Thier "older" stuff - the new album that you suggest pales in comparison. Specifically, Nothingface, AngelRat and The Outer Limits (with 3d glasses and art!!).
Also in the heavy progressive vein, download the now free music from the now-defunct Laundry, which featured Herb from Primus on drums and vocals (Motivator, not Blackface): http://www.laundryroom.net
1. Revoking the corporate charters of:
a. corps that are blatantly destructive to the environment and b. the members of the RIAA
2. Tar, feather and ride on a rail Bush and all his cronies for their obvious imperialistic and profiteering war mongering
Need I go on? There is no representation in American politics - we are back to the tea party and active resistance is the only way to make our voice heard.
Back on topic:
Do you think that this one senator really represents the consumer? He's just playing us in the hopes of bounding the argument. At the end of the day, it is corporation vs. consumer and our government is failing to do their duty and protect us. The only solution is to pick up your "guns" and fight. Come on all you 1337 hax0r5 - build a better Kazaa that they can't stop - force them out of business. Then you better do the right thing and build a way for the artists to get paid directly.
You'd think that it would be possible to abstract the control scheme and build a controller that was more natural.
That RC mission in Vice City sucked 'cause it was way to hard to grok the controls.
The world is a harsh place and being dirt poor makes you vunerable. I would advise kids to focus on a specialization first that lends itself to making money. Later in life, when you have the luxury, go back to school and make yourself well rounded.
Me and all of my friends form a "co op." We all agree to buy CDs and trade them amongst ourselves. Not on a public P2P connection - maybe something simple (unless you have a linksys) like ftp. Maybe a password protected web site with links that we dynamically add to our local host.
The trick is, I don't let joe sixpack know about it - or any anonymous surfer. Let's see the RIAA get me now.
ummm - gee - that's what I was doing in '98.
"Just as long as you never end up with a job requiring those "cool things"."
That is my point - I am a geek making 6figs - I'd love to have a job that "required" extensive knowledge of cool things like:
1. Exisitential Philosophy
2. Quantum Physics
3. prehistoric tribal cultures
4. the american conquest
etc...
BUT - reality is that these cool things will not translate to the ever important $$$$. These are actual classes that my gf took at UCB while racking up over 40k in student loans to get a liberal arts degree.
I can't beleive that we sell this to kids as a path to success in this fucked up, money rules all, dog eat dog culture.
The reality is that technology will cange the way we learn stuff. The problem is that there are so many people entrenched (dependant) on the old way that the paridigm shift will be fought tooth and nail. Physically going to a classroom (school at all for that matter) is a waste of time and money for students. If someone built a colaborative learning tool (or used one of the many available tools) I'm confiden that we could develop an educational system that would develop knowledge much more efficiently.
Someone should earn some karma by providing some googles on the following:
1. open source collaborative education tools
2. virtual universities that push the technical envelope
The other issue is that our current educational system does not teach people the skills they need to survive in the business world. It seems based on an idealistic view of creating well rounded "renaissance" minds, which is neat and all, but seems like a rich kid luxury to me. When I realized this I blew off school and focused on making money and never looked back. When I am retired, I will go to school to learn cool stuff because it is fun.
I think that we need more "trade" oriented schooling for kids filled with classes like: powerpoint 102: how to impress the PHB without doing any tangible work
Because most price comparison sites use the word review relative to the online shop selling the item. The problem is one of context and it should be a simple one to solve - google needs some words to be defined as keywords - "review" being one of them. (obviously you would want to have the ability to opt out of the keyword consideration)
Pinball is basically dead. Williams/Bally was the only manufacturer that ever made games that played well and had good flipper action. I just bought myself a Theatre of Magic. I checked out the new Stern games, but they all felt just like the crappy Sega/Gottileb pins.
I have heard a rumor that some company was talking about buying the rights to Williams pins. Seems like a brilliant idea to me - make new versions of the classics...
The will let you exchange them one for one. The online version got me playing again. I have boxes full of cards, but organizing them into decks and then finding geeky people to play with is just something that, as an adult, I don't have much time for. Online, there is always a player and you can play sealed deck which elimitanes the "richest players win." The game kicks ass and I will continue to play it for a long time. It is no longer my primary game addiction, but I can always fire it up and play a good 30 minute game.
The reality is that we (the techno elite) should be responsible for building a workable solution that would allow artists a way to make a living (not make a million).
The old guard (RIAA et al) was terminally flawed and we engineered a consumer revolution. I think that is great - yay us! Our government failed to protect the consumer from evil corporations (as they always will until we find a way to take money out of politics) and we stood up for ourselves (and even joe/josephine sixpack) and showed that we really aren't as powerless as the media scares us into beleiving we are. Unfortunately, like most revolutionaries, we didn't build a sustainable new way.
