Kim Dotcom slammed as ‘chubby Che Guevara’ at music body the BPI’s annual general meeting | The Gaurdian UK

We’ve recently posted about the number of artists speaking out about being exploited by internet corporations. Here are some recent rumblings from across the pond…

Former Longpigs star and current co-CEO of Featured Artists Coalition Crispin Hunt calls for labels to reveal Megaupload mogul ‘as the self-interested privateer that he is’

“No artist with anything worth saying wants to live in a medieval world of cottage industry that Kim Dotcom and co prescribe, retraining as a plumber in the day and making bedroom albums, uploaded to an ocean of mediocrity along with the 10,000 other works of genius uploaded to SoundCloud every day, eking a living from selling CDs and t-shirts at poorly-attended gigs, peopled by an audience of well-wishing friends, who all crowdfunded their mates’ albums, exhausted at the choice of 30 gigs a night to see in Norwich alone, and bored by the endless tours of ageing dads on stage who would much rather be settled down watching Later with the kids than donning Paul Weller-style Indie Man Hair and flogging around the toilets of Britain in a splitter, whilst some kid rips the life-work of their youth from HulkShare because he wants to spend his money on Gran Turismo 25.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GUARDIAN UK:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/04/kim-dotcom-crispin-hunt-piracy-bpi

by Trichordist Editor

If YouTube is the New College Radio, Can YouTube Keep the Hate Group Playlists?

Music Technology Policy

Google is making a big push to get colleges and universities to take their various Google Apps for Education

For “free”, of course.  And we all know who the product is on a “free” Google app, right?

The product is you.

These education apps appear to link the user to Google’s entire suite of products, including YouTube.  And of course as soon as you leave the education environment and go to say YouTube, what happens to the privacy policy and terms of use?  It grows up to the same privacy policy that applies to everyone inside or outside of the Education environment.  And in the case of Google’s case study clients, the New York State K-12 Schools, the Maine Township High School District and the Edmonton Public Schools (in Edmonton, Canada), that includes grades K-12, not just college-age adults.

 

And there’s the real story behind the “free” education…

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by thetrichordist

Franz Ferdinand call on David Cameron for Help | The Independnet UK

Franz Ferdinand’s 2004 debut album sold 3.6 million copies worldwide, including 1.27 million in the UK alone. Their fourth release, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, although critically well-received entered the charts at number 6, selling fewer than 10,000 copies. The decline is in line with a global slump in album sales over the past seven years, which has particularly afflicted guitar bands.

Kapranos added: “I saw an old photograph where all the women were working in a factory pressing up copies of Rubber Soul and putting them into sleeves. (The image of workers producing The Beatles’ album was taken at EMI’s Hayes pressing plaint in 1965). This music industry in the UK in the past has supported so many people’s careers and livelihoods. Nowadays it feels like people don’t give a s***. That’s not cool.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/do-you-want-to-save-the-music-industry-franz-ferdinand-call-on-david-cameron-for-help-8809231.html

by trichordist

The Lie is Falling – Dr. Price sizes the Piracy Universe | Illusion Of More

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Butch (Paul Newman) sits astride his horse outside the same boxcar of the same train he’s successfully robbed over and over.  Frustrated by the railroad owner’s ceaseless but futile attempts to thwart the hold-ups, Butch proclaims, “If he’d just pay me what he’s spending to make me stop robbing him, I’d stop robbing him!”  Of course it isn’t true, is it?  Neither the character nor probably the real Butch Cassidy would likely have given up the life he knew for something as boring as just money.

If you wanted to watch this classic film directed by George Roy Hill right now, you could do so on Netflix or Amazon Prime or rent it from iTunes for four bucks. None of these innovations existed just a few years ago, and those who have repeatedly insisted that they “only use pirate sites because affordable, flexible, online alternatives don’t exist” are starting to sound a little dumb.  This is especially true as of yesterday, with the release of a new report by Dr. David Price of London-based NetNames, entitled Sizing the piracy universe.

READ THE FULL POST AT THE ILLUSION OF MORE:
http://illusionofmore.com/piracy_universe/

by Trichordist Editor

Xbox Music : Microsoft to Pay The Most of Any Music Streaming Service?

This could get interesting. Digital Music News reports “The Xbox Music streaming service is venturing into iOS and Android platforms, as well as free internet streaming, with newly adorned with apps and features. The Web service will provide on-demand access to 30 million songs, with an ad-free subscription or ad-supported free use.”

