Thursday, December 30, 2010

why internet marketing

97 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)

1 Dec 24, 2010 at 23:26 by eet

Hear, hear. :]

2 Dec 24, 2010 at 23:29 by Anonymous

I dig, also first

3 Dec 24, 2010 at 23:31 by Anon

Small ones go with sharing and big ones with companies . I bet small ones survive.

4 Dec 24, 2010 at 23:35 by Tecfan

This guy is smart. RIAA must go down.

5 Dec 24, 2010 at 23:42 by anon2

wonder how the RIAA etc will go about trying to silence him. after all, he is talking sense. they cant allow that, can they?

6 Dec 24, 2010 at 23:50 by kosmonautbruce

Excellent interview with a smart artist. I’ll have to check out his stuff.

7 Dec 24, 2010 at 23:52 by carbon42

Any music buffs/audiophiles who are also code savvy should network and build an iPod/iPhone compatible software that integrates non-iTunes music. That, once propagated, will effectively cripple Apple’s monopoly on the devices.

8 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:01 by Shane

I steal your music Benn ;)

9 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:02 by Brandon

Great way to describe Maffia!

“They just punish their customers while validating their own demise. I’m not worried about them and neither should you. Its a dozen senior citizens trying to stop a stampede of fresh culture. Good luck boys.”

10 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:03 by Sock

Although i agree and the industry, whether it be video games or music do need to change, alot of these users will not pay regardless if it was cheap, a bargain or just plain free.

The niche will always ruin it for the majority.

11 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:06 by Raisin

Benn Jordan is an amazing artist and he has the music industry figured out. Some of my favorite artists give their music away for free and they do this because they truly love what they do, making music….not money

12 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:11 by herman

I think Apple is becoming monopolistic, resulting in some lazy and shady business practices. Amazon MP3 and Google Music is helping with competition, but its not enough. Really, what need is an eBay for indie artists or even utilize Facebook or MySpace to sell music. Only thing that Apple does well is load your songs into iTunes. That’s probably the only piece which Apple will protect and try to block access to as much as possible by third-party programmers.

13 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:18 by rob8urcakes

Yep, well said Benn – and I agree that we are facing such a crossroad. Thanks to the internet artists now than ever before, have a genuine opportunity to market and distribute their work how they see fit and without being dictated to by some corporate machine.

Those who produce quality material will reap the benefits financially and in popularity because you’ll reach the audience who will reward you directly and indirectly too.

Releasing your own work for free via bittorrent will assist greatly in that process because the biggest enemy of the up-and-coming artiste isn’t the Big Music labels or the RIAA, it’s anonymity.

14 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:37 by Anonymous

I Purchased the tribute to carl sagan and fucking loved it.

15 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:38 by Anonymous

it’s an order of priorities, ‘think different’ comes after ‘think money’

16 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:40 by Chrissy

I’ve never even heard of this artist before, but now I HAVE to check out his music.

On a personal note, I would rather find an Artist/Musician that I enjoy on Facebook or even Myspace and buy their music directly from them. Buying it from a store where the price gets marked up by 100% or more is just insanity and I’m not about to do it. I don’t have a problem supporting the artists. I’ve bought music from a few different artist on Myspace. I just don’t see any reason to support the big record labels. With the right equipment, a great band can produce their own music and sell it on their own and then the artists and their families are REALLY the ones getting the money.

As far as iTunes, as long as you have the music in your library on your computer, it can be added to your iPod. You don’t have to buy it from iTunes to have it in your library at this point, but who knows what the future holds.

17 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:41 by JackSparrow

“We don’t want a situation where if Amazon refuses to carry a book, nobody will be able to read it. Or if iTunes refuses to carry an unabridged album, nobody will be able to hear it. Most importantly, we don’t want poor people to continue being less educated than wealthy people because of the illusion created that information has a monetary value. News, history, media, and culture is made by everyone, and it is intolerable to me that we allow the messengers to hold it from us at such a high price, whether monetarily or contextually .”

after read this fucking genius word, i think this word must be added soon at my wikipedia page,

” I did notice. ” lool

18 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:47 by iop

Man oh man, that’s one interesting interview!

19 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:55 by J.B. Nicholson-Owens

Does Benn Jordan own the copyright to his recordings?

When I read that Jordan “found his album on iTunes in early 2008 without being aware or paid for it” I wonder if he should have been paid or distributors are supposed to seek permission from him.

http://digitalcitizen.info/

20 Dec 25, 2010 at 00:57 by hotdog

I’ve been saying this all along independent artist speak truth myself included we don’t need a major record label / association telling us how we should market ourselves.

torrentfreak I’m a bit upset you never answered my email about that video I sent you about youtube!! It would be nice if you messaged me back.

21 Dec 25, 2010 at 01:09 by Erik Ernst

“The way I look at it is, if hundreds of thousands of people are downloading my album, I’m contributing to culture and my music will likely outlive me. Money is pretty insignificant in the face of immortality.”

Fucking hell, wise words indeed!

22 Dec 25, 2010 at 01:10 by Cujo

Winston can handle it lol

https://thepiratebay.org/ with ssl ;)

23 Dec 25, 2010 at 01:17 by logic

ahh … A breath of fresh air.

So .. antiCOPY trolls… Where are you now ?

Artists are even against your agenda.

