As I Write My S-A: The Morality of Free Music

Now for something a bit different. Because someone is wrong on the internet.

This article about the ethics of not paying for music has been doing the rounds on The Internets for a few days, and I thought it was pretty interesting but pretty wrong. I ended up having an interesting conversation (okay, argument) with a friend from uni over on facebook, and I thought I’d bring the argument over here and see what people think. Even if, as I suspect, you just think “I don’t really give a shit”.

Basically the whole business started when Emily White, a 21 year-old intern at a national radio station in the US, wrote a piece on their blog about how she has 11,000 songs in her iTunes but she’s only ever bought 15 CDs. On the whole it’s pretty impressive; she’s frank about the way her generation look at this stuff (“I honestly don’t think my peers and I will ever pay for albums”) and as a music lover she’s obviously struggling with the idea that she’s never really ‘given anything back’ to the artists.

But then David Lowery, who apparently was in a few alt-rock bands in the 80s and now teaches in a university (as well as owning a studio, a record label and a publishing company) decided to go to town and challenge her on the ethical implications of her actions, asking her to take responsibility for screwing the artists that she claims to be a fan of.

So what exactly is wrong with it, I hear you ask? Good question, my friend:

Hipster level 9000

Stolen from failblog, but to good not to share.  Also is this not outside the crown?

9eyes

SDF photos taken by the 9 eyed camera formally know as google street view.

 

 

 

 

more here

Phantom of the Floppera

Speak and Spell

Anyone missing their old Speak and Spell? if so go here.

Would you dare mix on ceramic decks?

Blog-lurking on Dude Craft yet again and I saw these:

He’s an artist, he’s French, his name is Fabien Clerc. He has created a set of fully-functioning ceramic turntables! Check out his website. Get Tom to translate, as it’s all in French. The name of the piece is “Back In The Good Old Days”.

Awesome iPad App

Brendan, does this exist? Saw it in a horrible film on the Nokia Minimo film competition site.

Tell me you can actually get a flux capacitor for it (or iFlux, or whatever) and I’ll buy one right now. Or mug Stephen Fry for his if they’re all sold out.

Shiny thing breaks

Found this on the BBC news site between two other interesting ‘news’ stories about how to move a bee hive, and a hairdresser’s poster – and they wonder why I refuse to pay for a license. Technical problems can happen to anyone, but there’s something immensely satisfying about watching the San Franciscan Jesus fail to feed the five thousand followers reliable mobile browsing. It’s not cos I’ve got anything against the guy, upon the purchase of my macbook I too became a smug iTwat, casually watching pc users struggle as my fingers lost their sinewy definition only attainable from a hundred alt-ctrl-del reps a day. What I really don’t get, and hopefully someone can help me out here, is how a computer/walkman manufacturer has achieved god like status, why do thousands of people turn out to cheer a man on a stage with a mobile phone, however brilliant it might be.

(Having said that, I joined 17000 people to watch this product being unveiled, and it didn’t work once).

Think about it, at the moment he just sells us shiny things, what happens when he decides to harness his power and lead his cult against the rest of the world? Before you laugh, the British Armed Forces runs on windows – I’m not being flippant suggesting this might be a problem, check out the ‘sometimes I just turn it off and on’ Royal Navy ad, or check out 4OD (for the next 22 days) and watch them alt-ctrl-del the entire battleship (our latest, bestest, shiniest one, of course) in the middle of an exercise. I reckon, given his cult following, he could take over the world with nothing more than a couple of apps and a descent virus email.

great, now I need new underwear….