further to the theme of "sorry, but this is complete and total bullshit", we present.....

PEOPLE's EXHIBIT B

like Amazon, eBay launched in 1995 as an online auction site and became one of the few enduring (surviving?) successes of the great dot-com bubble.

one of the bajillion categories of stuff one can purchase on eBay is pre-recorded music. let's say one is, like me, a fan of the musical group known as 'The Band'. what music by The Band could one find on eBay?

...and even a frickin' 8 track.

***

but wait, as they say, there's more...

a Fillmore postcard

a vintage Tshirt

an old tour poster

a magazine with an article about The Band

... old ticket stubs!

***

anyone who has ever gone to a record store, or tried the 'official' legal music dispensaries online can tell you that virtually none of these versions of the music by The Band are available from the Industry.

this alone speaks long and loudly to decline of the Industry and just how far behind the curve it actually is.

what it really screams out, though, is the Industry's profound lack of understanding of people who truly love music.

this is not a new thing by any means- it has been there all along, and certainly long before the rise of the internet.

what the internet has done is to make is very, very clear how profound that lack of understanding is... and how more than a digital decade the later, the Industry has not advanced its understanding in the slightest.

to the contrary, it has done nothing more than turtle up- closed it's eyes to the writing on the wall, and its ears to the sound of the street.

it's only response has been to cry like a bitchy little baby...

and to piss money - calling down the very people they want to buy 'their music' as selfish, immoral assholes...

...and rather than adapt their own antiquarian, industrial way of doing business, they want the realities of internet, and the whole digital marketplace changed to suit their 'needs'.

meanwhile, the world just keeps moving on- with or without it, and mostly without it, every hour of every day...

how far out of the loop are they?

...they are so far out they don't even seem to know there is one.

Believe Your Own Press Kit #3 - Exsqueeze-me?

2011-01-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

“Our digital business is way ahead of other creative industries, with 30 percent of music sales coming from digital channels” Strain said.

i propose, on the contrary, that the Music Industry is actually somewhere in the area of 20 years behind... both other creative industries and behind the people who really care about music.

further, i suggest that digital years are something akin to 'dog years'- ie - given the speed of change in the digital world, the ratio runs about 7 to 1.

given this exchange rate, the Music Industry is actually more than 100 years behind the curve.

***

PEOPLE'S EXHIBIT A

Amazon launched in 1995, as an online bookstore and soon diversified to include music, video, software, games furniture, clothing, food and toys, among other things.

If one wanted to buy some music at Amazon, one had only to type in the name of the source to find...

... all the Official releases by one's fave band...

...interesting, well-written reviews both from Amazon and from any number of 'fans'...

...and one could also take a brief listen to the tracks on the record, as well as get recommendations of other related music from people who enjoyed this record.

...all this nearly a decade before iTunes opened for business online.

***

...all this when it was getting harder and harder to even find a store in one's neighbourhood, or even one's city where one could even buy records...

and if one did find a store, the odds were slim to none that there would be any back catalogue on most bands. there would never be a selection of the different formats or pressings that music had been - or still was - available in elsewhere.

... what was a music lover to do, when they so clearly cared much more about the music than those who 'owned' it?

- click me to go to Believe Your Own Press Kit #4 -

I Downloader #5 - Are the Fundamentals Solid?

2011-01-11T02:16:00.000-08:00

as formerly industrial economies/countries transit to a virtual/digital economy, a lot of the old ways don't apply anymore. there is one legacy of industrial society, though, that is still useful - an understanding of the fundamentals of the Market, in an old-school, bare knuckles Adam Smith kind of way.

it's one of the elephants in the room whenever the catechism of "artists being paid for their work" gets passed around - not as a suggestion, or aspiration or plan of action, but as a self-evident truth with a side of subtext: the implicit appropriation of the highest of the moral high grounds.

the belief that a noble moral imperative has value in a corporate culture is interesting. the belief that corporations would spend millions of dollars on a moral imperative would lead to make it so is simply delusional.

***

long before we get to that promised land, where everyone is a vegan on a bicycle and all the artists get paid for their work, there are some serious speed bumps that might slow things down.

***

the first one is "supply and demand".

it doesn't take too much Googling or very many hours on the information superhighway to learn that there is a lot of music out there. there is more music than anyone could ever want or need, or even find the waking hours to hear... and every day there's more and more and more of it.

a lot of that music is available to anyone who wants it, legally, for free. the leading contributors are Artists few have heard or heard of, who just want people to hear it.

it's the way it is.

but according to market theory, when the supply of anything exceeds the demand for it, prices are going to go down. if that supply continues to grow more quickly than the demand, the value - real and imagined - will go down too. the more of it is free, the greater this effect will be...