But you don’t care… you are paid to troll blogs… to get “”the message out”"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Benn – you have my upmost respect…

For your ability to see the full picture… and hence , past the end of your own nose. Unlike so many paid “”brands”" who just pretend (are marketed)to be artists.

Now I will definatly check out your Stuff.

And maybe purchase.

24 Dec 25, 2010 at 01:28 by Lothor The Evil

It’s bad enough the record labels, RIAA, and special interest groups tell musicians what to sing about, now apple is telling them their songs are too long and taking over distribution of their music without letting them have any say in the matter.

Benn Jordan is another example of a artist that realizes when they have control of their own product, they can make more money and gain opportunities such as T.V appearances and movie deals, if done right.

25 Dec 25, 2010 at 01:49 by me

“Money is pretty insignificant in the face of immortality.”

One of the most intelligent lines i have heard in a long time.

26 Dec 25, 2010 at 01:49 by JinJin313

@ post 10 by Sock.

I agree but the jerks that won’t pay, won’t pay or support anyway even if they were forced too by ridiculously harsh copyright protection. It’s not lost revenue if it wasn’t potential revenue to begin with. We shouldn’t let jerks who have no intention to support the things they claim they love, make it harder for the honest fans to buy, use, and share the things they are passionate about. I think if anything needs to be done; it’s in how the fans treat those who openly praise the notion of never supporting an artist. The true fans themselves need to ostracize and shame the jerks who claim they are fans but have never spent a coin on the artist. Punishment by the community has more hold than anything the law can do. Leave the jerks to wallow in their own filth.

27 Dec 25, 2010 at 02:10 by Ettore

@ Carbon42: Every music player I have ever used in the last 5 years does this; Winamp being my personal favourite. iTunes is just the most known one, it’s hardly even close to the best one (Winamp is not the best, I’d say, but it hasn’t let me down).

28 Dec 25, 2010 at 02:28 by Grammar Commie Mutant Traitor

To advise, or to dole out advice?

29 Dec 25, 2010 at 02:49 by bamfan5520

This has to be the single best interview I have ever read…This guy has the right idea…So what if music is getting pirated or shared on P2P networks…In the long run, he is still making money off his concerts, people actually buying his CD’s after listening to his work through bittorrent, and all of his merchandising….I give a big thumbs up to this guy and would be happy to support him in the fight to stop the threats against us P2P users…I think more people should be like him and stick it to the RIAA record labels and just pirate their music on bittorrent…This guy has one great future ahead of him…

30 Dec 25, 2010 at 02:53 by Anonymous

Nice read. Good luck Benn Jordan!

31 Dec 25, 2010 at 03:24 by dg100

Merry Christmas, TorrentFreak!

:D

32 Dec 25, 2010 at 04:11 by Anonymous

“It expanded the amount of people who pirate my music, therefore it has expanded those who bought CDs, donated to me, or came out to shows.”

*neostyle’s head explodes”

33 Dec 25, 2010 at 04:19 by SableSlayer

What a awesome guy! Loved this article!

34 Dec 25, 2010 at 04:39 by pirateprideWW

If you support what Benn (AKA The Flashbulb) is saying, support him! I recommend the albums Girls Suck but You Don’t, Soundtrack to a Vacant Life, and especially Kirlian Selections. He sells FLAC and other stuff at his website, Alpha Basic (Google it).

The corollary of the above is to never buy from artists on RIAA labels. Find other ways to support those artists if you want to. Remember, the biggest impact you guys can have is when you vote with your wallet.

35 Dec 25, 2010 at 05:05 by frosty got chilled

When I see innovators such as this man, there is hope for positive change.

Artists that work hard like this will almost always succeed in their goals.

I hope this article inspires others to share their music throughout the many open channels on the net.

Best wishes to all who share and a happy new year!

36 Dec 25, 2010 at 05:06 by Anonymous

http://theflashbulb.bandcamp.com/

Not a single link to his bandcamp? Come on, TF.

I liked this article, as it gave the point-of-view of an artist I enjoy.

37 Dec 25, 2010 at 05:30 by Lolmafiaa

Well the answer here is that: if you want something done right, do it yourself. DIY people. Hack n mod everything. Just got a kindle, first thing I did was download open source software and drm-free pdf’s. Sure it woulda been easier to buy books off amazon, but why would I want to give someone I’ve never met control over my money when I don’t have to (bought books equal money). I mean there’s no physical books, no fair use, I don’t own anything, and amazon can remotely erase em, so why would I BUY anything like that. DIY is the way to go. Maybe ur tiimes valuable, and just dealing with their DRM is worth it, go for it, buy a million books, who cares. I’m pretty poor though, my times less valuable. I’d rather figure out how to get what I want. And this isn’t a crime. This is the free market decision of time vs money. A drm free cloud type open source digital book market is worth 2-5 dollars to me per book. $20 for 3mb that can disappear and that I don’t own? I’m good, I’ll make my own. U say I’m a criminal, I say ur a criminal, let’s agree to disagree shall we. Off topic right? But not. See MAFIAA coulda been iTunes. I mean they “own” all music, right? But MAFIAA slacked, and Boone really wanted what they sold. Sure we want the songs, but we don’t want drm, we don’t want proprietary devices, all that BS, so we did it ourselves. It’s called a free market. So yeah, I hear dudes point about how iTunes sucks, but that’s why u gotta DIY ur distribution or get over it. I’m really glad this guys doin good. I’m a good person, I don’t steal. I boycott MAFIAA because they are evil, not to hurt innocent artists. Hopefully this DIY attitude can continue to erode the power of tgese greedy a-holes ( not that Steve jobs isn’t my god, but we all need competition or we stagnate/ abuse) so yeah. Fight the power. If u want something hack it, mod it, take it :)

