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News for the week beginning March 10th, 2008
by John Vining posted March 18, 2008
» Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have managed to rake in $1.6M in the first week or so of releasing their record Ghosts I-IV online. The album-all of which is available on Amazon, and part of which is legitimately online here-is a collection of instrumental songs NIN recorded in one ten-week period last fall. Recently, Reznor called the similar effort by Radiohead insincere because their files were of low quality. Also, Trent has announced that there will be a film festival (probably on YouTube, he says) consisting of visuals that fans make connected to the pieces from Ghosts. Also in The Future: R.E.M. will preview their new record through the site and Facebook application iLike.
» Readme: In the UK, a girl was beat and kicked to death because she was a goth. The girl and her boyfriend were both reportedly attacked by five teenagers "because they dressed differently." A commenter on NME thinks that they were probably "chavs," a type of British hipster I didn't even know about, who is known to tuck his track pants into his socks.
» Rolling Stone and the elections: Rolling Stone has announced its official endorsement of Barack Obama. Along with that, they have posted an interesting set of photos of musicians known to help politicians out. Some favorites: 50 Cent and Timbaland for Hill-Dog, and Kid Rock wearing an American flag poncho. You will not, unfortunately, be getting endorsements from us since we haven't homogenized our views and retain our own separate fancies.
» Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the woman who flew to New York to engage in that consensual business deal with Eliot Spitzer, has found a little bit of stardom, thanks to her jams now becoming somewhat popular. Her Myspace has been flooded by interested folks trying to hear her music. The real headline here, however, is that somehow-perhaps through the grace of the almighty trying to save this young woman from the oldest profession in the world-somehow Myspace actually managed to function properly enough for people to hear her music.
» The impending ISP surcharge: It looks like, again, there might be some life to the idea of a $5 per user surcharge on all ISP's to cover for the file-sharing that an internet connection might use. The fee would be charged to the ISP's which means that it would in turn be charged to the consumers. Artists would then be compensated based on how much their files were being shared. At first it sounds like a good idea, but to me there is a problem: it does not charge people in relation to how much music they consume. This means two things. The first is that people who download a gigabyte a day are paying as much as someone who is getting none, which then means that people have no incentive not to download everything they ever run into. This leads to the second: when people are downloading everything they run into, they aren't necessarily downloading because they think the music is good, or that they think they will like it. This means that artists will be compensated based on the whims of the downloaders (not based on their deeper, 10-dollar connections to the bands, or maybe not), and mostly by money from people who do not have their music. Otherwise, it's utopia!
» The Rest, in short: Justin Timberlake lies and starts show about someone who's got no macking abilities; Snoop Dogg is set to have an extended cameo on the ABC soap "One Life to Live", and Spears has one on CBS' "How I Met Your Mother"; The Eels invite Bush to shows in D.C.; Aphex Twin and Goldfrapp join this year's Coachella; Activision defends their idea of making a non-licensed Gibson SG controller for Guitar Hero; The late Jeff Buckley gets his first no. 1 because of American Idol; Pitchfork festival announces its initial lineup; People charged for trying to make counterfeit tickets to Isle of Wight; Van Morrison asked bars to stop the booze and audience to shut off phones at SXSW; A new Wesley Willis documentary has been completed.
» Other fun stuff, in short: Some Kentucky lawmaker has proposed a bill to make anonymous posting on the internet illegal (does he have some really bad trolls on his favorite forum?); Service-to-everyone-but-cops website ratemycop.com has had a hard time finding a home, but for the moment has one.
» Readme: In the UK, a girl was beat and kicked to death because she was a goth. The girl and her boyfriend were both reportedly attacked by five teenagers "because they dressed differently." A commenter on NME thinks that they were probably "chavs," a type of British hipster I didn't even know about, who is known to tuck his track pants into his socks.
» Rolling Stone and the elections: Rolling Stone has announced its official endorsement of Barack Obama. Along with that, they have posted an interesting set of photos of musicians known to help politicians out. Some favorites: 50 Cent and Timbaland for Hill-Dog, and Kid Rock wearing an American flag poncho. You will not, unfortunately, be getting endorsements from us since we haven't homogenized our views and retain our own separate fancies.
» Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the woman who flew to New York to engage in that consensual business deal with Eliot Spitzer, has found a little bit of stardom, thanks to her jams now becoming somewhat popular. Her Myspace has been flooded by interested folks trying to hear her music. The real headline here, however, is that somehow-perhaps through the grace of the almighty trying to save this young woman from the oldest profession in the world-somehow Myspace actually managed to function properly enough for people to hear her music.
» The impending ISP surcharge: It looks like, again, there might be some life to the idea of a $5 per user surcharge on all ISP's to cover for the file-sharing that an internet connection might use. The fee would be charged to the ISP's which means that it would in turn be charged to the consumers. Artists would then be compensated based on how much their files were being shared. At first it sounds like a good idea, but to me there is a problem: it does not charge people in relation to how much music they consume. This means two things. The first is that people who download a gigabyte a day are paying as much as someone who is getting none, which then means that people have no incentive not to download everything they ever run into. This leads to the second: when people are downloading everything they run into, they aren't necessarily downloading because they think the music is good, or that they think they will like it. This means that artists will be compensated based on the whims of the downloaders (not based on their deeper, 10-dollar connections to the bands, or maybe not), and mostly by money from people who do not have their music. Otherwise, it's utopia!
» The Rest, in short: Justin Timberlake lies and starts show about someone who's got no macking abilities; Snoop Dogg is set to have an extended cameo on the ABC soap "One Life to Live", and Spears has one on CBS' "How I Met Your Mother"; The Eels invite Bush to shows in D.C.; Aphex Twin and Goldfrapp join this year's Coachella; Activision defends their idea of making a non-licensed Gibson SG controller for Guitar Hero; The late Jeff Buckley gets his first no. 1 because of American Idol; Pitchfork festival announces its initial lineup; People charged for trying to make counterfeit tickets to Isle of Wight; Van Morrison asked bars to stop the booze and audience to shut off phones at SXSW; A new Wesley Willis documentary has been completed.
» Other fun stuff, in short: Some Kentucky lawmaker has proposed a bill to make anonymous posting on the internet illegal (does he have some really bad trolls on his favorite forum?); Service-to-everyone-but-cops website ratemycop.com has had a hard time finding a home, but for the moment has one.