The Music Industry is going ok its just the labels having a hard time

I have just seen a video from the PRS care of CFF, who worry about distrubutions of royaltes in the UK, and they basically saying this part of the music is fine and 2009 revenues is up on 2008. So basically confirms what I said in my pervious blog post that it is the labels who are having issues. And the US Market is tanking while the UK Market is fine. One problem why the US is having issues is that they have less records stores and the hold less different albums and albums have less shelve time before they are no longer in store. When there is no supply there is no demand hence people going to other sources and not buying physical albums.

ACTA is about History not the Future

ACTA being labelled Counterfeiting means that most people would assume that it is about counterfeiting. When in actual fact it is more than just counterfeiting and has a lot to do with copyright infringement. So I am guessing given all the secrecy around it and the misleading name is all about misleading the public. It is also being done fully behind close doors which flys completely in the face of being an open transparent democratic process. If the government chooses to adopt this we will not know what is in it until it is too late and not public comments or select committee stages will be gone through because it is an treaty of sorts.

In reality it is being run by people like the RIAA , RIANZ and MPAA. Notice it is Recording Industry Association of America. Notice it isn't something like the Musical Artist Association of America or something else along those lines. It is the recording industry not the artists who are going after this. The recording industry claims it is for the artists they are doing all this for but in reality they are worried about their own pockets. The internet has open a Pandora's Box and is changing the way the music industry works and instead of embracing this new technology and changing their business model to adapt the new world they want to hold onto the old way of doing things. Why is this? Well their business model relies on things not changing. This Pandora's Box is scary to the existing music industry as the artists with the internet have less of a need for the music labels, so it is in there industry to scare music off the net, as artists themselves can do far better without the records labels and such in the mix. And the artists can use the net and they don't have to sue their fans.

With the advent of music mixing tools such as Audacity, Garage Band, Pro Tools and Audition and a computer and some mics you can be recording and mixing your own songs. Then with the help of My Space, Facebook, iLike they can connection with fans. With Last FM they can have their music streamed to fans and recommended to potential new fans and with Amazon's Print on Demand service bands can have there music printed on demand with no large inventory overhead.

Here in New Zealand there is Creative Freedom Foundation who are promoting the views of NZ artists who have the slogan "Not in our name" which is in reference to the music labels who are saying all this anti-piracy and suing of fans is because the artists want them to.

Artists generally aren't for suing fans (other than Metallica who are so big they can make their own record deals) as bands make sweet F All generally off the sales of CDs. Hey even back in the 60s and 70s when records were coming into being in their current form bands were wary of them as they were possibly getting in the way of them making money from live performances and the like. Even in this day and age the band members make their money from playing gigs and selling merchandise. So if you really want to support the bands you like the best thing to do is go to their gigs and by pieces of merchandise.

Before anyone starts labelling me as a pirate who wants everything for well I go to gigs, buy T-Shirts and the picture below shows that I buy CDs.

My CD Collection

I was at Pixies Gig recently and they were selling CDs of the concert as you left. It is a great time to sell stuff as everyone is on their post gig euphoric high and willing to spend money and making impulsive purchases. They are also targeting a market segment that is currently being left untapped for money which is the bootlegging scene. And here you are selling sound board quality recordings which in the bootleg community is the holy grail of recordings.

So in essence copyright protection in it current political form is for the benefit of the record labels and NOT the artists and don't let others tell you otherwise. And bands make their real money from doing gigs and selling merchandise. The music labels want to keep us in the past and not let use progress into the future as they are scared of what it could mean and to backwards and antiquated to understand and fully embrace this new world and bring the future of music to us the fans.

Three strikes and you are out

One of the things that ACTA seems to what introduce is the cutting of people's internet with some type of three strikes system. But we may be getting a three strikes law before that stuck in through the back door (http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/3377967/Three-strikes-downloader-bill-welcomed). This bill is better than the infamous Section 92a Law as it goes to tribunal or court before you have the internet cut off which is a nice change. I don't condone the piracy but cutting off the internet is a little hash. A recent study by the BBC Study shows that 79% believe that the internet is now a human right. Currently I don't see any laws where people have their right to send and receive letters or make a phone call cut off if they do something that someone doesn't like. CDs and DVDs can be sent through the post or data sent through a direct phone link between two computers. So this being the case shouldn't they be clocking all ways that you could exchange data?

