Wednesday, March 25, 2009
MySpace blocks Blogger links
For everything other than going to check out bands and listen to their music MySpace jumped the shark a long time ago, but this latest thing I found out really just takes the biscuit. They've blocked all links to all blogspot addresses. Apparently to stop us being caught out by spam, and MySpace are blaming blogger. The message it gives you when it does it is really patronising as well.
MySpace are blaming Google (who own Blogger) so there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it. I suspect it's big companies having a virtual pissfight with the consumer caught in the middle.
Internet nannyism is almost always annoying. Stephen Fry said it very well in this BBC article the other day.
MySpace are blaming Google (who own Blogger) so there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it. I suspect it's big companies having a virtual pissfight with the consumer caught in the middle.
Internet nannyism is almost always annoying. Stephen Fry said it very well in this BBC article the other day.
Labels: BBC, Blogger, Blogspot, Google, MySpace, Stephen Fry
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Future is Here
Spotify is here, and we're finally entering the future of music, film, television. Spotify finally does, successfully, what online music has been threatening for so long. You can almost instantly hear any track they have on the system. The interface is small and fast. You can choose to pay or have it ad funded.
We're getting similar services for Film and TV. iPlayer, 4od, SkyPlayer and the like already offer us a selection of TV to watch online at our leisure at reasonable quality. The only problem at the moment is that HD quality video is huge and our broadband pipes aren't fat enough.
Even ancient (in the virtual world) luddites like me who like owning CDs and DVDs are going to be getting virtually all our media online. And I think we'll be getting it all streamed rather than downloading. Because it means we can watch/listen anywhere on any device. Owning Phyical media like CDs, DVDS even blu-ray is well on the way to becomming a specialist retro thing for geeks, like owning vinyl is now. Because who'd want to lose the flexibility of being able to log into their account and watch/listen to stuff they've paid for wherever they are? And why bother storing all your stuff on your iPod, computer etc and having all that faffing about synching devices when you can get them all broadband connections and just stream stuff? 3G broadband for all kinds of devices is cheap these days.
It's quite exciting really. I'd like to see a few different payment models adopted. So each user can choose from Pay Per View, Ad Funded, Unlimited Subscription or to 'buy' a song/movie and be allowed unlimited views of that item. 100Mb broadband is already being rolled out in some bits of london. I don't know what speed we need for HD video on demand, but it's on the way.
How are TV, Film and Record companies going to take advantage of all the possibilities?
We're getting similar services for Film and TV. iPlayer, 4od, SkyPlayer and the like already offer us a selection of TV to watch online at our leisure at reasonable quality. The only problem at the moment is that HD quality video is huge and our broadband pipes aren't fat enough.
Even ancient (in the virtual world) luddites like me who like owning CDs and DVDs are going to be getting virtually all our media online. And I think we'll be getting it all streamed rather than downloading. Because it means we can watch/listen anywhere on any device. Owning Phyical media like CDs, DVDS even blu-ray is well on the way to becomming a specialist retro thing for geeks, like owning vinyl is now. Because who'd want to lose the flexibility of being able to log into their account and watch/listen to stuff they've paid for wherever they are? And why bother storing all your stuff on your iPod, computer etc and having all that faffing about synching devices when you can get them all broadband connections and just stream stuff? 3G broadband for all kinds of devices is cheap these days.
It's quite exciting really. I'd like to see a few different payment models adopted. So each user can choose from Pay Per View, Ad Funded, Unlimited Subscription or to 'buy' a song/movie and be allowed unlimited views of that item. 100Mb broadband is already being rolled out in some bits of london. I don't know what speed we need for HD video on demand, but it's on the way.
How are TV, Film and Record companies going to take advantage of all the possibilities?
Labels: 4od, iPlayer, SkyPlayer, Spotify, The Future
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Alright, shut-up
I've got no band at the moment, hardly ever go to any gigs, so am really struggling with stuff to put up here. It's basically dead.
Have very much enjoyed the new Left Side Brain and Malefice albums. LSB album is their best yet, more complex but melodic. Malefice is heavier. I loved the first album and this one is just as good.
Off to see Pete and the Pirates on Thursday again, their warm-up for SXSW. Exciting.
