Less than 24 hours after I extolled the virtues of the brilliant virtual chatroom DJ service Turntable.FM (and after a week of addiction) in this publication last Friday, the site was geoblocked for non-US users.
A victim of its own sudden success, the site’s licensing restraints do not cover any country outside of the US so sadly for the rest of us, real-world copyright law has interfered once again in the virtual world. Meanwhile, artists, labels and DJs in the US have cottoned on to the site’s brilliance. Diplo was playing unreleased Major Lazer songs to just three people at one point on Monday morning (after a frenzied party). How’s that for an exclusive start of the week pick-me-up?
Licensing issues will also affect the rollout of Apple’s iCloud and iMatch service in Europe which they announced last month will launch in the US in autumn. Industry rumblings suggest that due to licensing deals yet to be struck with the music labels, it’ll be some time in 2012 before it launches in Europe. Nevermind that the deal that Apple struck with US-based labels may not be a great one for musicians after all according to figures released. The 2012 projection is a reminder that these kinds of deals move very slowly. Copyright and licensing laws are an unwieldy geo-tagged beasts which hold many restrictions due to individual territory-based legislation.
There’s an applicable argument that suggests that copyright law is stifling creativity and innovation and therefore our entertainment choices. Certainly, it’s difficult for companies like Spotify or Turntable.FM to become global concerns because of such licensing restrictions.
Back home, a Copyright Review Committee has been setup by the Government with a view at identifying any barriers to such innovation. The main aim is to reform fair use in Irish law. According to TJ McIntyre, a law lecturer in UCD, copying music from a legally owned CD to an iPod is currently illegal in Irish law.
To that end, the committee will hold a public meeting on Monday July 4th in Trinity College and are seeking submissions from users of digital content and companies in the sphere on the economic effects of current copyright policy. More details and registration at bit.ly/irlmeet.
A supercut is a video montage of dozens of examples of one thing from movies, be it a phrase, an idea or cliché. This site is a repository for all of them from compilations of Nicholas Cage freaking out in a movie to every “dude” uttered in The Big Lebowski.
So much choice and you still don’t know what to listen to? Let this Last.FM powered site decide for you.
http://whatthefuckshouldilistentonow.com
GWEI are making money by serving Google ads on a network. Normal enough behaviour I hear you say but with the revenue, the group are buying shares in Google, slowly claiming ownership of the web giant. The only flaw is that it’ll take over 202 million years at the current rate.
A band from Wicklow are currently tearing up the Toronto music scene and the blogs. Nightbox are unknown here but are signed to the same label as Two Door Cinema Club, the uber-cool French label Kitsuné. The link is obvious, as their debut single Pyramid suggests a kinship in indie-disco sound. Production by members of MSTRKFT and Death From Above 1979 can’t hurt either.
Listen at Exclaim.
Pitchfork’s sister site Altered Zones pointed us to the album The Caretaker With An Empty Bliss Beyond This World by British composer The Caretaker. The album takes its inspiration from Alzheimer’s disease and the effect it has on the mind. Keeping with that theme, the music is drawn from old 78RPM records of ballroom music which disintegrate with static as the songs progress.
In the same week, that the Icelandic artist debuts new material in Manchester, Björk has also released the first song from her forthcoming multimedia album Biophilia. The song, ‘Crystalline’, is notable for its multiple layers of percussion and a drum and bass outro.
Recorded for True Blood’s fourth series, Nick Cave and Neko Case duet on The Zombies’ classic She’s Not There. Next stop. The campaign to get Cave on screen as a werewolf in Bon Temps Listen at KCRW.
