I don't know how it happened, but I found myself reading An Oral History of KROQ the other night. I thought it would make a good post for blogging.la, so I went looking for a classic 80s KROQ graphic to use in my post.
That search lead me to a site called Roq of the 80s.
"Oh," I thought, "I bet this is going to be a bitchin' fansite for the golden age of KROQ."
When I was up until 2 in the morning reading The Last Colony, I wanted a little music to fill up the rest of the room. My friend Andrew (yes, that Andrew, who edits all my books. Say thank you to Andrew if you liked Happiest Days) turned me on to Magnatune dot Com a couple of years ago, and since I hadn't been there in several months, I decided to check out their ambient music. As it turns out, ambient music is perfect for filling up a dark and quiet room while you read an awesome science fiction novel.
If you don't know what Magnatune is, I'd like to do you a solid and spread the virus: Magnatune is not evil. It's an online record label, owned by awesome people, who sell all kinds of music without any DRM at all. You can buy digital versions, or you can have them mail you a CD. Their artists don't give up any of their publishing rights, and they get 50% of every sale. Did I mention that buyers get to choose how much they pay for something? Yeah, how awesome is that? You can pay as little as $5, or as much as $18. If you really like what you've bought, you can give it to three friends for free. Yes, for free, as in beer.
Everything in their catalog is Creative Commons, and non-commercial podcasters can license all of their music for free. This makes me happy because I've always thought it was profoundly stupid of the music industry to force podcasters -- who could be providing their artists with thousands of dollars or more of free publicity -- to pay idiotic licensing fees. They have an enormous range of artists from Classical to Jazz to Rock to all forms of Electronica. I don't like everything in the catalog, but there's so much in there, it wasn't hard at all to find a lot of stuff I do like.
Examples: When I was reading The Last Colony, I listened to Trances-Drones by Robert Rich, because I freaking love dark ambient. In fact, back in the early 90s, my friend Dave and I DJ'd several dark ambient chillout rooms at after hours clubs. We were called feck. I was Frank Booth and he was Silent Bob. It was awesome.
Today, while I've been Propelling and breaking this story that I'm really excited to write, I've been listening to Knives to the Treble, by Burning Babylon, which is the fattest, smoothest, heaviest dub I've heard this side of King Tubby and Scientist. I liked it so much, I bought it for $10. Before the day is over, I'm likely to buy Stereo Mashup, because I lub me some dub style onna record, so pushit ovah now ya roughneck. Wheel i' tup!
Uh. Sorry about that. It sounded boss in my head. (Boss? What the hell is wrong with me today?)
I agree with pretty much all of the philosophies behind the founding of Magnatune, both as a creator and as a publisher. I hope that WWdN readers will check out their artists, and share them with friends and family. You can preview every single song in their catalog, and even stream entire albums for free. If you're looking for a place to start, check out the Magnatune Compliations. The 2006 SXSW compilation, the 2005 Red Hat Summit compilation, and the Electronica Compilation are all great starting points.
In the spirit of Cat vs. Monkey . . .
Me: iTunes, play whatever you
want on random.
iTunes: Cool! Have some Isaac Hayes, followed by Yes!
Me: Maybe we need to talk about this...
iTunes: Hey, jerk, it was in YOUR library. Don't blame me for getting creative.
Me: Let's never fight again.
iTunes: Aww, I feel bad. Here, have
Zeppelin, then Wilco, and now Tool. Are we cool?
Me: Yeah, we're cool.
Stop being so clingy. Sheesh.
iTunes: Clingy?! What do you mean? I'm not clingy! Here, have some back to back Skynyrd! See? I'm cool! I'm cool! Let's hang out!
Me: Uh . . .
iTunes: Now have some Copeland!
Me: Copeland? After Skynyrd?
iTunes: Yep. Now enjoy some Sade.
Me: *blinks*
iTunes: My, my, we're really learning at lot about you today, aren't we?
Me: Hey! Anne put that in there.
iTunes: Oh, so you're sharing me with someone else? Maybe she wants to hear . . . Gary Numan's Cars?
Me: Actually, she put that in there, too.
iTunes: Well what about Uncle Tupelo? Is that you? Or is our whole relationship based on a lie?
Me: No, that was me. You're starting to freak me out.
iTunes: Here, enjoy something soothing called Velvet Piano. What the hell is this? Did you download this from one of those retroblogs you read?
Me: How did you know about that?
iTunes: the SDK isn't just for programmers, you know.
Me: Okay, I think it's time for a playlist.
iTunes: No! No! Here's Nine Inch Nails! You just bought that! You like Nine Inch Nails! And now Boingo! doesn't it make you happy? Doesn't it remind you of those halcyon days of youth?
Me: Now you're just embarrassing yourself. I think we're going to spend a little time away from each other.
iTunes: Wait!
Me: It's not you, iTunes. It's me.
iTunes: You're going to listen to the Juno CD in the car, aren't you?! I knew it!
Me: Okay, we need to stop.
iTunes: Why?
Me: The joke is wearing thin. This isn't funny any more.
iTunes: I love you.
Me: *Force Quits iTunes*
Phoenix Comicon reminded me of the cons I went to when I was a kid, and reminded me of what cons could be -- and should be -- when they're run by people who care more about creating a good time for fans, than figuring out ways to separate fans from their money.
I'll have a full trip report later today, but until then, I have found something HAWESOME to pass the time, or at least listen to in the background while you work. Three hours of MTV, recorded on VHS in 1983, including wonderfully cheedy commercials. I've been listening to part one for about thirty minutes, and the nostalgia is starting to overwhelm me.
Generation X! Rejoice, while the damn kids today wonder why MTV is actually playing music videos.