If we build compensation into the system and it makes good artists successful, then the artists will come. There are plenty of unsigned acts out there that are better than the crap the corps are selling, but they are all trying to get signed because it seems the only way to make a living.
We're so smart and leet - we should be able to figure this out.
I am the market - an open letter to the RIAA
on
The Future of the CD
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
What follows is a short history of my economic experience of music and a simple business model for the labels to recapture my wallet:
Back in the old days, when I had my first CD player, I went out and replicated my sizable record collection at $12-$13 a pop (note that I lived in Berkeley, which is blessed with two awesome non-chain retailers - Rasputins and Ameoba) - this took all of my struggling-student-with-no-loans spare cash. Over the course of a year, I bought 80+ CDs. It sucked hard, but I hated records and tapes (no nastalgia for me). Back then, the rumor was that the price of CDs was inflated to cover the cost of retooling manufacturing and would come down below record prices because they were cheaper to make.
Five years later, the prices didn't go down and my 200+ CD collection was stolen from my ghetto appartment. I was literally in tears. That was more than $2500 and I was still pretty poor due to the early 90s resession. The upside was that stolen CDs were valuable because there was a budding used CD market in the Bay Area. Once Rasputins & Ameoba started selling used CDs in quantity, I stopped buying new CDs altogether. This is early 90's and I already dropped out of the label's direct market. Here I was, a 20-something kid that was so in love with music that I would spend the better part of my expendable cash on CDs and I dropped right off their books because I could buy "Nevermind" for $9 if I waited a month after it came out.
Funny thing is that I started making serious money. I still wouldn't buy new CDs. I was used to paying $6-9 and there was no way I could go back. I probably missed out on a lot of music, because I was limited to what college kids would buy and return.
Then came burners - I spent many hours burning all of my friends CD collections. Shortly thereafter came MP3s. I was already pirating software on the FTP scene (another economic lesson to be learned for the SW companies, but I'm not gonna stray there), so suddenly, I'm not even buying used CDs anymore.
So where does this leave us? Well, I'm in my mid 30s, make 6figs, and I like a huge variety of musical genres. I could spend $250 a month on music and not bat an eye, but I don't. The labels have alienated me. I virulently despise them, but I am a music addicted consumer. If they offered me something that had value to me, I would embrace the bastards with loving arms.
So, what can they do for me that would convince me to give them my money again? Simple:
1. Save me time - downloading stuff on Kazaa is work: sifting through the crappy files, figuring out which songs I am missing from a given CD, and organizing the 40+gigs of it all - this stuff takes time and my time is worth money to me. Figure out ways to save me time and I will pay a price for it.
2. Selection - I am limited to what the masses are trading. I like obscure shit and am willing to experiment, but not at $15-17 (notice how this trended higher?) a pop - no fricking way!
3. Ease my concious - I admit it, I feel bad for screwing the artists by downloading mp3s. The problem is, they are already getting so screwed by the labels. It's kinda like buying Nikes - hard to say whether it helping the poor little Indonesian kid or not. Besides, the less that people give the labels, they less they have to offer the artists who should really all jump ship anyway. I buy Timberland clothes 'cause they make a big deal about how their sweatshops are less satanic than others. Treat the artists well so I don't feel bad about promoting your exploitation of them. Tax the superstars a bit to feed the starving artists - music should be a middle class profession.
So, how can the labels meet these needs? Again, simple:
Give me FTP access to a full catalog (all labels in one place)of high quality, verified, DRM-free and properly tagged MP3s. How much would I be willing to pay for this? Figure 2-4 bucks for 10 songs. That's $.20 -.40 a song. Bill me based on bandwidth - that's 5-10 cents per MB (assuming an average of 4min songs). The only real limit to my spending at this price is the availability of good music - better go find some talented new artists fast!
This would keep me off Kazaa - I promise. I might give some of this to my friends for free, but that is usually stuff that they wouldn't have bought anyway.
For physical media, I would pay 5-7 bucks for a CD if it came with a bandwidth rebate, and an access code to a spiffy band website with news, lyrics, tablature, special monthly download songs and a $10/year subscription to have access to every live show.
And labels, before you complain that your promotion budgets wouldn't be covered at these rates, you should know that I don't listen to ClearChannel, I don't watch MTV, I don't hang out in record stores and that wallpapering of downtown areas with posters just pisses me off.
So, in conclusion, my case is a clear illustration that the RIAA statistic is correct - I don't spend less on CDs - I couldn't buy less than none. Win me back - it's not that hard and it's not too late. I am the consumer and you are supposed to be serving me - make me a happy, full, fed and fat sheep and I'll open up my wallet for you, but treat me like your enemy, and I will be a wolf poaching your chickens with impunity - the choice is yours.