38 Dec 25, 2010 at 05:39 by Lolmafiaa

The way I see it, piracy is just a natural check/ balance of a free market anyway. Evil corporations try to destroy the free market with lobbyists, bribes, collusion, payola, cartels, subsidies, etc. Were just fighting back. America should be on it’s knees blowing us in thanks. But almost all people r fuking stupid, relatively speaking. How many, 60%? at least? They’ll never do anything. So all that’s left is us vs them, plus a bunch of sheeple. Thank god for us, or they’d be burning live people to keep their printing presses pumping out money. That’s what I know.

39 Dec 25, 2010 at 05:57 by Lolmafiaa

@26

Well that’s it isn’t it? Why should me paying be more difficult than me pirating? I remember buying some music software a looooong time ago. I was pretty young. It didn’t work and I tried to return it. They wouldn’t let me because I coulda ripped it. I hadn’t, in fact I hadn’t ever pirated before and didn’t know how. But even though I wasn’t, and at the time couldn’t have been, a pirate, I was still punished by a drm of sorts (no returns on open software). I never got my money back, and being young, having spent I think $60 or so on it (a lot to me at the time) I felt cheated. I didn’t buy software again for years. It left me with a mentality thqt software wasn’t worth buying because u can’t return it. I still feel that way. Not because I’m cheap, but because it’s true. So yeah, drm is a HORRIBLE idea becaus it removes value from actual customers. Now I hack shit, nothing big, just cracks, loopholes and whatnot. I wouldn’t ever go back. DRM makes me LOLhard at the “sheeple”. Anytime I can, I go open source (ubuntu owns face btw, it’s like windows is a 3 tired Hugo, and ubuntu is a bentley) and if there’s no open source, I’ll hack it. If I can’t, I just won’t buy it. DRM is removed value. Only idiots pay for inconvenience IMO

40 Dec 25, 2010 at 06:09 by Jaxx

Merry Xmas TF and all the best to benn jordan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htZ4uk-dumQ

41 Dec 25, 2010 at 06:27 by Tristan Lear

his or her art

42 Dec 25, 2010 at 06:31 by Anonymous

“The major record industry collapsing should also mean that artists are more free to do what they want.”

i envision indie music will be the dominating market in future

Go rot in hell riaa hahaha

43 Dec 25, 2010 at 07:12 by Fred

Well said!

44 Dec 25, 2010 at 07:47 by Sau

He seems to have better perspective than these Big Labels

45 Dec 25, 2010 at 07:48 by Sau

He seem to have better perspective than these Big Labels

46 Dec 25, 2010 at 07:53 by Anonymous

“Most importantly, we don’t want poor people to continue being less educated than wealthy people because of the illusion created that information has a monetary value”

This has to be one of the smartest things I’ve ever heard a musician (in an interview) say.

47 Dec 25, 2010 at 08:50 by Lolmafiaa

Look at how good hacking has been for the xbox kinect. It went from overhyped toy to potentially bigge than the iPhone because of hackers. I know it’s a bold statement, but using the kinect as a gesture interface is amazing and has crazy potential. It could be the end of physical interface devices. And all through hacking, crowdsourcing, and DRM circumvention, etc. Really let that sink in. Pirates are heroes and the MAFIAA (a blanket statement for all that is evil and obstructionist) is an evil obstructionist, retarding the human race for profits. To all of u here working for mafiaa: Time to think long and hard whether u want freedom and advancement or greed and obstructionism.

48 Dec 25, 2010 at 09:36 by Scene-r

Man this dude is awesome. Everyone should buy his CDs even if they don’t like it so he could become rich and make the LOLs at the RIAA even funnier!

49 Dec 25, 2010 at 10:27 by Ocean Tide

The funny part in all this is that freaking George Lucas showed us exactly how to make money off the entertainment industry 30+ Flippin years ago. The only people that make money off the draconian setup now are the overlords of Stupidity….. MPAA/ RIAA organizations. As any 1st year marketing college dufus knows it’s the MERCHANDISING! STUPID!

The thought pattern for the suits in these organizations needs to change from seeing the movies / music as the primary cash cow to instead just advertising.. a means for promoting toys, clothing, electronics, FREAKING PENCILS! Whatever …… but unfortunately they have idiots in charge that refuse to think. The part I hate about this, is that we must suffer their ignorance until they relent and the fact that I have just given them a viable business model.

50 Dec 25, 2010 at 10:31 by Mordicant

Nice one Benn, Now if only more artists shared your train of thought maybe we could change things for the better. We have all long known here which is the correct path to take, it’s a shame big business are so slow to figure it out!

p.s. Down with iTunes!

51 Dec 25, 2010 at 11:09 by ac

itunes is shit, you pay top dollar per song and its usually 256kbps quality which is average. should atleast be given an option, personally i listen to flac format which itunes doesnt even support

52 Dec 25, 2010 at 12:27 by Alongside

Great article.

Happy christmas torrent freak! I’ve been with you for a year now so thanks for everything!

53 Dec 25, 2010 at 13:03 by what!?!

Screw bittorrent and crapple. Give me a FLAC rip on hotfile.com and that’s enough.

