Mar 25th, 2009 | music, tongue-in-cheek | No Comments
I was a big fan of pandora.com. The service provided a great way to listen to my favourite music and discover new appealing tracks based on sets of songs or artists. Then about two years ago it had to begin proactively preventing access to the streaming for most countries outside of the USA.
I had to switch to last.fm which I thought was slightly inferior in terms of suggestions. And now they are starting to charge €3/month for everyone outside US, UK and Germany. Thank you RIAA but no thanks!
Then yesterday a miracle occured. I opened pandora and it worked. It still does. I have not stumbled upon anything about a change in their policy and there is nothing on the website to suggest that. I am definitely not in the US - the gold-plated domes of Alexandar Nevsky cathedral are in my sight right now. So the only plausible explanation is that the Internet Gods are convincing pandora’s servers that my IP address is in fact American. They must love me.
Oct 12th, 2008 | music, quote | No Comments
Bob Lefsetz writes:
A rock star is not someone who takes the temperature, who gauges the marketplace before he creates his “art”. A rock star is someone who needs to create and is willing to tolerate the haters along with the fans. He’s someone who incites controversy just by existing. That’s what we lost in the dash for cash. Unique voices. I’m not saying we haven’t ended up with some pleasant music, but it just hasn’t hit you in the gut, it’s the aural equivalent of Splenda, it might do the trick, but it’s not the real thing. The real thing grabs your attention, drives down deep into your heart and lodges itself there. A rock star doesn’t follow conventions, doesn’t go disco or add drum machines just because everybody else does. A rock star exists in his own unique space, and if you met him you probably wouldn’t like him. Because he tends to be self-focused to the point of being narcissistic. Because he cares. He needs to get his message out.
While reading it I could not help but think about Godard’s Sympathy for the Devil and Roger Waters’ The Wall. There is no contemporary rock star or band that can fill the shoes of Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd. The music industry is essentially an oligopoly. One has to please a big label to get his songs out to the mainstream audience. So, the responsibility for stopping potential rock stars from making it goes to the big four music companies that are in control of the supply chain for new artists. I have no sympathy for them.
