I've only been to Disney World, and just twice... first time was before Epcot existed, and Mr. Toad's Ride was unfortunately closed. Second time was a couple of years ago and it had already been replaced by the Pooh ride, which, imho, was pretty kickass.:)
Well, certainly... but our company sells industry-specific software... we only have two or three products which are all-mutually exclusive (i.e. if you've bought one, you're not likely to need the others as well). It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to promote to the customers really.
I suspect that after they pass the new anti-spam bill, we'll see a lot more of companies being sneaky about getting you to give them your email address so they can claim that you opted in. Read those click agreements!
Which of course begs the question, "of what value is an advertising email if you can only legally send it to people who've already bought the product?":)
Are you sure that you've got a valid email address in your profile there and that the messages weren't spam-blocked on your end? I got two or three emails from them about the change myself... if they didn't contact you it's surely an accident.
Also try IUMA.com, Vitaminic.com, Peoplesound.com... the list goes on and on. MP3.com's advantage was a great domain name... after that their business decisions were all pretty mindless.
You are aware that it's actually a hell of a lot cheaper to buy a box of CDRs and get some inserts printed up at your local copy center than to buy your own discs from MP3.com right? Not to mention that your puchased discs are actually lower quality audio than ones you self-make...
Just a thought!
As for new hosts, I've been happy with IUMA, but there are several others which are equally good. Of course, for $5 a month, you can simply get your own website like I have and not worry about getting lost in a giant site like MP3.com again.
As an MP3.com artist from the earliest days, I can honestly say that being bought up and f-disked is the best thing that could have happened to them. Any artist who was relying on MP3.com as their sole method of distribution or, even more stupidly, hosting music there which they retained no original copies of, is a moron and deserves the inconvenience.
Let me clear up a few misconceptions:
MP3.com doesn't own the music they host, and has no right to do anything with the existing files other than to delete them after notifying the artist.
MP3.com does not create physical copies of the music on CD until a purchase is made, so in theory they shouldn't have any physical CDs to destroy except for any discs which happen to be in the middle of being made on deletion day. If they're smart, they'll disable the CD-selling feature 24 hours in advance of the closing or something.
MP3.com has been barely worthwhile for the last three years since it was purchased by Universal. What was once a viable outlet for independent music online became brutalized by bad legal decisions, bad web design, bad customer relations, and eventually a drowning under Universal's own label content. I can only hope that c|net, who are generally a pretty decent bunch, can make something useful of the domain.
Well, if the ISP isn't even giving the user the chance to whitelist the email because it's being blocked at the gates, that's a violation of both the sender and the recipient's rights. It's along the lines of AOL's process of blackholing suspicious email without telling anyone.
Any ISP doing that would probably be in violation of some law about blocking commerce. It ought to be up to the user, not the ISP as to what mail they receive, and not all ADV: email is undesireable. My company sends out regular bulk advertisement emails which are already completely compliant with these new rules, and we get a pretty good percentage of our business from them. If ISPs started blanket-killing all ADV: emails, legitimate businesses with legitimate advertising emails like ours would lose a great deal of potential customers.
I can just see it now... someone hacks their server and releases all of these secret messages to everyone's wives, bosses, ex girlfriends, mothers... it'd be a freaking mess. Heck, even the owner of the service could decide to be a bastard one day and release them all for fun. I can't begin to fathom the sheer horror.
Drew
All I can say is that if you have a teenage daughter, make sure her in-room PC doesn't have a webcam. She'll end up naked all over Kazaa. Of course, if she's a hottie, go right ahead with that cam, and make sure to email me the address.:)
I've been saying from day one that if they find ways to improve the value of the product people will be more likely to buy it. People steal things because they feel that they're overpriced or not worth paying for. If you provide incentives to buy instead of punishment for stealing, you'll make a bigger impact. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I, for one, will be very interested to see how this all turns out.
My buddy Alex (quite possibly the most talented rock musician to come out of Cleveland since Joe Walsh) opened for them here a couple of weeks back. I didn't make it to the show, but the rumors were that the robots were really funny but the music was awful.
