"Hello? Hi Jim, how are you? Well, it's pretty bad here. The lights keep switching on and off and the coffee maker won't shut off. The washing machine keeps overflowing. Every time we turn the oven off, it comes on again. When we turn the thermostat up, it gets colder in here. Last month's electric bill was $15,000.00. We think the place is haunted and just decided that we're going to sell it to the first person to make an offer, no matter how low it is.
(Ding dong...)
"Jim, I've got to go. There's someone at the door."
Despite the use of a GOTO, I'd like to see you modded up. You hit one of the nails squarely on the head:
as more and more people grow tired of problems, lack of choice in players and incompatibilities
Choice, flexibility and ease of use are key issues. A lot of us at/. could be called jaded, but we have dealt all too often with the sorts of problems (technical, ethical, financial) that a closed standard can bring about. I think that your prognostication is correct - frustration with problems and incompatibilities will drive many people in the other direction. If the implementation is as the article suggests, this is doomed to failure.
Another example of how the music industry seems bent on winning the battle at the expense of losing the war. One has to wonder exactly when they lost touch with reality. It must be the years of drug abuse. While they could provide open technology and profit, they would rather resist. I've been holding off for years, waiting for them to provide open flexible offerings so that I can satisfy my pent-up demand for music. I'm getting tired of waiting and although I continue to speak out (here and elsewhere) against violating copyright, the fools make it harder every day for me to do that.
Here's yet another example. (I submitted this various forms to the/. editor gods 3 times in the last two days, but they don't seem to think it worthy of your attention) :
According to this article , Universal Vivendi will be making 43,000 tracks available for sale, at $0.99/track, on 28 different web sites (that will get commissions for the sales). In what can best be described as a monumental example of still not getting it, UMG will be selling the tracks in the proprietary DRM hobbled Liquid Audio format . A quote in the article from a UMG unit president demonstrates that years of listening to the kind of stuff big labels sell does indeed damage the hearing (and possibly the corporate brain) when he said (please try not to laugh too hard, folks) "We have listened to the public, and we are offering the music that people want at a reasonable price that fairly compensates the artists, songwriters and [other] individuals who make their living in the music industry". Apparently UMG thinks that a restricted format is what the public wants. As to "fairly compensating artists (and) songwriters", I have yet to hear any UMG artists announce that their contracts have been ripped up. Just to double check that last point, I looked outside - there is still only one moon in the sky.
It's called Marketing, damn it! We live in a new marketing age where many words (like free, unlimited, guarantee, service, quality, value, awesome, truth, elected and many, many others) have lost all of their original meaning. I posted an explanation here the other day. For those who missed it, here it is:
As a result of the dot bomb and stock market downturn, a lot of unemployed MBA's have sought work elsewhere. Some have gone to ISP's, some to Cell Phone services companies, some to Cable Television service providers. All have one thing in common - they are implementing the standard b-school "Suck 'em In and Fleece Them" tiered service model:
Dear Valued Customers,
We are pleased to announce our new tiered service plans, specially designed to suit your specific needs. Now there is a plan for everyone! You may choose from:
$9.99 Unlimited - The basic unlimited. There are limits and they're pretty damned low. No one will ever want this ( we just put it here so that our ads can scream "$9.99 UNLIMITED ! ")
$19.99 More Unlimited Plan - still limited. Just not as limited as the Unlimited Plan.
$29.99 Super Unlimited Plan - more unlimited than the More Unlimited Plan but less unlimited than the Ultra Unlimited Plan.
$49.99 Ultra Unlimited Plan - this one is really, well, unlimited. OK, not really.
$99.99 Mega Unlimited - Awesome! Really, really unlimited (on Tuesday nights only from 8:00 p.m. to midnight).
$299.99 Ultra Supermega Supreme Unlimited. - Totally unlimited. Some restrictions apply. See contract for details. Offer void where people eat toast and in the state of Tennessee. Available only to new customers. Who live in Pittsburgh. On 4th Avenue. In a red house. With blue trim.
$122,999,999.99 The Totally Ultra Supermega Supreme Buy the Damned Company Unlimited Plan. The most unlimited of all the unlimited plans. You can truly use all you want! Almost.