Have very much enjoyed the new Left Side Brain and Malefice albums. LSB album is their best yet, more complex but melodic. Malefice is heavier. I loved the first album and this one is just as good.
Off to see Pete and the Pirates on Thursday again, their warm-up for SXSW. Exciting.
Labels: Left Side Brain, Malefice
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Wow, 4 months without posting. I suck
Hey everyone, thanks for the encouragement to get started blogging again. I feel like I haven't really had much to say recently but actually there's been quite a lot going on.
Joey Ultra did do the recording I talked about 2 posts and 4 months ago. An excellent set of live recordings at the Cellar Bar with Al Heslop followed by a very good session at White House which we are just tweaking the mix of on Wednesday evening. I'll put a link up to the myspace on here when we get the final tracks done so you can hear it.
We also had a 'last gig' as bass player Sam is taking a few months of paternity leave from the band. Hopefully we'll be back sometime next year.
I managed to catch up with Does it Offend You, Yeah in Oxford as part of their latest UK tour. Was good to see them back in the UK for a bit after their mental 2 years of world touring. They are back in the studio soon to do a new album which I'm looking forward to.
Pete and the Pirates are currently on a European tour, they are back in the UK later in the month and I'm looking forward to seeing them in Reading on the 20th at Plug'n'Play.
Since I last posted the After Dark club started and stopped doing gigs on a Thursday night as part of their new student night Die Young Stay Pretty. It was designed around the kind of indy club night you get tons of elsewhere in the country with 1 band quite late in the evening but it didn't work out for some reason. A shame. The night will continue without the live music. I've also been informed by a reader that there'll still be irregular Saturday night gigs though, which is good news.
Er... yeah, more soon. Promise.
x
Labels: Does it Offend You Yeah, Joey Ultra, Pete and the Pirates
Friday, July 11, 2008
I couldn't make it to Amsterdam for this one...
But FabChannel have got the whole Pirates gig from the Paradiso available to stream from their site. It's really good.
Labels: Pete and the Pirates
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Take 2 recordings into the shower?
After 2 years of not recording at all, it could be that Joey Ultra get 2 lots of recording done in 2 months! Urk!
Exciting? Yeah.
Hopefully we'll do some live recording first in August followed by proper studio recording in October.
Exciting? Yeah.
Hopefully we'll do some live recording first in August followed by proper studio recording in October.
Labels: Joey Ultra
Monday, July 07, 2008
Maiden, the best venue in the world, Zoo8
So, it's been a busy weekend for me. My band Joey Ultra played at the best venue in the world on Friday, the Rising Sun Arts Centre in Reading. It's a tiny little venue run as a charity by hippies and is absolutely brilliant. We played well again, I think we're getting better every time we play. We don't really know what's going on with the band at the moment. Bass player Sam is having a baby in 6 months or so and won't really have any time for band stuff for a while. So we need to work out what is going to happen. Hopefully we'll carry on in some capacity probably after a bit of a break. Also need to work out recording
Saturday night we went to Twickenham to watch Iron Maiden. It was a brilliant gig. Twickenham is a really good stadium venue, really good transport links, well organised, easy to get drinks etc. I was very impressed. Maiden were brilliant, as always. I think everyone in a band should watch them at least once, even if they hate the music just to see how entertaining they make their shows. It's fairly incredible that after 25 years the band is bigger than ever.
I surprisingly saw my brother on Sunday. He'd been meant to be playing Zoo8 but it seems to have been a complete and utter disaster. Quite a lot of bands cancelled in the end and it seems the organization was utterly shambolic. Comments from people who went are almost universally scathing.
Saturday night we went to Twickenham to watch Iron Maiden. It was a brilliant gig. Twickenham is a really good stadium venue, really good transport links, well organised, easy to get drinks etc. I was very impressed. Maiden were brilliant, as always. I think everyone in a band should watch them at least once, even if they hate the music just to see how entertaining they make their shows. It's fairly incredible that after 25 years the band is bigger than ever.
I surprisingly saw my brother on Sunday. He'd been meant to be playing Zoo8 but it seems to have been a complete and utter disaster. Quite a lot of bands cancelled in the end and it seems the organization was utterly shambolic. Comments from people who went are almost universally scathing.
Labels: Iron Maiden, Joey Ultra, Zoo8
