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Last.fm Shoots Down Rumors Over U2 Album Leak
nandemoari writes "Internet radio site Last.fm has denied reports that it told the record industry which of its members had listened to a leaked U2 album. The site claims the entire story, published by Techcrunch, was made up.
Last week the record industry became extremely concerned after U2's forthcoming album appeared on several torrent file sharing sites. While there is no way any users could have acquired the album through Last.fm, the site's statistics suggest that more than 8,000 users have played the unreleased album on their machines."
Very often I see comments dismissing any reasons for not freely giving out any and all seemingly-trivial personal information...
Well, this is the perfect situation for justifying the desire for what is now often considered excessive privacy. While some information alone may not seem sensitive, the conclusions others' might draw about you from it, combined with other info (like your profile data), may indeed be worth protecting.
Of course, if no one gave out any information, the internet would be very blank... So clearly a balance between giving out personal info and linking that personal info together is necessary. For example, the only way I'd submit my playlists to Last.FM is if it were done in an anonymous fashion, such that my user account doesn't link back to me, my IP, or any other personally-identifying info. Otherwise, I'd be happy to include some profile info, but don't count on getting my playlist too!
Even if they were reporting it, the moment they started acting on the fact the ID3 tags showed leaked albums, people would change all their ID3 tags to leaked albums in protest.
30 years and counting
Don't be crazy anymore!
The album is available for preview on Spotify and Spotify is integrated with last.fm, so is it possible the 8000 last.fm users who listened to the tracks are perfectly legal Spotify users?
Don't be crazy anymore!
Or, given the way last.fm works, 8,000 people submitted the names of the album tracks to the site. Which you could just do by re-tagging other files, or just submitting whatever you felt like to the web service.
The fact that 8,000 have apparently listened to the album, based on their last.fm submissions, doesn't mean any of them actually have. Of course it doesn't mean they haven't either; it's just that last.fm data is hardly authoritative.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
I think the bigger problem we have is that people are still listening to U2!
that 8000 people hearing it, have guaranteed 8000 no-sales.
It's terrible.
I for one am tired of waiting! However, independent music has been making progress, and we are far better now than we were ten years ago. We have good music blogs that provide promotional mp3s, iTunes and Amazon (I believe) are both dealing with independent labels (iTunes indie section, is insanely great), sites like last.fm and favtape.com provide a means of leagally listening to music. Albums cost less than they used to: $10 or less compared to some CDs that cost $22? (I haven't bought a new CD in a long time... are they still so expensive?) eMusic is even cheaper (of course a lot of their content is deliberately misleading crap, but I digress).
The beginnings of a shining revolution in media are here and have been growing. Of course that doesn't stop such travesties as DMCA, DRM, erosion of fair use, etc.
P.S. Has the ASCAP been fucking around in anyone else's hometown lately? In my hometown in Columbia, Missouri, we have had the ASCAP basically shut down our "open mic nights" for anyone who doesn't pay some rediculous ($thousands) protection money. The one business owner I talked to couldn't afford that, and the ASCAP goon had scared her good *even though typically no commercial content is sampled or covered at these events!* Result: local venues catering to independent music have been nearly completely shutdown.
The poor music industry, I feel so sorry for it. For years and years they have driven the marketing machine so that everyone absolutely must get the album on the day it's out, or as soon as possible. Mostly due to the way the charts are calculated by sales peaks, but also because everyone wants money now.
And now people can't wait for the release day anymore. Geez. Who would have guessed?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Has the record industry found what it's looking for?
AT&ROFLMAO
What if they implemented something along the lines of 1 time credit card numbers. Imagine you could be assigned a very random set of characters associated with your identity that would allow you to register for services and only trusted sites had access to the 'true' information.
Then again, using a service such as this implies a central server with all the information and that is scary just by itself.
Bored at work? Play Game!
http://blog.last.fm/2009/02/23/techcrunch-are-full-of-shit
Universal Australia accidentally released the album for sale for a period of two hours, 2 weeks before the planned release date. That is how the album was leaked in the first place
Many fans, including U2 Blogs, made accounts with Universal Australia and bought the tracks within that two hours for about $20. UMG can't just sell people MP3s for $20 and ask for them back- sale done, game over.
I'm not sure if I'm playing into a woosh moment, but paypal has a free "secure card" service that generates such one-time-use credit card numbers..
Paypal introduces secure cards
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
Please see the official response from last.fm on our blog: http://blog.last.fm/2009/02/23/techcrunch-are-full-of-shit
Last.fm - join the social music revolution
I still think "Negativland" is U2's best album. I actually paid for it too.
Sadly SST Records had to pay for it too.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Let's ask a similar question. Suppose that this time, rather than clicking on a button, your cat-controlled actuator pulls the trigger of a firearm aimed at living person's head. One hopes that in this case you'd not only be unable to deny responsibility, but indeed that you'd also be prosecuted for murder.
For those who don't get it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_(EP)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Use:_The_Story_of_the_Letter_U_and_the_Numeral_2
:q!
Top Tracks
1. Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence
2. Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
3. Yasunori Mitsuda - Another Telmina
4. Joe Hisaishi - River Side
5. Air - Alpha Beta Gaga
6. Led Zeppelin - Going to California
6. Jeff Wahl - Linus and Lucy
8. Joe Hisaishi - Summer
9. djpretzel - Zelda 64 Pachelbel's Ganon OC ReMix
10. Berlin Chamber Orchestra, Peter Wohlert - Brandenburg Concerto No.6 in B flat major
Oh the embarrassment.