Note: All plans are subject to cancellation if we feel like it.
Windows is like a Swiss army knife. It's easy to use and can do a lot of things, although none of them well. To most people, the "easy to use" and "do lot of things" parts matter most.
But saying that with either one you have security is a joke.
Personally, I hate it. But my PHB insists that our products be hosted under it and I have to eat.
As a result of the dot bomb and stock market downturn, a lot of unemployed MBA's have sought work elsewhere. Some have gone to ISP's, some to Cell Phone services companies, some to Cable Television service providers. All have one thing in common - they are implementing the standard b-school "Suck 'em In and Fleece Them" tiered service model:
Dear Valued Customers,
We are pleased to announce our new tiered service plans, specially designed to suit your specific needs. Now there is a plan for everyone! You may choose from:
$9.99 Unlimited - The basic unlimited. There are limits and they're pretty damned low. No one will ever want this ( we just put it here so that our ads can scream "$9.99 UNLIMITED ! ")
$19.99 More Unlimited Plan - still limited. Just not as limited as the Unlimited Plan.
$29.99 Super Unlimited Plan - more unlimited than the More Unlimited Plan but less unlimited than the Ultra Unlimited Plan.
$49.99 Ultra Unlimited Plan - this one is really, well, unlimited. OK, not really.
$99.99 Mega Unlimited - Awesome! Really, really unlimited (on Tuesday nights only from 8:00 p.m. to midnight).
$299.99 Ultra Supermega Supreme Unlimited. - Totally unlimited. Some restrictions apply. See contract for details. Offer void where people eat toast and in the state of Tennessee. Available only to new customers. Who live in Pittsburgh. On 4th Avenue. In a red house. With blue trim.
$122,999,999.99 The Totally Ultra Supermega Supreme Buy the Damned Company Unlimited Plan. The most unlimited of all the unlimited plans. You can truly use all you want! Almost.
Note: All plans are subject to cancellation if we feel like it.
the music industry's long-standing tradition of royally screwing things up is set to continue
As is the music industry's long-standing tradition of royally screwing customers and the music industry's long-standing tradition of royally screwing artists.
This isn't even about cyber-squatting. It's about the journalist using his (own, by birth) name publicly and in connection with works that he authors. The ex Strolling Bones member changed his name to Bill Wyman two years after the journalist was born.
A classic, and inspiration for Monty Python! About 20 years ago, a local radio station used to play the Goon Show on Saturday mornings. I never missed an episode. I can still hear it:
Moriarty: Don't touch that Christmas Pudding or it will explode!
In a recent television interview that I saw, Jeremy Rifkin, author of "The Hydrogen Economy", was asked what his view was about the direction United States was taking versus the European Union on renewable energy use.
He said that United States continues to move in the direction of higher non-renewable energy use (as evidenced by the increasing popularity of SUV's and the current president's agenda for oil drilling in Alaska), while the European Union has set a goal to attain, by 2010, a minimum penetration of 12% of renewable energy sources.
"In this regard", he went on to say, "it appears as if the New World is becoming the Old World and the Old World is becoming the New World."
Type the name of a band you like into Search. When you get the results page, click on the Similar Artists link, and browse through the mp3.com bands that sound similar (or claim to).
I've been using mp3.com for several years and have tried this strategy. It sometimes works, but a lot of artists have grossly overrated opinions of themselves.
Go to the Artist page on mp3.com of an artist you like. Click on the link that says "Stations Now Playing"...
Agree 100% here. This is an excellent strategy. I've recommended it in previous posts and elsewhere in this thread. I also suggest the charts to newbies, but have to admit that I rarely use them - my tastes are generally not mainstream (and there's a lot of talk of artists manipulating the charts).
Here's another tactic that I use, but it takes time and dedication: Each day, check the "new-releases" in your preferred genres. Audition each tune and give it 10 seconds or so. If it doesn't appeal, move on (yes, you'll probably miss some tunes that you might like which take time to develop - listen longer if you want). If a tune seems appealing, open the artist page in a new window. Keep auditioning the new releases until you've gone through the list. Then go to the artist pages that you have open. Listen a little more. If you like something, great (if not, move on). Many times the artist will have several tunes that they previously put on their page, so you'll find more good material there.
