bladespark: (Default)
[personal profile] bladespark
Firstly, from Kaura I pass along a link to something interesting and hopeful: A digitial media fair use bill has been introduced.

Then, I shall just pass along a peculiar and interesting observation. Wierd Al's recent album, Straight Outta Lynwood, had its big promotional release bungled, because somebody let slip the "White and Nerdy" music video early, and it got passed across most of the internet in a matter of hours. (I myself saw it about that time, and I'm not particularly well hooked into the internet trends grapevine.) Not only that, but that song, and several others from the album were shortly thereafter put up on Al's own homepage, and on his Myspace page (the only page on all of Myspace that doesn't sear my eyeballs,) and have been downloaded a bazillion times.

If the people who claim that piracy and downloads over the net are stealing their business are right, if people who download download instead of buying, and thus they've lost a customer, then Straight Outta Lynwood ought to be suffering pretty badly, given that the best stuff off the album is being given away, and half the world has downloaded it.

However, and I quote from wikipedia here, "Straight Outta Lynwood is Yankovic's most successful chart album in the U.S, and his first top ten album ever, entering the Billboard 200 at number ten." Not only that, but the one most downloaded and watched song of those available for download, the one most passed around, the one that I've seen shared on the net in dozens of places without even trying to look for it, is "White and Nerdy." Well, let's see how that's doing then... ""White & Nerdy" has also become Yankovic's first-ever Top 10 single, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. (His previous highest-peaking single was 1984's "Eat It", which peaked at #12)."

So to anybody who insists that piracy is hurting your business, yeah right. The evidence is stacking up steadily, and is becoming more and more overwhelming. The more people download your stuff off of the net, the better it sells. If this fair use bill goes through, it'll be the best thing that ever happened to the music industry, if they'd just take their heads out of the sand and pay attention.

Also, on the subject of Weird Al and DRM, Don't Download This Song. No. Don't do it! I seeeeeeee you with your mouse hovering over that link. Don't you dare follow it and download the song. Don't do it! No. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

(P.S. Had to add this. If you like White and Nerdy, you should see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWc6QQ9JlMc Al put it up himself. And yes, that is Donny Osmond rocking out nerdily in the background. Which is the best part.)

Date: 2007-03-01 02:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pet-tiger.livejournal.com
Oh my. I forgot how much I love Weird Al.

Date: 2007-03-01 04:52 am (UTC)
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
From: [personal profile] silveradept
Hrm. Funny how that works out - the consumer got a look at what was going to happen on the latest album, including a music video, mixed with Weird Al's reputation as being very good at parody music, and it's a hit! All because we got to see the music video over the net. Who would have thunk it was such a great business model...?

Date: 2007-03-01 11:00 am (UTC)
ext_122521: (Girl Geek)
From: [identity profile] euphoriel.livejournal.com
All of the actual sales figures I've seen showed album sales increase after Napster became popular, and take a sharp dive after RIAA started trying to crack down on it. Funny how that works, sometimes. ^_~

Date: 2007-03-01 11:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bladespark.livejournal.com
Yup. The recording industry is shooting themselves in the foot, and whichever corporation realizes how much damage DRM is doing to their sales first (if any of them every do,) is going to clean up on the others so very much.

Date: 2007-03-01 01:29 pm (UTC)
ext_122521: (Girl Geek)
From: [identity profile] euphoriel.livejournal.com
Loreena McKennitt (http://www.quinlanroad.com/) (one of my favorite artists ever) has offered DRM-free lossless downloads of her music for purchase on her website. Sadly, it looks like her latest album is only available through normal retailers or iTunes in the United States. Canadians, et cetera, can still buy DRM-free copies of it from her site instead.

Date: 2007-03-01 05:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nicodemusrat.livejournal.com
Yup. Funny how people are willing to pay for something that they like without being forced. It was great to see Al get some good press for his great music, too.

Random link: A bit over a month back, he appeared as the guest on the NPR quiz show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me". Here's the episode archive (http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=35&prgDate=01-20-2007&view=storyview).

Date: 2007-03-02 05:12 pm (UTC)

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Aidan Rhiannon

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