Sonic, interesting idea and one I will not be in the position to chase for at least a few years since it's not in the core of what I'm trying to achieve.
Sometimes diversification of one's business plan can be considered di-worse-ification.
As far as partnerships wth businesses who can help Indies, I'm working on it, but the site laucnhed about 48 hours ago, so give me some time.:-)
That $60 is to pay for your Internet merchant account (I actually make $20/account for year 1) so that you can accept credit card orders from anyone in the world - not just the limited number of countries that paypal supports (I believe it's 37 compared to the 200+ countries you get with your merchant account).
As far as getting the email and processing it, well, you can pay to ship all of your CDs to someone who will distribute it for you and they will A) keep $3-4 per CD, and B) the shipping. I worked on this so that finally artists could keep *everything* and not have to deal with more middlemen.
Also, artists *can* use the links we've created to their CDs/other stuff and put it on their own site. The benefit here is that A) their sites aren't generally getting listed on Slashdot or other popular news sources, B) *many* bands don't have web sites or they have poorly designed full-Flash ones that aren't friendly to anyone running *cough*Linux*BSD*cough*. Their sub-domain site is so that they can easily promote themselves and not have to worry about whether they've got the people, time or skills for setting up a competent web site.
To be blunt, why are you so cynical? The last thing I want to do is make money off of "wannabe musicians" - I'm trying really hard to help the indies who are busting their ass to make a living with their music. Sorry if this idea pissed you off.
As for 0 artists, you're right. We launched about 36-48 hours ago, the idea's been in development for about 6 months.
Per bandwidth, 300gb/mo is $95.00. If I need more, I can get 2tb/mo for about $600/mo.
As far as keeping 0%, that's absolutely no joke. When you pay for an artist's CD, the money moves from your bank through the processor (2CheckOut) directly to the artist. We keep nothing because we're not even in the payment stream.
My expenses for now are $10/month for cheap hosting. I think I can handle it.:-) Remember, if there was no opportunity to stay in business, the idea wouldn't have been started. We're not interested in being a dot-bomb.
For the record, the site launched about 48 hours ago and the revolution (if anyone chooses to join) is that for the first time in history, there aren't any middlemen pawing at the money that the artist makes from their fans. No distributors, no labels, no managers. It's the fan, the payment processor, and the artist - no one else.
So, outside of car trunks and live shows, your music is available to anyone anywhere in the world if you decide to join.
Show some patience. Have a drink. We're working on it.
I'm a member of the EFF, $100+ level if it means anything (love that hat!).
Still, the EFF can't do it alone. I'm glad you donated, but have you moved towards making a political difference in your area by calling your reps or making appointments with them on a consistent basis? It's easier than writing or e-mail, it makes a bigger impression, and (from my experience) there's something about it that encourages follow-up on your part since you invested the energy in the first place.
It's also much easier than organizing a protest, it allows you to do it repeatedly (unlike voting), and when it comes time for elections, I can ensure you that you will know what what your Reps have and haven't done.
Give it a try. It's legal social engineering at its best.:-)
I'm not flaming you, but I do have a suggestion or two.
First, voting is the *last* thing (literally) you should do to make changes in your political leadership. Voting is the final judgement, but getting involved in the political process is the first thing we should be doing.
I'm not talking about protests or sit-ins or organized campaigns. I'm talking about getting personally involved the EASY way. Call your state, Congressional and Senate reps and make an appointment to talk about 1 issue (this isn't an all-you-can-eat buffet) with the Rep's staffer. Follow up with a brief thank you note and a reminder of what was discussed. Follow up every two weeks with a phone call, and follow up with scheduled meetings as you feel is needed. Rinse and repeat, make it a habit like checking your e-mail.
This isn't rocket science. The methods, tools and customs of political involvement are really old. If you have the intelligence to filter Slashdot comments, you're smart enough to make a political difference.
The only variable here is your commitment to follow through. The EFF can't do it alone.
First, downloading from Kazaa isn't theft, piracy or copyright infringement if you're using it to find tracks to an artist that someone recommended to you. If you download an entire album or ten, YES, that's wrong, but I regularly track down (with varying success) artists I've heard about to try to find 3-4 songs to see if I like them. If I like them, I go buy the CD, if I don't I delete the tracks.
As for no alternative, check out CDBaby when you have a moment. 30,000 artists, artists get everything except $4 an album, and more variety than you can shake your booty at. No contracts, no abusive clauses, and the artists set their prices, not some record labels.
