Corporate rock sucks #12: It wasn’t supposed to happen so quickly…

Posted on June 5th, 2007 by Andy

Less than a week ago I whined about the very lovely last.fm becoming a media corporations trendy new lapdog rather than trying to go it alone and expressed just how unlikely it was that I’d be prepared to shell out money to them. This morning my blue icon had gone grey and my last.fm page was sprinkled with ads and I was unable to snoop on who’d been viewing my profile. As of today I’m no longer a “subscriber”, I’m just a “user”. I was looking forward to coming to terms with last.fm’s decision - having time to ponder what they had done before I had to make the “do I stump up the cash” decision.

When I first paid money to last.fm/audioscrobbler I was unaware of the perks (maybe there weren’t any) and the site was unreliable and the charts were infrequently updated, but I LOVED the concept and was happy to give up my money because when it worked it was beautiful, clever, useful and (for the stats obsessed) a hours of fun.

Last week they got $280 million - I think they can live without my 18 quid.

Posted in corporate rock sucks, idle nonsense, last.fm | 3 Comments »

Corporate rock sucks #11: Last.fm succumbs to the desire to be a small fish in a big pond…

Posted on May 30th, 2007 by Andy

Once again it’s sad to be reminded that the Internet is nothing but a bunch of sharks cirlcing every promising start-up with a desire to “buying credibility” rather than establishing it. Last.fm have now succumbed to the desire to be a part of something bigger rather than carrying on being something special and unique in their own right. Like the lovely Flickr before them (and countless other websites I don’t love as much) they have snapped up that lovely big cheque that was waved in front of them and suddenly, rather than having the feel of a community owned (spiritually if not financially) website it is now nothing more than a marketing arm of a corporation.

I was happy to regularly donate to last.fm but I suspect I won’t be stumping up cash to CBS and you know what, I’m not sure they’d care because they don’t care about the user - they care about the money they can make and 20 quid a year (or whatever) from me is not where the money in last.fm is to be made. That money will be made by selling chart data, and demographic data, and listening behaviour, and the myriad of other ways of exploiting what the last.fm community has built.

Shame on you last.fm, or maybe just shame on me becaues I believed (just like I believed with Flickr before you) that you were maybe different.

I have to admit that I do still stump up cash to Yahoo for Flickr and maybe, like Flickr, they may be able to cling onto the part of them that does make them unique - but I shan’t love them the way I used to…just like I don’t love Flickr any more…

It seems a shame that I seem to write one of these posts every few months.

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Corporate rock sucks #10: When major label money comes in the door integrity goes out the window…

Posted on November 8th, 2006 by Andy

I sort of hate how I keep picking on The Decemberists because deep down I think they’re probably a good bunch of people and what’s happening is just the standard shit that happens when you sign to a major label. A few years ago I signed up to a “a relatively unobtrusive once a month email missive” from Decemberists. It was irregular but when the posts came it was clea that they hand-crafted with love and humour and genuinely interesting content.

When I signed up I was told

This is a hidden list, which means that the list of members is available only to the list administrator.

this was clearly a lie because today I recieved my email not from the Decemberists but from EMI Capitol so obviously the list was available to the list administrator AND the PR department at Capitol Records

This was no lovingly written news missive but just a puff for the album, it had no content of any note and certainly no humour just a horrid dry email with pictures/adverts and a couple of links to more pages of puff.

Maybe there is a very good reason to sign to a major but I must admit I find it very hard to believe that there is and so does Steve Albini. So, if there are any bands I love who happen to come past here (oh I’m sure they all do!) please think that maybe having a bit of integrity is worth a little more than whatever it is that the major label is offering you.

Posted in Music, corporate rock sucks, idle nonsense, politics | 1 Comment »

Corporate rock sucks #9: I am a copyright thief

Posted on June 15th, 2006 by Andy

I recently uploaded to youtube a video of Luna playing Lovedust on the Conan O’Brien show from a few years back - and while I am of course NOT the copyright holder and therefore WAS breaking the youtube terms and conditions I thought that as it was a low res video of virtually no resale value (no offence to Luna but they’re not going to make NBC a hatful of cash from reselling their performance) and that it is very unlikely that this clip will turn up anywhere officially I couldn’t see the harm in bending (OK breaking!) the rules.

Today I received an email from youtube to say that the video had been removed because they had received “third-party notification claiming that this material is infringing”. So the video is gone. A video that was…

• not losing anyone anything
• not damaging anyones reputation
• providing an opportunity for Luna fans around the world to see something that they couldn’t see officially

Copyright fascism is a sad fact of life. I just thought that Luna were far enough below the radar to avoid the interests of the greedy and petulant copyright “owners”.

Posted in Music, corporate rock sucks, politics | 2 Comments »

Corporate rock sucks #8: Is there no end to the desire to be a part of something bigger?

Posted on March 17th, 2006 by Andy

This week I discovered that social networking horror MySpace is owned by the atrocious News International (which already makes my love of The Simpsons, Futurama, The X-Files etc. difficult). Not, of course that I’m anywhere near being a a fan of MySpace. The very lovely Flickr jumped when Yahoo clicked their fingers, the Decemberists happily took the money that EMI/Capitol waved temptingly in front of their noses, The Body Shop (admittedly a pretty ugly global company already but at least one with a semblance of ethical integrity) have just jumped into bed L’Oreal (who have less of that ethical integrity and are part owned by Nestle who have absolutely NO ethical integrity at all).

It seems that anything small MUST aspire to be part of something bigger - you see it all the time - I’ve particularly noticed it around the Internet where Yahoo (Flickr, Upcoming, Delicious, Webjay) and Google (Deja, Blogger, Picasa) and AOL (Winamp, ICQ) are snapping up any even mildly promising operation - and it seems that the owners of these independents just swoon and take the cash as if that was the aim all along.