***

this market fundamental is never referenced in the talking points of the Industry or their acolytes. as truths go, it's beyond inconvenient but it's more likely that this complication has simply never even occurred to them.

***

there are more Artists creating art of the planet now than ever before in human history. anyone can be an Artist. when people ask "what do you do?", you just say "i'm an artist".

ba da bing.

ba da boom.

it's fine. it's tickety-boo.

you can call yourself an Artist. you can call yourself the King of Spain or Mahdi the Expected One or Donny the Bag of Frozen Peas.

Donny

it doesn't matter that much, because it doesn't entitle you to anything. it certainly doesn't entitle you to expect people to pony up front for 'work' they never asked you to do.

the tax/levee/surcharge whatever on blank cassettes, CDRs and soon/now on MP3 players are punitive and unfair and people know it. what was once a bad idea is now a bad practice- a transparent cash grab, predicated on specious statistics and a profoundly misanthropic view of the rest of us.

the only upside is they give everyone who pays them an emotional incentive to go out and rip some free music.

wtf, they've already paid.

***

like so many of the legislative proposals emanating from the copyright cartels, it is a stupid idea. wrapping a stupid idea in swaddling clothes and cliches about The Suffering Artists of today, and building a better future for the young artists of tomorrow doesn't make it any the less stupid.

it's just the fig leaf.

what's double-plus ungood about it all is they are now the foundation of, and the justification for,
the draconian measures proposed by the Industry, which carry the force of law in a growing number of northern/industrialized countries.

propositions this stupid only come from thinking that's so far inside the box that there is no outside. it only makes sense inside the box.

it can't be discussed with anyone outside the box, because it only makes sense to the self-interested.

it's a world-view of infantile self-absorption, with a sociopathic tendency or two in the mix. you think that's harsh?

read the signs!

- stay tuned for part 6 -

.

Believe Your Own Press Kit Much? 2

2011-01-10T00:32:00.000-08:00

continues from Believe Your Own Press Kit Much?

Let's begin with Mr. Strain's third point:

“Our digital business is way ahead of other creative industries, with 30 percent of music sales coming from digital channels” Strain said.

***

if the Music Industry really believes that they are "way ahead" of other 'creative industries' in taking care of digital business, i think we have identified a founding illusion.

there's so much irony in so few words here, i forget to breathe...and yet, there's poignancy, because once upon a time, it was true.

truer than true. for a few bright shiny years, the Music Industry was a digital avant-gardista. they were cutting edge.

this was going to be big. there was at least a decade ahead of mad margins and sick money. the future looked very bright and shiny.

in 1982, they introduced the Compact Disc.

none among them ever dreamed
that this would be
the Last Great Fattening.

***

BACKSTORY

it had been nearly 20 years since the Industry had last successfully introduced a new format for consumers to enjoy.

in 1965, there was the 8 track, which everybody knew didn't actually work, really.

and then there was Quadrophonic** in 1970.

and there were others...none of which turned out to be great leaps forward, especially not when they were placed next to the chia pet of home audio.

***

the audio cassette hit the streets in '63, and caught on quick as both a home and car-based playback system.

one of the reasons people took to it was that not only could you play back your store-bought cassettes- you could record your own.

if you loved music, you probably did. if you were a hard core music geek, you most certainly did.

***

BEHIND THE BACKSTORY

interestingly enough, the ability to record one's own sounds had been a selling point for the first home audio gear...

the ability to manufacture musical recordings was all well and good, convincing people who have no way of listening to those recordings to buy some is hard. but it happened.

this ad is synergistic. a hardware manufacturer; a software developer and a media partner, leveraging the idea of recording your own cylinders, with musical recordings along as an incentivized option. a junior partner.

every contemporary marketing technique can be found in this one ad, done at the turn of the century.

if there's a difference, it might be that the consumer in this case has a wider variety of options and incentives, and there are fewer restrictions, and penalties.

... and it's all leveraged on recording your mother's voice, so you hear it when your far from home, and after she's gone.

who doesn't want to hear their mother's voice? who's going to tell the wife that the prattling of baby isn't worth remembering.

those guys were good.

***

stay tuned for part 3!