Enjoy it while it lasts, Jon was found innocent because the laws in Norway haven't been updated to be in concert with the EUCD (Europe's DMCA), which Norway will have to be part of. Once the EUCD is implemented across Europe, his actions would be criminal and he would go to jail. FWIW, the American government is pushing hard for it to be implemented there. For more information on the EUCD, check out http://ukcdr.org/issues/eucd. For good examples of how the DMCA sucks, check out the EFF's unintended consequences list.
Hey. For what it's worth, I don't carry ads or any other "gimme, gimme, gimme!" devices on my site since I figure it will just piss off site visitors and hurt me in the long run. Besides, 1000s of sites have advertising, would it be so bad if one didn't?
I do make some nice money from providing banned books info with affiliate-paid linked Amazon reviews, and from pointing out really good independent artists at CDBaby that I also make an affiliate free from if you purchase something. That said, if you want your web site to make money from something besides affiliate fees and ad fees, you need to provide enough value to your clients or the public to be worth charging for. Otherwise forget it, IMO.
I would choose A based on the failure of B-E to be wholly adequate responses. Part 2 of B is true since getting to the Supremes level requires some heavy professional lifting in law. Part 1 of B is a red herring and is irrelevent.
C is true in that it's practically impossible to be a full-time professional in both the tech and law sectors. Both realistically require years of 60+ hour work weeks in their fields to progress to the level of the Supremes. Only exception (near-0 likelihood) is if lead counsel for a tech company were appointed to the Supreme Court.
Part 1 of D is right since technology like fatally exploding hard drives only need to be understood by the fact they kill consumers. D Part 1 is wrong since it's evident technical consultants are often needed/appointed by the judiciary to consult with them during technical cases. Part 2 of D is essentially correct except for the amateur level Supreme who knows how to compile the Linux kernel or anything easier than that from personal experience.
E is a big-ass throwaway statement of generality and has nothing to do with the question. The statement could as well have said "The rewards of a life as a doorknob, in terms of both money and prestige, are not high enough to attract top-flight technical experts to this area."
Quote: "Oddly, this bill focuses on notification that you're buying copy-restricted music disks instead of CDs (which is useful, but hardly major)."
Actually, this is more than useful if the warnings disclose *everything* that the CD's "copy-protection" does, like preventing you from playing or copying it with your PC, PS2, mp3-cd player/discman, or consumer CD recorder. Getting the prominent warning on the CD case in front of Joe Public instead of being buried on my site where most people *won't* see it is a great step.
We all know this proposal will not pass during this session, but it's a warning shot for (hopefully) more substantial legislation which will occur at the beginning of next term.
I don't know about Kei cars, but I've read some pretty interesting articles on the GM Autonomy. It's currently vaporware, but there's about $1 billion in funding behind this hydrogen car already. See more here: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.08/fuelcellc ars.html
Hopefully it will come out within the next 10 years - would be interesting to see.
Since I'm not a techie, I can't really answer your question, but I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that DVD players look for data to play first rather than audio. When they see data (for example, video files) on a disc, they attempt to play those instead of the audio tracks on a disc. Basically, the DVD player is fooled into not accessing the audio tracks.
Dave,
You're right. It isn't encryption *at all*, it is simply messing around with the Audio CD standard so that computer-based CD players get confused or reject the corrupt CD. In short, they look like CDs, but they really aren't. They're just shiny music platters that we mistakenly assume are CDs based on our previous experiences with these things.
I for one am hoping this case either ends in a positive settlement for the lawfirms involved, akin to the way Charley Pride's label caved in over his CD when a California woman sued them for deceptive trade practices and other goodies.
I run FatChucks.com and get a ton of e-mail over the Corrupt CDs issue every week. It would be nice if this case makes my site obsolete because big, fat warnings would have to appear on the CDs themselves (rather than Joe Public having to know about my site).
Last, the warnings you see on corrupt CDs are so far *not adequate.* They need to warn the potential buyer of the following: 1. Will not play on your computer. 2. Will not play on your DVD player, Discman, CD-Duplicator (like the kind put out by Sony, Harmon-Kardon, Pioneer, etc), high-end stereo CD player, car CD player, game console (PS, PS2, XBox, etc) or MP3-CD player. 3. Using this CD in any of the devices above may damage that equipment.