54 Dec 25, 2010 at 14:54 by Los Puros Brabos

http://www.reverbnation.com/lpb/

55 Dec 25, 2010 at 14:58 by Anonymous

Record companies make money off copying and distributing media. Well, we can do that ourselves now. We can now use our money to support anything we like. Not just what they push into the top 40. One million people donating $1 sounds like a good pay-day for any artist that made something beautiful.

56 Dec 25, 2010 at 15:07 by Anonymous

“Music Is Better Off On BitTorrent, Than With Apple or Big Music”

no shit sherlock

57 Dec 25, 2010 at 15:16 by jack garcia (percussionist)

knock the parasites (?)bastards like apple and others. all they do is feed from creators, and not only feed but stealing and sucking their blood.

I a pleased to see all this fat cats are going to join the dole queue

about time this bastard pay for their own damage

58 Dec 25, 2010 at 15:35 by jack garcia (percussionist)

get the bastards

get them to join the dole queue

59 Dec 25, 2010 at 15:37 by dodge

quote “I’m not worried about them and neither should you. Its a dozen senior citizens trying to stop a stampede of fresh culture. Good luck boys.”

quote “We don’t want a situation where if Amazon refuses to carry a book, nobody will be able to read it. Or if iTunes refuses to carry an unabridged album, nobody will be able to hear it. Most importantly, we don’t want poor people to continue being less educated than wealthy people because of the illusion created that information has a monetary value. News, history, media, and culture is made by everyone, and it is intolerable to me that we allow the messengers to hold it from us at such a high price, whether monetarily or contextually . ”

sorry about the quotes but he just won the argurment for bit torrent :D

here what i have to say!

lets allow the rich to have their itunes and follow these rules

the poor can have bit torrent and we will see the rich being more poorer for it

sooner or later they will break their own rules to socialise with their poor friends

and the rich and poor gab will close!

60 Dec 25, 2010 at 16:01 by Peng Zeets

OK, that actually makes a LOT of sense when you think about it.

anon-web.edu.tc

61 Dec 25, 2010 at 16:15 by Anonymous

this guy thinks exactly like me!!

62 Dec 25, 2010 at 16:52 by Ninja

Wow. Just wow. Respect for him and all the ones that walked down the same path.

Apple is overrated. They are good at generating a hype and that’s it. Oh and they actually pay more attention to design than the competition heh

63 Dec 25, 2010 at 16:55 by Zeng Peets

That actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Wow.

http://www.online-privacy.ie.tc

64 Dec 25, 2010 at 19:23 by djnforce9

What I never really liked is how sometimes the iTunes store is the ONLY digital buy option for certain albums (or if there are alternatives, you can’t use the store if you live outside the US). I outright refuse to use iTunes because it’s getting increasingly and excessively bloated (much like what happened to “Roxio Easy CD Creator” and even “Nero Burning Rom” over time). I also hate how they have no web browser interface to their store. You HAVE to install iTunes to buy music from them or you are out of luck.

Bit-torrent? Many ways of downloading through that system and clients are VERY light weight on system resources. Only drawback is that ISP throttling and various firewall setups can hinder its usage for some users.

The sooner iTunes loses momentum (as in gets a significantly friendlier, yet equally as popular competitor), the better. Apple’s newer iPods make this situation even worse because they force iTunes down your throat. Thankfully I have my older model (i.e. iPod Photo) which is now loaded with RockBox where I can copy files to the device without any pointless proprietary software involved (plus it plays formats such as .wma which Apple would NEVER allow).

65 Dec 25, 2010 at 21:14 by polyonymus

seconding “Grammar Commie Mutant Traitor”: advise is a verb, advice is a noun. good article :)

66 Dec 25, 2010 at 22:44 by fugeesnfunions

I strongly disagree with his stance on iTunes. First of all, we have NO IDEA how the “mistake” was made with the track listing of that single album. Seeing as how I’ve literally NEVER heard of that happening before, I imagine it was user error on his own part. And that’s bullshit that they make people put their name in bold on album covers, most of the album covers from songs I buy there hardly even mention the artist or album name. That’s either an outdated or unenforced rule, he doesn’t understand the actual rule, or he’s just lying.

Just because they have strict rules about album formatting doesn’t mean they’re the devil. They don’t make those rules just to fuck with people, they make them so your stuff is available to the maximum amount of potential customers. Don’t forget that iTunes isn’t just available on computers, it’s available on phones and iPad’s too. There has to be SOME protocol.

The fact is, this is the first time in the history of music sales that artists can DIRECTLY and easily reach millions of listeners. Now they can make the music THEY want to make, they don’t have to keep some huge corporate entity happy anymore by pandering to their inane requests. How an artist could be against this just blows me away.

Just because a system has rules doesn’t mean it’s automatically bad, without them iTunes would be a jumbled up mess that people wouldn’t like using, meaning artists would sell less music. Period.

67 Dec 25, 2010 at 23:51 by Anonymous

I like the way this guy thinks but what happens when cd’s go away? How could you get a flac version if all that was available was a crummy apple 256k rip.

I hope a service springs up that offers flac or high quality versions because day in the near future there will not be any cd sections anywhere. Perhaps it will come on flash drives but plastic is way cheaper then any flash drive. Anyway one way or another cd’s will give way to digital

68 Dec 26, 2010 at 02:26 by Pointless artical

“a large portion of my listeners simply won’t know how to put my music on their iPods/iPhones.@”

this is absolute bullshit, anyone can take any MP3 file and through the itunes application put it on your ipod with ease, if this guy was so fucking revolutionary and actually supported the ideas behind torrents then he simply would have included a .txt file within the torrent telling people how to sync his tracks onto there ipods.