This reads like someone copy-pasted text from an infamous website and replaced "Time Cube" with "U2".
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Apparently he once said:
"I've just written a 17-verse poem entitled, "U2 - Four Heads Up One Arse".
Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it.
The "record industry" did not become concerned about the U2 leak nor did it make the inquiry with Last.FM. The Recording Industry Association of America ("RIAA") did, presumably on behalf of Universal Music its largest and most powerful member. This isn't a matter of semantics. There are thousands of recording musicians in the U.S. and around the world who are not represented by the RIAA nor do they share their agenda.
linking is the new terrorism :)
I think their bigger problem is not its distribution. For this album, U2 should be trying to get this crap out for free and PAY piratebay and tagoo.ru to host this rubbish and include their crappy CDs with EVERY MCDONALDS HAPPY MEAL! This is, hands down, the worst U2 album ever! It is absolutely uninspiring and pitiful - you can definitely tell that this is just an attempt to make money - they are not even trying, there isnt a shred of their prior talent in it. This album to music is what Velveeta cheese is to cheeses - it is pasteurized and devoid of flavor and texture. U2 is DEAD.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Bono, whilst playing a gig in Glasgow, got the whole crowd to be silent and then began slowly clapping his hands. He got the crowd to clap along for a while, the stadium quiet except for the rhythmic clapping...
After a short period Bono spoke, saying that everytime he clapped his hands a child in Africa died...
Suddenly, from the front row of the venue a voice broke out in thick Scottish brogue, ending the silence as it echoed across the crowd, the voice cried out to Bono "Well stop ****ing doing it then!!"
When you're playing something you have no possible legal right to play, turn off the scrobbling.
How about storing that info on one's personal server?
Or encrypted and signed, then spread in the cloud, and you'd just hand out private keys that'd able to decrypt parts of the information, to trusted parties.
Replying here so that it's at the top, rather than it being lost in the deluge.
My local alt rock station played the album, in full, every track, the day before the leak hit everywhere. Not only were they broadcasting it over the air, they have a 192kbit live stream out over the Internet that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. (http://www.livelifelive.fm ... sadly, it's blocked by my work filters.)
Something tells me the leak has nothing to do with Last.FM.... nasty rumours about them sharing info, etc., is really just fearmongering.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
what about a device that is controlled by wind or some other uncontrolled phenomenon, where if it reaches a certain velocity or changes it's direction, it would do something.
like wind = act of god? / act of nature?
See also: Negativland Interviews U2's The Edge
What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it's your mind. -Zappa
Trent Reznor is giving away NIN's new album for free, and still making a load of money on the album through online, CD, vinyl and DVD sales. (see [1] and [2])
I say kudos to this man, and his slightly innovative, yet very successful method of distributing music. I have not yet paid for the album, but already downloaded the mp3 and flac version, and I like it! I guess I will try to buy the vinyl, if I can get it in any of the record stores here.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_inch_nails#Ghosts_I.E2.80.93IV_and_The_Slip_.282008.E2.80.93present.29
[2] http://www.nin.com/
[--- PGP key and more on http://www.root42.de ---]
In that case, you're still the douchebag that built said device and pointed a loaded gun at someone's head. Good luck in THAT trial.
No, seriously- I don't believe there is even a real dispute here anyway. U2 does not qualify as music, so what's the debate?
That solution may be fine for you, and that's all and good, but what about the exhibitionists among us? After all, it's the exhibitionists who are affected by this, not you.
Personally, I'd just like an easy way to falsify this information (if desired). For instance with FireEagle, I can let everyone know where I'm located, but I can also lie about my location for whatever reason. The same goes with my play list, I should be able to publish my current play list, but I should also be able to import my amazon wish list of songs I am going to buy (as soon as they become available) and publish it as a my current play list. I should also be allowed to make up song names and artists names to throw all my friends and family for a loop. And let's say, should I ever decide to listen to "The New Kids on The Block" (or some other god-awful boy band that for some reason plays incessantly in my head), I should have a way to filter it out so that I can avoid the very public embarrassment of everyone of my friends finding out about it.
And when I said "should", I really meant "I'd like to". I do realize that no web site is obligated to fulfill my every wish. And I also do realize that my opinion only represents a very tiny portion of users on the internet, and that for most users -- sharing no information publicly whatsoever is the default move -- and for those users -- I have no problem -- I don't even have any desire to change their minds on this matter.
Please...everyone knows their plow, say that an album was stolen , the tracks are missing, or that someone has caught some download of preview snips of a song, and presto, free advertising for their new album. They have done this so many times, I am ashamed to say that U2 used to be a band I respected because they actually tried to give messages to people about what was going on in other places then our own, but I guess this economic crunch has everyone in a bind!
The "hype through radio" days are over.
Earlier, it was common practice to hand out a few promo-CDs to DJs (and stuff their pockets to play it) to get listeners interested, though you could buy the disc nowhere. Then after weeks or even months of anxious waiting you could FINALLY get it, and lo and behold, no matter how crappy, it went from zero to top instantly because the hype around it was all it took for everyone to JUST WANT IT.
Now guess how well this kind of hype works in a world where it is trivial to distribute any kind of data (i.e. also music) instantly globally?
Release the damn CD when it's done. When you rely on hype DJs, you open yourself to this kind of problem. Stop dangling the CDs in front of your potential customers and tease them "Naaaah, you cannah get it yet, gotta wait, gotta wait...". We're not kids, you're not Santa Claus and the release date ain't Christmas. We're customers, you are vendors, sell it or we'll take it!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.