Drew
I fail to see how this proposal affects non-label artists. What about painters? What about indie bands? What about unpublished writers? What protects them from being ripped off? Who keeps track of all of the artists in the world and routes money to them? What happens when the "$20 billion annually" is spread so thin that no one makes enough to have it be worthwhile?
The proposal is laughable. If the music labels want to stop getting ripped off, they need to a) produce music that people respect enough not to steal, b) put serials on all CDs that people can register (like software) to get discounts, online chats, etc. and c) provide fair contracts to artists and fair prices to consumers so no one gets screwed.
Maybe they can take the AOL route on keeping out the spam... i.e. deleteing perefectly legitimate email on a regular basis without notifying the sender or intended recipient!
I say again... spam removal should be the task of the end-user. Spem prevention should be the task of the ISPs. People who send spam should be kicked off their service, but those who receive it should not be penalized with an "overlord spam filter" that may or may not filter the bad stuff and may or may not let them get the good stuff.
Drew
My company sends out bulk mails on a regular basis. We take every precaution to not "spam"... we provide real opt-out links, we use subject lines that start with ADV: and always relate directly to the content, and we provide contact phone numbers in every email. And yet, some prick decided to report us to SpamHaus and now several of our customers can no longer receive support via email because their corporate mail servers subscribe to SpamHaus and won't let our valid support correspondence through.
It should always be up to the user to filter their email. Blanket wiping email at the SMTP level is a very dodgy operation. Just ask the thousands of AOL users who've had valid emails 'blackholed' without warning.
Drew
P2P doesn't work as a promotional tool. When was the last time you used a P2P system to download a song you'd never heard of by a totally unknown artist? P2P systems allow people to download songs they already know, but they are in no way a good method of promoting indie content to new listeners. Indies have to self-promote to get any notice at all, and when most cities have very little non-corporate radio, it's almost impossible to get heard. And if you have a hundred fans who like your stuff, convincing them to buy a CD when they're so used to stealing all of their music online is a losing proposition. Trust me, I know.
If the RIAA wants to do something positive, they should give up on copy-protection schemes and find an incentive for people to buy legit CDs. They should have serials for music discs just like software, and offer discounts, tickets, merchandise, online chats, etc. to people who buy the discs. You can't stop people from pirating, but you can encourage them not to.
Drew
Slashdot Mirror
I've only been to Disney World, and just twice... first time was before Epcot existed, and Mr. Toad's Ride was unfortunately closed. Second time was a couple of years ago and it had already been replaced by the Pooh ride, which, imho, was pretty kickass. :)
Well, certainly... but our company sells industry-specific software... we only have two or three products which are all-mutually exclusive (i.e. if you've bought one, you're not likely to need the others as well). It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to promote to the customers really.
I suspect that after they pass the new anti-spam bill, we'll see a lot more of companies being sneaky about getting you to give them your email address so they can claim that you opted in. Read those click agreements!
Which of course begs the question, "of what value is an advertising email if you can only legally send it to people who've already bought the product?" :)
Are you sure that you've got a valid email address in your profile there and that the messages weren't spam-blocked on your end? I got two or three emails from them about the change myself... if they didn't contact you it's surely an accident.
Also try IUMA.com, Vitaminic.com, Peoplesound.com... the list goes on and on. MP3.com's advantage was a great domain name... after that their business decisions were all pretty mindless.
Just a thought!
As for new hosts, I've been happy with IUMA, but there are several others which are equally good. Of course, for $5 a month, you can simply get your own website like I have and not worry about getting lost in a giant site like MP3.com again.
DrewLet me clear up a few misconceptions:
- MP3.com doesn't own the music they host, and has no right to do anything with the existing files other than to delete them after notifying the artist.
- MP3.com does not create physical copies of the music on CD until a purchase is made, so in theory they shouldn't have any physical CDs to destroy except for any discs which happen to be in the middle of being made on deletion day. If they're smart, they'll disable the CD-selling feature 24 hours in advance of the closing or something.
- MP3.com has been barely worthwhile for the last three years since it was purchased by Universal. What was once a viable outlet for independent music online became brutalized by bad legal decisions, bad web design, bad customer relations, and eventually a drowning under Universal's own label content. I can only hope that c|net, who are generally a pretty decent bunch, can make something useful of the domain.