Cutting the internet off maybe a little harsh as it may affect people's ability to work. Stopping the internet will stop people working from home, using a VPN to remote in or just checking emails to collaborate with people from work.

Now that more people are moving over to VoIP instead of of regular phone lines. This means cutting the internet may mean that people can not call 111 and given the recent press about Telecom not being able to provide 111. The government mightn't like the look of the press the first time someone can't call because they have had there internet cut off.

Dumb things people do at gigs

I have mentioned in a another blog post People taking bags to gigs that people do dumb things at gigs. This one (and kinda the stiletto one) affects other people which is why I have mentioned it before. The bellow are just dumb for the person.

At the Pixies gig the other week I added another thing to the list of dumb things people do at gigs. This one is wearing jandals and then complaining when people accidentally step on their toes. Umm if you are wearing footware to a gig that doesn't cover and protect your foot and you want to do go into the mosh you have no right complain, period, end of story.

Hoop earrings. Well lets just say at The Rock's Twenty Birthday gig in Wellington a lady was wearing hoop earings and in the mosh people bump into each other and peoples arms get waved around. I'm sure you can figure out the rest and why it mightn't be such a good idea and I was unfortunately a couple of people along from her and saw it happen.

The last two dumb things happened at a Green Day Gig back in 2005. Boob tubes with nothing underneath yeah they become tummy tubes, so just wear a singlet or a tshirt that has something over the shoulder. The other one is stilettos firstly they hurt people when you stand on their feet even if they are wearing proper footwear, as a stiletto heel exerts more pressure per m² than and an elephant does. Secondly they break and well must be a pain for the lady but it is kind of funny to watch them hobble away and if they have had a drink or two just generally wobble around.

Path to php5-cli on godaddy

Well I have ShihadWiki running at Godaddy and they have an SSH Shell and well php5-cli isn't on the path and well I had to spend ages trying to find it, so here it is with some of the keywords I used trying to find it.

/usr/local/php5/bin/php5-cli

So that is the path for php5-cli for when you are using the ssh command line on the godaddy servers, like when you need to run a php script like the upgrade script for  MediaWiki.

Keeping my ears safe

I like going to see live music and well it is loud, the AC/DC gig last week apparently had the loudest PA set up NZ has ever had. Music this loud hurts your ears.  The first time I really realised about looking after my ears was after a Muse Gig in 2004 my ears were ringing for a few days afterwards. Turning down the music at gigs I personally don't think is the thing to do as is still like the feeling of feeling the music through my body along with actually hearing it.

Over the years I tried a variety of earplugs but was never that impressed with them as they seemed to reduce of the volumes of different frequencies differently. This is kind of like some playing with the equaliser settings rather than the just volume knob. I later found out that most ear plugs do not give you flat attenuation. Attenuation technically is the reduction in intensity. Most ear plugs attenuate the different frequencies differently.

In 2008 or so I came across Etymotic ER20 Earplugs. This non custom fitted earplug gives near flat 20dB attenuation. They sound much better regular ear plugs and is just like someone has turned down the volume knob and not touched equaliser. The one thing I did find about these was they sound good but they were a little difficult to put in and got a little uncomfortable after after wearing for longer periods of time. Even given this for $31.50 they are really good if you want something that sounds better than normal ear plugs and given they last longer than foam ear plugs its price really isn't that bad and in the long run would be cheaper than getting foam earplugs for each gig you go to.

At the end of 2009 I was looking at the first few months of 2010 which was going to involve Big Day Out, AC/DC, Them Crooked Vultures, Homegrown and The Pixies gigs. Knowing that I had a few gigs lined up and that the ER20s were a little uncomfortable for longer periods of wear I shelled out $315 and got some ER15s from Pacific Ears. ER15s are custom moulded to fit your ear and offer 15dB of attenuation.

