- Posts tagged Media
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Video of Green Day on the iPad: Everything worthwhile has already been invented
for a guy like Steve Jobs, when is enough, enough.
They sum up at the end by saying "In short, the iPad is stupid".
I don't care if they like the device, and their concerns on what Apple has "done" to the music industry are shared by many "old style" artists (i.e., those that started when physical media still ruled). I disagree, and think things would be much worse had Apple and others not provided a legal alternative for what was going to happen anyway, but I respect their opinion on it.
I also disagree that people are buying an iPad to figure out WTF it is. On the contrary, I believe people are buying an iPad because, once they actually use one, it's immediately obvious what it is.
What I most take exception to is the "when is enough, enough" question. To me, there's a massive shortsightedness in your views on technology when the crux of your argument is that somehow we've gone far enough with it, and apparently we can just stop now. Do these guys feel the same way about music?
Paul Thurrott: Pot, Meet Kettle
I'm glad to see that my initial reactions to this thing were accurate. Anyone who believes this thing is a game changer is a tool. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is... That so few early reviews called this out says a lot about those reviewers.
It's laughable for Thurrott to call out other reviewers -- many of which he refers to as "Friends of Apple", as if he's not Microsoft's BFF -- for their reviews.
The only serious doubters at this stage are the idealogical ones, and Thurrott isn't even railing against that:
- He wants four (4!) speakers in the thing so it's always stereo no matter how you turn it? You're not getting stereo with speakers just a few inches apart. Any real music lover could tell you that.
- He clings to widescreen as if bestowing computers with such screens was ever more than a cost-saving measure. A 16:9 screen is worse for every task you do except watching video.
- And then there's his usual criticism that it's an Apple product, so people want it only because of Apple's super hypnotic powers. Or something. Seriously, Thurrott wanders into tin foil hat territory sometimes.
His silly notes, which will form the basis of an equally silly review, culminate in the quote above. It's astonishing that Mr. Pot, the Microsoft über shill, would feel he's in any position to call out any other reviewer on anything.
Who Needs April Fools' Day When You've Got The Onion?
You could even listen halfheartedly as your lead designer attempts to explain MP3s to you in 1998 and then immediately fire him for losing sight of the project goal. At $29.99, this thing's a bargain. No? Fine. $9.99.
Riot.
Love Zune? No, But I'll Help Microsoft Out.
Microsoft is trying to get people to tweet about how great the Zune is. If you do, you could get a free Zune in the process. Yes, it's Microsoft's attempt at a completely genuine fake grassroots campaign.
Client: “[Indian outsourcer] says he can do this... "
Me: “The entire site’s done in Flash.”
Client: “Huh?”
Me: “It’s a site for iPhone users.”
The ClientsFromHell site is a riot. This sample is one of my favorites. Click the above link to read the whole thing.
Online Publishers: Other Industries Must Navigate Change, Not Us.
Here’s my point: businesses don’t get to pick the timetable for when their preferred model takes a permanent dirt nap. It’s insane to me that these businesses’ fans see this so much more clearly than their actual stakeholders do.
Merlin Mann is stirring up the online publishing community with this one, but he's spot on, IMO.
Is there some sense of "entitlement" in the content space? Sure. Is that the reason some online publishers can't make enough money, or grow the way they want to? No. This is like the music industry blaming piracy for their woes, which everyone -- even these same online publishers -- calls them on.
Apparently, since online publishers consider themselves "new media" they're free to blame their customers in a way they don't think "old media" can. Bullshit.
If your existing model isn't working, change it. If you can't (or won't) then you'll probably go under, as most businesses do. Blaming your customer is never the answer.
TAB - The Palm Pre is an iPod? Yes, But We’ll See How Long That Lasts
Was the LP developed to sell "fillers" with singles? No!
But most of those rants ultimately come down to opinions. I have a theory that people do not normally sit down and listen to an album as a whole, or do not do so very often. This may be due to lack of time, etc., but I believe it's so. Perhaps it's because most people think music is for background listening, or at a party, or in the car, but not really an activity one does with the same attention as, say, watching a move. They tend not to give music the attention they'd give a movie, book, or TV show. My theory concludes that because of this, the songs on the album people don't think they like are simply those that weren't ingrained into their head by repeated plays of singles or cult favorites. People otherwise have little patience with music in general, as opposed to movies, etc., and want instant gratification.
As for me, I listen to albums as an activity of its own. Sure, I listen to music a lot in the background, and in the car as well, but that's not where my love of music comes from. I have listened to music as a sole activity (i.e., doing nothing else while listening) since I can remember. On average at least an hour a day. It's just me and the music. I listen to music the way other people may watch a movie. If you tried to watch a movie in the background you'd miss a lot. Guess what? The same is true of albums. It's always been a bit strange to me that these two forms of entertainment (albums and movies) have such different expectations from their users. In fact, the different user expectations of a movie versus an album will eventually be the subject of its own post. What I will address in this post is the last rant above. I can address this because it's not based on opinion or speculation. It's based on fact.
The LP was not developed by the labels as a way of selling two good songs with eight crappy ones. It was in fact developed by music lovers, for music lovers, with much effort, to achieve a specific musical purpose.
I knew that the LP was produced in the late 1940s for the purpose of getting an entire classical work on one piece of vinyl, but I did not know the details of it. Then I read an excellent article on Nicholas Carr's Rough Type site. In it he provides some details of how Edward Wallerstein of Columbia Records pushed the creation of the LP. It is especially interesting when it recounts how Wallerstein himself remembered the process. How when the engineers played him a 7-minute record he claimed it wasn't long-playing. And later they played a 12-minute record and he claimed it wasn't long playing:
"Mr. Paley [President of CBS], I think, got a little sore at me, because I kept saying, "That's not a long-playing record," and he asked, "Well, Ted, what in hell is a long-playing record?" I said, "Give me a week, and I'll tell you." I timed I don't know how many works in the classical repertory and came up with a figure of seventeen minutes to a side. This would enable about 90% of all classical music to be put on two sides of a record. The engineers went back to their laboratories. When we met in the fall of 1947 the team brought in the seventeen-minute record."
Mr. Carr then sums it up nicely:
"The long-player was not, in other words, a commercial contrivance aimed at bundling together popular songs to the advantage of record companies and the disadvantage of consumers; it was a format specifically designed to provide people with a much better way to listen to recordings of classical works. In fact, in focusing on perfecting a medium for classical performances, Columbia actually sacrificed much of the pop market to its rival RCA, which at the time was developing a competing record format: the seven-inch, forty-five-revolutions-per-minute single."
Now, some may claim that while the LP wasn't developed to sell eight bad songs with two good ones, the music industry perverted it into such a medium. Of course I would disagree, but then we get back to the potential rants opening this post and my theory about how most people listen to music. Such discussion is pointless, especially since, after all, it's ultimately about enjoying the music in whatever form you choose. Now that people can just get the songs they want, they should be happy. As long as the album as an artistic work isn't killed in the process, I'll be happy, too.
