2008 Archives 2007 Archives 2006 Archives 2005 Archives 2004 Archives 2003 Archives 2002 Archives 2002 Music Predictions RIAA Statistics Don't Add Up to Piracy   Capturing the Hurricane Sessions Day 1 -- Spontaneous Session Day 2 -- Rhythm Tracks Day 3 -- Don and Betty More about Don's Tracks Day 4 -- Vocals and Leads Mixdown Part One -- Initial compression, Drum EQ, Submixes Part Two -- Bass Part Three -- Toms, Overheads, Guitar and Vocals Part Four -- Random Thoughts on Mixing Final Thoughts on the Sessions FOR MUSICIANS ONLY When Insanity is Part of the Job Description Selecting a Crew Losing My Audition Saving a Misunderstood Guitar Fiction Ghost Story Off Topic & Humor Free Jack Bauer! - Jan. 2008

2009 Archives   January Guitar Hero Widens Musical Horizons EMI Offers Free Tunes -- Then Sues You Indies Trashing Major Labels' Business Model Why the RIAA Stopped Filing Lawsuits RIAA Suddenly Gets Camera-Shy The Independent Artist Identity Crisis Media Supports Video Feed in Sony v Tenenbaum   February Techno-Geek Rambling Testing Pandora Ted Nugent Seeks NRA Presidency New Propaganda: Watching Streaming Video is Theft Okay, Enough is Enough Ruckus Bites the Dust February 10 -- It was hailed as a service that would "'completely alleviate' the copyright infringement issues on campus." Now, at the ripe old age of 3, Ruckus is dead, deceased, expired. It is no more. Cause of death has been determined to be DRM. Also at ars technica is an excellent article from a few days ago, How Harvard Law threw down the gauntlet to the RIAA (with gauntlet pic). Feb. 11 -- Muzak Files for Chapter 11 -- What's this? Sure, elevator music has its ups and downs, but are pirates stealing banal instrumental versions now? No, the debt they're trying to reorganize is money owed to ASCAP, Universal, EMI, Sony, BMG Music and Television, Virgin Records, UPS, AT&T and Dish Network. Sirius XM Prepares for Possible Bankruptcy -- They are so far in debt that they aren't even going to try reorganizing. Obama Breaks Ethics Promise February 18 -- Reporting on the RIAA legal world, Ray Beckerman is pointing out that, since two RIAA lawyers occupy the number 2 and number 3 positions in the Justice Dept., if the DOJ decides to intervene in Sony v. Cloud, Obama's promise of ethics and not letting lobbyists influence policy in the fields for which they lobbied turns out to be bullshit. Includes a link to write to the Prez. There are at least two other articles linked there that I would talk about if I had more time. One is a study of Trent Reznor's business model, which coincidentally serves as a point-by-point validation of everything I've written in the past 6 years or so. I was always right; the RIAA was always wrong. The second is an example of RIAA propaganda being distributed in the schools, wherein the RIAA claims that the Grokster case included an approval to sue individuals for file-sharing. They'll also tell you they won Grokster, even though their motion for summary judgment was denied. So I'll check the new claim out if I get some time, but I'm pretty sure it's a lie, too. But for now, there is work to be done. Mr. Bungle Takes on The Pirate Bay February 18 -- The IFPI has managed to drag torrent tracking site The Pirate Bay into a Swedish court on the usual charges. On day two of the trial, all of the actual infringement charges were dropped when someone pointed out that the prosecution didn't have a clue. Then it gets funny. My Own Little World Associated Press Claims Ownership of 'Hot News' End of the RIAA?   March Warner Music Attacks Babies Piracy Statistics Do Not Exist Music Cartel Reportedly Planning All-RIAA YouTube RIAA Not (Quite) Dead Yet, Dammit Wide Angle View Fresh Out of Outrage   April Suddenly Springtime April 3 -- An April Fool's trick from the cat. April Fools Roundup April 6-- The Associated Press reminds me that they should be on the list. The New York Times reports that the "AP seeks to rein in..." I can only quote five words, so that's all I can tell you. In fact, I stopped even reading after 5 words because I'm a rule follower, so I never actually went to the page with the article. As a result, I don't know if it has anything to do with AP Claims Ownership of 'Hot... or maybe even Fair Use Limits You... April 4 -- Any proper list of fools begins with the music industry, which is so ashamed of how 2008 went that they're evidently not going to share any data about it -- not even the phony numbers they usually report. (More) Vevo -- Someone is Lying April 10 -- The New York Times has this: Doug Morris, chief executive of Universal, "said that over the last few years, Universal has gone from losing $70 million a year in the production of music videos for promotion, to earning roughly that amount now." And that's just Universal. According to the RIAA, which released its year-end statistics immediately after I ragged on them for not already doing it, the full suggested retail of the digital music video sector was $41.3 million, at about $2 for each video sold. Three points: A) This is another example of freely given "promotion" that became "You're stealing our stuff." B) The music video sales the RIAA is reporting are completely unrelated to the income Morris is talking about or one of them is lying. C) This is going to be major label music only. The other 5 million of us have all been deemed inferior. Addendum -- April 14 -- In the news recently were reports that the songwriter of "Never Gonna Give You Up," the Rick Astley song that was the punch line of being "rickrolled," had received a royalty check from YouTube for $16. But Doug Morris is making a fortune there. Hmmm... Obama Gives Fifth DOJ Position to RIAA April 14 -- The story is at Wired; even a lame explanation about the questionable logic in this decision is nowhere to be found. Up until this point, the law has been the greatest barrier to the RIAA, especially when they try to punish people for file-sharing, which isn't exactly against the law. And then there are the problems with price-fixing, collusion and antitrust questions when all four major labels create jointly owned enterprises. The