Posts by Peter Darlington
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
you got em for $8 from itunes? their albums are listed for $18 up here at the moment. was it a special deal or did you go direct via the artist?
No, on eMusic.
I'm on the fat man's package so comes out at about $0.50c per tune or $6-$8 per album. I particularly love it when I'm buying all that expensive UK import reggae :-) Makes me smell like a winner.
-
The beatles catalogue being offered in its own shop would give them the opportunity to half the cost to consumers, but they'd probably choose to double their profits instead.
That would certainly be very cool as it's one of the few rights holder/distributors that might have the clout to force iTunes to drop their price a bit. I agree that iTunes is too high a price for electronic, whereas a new album by the likes of TV on the Radio, Animal Collective, Mr Scruff or whatever costs me about $8 (compared to $34 in the bricks & mortar store) and I like that a lot!
-
I mean, who on earth still has a landline? I've got wireless radio broadband and a cellphone, haven't had a phone for years...
Nah, I'll stick with the landline, and use the exit point to the street to convert to fibre in the next 2-5 years as well.
Biggest thing with this TiVo setup IMO is that if it goes off it will be another key factor in driving proper fibre broadband in this country. I'll be sticking with MySky because I want SPORT damnit, but NZ TiVo will hopefully force Sky to start delivering actual content via teh Interwebs as well. That's a very good call on TiVo's part, even with a few ads bundled in :-)
-
I'm not denying the pluses pointed out by simon just saying there are negatives to the positives, and some taking a step sideways rather than forward issues.
No one else is denying there are negatives either. Simon's already stated that it needs competition.
Rob, have you ever looked at eMusic for distributing your stuff? I have no idea of the payment setup but it's a much better application than iTunes and is the place to go for alternative, non-mainstream stuff with a huge membership so would be a good fit for your catalogue.
-
piped into the same millions of homes but not much good unless people actually go there.
Which is exactly Simon's point. It's iTunes, people go there, from everywhere...
-
Speaking for those of us who have been on the Internet since before last Thursday: no, not at all.
It's still great that Paul was good enough to start the discussion off. Someone should thank him...
-
The major labels discovered this in the pre-iTunes days. They tried to be their own retailers, and the result was deeply lousy
Would love to see a Web-app iTunes or an alternative that offered mainstream music from an interface as good as eMusic. As a way to search, read reviews and purchase music it rocks. But no major label stuff :(
-
But then the national psyche on cycling sucks already. People would rather drop their kids off at school in an SUV than dare to let them develop a little independence.
Actually, outside of the main centres, the new bus service contracts will be forcing people back into private transport more than parents fear of letting kids out on their own. The new system is a travesty and another nail in the coffin for public transport.
-
Agreed. Music being marketed and consumed as singles, then albums, then singles with playlists are important shifts with their own commercial and social dynamics.
I agree too. The age of the album was a cultural thing from the late '60s through to the 1980's and I think there were cultural and social factors in why things developed that way. Between the mid-50s and 60s the single was important because society was moving away from post war austerity and becoming more prosperous, loosening up financially and socially and part of this was wanting a good night out. Cue Little Richard and later James Brown These guys were performers, not writers, they had pro's to do that sort of thing for them leaving them free to hone their performing art to the max and the tunes were designed to stand on their own, be played at parties and encourage people to see them performed live.
A lot of the move towards albums comes down to Dylan (damn his trainspotting soul). He was a poet/writer possibly more than a performer (initially) and the idea of a collection of songs went hand in hand with the ability to write them. Lennon & McCartney were blown away by him and immediately tried to emulate/better him. Brian Wilson did the same with them and this led to Sgt Peppers followed by Pet Sounds, the coolest things ever in popular culture at the time. This is what kicked off the age of the album, people follow cool culture and they were as cool as it got.
Happily, at least two things came along to wreck this, punk tried (but failed) whereas Dire Straits (boring and deeply uncool) and Michael Jackson (hosing tens of millions to create mediocre platters) started to turn away both the audience and the recording execs. Acid House probably had quite a bit to do with it as well. White platters by invisible artists made to played for one night or one week only was the antithesis of the album and the electronic concepts of versions, breaks and remixes moved it even further away.
I see it as a natural cultural thing, the album may yet return in some kind of form in the future, who knows. I think culturally the album may symbolise a more bourgeois aesthetic manifesting in times of plenty while the single is driven by austerity and the need to party hard to take your mind off your troubles. Look for some crazy good tunes coming out in the next few years then I guess!
-
Re: Roger Shepherd
A real bummer that. Love Roger to bits but he's coming across like the Garth McVicar of S92a with that piece. Misguided and anti-productive.