She uploaded some of her videos to Vimeo. And told her fans about it on her blog. Presumably they wouldn't have to sue her, they'd just retaliate in terms of her contract or royalties or something.
P.S.: In every case that I'm aware of, when an artist has been able to coerce a recording company into an external audit of it's books, it's turned out that they have been drastically underpaying the artist. But very few artists have the kind of leverage that enables them to force an audit.
And that remains my biggest objection to anything the record labels/RIAA do and say. They whine and whine about how other people, 'evil pirates!!!', are hurting the industry and hurting the artists and yet from all I can see, the labels are doing the most damage.
When Warner Records threw a hissy fit at Youtube and yanked all of 'their' videos off the website, it was not with the permission of or at the request of the actual artists. And I know of one in particular who was seriously pissed off about it. Amanda Palmer's record label is RoadRunner Records, which Warner apparently owns. So her stuff got pulled. And it's not like she ever saw a penny of what Youtube was paying Warner. It's disgusting.
Why do you assume that people who twitter do so to the exclusion of everything else? I use a combination of email, twitter, IM, blog posts, telephone calls and actual letters to stay in contact with my friends. I use each one of those things when they're needed.
It might be the 'best' way, but it's not always an option. Particularly with friends who live nowhere near you and who you will not have a daily or even monthly chance to interact with face to face.
And go where? The UK where they want to rate websites like movies? The US where we're being just as stupid? Canada maybe? But who knows how long til they buckle under. We can't keep running from these idiots.
Oh, the evening my playcount thing isn't because I want x number of plays so much as it is because I can't stand it being uneven. For example, when a band releases singles in advance of the album release those songs will (naturally) have been played more than the rest of the album. If the album is good, and there are several bands I listen to where this is true, I'll tend to listen to the whole album all the way through. But, of course, the playcount on the singles will be higher than the playcount for the other songs. So sometimes I'll leave the singles out of my Playcount playlist so that I can get the other songs' totals a little closer to the singles' totals. To make it more like it would be if I had started listening to the whole album all at once. Also there are times when I'll have stopped listening in the middle of an album so the first half will be at one playcount number and the second half will be one number behind that. In that case, the playcount playlist would comprise only the second half of the album.
Um. That sounds a lot more nutty when I spell it out like that.:(
I'll have to see why it's not showing up in mine as multiple plays. Maybe I need to reinstall the scrobbler or something.
From what I've seen of trials (granted they're mostly murder/violent crime trials) on Court TV/Tru TV, I think you're being overly optimistic.
Trials are deathly boring. The questioning of witnesses, even the 'exciting' ones, is invariably tedious and full of off-topic rambling. The lawyers have little presence or charisma, and when they get all shouty it just looks idiotic.
Reality isn't much like an episode of Law & Order.
Okay, it would just not show it in the Currently Listening to as being repeatedly played. Also, I wasn't artificially inflating my playcount, I was obsessively playing a song that I loved. Well, songs. There are a few that I like to have on a loop every so often.
Oh yes. I actually have a playlist called Playcount that gets changed out any time I need to even up my numbers. And actually, the Audioscrobbler (at least last I looked) didn't properly count a song if you have it on Repeat One. Very annoying.
with last.fm is how it feeds my OCD issues regarding song playcounts. I nearly lost it when the stupid scrobbler started randomly recording excess playcounts on one album. It screwed with my numbers. Then it stopped counting that album's plays all together.
Seriously though, I have found using the site to be pretty enjoyable. And the advertisements are actually worth keeping AdBlock turned off for. I found a few new artists, some unsigned, that way. I like all the various widgets and things that can crunch my data. Songbird has a last.fm plugin/addon that makes for very easy integration. It's just really useful. I've also found concerts on the site.
I rarely use the social side of it, except with friends I already know. But that's me.
Yep. When I was peer pressuring gently recommending new music to my best friend she tried the preview in iTunes and was completely turned off. She finally gave in and tried a few songs because I couldn't stop praising the music and she trusted my taste. But it was with caution that she bought the individual songs. We're lucky, she and I, that our musical tastes are similar enough that if we recommend each other music there's a better than good chance that we'll like it. Being able to stream full examples at each other would make it even easier. And she's an impulse buyer, so she's a good target for sales given sufficient reassurances.
They still do. And it's why I ended up getting both of the albums of theirs that I have. The media player on that site is really well done, IMO. Lets you choose by album, song or just a sort of Play All. Quite handy.
Exactly. And I have, in fact, found other bands/artists via recommendation from the musicians I already enjoy. I know that artists and labels can make available music on sites like Last.fm for streaming. In fact, I found a whole new artist via Last.fm's little banner advertisements. An unsigned kid out in California. Last.fm is owned by CBS now, I believe, so it has permissions and such. And on that site you can recommend music to your friends (it has a social networking component), though you're limited by what Last.fm has permission to host. And there are links to buy with Amazon and iTunes (maybe more).
