long live 6 music
05 Jul '10, 21:50
Following last weeks reports that BBC 6 Music had been given a stay of execution whilst further reviews are carried out; the BBC Trust announced its findings following the strategic review today.
The news is good:
"The Trust does not think a convincing case has been made, as presented, for the closure of 6 Music. The Trust does not agree that there is a consistent strategic rationale for closure on grounds either of promoting digital development or market impact" -- (BBC Strategy Review email 2010-07-05, 17:13).
The announcement that the station would be saved from the axe came at just before mid-day and spread like wildfire, with me becoming alerted to it mid-afternoon following a post by 6 Music on Facebook. The #save6music and #6music hashtags on Twitter have been buzzing and internet message boards have been alive with discussion.
There can be little doubt that the show of support from station staff, listeners, musicians and industry officials had an impact and it's good to see the Trust listen to those which it serves. But whilst 6 Music will not be closing, it's worth noting the following paragraph:
"the proposal has been helpful in highlighting the need for a further review of the BBC's digital strategy. If, as part of that review, the Executive wants to put together a different proposal for the overall shape of its music radio stations that they think could further increase the distinctiveness of the output, we would consider it." -- (BBC Strategy Review email 2010-07-05, 17:13).
This appears to mean that whilst the BBC has failed to put forward a convincing argument for closing 6 Music on this occasion, it does not mean that a new plan cannot be put forward, providing the distinctive output of BBC Radio is maintained.
Bearing that in mind however, today is excellent news for everyone who appreciates what 6 Music does. It's important that we all continue to listen to the station and to show that we do need it. Likewise it's important that 6 Music doesn't stand still and continues to ensure that it fulfils the remit for which we've all argued.
To round-up, I thought that a few quotes from 6 Music presenters would be appropriate. I've also compiled a small number of interesting websites which I've linked to this post.
I have just one thing left to say: Hooray for 6 Music and it's staff, hooray for the BBC Trust and a very BIG HOORAY for the station's supporters!
"A big heartfelt thank-you to all who got behind #save6music. Great day & all down to listener support. In the words of the band Yes: "Yes!" " -- Jon Holmes (@jonholmes1) via Twitter
"Trust report is great initial news received with tentative cheers. A huge thanks to all of you who expressed your love, we send it back x" -- Shaun Keaveny (@Shaun6music) via Twitter
"Just want to say thanks again for all your loveliness. Sort of gone a bit wobbly and overwhelmed here in the studio. X" -- Lauren Laverne (@laverneshow) via Twitter
"I didnt believe it would happen but the BBC has listened to its financiers! The British Public! You 'lot' (1 mil +) have been immense! Ta!" -- Marc Riley (@marcrileydj) via Twitter
"Its Official 6Music is saved. Top work everyone!!! #love6music -- Steve Lamacq (@lamacqshow) via Twitter
"We should do a toast and raise a glass to 6 Music and all who worked so hard to save her! #love6music #save6music #6music - To 6 Music! x" -- @Inside6music (Twitter)
6 music reprieve?
30 Jun '10, 18:00
It looks as though the BBC Trust are granting 6 Music a 'stay of execution' whilst further reviews of the service are undertaken.
This is good news. It means that the Trust are not simply going to rubber-stamp Thompson's proposal to close the station which, since the closure was announced, has gained over 1 million listeners and has heard protests from all corners - presenters, musicians, industry officials and listeners.
It doesn't mean it's safe though. This just means that a firm closure announcement is not imminent, but the station could still be at risk. It's important therefore for those who appreciate what the station does, to remain vocal in support and to continue listening. If the figures continue to grow, then the argument for keeping the station is stronger.
Of course, billboards like that in the picture found here: http://twitpic.com/1zj870 are a great idea. Can anyone get any more shown?
reaction to the death of michael jackson
26 Jun '09, 12:28
Sad news today as people awoke to the news that pop superstar Michael Jackson died from a cardiac arrest.
However, from watching and reading news articles throughout the day, I have come to the conclusion that many people simply overreact to this kind of news.
Television showed images of distraught fans who appeared to be inconsolable, but these aren't people who knew him personally. They are simply fans and I don't understand how anyone can get so upset over someone they don't know. Plus it's not as if his career was in full swing.
Of course I'd expect friends and family to be upset and I do feel for them, but those who are simply just fans really ought to pull themselves together.
This is nothing new though. Similar reactions were seen at the death of other stars such as Elvis, John Lennon and Princess Diana. I just think it's a shame that people react this way.
Interestingly, last.fm has published a graph showing the number of times Michael Jackson tracks were listened to on and hour-by-hour basis and there is an almost vertical spike as people learned the news.
what to do about illegal downloading
30 May '09, 11:31
With the news that 7 million people in Britain have been illegally downloading files, I started thinking about what could be done to make purchasing digital media more attractive. Since the only media I download is music, that's where my ideas are focused although I'm sure some of these thoughts could be applied to films too.
