Future Shop plans to get in on the music download biz with Bonfire (by way of P2Pnet). Please.

I think Eye has a pretty good handle on it: Download a clue. Read up, CRIA & music labels.

lifted from The Big Picture

Let’s review our plot so far:

We have an industry that is afraid of technology, its senior spokespeople lie to congress, they use Enron-like accounting, they somehow —WHOOPS! — forget to pay their artists, they are convicted price fixers, at the first sign of any kind of an economic rebound their instinct is to raise prices, they have ignored competitive pressures from other forms of entertainment such as DVDs, they ignore the devastatingly negative effects of radio ownership consolidation to their business model, they engage in all kinds of anti-competitive protectionism, they are unconcerned with the quality of their product, their customers are harried for time and distracted by other interests, their customers see nothing wrong with downloading music for free, some of their biggest stars are hoping the Internet will replace the labels, despite all too many signs that their product is over priced, they refuse to allow market forces to set competitive prices, they have consistently been one of the most mismanaged businesses in history, oh, and they somehow think they are immune from the business cycle.

How are these guys still in business?

from Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1218399,00.html

Cannes screening for most sexually explicit British film

Charlotte Higgins in Cannes
Monday May 17, 2004
The Guardian

Nine Songs: Winterbottom says of the most graphic scenes; ‘We can always take that out’

The most sexually explicit film in the history of mainstream British cinema, containing unsimulated sex scenes including fellatio, ejaculation and cunnilingus, many in close-up, yesterday had its first screening at Cannes. Michael Winterbottom, the Lancashire-born director of Nine Songs, a love story, said: “I had been thinking for a while about the fact that most cinematic love stories miss out on the physical relationship, and if it is indicated at all everyone knows it is fake.

“Books deal explicitly with sex, as they do with any other subject. Cinema has been extremely conservative and prudish. I wanted to go to the opposite extreme and show a relationship only through sex. Part of the point of making the film was to say, ‘What’s wrong with showing sex?'”

The film revolves around a young couple in London, Matt and his American girlfriend Lisa. The sex scenes, which occupy more than half of the film, are intercut with scenes of bands playing, including Franz Ferdinand, the Dandy Warhols, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Super Furry Animals. The story is framed by shots of Matt flying over the desolate plains of Antarctica, as he remembers the relationship from afar.

The screening yesterday was at 10am, too soon after breakfast for many viewers. The grunt and huff-and-puff factor in the film is notably high, and the language is strong.

Matt is played by Kieran O’Brien, with whom Winterbottom has worked on a previous film, 24 Hour Party People. However, the woman playing Lisa has asked that her name not be used in coverage of the movie, although it does appear in the credits. “She’s not an actress,” said Winterbottom. “She really likes the film but she is going back to university and I think she wants to keep a low profile.”

Despite the intimacy of the subject-matter, shooting the film was straightforward, according to Winterbottom. Having cast the two leads, a rehearsal was staged, after which they were given the opportunity to leave the project. “After a couple of days it was a case of that was what we were doing, and everyone adapted,” he said. It was a matter of going “one step further” than the requirements of conventional, simulated sex scenes.

The film has not yet been given a certificate, though Winterbottom is optimistic. Of the fellatio-and-ejaculation scene, the one likely to give the censors most pause, he said: “We can always take that out.”

In the film the couple also attend Michael Nyman’s 60th birthday concert, with shots of the composer playing the piano at the Hackney Empire in east London. “I’m very pleased to be in the most sexually explicit film in British film history,” said Nyman from Berlin yesterday, “especially as I am not doing anything sexual. I can’t wait to see it.”

Derek Malcolm, the Guardian’s veteran film writer, said: “Nine Songs looks like a porn movie, but it feels like a love story. The sex is used as a metaphor for the rest of the couple’s relationship. And it is shot with Winterbottom’s customary sensitivity.”