Muxtape.com died a sad death, but it allowed you to create 'mixtapes' to share with your friends. Again, just streaming.
So there are sites and initiatives out there, but the labels are holding on so hard to their quick cash business model that they don't want to try to grow into the future at all.
Honestly, the only thing that got me buying music again (after about 10 years of not buying more than a single mp3 here and there) was not only finding music that I really, really liked but also artists who I respected. When the music isn't disposable, in terms of quality and my investment in the artists, I found myself wanting to pay for it. And in some rare cases, pay for it more than once: ie a physical as well as digital copy. The only reason I would download an album via torrent/download site now is if I couldn't preview the whole thing on the artist's website. The 30 second previews on iTunes/Amazon just is not sufficient to make a buying decision. Giving me the ability to preview an album, more than once, in a way that is not too difficult (no installing anything more than say flash in my browser) for me to use and I'm more prone to give the music a
chance, care about the music and (if it appeals to me) buy it.
The artists/bands I'm most willing to spend my spare money on are the ones that are able to interact with fans on a somewhat personal level: twitter, blogs, youtube videos, etc. I get to see them as real people and it increases my estimation of the value of their music. I spend money to go to their concerts, buy their merchandise and physical cds.
But the industry seems to be designed to work on quantity not quality. Corporate funded 'artists' like the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus are part of a huge hype machine that is about being 'cool' rather than creating music that really makes an impression or impacts people emotionally. It's about getting as much crap sold to as many people as possible, not putting out the best you can put out there. And so, naturally, people will treat it like the disposable crap that it is. This week my niece OMGLOVES! the Jonas Brothers, next week it'll be some other corporate construct. And she'll never remember any of it past the following year.
That kind of nonsense makes me want to send money directly to the artists/bands/actors/writers and 'pirate' the music/movies/tv. If the actual creators of the content are not going to be paid (fairly or at all) then I'd rather the studios/labels not get paid either.
Yes, this. Exactly. When my hard drive failed and I was off-line for 2 weeks I went through a grieving process. I don't game, but I do interact with friends online every night. And suddenly I no longer had that. I couldn't even type down things to share later. I don't want to go through that again.
Oh, I didn't know uranium was produced by the breakdown/transformation of organic matter? That's what I thought 'fossil fuel' meant. And while I understand that nuclear fusion produces less waste, I still find it unpalatable.
Slashdot Mirror
She uploaded some of her videos to Vimeo. And told her fans about it on her blog. Presumably they wouldn't have to sue her, they'd just retaliate in terms of her contract or royalties or something.
And that remains my biggest objection to anything the record labels/RIAA do and say. They whine and whine about how other people, 'evil pirates!!!', are hurting the industry and hurting the artists and yet from all I can see, the labels are doing the most damage.
When Warner Records threw a hissy fit at Youtube and yanked all of 'their' videos off the website, it was not with the permission of or at the request of the actual artists. And I know of one in particular who was seriously pissed off about it. Amanda Palmer's record label is RoadRunner Records, which Warner apparently owns. So her stuff got pulled. And it's not like she ever saw a penny of what Youtube was paying Warner. It's disgusting.
Why do you assume that people who twitter do so to the exclusion of everything else? I use a combination of email, twitter, IM, blog posts, telephone calls and actual letters to stay in contact with my friends. I use each one of those things when they're needed.
It might be the 'best' way, but it's not always an option. Particularly with friends who live nowhere near you and who you will not have a daily or even monthly chance to interact with face to face.
And go where? The UK where they want to rate websites like movies? The US where we're being just as stupid? Canada maybe? But who knows how long til they buckle under. We can't keep running from these idiots.
Oh, the evening my playcount thing isn't because I want x number of plays so much as it is because I can't stand it being uneven. For example, when a band releases singles in advance of the album release those songs will (naturally) have been played more than the rest of the album. If the album is good, and there are several bands I listen to where this is true, I'll tend to listen to the whole album all the way through. But, of course, the playcount on the singles will be higher than the playcount for the other songs. So sometimes I'll leave the singles out of my Playcount playlist so that I can get the other songs' totals a little closer to the singles' totals. To make it more like it would be if I had started listening to the whole album all at once. Also there are times when I'll have stopped listening in the middle of an album so the first half will be at one playcount number and the second half will be one number behind that. In that case, the playcount playlist would comprise only the second half of the album.
:(
Um. That sounds a lot more nutty when I spell it out like that.
I'll have to see why it's not showing up in mine as multiple plays. Maybe I need to reinstall the scrobbler or something.
From what I've seen of trials (granted they're mostly murder/violent crime trials) on Court TV/Tru TV, I think you're being overly optimistic.
Trials are deathly boring. The questioning of witnesses, even the 'exciting' ones, is invariably tedious and full of off-topic rambling. The lawyers have little presence or charisma, and when they get all shouty it just looks idiotic.
Reality isn't much like an episode of Law & Order.
Okay, it would just not show it in the Currently Listening to as being repeatedly played. Also, I wasn't artificially inflating my playcount, I was obsessively playing a song that I loved. Well, songs. There are a few that I like to have on a loop every so often.