FOOTNOTES

* as distinct from a gramophone

** ahead of it's time:as a stand-alone home audio thing, it came and went. a generation of staring at computer screens later, home video screens get big and they need big sound to do the Dolby.
welcome back, old friend!

Music and Math - the Devil's combo!

2011-01-09T04:52:00.000-08:00

If there's one thing that hasn't changed
about the Music Industry over the years,
it's a love of numbers...

From the first wax cylinders to the latest ring tone, it's always been about the numbers.

Recoupable expenses, outstanding royalties, payola, price fixing, pay to play? Numbers.

Charts, trophies, ticket counts? More numbers.

...and obviously, in any situation where
it's all about the numbers, B.Y.O. is the
way you want to go. Totally.

***

The Industry has brought more than a century
of numerical creativity and a whole lotta cash
to its efforts to change federal laws, international agreements, the internet and the nature of music.

As mission statements go, it leans towards the ambitious but it doesn't stop there. The cherry on the top - the piece de resistance - is that those governments also stooge up as the designated enforcers, at no cost to the Industry.

Sound a little funny?

Guess what?

It's virtually a fait accompli...

***

Ha-ha.

***

Here are some fresh numbers,
courtesy of the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry)!

In September 2010 BPI commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct an in-depth online survey...here are a few highlights:

BEST POSITIVE VISUALIZATION AWARD
In total, Harris conservatively estimates that 1.2bn tracks will be illegally downloaded in 2010 – equivalent to a stack of CDs some 74 miles high stretching well into space.

Holy cow... that's a big stack. But 74 miles up
is too nebulous, know what i'm sayin'? Let's take those miles down to the street - check this out...

8 Mile - the off-ramp

- dude, if you were standing on 8 Mile Road in Detroit, that CD stack would run half-way out to Kalamazoo... or more conveniently, to Ann Arbor and back.

- yo, if you were standing at the bottom of the CN Tower in Toronto, bro, those CDs would go to Guelph and back.

- in Glasgow? to Edinburgh and back.

8 Mile - the high

PEOPLE DON'T SHARE OUR VALUATION? WTF?
More people are regularly using illegal sources to access music than some of the biggest legal music services on the internet – usage figures show Spotify (18%), Last.fm (15%) and we7 (8%) have many fewer regular users than P2P.

8 Mile - the book about the high

THE NEED IS STILL GREAT
~ 23% of all respondents are using P2P to acquire music illegally, the same percentage recorded as research carried out by Harris in February and November 2009.

8 Mile - the (other) movie

WE'RE HURT, OF COURSE, BUT WE'RE ALSO CONCERNED
Worryingly, a substantial proportion of illegal downloaders claim not to realise that their actions are unlawful.

8 Mile - the varietal

SEE WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST? YOUNG PEOPLE ARE VILE!
Nearly half (44%) of all P2P users stated that they believed their actions to be lawful, rising to 69% for those using overseas pay sites and 56% using cyberlockers via board/forums.

***

THE REPORT - READ, WEEP

8 Mile - the book about the high

8 Mile - the varietal

8 Mile - the (other) Movie

Believe Your Own Press Kit Much?

2011-01-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

while wandering the web this winter's eve, i came across a fascinating article over at Exile on moan street about the Music Industry's campaign to shape the digital future of the planet.

one of a number of voices featured in this special report is Mr. Adrian Strain, who is the Director of Communications for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)*.

according to the IFPI:

“The music industry is responding to the digital environment in three basic ways: licensing repertoire in new ways that respond to what the consumer wants, public education to explain copyright laws and highlight legal services, and copyright enforcement to protect our rights...” .

furthermore...

New business models the music industry has developed during the past few years include new subscription models and access to digital music that is free for consumers, Strain said.

...but wait!...

“Our digital business is way ahead of other creative industries, with 30 percent of music sales coming from digital channels,” Strain said. “But none of this commercial activity and innovation can succeed unless there is proper protection of music rights and effective intellectual property enforcement.”

***

***

Mr. Strain is a credible source, probably to the tune of six figures in Euros and per diems to die for. if the organization felt he wasn't representing them accurately and effectively, they'd get a new one.

***

which is exactly why what he says is so disturbing.

because if this the view from the board room, then what we have here is not simply a failure to communicate...

what we have here is a problem,

Houston.

Houston?

Houston???

***

Believe Your Own Press Kit Much?
part 2 is coming soon!