Before going any further, I should clarify my position. I don't download music from illegal sources. Personally, I like to know that my music collection is 100% above board and legal. Call it being obsessive if you like, but if I had even one illegal file in my collection it would spoil the whole thing and bother me until I deleted it. The temptation however has been there. If I want just one song from an artist and I can't get it through my usual stores then the thought does cross my mind.
Availability
That leads to my first thought - availability of content. We all know that iTunes has the largest collection of digital music available on the net, but for whatever reason plenty of people cannot or will not use that store. That could be down to their choice of operating system, or perhaps they cannot play the AAC files on their choice of digital music player. These people have to choose stores such as 7Digital, Amazon, Play.com etc. which whilst having a good collection, do not stock everything. There are still artists who do not release their music as downloads, and others who will not permit single track downloads.
In my opinion, by not making a track or album available in a digital store, downloaders are encouraged to seek out alternative sources for downloading this music. Other than buying the CD they have no choice. People are getting used to being able to get digital media now. Not waiting for a CD to be delivered in 2 days time, but waiting for the download in 2-5 minutes time.
Audio Quality
A majority of stores are offering music downloads in the MP3 format - a lossy format. In addition, most stores are offering MP3s at less than the maximum bitrate.
Although most people would be pushed to tell the difference between an MP3 at 256kbps versus a CD, should the downloader wish to convert the MP3 to an alternative format, further audio quality will be lost.
Downloads need to start being offered in lossless formats (FLAC is my choice). Yes the downloads are bigger, but the quality is identical to a CD. That FLAC can be kept as a master in the sameway that I have my CDs as masters. MP3 files can be created from the lossless file. Then in years to come should the MP3 go out of fashion, a new file can be created with no further loss in quality.
Of course, many consumers would not be aware of how to make the lossless file compatible with their music players by converting it to MP3, so this should be an option. When downloading the music files, purchasers should have the choice between lossless and MP3.
Pricing and Business Models
A big deterrent to downloading music legally is price. With a new CD album costing say £8.99 online, why should anyone download an album for £7.99? Obviously there are cost implications at the store in terms of file storage and bandwidth, but the consumer will only consider that they are getting a non-physical product with no jewel case, disc or artwork. Many will know that the audio quality is inferior to a CD. Because of this, consumers (myself included) will resent paying approximately the same cost of a CD particularly when so many albums will end up on sale in a few months and available for £5.00.
Single track downloads should be no more than 60p each, with albums costing no more than £5.00. For an average album, this will still encourage album sales as the cost per track will be lower (35-50p each depending on the number of tracks in the album).
Further attention should be given to online stores which operate a subscription model. The subscriber pays a certain amount per month which permits a limited number of downloads, which can be kept should the subscriber cease their subscription. This is the model that eMusic follows. As the number of downloads do not roll over each month, if a subscriber does not download the entitlement, then all the better for the store. Track costs should top out at 40p - cheaper than normal to encourage a subscription.
Downloadable Extras
As part of the cost of buying a CD, the purchaser gets not only the music but album artwork and liner notes. These should not cease just because there is no longer a physical product.
Downloaders should be given the choice to purchase album art in a high resolution PNG or JPG file and liner notes in a PDF file. The downloader can use these on the computer, or print out the artwork when burning an audio CD to create a nice product to go on the shelf.
Note that I don't expect these to be free. Downloading both files can add an extra £1.00 on to the cost of an album, netting stores, record companies and musicians extra income.
eurovision 2009
22 May '09, 16:35
It occurs to me, nearly one week on, that I haven't written about this year's Eurovision Song Contest; held in Moscow.
Sadly, since it's been a few days I don't think I'll be able to comment on perhaps some of the more obscure acts of the contest. Saying that however, I don't recall it being an overly bizarre event.
Perhaps I have just established some kind of mental block, eliminating the poor and shameful acts from my consciousness but I do believe that the Eurovision Song Contest is becoming more serious. Nations are taking it more seriously - and so are we in the UK. Or at least we did this year.
I'm very pleased to be able to write that we did very well in this competition. Every time I have reviewed the event in the past, I have had to make reference to the poor performance of the UK entry. This time however; thanks to Jade's performance and Andrew Lloyd Webber on the piano; our nation ranked 5th out of 25 countries.
In order to eliminate some of the political voting that has marred the contest for so many years, this time jury voting was introduced which accounted for 50% of a countries score. The other 50% still being made up by the public telephone vote. On the face of it, one might consider that this is why we did well and indeed it did help. Looking at an unofficial source of results however, shows that with only the telephone vote, our song would still have scored 7th. Yes the jury vote has helped us, but not by such a significant margin as one might imagine.
