Dimen Designs

Great Mashup Music Thanks to PRI's Fair Game

Since I tend to be more of a night owl than ever, I sometimes find myself going to bed after 1am and when clicking on the radio (set to WAMU) to listen to news before falling asleep, I've been pleasantly surprised a few times by. PRI's great show, Fair Game. It's another gem from public radio that is of the same caliber of more mainstream public radio shows like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me or This American Life but I think it's more unknown because of its nocturnal play time.

The topics covered on the show are eclectic, quirky, and engaging; I've stayed up a few times just to hear the end of a show, a kind of "driveway moment" as NPR describes it during pledge time. And the host of the show, Faith Salie, has a laid-back personality but quick wit that provides insights into already intriguing stories without sounding forced or contrived. She seems like that cool friend that always has interesting stories on a wide yet weird range of topics and you wonder how a person could be into so many things and know so many people.

Basically, I love the show.

What finally made me post about Fair Game was tonight's show highlighting a new music mashup site, The Hood Internet. Mashups have been around awhile but these guys are focusing on mixing rap/hip-hop and indie rock songs, definitely music areas close to my heart. They're two musicians/DJs from Chicago, doing the mashups on the side, and making some good songs.

Broken Social Scene vs. R Kelly- I'm A Flirt (Shoreline)

The Shins vs Crime Mob- DJ STV SLV - Rock Yo Sea Legs

Yahoo Investing in Economists

[Written on my PDA so no fancy formatting or links.] As a research analyst and quasi-academic still interested in economics and globalization because of my undergrad days, it's fascinating to see how companies try to foster innovation. Some hire lots of brilliant people (Google) or they develop partnerships with universities to bring academic research to the market as actual products (a specific example escapes me now.)

Harking back to the days of Xerox's famous PARC or Bell Labs, Yahoo is announcing that it will hiring a large  cadre of economists and psychologists to study the future of social media on the internet: Yahoo has assembled "the largest group of academic-level economists in a corporate environment since Bell Labs," McAfee said. "We're not focused on immediate product development, but on where we see these markets going...(The Internet) is the next frontier of the application of market design in the real world." It will probably be a great long-term strategy but the question is whether Yahoo can weather the short-term  ROI questions as it struggles to catch up to Goggle and others (see the Peanut Butter manifesto).

Here's the full story: http://www.google.com/gwt/n?client=ig&u=http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6182707.html%3Fpart%3Drss%26tag%3Dfeed%26subj%3Dzdnn

Why DRM Will Continue On- Forbes

Written 5/5/07 on my PDA  (so formatting and links are crude) but reformated on 5/10/07.]

This quote below from a Forbes article on DRM sums up why the music industry still doesn't get it:

No intellectual property business is going to cross the digital divide without figuring out how to protect its content and to ensure that transactions are associated with the acquisition of content, Nash said. The music industry simply has to solve the content security problem or risk the obsolescence of its business model.

What's wrong with this statement. A couple of things.

1. We must protect our content or we won't enter the digital marketplace- how do you expect to share your content with the world and have total control over how its used? Those two views are in contradiction. Yes, allow people to purchase your digital content but don't dictate how I use it after I've 'purchased' it. If we can't use/consume the content outside of the draconian rules and limits you've setup, then don't share your content. Perfect control contradicts the idea of sharing or selling content.
2. The content security problem (which I just  addressed above- it's not a problem, the rules of the game have changed and made perfect control over your content impossible) means explicitly that that your business model isn't at risk of obsolesce, it's already dead in its current form. DRM doesn't work so yes, you do need a different business model.

Read the rest of the article here, (I'm writing this from my mobile so no good link formatting on this post). The other great (by which I mean incorrect and ridiculous) analogy is that without DRM, the entire world would come to resemble a college dorm where downloading and 'cloning' of music would run rampant. The research doesn't show that (Forrester's and others have done the analysis- can't link to it right now) but it's the big, bad stereotype of music piracy that the music industry likes to perpetuate.

Arcade Fire Rocks DAR's Constitution Hall

  Aracde Fire, Live in Atlanta 2007 
  Originally uploaded by mdshivers.

The Arcade Fire concert tonight was amazing, they really know how to put on a great show. Best of all, Win and the crew seem to really care about the audience. They're not one of those pretentious, I’m not showing the audience any emotion type of band.

We missed The National because they came right on at 8:00pm EST but I'm excited that they're opening for such a big name indie band and can get their music out to more people. I only fear that many didn't seem they play because we didn't realize that they were starting right at 8pm, instead of doors opening at 8pm and the opener coming on 30-45 minutes later.

When I mean interactive with the audience I don't mean that they were chatty during the song interludes (in fact Win was fairly to the point) but the entire band played with such conviction and precision (you got the sense that they all practice maniacally, that Win probably knows what everyone should be playing at every moment during each and every song) that it was powerful and engaging. They worked in the crowd’s participation whenever possible and really feed off that energy when they played. Humble yet confident.

When leaving the stage and waving and looking into the crowd, you could tell that they really do care about having a great performance every time and making the fans happy.

Only song I didn't hear, that would have it a amazing night truly perfect, was "Headlights Look Like Diamonds." They played mostly songs from the new album but sprinkled a few non-Neon Bible songs. I can't remember the entire set (may have been the same as this) but it was a good mix of the slow and the fast songs and highlighted their unique musical sense and technical expertise as well.

Favorite Songs:

1. The Well and the Lighthouse
2. Keep the Car Running (last song before the encore- which lasted three songs, the last one was unplanned I think)
3. Wake Up (which they encouraged the entire audience to join in on during the chorus of ohhhs and ooohs).

Downloading vs. Paying for The Arcade Fire

[Written 5/3/07 on my PDA  (so formatting and links are crude) but not posted until 5/10/07.]

Tonight is the night, The Arcade Fire is playing with The National (who I saw at Black Cat six months ago- thanks to Fred for recommending them) tonight at DAR Constitution Hall here in DC.

I've been wanting to see Arcade Fire ever since first hearing 'Headlights Look Like Diamonds,' probably three or four years ago.Having read that NYT article about the Montreal music scene, I was familiar with The Dears but not with AR.

But I've never bought a single piece of AR music, either at the store or by download. I love their music yet haven't bought their music, I sound like a cheapskate freeloader don't I, who believes all music
should be free to download?

Just the opposite in fact, I go to shows because I want to directly support the artists. Though the  traditional music album isn't dead, the business model of the record industry is fundamentally broken. DRM and suing customers is not the answer. Having been at college freshman during the heyday of Napster, I enjoyed this article in the Harvard Crimson chastising the music industry for making college administrators copyright police: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx%3Fref%3D518638

If you think I'm wrong, go read Doctorow, Lessig, or Leftsetz.

Hillman Curtis Video