***

the original inspiration is here:

exile on moan street

***

* the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
The IFPI is - depending on one's perspective - the global version of the Recording Industry Association of America or it's off-shore subsidiary.
if you're interested in issues like music downloading, "piracy" and the agenda of trans-national entertainment corporations, you really owe yourself a visit.

don't forget to download some of their reports and other docs for future reading.

the Story of Mulve

2011-01-07T19:09:00.000-08:00

In a series of 5 posts on TorrentFreak,
enigmax has charted the rapid rise
and equally rapid fall of file sharing's
latest public incarnation.

September 23, 2010

Mulve – The Nightmare-Scenario
Music Downloading Tool

As pressure on file-sharing continues to mount, many people are searching for ‘safer’ methods to acquire music. Today we bring news of an application that seems to be almost too good to be true. With a huge database of songs, Mulve delivers music to users’ desktops at amazing speeds at the touch of a button with zero uploading, meaning that “getting caught” is no longer a concern. Question is, how long will it last?

While TorrentFreak is naturally a site that reports on file-sharing issues and software, sometimes a new product will come along that involves no sharing at all and is simply too impressive to ignore. Just pure, unadulterated music downloading.

tell me more

September 28, 2010

RIAA Takes Down Music Downloading
App Mulve

Last week an impressive new music downloading application hit the mainstream. Mulve became hugely popular and demand was so great that the site’s servers couldn’t handle the pressure and fell over. Today the site is down again, not through excessive demand, but thanks to the lawyers at the RIAA.

Last week we reported on a very impressive music downloading application. With a claimed database of 10,000,000 tracks, Mulve can give many torrent sites a good run for their money.
Choice aside, Mulve is particularly fast too. Searches yield results quickly and tracks download at excellent speeds, yet this software is not a traditional P2P app – in fact, there is no uploading required at all. Pulling its data off fast servers in Russia connected to the country’s biggest social networking site, downloading from Mulve is about as ‘safe’ as it gets.

tell me more

October 12, 2010

Police Repeat OiNK Mistake, Mulve Accusation “Conspiracy To Defraud”

After last week’s shock news that police had arrested an individual connected with the Mulve music software, we can now confirm that the grounds – as with the failed OiNK case – are Conspiracy to Defraud. As we try to understand this decision we speak at length with Mulve’s programmer, but his revelations only support the notion that something has gone badly wrong with this investigation. In the meantime, Mulve alternatives are hitting the web.

Last month, what first appeared to be a relatively new music downloading application burst onto the scene. Mulve carried no music of its own, but instead allowed users to make their own searches and download material from servers owned by Russia’s biggest social networking site, Vkontakte.

tell me more

November 17, 2010
Mielophone: Mulve-style Music Downloading on Steroids

After the Mulve music downloading app burst onto the scene in September, it didn’t take long for it to be closed down and cold water poured on the fun. Now, just a couple of months later, a new application has appeared which not only does everything that Mulve did, but adds more sources, integrates music discovery, last.fm, a playlist and download manager, videos, lyrics and more.

While its birth was a relatively low-key affair, the launch of Mulve into the mainstream proved to be quite the opposite. In September the news of its arrival was reported on dozens of sites but it all came crashing down just a few days later. Undoubtedly prompted by IFPI, BPI and the Big Four labels behind them, the British police moved to make an arrest. Mulve was no more.

tell me more

October 08, 2010

Police Arrest Operator of Mulve Downloading App

Written by enigmax on October 08, 2010

Last month, a relatively new music downloading application burst onto the scene. Mulve carried no music of its own, but instead allowed users to make their own searches and download material from servers owned by Russia’s biggest social networking site. This week Mulve disappeared unexpectedly but for good reason. Without any warning, the UK police arrested its operator.

Back in September we reported on Mulve, a fairly new and impressive application to help users download music. With a claimed database of 10,000,000 tracks and high quality results, Mulve certainly turned heads.
After news of Mulve travelled quickly around the world, the site went offline, unable to cope with the demand.
After an upgrade the site returned, only to disappear again a short time later. This time it wasn’t due to excessive demand, but due to the lawyers at the RIAA.

tell me more

a Picture Worth a Million Words

2011-01-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

this editorial cartoon appeared in a Los Angeles paper back when the VCR had been identified
as the greatest threat to western civilization
on earth by the makers of motion pictures...

... and the beat went on.

- 30 -

.