(from Appelogen via boingboing)
. . . as long as I'm on a Jonathan Coulton jag, this is a perfect time to direct you all to Tom Cruise Crazy, especially in light of this madness.
Just be glad it's him, not you.
Still Alive may be my favorite song of 2007, and is certainly the greatest video game song to be recorded since I had Pac-Man fever.
Here's a version of Still Alive, sung about Joust.
My life is complete.
(via JoCo)
One of Jonathan Coulton's fans sent him a French translation of RE: Your Brains. JoCo (which I suppose I need to call him now, since that's what his fans call him, and I'm quite obviously a fan) recorded the French version, and released it yesterday:
While recording I couldn’t help but notice an opportunity in the third verse for a reference to “Alouette,” that famous old French song about plucking feathers off a bird. My first ever joke in French! Vive me!
The result is this new version of Re: Your Brains for French speaking zombies everywhere (yes, even Canada). I hope zat you like eet.
Freaking. Awesome. Please to be Propelling eet?
The RIAA and its goonsquad, SoundExchange, is working very hard to destroy internet radio, by forcing webcasters to pay royalties that will run from 60%-300% of their annual revenue. For context, satellite radio pays 5%-7%, and over-the-air broadcasters pay nothing.
Why is the RIAA trying so hard to destroy Internet Radio? I wrote in a Geek in Review a while ago:
Because the RIAA (which is essentially the major labels) has spent a lot of time and a lot of money building a monopoly with a few media conglomerates, and it's been very profitable for them all for decades.
This effort to wipe out independent online radio has nothing to do with protecting artists, and everything to do with protecting a status quo that supports a very few top 40 acts at the expense of everyone else. In their effort to protect their outdated business model and insanely corrupt relationship with a few broadcasters, the RIAA is happy to prevent their artists from having a magnificent way to reach potential customers who will buy albums, merchandise, and concert tickets.
I am rather worked up about this because I believe it's about choice. The airwaves in the United States are supposedly owned by the American people, and licensed out to broadcasters for use, but in practice, that's not the way it works at all. In practice, the airwaves are owned by Clear Channel, and they work hand-in-hand with the big four record labels to limit our choice of music. It's a great scam they've got going, and it's been a very profitable system for all of them for a very long time.
For the rest of us, though, this system sucks. For guys like me who can't stand top 40 music, who can't stand the utter crap they play on KROQ these days, and who want some fucking variety in their music, we're screwed . . .
. . .with the notable exception of Internet radio, where we have choices as diverse as Radio Paradise, WFMU, Groove Salad, and Indie Pop Rocks.
Indie webcasters like SomaFM have been working tirelessly with the Save Net Radio Coalition to educate our representatives in congress so that legislation can be passed which would make it possible for these indie broadcasters to stay in business. The RIAA doesn't like this, so they're trying to fight it, but in a surprisingly competent move, Congress is forcing RIAA and its goonsquad SoundExchange to negotiate realistic and fair royalty rates with webcasters.
That brings us more or less up to today, where we discover that the RIAA is getting desperate, and doesn't like that it can't get its way simply by threatening a lot of people and paying off a lot of congressmen.
Rusty Hodge, the GM of SomaFM, has been in DC for a couple of months, working like crazy to save his business and an entire industry. He's been blogging about his experiences, sharing the little victories and big frustrations during the fight.
The RIAA must be afraid of Rusty and everyone who is working to save internet radio, because they've now resorted to outright lying to webcasters, in their latest efforts to threaten and scare them:
RIAA has SoundExchange issue press release to try and trick congress into thinking the royalty situation has been solved. Nice work guys.
The reason many people are signing is because they fear lawsuits from the RIAA. RIAA representatives have been calling webcasters and telling them if they didn't sign by Sep 15th, they would be operating in violation of the law. That's the only reason they signed. It's like a Sporano's episode.
The only way that webcasters can escape the high royalty rates is by signing this current agreement and only playing SX affiliated label music. This means less independent music, and more big label music. Which is exactly what the RIAA wanted.
The press release Rusty is referring to is reprinted in his blog, but here's the short version: 24 webcasters signed an agreement with SoundExchange that gives them slightly-better royalty rates now, but expires in three years, putting them right back where they are today. If SoundExchange can scare enough indie webcasters into signing this horrible agreement, the RIAA will be able to go to congress and tell them that they really don't need to pass the Internet Radio Equality Act, which would permanently save internet radio by preventing the RIAA and SoundExchange from jacking up royalty rates so high, it would force indie webcasters out of business.
And this "deal" is actually a giant load of bullshit. According to Wired's Listening Post:
However, the agreement only covers artists and labels who are SoundExchange members. Webcasters who sign the agreement but still want to play music from other bands would have to pay SoundExchange the higher per-song rates originally specified by the CRB for those songs, because that music is not part of the deal. In essence, small webcasters who sign have an economic incentive to avoid lesser-known music.
So that's what this is all about: stopping lesser-known music from even having a chance at finding an audience. The RIAA's major members -- Universal, Warner, Sony BMG, and EMI -- are trying to put indie webcasters out of business. They're not working to protect artists. They're working to protect their monopoly, and now they're lying to do it.
Somehow, I managed to entirely miss The OneUps when I was at PAX.
After listening to some of their music, I have decided that I FAIL. What the Minibosses do for game music with rock, the OneUps do with jazz, and it's spectacular.
Check them out. They are insanely awesome.
These are the stories Wil loves to tell, because they are the closest to his heart: stories about being a huge geek, passing his geeky hobbies and values along to his own children, and vividly painting what it meant to grow up in the ’70s and come of age in the ’80s as part of the video game/D&D/BBS/Star Wars figures generation.
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