Slashdot Mirror
Weird Al Says 'Don't Download This Song'
Kazzahdrane writes "Known geek and comedy singer/songwriter Weird Al Yankovic has released the first song from his new album 'Straight Outta Lynwood' for free on his MySpace page. The track is entitled 'Don't Download This Song' and tells of the dangers of illegally downloading music from filesharing sites." His MySpace page is most excellent. "Hi. Al here. No, really, it's Al. Seriously. What, you don't believe me? Go ahead, check weirdal.com. Hit the MySpace link. See if it brings you right back to this page. Go ahead. I'll wait. See? It's really me. I should point out... this means that conversely, all those other people on MySpace who are claiming to be me or implying that they are me... are definitely NOT me. I'm sure they're very nice people... they're just not 'Weird Al' Yankovic. I assure you."
Looks like his actual site server is getting trashed, but the last time I was there you could download another song, "You're Pitiful".
:o
It's pretty app when thinking about the steretypical Slashdot person.
From what I can remember, he put it online because some copyright/trademark thing kept him from using it on the next album. Not sure what it was, though. It looks like you can at least listen to it on his MySpace page.
One thing I love about Weird Al's songs is that he does his research. In the song from this "article", he mentions such things as Kazaa. In "All about the Pentiums", he throws out a lot of technical terms.
Weird Al is one of my favorite people ever. He's pretty good to his fans, he fights the true fight, and is hilarious to boot. I can't wait for this next album.
Er, the joke is that it's okay to download the song, despite the name of the title.. which implies that people want to download it. I think he got the joke just fine and made one of his own, which you, apparently, didn't get.
/. filters to make that stick figure though.
Nice avoidance of the
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Lars... yah, what an asshat. I used to be a big metalica fan, then the whole mess with napster and live recordings and etc... I lost all respect for them as a band, they're trying to get rid of everything that initially 'made' them as a band. F'that.
Napster BAD! (as if you haven't seen it)
I can understand that artists want to get the money for the work they're doing... I respect that. Hell, I've even mailed artists money in the mail when I've downloaded songs I really liked (prior to itunes mostly) and I've had some good responses back from them doing that and some interesting t-shirts and signed stuff too I might add. Shrug, the whole drm, screw our fans, etc... it just gets on my nerves.
In the end the fans aren't the only ones hurt the bands are too.
Shadus
Crap. I hit submit by accident.
Back in 2000, Spinal Tap (sorry, I don't have a n-umlaut key on my keyboard) borrowed the domain tapster.com from some sort of brewery interest web site to put up a parody of Napster. Contrary to Nigel's comment, they actually had a lot of songs up there, mostly Spinal Tap, but they did have at least one "mislabeled" song, which was Zappa's "I am the Slime".
But the Tapster curse lives on, and even the "orignal" tapster.com is no more.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Since we're already spending so much time here and acting like junior high kids, I want myspace style slashdot profiles. Imagine what this would do to the community. When you read a post and think to yourself "Overweight, Undersexed Wow junkie" you can click the link and see their photos to confirm your suspicions. Plus, think of the fun we'd all have writing the CSS code to design our pages. Instead of harping on people for their grammar, we could point out how their profile page isn't XHTML compliant.
Taco would be everybody's friend by default, but if you're friends with the real CowboyNeal (or a girl) you would totally put that in your top eight.
Our mail system would be IMAP though
hmm. this is the problem with posting quickly while trying to leave work.
I do not mean to imply that artist should not make money - far from that in fact. Of course artists should recieve compensation for thier works. But the leechery of hangers-on that has evolved around the artists of decades past has, I think, created a culture where the motivation to create art for money is out of ratio to what I (in opinion) feel is the proper scope.
Yes, I am an artist - not the best of course - but I make music and such because I enjoy it. I feel that if I were to write better music (and hopefully it is improving) that more people would listen to, and download, my music.
Perhaps even one day I may recieve some compensation to create music (for a film or game). This would be a wonderful confirmation for me, but to make money is not my primary reason for making music.
I do not like the idea that there are famous artists who are in the field purely for the lust of - and most importantly - as the direct result of the money that be.
Money-made artists are what I am speaking of, not artists who make money.
My Computer Music Tutorial Videos
Yeah, Metallica's downhill slide started with the Black album, and went straight down from there, but I can't hate them for it. How can you hate the creators of Master of Puppets?? Their problem is basically age + success. Their old-school music revolved entirely around rage. I can understand why after 20 years and massive amounts of wealth and fame, you might run out of anger to fuel your music. So they tried something else. Unfortunatey for them, they suck at "something else", and no longer have the energy or motivation to continue screaming at the world. Heavy metal is a young man's sport.
...sometimes, in order to hurt someone very badly, you have to tell that person terrible lies. - PA
Weird Al is distributed under a faux independent label, Volcano Records, which is owned by Sony BMG, who brought us intrusive DRM and is a proud part of the RIAA intellectual "property" lawsuit cartel. Now I have to get a new goddamned movement for my irony meter!
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
The (semi-ironic) twist here?
The album, according to Amazon, is being released as a DualDisc, and that means that some computers and players won't be able to handle the album. Of three computers in my dorm room last year, none of them could play the newest Springsteen album.
Because of the format choice, there might be some people that don't have any choice but to download the song, either legally (assuming iTunes sells it like they do some of his other albums) or through other means.
Goo goo g'joob.
Uh, ya. Even Weird Al's parodies are usually better-produced than the originals. Weird Al is easily one of the greatest musicians of the 20th Century. Isn't Albuquerque an original as well? Everyone owes it to themselves to see Al in concert, at least once. He is the real deal. He did Star Wars songs during the encore, one of which seemed be be him and his two co-musicians seemingly ad-libbing nonsense, but it was all synchronized, rocking out with their accordians!! Genius!!!!
I see a trend here...
Wierd Al
MC Lars
Cruisbox http://audiopium.typepad.com/thatpodcastsong/
Can anyone else out there imagine a Live Aid style gig to raise funds to pay lawyers to go up against the RIAA...
"If it's lost, it'll turn up. Things always do" "I love it when a plan comes together"