A moderated and/or ranking system, as some have suggested elsewhere in this thread, might help. Some sites have them (like Garage Band - see my links below), but I often don't agree with other peoples' assessments and I'm looking for tunes I like, not lowest common-denominator.
For those who want more sites to check, I've listed 15 with links here
Here are some places to look for indies and unsigned artists. I'd guess this to be a pool of about 2 million tunes (across ALL genres). All offer streams/previews, mostly in low bit-rate mp3, a few in (yech) real media:
mp3.com (biggest >1.5 million tunes, now owned by Universal Vivendi who, so far, haven't messed it up too much)
Good Google will searches turn up more small sites, thousands of independent artists' sites with free mp3's, some smaller labels that have free samples, many, many links pages. The biggest problem here is that it takes time to separate the wheat from the chaff. There is some incredibly good stuff out there and a lot of crap.
Use Google - many local newspaper sites have mp3 sections for local artists and there are many mp3 sites that are specifically for local talent.
If you're not familiar with mp3.com, it can be daunting in the sheer volume of material (no pun intended). And they accept material of all (musical) quality from absolute crap to incredibly good. They have many genre-based top-40 style charts and new-release charts. Walking through those is a natural first step. One concept they have that can be a big help is "stations" - really a euphemism for fan-generated lists of tunes by various artists. The tunes can be played separately or sequentially. So, when you find an artist that you like and get to their page, click on the "stations now playing" tab. On that page could be one to several "stations" where you might find additional good material that someone else has taken the time to comb out and list. I've seen lists from 2 to 200 tunes long - this can expand your options very quickly.
I have looked for ogg sources and found precious few. Unfortunately, Ogg is still a long way from critical mass.
... I expected that I'd have both comments within 5 minutes of my posting. Call it poetic license - it's funnier this way. Good thing I beat you to the typo, eh?
Slashdot Mirror
"Hello? Hi Jim, how are you? Well, it's pretty bad here. The lights keep switching on and off and the coffee maker won't shut off. The washing machine keeps overflowing. Every time we turn the oven off, it comes on again. When we turn the thermostat up, it gets colder in here. Last month's electric bill was $15,000.00. We think the place is haunted and just decided that we're going to sell it to the first person to make an offer, no matter how low it is.
(Ding dong...)
"Jim, I've got to go. There's someone at the door."
Technology professionals: massive unemployment
Lawyers: massive employment
Lucy You should go into high technology. That's where the future lies.
Charlie Brown Yeah, right. Just hold the football.
as more and more people grow tired of problems, lack of choice in players and incompatibilities
Choice, flexibility and ease of use are key issues. A lot of us at /. could be called jaded, but we have dealt all too often with the sorts of problems (technical, ethical, financial) that a closed standard can bring about. I think that your prognostication is correct - frustration with problems and incompatibilities will drive many people in the other direction. If the implementation is as the article suggests, this is doomed to failure.
Here's yet another example. (I submitted this various forms to the /. editor gods 3 times in the last two days, but they don't seem to think it worthy of your attention) :
According to this article , Universal Vivendi will be making 43,000 tracks available for sale, at $0.99/track, on 28 different web sites (that will get commissions for the sales). In what can best be described as a monumental example of still not getting it, UMG will be selling the tracks in the proprietary DRM hobbled Liquid Audio format . A quote in the article from a UMG unit president demonstrates that years of listening to the kind of stuff big labels sell does indeed damage the hearing (and possibly the corporate brain) when he said (please try not to laugh too hard, folks) "We have listened to the public, and we are offering the music that people want at a reasonable price that fairly compensates the artists, songwriters and [other] individuals who make their living in the music industry". Apparently UMG thinks that a restricted format is what the public wants. As to "fairly compensating artists (and) songwriters", I have yet to hear any UMG artists announce that their contracts have been ripped up. Just to double check that last point, I looked outside - there is still only one moon in the sky.