To me though, this result really does prove that by putting in a lot of effort in using a talented singer, known song-writer and heavy European marketing; we can still do well.
Now the mission is to do the same again next year. On the back of a good result, can we entice performers that are well known in Europe to get involved? It is important to build on what went well this year, and improve our weaker points. Then maybe (but just maybe) we will be hosting the Eurovision Song Contest.
ubuntu 9.04 (jaunty jackalope) + amarok 1.4
25 Apr '09, 11:51
The latest edition of the popular Linux distribution; Ubuntu was released on Thursday. Unfortunately if one wishes to use Amarok as their preferred music player the discovery that installing through Synaptic provides version 2 may come as a disappointment.
For me, I will not upgrade Amarok until the new edition supports an external MySQL database. I access my collection not only from my desktop computer, but also from a laptop in the living room (for playing music through the hi-fi). Having the collection stored within Amarok itself means that I would in effect have two different databases each maintaining their own statistics. Not good.
In addition to that, at present my website has a link to view my music library. This is compiled by accessing the external MySQL database that Amarok 1.4 is using. Therefore if I play a track, and the statistics are updated in Amarok; my website will show those exact same statistics. If I upgrade to Amarok 2 then this feature disappears.
I'm sure there are many that are in a similar situation to me for the reasons above and probably many others. So is the solution to just not upgrade Ubuntu from 8.10 to 9.04? No. There is another way.
A quick search on Google ('Amarok 1.4 Jaunty') reveals a blog which has detailed some very easy instructions for how replace Amarok 2 for Amarok 1.4. I've linked to the blog below, but for ease of reference I have expanded on those instructions here:
(Remember: to make life easy; you can highlight code, move to the terminal window, and then press the middle mouse button to paste and execute it.)
Open a terminal window (Gnome: Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
Enter the following code:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amarok.list
Add the following text to the newly created text file:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
Press CTRL+X to close the text file (DO NOT close the terminal window). When asked to save changes, press Y.
Enter this code into the terminal (as one line):
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com /
0x1d7e9dd033e89ba781e32a24b9f1c432ae74ae63
Update the repository with the new sources, remove the existing copy of Amarok (if it's installed) and install 1.4:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get remove amarok && sudo apt-get install amarok14
That's all there is to it. I've tested it and it works without fault! Huzzah!
more nails in the coffin for drm'd music
31 Dec '08, 18:05
The future of DRM protected music is increasingly in doubt. Not only have independent music specialists such as eMusic been offering MP3 downloads for a significant time, mainstream music is beginning to become available in the universal format through stores such as 7Digital, Amazon (which launched in the UK earlier this month) and Tesco Digital.
What makes things better though is when a big artist appears to come out in favour of MP3 downloads. In this case it's Sir Paul McCartney who, using the band name "The Fireman", has released an album online not only through digital retailers in the MP3 format but through his own website and it's the latter where one can really see how digital music sales should really be.
The MP3 format is not the only digital format available. For those who can make use of it, FLAC is also available at no extra charge and with the MP3 files included too. For the benefit of Apple users, they can download the album in Apple Lossless and again the MP3 files are part of the package. But not only does one obtain the music, but the album cover is included as a JPG image and the insert as a PDF document meaning not one aspect of owning the physical copy is lost in this digital purchase (except for having a physical product).
The benefit of offering lossless audio should be pretty obvious. The quality will be identical to that of a purchased CD even if it is burnt to a CD-R as CD Audio, and later re-ripped back to FLAC. There is no degredation and the impression I get from comments made on internet message boards is that quality is a big reason putting people off delving into downloads.
I'd love to see FLAC being taken up as an option by retailers. Download speeds are fast, and storage space is cheap so end users shouldn't suffer from the larger file sizes. Understandably, the retailers themselves may be doubtful. Afterall, 4 million songs in FLAC format could cause storage problems compared to MP3 and the bandwidth bill for the retailer could take a hit. My solution is to simply offer FLAC as a choice alongside MP3 and to charge a small amount extra for the privilege for a larger, better quality file.
amazon mp3 and 64-bit linux
05 Dec '08, 17:35
At long last Amazon has launched it's MP3 music store in the UK, providing more choice for DRM free music downloading (along with the likes of 7Digital and Play.com).
The new store very kindly provides downloading software which is designed to make downloading albums straightforwarded, and even more kindly they have provided a version of the software for Linux. Unfortunately there is not a native 64-bit version of the software so anyone attemping to do a straight install will come up against an error due to the differences in architecture.