To see this in action, check out this image for the Rosa CD in Europe: The Image In Spanish, it translates to this: "This disc is equipped with a device to prevent digital copying, which could impede the playback of the recording in personal computers and/or harm such devices, in videogame consoles, in automobile CD and DVD players and multi-changers, as well as other CD-ROM and DVD-ROM players."
The record labels probably have a legal right to corrupt their CDs, but they need to *fully* warn consumers about what they are buying.
No shit. I take it most people on slashdot have some real or imagined techical skill at various levels. The other 90% of the public doesn't and shouldn't have to in order to play a frigging CD in their computer - it's not rocket science.
I'm hoping that these CDs will boomerang in Joe Public's eyes so that sales drop enough to warrant the banishment of copy-protected CDs which neither protect their audio content nor are CDs. Hopefully "Uou can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time" will kick in at some point between now and Christmas.
I will personally forward your info to the group of lawfirms who are already planning a class-action against the record industry. If you have any questions about this class-action or anything else, write me at chuck@fatchucks.com.
Slashdot Mirror
Sonic, interesting idea and one I will not be in the position to chase for at least a few years since it's not in the core of what I'm trying to achieve.
:-)
Sometimes diversification of one's business plan can be considered di-worse-ification.
As far as partnerships wth businesses who can help Indies, I'm working on it, but the site laucnhed about 48 hours ago, so give me some time.
Peace.
Hi Zach, let's take this from the top.
That $60 is to pay for your Internet merchant account (I actually make $20/account for year 1) so that you can accept credit card orders from anyone in the world - not just the limited number of countries that paypal supports (I believe it's 37 compared to the 200+ countries you get with your merchant account).
As far as getting the email and processing it, well, you can pay to ship all of your CDs to someone who will distribute it for you and they will A) keep $3-4 per CD, and B) the shipping. I worked on this so that finally artists could keep *everything* and not have to deal with more middlemen.
Also, artists *can* use the links we've created to their CDs/other stuff and put it on their own site. The benefit here is that A) their sites aren't generally getting listed on Slashdot or other popular news sources, B) *many* bands don't have web sites or they have poorly designed full-Flash ones that aren't friendly to anyone running *cough*Linux*BSD*cough*. Their sub-domain site is so that they can easily promote themselves and not have to worry about whether they've got the people, time or skills for setting up a competent web site.
To be blunt, why are you so cynical? The last thing I want to do is make money off of "wannabe musicians" - I'm trying really hard to help the indies who are busting their ass to make a living with their music. Sorry if this idea pissed you off.
Peace.
Bandwidth is cheap. Ads are not cheap since they generally alienate your audience and cost you visitors (pop-ups! pop-unders! egads, the horrors!).
For more info:
http://www.fatchucks.com/about.html
Scroll to the end. No ads.
As for 0 artists, you're right. We launched about 36-48 hours ago, the idea's been in development for about 6 months.
:-) Remember, if there was no opportunity to stay in business, the idea wouldn't have been started. We're not interested in being a dot-bomb.
Per bandwidth, 300gb/mo is $95.00. If I need more, I can get 2tb/mo for about $600/mo.
As far as keeping 0%, that's absolutely no joke. When you pay for an artist's CD, the money moves from your bank through the processor (2CheckOut) directly to the artist. We keep nothing because we're not even in the payment stream.
My expenses for now are $10/month for cheap hosting. I think I can handle it.
Peace.
For the record, the site launched about 48 hours ago and the revolution (if anyone chooses to join) is that for the first time in history, there aren't any middlemen pawing at the money that the artist makes from their fans. No distributors, no labels, no managers. It's the fan, the payment processor, and the artist - no one else.
So, outside of car trunks and live shows, your music is available to anyone anywhere in the world if you decide to join.
Show some patience. Have a drink. We're working on it.
Peace.
I'm a member of the EFF, $100+ level if it means anything (love that hat!).
:-)
Still, the EFF can't do it alone. I'm glad you donated, but have you moved towards making a political difference in your area by calling your reps or making appointments with them on a consistent basis? It's easier than writing or e-mail, it makes a bigger impression, and (from my experience) there's something about it that encourages follow-up on your part since you invested the energy in the first place.
It's also much easier than organizing a protest, it allows you to do it repeatedly (unlike voting), and when it comes time for elections, I can ensure you that you will know what what your Reps have and haven't done.
Give it a try. It's legal social engineering at its best.
Chuck
I'm not flaming you, but I do have a suggestion or two.