Torrentfreak just questioned someone who is very lucky but also very clueless (about how to defeat the “evils” of Big music media Business monopolys like apple.

the only reason he did this interview was probably for publicity, On one hand he criticizes Apple, And Yet he is Working With them.

69 Dec 26, 2010 at 03:48 by Anonymous

Brilliant article and interview TF. If only the RIAA would listen to artists like Benn Jordan, Trent Reznor, etc.

But no, money is more important than anything to the RIAA. I see more and more artists giving their music for free and accepting donations. Especially with this generation, where we are tought to share, but be fair. Give it 20 years and big music companies and Apple will be suffering at the hands of people who release their art under GPL licences

70 Dec 26, 2010 at 04:50 by Anonymous

Thus why corporate dominance can’t POSSIBLY continue infinitely. If they deprive citizens of their money through underhanded tactics, who’s left to buy? Free industry reigns, aha.

My personal thanks go to you Benn. I think that he’s right, the RIAA and MPAA really can’t keep suppressing the people– a force that they greatly underestimate.

71 Dec 26, 2010 at 05:04 by Anonymous

@ 66 Dec 25, 2010 at 23:51 by Anonymous

When CD’s go away you just use Jamendo, Magnatune or other service even iTunes.

http://www.jamendo.com/en/faq/8/what-options-are-there-for-free-downloads

72 Dec 26, 2010 at 05:15 by Anonymous

I think you people are not dreaming high enough.

Sharing is all good and well, but you are constraining your imagination by thinking just about “entertainment”

We could share food, medicine and products.

If you live in the U.S. you know how expensive healthcare can be, but even for empoverish countries that is a problem, but there is a solution, DIY.

What happens if people start producing their own medicine at home for their neighborhoods?

Not the patented stuff the other stuff that is out there without any patents on it and can be produced by anyone.

We could do something that would be amazing and would give everyone a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Most compounds are made out of biological ones that means you just need to grow the right stuff and learn how to distill it.

What happens in a world where you are responsible for your well being?

73 Dec 26, 2010 at 05:55 by Zeng Peets

Gotta keep it free man, that is the only way dude!

online-privacy.ie.tc

74 Dec 26, 2010 at 06:11 by Andy

Well I knew I would absolutely hate this article but didn’t know how long it would take to read something so utterly stupid. It didn’t take long.

“However, the reality is that music has never been as loved and vibrant as it is today.”

Are you serious? There is absolutely nothing that could back up such a claim.

Music should be paid for. Not stolen from artists. One may say, “Well they should just tour more and give their music away.” Has anyone here actually tried touring around the country to make an income? It may be fun, but music sales are needed to support our artists. Paintings aren’t free. Movies (mostly) aren’t free. Even cable television isn’t free. Those are forms of entertainment and artistic expressions. SO WHY THEN SHOULD MUSIC BE FREE?

75 Dec 26, 2010 at 06:35 by Simon

As a songwriter/artist who makes a comfortable (no jets or limos here) living with his craft, I can honestly say that without bittorrent or the internet as a whole, no one would have heard my music. I know that my music is being downloaded for free because in some cases I put it there. When the RIAA and the major labels say they fight copyright infringement to protect the artist, they mean the multi-million dollar artist and their own profits, not the little guy.

I make a living at this and only that. I don’t think me or anyone writing and singing songs is worth what the music industry thinks they are, and I get down on my knees (figuratively, of course) and kiss the earth that lets me do this for a living. I’m grateful to my fans and for what I have, and I’m not ashamed of my tax bracket.

When the music industry says that there will be no more music because of piracy that is bull, because there will always be millions of people like me cranking out tunes for the sake of their art. It’s not all about the money for some of us…at least not for the independent artists the record companies would rather you didn’t know about.

76 Dec 26, 2010 at 06:45 by Smartie

@72 Andy:

You rail on the interview about not backing up claims but immediately go on to state that “music sales are needed to support our artists.” The amount of sheer cognitive dissonance that’s required to churn out such written manure makes me believe you’re either a paid RIAA/MPAA lackey or just plain ignorant.

As stated BY THE ARTIST HIMSELF, he does fine financially from tours, TV, etc. Do you know why cable TV and movies require payment? I’ll give you a hint: when’s the last time you saw a movie or TV series performed live, complete with all the special effects and music and everything? You do know that paintings can actually “tour” also right? Or have you never been to your local arts museum?

77 Dec 26, 2010 at 11:04 by Anonymous

@ 74 Dec 26, 2010 at 06:11 by Andy

Woot?

You mean pay more?

People pay when they go shopping, they pay when they go out to eat, they pay when they go to the gym, they pay when they buy apparel, they pay when they buy little trinkets, coffee mugs, T-shirts and of course digital music and books about their idols.

Free music is like bait. The one that get people hooked on something and they don’t let go but they need the “free” part of it, that is why radio is so important for labels(see “payola”), that is why sharing is no threat to any artist.

Now for films, I see Kickstarter being the genesis of new projects that are becoming good enough already, people are coming together to produce things that they give it away for “free” and they end up making money in other things. A movie is no just theater tickets, is actors having endorsement contracts to products that are a billion market on their own, even theaters are not seeing bad times, but they should because they are horrible to their customers.

