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"The new hip-hop artist of the day for example. All they sing/rap about is how many Hoes they can or have slept with and how much money or "bling" they have."

educate yourself

http://www.astralwerks.com/kos/music.html

http://www.kanyewest.com/

http://www.outkast.com/

I think Jobs merely wants to exercise his new weapon of choice (sorry... just love that video) as much as possible. The longer he can keep PPC on life-support, the longer he has an extra negotiating chip.

Please note that I do not recommend this approach if you're looking for major label artists.

A boycott wouldn't do much because almost no one would bother with it. Instead, try having a day or a week of protests - picketing outside theaters, chain record stores (Best Buy, Tower, Virgin, HMV, et al). That would be great because it's actually somewhat realistic and unlike simply not buying things, it sends a clear a direct message to the companies that people are pissed off at them, while it also educates consumers who don't know any better.

Of course you could always try buying indie music as well, though some have major label distributors, you can always find others.

Astralwerks figured this out a long time ago . Matador seems to have figured it out a little more recently.

I really wish there were some sorts of vague estimates on the level of record sales that can be attributed directly to the "here are some URLs where you can download full realaudio tracks and/or music videos from albums we just released" mailing list that Astralwerks has been running for .. hm.. i don't remember how long exactly, but it's at *least* five or six years now... even if the number reached for that estimate was totally baseless, it would be really fun if the number started showing up in news articles about "mp3 is ruining record companies profits!" or "software piracy, which is no more prevalent than it was in 1983, is ruining software companies profits!" or whatever, as a little side note "Astralwerks records estimates that their yearly profits are x percent higher as a result of the fact they give some amount approaching half of everything they publish away for free.."

Well REM happens to be one of my favorite rock bands as well actually. I try really hard to not lock myself into one musical style, so you'll often find me listening to Ravel and Kraftwerk within the same half hour.

There are times when I'm looking for a particular atmosphere, "spacy" is the only way I can describe it, and the best music to create this is electronica. May I suggest this excellent mix album by Sasha and John Digweed, or any work by the mythic Future Sound Of London (any geek simply has to love a band who names one of it's albums ISDN!)...

... Jean Michel Jarre, Banco de Gaia, Earth Nation, Aphex Twin, Yello, etc.

BTW, when I talk about music with my younger brothers, I often feel like an old schumck as well. They're all into Drum&Bass or Big Beats, while I still enjoy classic 170bpm hardtrance alot. Lucky for me, there seems to be some sort of revival going on right now, whith guys like Mauro Picotto having some success.

I sometimes try to imagine how ridiculous I will look like in 20 years (I'm in my early twenties) when I'll still want to go to raves. This annoys me to no end, then again, fuck it.

For instance, I am follower of jazzy easy listening band Fila Brazillia. I do periodic searches on napster for anything containing the words Fila Brazillia, and when I find a user with a significant amount of Fila Brazillia songs I add them to my hot list and browse their archive, looking for songs I am interested in.

It was via this method I learned of another lovely group called Wagon Christ, a band with a very simalar style, who's CD I immediatly bought.

Multiply my experience by all other people interested in purchasing CDs who are using napster and you've got quite a bit of money moving around for music, which, if analyzed, is not very different from normal, current distribution channels, with a few notable exeptions;

1. I wasn't 'fed' this band through a radio or over the television, I sought it out from someone who liked it enough to take the time to seek it and then store it on their computer.

2. An artist selling a CD through normal distribution channels makes (AFAIK) aproximatly .30 to .40 cents off of each and every CD sold. Basically about the same price the CD itself before overhead, so why am I not paying $2 per CD? After all, if I can write lovely music and find someone to print my CDs at .30 cents a pop and then I add .30, if enough people listen to me I can still make money, right? so where is the extra $15 going? To making sure they sell a lot, to everybody. To make sure that you are listening to them and not Atom and his Package. To the stereotypical suit with a pony tail and a cocaine habit who has managed to convince the artist that they don't own the music they wrote and played.

3. Therefor, when I purchase a CD from an independant artist who manufactures his own CDs and works to distribute them he keeps the entire profit and has no need to be in your face all of the time. He can make a tidy living for himself off of the fans that wish to purchase his album, relieving the strian on bands to continually come up with music suitable for the lowest common denominator (AKA 'larger market share')

If this were any other commodity it would a clear variant on the classic protection racket, you pay us (using the formula (15-(.30 + .30))/15=) 94% of the earnings off your CD and we makes sure your CD gets sold. Otherwise you're another one of those 'independant' bands we're always hearing about but never hear.

Mp3 is the means, Napster is the way. Mp3 by it's very existance has already changed our lives for the better, those of us who know how to utlize it to our advantages, and Napster gives us the way to realize what we want to do, namely listen to something NEW. I don't want to listen to the radio, I don't want to turn on my television, I don't want to be 'fed' another second of the same pre chewed overhyped music of the month enviornment that has stifled the creativity of the past three generations of musicians and encouraged conformity over diversity for the simple reason that conformity means conforming to them and continuing to offer them $14.40 for every $15 I want to spend on the culture that surrounds me.

No more. I have seen the future and I am going to follow it even if I have to become a criminal in order to do it. Living in a democracy I was taught that if the laws do not conform to public opinion than by the nature of our governmental system it would attemt to conform itself to the wishes of the people. If people have no respect for a law than it is in essence a bad law, rife for disregard by those who would choose to think for themselves.

Metallica, on the other hand, owns none of their work, are held on a contractural basis to Elektra which prevents them from having any attitude that does not comply with the wishes of their label under threat of legal action, unless they choose to opt for a buyout which I have heard described as 100% of current assets plus 10%. They contribute to society only at one end of the flow, while Napster contributes to the fabric of the society itself, making a richer world for all of us who wish to listen to something else for a change, because frankly I heard my fill of the current distribution channels when they started their current exclusive policy, which occurred slightly after they realized that they were the bottleneck of society and were in the perfect position to reap huge profits off an art form that extends back to the dawn of human history.

Who owns the patent on music, anyways?

Sincerely;
Rommel Fox
http://spikesahead.net/

remember that first April Fools post that was just in dumb gibberish?

well, i replied to it with a post that had been run through the Malkovich script.

I got moderated down as "offtopic".

I wanted to scream out, HOW CAN IT BE MORE ON-TOPIC THAN THAT?? WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE MORE ONTOPIC TO A GIBBERISH STORY THAN A GIBBERISH POST?? .. but i figured what i did was sophomoric enough that i deserved to be moderated down, even if not as "offtopic".

so now somehow i feel bitter that had at the time i simply submitted the malkovichizer as a story, i could have gotten the satisfaction of having a quickie printed instead of a karma loss.. but i assumed it had already been posted. (i saw it mentioned in the astralwerks newslwetter..)
Oh well. I'm probably totally unjustified.. :) Anyway i'm just glad the Malkovichizer got quickied. And i'm REALLY glad the Constructor applet got quickied. I found that last week and it's the coolest thing i've ever seen.. :)

That may be true, but all I know is that I can listen to some sweet, not-found-in-stores music from sites that dish out really quality streams. Check out astralwerks (some excellent fatboy slim live mixes) and the betalounge (ok, when their Real Server is back up) for some 40 bps stereo candies.