Slashdot Mirror
Thier "older" stuff - the new album that you suggest pales in comparison. Specifically, Nothingface, AngelRat and The Outer Limits (with 3d glasses and art!!). Also in the heavy progressive vein, download the now free music from the now-defunct Laundry, which featured Herb from Primus on drums and vocals (Motivator, not Blackface): http://www.laundryroom.net
1. Revoking the corporate charters of: a. corps that are blatantly destructive to the environment and b. the members of the RIAA
2. Tar, feather and ride on a rail Bush and all his cronies for their obvious imperialistic and profiteering war mongering
Need I go on? There is no representation in American politics - we are back to the tea party and active resistance is the only way to make our voice heard.
Back on topic:
Do you think that this one senator really represents the consumer? He's just playing us in the hopes of bounding the argument. At the end of the day, it is corporation vs. consumer and our government is failing to do their duty and protect us. The only solution is to pick up your "guns" and fight. Come on all you 1337 hax0r5 - build a better Kazaa that they can't stop - force them out of business. Then you better do the right thing and build a way for the artists to get paid directly.
You'd think that it would be possible to abstract the control scheme and build a controller that was more natural. That RC mission in Vice City sucked 'cause it was way to hard to grok the controls.
The world is a harsh place and being dirt poor makes you vunerable. I would advise kids to focus on a specialization first that lends itself to making money. Later in life, when you have the luxury, go back to school and make yourself well rounded.
Me and all of my friends form a "co op." We all agree to buy CDs and trade them amongst ourselves. Not on a public P2P connection - maybe something simple (unless you have a linksys) like ftp. Maybe a password protected web site with links that we dynamically add to our local host.
The trick is, I don't let joe sixpack know about it - or any anonymous surfer. Let's see the RIAA get me now.
ummm - gee - that's what I was doing in '98.
"Just as long as you never end up with a job requiring those "cool things"." That is my point - I am a geek making 6figs - I'd love to have a job that "required" extensive knowledge of cool things like: 1. Exisitential Philosophy 2. Quantum Physics 3. prehistoric tribal cultures 4. the american conquest etc... BUT - reality is that these cool things will not translate to the ever important $$$$. These are actual classes that my gf took at UCB while racking up over 40k in student loans to get a liberal arts degree. I can't beleive that we sell this to kids as a path to success in this fucked up, money rules all, dog eat dog culture.
The reality is that technology will cange the way we learn stuff. The problem is that there are so many people entrenched (dependant) on the old way that the paridigm shift will be fought tooth and nail. Physically going to a classroom (school at all for that matter) is a waste of time and money for students. If someone built a colaborative learning tool (or used one of the many available tools) I'm confiden that we could develop an educational system that would develop knowledge much more efficiently.
Someone should earn some karma by providing some googles on the following:
1. open source collaborative education tools
2. virtual universities that push the technical envelope
The other issue is that our current educational system does not teach people the skills they need to survive in the business world. It seems based on an idealistic view of creating well rounded "renaissance" minds, which is neat and all, but seems like a rich kid luxury to me. When I realized this I blew off school and focused on making money and never looked back. When I am retired, I will go to school to learn cool stuff because it is fun.
I think that we need more "trade" oriented schooling for kids filled with classes like: powerpoint 102: how to impress the PHB without doing any tangible work
Because most price comparison sites use the word review relative to the online shop selling the item. The problem is one of context and it should be a simple one to solve - google needs some words to be defined as keywords - "review" being one of them. (obviously you would want to have the ability to opt out of the keyword consideration)
Pinball is basically dead. Williams/Bally was the only manufacturer that ever made games that played well and had good flipper action. I just bought myself a Theatre of Magic. I checked out the new Stern games, but they all felt just like the crappy Sega/Gottileb pins. I have heard a rumor that some company was talking about buying the rights to Williams pins. Seems like a brilliant idea to me - make new versions of the classics...
The will let you exchange them one for one. The online version got me playing again. I have boxes full of cards, but organizing them into decks and then finding geeky people to play with is just something that, as an adult, I don't have much time for. Online, there is always a player and you can play sealed deck which elimitanes the "richest players win." The game kicks ass and I will continue to play it for a long time. It is no longer my primary game addiction, but I can always fire it up and play a good 30 minute game.
The reality is that we (the techno elite) should be responsible for building a workable solution that would allow artists a way to make a living (not make a million). The old guard (RIAA et al) was terminally flawed and we engineered a consumer revolution. I think that is great - yay us! Our government failed to protect the consumer from evil corporations (as they always will until we find a way to take money out of politics) and we stood up for ourselves (and even joe/josephine sixpack) and showed that we really aren't as powerless as the media scares us into beleiving we are. Unfortunately, like most revolutionaries, we didn't build a sustainable new way. If we build compensation into the system and it makes good artists successful, then the artists will come. There are plenty of unsigned acts out there that are better than the crap the corps are selling, but they are all trying to get signed because it seems the only way to make a living. We're so smart and leet - we should be able to figure this out.