Ask the people making money on Youtube if they are sad about it, most of them are doing 6 figures now and they absolutely suck but are lovely and gather people around somehow, connection may be the answer to that. People connect and what started as fun starts bringing in money. The record industry lost that appeal, no longer they are fun to be around, no longer they produce something that is crappy but adorable and that is why they will fail. Sharing is the least of their concerns, people have good enough alternatives like Jamendo, that means we don’t need you anymore or we don’t need people like you anymore, go try to sell anything you want, I’m not buying and you are not part of my world, unless you have a liberal license. The sun of my life is in another place and unfortunately sunshine you are not it, you are not the warmth and bright light that shines here, in fact you are nobody to me because you are not where I find things and that place is called CC Commons where I get the right to share and listen to what I want and pay the people who I have emotional connections with.

78 Dec 26, 2010 at 14:57 by Steven Finch

You can also put your music onto the worlds largest online stores for FREE via http://RouteNote.com!

79 Dec 26, 2010 at 19:22 by klockwerk

ITunes power is overrated. I spend many hundreds of dollars on music each year, and ITunes hasn’t seen any of it yet (nor soon will).

Apple is a media darling because the media needs somebody to get a hard on to.

80 Dec 26, 2010 at 21:40 by 9

Benn guy talks about education costing money and stuff, and how it seperates classes or whatever..

Any way, today on reddit I saw this link to http://www.khanacademy.org which is a place where you can learn lots of math/science/other college stuff/etc for free using videos.. Google even donated $2-million to them..

So if you are dumb and poor maybe you can learn some stuff now..

81 Dec 26, 2010 at 22:48 by TerribleTony

@JinJin313: According to you, people who cannot afford to frivolously waste non-existent money on 3 minutes of entertainment, are jerks.

Therefore, your opinion is bunk.

82 Dec 26, 2010 at 22:55 by TerribleTony

@logic: In case anyone thinks the anti-copy trolls is a conspiracy theory, it is well known that the Big Four offer placements to IT university students, specifically to file removal requests and post pro-copyright views on blogs. I’m thinking of applying for a position with WB, it’s always handy to have a pirate on the inside.

83 Dec 27, 2010 at 00:01 by Follando

About Torrent you can read http://usesearcher.blogspot.com/

84 Dec 27, 2010 at 00:18 by CopyleftRecords

Here is a guy who just gets it. Benn Jordan is my hero (and his music kicks ass too). I would never have even heard of him or his music had it not been for bittorrent.

85 Dec 27, 2010 at 01:08 by iofsfllfs

yeah even though im down with torrents, theres ppl out there that will still do it, but im basically done with the apple store bcuz i’ve found a really good site ta buy music for 9cents each, basically a $10 cd on itunes i can buy 10 cds for $1 each almost n same quality on another site u can sign up for

86 Dec 27, 2010 at 07:15 by Anonymous

@ 80 Dec 26, 2010 at 21:40 by 9

So if you are dumb and poor maybe you can learn some stuff now..

What if you are poor but with an IQ of 140?

Or what if you are rich with an IQ of 80?

A good educational resource when it is good, it doesn’t matter what you are or where in the social spectrum you are, it can help everyone regardless of IQ or social status.

What I took from your comment was that somehow only dumb people and poor need such a thing which is offensive to everyone that tried to learn something.

And that is a very good resource. People should donate money to that guy he deserves it.

87 Dec 27, 2010 at 16:54 by Shaggy

Since when has art, culture and knowledge not been associated with elitism. The body of work that is an album, can represent the most astonishing value for money even at £10. It’s just that nowadays people would rather save money there than live without their mobile, trainers and the huge amount of aspirational, consumer culture, spending opportunities they are made to think they can’t do without.

The rich/poor divide argument is a complete diversion

88 Dec 27, 2010 at 20:06 by VIII

@ 75 Simon

How about a link to some of your stuff?

89 Dec 27, 2010 at 23:03 by /etc

if he found his music in iTune without being paid for it, does it make itune worse than bittorrent? same pirate, only diff one free bit one not. i hate apple!

90 Dec 28, 2010 at 01:48 by Berthold

I’d like to recommend this TED talk if I may: http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html

It illustrates how much better creativity is off without corporate interference. Music in particular has a rich culture of sharing. Where would we be if the notation system and all instruments had been well-kept proprietary secrets? Big record companies only participate in the exchange to further their own ends, they never give anything back.

I say, cut out the middle man, lets find ways to give the money to those who deserve it.

Incidentally, I like Benn’s version of “California Dreaming”.

91 Dec 28, 2010 at 02:15 by PER CAPITA

There is a program… Its called Copytrans.

http://www.copytrans.net/

Enjoy!

Die Apple Die!

http://www.percapitamusic.com

92 Dec 28, 2010 at 07:07 by Jon

I didn’t know Google News posted stuff from TF O_O

93 Dec 28, 2010 at 18:03 by Wayne

“RIAA” is American btw. Nothing to do with rest of the world and all of the music produced in it.

I see a lot of people mentioning DRM. You do all know that all content from Apple doesn’t contain DRM don’t you?

Anyhoo, the way I see it; if people want to download music from Torrent then no problem. If people have the money, a busy lifestyle, and don’t really have the time to sit at their computer downloading music, (then sorting out all of the embedded info and misspelt tracknames) they can simply download it from iTunes (or wherever) whilst on the go, knowing it will come with album art etc.

