Thats not entirely true, Ann Arbor was rated way up in places to live for fast connections for several years in a row. The infrastructure is here and theres tons of pipe for education, and large business, but the consumer lines are just starting to get laid. I get 768 DSL in kalamazoo for $40/month... with one of the most worthless TOS's i've ever seen...
Hey hey hey... Where's your state pride? You can bitch about the east side of our fair state all you want, as it's just a growing hole, but lets not forget the beautiful (if not somewhat backwoods) U.P., the wooded north, and the great soutwest... To hell w/ Detroit & Flint, but Kalamazoo would be a great place for start-ups. Culturally strong, and not yet entirely gutted by industry.
Welp, as a musician, the RIAA does'nt pay me crap. I've had more folks contact me from ID3 tags on napster downloads & free songs on mp3.com, than i could have ever gotten without those mediums.
The other thing is, these struggling musicians are losing _NOTHING_, the downloads they get are generally from folks who would never pay for the song, because they've never heard it.
I use both napster & mp3.com the way they should be used, to distribute my music, and to look for new music that i may be interested in buying, and I'll be one pissed-off puppy if the RIAA tries to get between me and possible fans.
www.mp3.com/monoglot
Where I'm confused here, is how _EXACTLY_ SDMI works with regards to small labels & bands... Is there a licensing fee? Will labels need to purchase a "Watermark ID" or some such nonsense for a price that big labels can easily afford? Will hardware/software companies need to license the technology, bringing music to the bussiness-savvy proprietary DVD distro model that can hide behind the DMCA?
If the SDMI can strongarm enough tech companies into requiring a watermark, they'll manage to shut up pesky small labels that have found ways to work outside their distribution channels.
She's got a big mouth, and she seems to not have her head that far up her ass. Salon has a great speech of hers here that everyone should read. I'll love watching Universal deal with her.
Napster isn't sell the MP3's for $30 a pop, that's the difference. If folks were sharing their theses via Gnutella, I don't think there'd be a problem, but when you SELL things that aren't yours... it's no good.
Yeah, that way they can we can get banner ads pumped straight to our skulls. "Hmm, I'd really like some Strawberry Quik right now... Oh, and I really should buy Office 2000." Yulp, sounds great.
nope, it's not your right, that's your greedy inner child refusing to share, and play nice with the people (not wallets) you're supposedly making music for.
It's not so much why share, as why not? Ownership of music is a pretty new idea, and one that's never caused anything but trouble. Music by nature is a process of sharing, and it all worked perfectly well, until a middleman stepped in, and asked for his cut. All the record companies have ever done is open up channels so more sharing could occur ( with a slight fee of course ). Now their day is done, sharing is easier, and more convenient without them. The artists will survive, they'll have to rely more heavily on live shows, but I personally think thats great. Artists will _ALWAYS_ be taken care of by a community, maybe they won't get to flash Millions of bills in their videos, but they'll be able to eat.
Don't go on debating wether "Sharing" is good or bad, it's the nature of the beast, and music has always been stronger than law.
The thing to do here, is to be absolutely positive that you support (pay) the artists that you like. Pick and choose, if they're on warner bros & you don't like warner, don't pay. if they put out their own stuff, and you like it, pay them. The thing is, just to be sure you _DO_ actually buy the records if you like the artist. Any other option is a big loss, MP3's & Napster have really opened up the music world, it'd be a shame to lose that.
Get loud. Folks showing up @ the courtroom for the deCss hearings was great. We've just got to get a lot louder, and not deal with any of the crap thats coming down the pipe. There's enough folks to do it, just not enough folks with the right type of motivation. I think it's a shame that "we" haven't done more already. It's definately within our grasp.
Well, perhaps it's time to get rid of the division between "They" and "We"... This sort of thing is ridiculous, and we've definately _GOT_ to do something about it.
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Thats not entirely true, Ann Arbor was rated way up in places to live for fast connections for several years in a row. The infrastructure is here and theres tons of pipe for education, and large business, but the consumer lines are just starting to get laid. I get 768 DSL in kalamazoo for $40/month... with one of the most worthless TOS's i've ever seen...
Hey hey hey... Where's your state pride? You can bitch about the east side of our fair state all you want, as it's just a growing hole, but lets not forget the beautiful (if not somewhat backwoods) U.P., the wooded north, and the great soutwest... To hell w/ Detroit & Flint, but Kalamazoo would be a great place for start-ups. Culturally strong, and not yet entirely gutted by industry.
Welp, as a musician, the RIAA does'nt pay me crap. I've had more folks contact me from ID3 tags on napster downloads & free songs on mp3.com, than i could have ever gotten without those mediums. The other thing is, these struggling musicians are losing _NOTHING_, the downloads they get are generally from folks who would never pay for the song, because they've never heard it. I use both napster & mp3.com the way they should be used, to distribute my music, and to look for new music that i may be interested in buying, and I'll be one pissed-off puppy if the RIAA tries to get between me and possible fans. www.mp3.com/monoglot
well, they have been saying it's eating through rubber seals... hmm...
Where I'm confused here, is how _EXACTLY_ SDMI works with regards to small labels & bands... Is there a licensing fee? Will labels need to purchase a "Watermark ID" or some such nonsense for a price that big labels can easily afford? Will hardware/software companies need to license the technology, bringing music to the bussiness-savvy proprietary DVD distro model that can hide behind the DMCA? If the SDMI can strongarm enough tech companies into requiring a watermark, they'll manage to shut up pesky small labels that have found ways to work outside their distribution channels.
She's got a big mouth, and she seems to not have her head that far up her ass. Salon has a great speech of hers here that everyone should read. I'll love watching Universal deal with her.
well, it won't ship, it'll be a public beta... it may well be d/l only for a bit, or they may not package the beta at all...
Napster isn't sell the MP3's for $30 a pop, that's the difference. If folks were sharing their theses via Gnutella, I don't think there'd be a problem, but when you SELL things that aren't yours... it's no good.
Yeah, that way they can we can get banner ads pumped straight to our skulls. "Hmm, I'd really like some Strawberry Quik right now... Oh, and I really should buy Office 2000." Yulp, sounds great.
nope, it's not your right, that's your greedy inner child refusing to share, and play nice with the people (not wallets) you're supposedly making music for.
Don't go on debating wether "Sharing" is good or bad, it's the nature of the beast, and music has always been stronger than law.
The thing to do here, is to be absolutely positive that you support (pay) the artists that you like. Pick and choose, if they're on warner bros & you don't like warner, don't pay. if they put out their own stuff, and you like it, pay them. The thing is, just to be sure you _DO_ actually buy the records if you like the artist. Any other option is a big loss, MP3's & Napster have really opened up the music world, it'd be a shame to lose that.
Get loud. Folks showing up @ the courtroom for the deCss hearings was great. We've just got to get a lot louder, and not deal with any of the crap thats coming down the pipe. There's enough folks to do it, just not enough folks with the right type of motivation. I think it's a shame that "we" haven't done more already. It's definately within our grasp.
Well, perhaps it's time to get rid of the division between "They" and "We"... This sort of thing is ridiculous, and we've definately _GOT_ to do something about it.