Posted in corporate rock sucks, idle nonsense, politics | 1 Comment »

Corporate rock sucks #7: Trust me! I’m a music lover…

Posted on February 24th, 2006 by Andy

I bought the Coltrane/Monk CD last year and was disappointed that it had “Copy Control” and that Blue Note had decided to treat me like a thief. I pledged to never buy another copy-protected CD and this is making my journey into jazz all the more problematic. I went to Amazon today to buy A Night in Tunisia - it too was corrupt - I didn’t and WILL NOT buy it.

I just rattled off a whiny “feedback” to Blue Note before I realised that it was to Blue Note US and they, it seems, are not corrupting their discs. It also seems that contacting Blue Note in the UK is not so easy to do so I guess I’ll just add my whine here.

I’m relatively new to Jazz, I took up piano at the age of 39 (nearly three years now) and it was Thelonious Monk who made me realise that jazz could have the same feel-beyond-musicianship that rock music has given me for years.

Following on from that it’s been a thoroughly enjoyable journey discovering so much music that I didn’t realise was there and so much of that music was on Blue Note.

Please Blue Note (UK) reconsider the decision to sell corrupted discs and start treating your customers with a little respect - we do deserve it.

Apparentluy Blue Note in the US release uncorrupted CDs - I may just have to consider importing my jazz from now on in

update: I managed to get a nice old vinyl copy fon eBay for about £4 - fantastic album and well worth hunting down - but DON’T buy a corrupt CD from Blue Note (Europe).

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Corporate rock sucks #6: The great Decemberists rip off

Posted on February 8th, 2006 by Andy

Arghhh - having taken the no doubt substantial wedge of cash from Capitol I’d liked to think that The Decemberists heart was still with their fans but it seems that it might only be with their RICH and/or GULLIBLE fans. Colin Meloy - having just completed a solo tour apparently has a few copies of the tour only EP left over which are now for sale at the Official Decemberists Shop - smarting that I am that he’ll be charging $10 for an EP (or $14 outisde of the US) - I am absolutely bloody outraged that they should be selling a special “signed edition” for an extra $10 - $10 flipping dollars for Meloy’s signature is an outrage.

I have bought albums and CDs from many artists over the years and they have, almost without exception, been happy to sign if asked (some have been happy to sign without being asked!!) - I have recieved special “signed personal notes” from famous people - and for all of this I haven’t shelled out an extra penny. Billy Bragg will sign pre-orders of his forthcoming box set FOR NOTHING. Sonic Boom will sign anything you buy from him if you ask FOR NOTHING. But Colin Meloy will charge $10 for the privelege of his scrawl on an EP - well Colin you can keep the EP which I had gone to the shop to buy and enjoy your newly found major-label attitude!

Posted in Music, corporate rock sucks, politics | 1 Comment »

Corporate rock sucks #5: Capitalism is killing music

Posted on January 31st, 2006 by Andy

I have the audio cassettes, vinyl, I upgraded to CDs, I bough the “Essential” compilation and now Billy Bragg is releasing a great big fat box set of his early releases - packed with extras and a couple of DVDs. How many times do I have to own “Talking With The Taxman…”?

And this is only volume one…It will of course be worth every penny

UPDATE: You can now pre-order a signed copy of the box set from billybragg.co.uk

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Corporate rock sucks #4: I will pledge to never purchase a CD contaning any form of Digital Rights Management

Posted on January 9th, 2006 by Andy

OK - so it requires me to be a little more careful about what I buy as I rarely research beforehand and have been surprised and disappointed by a few of my purchases but I will pledge to never purchase a CD contaning any form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) (via Boing Boing).

I feel dirty when I do so it only makes sense. I think the last DRM CDs I’ll buy are probably the Blue Note CDs I bought last week (they haven’t arrived yet and I know that not all Blue Note discs use EMI’s corruption so I’m crossing my fingers).

I hate saying never but hopefully this one will be able to stick becasue if the record labels want to assume I’m a thief then I’d rather not give them any of my money.

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Corporate rock sucks #3: Major label = bad

Posted on November 29th, 2005 by Andy

The Decemberists @ ULU - 17th Nov 2005
Originally uploaded by grange85.

Rumours abound that the Decemberists are about to sign to a major label (Capitol) (via donewaiting.com) - I worry at the prospect and here’s why

Majors think “How many records CAN we sell” (to make as much money as
possible - for US and our shareholders). Indies think “How many records do we HAVE to sell” (so we don’t lose
money and possibly earn a few pennies to invest in the next band)

Majors are only interested in shipping “units” and as such stifle creativity. Creativity is fostered in the independent sector, where the music and artistry is appreciated.

Indies take chances on unknowns, Majors allow the Indies to take those risks and then prune off the “most likely”.

There are no doubt exceptions but I’d always have more respect for a big band on an (big) indie than an “alt” band on a conglomerate.

Signing to a major label means that you are no longer working for someone who likes music - you’re working for a corp whose intention is nothing more than getting a decent return on their investment for the shareholders - consideration for the artist’s integrity is a minor issue. They don’t sign bands because of quality they sign bands because of sales (or sales potential) - sometimes they get quality as a bonus! To sell the amount of records that a major requires invariably means compromising in some way

Major labels also have an unhealthy disrespect for the consumer - Capitol is part of EMI who pioneered “Copy Control” - if The Decemberists sign for a major don’t expect to be able to play their next CD anywhere you like…

I really hope that the Decemberists decide to “pay their dues”. The independent sector is what makes music - the majors just exploit.

This post has been bastardized from a couple of posts I’ve made to various boards and mailing lists over the last couple of years so apologies if you’ve suffered this rant before!

Posted in Music, corporate rock sucks | 1 Comment »