What makes this even more interesting is that Microsoft appears to be paying more than any other streaming service that we know of  (we don’t know what Itunes Radio is paying yet).

Faza at The Cynical Musician wrote this:

A Quickie: XBox Music Royalties

Since this is streaming money, there’s not a lot of it, but the rate is absolutely astounding: the latest statement pegs a stream at 3.6 cents. Yep, you read that right: several cents a pop. Traditionally, I’ll do a quick stream-to-download calculation which works out at 18 XBox Music streams to one iTunes download (both numbers for songs to which we own the entirety of rights, making CD Baby the only middle-man – they take a commission of 9% I believe).

It’s a sign of the times when we get excited by a per stream rate of 3.6 cents…

by Trichordist Editor

Search Engines = G.P.S. for Online Piracy | Vox Indie

More great work from VoxIndie!

I don’t need a study to prove that search engines are an integral force in fueling online piracy, but since the piracy debate is awash in dueling studies I’ll happily chime in on the subject again.

Last week Google published a report–a characteristically self-congratulatory piece of fluff–declaring themselves to be a leader  in the fight against piracy and that took great pains to deny the significance of “search” in maintaining the online pirate economy.  The report repeated claims made in a recent study (published by a consortium of tech giants including Google) that it’s poor SEO techniques that are the problem–not search engines.

READ THE FULL POST AT VOX INDIE:

by Trichordist Editor

Online Piracy of Entertainment Content Keeps Soaring | The Los Angeles Times

The amount of Internet bandwidth used to illegally download movies, TV shows, music, books and video games has jumped 160% since 2010, a study says.

Despite the growth of Netflix, Amazon.com and other legal channels for watching entertainment online, the volume of pirated movies, TV shows, music, books and video games online continues to grow at a rapid pace.

The amount of bandwidth used for copyright infringement in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific has grown nearly 160% from 2010 to 2012, accounting for 24% of total Internet bandwidth, according to a study from NetNames, the British brand protection firm.

At the same time, the number of people engaged in copyright infringement has grown dramatically too. In January2013, 327 million unique users illegally sought copyrighted content, generating 14 billion page views on websites focused on piracy, up 10% from November 2011, according to the report.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-piracy-bandwith-20130917,0,1550997.story

by trichordist

How Google (Doesn’t) Fight Piracy | Vox Indie

Claiming to be a “leader” in the fight against piracy is Google’s first mistake

This past week Google issued a report, “How Google Fights Piracy,” in which the tech giant attempts to explain what a great job it’s doing leading battle against online piracy. After reading it I think a more accurate title would be “Why Google Shouldn’t Have to Fight Piracy Because it Offers so Much Other Good Stuff.”

In an effort to burnish their tarnished image, the authors resort to repeating well-worn and disingenuous Google-spawned memes (which I’ve repeatedly deconstructed on this blog). These include:

* YouTube makes money for artists so there’s no need to provide a transparent accounting

* DMCA abuse is a considerable problem Search is “not a major driver of traffic to pirate sites”

* Google is committed to “rooting out and ejecting rogue sites” from AdSense

* Google quickly and efficiently terminates Blogger websites that feature pirated content

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://voxindie.org/how-google-does-not-fight-piracy

by trichordist

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN: ‘The Music Industry Died Because Of The Piracy’

More and more artists, across more and more genres are recognizing the truth of the last decade. Musicians are more exploited and less empowered.

Classic Rock Revisited: The Internet changed a lot for the industry; piracy has certainly had a hand in changing the game. Do you think that piracy can be beneficial to some of those bands starting out? How has it affected you?

Yngwie: How could it possibly be positive? If you go into a store and you see a car that you like, you can’t just drive off with it. The cost and the blood and sweat and tears that go into making music is the same thing, it’s not free. Try telling the engineer and the producer that they have to work for free. It’s utterly bizarre. It’s like just going into a store and taking things off the shelves. It’s stealing. The reason there are no bands coming out now is that the money that was once there is not there anymore. So what happened was, in essence, by pirating music, you kill the music industry. The music industry died because of the piracy, and now all the fans will have no new music. Isn’t that wonderful? It’s a direct consequence of that.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT:
http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/yngwie-malmsteen-the-music-industry-died-because-of-the-piracy/#1OZMq3k6ja5r60fI.99

by trichordist