Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: That's Entertainment

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  • Russell Brown,

    Actually I don't really agree with that. Pop aside, the celebrity playlists online are largely seen as a failure on the likes of iTunes.

    Yep. They're bollocks, by and large. But I often make use of the user playlists on emusic. They're a really handy path to follow.

    I simply can't see the likes of the Pin Group having legs online, perhaps selling a few dozen although it should be available.

    It wouldn't make sense on iTunes, or most other services. But, again, Roy Montgomery's solo albums seem to sell steadily through emusic, and the customer reviews are knowledgeable. If you put the Pin Group there, it would sell too - not a lot maybe, but enough to cover your fairly minimal costs.

    This was the point of the column I mentioned in the original blog post: Warners is hobbling itself because it won't put the back catalogue in the place where it has a shot at an audience.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    There is a difference: pop-ups are actively intrusive.

    I think we all agree on that but I was just trying to find out James' position on those, and I think he has the same position on blocking them as he does on banner advertising...

    but kept the ad-blocker as an extension that users had to seek out.

    And millions seemed to have done so...the Firefox pages indicate that over 15 million had done so to date (of the two most popular extensions) overwhelmingly the most applied extension..somebody must be using them

    I doubt it. The Vodafone banner did about 12,400 impressions yesterday, so clearly someone's loading the pages.

    which makes it worthwhile for Vodafone. But I would still suspect that, of the contributors to these forums, Adblocking software is likely to be widely applied....of course I say that without any real evidence beyond a gut feel. And those are not the sort of people a site like this would want to block.

    I know, that overwhelmingly casual viewers (especially those of an IE bent) do see the advertising, thus making it worthy, and I thoroughly support your placing of such to cover your bills, but I just as strongly feel that I have a right to exercise my option to place an adblocker on my browser, especially, as I do, having a data cap on my rather primitive and expensive Balinese "broadband".

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    This was the point of the column I mentioned in the original blog post: Warners is hobbling itself because it won't put the back catalogue in the place where it has a shot at an audience.

    And you are spot on Russell, there is no excuse to keep this stuff in the dark in 2007...technology has removed the financial barrier to keeping complete back catalogues like FN available and has added an almost moral obligation to the artists, for the caretakers of such that to have them available.

    Emusic is perfect for that purpose. And, yeah, I like the recommendations there too...

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Lyndon Hood,

    Just checked http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org
    for historyorb.com Feels like an accomplishment to be blocked, as is public address :)

    Everyone who’s blocked gets a badge:

    http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0703/badgeflat160.jpg

    Bearing in mind, as I just said where I originally heard about that site:

    Not that I’m sure I want to encourage getting banned by the Chinese Government as an end in itself - surely one wants The People to be able to read one’s Liberal and/or Democratic rantings - but it does seem like something to celebrate.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1115 posts Report

  • Lyndon Hood,

    Also, I note the greatfirewall people have added a "this version 1.0 may report sites as being ‘blocked’, while there are only technical reasons for their unavailability. " to there test page. I did wonder.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1115 posts Report

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Dance vinyl has an inherently better dynamic range than CDs. I'm not sure that any traditional 33rpm vinyl albums are getting pressed any more? Most "albums" are multi-platter sets these days - cost about twice that of a CD but much better quality - I'm assuming they get separately mastered??

    Incidentally, the 70's vinyl LP was typically a particularly poor effort. It's interesting to compare an old LP with a dance record - the latter will have much better dynamic range, noise immunity and general quality - much heavier grade vinyl helps.

    With DVD, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to get albums in a lossless 24-bit format (e.g. Flac). Not seen many though..

    The other option is to buy music in U-Myx or Yourspins format, which lets you remix the track to your own tastes, or choose someone elses mix. There isn't much choice though...

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    Dance vinyl has an inherently better dynamic range than CDs.

    Absolutely true, and those of us with rooms of the stuff are happy to shout that out as often as possible. Plus a 12" slab of vinyl cannot help but look vastly cooler than a silly small silver disc. And you can read the liner notes without upgrading your glasses. Vinyl still rules...

    Incidentally, the 70's vinyl LP was typically a particularly poor effort

    Not everywhere, but NZ and Austarlia were particularly badly served by pressing plants and appalling mastering. The PolyGram plant in Wellington was atrocious, with muddled, muddied pressings often taken from a well played sample copy of the LP sent from head office, copied via a cheap domestic stereo, with a shitty, well used, stylus. The sleeves were as often as not done by photographing the US or UK sample, focus not being important, with letraset or twink used to localise the copyright and cat number information. The other plants, EMI & PYE, were little better.

    CBS borrowed a UK copy of an album by The Only Ones off me in 79 because they'd lost theirs, and you can, on the back sleeve, still see my name twinked out!

    Festival used to lose the back cover on most releases until 1979/80 and replace it with advertising for other albums in their catalogue, Shirley Bassey being a favourite.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    With DVD, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to get albums in a lossless 24-bit format (e.g. Flac). Not seen many though.

    Beatport is now offering the option of purchasing tracks in uncompressed WAV format. It costs $1 more for the extra data (the files are up to 90MB) but it's a pretty cool thing to do.

    And somehow they manage to do it all without resorting to DRM ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    We were talking about the prospect of the Pin Group being on emusic. Well, guess what. Siltbreeze have issued a retrospective:

    http://www.emusic.com/album/10993/10993354.html

    And it's slightly surprising how much has been able to be added by the US indies who have licensed local releases, including some Nun stuff. Hopefully that will act as a prompt to get some more of the Nun catalogue up where it belongs.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    We were talking about the prospect of the Pin Group being on emusic. Well, guess what. Siltbreeze have issued a retrospective

    well, there you go..., that's really very cool, and hopefully there will be a few buyers, especially as you've pointed out, with the site's rather user friendly business model.

    And it's slightly surprising how much has been able to be added by the US indies who have licensed local releases, including some Nun stuff. Hopefully that will act as a prompt to get some more of the Nun catalogue up where it belongs.

    I think very little of the FN catalogue is actually owned by FN / Bronfman anywhere in the world, simply licensed. I remember a conversation years ago with the Australian FMR business affairs woman who was tearing her hair out at the lack of contractual paperwork with even the bigger acts. Then that's the way with much of the indie world. Most of the FN acts can do what they like with their masters (and indeed their publishing) and there would be little Warners could do.

    I like Neil Finn in that NZ punk listing....

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    Recording contracts usually have a territory by territory time option in them...ie if the label in a certain territory doesn't exercise a right by a certain time then the rights revert to the artist to sell as they can.

    I added Digital as one of those territories in a contract I helped a band write recently and, to my surprise, the record company bought it......then again many acts have vinyl rights thus nominated

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

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