You Don't Need a Weatherman

2011-01-06T04:49:00.000-08:00

Bob Dylan does the face palm thing.

to know which way this wind blows...

websheriffbdwatch has sent you a message:

Re;Bob Dylan
WEB SHERIFF
Who You Gonna Call
Tel +44(0)208-323 8013
Fax +44(0)208-323 8080

STRICTLY PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
ATTENTION ADDRESSEE ONLY
COPYRIGHT PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION

Hi *****,

We hope you’re well and, by way of introduction, Web Sheriff represents Columbia Records, Special Rider and Bob Dylan in relation to the administration and protection of their on-line rights.

On behalf of the label and artist, we would kindly ask you not to post original video / audio clips of Dylan — or live concert video / audio clips of Dylan — on YouTube (or any other sites or forums).

We do appreciate that you are a fan of / are promoting Bob Dylan, but the artist and label would again greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your clip in question. We are writing to you directly, as a fan, in order that your YouTube account does not get suspended or terminated…

***

it seems there are changes afoot at YouTube, courtesy of the Sony Corporation....

***

"Sony Music and Bob Dylan are pushing Bob Dylan fan videos off YouYube as we predicted last fall. When the Day of the Locust video was removed from our story Bob Dylan original art and prints Drawn Blank it was just another Dylan video “removed” by YouTube.

A search for “Bob Dylan” on YouTube produced 65,000 videos, down from more than 110,000 in September of 2009. For the most part, the Bob Dylan videos remaining are on official channels like BobDylanTV and VEVO, both of which are owned or controlled by Sony Music."

***

get the whole story right here...
it's just one of many fascinating articles at the NJN Network.

...and don't forget to check out the comments made by Bob Dylan "fans"- they add up to a course in Music and Marketing in the Digital Era.

...or is that 'Error'.

- 30 -

.

I Downloader

understanding Indie

So you want to be a Rock and Roll Star

George Frideric Handel on Stealing Music

the Iphone

meanwhile, back in der Bunker

BMI Says A Single Person Listening To His Own Music Via The Cloud Is A Public Performance

from the looking-to-the-sky-and-seeing-unlicensed-clouds dept

TicketBastard

Ticket Master: Thief Extraordinaire Robs People Blind

the Top 10 Music Tours of 2010!

The Music Industry Loves Artists

What Will Happen to Your Intellectual Property When You Die?

Downloading - What People Are Saying

Artists should be paid for their work?

You wouldn't steal a ....?

[2.3]

Beatles, loogies and mangled memories

Ipod Upod 2011

Artists should be paid for their work?

Do Bob Dylan Fans Hate Bob Dylan?

It's all about Bob (Dylan)... or is it?

Mastering is killing music

Who are the real pirates?

Edgar Bronfman Jr convicted in Vivendi case

Mulve - a musician's response

Bad Labels! No biscuit!

Ring, ring, Cha-ching!

Free Music... that's not free

That's Evil...

No Song Is Illegal

the Worst Album Covers of All Time!

Valuation - a PPS

Valuation - a post-script

Valuation- What's Music Really Worth?

Music - Not Dead Yet, but Not Well Either

Mendacious Bodacious Piratical Infringers!

Record industry faces liability over 'infringement'

Canadian Record Labels Pay $45 Million to Settle Piracy Claims

Believe Your Own Press Kit #4 - the Killer App!

Believe Your Own Press Kit #3 - Exsqueeze-me?

I Downloader #5 - Are the Fundamentals Solid?

Believe Your Own Press Kit Much? 2

Music and Math - the Devil's combo!

Believe Your Own Press Kit Much?

the Story of Mulve

September 23, 2010 Mulve – The Nightmare-Scenario Music Downloading Tool

September 28, 2010RIAA Takes Down Music DownloadingApp Mulve

October 12, 2010Police Repeat OiNK Mistake, Mulve Accusation “Conspiracy To Defraud”

November 17, 2010Mielophone: Mulve-style Music Downloading on Steroids

Police Arrest Operator of Mulve Downloading App

a Picture Worth a Million Words

You Don't Need a Weatherman

Ticket Master:
Thief Extraordinaire
Robs People Blind

Edgar Bronfman Jr convicted
in Vivendi case

Record industry faces liability
over 'infringement'

September 23, 2010

Mulve – The Nightmare-Scenario
Music Downloading Tool

September 28, 2010

RIAA Takes Down Music Downloading
App Mulve

October 12, 2010

Police Repeat OiNK Mistake, Mulve Accusation “Conspiracy To Defraud”

November 17, 2010
Mielophone: Mulve-style Music Downloading on Steroids