Finally, for the 3 of you that don't also peruse the Register, here's an interesting item that the music industry should pay attention to: File swap nets will win, DRM and lawyers lose, say MS researchers
It seems that the harder the music industry tries to resist, the more likely it is that they're writing their own epitaphs.
As a result of the dot bomb and stock market downturn, a lot of unemployed MBA's have sought work elsewhere. Some have gone to ISP's, some to Cell Phone services companies, some to Cable Television service providers. All have one thing in common - they are implementing the standard b-school "Suck 'em In and Fleece Them" tiered service model:
Dear Valued Customers,
We are pleased to announce our new tiered service plans, specially designed to suit your specific needs. Now there is a plan for everyone! You may choose from:
$9.99 Unlimited - The basic unlimited. There are limits and they're pretty damned low. No one will ever want this ( we just put it here so that our ads can scream "$9.99 UNLIMITED ! ")
$19.99 More Unlimited Plan - still limited. Just not as limited as the Unlimited Plan.
$29.99 Super Unlimited Plan - more unlimited than the More Unlimited Plan but less unlimited than the Ultra Unlimited Plan.
$49.99 Ultra Unlimited Plan - this one is really, well, unlimited. OK, not really.
$99.99 Mega Unlimited - Awesome! Really, really unlimited (on Tuesday nights only from 8:00 p.m. to midnight).
$299.99 Ultra Supermega Supreme Unlimited. - Totally unlimited. Some restrictions apply. See contract for details. Offer void where people eat toast and in the state of Tennessee. Available only to new customers. Who live in Pittsburgh. On 4th Avenue. In a red house. With blue trim.
$122,999,999.99 The Totally Ultra Supermega Supreme Buy the Damned Company Unlimited Plan. The most unlimited of all the unlimited plans. You can truly use all you want! Almost.
Note: All plans are subject to cancellation if we feel like it.
But saying that with either one you have security is a joke.
Personally, I hate it. But my PHB insists that our products be hosted under it and I have to eat.
Dear Valued Customers,
We are pleased to announce our new tiered service plans, specially designed to suit your specific needs. Now there is a plan for everyone! You may choose from:
$9.99 Unlimited - The basic unlimited. There are limits and they're pretty damned low. No one will ever want this ( we just put it here so that our ads can scream "$9.99 UNLIMITED ! ")
$19.99 More Unlimited Plan - still limited. Just not as limited as the Unlimited Plan.
$29.99 Super Unlimited Plan - more unlimited than the More Unlimited Plan but less unlimited than the Ultra Unlimited Plan.
$49.99 Ultra Unlimited Plan - this one is really, well, unlimited. OK, not really.
$99.99 Mega Unlimited - Awesome! Really, really unlimited (on Tuesday nights only from 8:00 p.m. to midnight).
$299.99 Ultra Supermega Supreme Unlimited. - Totally unlimited. Some restrictions apply. See contract for details. Offer void where people eat toast and in the state of Tennessee. Available only to new customers. Who live in Pittsburgh. On 4th Avenue. In a red house. With blue trim.
$122,999,999.99 The Totally Ultra Supermega Supreme Buy the Damned Company Unlimited Plan. The most unlimited of all the unlimited plans. You can truly use all you want! Almost.
Note: All plans are subject to cancellation if we feel like it.
I think that you mean snogging parties.
As is the music industry's long-standing tradition of royally screwing customers and the music industry's long-standing tradition of royally screwing artists.
Slashdot - you mean this isn't Entertainment Weekly?
This isn't even about cyber-squatting. It's about the journalist using his (own, by birth) name publicly and in connection with works that he authors. The ex Strolling Bones member changed his name to Bill Wyman two years after the journalist was born.
FUD? Oh, great, now Warner Brothers will get in the act. This could be a vewwy nasty case.
that the lawyers are also named Bill Wyman?
Moriarty: Don't touch that Christmas Pudding or it will explode!
(sound effect) KABOOM!!!
Eccles: Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh.
(OK, you had to be there).
In a recent television interview that I saw, Jeremy Rifkin, author of "The Hydrogen Economy", was asked what his view was about the direction United States was taking versus the European Union on renewable energy use.