First, voting is the *last* thing (literally) you should do to make changes in your political leadership. Voting is the final judgement, but getting involved in the political process is the first thing we should be doing.
I'm not talking about protests or sit-ins or organized campaigns. I'm talking about getting personally involved the EASY way. Call your state, Congressional and Senate reps and make an appointment to talk about 1 issue (this isn't an all-you-can-eat buffet) with the Rep's staffer. Follow up with a brief thank you note and a reminder of what was discussed. Follow up every two weeks with a phone call, and follow up with scheduled meetings as you feel is needed. Rinse and repeat, make it a habit like checking your e-mail.
This isn't rocket science. The methods, tools and customs of political involvement are really old. If you have the intelligence to filter Slashdot comments, you're smart enough to make a political difference.
The only variable here is your commitment to follow through. The EFF can't do it alone.
Peace,
Chuck
First, downloading from Kazaa isn't theft, piracy or copyright infringement if you're using it to find tracks to an artist that someone recommended to you. If you download an entire album or ten, YES, that's wrong, but I regularly track down (with varying success) artists I've heard about to try to find 3-4 songs to see if I like them. If I like them, I go buy the CD, if I don't I delete the tracks.
As for no alternative, check out CDBaby when you have a moment. 30,000 artists, artists get everything except $4 an album, and more variety than you can shake your booty at. No contracts, no abusive clauses, and the artists set their prices, not some record labels.
Peace.
Enjoy it while it lasts, Jon was found innocent because the laws in Norway haven't been updated to be in concert with the EUCD (Europe's DMCA), which Norway will have to be part of. Once the EUCD is implemented across Europe, his actions would be criminal and he would go to jail. FWIW, the American government is pushing hard for it to be implemented there. For more information on the EUCD, check out http://ukcdr.org/issues/eucd. For good examples of how the DMCA sucks, check out the EFF's unintended consequences list.
Peace,
Chuck
That's still a lot slower than the matter generator on Star Trek. When the hell are we going to get those? :-D
Hey. For what it's worth, I don't carry ads or any other "gimme, gimme, gimme!" devices on my site since I figure it will just piss off site visitors and hurt me in the long run. Besides, 1000s of sites have advertising, would it be so bad if one didn't?
I do make some nice money from providing banned books info with affiliate-paid linked Amazon reviews, and from pointing out really good independent artists at CDBaby that I also make an affiliate free from if you purchase something. That said, if you want your web site to make money from something besides affiliate fees and ad fees, you need to provide enough value to your clients or the public to be worth charging for. Otherwise forget it, IMO.
Chuck
CDBaby.com sells nothing but independent music by artists who've chosen to remain independent instead of signing away their music to an RIAA label.
I'm working with them now to make things better and easier for the public. We will make the RIAA irrelevant, but not today. Stay tuned!
In the spirit of piling on, let's run with this quote: "One of the things we're discovering is that people are not aware that that they are engaging in conduct which is clearly illegal."
You mean like the very recent price-fixing case the RIAA lost to the tune of $143 million? This is their *2nd* price fixing settlement in 2 years, the first one happened in 2000.
Peace.
I would choose A based on the failure of B-E to be wholly adequate responses. Part 2 of B is true since getting to the Supremes level requires some heavy professional lifting in law. Part 1 of B is a red herring and is irrelevent.
C is true in that it's practically impossible to be a full-time professional in both the tech and law sectors. Both realistically require years of 60+ hour work weeks in their fields to progress to the level of the Supremes. Only exception (near-0 likelihood) is if lead counsel for a tech company were appointed to the Supreme Court.
Part 1 of D is right since technology like fatally exploding hard drives only need to be understood by the fact they kill consumers. D Part 1 is wrong since it's evident technical consultants are often needed/appointed by the judiciary to consult with them during technical cases. Part 2 of D is essentially correct except for the amateur level Supreme who knows how to compile the Linux kernel or anything easier than that from personal experience.
E is a big-ass throwaway statement of generality and has nothing to do with the question. The statement could as well have said "The rewards of a life as a doorknob, in terms of both money and prestige, are not high enough to attract top-flight technical experts to this area."
Quote: "Oddly, this bill focuses on notification that you're buying copy-restricted music disks instead of CDs (which is useful, but hardly major)."
Actually, this is more than useful if the warnings disclose *everything* that the CD's "copy-protection" does, like preventing you from playing or copying it with your PC, PS2, mp3-cd player/discman, or consumer CD recorder. Getting the prominent warning on the CD case in front of Joe Public instead of being buried on my site where most people *won't* see it is a great step.
