ThruYou

I recently found this series of musical mash-ups by someone called Kutiman.

Each song is created from a number of YouTube clips, normally of people playing instruments or singing at home on their web cams. These are spliced and mixed together to create new tracks.

There are a range of songs on the his ThruYou site or via YouTube that cover a range of musical styles including Funk and Hip-Hop.

The whole ThruYou project shows what is possible when you don’t have to worry about Copyright restrictions. Had this series of mash-ups been made from music of artists under Big Media contracts the ThruYou site would have been closed down under the massive weight of legal threats in very short time!

Free MP3s. NIN, Janes Addiction & StreetSweeper

Trent Reznor has just announced another set of free MP3s that have been released for free download.

They have been released ahead of the final NIN tour of the USA with support from Janes Addiction and StreetSweeper and the download includes 2 tracks from each artist.

You Can get the files in 320kbps MP3, FLAC, M4A and WAV formats from ninja2009.com.

Enjoy

He put the gun to his face. BANG!

So much blood for such a tiny little hole, Problems do have solutions.

(Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral)

I couldn’t think of a more fitting start to this post about the demise of Nine Inch Nails.

Trent Reznor, front man of NIN has announced that the entity (Its hard to call one man a band) will be no more at the end of this tour. NIN have been around for the past twenty years and in that time have influenced the sounds of many people.

Even the likes of Johnny Cash covered Hurt before his death. A song that is an eeire fit with the life Johnny had lived.

If you somehow managed to miss the music of NIN go visit the NIN site and download some. The follow can be got for free.

• The Slip
• Ghosts

The final leg of the tour is in the USA and will have Janes Addiction appearing. A fitting end as they were the band that helped launch Trent into the lime light all those years ago.

NIN… the passing of an era.

Good DRM, does it exist?

I have always been against copy protection. Normally it just hurts your legal customers. Since the Sony Root Kit farce I have been very careful about all software and music I have purchased and normally avoid any DRM infected product. I have not purchased ANYTHING from Sony since the Root Kit story broke.

Because of the way companies have used DRM in the past it has reached the point where DRM on a product can cause a serious consumer backlash. The heavy DRM in the EA release of Spore caused a very public outcry where thousands of people gave the game a 1 star rating on Amazon because of the DRM. The publicity was enough to force EA games to back down and ease the DRM.

So is there such a thing as good DRM? The short answer to the question is Yes although I know I need to back this up.

The first example of good DRM is the Steam distribution system from Valve. The original version of Steam was developed to protect the release of Half Life 2 and was not popular with gamers due to the constant online authentication it required. Since then Valve has listened to gamers and have polished Steam into a games distribution system that is hard not to like. It keeps games patched automatically, find your friends online and provides a simple way to try, purchase and then download games.

The other example of good DRM is the system used to protect the hardcore online racing simulation called Live For Speed. To use LFS online, even in demo mode, you have to create an account. Your account is used to hold statistics about every race you have taken part in but is also used to hold information about which content you have purchased and hence have access to. Whenever you install or upgrade the game you have to activate the game again or you revert to demo mode. You account starts with 3 available activations. You lose one activation every time you (re)activate you simulator but you also gain one back each week until you reach the max of 3 again.

DRM does not have to be the over zealous nightmare that big content would like to push on us. It should not force you to have the original disk in the drive or look up word x of page y in the manual every time you want to use it . You should be able to make backup copies as required.

If DRM on a product does limit your freedom then take it back and get your money back. No DRM is the best solution but if you must use DRM thik about your users needs ABOVE your desire to fight piracy.

Music DRM. Why is it not dead yet?

Microsoft have just started a new music download service for mobile phones in the UK. Given the flood of music download sites available since the DRM walls fell you would assume this was your standard US $1/song MP3 download type of site but you would be wrong.

No, Microsoft have decided to use a brutal DRM that will lock the purchased songs to JUST ONE handset. Lose, break or just update your phone and you have to purchase all your songs again. Let me state that again in case you missed it…….Lose, break or just update your phone and you have to purchase all your songs again. No transfer of songs is allowed.

You must be wondering why anyone would use this service. With that level of DRM you would assume that cheap songs would be the bait to lure you in but you would be mistaken. Each song from this service will cost you $2 US.

Just as DRM became as good as dead in the music sphere we have Microsoft come along and try to revive it and charge more to cover the costs of DRM. I would have loved to have watched the meeting that thought this service was a good idea. You can just picture see someone saying the following.

“The DRM on Spore worked so well for EA games. Why is nobody using DRM on music anymore…. Hang on… I bet they would pay far more if we DRM locked music files instead of selling those DRM free MP3 things.”

Please help this service fail. DO NOT PURCHASE FROM IT!

Free album is Amazon best seller!

I know that is a contradiction, how can something that is available for free make more money than something that is only available in a paid for format?

According to Amazon, this is exactly what happened. The Best selling album for 2008 on their MP3 site was Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails. An album released under the Creative Commons licence, hence free to share. The band even provides the seed for Ghosts I on The Pirate Bay site.

This raises the question, given that the album is effectively free why would anyone pay for it?

Trent Reznor, Mr NIN, is no fan of the record industry and after the famous Steal It speech split with his record company to go it alone. All releases since have been effectivly free yet people still pay because they know any money they pay goes directly to the band, not to line the pockets of fat cats in some faceless record company.

This just shows people are willing to support things they believe in or care about.

This latest blow to the record industry must have left many VERY scared. The ONLY thing record companies actually do is find new bands then publish their music. Both tasks that are now back in the hands of the artists. Will 2009 be the year we see the big 4 ask for a bail out or will Britney and the other plasic made up bands support them for another year?

The joy of the dawn chorus

I have tried a number of media players since leaving the MS fold, trying to find a good replacement for MS Media Player. I like the way it manages your music, library and playlists.

The best of the bunch I found was Amorak, that was until the Debian package became available for Songbird. Songbird’s default appearance is similar to many of the media players  available at the moment with a Genre/Artist/Album list type layout to navigate your media library.

What raises Songbird above the rest are the plug-is. There are already a large selection of plug-is from iPhone cover style list you can navigate by through to lyric tools that display lyrics to your songs while they play.

I have since flushed all other players from my system. I no longer have a need for them, Songbird is the king of the hill. Give it a try and you won’t look back