I've started up a blog on Wordpress after this one died (RIP).
http://thebrickyblog.wordpress.com
Monday, 4 October 2010
Thursday, 25 March 2010
http://www.whymusicmatters.org/
An interesting approach... gaining views of 'hip' artists and displaying them in a simple, non-threatening way to push people to buy music legitamitely... rather than constantly bullying the innocent regarding file sharing.
I would like to see a similar site brand purchases whereby the artist would get a decent cut of what I'm paying, and I would gladly hand over money for that music.
An interesting approach... gaining views of 'hip' artists and displaying them in a simple, non-threatening way to push people to buy music legitamitely... rather than constantly bullying the innocent regarding file sharing.
I would like to see a similar site brand purchases whereby the artist would get a decent cut of what I'm paying, and I would gladly hand over money for that music.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Oscars
Received some great news the other day; following Disney/Pixar’s run of three fabulous films (Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up), the studio’s excellence was finally recognised as the latter was actually nominated for the Academy Award for ‘Best Picture.’ An animated film has only been nominated in this category once before; ‘Beauty and the Beast’ back in 1993. Yesterday’s announcement was probably only made possible due to the fact that the list of nominees was extended from 5 to 10, but it’s a fantastic achievement nonetheless, and highlights that extending the capacity of the list was a very wise decision – the overall list provides some diversity at least.
As for its chances of actually winning (which would be a first for animated features), I will watch with anticipation, but I know it’s unlikely. It probably has ‘Best Animated Feature’ in the bag, but to me that’s like shoving Avatar in a ‘Best Action Feature’ category and seeing it win against 2012… Yeah, well done and all, but so what? Granted the list of nominations for BAF this year are decent (The Princess and the Frog and Fantastic Mr Fox being among them), but last year WALL-E beat the likes of ‘Bolt’ and ‘Kung-Fu Panda’ to the statue. For me, WALL-E was a true masterpiece and just to compare it to the others is more insulting than it would’ve been had it not been nominated at all. It seems to me that the category was created with good intentions (so that future animated classics could be recognised in some way, rather than leaving empty-handed save for ‘Best Original Song’), but in the eyes of many people it further reduces animation to ‘kids’ cartoons:’ good in their own way but not legitimate competition against ‘real’ films. As someone that’s very passionate about animation in all varieties, especially the Disney-Pixars and the other gem or two that crop up every so often (Happy Feet, Shrek, Spirited Away), I find this prospect quite degrading. However, all in all, a very nice and long awaited outcome. I’m very happy.
Saturday, 26 September 2009
The Frogs Take on Commercial Radio
Woopee, I avoided copyright restrictions enough to pass by the YouTube guards!
Friday, 25 September 2009
And to think...
... I actually used to LIKE Lily Allen (well, as a person I’ve never been sure, but this recent saga will certainly affect my appreciation of her music).
So basically, some members of the FAC took a specific interest in how file sharers ought to be tackled. I’m fairly sure opinions on file sharing would have differed amongst the members, but they had one specific goal in mind: do not punish file sharers by suspending their Internet connections. To do so might turn them against the music industry. Seems fair enough to me.
So then, Ms Allen, in a rage of self-obsession, takes it upon herself to shout back at these folk, saying that piracy is not acceptable and people who file share should be punished. This is done somewhat haphazardly and crudely (she makes the unforgiveable mistake of confusing ‘stealing’ with ‘copyright infringement’), with only responses from the odd artist actually making any sense at all (and most of these were, like the FAC, not supporting file sharing but confessing that suspending Internet accounts is not the best form of punishment).
I’ll have to recall this to the best of my memory since she has now taken the blog down, but her argument centred around new artists that couldn’t be signed because people were ‘stealing’ their work, and moreover, the good kids at the record companies were losing jobs ‘because’ of Internet piracy. As others have pointed out, you can’t blame file sharing for a decline in music sales, because you can’t be sure that a downloaded file is the equivalent to one sale. And we are, moreover, in a recession that probably accounts for more money losses than file sharing does. Finally… is it just me that supposes one might be embarking on a career in music, not a business? Naturally, one needs to keep their head above water, but their priority ought to be getting their music heard.
