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Music Boycott
(Or: The Customer has the final word. :P)
I thought I mentioned this recently, but looking over my recent entries I fail to see a reference to it... It's possible I only mentioned it on irc I guess.
Anyhow, with my disgust over how music industry handles things (or underhandles things) and how they seem to rip off the bands we love, I've started doing a mild boycott on what CDs I purchase aimed at the worst of the lot, the big 4. It's my money, I'm free to decide what I want to buy, but I'm also free to decide what I don't want to buy.
Essentially it takes the form of this:
1. If malicious code is known to exist on the CD (malicious from my point of view) then the CD will not be bought and I'll do without.
2. If the CD is a two-sided hybrid CD/DVD, then the monstrosity will not be bought and I'll do without. (I bought one of those (Simple Plan) and have regretted the purchase ever after - in fact I'm about to toss it in the garbage now since normal use has ended up damaging it horribly)
3. If the music company is one of the Big 4, it goes unbought unless it's one of the few bands I listen to religiously. Keep in mind there are considerations that can make even me put back a CD of a band I always listen to, as described below. These 4 seem to virtually control the radio airways :P and I'm sick and tired of buying a random CD because I heard a cool song on the radio, and brought it home to find it's the ONLY song on the CD I enjoy. That's one reason for boycotting these guys, but also I've just gotten sick of the fucked up lawsuits that the R.I.A.A. wage "on their behalf".
So how has this affected the music industry since I started it a year or so ago? I think there's been a few more than those listed (Gamma Ray for instance, 3rd clause.) but here's the main three I remember:
CDs Affected
------------
Rob Thomas "...Something to Be." - Hit by clause #2, hybrid CD/DVD. I'd probably buy it if I can find it in a regular CD. The scars of the problems I had with the Simple Plan CD will never go away, even if they make such a hybrid cd/dvd sane.
Sonata Arctica "The Collection." - A band I thought I'd never see hit with this boycott. Hit with the third clause despite being a band listen to extensively. The problem being it's 17 tracks long, 16 are just a compilation of songs I already own on other CDs, and the last is just a updated remix of 'Replica'. I'm not buying a CD for a single remix, especially since it's one of the Big 4 companies releasing it.
When their next real CD is released however, it's on the auto-purchase list. The only thing that could knock that off the list is if I find out there's malicious code placed on the CD.
Hinder "Extreme Behavior" - The second CD to get hit up by the third clause. I've only heard one song of theirs on the radio "Better than Me" that I must admit I like. I was contemplating purchasing it earlier this week but didn't since it was published by Universal. :)
So 3+ "victims" already that I've deliberately stopped myself in the music store (usually HMV ^^) and reversed a decision based on my list above.
On the other hand here's a (incomplete) list of CDs I've purchased over the same period of time.
There were plenty others but I'm forgetting them all, more because I bought a lot of them in 2005-early2006. (Most of the bands I collect last released back then, and most of them are gearing up to release again but haven't just yet. IE: Stratovarius, Nightwish, Dream Theater, Symphony X, etc)
Tristania and Therion were bought as samples. Tristania was recommended to me by a friend so I decided to give them a chance. I like a couple of the tracks, but overall it's probably the last CD I'll buy from them without hearing samples of the songs on it. (Like what Sonata Arctica did as per my last entry.) Therion has always been hit-or-miss. They're probably in the same boat as Tristania now.
I'm still out to lunch on the Linkin Park verdict. I like the CD, no question. But it's only half of the tracks that I particularly enjoy, compared to the previous two CDs where I liked just about all the songs. They're not off the Instant Purchase list yet, but their grasp on it is weakened some.
Evanescense however, is off the Instant Purchase list. Of the CD I only found I liked 3 of the songs, and even those don't interest me as much as anything on their first CD. I was probably just expecting too much. Incidentally, I was introduced to this band (first album: Fallen) by word of mouth from a co-worker who had mentioned that they sound a lot like Nightwish after I had her listen to the Wishmaster CD. I was not introduced to them via the radio or TV.
Of the remaining, Three Days Grace is still on the Instant Buy list after their second CD. Blind Guardian retained their rock solid Instant Buy spot with A Twist In The Myth, Luca Turilli's Dreamquest is hanging by a thread on the Instant Buy list - their next CD could push it either way, Rhapsody of Fire/Rhapsody has reinforced their position on the list with their latest CD, and Edguy could go either way right now, although not currently on the instant buy list for the future.
WARNING. INCOMING RANT. ^^;;
Kamelot was a band I was introduced to via the pandora website during it's little 3-4 song "preview" it let me try out. It played "When the Lights are Down" which I found quite good and so went out and picked up The Black Halo for further listening. I'll likely purchase the next CD of theirs I find in town, but we'll see. Of course,, Pandora stopped working after those couple of songs due to copyright restrictions - they're only licensed for playing to those inside the US due to the DMCA.
