Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Our new strategy is to FAIL

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  • 3410,

    Oops. Mis-thread.

    Damn you! ;)

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Rangi Black,

    They still haven't learned their lesson have they. If they don't make it easy and convenient to download for money, then kids are gonna go back to the pirate bay.

    It's the 21st century - customer first!

    JP • Since Jun 2009 • 3 posts Report Reply

  • Morgan Nichol,

    The problem is that it's far from certain there will ever be the necessary advertising revenue for YouTube and Spotify to really pay everyone.

    Depends on what you mean by "everyone" (and for that matter "pay"), there's little need for lawyers, middlemen, or a corporate hierarchy when the artist & the consumer are connected with 0 degrees of separation. We now have a more sophisticated recording studio in our back pocket than the biggest bands in the world used 20 years ago.

    Cost of production continues to approach zero, cost of distribution hit zero years ago. The only thing with value is creativity, and most creative people just want an audience, not 50 Bentley's and a world tour on a gold plated private jet.

    There's more than enough money swilling around to make a lot of artists rich. Probably not many will get Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger rich, but is that a big deal? No, because more corporate suits were getting rich than artists anyway, and what do they even add to the mix? Shit all.

    If the Music Industry types thinks things will ever go back to being the way they were, that's just too fucking bad.

    We're better off without them.

    Auckland CBD • Since Nov 2006 • 314 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    It's the 21st century - customer first!

    You poor, deluded creature. Let me fix that for you:

    It's the 21st century - buy legislation to criminalise the customer first! If that doesn't work? Buy legislation to impose artificial subsidies. If that doesn't work? Panic!

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Jake Pollock,

    Oh God, please no. Not this again.

    Raumati South • Since Nov 2006 • 489 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    Why yes, now that you ask, I am cynical about the major labels' commitment to fulfilling their customers' desires.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Depends on what you mean by "everyone" (and for that matter "pay"), there's little need for lawyers, middlemen, or a corporate hierarchy when the artist & the consumer are connected with 0 degrees of separation

    Authors and performers still need rights collecting societies. It's simply a practical thing, especially when those societies return about 90% of revenue to rights holders.

    But YouTube is already paying the British collecting agency more than it makes on the advertising around each clip. There's just no more money there, no matter how much people complain.

    In the case of Spotify, groups like Independent Music New Zealand negotiate licences on behalf of their members; indie labels. There's not a lot of waste there. But there's not a lot of money coming in either.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    @Steve Withers: that is (was) one of the nice things about eMusic: it was a completely RIAA-free zone. Still is if you're not in the US.

    But you know what? Someone in a position to know (or at least speculate) suggests to me that eMusic has never had the right to sell to New Zealanders. Which would explain certain recent events ...

    Although that does cast an even more interesting light on the RIANZ submission's bigging-up of eMusic ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Oh God, please no. Not this again.

    Hands up who wants to talk about films instead!

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Or perhaps sent to Christchurch / run over by a book racers car and then crushed along with the car.

    "My A la Recherche du Temps Perdu can totally kick your Barchester Chronicles's arse!"

    Now, that I'd stand on the side of the road to watch.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    "My A la Recherche du Temps Perdu can totally kick your Barchester Chronicles's arse!"

    "That asthmatic seeker of lost times forever squatting in a tepid bath of his remembered past and all the stale soap suds of countless previous washings, all the accumulated dirt of years lay crusty on the sides of the tub. And there he sat, scooping up spongefuls of his own thick soup and squeezing it over his face ... like a pious Hindu in the Ganges."

    Aldous Huxley, Eyeless in Gaza.

    Vrrrroooom!

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    Pfft.

    American muscle is the only way to go in a straght line drag.

    I'll go and warm up me Hemingway.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    I'll go and warm up me Hemingway.

    With good ol' Papa you get the added insurance of his having been an ambulance driver in WW1.
    Just like e. e. cummings.
    And Walt Disney.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Hands up who wants to talk about films instead!

    Hum... since the Better Half and I are taking his grand-nephew to see Ponyo on The Cliff by The Sea this morning... Works for me, though whether you can handle a tsunami of Miyazaki-related gush is another matter. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Hands up who wants to talk about films instead!

    I had meant to run a dedicated NZIFF blog, but work and my emergency medical excitements got in the way. I'll get up a rolling discussion this morning.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    And back OT, I gather Dylan Reeve of the should-a.com site has reached an agreement with the Electoral Enrolment Centre on the use of its imagery.

    The disclaimer now reads:

    This site is intended for the purposes of parody and to criticism of the August 2009 Citizens Initiated Referendum. Images are created by site contributors and are not endorsed by anyone else.

    Orange Elector is © Crown Copyright - Source: Elections NZ - This site is not affiliated with Elections NZ in any way.

    So it's not "Orange Election Man", it's the non-gendered "Orange Elector". Ah.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    I had meant to run a dedicated NZIFF blog, but work and my emergency medical excitements got in the way. I'll get up a rolling discussion this morning.

    Speaking of which, how much do you think the director formerly known as Zowie Bowie would rather talk about his movie than his father? Duncan Jones is a damn sight more graceful than I'd be...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Hum... since the Better Half and I are taking his grand-nephew to see Ponyo on The Cliff by The Sea this morning...

    ... and wondering how a ten-year-old is going to handle subtitled Japanese. I think we was so thoroughly gob-smacked by the visual splendour of Howl's Moving Castle at the Civic a few years back, that following the dialogue (or the story) was completely beside the point.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    ... and wondering how a ten-year-old is going to handle subtitled Japanese.

    Ponyo certainly worked its magic on a 10 yr old female Around Here. Knows & appreciates a totally radical take on The Little Mermaid when she sees it. 8 yr old brother somewhat underwhelmed though.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    My five-year-old daughter loves Spirited Away (dubbed, not subtitled). She spent the first half of the movie asking for it to be turned off every 10 minutes because it was too scary, then 30 seconds later saying "I'm ready for it again."

    And my nephew, who is half Japanese, does a good line in taking providing simultaneous explanation (like translation, but a bit more general) when watching unsubtitled Japanese DVDs with his grandparents.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Lyndon Hood,

    it's the non-gendered "Orange Elector"

    Well having examined his photos carefully, I agree he's not anatomically male...

    Maybe they're just trying to avoid rule 34

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1115 posts Report Reply

  • Lyndon Hood,

    In 2005 the listener interviewed the 'Orange Elections Man'.

    Which came up in my fruitless google for 'Orange Election Man porn'

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1115 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    So it's not "Orange Election Man", it's the non-gendered "Orange Elector". Ah.

    And yet questions remain.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    rofflenui

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Snort.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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