Sometimes I purchase, sometimes I torrent, it’s nice to have that option.

94 Dec 28, 2010 at 18:14 by Ben Jones

@93 Wayne

I see a lot of people mentioning DRM. You do all know that all content from Apple doesn’t contain DRM don’t you?

Actually, that’s not true, as far as I’m aware. A year ago, we published this piece, talking about how Apple REQUIRES DRM on audiobooks. While it’s true that the music has no DRM, it’s not true for ‘all content’ just on iTunes, let alone their apps store (lots of DRM there) or their OS/computers (more DRM there) or their phones (which not only has DRM on it, but this summer prompted the US Copyright office to specifically allow the circumvention of that DRM as a legal act in the tri-annual review of the DMCA, legitimising jail-breaking.

Here’s a list from the EFF of Apple’s DRM. I’ll see about an update on it, but it’s fair to say that your statement is not true at all.

95 Dec 29, 2010 at 00:42 by anonymous

“bit by bit” file sharing technology grows while the music industry crumbles.

96 Dec 29, 2010 at 13:12 by To: Wayne

If u know how to Torrent, then you get best metadata, best quality and all the art you need.

And if artists start to submit torrents themselves, they can include whatever candies they feel like, to please the fans.

If an artist I like would share their work on p2p, I would gladly hit the Paypal icon on their webpage to ensure they create more great art. Knowing that all the money goes to their own pocket adds a totally new meaning to “purchasing” music.

97 Dec 30, 2010 at 02:36 by fubar monkey man

dude this place is fill with comment of random spreadic nature i find you effective contact utter useless you are a pox on the worild right its your fault your takening the cock in da ass like

Jenny An is a Chicago-based writer with a focus on popular culture, food and travel. Her work has appeared in Time Out Chicago and VenusZine.

Social media certainly has its benefits for those who love dining and drinking. From free drinks for Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">foursquare checkins, to Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter notifications about happy hours, to Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook messages about free food, there’s always something tasty happening online.

But the social web offers a lot more than just discounts and deals when it comes to drinking and dining. Restaurants and bars are giving social media users a backstage pass to the food and the people who make it. Chefs and restaurateurs are using social media to reveal how their dishes are made, generate familiarity with chefs and provide a means for diners to share feedback.

Revealing How Dishes Are Made

While customers go to lower end restaurants looking for value and discounts, higher-end restaurants think that “discounts cheapen the experience,” says Tom O’Keefe, a Boston-based restaurant tweeter and social media-focused marketer.

You can blame it on the rise of celebrity chefs or the success of The Food Network and shows like Top Chef, but now more than ever, people want to live vicariously through others who cook. Many restaurants, including Chicago’s Piccolo Sogno and The Bristol, are posting videos to YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube or Vimeoclass="blippr-nobr">Vimeo of new dishes being prepared. “The general idea is to pull the curtain back,” says Phillip Walters of The Bristol. “Allow people at home to feel more involved and engaged with that you are trying to deliver.”

But social media does a lot more than just satisfy curiosities. It makes Twitter followers or Facebook fans remember their last visit. Stu Mitchell, marketing director for Blue 13, a Rock and Roll spot in Chicago, says this act of reminding customers about their last visit “prompt[s] them to want to return, to keep us fresh in the minds of those who have yet to visit, but have been planning on it.”

But the behind-the-scenes social media technique sways more toward high-end than fast food restaurants. A behind-the-scenes glimpse of the origins of the McNugget (hint: it’s birthed from pink goop) led to class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet-wide horror and repulsion.

“A local Taco Bell is going to connect and build community in a very different way versus a Michelin-rated restaurant that brings passionate foodies together,” says Lorrie Thomas, CEO of Web Marketing Therapy.

Getting to Know the Chefs

Instead of attracting customers with deals, many restaurants strive to use social media for a tailored, personal experience. “People love to go into a restaurant or bar and know the owner or the chef,” O’Keefe says. Think of it as instantly becoming a regular.

That’s why chefs like Joanne Chang of Boston’s Myers and Chang and Flour Bakery personally tweet photos of the kitchen staff at work. “If you’re in a PR firm, you’re not going to get the same feel,” O’Keefe says. “It’s her and you know that it’s her.”

Grant Achatz, the man behind Chicago’s Alinea — named best restaurant in America in 2006 by Gourmet — also does his own tweeting. “Who would you rather hear from?” he asks. “Me directly or some weird person I paid to represent me?” When Achatz is not in the restaurant, he continues to tweet — from where he’s eating in Chicago to where he’s visiting in Japan. It lets people get to know him better and maintains a base, he says. “I’m not a celebrity, but I have a following.”

Achatz’s approach to helping his audience learn more about him is spot on. “Who we are” is the primary message of any effective marketing campaign, says Syeed Mansur, CEO of Sentrana, a firm that uses mathematical models to determine the most effective marketing strategies for companies.

Opening Communication Between Diners and Chefs

The restaurant experience has traditionally always been divided between front of house and back of house. Customers sat in the dining room and enjoyed their meals, completely disconnected from the people preparing the meals. The success of open kitchen designs, the farm-to-table movement, and books like Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, show that diners want a deeper connection to the food that’s being prepared for them.