RIAA used to claim immunity from the DOJ because they were foreign owned. Now the U.S. law will be no problem. -- GZ An Odd YouTube Story April 17 -- An article at the New York Times discusses YouTube's "transformation from an online jumble of amateur videos to a destination for mainstream TV programs and movies." I read on, kind of annoyed because YouTube used to call their content "user-generated" or "user-submitted" when that was all they had. Now it's just a bunch of amateur videos. They'll say it again, just so you get the point. "The site does not include ads alongside most videos created and uploaded by amateurs, which make up an overwhelming majority of the content on YouTube." I was ready to do a rant about who makes the distinction between professional and amateur, since they can't identify "illegal" music from Warner and Sony. And a few other things. Fortunately, after devoting 80 percent of the story to the contents of an article at Credit Suisse, which is where the Times writers are getting this, two honest sentences sneak in. "YouTube does not release the numbers." "A YouTube spokesman said [that the] report was inaccurate and was based on conjecture." The "inaccurate conjecture" comprised the bulk of the story and, except for those two sentences, the Credit Suisse story is not questioned, just repeated. Pirate Bay Judge is Copyright Lobbyist April 23 -- The complete story is at both torrentfreak and Sweden's The Local. Judge Tomas Norström, who presided over the trial of those responsible for The Pirate Bay, is a member of the Swedish Copyright Association. The other three members represented the entertainment industry in the TPB trial. Norström is also on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property. "Norström argues that he was not, however, swayed in his judgement by involvement with copyright protection groups," says The Local, adding a quote from Norström on Swedish radio -- "My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest." Once again, we see that the music inquisition can only score a trial victory when the game is rigged. This is why it disturbs me so much that they run the DOJ now.   May Peeking Out at the Real World Rocking Out With Vietnam Vets Crooks and Liars Idle Chatter   June RIAA Dares To Be Stupid ASCAP Tries to Bill AzOz For Cover Songs DRM Dimwits Still Trying to Kill Off Music $2 Million For 24 Songs? ASCAP Calls In Another Really Bad Idea   July Random Staccato Sony Invalidates IODA's Independent Status 7 Obnoxious Assholes Who Show Up At Every Concert RIAA Files Pack of Lies in Federal Court July 5 -- The RIAA has filed papers in Anderson v Atlantic claiming they have only sued 18,000 people. Really? "...since the RIAA began bringing lawsuits against file-sharers in the fall of 2003, it has filed more than 26,000 lawsuits." RIAA Spokesperson -- MacWorld.com -- Nov 2007   Fate, Publicity and the Giant Crap Shoot Variations on a Theme How to Spot a Fake Gibson Guitar Time-Warner, New Line's Copyright Hypocrisy Pirate Bay, Kazaa to Return July 20 -- Kazaa is going to be another subscription site run by the record labels, while The Pirate Bay will be adopting what BusinessWeek calls a "weird business plan," involving paying the people who offer and/or host content. I have no real opinion on this, but TPB's plan sounds more interesting. It's more likely to include the stuff the record labels didn't bother to save, stopped making long ago, or simply destroyed the masters. Update -- July 29 -- PC World reports that Swedish firm Global Gaming Factory, the people who were supposedly buying The Pirate Bay, doesn't have the $7.8 million they had agreed upon, so the guys from TPB are back to square one. We also learn that Wayne Rosso somehow became a member of the TPB's crew. Rosso used to run Grokster and iMesh, both of which were shut down by the RIAA. Update -- July 30 -- Global Gaming Factory says it now has the cash it needs. Update -- August 12 -- Peter Sunde, one of the original trio that started TPB, has jumped ship. Global Gaming says it is near a deal with all the record labels. Sony v Tenenbaum Microsoft Prepares to Eat Yahoo Viral Video Creators Lose in YouTube Music Deal     August Nancy Sinatra and the Ignorant Masses Reuters Takes Realistic Copyright Approach Crazy Train Rolls Through MySpace Buys iLike     September Lessons Learned? Nah. Can We Please Get Back to Reality? RIAA to Charge For Statistics Mexican Police Raid Sony Pirates September 11 -- Time for Another Look Musicians Oppose UK Anti-Piracy Plan Darwin Movie Too Controversial For U.S. ASCAP, BMI Kiss More RIAA Ass Idol Producers Turn Aussie Winners Into Losers September 18 -- Australian Idol winner Damien Leith and his runner-up Jessica Mauboy have both been metaphorically raped and beaten by the show's producers, with the help of Sony/BMG. The show's standard contract gives the producers the rights to the performances on the show, which enabled them to put together an album by the pair. The recording, Winner's Journey, sold 300 thousand copies. The artists' cut? Not a fucking dime. (More here and here.) That's the standard contract. They can go back and do that to every act that's ever been on the show. World Ends Tomorrow! Police Go On Military Offensive at G20 More Bogus Data From the Music Biz September 27 -- Yesterday, I discovered that the top selling records in the country are NOT what appears in Billboard's Top 200. What is it about the music industry that makes them unable to tell the truth about anything?? (More...)   October ASCAP Loses Ridiculous Ringtone Request The RIAA and the Secret Treaty of Doom (ACTA)   November Phoenix Needs More Character The Roaring Silence There is New Music on the Radio The State of the Dysfunction ASCAP Fees Closing Live Venues MPAA, Murdoch Compete For 'Idiot of the Month'   December Piracy Lawsuit Could Cost RIAA Billions Stacatto Independent Artists Shafted by Imeem Sale Random Stuff Britain's Great Christmas Chart Wars Researcher Offers Simple Test For Payola Record Bosses Trying To Cash In On Actress's Death 21st Century: The First 10 Years -- This is the Future?