These days even the initial previews are no longer allowed it seems, as the site sniffs out your IP, displays it on the page, tells you what country they think you're in, and when it's outside of the US gives a big apology about not being able to work for you. They say they're working on getting licenses for other countries, but it's been close to 2 years now and they still haven't added Canada - and in fact Canada was only recently (May 16th) added to the international ban list. I'm probably going to assume Canada's regulations on broadcast content has to contain about 30% canadian content is what probably made it difficult to get license for it. Mind you, I agree with the 30% canadian content restriction and the like - it helps us from being completely overwhelmed by the big bucks American media. ;) As for why their ip blocking has been turned up outside the US, as comments from users tend to indicate in their blog, is probably the result of pressure by the music industry.
I'm ranting, but I'm not quite finished just yet. Looking over the blog's comments about the move to add ip-blocks shows that there's probably going to be a drop in CD sales and paid-downloads (not to be replaced with illegal ones) caused by this, since Pandora's magic was to set up a music channel that would tailor to the listener's tastes in music. It starts by you giving it a sample song that you know you like. You specify the song to play, and it plays it for you. Then it looks at that song, and checks its data for other songs that are similar and plays those, giving people the ability to give the recommendations a thumbs up (good match!) or a thumbs down (yoo sux!). With each song, the station continues trying to match itself to the user's taste. With the 3-4 songs that it let me listen to way back on that trial issue, I found I liked most of the recommended songs, and like people in the blog comments, went out and purchased music introduced to me in this fashion.
Pandora was probably the station that was specifically targeted by the RIAA and the like with the planned intention of treating every custom-internet stream as a separate radio station and thus force the company to pay like $500 + song royalties for every user created channel. (lots of users, up to 100 different channels. Do the math, while keeping in mind regardless of how many different songs Pandora streams at once, it's streaming those to a single individual rather than to an entire population. :P)
So there will be less music discovered through Pandora resulting in less sales for those labels that benefit from this. (I know for a fact that I wouldn't have considered purchasing Kamelot's CD without this service.) Fun Tidbit: The music people were discovering for the first time were obviously discovering it here because it's not on the radio or MTV. That's where the big 4 get almost complete dominance. So what sales are being lost? The smaller labels. Why this frees up cash in the consumer! They still want some music to buy so what's there to buy? ... probably the latest hit they heard on the radio.
It's sad how the major labels and the RIAA will just look the other way and say it's -all- due to piracy. And certainly not due to their pure liquid greed and blind tunnel vision.
Just my opinion of course.
Idiots.
I thought I mentioned this recently, but looking over my recent entries I fail to see a reference to it... It's possible I only mentioned it on irc I guess.
Anyhow, with my disgust over how music industry handles things (or underhandles things) and how they seem to rip off the bands we love, I've started doing a mild boycott on what CDs I purchase aimed at the worst of the lot, the big 4. It's my money, I'm free to decide what I want to buy, but I'm also free to decide what I don't want to buy.
Essentially it takes the form of this:
1. If malicious code is known to exist on the CD (malicious from my point of view) then the CD will not be bought and I'll do without.
2. If the CD is a two-sided hybrid CD/DVD, then the monstrosity will not be bought and I'll do without. (I bought one of those (Simple Plan) and have regretted the purchase ever after - in fact I'm about to toss it in the garbage now since normal use has ended up damaging it horribly)
3. If the music company is one of the Big 4, it goes unbought unless it's one of the few bands I listen to religiously. Keep in mind there are considerations that can make even me put back a CD of a band I always listen to, as described below. These 4 seem to virtually control the radio airways :P and I'm sick and tired of buying a random CD because I heard a cool song on the radio, and brought it home to find it's the ONLY song on the CD I enjoy. That's one reason for boycotting these guys, but also I've just gotten sick of the fucked up lawsuits that the R.I.A.A. wage "on their behalf".
So how has this affected the music industry since I started it a year or so ago? I think there's been a few more than those listed (Gamma Ray for instance, 3rd clause.) but here's the main three I remember:
CDs Affected
------------
Rob Thomas "...Something to Be." - Hit by clause #2, hybrid CD/DVD. I'd probably buy it if I can find it in a regular CD. The scars of the problems I had with the Simple Plan CD will never go away, even if they make such a hybrid cd/dvd sane.
Sonata Arctica "The Collection." - A band I thought I'd never see hit with this boycott. Hit with the third clause despite being a band listen to extensively. The problem being it's 17 tracks long, 16 are just a compilation of songs I already own on other CDs, and the last is just a updated remix of 'Replica'. I'm not buying a CD for a single remix, especially since it's one of the Big 4 companies releasing it.
When their next real CD is released however, it's on the auto-purchase list. The only thing that could knock that off the list is if I find out there's malicious code placed on the CD.
Hinder "Extreme Behavior" - The second CD to get hit up by the third clause. I've only heard one song of theirs on the radio "Better than Me" that I must admit I like. I was contemplating purchasing it earlier this week but didn't since it was published by Universal. :)
So 3+ "victims" already that I've deliberately stopped myself in the music store (usually HMV ^^) and reversed a decision based on my list above.
On the other hand here's a (incomplete) list of CDs I've purchased over the same period of time.