Not only does social media let customers view what’s behind that “Employees Only” door, but it gives customers access to the people behind it. Twitter allows Tony Priolo, chef of Piccolo Sogno, to connect with customers before they even come to the restaurant. And diners plugged in with social media receive special treatment. “If we tweeted with them beforehand I’ll usually come out of the kitchen and thank them for tweeting with us or send over something special,” he says.

Achatz likes to hear complaints from customers and says he actually responds. Sometimes he’ll refund a meal, but more importantly, “the more we know about who is coming into our restaurant, the better we’ll be able to fulfill our obligation to do what will make them feel happy,” he says. A couple had flown into Chicago from New York to eat at his restaurant and expected not only excellent food but also excellent service. The wife was escorted to the bathroom the first time she got up, but not the second. Achatz thinks the front of house staff just assumed she knew the way and could help herself. But the husband indignantly tweeted about the incident and then Achatz knew that his customers had different assumptions of service. The restaurant has tweaked its service accordingly since then.

“When people know, like and trust us, they buy,” Thomas says. “Pushing propaganda will freak people out.”

While restaurants are unable to quantify the exact monetary impact of their social media campaigns, the responses they receive assure them that somebody is listening. “We hear enough feedback to know that we’re reaching people and that they enjoy it,” says Amy Mills Tunnicliffe of 17th Street Bar and Grill in southern Illinois.

Before social media, it was difficult for the average person (even a person spending $200 for dinner) to have access to that ornery bartender or three-starred Michelin chef, but now, dishing complaints or compliments has become as easy as a tweet or a Facebook post.

How have you used social media to enhance — or complain about — a dining experience? Do you follow your favorite chefs or restaurants? Share your thoughts in the comments.

More Foodie Resources from Mashable:

- 10 iPhone Apps for Wine Enthusiasts/> - 3 New Recipe Apps for the iPad [PICS]/> - 10 iPhone Apps for the Global Foodie/> - 7 Services That Will Suggest Things You Like/> - HOW TO: Find Good Food Online

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

managing your personal finances

Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts

Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.

As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.

Consumerist Budget Spreadsheet Balances Your Money, Encourages Your Nest Egg

The saving-savvy folks at The Consumerist blog have put together a template Excel spreadsheet for managing personal finances. It's the kind of thing you always say you're going to do, but they went ahead and did it for you, and it's free.

It's not a new thing, but Consumerist's budget spreadsheet, crafted during the days the site was one of our blog network brethren, has come back, after being lost to the vagaries of server maintenance. The site has instructions on setting it up, including tips on thinking through your monthly expenses and advice on how much you should plan on socking away for a rainy day, retirement, and other expenses.

Maybe you use Mint or another automated spending/saving tracker instead—but then again, maybe those tools are so automatic that you don't get a good look at your real money situation.

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Being Right or Making Money

If you're looking for a description of the Ryan/Rivlin Medicare reforms that have gained so many admirers on the right, Matt Yglesias has a good write-up of the idea. But I'd add another way of explaining the proposal: The Ryan-Rivlin plan basically turns Medicare into Obamacare. And in that context, Republicans love the idea behind ObamaCare and think it'll save lots of money.

Under the Ryan-Rivlin plan, the current Medicare program is completely dissolved and replaced by a new Medicare program that "would provide a payment – based on what the average annual per-capita expenditure is in 2021 – to purchase health insurance." You'd get the health insurance from a "Medicare Exchange", and "health plans which choose to participate in the Medicare Exchange must agree to offer insurance to all Medicare beneficiaries, thereby preventing cherry picking and ensuring that Medicare’s sickest and highest cost beneficiaries receive coverage."

Sound familiar?

As Matt says, this doesn't save money. In theory, it actually costs money, as private insurance is more expensive for Medicare -- and that's true both in the private market, and in the quasi-private Medicare Advantage market. What saves money is capping the amount paid to seniors, so they either have to pay more for their care or get less.

But that's not how it's being explained. Matt calls the privatization strategy here "an ideological tic" and says it's unrelated to the cost control, but I'd say it's more of a sleight of hand that's necessary for the cost control. The question seniors will have about this plan is "won't it mean lower benefits?" The privatization idea, by virtue of being a disruptive reform, allows you to say, "no, competition in the private market will make Medicare so much more efficient that it'll be able to deliver more for less!" Or, as Rivlin's original plan (pdf) says, "The expectation is that increased competition among plans fostered by the Medicare Exchange...will keep costs from rising."

I don't know that accusations of hypocrisy are really worth making in American politics, but consider the way this policy and its rationale interacts with the case against ObamaCare. Right now, Medicare is much cheaper than private insurance. If you think that moving Medicare to a model of private insurance sold on exchanges will make it even cheaper, what you're saying is that an ObamaCare model will not only be cheaper than the current private-insurance system, but cheaper than the even-cheaper Medicare system.

If you believe this logic, the Affordable Care Act is a great bill that will save much more money than CBO currently assumes. And yet this is the reform package that's gaining adherents among the group of people who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act and think it a monstrous and unconstitutional piece of legislation with no redeeming features worth mentioning.

Photo credit: Melina Mara/The Washington Post.

Sound familiar?

Photo credit: Melina Mara/The Washington Post.

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The Health Care Blog: Health 2.0 News launches

So from today the all new Health 2.0 News will be actively tracking industry news, showing video of Health 2.0 events, and having editorials from important Health 2.0 leaders. Please head over to Health2News.com and join us! ...