Winterbottom’s previous work includes the 1996 Jude, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel starring Kate Winslet and Christopher Eccleston, and Welcome to Sarajevo, about an ITN reporter’s adoption of a Bosnian child. He is currently working on a football movie, Goal.

Yet another movie that screened at last year’s TIFF that I wanted to see and didn’t, Prey For Rock and Roll (IMDB | rotten tomatoes) was a good little Sunday evening watch. As thick and fast as the clichés flew sometimes, I at least felt like the characters – Gina Gershon’s especially – were passionate about the music. So who cares if you’re mediocre as long as you play your ass off?

from the BBC: Rivals challenge iPod’s dominance

Rivals challenge iPod’s dominance

The iPod has become an object of desire
Apple’s iPod may be the flavour of the month, but there are better and cheaper choices, says a computing magazine. In a test of 18 digital music players, PC Pro found the iPod lacking in comparison with other devices.

The iPod is the most popular digital music player in the world and almost three million have been sold. “The iPod and iPod Mini are the two best known portable MP3 players because Apple has pumped money into a huge marketing campaign, but there are some fantastic lesser-known alternatives,” said Nick Ross, PC Pro senior writer.

MP3 appeal
In just the first three months of the year, Apple sold 807,000 iPods, a 909% rise on the same period a year ago. The latest and smallest version, the iPod Mini, has proved so popular in the US since its introduction in January that its international release has had to be put back until the end of July.

PC PRO RECOMMENDATIONS

• iRiver iHP-100 Series 20GB – £255
• Rio Karma 20GB – £269
• Rio Nitrus 1.5GB – £168
• iRiver iFP-300 Series 128MB – £109
• iRiver iFP-500 Series 256MB – £155

The success of the iPod has helped to increase the popularity and appeal of digital music players and consumers face a bewildering choice of devices. This month’s issue of PC Pro magazine looked at 18 portable MP3 players and concluded that there were several lesser-known brands that noticeably outperformed the iPod.

“The iPod is over-priced when compared with these competitors,” said Mr Ross. “It also falls down on battery life, with some portable MP3 players lasting three times as long, while its lack of support for Windows Media files will upset many PC users.”

Disk drive shortage
Apple declined to comment on the magazine report.

The California-based company is betting on the iPod mini to help maintain its position at the top of the MP3 player market. It is facing faces stiff competition from others like Dell, Digital Networks, Creative Labs and Archos which are seeking to challenge that dominance.

But there is good news for music fans still waiting to get their hands on an iPod Mini. Hitachi, which makes the 4GB disk drive for the player, has said it is going to spend about $200 million (£113.4m) to double production at its Thailand factory. It means that the six-week waiting list for the iPod Mini is likely to get shorter by the end of the year.

Remember Gladiator? Sure you do. It got lots of attention a few years ago. Remember how it went? Long, historical drama with lots of special effects, questionable (sometimes laughable) dialogue, stunning & frenetic action sequences, liberties taken with the historical story/background and a stud action star who always seemed to be oiled down and flexing? Yes? Then nothing much’ll stun you about Troy.

Don’t ge me wrong: I liked it. But I think I liked the movie in spite of itself. Brad Pitt was good — or at least interesting — as Achilles. Eric Bana made a good Hector. Orlando Bloom was useless. I’m sure he attended the Keanu Reeves school of only-ever-have-one-expression acting.

The special effects and battle sequences were good, but hardly groundbreaking. But the real star of the movie was the story; as butchered as it might have been, The Iliad is so compelling a story that not even a leaden screenplay and disinterested performances of two of the critical chacters (Paris & Helen) could completely kill it.

I’m buying The Iliad and The Odyssey.

• The Fire Theft @ The Mod Club, June 5
• The Fiery Furnaces @ The Mod Club, June 19 (the Mod Club will be very much about fire in June, it seems…)
• Ted Leo/Pharmacists @ The Horseshoe, June 21

Canada’s Tragically Hip have decided file sharing is bad for their wallets.