- Blind Guardian "Fly" (Single)
- Blind Guardian "A Twist in the Myth"
- Evanescence "The Open Door"
- Linkin Park "Minutes to Midnight"
- Tristania "Illumination"
- Therion "Gothic Kabbalah"
- Three Days Grace "One-X"
- Dream Evil "United"
- Edguy "Rocket Ride"
- Edguy "Hellfire Club"
- Luca Turilli "Infinite Wonders of Creation"
- Luca Turilli's Dreamquest "Virus" (Single)
- Luca Turilli's Dreamquest "Lost Horizons"
- Rhapsody of Fire "Triumph or Agony"
- Kamelot "The Black Halo"
- This'll teach me to do a list from memory after packing up my CDs for the move.
There were plenty others but I'm forgetting them all, more because I bought a lot of them in 2005-early2006. (Most of the bands I collect last released back then, and most of them are gearing up to release again but haven't just yet. IE: Stratovarius, Nightwish, Dream Theater, Symphony X, etc)
Tristania and Therion were bought as samples. Tristania was recommended to me by a friend so I decided to give them a chance. I like a couple of the tracks, but overall it's probably the last CD I'll buy from them without hearing samples of the songs on it. (Like what Sonata Arctica did as per my last entry.) Therion has always been hit-or-miss. They're probably in the same boat as Tristania now.
I'm still out to lunch on the Linkin Park verdict. I like the CD, no question. But it's only half of the tracks that I particularly enjoy, compared to the previous two CDs where I liked just about all the songs. They're not off the Instant Purchase list yet, but their grasp on it is weakened some.
Evanescense however, is off the Instant Purchase list. Of the CD I only found I liked 3 of the songs, and even those don't interest me as much as anything on their first CD. I was probably just expecting too much. Incidentally, I was introduced to this band (first album: Fallen) by word of mouth from a co-worker who had mentioned that they sound a lot like Nightwish after I had her listen to the Wishmaster CD. I was not introduced to them via the radio or TV.
Of the remaining, Three Days Grace is still on the Instant Buy list after their second CD. Blind Guardian retained their rock solid Instant Buy spot with A Twist In The Myth, Luca Turilli's Dreamquest is hanging by a thread on the Instant Buy list - their next CD could push it either way, Rhapsody of Fire/Rhapsody has reinforced their position on the list with their latest CD, and Edguy could go either way right now, although not currently on the instant buy list for the future.
WARNING. INCOMING RANT. ^^;;
Kamelot was a band I was introduced to via the pandora website during it's little 3-4 song "preview" it let me try out. It played "When the Lights are Down" which I found quite good and so went out and picked up The Black Halo for further listening. I'll likely purchase the next CD of theirs I find in town, but we'll see. Of course,, Pandora stopped working after those couple of songs due to copyright restrictions - they're only licensed for playing to those inside the US due to the DMCA.
These days even the initial previews are no longer allowed it seems, as the site sniffs out your IP, displays it on the page, tells you what country they think you're in, and when it's outside of the US gives a big apology about not being able to work for you. They say they're working on getting licenses for other countries, but it's been close to 2 years now and they still haven't added Canada - and in fact Canada was only recently (May 16th) added to the international ban list. I'm probably going to assume Canada's regulations on broadcast content has to contain about 30% canadian content is what probably made it difficult to get license for it. Mind you, I agree with the 30% canadian content restriction and the like - it helps us from being completely overwhelmed by the big bucks American media. ;) As for why their ip blocking has been turned up outside the US, as comments from users tend to indicate in their blog, is probably the result of pressure by the music industry.
I'm ranting, but I'm not quite finished just yet. Looking over the blog's comments about the move to add ip-blocks shows that there's probably going to be a drop in CD sales and paid-downloads (not to be replaced with illegal ones) caused by this, since Pandora's magic was to set up a music channel that would tailor to the listener's tastes in music. It starts by you giving it a sample song that you know you like. You specify the song to play, and it plays it for you. Then it looks at that song, and checks its data for other songs that are similar and plays those, giving people the ability to give the recommendations a thumbs up (good match!) or a thumbs down (yoo sux!). With each song, the station continues trying to match itself to the user's taste. With the 3-4 songs that it let me listen to way back on that trial issue, I found I liked most of the recommended songs, and like people in the blog comments, went out and purchased music introduced to me in this fashion.
Pandora was probably the station that was specifically targeted by the RIAA and the like with the planned intention of treating every custom-internet stream as a separate radio station and thus force the company to pay like $500 + song royalties for every user created channel. (lots of users, up to 100 different channels. Do the math, while keeping in mind regardless of how many different songs Pandora streams at once, it's streaming those to a single individual rather than to an entire population. :P)
So there will be less music discovered through Pandora resulting in less sales for those labels that benefit from this. (I know for a fact that I wouldn't have considered purchasing Kamelot's CD without this service.) Fun Tidbit: The music people were discovering for the first time were obviously discovering it here because it's not on the radio or MTV. That's where the big 4 get almost complete dominance. So what sales are being lost? The smaller labels. Why this frees up cash in the consumer! They still want some music to buy so what's there to buy? ... probably the latest hit they heard on the radio.
It's sad how the major labels and the RIAA will just look the other way and say it's -all- due to piracy. And certainly not due to their pure liquid greed and blind tunnel vision.
Just my opinion of course.
Idiots.