Freyburg

The BBC, in their infinite wisdom, decided sometimes in the late Sixties or early Seventies that they needed space for new shows in their tape library, and destroyed many of the original tapes containing Hartnell, Troughton, and even a few Pertwee stories. Despite the odd find each decade of a lost story molding away in some backwater, many of these classic Who tales are lost in the mists of time…until now.

It turns out many a fan recorded the audio from the shows as they were broadcast, so almost all the soundtracks have been preserved. But a cadre of fans spread across the globe are taking things a step further and animating the classic lost Doctor Who adventures to recreate the Doctor’s first adventures. The BBC did this officially with “The Invasion,” but as stated in the Guardian story, animating is a tremendous amount of work. Fans don’t care, though, they want their Who and they’re willing to put noses to the grindstone to get it.

Well, thanks, Gene Simmons, now we have a terrible TV show AND your idiocy and ignorance regarding the digital age with which to mock you. Apparently, according to Gene, the music industry is dead and it’s all the fault of the fans. It couldn’t possibly be that the old model Kiss rode to fame and fortune on isn’t valid anymore, or that maybe nobody wants music from a bunch of aging rock-dorks. No sir, couldn’t be that at all.

The Canadian DMCA has just been tabled by the House of Commons, and from what I can tell (gleaned from Michael Geist’s excellent blog post) it’s a complete and total ruinous mess for the future of electronic media in Canada. Let’s, just for a second, get past the spectre of evil pirates stealing content from hard-working, impoverished studios and record companies. This bill makes it illegal for anyone to transfer music they bought off a CD and onto their own iPod. It also makes it illegal to unlock an iPhone or other locked digital devices, to the tune of a $20,000 fine. So the fact that I’ve been carting around said iPhone for the last six months is apparently more important than the fact that our representatives in Parliament consort with gangster molls or that the Alberta tar sands are an ecological disaster area. No, people downloading the latest Coldplay album is what our law enforcement services should concern themselves with.

The real irony here is that the studios are the authors of their own destruction. If these laws are actually enforceable, all that will happen is that people won’t bother to watch copyrighted material anymore. The means of production are cheaper than ever, and more and more people are watching amateur video, citizen journalism and other user generated content. The drive for self-preservation will actually accelerate the decline and fall of big media, by its own hand.

And the potential damage from this bill doesn’t just affect individuals. Companies in the business of moving and storing content, like Domain7, have already expressed concerns (check their news section for their take on the bill).

What can you do to voice your concerns about this bill? Email your member of Parliament (I just did, for the very first time), join online groups like the Fair Copyright for Canada group on Facebook, and join the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, and other groups advocating for digital rights.

I have another article up on Mac|Life, this time about the rebate all Canadians who purchased iPods before June 24, 2004 can claim for a $45 credit from Apple. Do you qualify? More importantly, what will you do with your Apple rebate?

The New Music Express has alternatively championed and derided every major form of music to come out of the UK since the 1970s, but according the Time of London, the august tome might finally due to expire. Meanwhile, music critics surprisingly hate the artists beloved by the public, and vice versa.

Radiohead recently gave away their latest album, “In Rainbows,” online with the caveat that listeners could donate whatever they found appropriate. The NY Times examines both the band’s decision and the larger trend of musicians splitting off from their labels and going out on their own.

Wired has an interesting report on the resurgence of vinyl record sales among die-hard music fans. Apparently some indie labels are finding that selling music on vinyl with enclosed coupons for MP3 downloads is proving to be a very popular mix. Music-lovers can satisfy their tin ears at home listening to the richness of sound vinyl offers (while enjoying the large format album art), and then use the coupon to grab the same album for free off the label’s website for their iPods.

( If nothing else, it sounds like a great excuse to buy that DJ turntable setup you know you’ve always wanted…)

Hot on the heels of Radiohead’s decision to market and distribute their new album themselves (for whatever price fans feel like paying), NIN’s Trent Reznor has announced that as of now, Nine Inch Nails are free agents and will not be seeking a contract with a record company now that their contract has expired. (Kudos, btw, to Duncan Riley at TechCrunch for having the guts to go for the obvious Kent-Brockman-esque “nine-inch-nail-in-record-industry-coffin” wordplay in his headline; he’s a braver man than I!)

(more…)

In a perfect storm of surreality, Eighties consumerism and just plain weirdness, view this video of Devo hyping the Pioneer laserdisc player, all while wearing weird headpieces.

The Times looks into Radiohead’s attempt to sell/give away its music directly to fans, and comes to the conclusion, that the music industry better change its ways pronto if it wants to survive. Nothing all that new here, but good to see another article pointing to the demise of Big Music.