Fortunately, in Ubuntu 8.10 at least, this is very easy to overcome, just by following these simple instructions:
The first time an album is purchased using Amazon MP3, the browser will ask what application to use to open Amazon's AMZ file. Point the browser to the Amazon Downloader which can be found in /usr/bin/amazonmp3. Tick the box to use this program from now on, and that will be the only time the browser will ask.
one year with emusic
19 Feb '08, 17:00
Early February marked the one year anniversary of my sign-up with the online independant music retailer eMusic - and I couldn't be happier with my subscription so far!
Each month I have constantly discovered music by artists I would have had little chance in discovering otherwise - certainly since my radio listening has decreased dramatically over the last few years. It's fair to say that prior to February 2007, my musical awareness was decreasing fast.
My music downloads started off with a hunt for something familiar. I was aware that this was an independant music retailer and as such would not contain music from the major labels (little top 40 music), but I needed somewhere to start. Browsing through the collection I came across songs by Eddy Grant, The Raconteurs, Keane, The White Stripes, Badly Drawn Boy, Presidents of the United States of America, America and Steeleye Span - not bad for a site where I expected to find little I knew.
Before long however, I started to browse the site not only based on my favourite musical genres, but based on ratings and this is when I started to discover artists I'd not heard of previously. I also came across the eMusic message board and although I rarely post, I did find many recommendations there.
So I thought it would be good to look back over the past year and list some of the artists and albums that I have either discovered thanks to this service, or would not otherwise have bought:
AC Newman - The Slow Wonder
Apartment - The Dreamer Evasive
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
Blonde Redhead - Misery Is A Butterfly
Breathe Owl Breathe - Ghost Glacier EP
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Eliza Carthy - Rice
Fauxliage - Fauxliage
Feeder - Echo Park
Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies
Frightened Rabbit - Sing The Greys
Jenny Lewis - Rabbit Fur Coat
June Panic - A Child's Treasury Of June Panic
Lemon Jelly - '64 - '95
Loreena McKennit - The Visit
Nada Surf - The Weight Is A Gift
New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom
Modern Skirts - Catalogue Of Generous Men
Mofro - Blackwater
North Mississippi Allstars - Shake Hands With Shorty
Office - A Night At The Ritz
Pernice Brothers - Live A Little
Rusted Root - Cruel Sun
Sia - Some People Have Real Problems
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are A Dark Horse
The Bluetones - Luxembourg
The Bluetones - The Bluetones
The Levellers - Truth & Lies
The National - Boxer
The New Amsterdams - At The Foot Of My Rival
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
The Rakes - Ten New Messages
The White Stripes - Icky Thump
Trembling Blue Stars - Alive To Every Smile
Victory At Sea - All Your Things Are Gone
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
That's a list of nearly 40 albums covering Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Pop, Rock, English Folk, Ambient and Electronic music. It's not everything I've downloaded but that is most of the complete albums I have bought.
If I was to name favourites from that list, I would definately say Beirut, Blitzen Trapper, Nada Surf, Pernice Brothers, Spoon, The Bluetones and The National would qualify.
So now I just wonder - what music will I be exposed to over the next 12 months. It's very exciting!
oxjam gig @ the bitter end
09 Oct '07, 22:24
The Bitter End bar in Romford was the venue for a small Oxjam / Phoenix Sessions gig last Saturday (06/10/07), where headliner Tim Ten Yen took to the stage, supported by three other acts.
I'd never been to such a small gig before. The Bitter End is only a small venue and there cannot have been any more than a couple of hundred people in there. To say it was an experience is certainly true. I had a great evening.
Blue Spring started off the official line up at around 8pm. These guys were loud. Really loud. At some points it did feel like my brain was resonating with some of the notes. This was screaming rock music, and not really my cup of tea. But after they were done, the music was much more my style with sets from Dellas and WIMM, all unsigned but talanted bands.
However, the act that myself and friend Charlie (thanks for the invite) had gone to see was a guy called Tim Ten Yen. Signed to Fleet Street Records, this guy certainly has the potential to create quite a strong underground following with his catchy indie-pop style. For this performance, we had managed to get within about 6 feet of the stage and so could really appreciate the intimate atmosphere of the venue. Tim Ten Yen surprised me with a highly energetic dance routine which I wasn't expecting based on his suited appearance, but was certainly worthwhile. He put a lot into his set, and it definitely paid off.
By the end of the evening, on leaving the bar, I would barely hear anything, but Tim Ten Yen's songs were drilled into my brain. I've now downloaded his single from eMusic, and it's also available of iTunes or from HMV.
All I think now is, wouldn't it be amazing if this guy, at some time in the not to distant future, manage to secure a Top 40 hit. Then I can say 'I was there near beginning'.
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on Saturday, but did take some low quality pictures on my mobile phone. These are available now in the Photo Albums section. I'm actually quite pleased at how some of these came out!
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