That’s all I’m going to say about my view on file sharing. I don’t think any one person really knows exactly how it affects artists; record companies are clearly too obsessed with the money aspect and are spreading far too much propaganda to be trusted (‘stealing…’). What I do know is that Lily Allen is a moron. She eventually shut the blog down due to ‘abuse,’ which I detected no hint of. Quite the opposite, there were some very coherent comments on there… they just happened to argue against her. She didn’t bother to respond, then closed it down when she realised her game was up. Unbelievable. But it gets worse.
This woman then went and tried to convince people that her brief stint in blogging against file sharing had made a difference, and how she was now ‘passing the baton’ on to other artists. I feel sorry for whoever receives that mess of an argument to try and smooth out. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she said she wasn’t going to go to the FAC meeting because she didn’t want to detract from the issues at hand… what? That doesn’t make an ounce of sense. Why didn’t she just admit that she’d made a fool of herself in arguing some severely uninformed opinions against something that didn’t oppose her views in the first place?
Oh wait, she did go in the end. Radiohead guitarist deemed her ‘extremely brave.’ Please don’t feed the idiots.
So basically, some members of the FAC took a specific interest in how file sharers ought to be tackled. I’m fairly sure opinions on file sharing would have differed amongst the members, but they had one specific goal in mind: do not punish file sharers by suspending their Internet connections. To do so might turn them against the music industry. Seems fair enough to me.
So then, Ms Allen, in a rage of self-obsession, takes it upon herself to shout back at these folk, saying that piracy is not acceptable and people who file share should be punished. This is done somewhat haphazardly and crudely (she makes the unforgiveable mistake of confusing ‘stealing’ with ‘copyright infringement’), with only responses from the odd artist actually making any sense at all (and most of these were, like the FAC, not supporting file sharing but confessing that suspending Internet accounts is not the best form of punishment).
I’ll have to recall this to the best of my memory since she has now taken the blog down, but her argument centred around new artists that couldn’t be signed because people were ‘stealing’ their work, and moreover, the good kids at the record companies were losing jobs ‘because’ of Internet piracy. As others have pointed out, you can’t blame file sharing for a decline in music sales, because you can’t be sure that a downloaded file is the equivalent to one sale. And we are, moreover, in a recession that probably accounts for more money losses than file sharing does. Finally… is it just me that supposes one might be embarking on a career in music, not a business? Naturally, one needs to keep their head above water, but their priority ought to be getting their music heard.
That’s all I’m going to say about my view on file sharing. I don’t think any one person really knows exactly how it affects artists; record companies are clearly too obsessed with the money aspect and are spreading far too much propaganda to be trusted (‘stealing…’). What I do know is that Lily Allen is a moron. She eventually shut the blog down due to ‘abuse,’ which I detected no hint of. Quite the opposite, there were some very coherent comments on there… they just happened to argue against her. She didn’t bother to respond, then closed it down when she realised her game was up. Unbelievable. But it gets worse.
This woman then went and tried to convince people that her brief stint in blogging against file sharing had made a difference, and how she was now ‘passing the baton’ on to other artists. I feel sorry for whoever receives that mess of an argument to try and smooth out. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she said she wasn’t going to go to the FAC meeting because she didn’t want to detract from the issues at hand… what? That doesn’t make an ounce of sense. Why didn’t she just admit that she’d made a fool of herself in arguing some severely uninformed opinions against something that didn’t oppose her views in the first place?
Oh wait, she did go in the end. Radiohead guitarist deemed her ‘extremely brave.’ Please don’t feed the idiots.
Saturday, 1 August 2009
Sunday, 14 June 2009
The Frogs have a Shindig
Slightly different one this time. Lots of fun to make, but yet another kick in the shins as YouTube reject the upload, again. Was to be expected I guess, but never mind. Good ol' Facebook. They also have their own page now:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Frogs/88809044341?ref=ts
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