Even though they are custom moulded it is a very quick process and simple process. It starts off with an ear nurse taking impressions of your ear canal. The first step is placing a piece of foam with a string attached next to the ear drum, this is to stop on goo going all the way into the ear. The placing of the foam was the bit of the process I found the most uncomfortable as when the foam was being pushed in it caused some discomfort but once it was in place it was fine. The next step was injecting some blue goo into your ear canal. This blue goo cured and formed an impression of my ear canal. While the goo was in ear it was a very weird sensation as I had no hearing what so ever from that ear. After 10 minutes or so the goo had cured and was removed from the ear canal and the same process was done for the other ear. Elacin has some photos of the impression taking process. It was a Friday afternoon and I placed the impressions in a courier bag and sent them off to Pacific Ears.

By Wednesday the next week I received the packages from Pacific Ears which contained my new Ear Plugs. So it is a very fast turn around. Though one thing to mention is that the impression making kit travels the country and from memory is only in Wellington for instance every fortnight, so you might have to wait a little while for the impression to be taken. Edit 2010-02-08: I have been informed that this is now no longer the case and the only waiting time is getting an appointment time, as each place has their own impression kit.

So I opened the box and tried them on. The ER15s are far more comfortable than the ER20s are they are moulded to fit my ears. Putting them in a breeze as they want to sit in the correct spot due to all the curves and contours of the ear. I have never had a feeling that they are going to fall out or anything because of this. Seeing they are the right size there is no sensation of them stuffing your ear and actually pushing outwards against your ear canal. The ER15s moulds are clear and sit behind the tragus so unless someone is actually looking in your ear they are not going to notice that you are wearing earplugs and far less noticeable than the brightly coloured foam ear plugs due to the colour and that they don't protrude from the ear as much.

My ER15s

NZ $1 coin for size

At Big Day Out I wore them all day and I barely noticed that I had them in and they caused me no trouble what so ever. And even straight afterwards there was no ringing in my ears :D I personally think it was a very good $315 spent and am very happy with them.

One thing to also note is wearing ear plugs actually makes it easier to talk to people around you. This mightn't seem intuitive but this is to do with the fact the ear is better at differentiating different sounds at lower dB and the fact there is less acoustic shock on the ear.

My recommendations:

• If you go to gigs or loud bars/clubs and don't wear anything please wear some type of ear protection.
• If you currently wear or have tried normal ear plugs and find that they they distort the sound too much have a look at the ER20s they aren't too expensive and sound far better than normal earplugs. As I said before in the long run will work out cheaper than getting foam ones every gig.
• If you have tired the ER20s and would like something more comfortable try the ER15s.

More information:

• http://www.dontlosethemusic.com/ 
• http://www.pacificears.co.nz/

Sorting out spam once and for all

Method 1:
People spam because there is a small percentage of people who buy from spam. Therefore the root cause of spam is that there are people who buy from spam. And it is always better to fix the cause rather than try and fix symptoms, so instead of going after the spammers they should go after the people who buy from spam. If the people who buy from spam stop buying from spam there is no benefit in sending spam.

So when people buy from spam they should be fined or something because they are doing bad stuff to affect the rest of the world's population. People will learn very quickly when they or other people start getting fined, they will quickly learn for themselves about buying from spam is a bad thing and therefore sending spam will start to dry up. Say for banking phising emails you lose all the money that you lost and then fined the same amount.

Method 2:
Another method that was working, so well in fact that a spam lord PharmaMaster said "Blue found the right solution to stop spam, and I can't let this continue" (Ref). The method basically boiled down to an automated tool which if you got a particular message and only once per message received filled out the order form on the site saying that you don't want spam. This really got the people paying the spammers to send spams for them pissed off because they had lots of fake order to trawl through, which increased the cost of doing business for no more orders. This system was the target of a DDoS attack and was forced to close down, as it was a single point of failure.

What needs to be done is and was started but never got anywhere was making a distributed system to do this with out the single point of failure. Given the DDoS power behind the spammers it will have to be done bitttorent, Google, etc type size. It has been said by spammers that this method works so it would be good to see if this method could be set up to work again.

Seeing they are saying that spam accounts for 90% of email traffic and it requires CPU time to accept email and then also do all the spam filtering processing. So if spam can be reduced it will help companies be more green as they can use less computers in their email infrastructure.