Say what?

I’ve made some spurious claims about being an mp3 blog lately, as well as contradicting myself with regard to not posting stuff from major labels, so I guess I’d best clarify my position.

Basically, posting downloads of other people’s music is a breach of the originator’s (the artist, composer, whoever…) legal rights.  Most blogs mp3 justify themselves by talking about “promotion for the artist” and other (quite frankly rather shaky) claims about new audiences buying CDs because they got a taster from a blog somewhere.  I certainly purchase music that I’ve found out about from blogs, and there’s a strong chance that the other people who write music blogs do too.  However, I’ll be the first to admit that I live in quite a rarefied environment when it comes to music (basically, I’m an obsessive) and your average reader/listener isn’t quite so geeky; meaning they can’t really be bothered to spend money on something when they can get it for free from blogs/torrents/wherever.  Also, it’s still just plain illegal, regardless of whether or not the artist benefits somewhere down the line.

All is not lost, however, as there are still some groovy artists and small labels out there who do think blogs can make a positive difference to their careers.  I receive a fair few presspacks and demos and CDs by people who want me to talk about and/or play their music; and I’m a tiny fish in an ocean of DIY music writers.  Blogs like Song, by Toad, and Daily Growl get by almost exclusively on content that’s been sent directly to them.  The bottom line is this; any promotion is good news for small/new bands and artists, and many of them are happy to let a blogger post a song or two of theirs.

So apologies for the long and rather dull post, but I feel it’s necessary to state that from this moment on, all mp3 download links posted in this blog are either available for free online elsewhere anyway (and I’ll always post a link to the original site) or I have the express permission of the artist to give the track away.

 

Once more unto the breach, my friends…

You may have read my post/rant earlier in the week about the coming war betwixt the major labels and the blogosphere, but now it seems that things are coming to a head.

The Daily Growl (an exceedingly excellent music blog, and a source of discovery for many of my favourite bands; from Esser to Rob St.John) has reported similar post-deleting atrocities occurring on his site.  But all is not lost: Ed, from the 17 Seconds blog, (and who’s Glasvegas post’s deletion caused such an uproar at Song, by Toad) seems to be rallying his supporters and preparing for a Big Push Over The Top…  So, I shall hereby nail my colours to the mast:

I shan’t post about any music from a major label.

This won’t do my Hype Machine rating any good at all, but hopefully do wonders to my credibility and self-respect.

And to celebrate, here’s some ever-so-slightly-relevant songs for you guys to check out:

Show of Hands – Sally Free and Easy

REM – Radio Free Europe

N.B: the irony of claiming to reject the majors and then posting an REM song is not lost on me; I’m just “sticking it to tha’ man”…

 

Another bloody music blog, anyone?

Curses! I’ve been trying for hours now to post links to some mp3s I’ve uploaded to Xdrive (recommended to me by the Hype Machine) but so far I’m not having much success.  However, once I manage to do it I’ll be a fully fledged music blogger.  And, as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility…

Obviously, posting songs for free download when an artist wants people to pay for them isn’t really doing anybody any favours.  But yet there seems to be quite a community of music bloggers who do just that, and are often encouraged by the artists themselves.  For a new/small band the publicity can be a great help, and the blogs themselves can be a convenient go-to point for anyone on the prowl for obscure new bands to adore.  A pretty lage proportion of the new music I’ve discovered lately has come from music blogs, and as an “artist” myself I’m all in favour of submitting “promotional release” mp3s to blogs; at the level I find myself at, the exposure gained from being written about on a blog far outweighs the loss of revenue from a few sneaky downloads.

But clouds are gathering on the horizon, and it appears that there’s a growing atmosphere of resentment between the blogosphere and the major record labels.  I’ll let you read all about it at the Song, by Toad site, as he seems to have taken the matter to heart, but basically Columbia have started shaking their fist at Google, who have finally shown their true colours (the spineless b*st*rds) by obediently acquiescing to the demands of the label and deleting “offending” blog posts (and destroying legitimate intellectual property in the process).

More news on this will be forthcoming, but this post is getting a little long and ranty so I’d better put a stop to it right away.  Stay tuned, folks…

 

Final nail in the Creationist’s coffin…

“So, you’re a creationist, huh? And you’ve got kids, eh? Well…

THEY CAN’T PLAY WITH TOY DINOSAURS!!!”

“No, son, put it down.  It’s not for the likes of you.  You see, your favouritest toy in the world is all a LIE!!! Hey, come on; don’t cry….    hey, quit with the screaming already!…”

and so on and so forth…

 

Assassination of an author?

Reports emerged the other day that Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has been accused of shopping a “western” Czech spy to the commies…

The allegations come after the release of a police report from Prague, 1950, stating that a student called Milan Kundera had come forward to the police with details of a clandestine meeting between two “dissidents”, and also detailing the whereabouts of one of them; leading directly to his arrest and subsequent 14 years hard labor in a gulag.

I’ve been following the story at the Guardian website, and I’ll let you get all the nitty-gritty-actually-researched-and-fact-checked details direct from there.

Kundera, of course, denies the allegations; claiming he knew nothing of the event until he was told about it this week, and goes on to say that it’s the “assassination of an author”.  Now, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of my favourite books – Top 5 quality, even – so I’m rooting for dear ol’ Milan and hoping the allegations prove to be false, but it does beg the question: who would want to “assassinate” a 79 year old author?  And on closer inspection it appears Mr, Kundera has behaved mightily suspiciously in the past – particularly when visiting his native country, and he’s sworn all his Czech friends to secrecy; so very little is known about the man’s life there…

So, are the Reds back under the beds, or is the report genuine?  Will more cultural icons of the ’50s be “exposed” in similar smear campaigns, or is Milan just a sneaky, treacherous numpty? I await the story’s resolution with interest…