Oh yes. I actually have a playlist called Playcount that gets changed out any time I need to even up my numbers. And actually, the Audioscrobbler (at least last I looked) didn't properly count a song if you have it on Repeat One. Very annoying.
Personally I'm surprised that Last.fm is considered a highly visible entity. I thought it was a niche site. And I use it. So. *shrug*
with last.fm is how it feeds my OCD issues regarding song playcounts. I nearly lost it when the stupid scrobbler started randomly recording excess playcounts on one album. It screwed with my numbers. Then it stopped counting that album's plays all together.
Seriously though, I have found using the site to be pretty enjoyable. And the advertisements are actually worth keeping AdBlock turned off for. I found a few new artists, some unsigned, that way. I like all the various widgets and things that can crunch my data. Songbird has a last.fm plugin/addon that makes for very easy integration. It's just really useful. I've also found concerts on the site.
I rarely use the social side of it, except with friends I already know. But that's me.
Yep. When I was peer pressuring gently recommending new music to my best friend she tried the preview in iTunes and was completely turned off. She finally gave in and tried a few songs because I couldn't stop praising the music and she trusted my taste. But it was with caution that she bought the individual songs. We're lucky, she and I, that our musical tastes are similar enough that if we recommend each other music there's a better than good chance that we'll like it. Being able to stream full examples at each other would make it even easier. And she's an impulse buyer, so she's a good target for sales given sufficient reassurances.
They still do. And it's why I ended up getting both of the albums of theirs that I have. The media player on that site is really well done, IMO. Lets you choose by album, song or just a sort of Play All. Quite handy.
Exactly. And I have, in fact, found other bands/artists via recommendation from the musicians I already enjoy. I know that artists and labels can make available music on sites like Last.fm for streaming. In fact, I found a whole new artist via Last.fm's little banner advertisements. An unsigned kid out in California. Last.fm is owned by CBS now, I believe, so it has permissions and such. And on that site you can recommend music to your friends (it has a social networking component), though you're limited by what Last.fm has permission to host. And there are links to buy with Amazon and iTunes (maybe more).
Muxtape.com died a sad death, but it allowed you to create 'mixtapes' to share with your friends. Again, just streaming.
So there are sites and initiatives out there, but the labels are holding on so hard to their quick cash business model that they don't want to try to grow into the future at all.
Honestly, the only thing that got me buying music again (after about 10 years of not buying more than a single mp3 here and there) was not only finding music that I really, really liked but also artists who I respected. When the music isn't disposable, in terms of quality and my investment in the artists, I found myself wanting to pay for it. And in some rare cases, pay for it more than once: ie a physical as well as digital copy. The only reason I would download an album via torrent/download site now is if I couldn't preview the whole thing on the artist's website. The 30 second previews on iTunes/Amazon just is not sufficient to make a buying decision. Giving me the ability to preview an album, more than once, in a way that is not too difficult (no installing anything more than say flash in my browser) for me to use and I'm more prone to give the music a chance, care about the music and (if it appeals to me) buy it.
The artists/bands I'm most willing to spend my spare money on are the ones that are able to interact with fans on a somewhat personal level: twitter, blogs, youtube videos, etc. I get to see them as real people and it increases my estimation of the value of their music. I spend money to go to their concerts, buy their merchandise and physical cds.
But the industry seems to be designed to work on quantity not quality. Corporate funded 'artists' like the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus are part of a huge hype machine that is about being 'cool' rather than creating music that really makes an impression or impacts people emotionally. It's about getting as much crap sold to as many people as possible, not putting out the best you can put out there. And so, naturally, people will treat it like the disposable crap that it is. This week my niece OMGLOVES! the Jonas Brothers, next week it'll be some other corporate construct. And she'll never remember any of it past the following year.
So very true. I almost never use the Wikipedia search function and when I do, it seems to work only about 50% of the time.
Oh you're most welcome! cul8r(c)
That's okay, I'd just spell it LOL and be free and clear ;)
Charging for access to the paper is fricking hilarious!
A social experiment done for the lulz!
That kind of nonsense makes me want to send money directly to the artists/bands/actors/writers and 'pirate' the music/movies/tv. If the actual creators of the content are not going to be paid (fairly or at all) then I'd rather the studios/labels not get paid either.
network performance so they're only testing 10k? What happens when mass censoring goes live and, inevitably, blocks more than 10k?
Yes, this. Exactly. When my hard drive failed and I was off-line for 2 weeks I went through a grieving process. I don't game, but I do interact with friends online every night. And suddenly I no longer had that. I couldn't even type down things to share later. I don't want to go through that again.
But then we'd need to have a BuSab and I just don't see that happening in reality.
Oh, I didn't know uranium was produced by the breakdown/transformation of organic matter? That's what I thought 'fossil fuel' meant. And while I understand that nuclear fusion produces less waste, I still find it unpalatable.