Drewformer squatter at mp3.com/arothman, mp3.com/YourSAB, mp3.com/IHands and mp3.com/WhatFour.
Well, if the ISP isn't even giving the user the chance to whitelist the email because it's being blocked at the gates, that's a violation of both the sender and the recipient's rights. It's along the lines of AOL's process of blackholing suspicious email without telling anyone.
I say Hormel Foods should sue the government for using the trademarked name of their canned meat product on this legislation without permission!
Any ISP doing that would probably be in violation of some law about blocking commerce. It ought to be up to the user, not the ISP as to what mail they receive, and not all ADV: email is undesireable. My company sends out regular bulk advertisement emails which are already completely compliant with these new rules, and we get a pretty good percentage of our business from them. If ISPs started blanket-killing all ADV: emails, legitimate businesses with legitimate advertising emails like ours would lose a great deal of potential customers.
I can just see it now... someone hacks their server and releases all of these secret messages to everyone's wives, bosses, ex girlfriends, mothers... it'd be a freaking mess. Heck, even the owner of the service could decide to be a bastard one day and release them all for fun. I can't begin to fathom the sheer horror. Drew
All I can say is that if you have a teenage daughter, make sure her in-room PC doesn't have a webcam. She'll end up naked all over Kazaa. Of course, if she's a hottie, go right ahead with that cam, and make sure to email me the address. :)
I've been saying from day one that if they find ways to improve the value of the product people will be more likely to buy it. People steal things because they feel that they're overpriced or not worth paying for. If you provide incentives to buy instead of punishment for stealing, you'll make a bigger impact. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I, for one, will be very interested to see how this all turns out.
My buddy Alex (quite possibly the most talented rock musician to come out of Cleveland since Joe Walsh) opened for them here a couple of weeks back. I didn't make it to the show, but the rumors were that the robots were really funny but the music was awful. Drew
I fail to see how this proposal affects non-label artists. What about painters? What about indie bands? What about unpublished writers? What protects them from being ripped off? Who keeps track of all of the artists in the world and routes money to them? What happens when the "$20 billion annually" is spread so thin that no one makes enough to have it be worthwhile? The proposal is laughable. If the music labels want to stop getting ripped off, they need to a) produce music that people respect enough not to steal, b) put serials on all CDs that people can register (like software) to get discounts, online chats, etc. and c) provide fair contracts to artists and fair prices to consumers so no one gets screwed.
Maybe they can take the AOL route on keeping out the spam... i.e. deleteing perefectly legitimate email on a regular basis without notifying the sender or intended recipient! I say again... spam removal should be the task of the end-user. Spem prevention should be the task of the ISPs. People who send spam should be kicked off their service, but those who receive it should not be penalized with an "overlord spam filter" that may or may not filter the bad stuff and may or may not let them get the good stuff. Drew
My company sends out bulk mails on a regular basis. We take every precaution to not "spam"... we provide real opt-out links, we use subject lines that start with ADV: and always relate directly to the content, and we provide contact phone numbers in every email. And yet, some prick decided to report us to SpamHaus and now several of our customers can no longer receive support via email because their corporate mail servers subscribe to SpamHaus and won't let our valid support correspondence through. It should always be up to the user to filter their email. Blanket wiping email at the SMTP level is a very dodgy operation. Just ask the thousands of AOL users who've had valid emails 'blackholed' without warning. Drew
P2P doesn't work as a promotional tool. When was the last time you used a P2P system to download a song you'd never heard of by a totally unknown artist? P2P systems allow people to download songs they already know, but they are in no way a good method of promoting indie content to new listeners. Indies have to self-promote to get any notice at all, and when most cities have very little non-corporate radio, it's almost impossible to get heard. And if you have a hundred fans who like your stuff, convincing them to buy a CD when they're so used to stealing all of their music online is a losing proposition. Trust me, I know. If the RIAA wants to do something positive, they should give up on copy-protection schemes and find an incentive for people to buy legit CDs. They should have serials for music discs just like software, and offer discounts, tickets, merchandise, online chats, etc. to people who buy the discs. You can't stop people from pirating, but you can encourage them not to. Drew