What follows is a short history of my economic experience of music and a simple business model for the labels to recapture my wallet:
.40 a song. Bill me based on bandwidth - that's 5-10 cents per MB (assuming an average of 4min songs). The only real limit to my spending at this price is the availability of good music - better go find some talented new artists fast!
Back in the old days, when I had my first CD player, I went out and replicated my sizable record collection at $12-$13 a pop (note that I lived in Berkeley, which is blessed with two awesome non-chain retailers - Rasputins and Ameoba) - this took all of my struggling-student-with-no-loans spare cash. Over the course of a year, I bought 80+ CDs. It sucked hard, but I hated records and tapes (no nastalgia for me). Back then, the rumor was that the price of CDs was inflated to cover the cost of retooling manufacturing and would come down below record prices because they were cheaper to make.
Five years later, the prices didn't go down and my 200+ CD collection was stolen from my ghetto appartment. I was literally in tears. That was more than $2500 and I was still pretty poor due to the early 90s resession. The upside was that stolen CDs were valuable because there was a budding used CD market in the Bay Area. Once Rasputins & Ameoba started selling used CDs in quantity, I stopped buying new CDs altogether. This is early 90's and I already dropped out of the label's direct market. Here I was, a 20-something kid that was so in love with music that I would spend the better part of my expendable cash on CDs and I dropped right off their books because I could buy "Nevermind" for $9 if I waited a month after it came out.
Funny thing is that I started making serious money. I still wouldn't buy new CDs. I was used to paying $6-9 and there was no way I could go back. I probably missed out on a lot of music, because I was limited to what college kids would buy and return.
Then came burners - I spent many hours burning all of my friends CD collections. Shortly thereafter came MP3s. I was already pirating software on the FTP scene (another economic lesson to be learned for the SW companies, but I'm not gonna stray there), so suddenly, I'm not even buying used CDs anymore.
So where does this leave us? Well, I'm in my mid 30s, make 6figs, and I like a huge variety of musical genres. I could spend $250 a month on music and not bat an eye, but I don't. The labels have alienated me. I virulently despise them, but I am a music addicted consumer. If they offered me something that had value to me, I would embrace the bastards with loving arms.
So, what can they do for me that would convince me to give them my money again? Simple:
1. Save me time - downloading stuff on Kazaa is work: sifting through the crappy files, figuring out which songs I am missing from a given CD, and organizing the 40+gigs of it all - this stuff takes time and my time is worth money to me. Figure out ways to save me time and I will pay a price for it.
2. Selection - I am limited to what the masses are trading. I like obscure shit and am willing to experiment, but not at $15-17 (notice how this trended higher?) a pop - no fricking way!
3. Ease my concious - I admit it, I feel bad for screwing the artists by downloading mp3s. The problem is, they are already getting so screwed by the labels. It's kinda like buying Nikes - hard to say whether it helping the poor little Indonesian kid or not. Besides, the less that people give the labels, they less they have to offer the artists who should really all jump ship anyway. I buy Timberland clothes 'cause they make a big deal about how their sweatshops are less satanic than others. Treat the artists well so I don't feel bad about promoting your exploitation of them. Tax the superstars a bit to feed the starving artists - music should be a middle class profession.
So, how can the labels meet these needs? Again, simple:
Give me FTP access to a full catalog (all labels in one place)of high quality, verified, DRM-free and properly tagged MP3s. How much would I be willing to pay for this? Figure 2-4 bucks for 10 songs. That's $.20 -
This would keep me off Kazaa - I promise. I might give some of this to my friends for free, but that is usually stuff that they wouldn't have bought anyway.
For physical media, I would pay 5-7 bucks for a CD if it came with a bandwidth rebate, and an access code to a spiffy band website with news, lyrics, tablature, special monthly download songs and a $10/year subscription to have access to every live show.
And labels, before you complain that your promotion budgets wouldn't be covered at these rates, you should know that I don't listen to ClearChannel, I don't watch MTV, I don't hang out in record stores and that wallpapering of downtown areas with posters just pisses me off.
So, in conclusion, my case is a clear illustration that the RIAA statistic is correct - I don't spend less on CDs - I couldn't buy less than none. Win me back - it's not that hard and it's not too late. I am the consumer and you are supposed to be serving me - make me a happy, full, fed and fat sheep and I'll open up my wallet for you, but treat me like your enemy, and I will be a wolf poaching your chickens with impunity - the choice is yours.