We all know this proposal will not pass during this session, but it's a warning shot for (hopefully) more substantial legislation which will occur at the beginning of next term.
Peace.
I don't know about Kei cars, but I've read some pretty interesting articles on the GM Autonomy. It's currently vaporware, but there's about $1 billion in funding behind this hydrogen car already. See more here:c ars.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.08/fuelcell
Hopefully it will come out within the next 10 years - would be interesting to see.
Since I'm not a techie, I can't really answer your question, but I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that DVD players look for data to play first rather than audio. When they see data (for example, video files) on a disc, they attempt to play those instead of the audio tracks on a disc. Basically, the DVD player is fooled into not accessing the audio tracks.
Chuck
Clearly we use the term CD because it looks like a CD, it feels like a CD, and all our previous experiences indicate that this is, yes, a CD.
Call it a shiny music platter, a music coaster, a corrupt round of sound, an audio ache, a Hilary's Horror, what? Ideas are welcomed...
:-),
Chuck
Dave,
You're right. It isn't encryption *at all*, it is simply messing around with the Audio CD standard so that computer-based CD players get confused or reject the corrupt CD. In short, they look like CDs, but they really aren't. They're just shiny music platters that we mistakenly assume are CDs based on our previous experiences with these things.
Peace,
Chuck
I for one am hoping this case either ends in a positive settlement for the lawfirms involved, akin to the way Charley Pride's label caved in over his CD when a California woman sued them for deceptive trade practices and other goodies.
I run FatChucks.com and get a ton of e-mail over the Corrupt CDs issue every week. It would be nice if this case makes my site obsolete because big, fat warnings would have to appear on the CDs themselves (rather than Joe Public having to know about my site).
Last, the warnings you see on corrupt CDs are so far *not adequate.* They need to warn the potential buyer of the following:
1. Will not play on your computer.
2. Will not play on your DVD player, Discman, CD-Duplicator (like the kind put out by Sony, Harmon-Kardon, Pioneer, etc), high-end stereo CD player, car CD player, game console (PS, PS2, XBox, etc) or MP3-CD player.
3. Using this CD in any of the devices above may damage that equipment.
To see this in action, check out this image for the Rosa CD in Europe:
The Image
In Spanish, it translates to this:
"This disc is equipped with a device to prevent digital copying, which could impede the playback of the recording in personal computers and/or harm such devices, in videogame consoles, in automobile CD and DVD players and multi-changers, as well as other CD-ROM and DVD-ROM players."
The record labels probably have a legal right to corrupt their CDs, but they need to *fully* warn consumers about what they are buying.
Peace,
Chuck
So far the soundtrack to Episode II is being corrupted in Europe:k . tml
http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.starwars.soundtrac
but there have been no reports out of the Ameircas. Of course, time will tell if this holds up.
No shit. I take it most people on slashdot have some real or imagined techical skill at various levels. The other 90% of the public doesn't and shouldn't have to in order to play a frigging CD in their computer - it's not rocket science.
.
I'm hoping that these CDs will boomerang in Joe Public's eyes so that sales drop enough to warrant the banishment of copy-protected CDs which neither protect their audio content nor are CDs. Hopefully "Uou can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time" will kick in at some point between now and Christmas.
In the meantime, if you want to do something now, check out some suggestions I came up with at my site:
http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.action.html
or join the class-action lawsuit:
http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.submit.html
It's not hard, but it does take a minute to act.
Peace.
You're probably just being a smart-ass, which I appreciate. :-D
FYI, Aphex Twin is as bad as Celine too. Check out reports about their latest CD here: Aphex Twin: Drukqs
Yee-ha, let the good times roll.
If you are a U.S. resident (you don't have to be a citizen) and want to be part of a class-action lawsuit, go here:
http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.submit.html
after you buy a known corrupt CD (one with a red star next to it):
http://www.fatchucks.com/z3.cd.html
I will personally forward your info to the group of lawfirms who are already planning a class-action against the record industry. If you have any questions about this class-action or anything else, write me at chuck@fatchucks.com.
Peace.
That's the term I use since a perfectly fine standard (the Philipps/Sony CD standard) is being corrupted to do something it wasn't made to do.
For a listing of corrupt CDs, check out my site at http://www.fatchucks.com. It may be helpful...