The group (with absolutely NO help from their label, Universal Music, or the CRIA) point out that during March 30 to May 7 there were more than half a million ‘unauthorized’ attempts to download their new single, Vaccination Scar.

Tragically Hip is one of the biggest selling Canadian bands ever, with all that implies

“The grim economic reality aside, it shows how widespread the practice of downloading has become,” says the band’s Gord Sinclair.

But Hey! “Don’t get me wrong,” he says. “Anything that gets people into music is okay with me, but at some point people have to recognize their role in the creative process. To me it’s an ethical question.”

In the same puff piece, Jann Arden (?) “reacted to the news”, saying,

“Downloading music from the Internet is ironically the hope, and alarmingly the impending decay and destruction, of the music industry. Unless these downloads are monitored and artists are compensated for their work, there will be NO work to download. None of us, as writers and performers, can afford to keep making the music that has always, and will always, make the world a little easier to swallow in troubled times.

“We cannot play if we are not paid.”

There you go.

No pay, no play.

In other words, the musical arts depend absolutely on the dollar. Or franc. Or pfennig. Or whatever.

No way.

The Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson also wades in with, “I’m totally fine with people downloading music, as long as they steal everything that they want. If you want pants, go steal them. If you need gas in your car, you should steal it, because you can. As long as people are consistent I don’t have a problem. As long as they see themselves as thieves in general then I don’t mind if they steal everything that they like. But it irks me that it’s only okay to steal music.”

And to cap it off Brian Robertson, the president of the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America), says grimly:

“It underlines, again, the vulnerability of our artists, creators and producers to the lawlessness of the Internet in Canada and the need for federal politicians and bureaucrats to move far more expeditiously than they have in the past to update Canada’s woefully inadequate Copyright Act.”

But while Robertson & Co are singing the blues, in terms of their careers, “more artists say free music downloading online has helped them than hurt them,” says a Pew report here.

“Fully 83% of those in the survey say they provide free samples or previews of their music online. And strong pluralities say free downloading has a payoff for them. For instance, 35% of them say free downloading has helped their careers and only 5% say it has hurt. Some 30% say free downloading has helped increase attendance at their concerts, 21% say it has helped them sell CDs or other merchandise; and 19% say it has helped them gain radio playing time for their music. Only fractions of them cite any negative impact of downloading on those aspects of their work.

“Some 60% of people surveyed say they don’t think the RIAA’s (Recording Industry Association of America) suits against online music swappers will benefit musicians and songwriters. Those who earn the majority of their income from music are more inclined than ‘starving musicians’ to back the RIAA, but even those very committed musicians don’t believe the RIAA campaign will help them. Some 42% of those who earn most of their income from their music do not think the RIAA legal efforts will help them, while 35% think those legal challenges will ultimately benefit them.”

And Oh Yeh – wasn’t Universal Music one of the labels that, following a two-year investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office, was ordered to return $50 million to musicians they’ve had under contract.

Spitzer’s office found many artists and writers weren’t being paid royalties because record companies “had failed to maintain contact with the performers and had stopped making required payments”.

Finally, the CRIA (and, hence, its owners, the Big Five record labels) recently suffered an embarrassing defeat when it failed to convince a Canadian federal court that online file sharing is illegal and is “devastating” the multi-billion dollar music industry.

from P2Pnet: Tragically Hip’s money troubles

From a Nov 2003 Guardian interview with the Fiery Furnaces: “Closing track We Got Back the Plague suggests that a brief outbreak of bubonic plague in New York last November was divine retaliation for George Bush’s increased majority in the recent mid-term elections.”

Guardian interview

…I think it would be Jon Stewart, Corin Tucker and Bill O’Reilly.

‘Cause even though Jon and Corin are only little, I’m pretty sure the three of us could beat the shit out of Bill O’Reilly. Give him the bootfucking of a lifetime, as it were.

Metaphorically speaking, of course.