He said that United States continues to move in the direction of higher non-renewable energy use (as evidenced by the increasing popularity of SUV's and the current president's agenda for oil drilling in Alaska), while the European Union has set a goal to attain, by 2010, a minimum penetration of 12% of renewable energy sources.
"In this regard", he went on to say, "it appears as if the New World is becoming the Old World and the Old World is becoming the New World."
Words to think about.
Who's on first.
Neither did Willie. E. Coyote.
Nor his cousin Saddam
"What time is it?" "I don't know, it keeps changing".
(As an aside, the above should cue the Bob Dylan jokes from the old folks).
ROFL
We have a motion from the floor to give it a rest. Any seconds?
You don't seem to realize the gravity of the situation.
I've been using mp3.com for several years and have tried this strategy. It sometimes works, but a lot of artists have grossly overrated opinions of themselves.
Go to the Artist page on mp3.com of an artist you like. Click on the link that says "Stations Now Playing"...
Agree 100% here. This is an excellent strategy. I've recommended it in previous posts and elsewhere in this thread. I also suggest the charts to newbies, but have to admit that I rarely use them - my tastes are generally not mainstream (and there's a lot of talk of artists manipulating the charts).
Here's another tactic that I use, but it takes time and dedication: Each day, check the "new-releases" in your preferred genres. Audition each tune and give it 10 seconds or so. If it doesn't appeal, move on (yes, you'll probably miss some tunes that you might like which take time to develop - listen longer if you want). If a tune seems appealing, open the artist page in a new window. Keep auditioning the new releases until you've gone through the list. Then go to the artist pages that you have open. Listen a little more. If you like something, great (if not, move on). Many times the artist will have several tunes that they previously put on their page, so you'll find more good material there.
A moderated and/or ranking system, as some have suggested elsewhere in this thread, might help. Some sites have them (like Garage Band - see my links below), but I often don't agree with other peoples' assessments and I'm looking for tunes I like, not lowest common-denominator.
For those who want more sites to check, I've listed 15 with links here
mp3.com (biggest >1.5 million tunes, now owned by Universal Vivendi who, so far, haven't messed it up too much)
IUMA (based in the USA, but international)
Besonic (based in Germany, but international)
mp3.de (based in Germany, but international)
Soundclick (based in the USA, but international)
(Garageband based in the USA, but international)
France mp3 (based in France)
Vitaminic (free + pay - based in the USA, but international)
Washington Post (yup, the newspaper)
Online Rock (based in the USA, but international)
Peoplesound based England
mp3.com Australia (not the same mp3.com - based in Australia, but international)
Emusic (pay and not really indie per se, but smaller label and re-release oriented, based in USA)
Artistlaunch (based in the USA, but international)
mp3 Poland - (Based in Poland - mostly domestic)
Good Google will searches turn up more small sites, thousands of independent artists' sites with free mp3's, some smaller labels that have free samples, many, many links pages. The biggest problem here is that it takes time to separate the wheat from the chaff. There is some incredibly good stuff out there and a lot of crap.
Use Google - many local newspaper sites have mp3 sections for local artists and there are many mp3 sites that are specifically for local talent.
If you're not familiar with mp3.com, it can be daunting in the sheer volume of material (no pun intended). And they accept material of all (musical) quality from absolute crap to incredibly good. They have many genre-based top-40 style charts and new-release charts. Walking through those is a natural first step. One concept they have that can be a big help is "stations" - really a euphemism for fan-generated lists of tunes by various artists. The tunes can be played separately or sequentially. So, when you find an artist that you like and get to their page, click on the "stations now playing" tab. On that page could be one to several "stations" where you might find additional good material that someone else has taken the time to comb out and list. I've seen lists from 2 to 200 tunes long - this can expand your options very quickly.
I have looked for ogg sources and found precious few. Unfortunately, Ogg is still a long way from critical mass.
... I expected that I'd have both comments within 5 minutes of my posting. Call it poetic license - it's funnier this way. Good thing I beat you to the typo, eh?
I can spel - honust. Must proof-read, must proof-read ...