Music

Music is a necessity. Though I focus mostly on alternative/industrial/EBM/electronic styles, my tastes are eclectic and wide-ranging.

BuyMusic ripping off artists

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Another good reason to avoid the BuyMusic service: apparently, through snapping up the back catalog of a very shady distributor, much of the BuyMusic catalog comes from independent artists who are not receiving any compensation for their work.

This from recording artist Jody Whitesides:

I did a search for one of my old CD’s that will be going onto iTunes and It turns out my CD was there on BuyMusic.com. As were the CD’s of several other bands that I’m friends with. All of whom were not contacted about being placed for sale there.

Here’s what I’ve deduced… BuyMusic.com (which I will refer to as BM) got their “vast” music library of 300,000 plus songs from a company called the Orchard. The Orchard is a distribution company that has consistently shafted artists by not paying them for CD’s sold nor returning unsold CD’s or cancelling contracts. So, without the express consent of what is likely lots of the Orchards catalog, BM has put it up for sale at the bargain price of \$.79 a song.

So now, they can tout they’re selling tracks at \$.79 and they can say they have a library of music of over 300,000 songs. But what they don’t tell you is that it comes from musicians/bands that were not asked for permission, and who will likely not see a penny of any sale made through BM. By their very own site policy they are committing copyright infringement. They have done this to lure PC/windows users to their site in hopes to sell the few major label aquired songs they do have, at a price that is much higher than Apple’s \$.99.

I’m currently looking into legal means to have my music removed from their site and strongly encourage users to not browse BM’s site nor purchase from it.

(via MacSlash)

When You're Evil

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I found this song by Voltaire on a sampler from Projekt Records. It’s a good sampler, but this is easily the best of the bunch. Gypsy-ish melody, music that’s mostly violin and drumkit, and wonderful lyrics that sound to me like they’re sung with a quite mischevious glint in the eye. Gets me grinning every time I hear it.

When the Devil is too busy,
and Death’s a bit too much,
They call on me — by name you see —
for my special touch.
To the gentlemen I’m Miss Fortune,
To the ladies I’m Sir Prize,
But call me by any name,
any way it’s all the same…

I’m the fly in your soup,
I’m the pebble in your shoe,
I’m the pea beneath your bed,
I’m a bump on every head,
I’m the peel on which you slip,
I’m a pin in every hip,
I’m the thorn in your side,
Makes you wriggle and writhe —

(Chorus)
And it’s so easy when you’re evil!
This is the life, you see
The Devil tips his hat to me.
I do it all because I’m evil,
And I do it all for free…
Your tears are all the pay I’ll ever need.

While there’s children to make sad,
While there’s candy to be had,
While there’s pockets left to pick,
While there’s grannies left to trip down the stairs
I’ll be there, I’ll be waiting round the corner
It’s a game, i’m glad I’m in it
’cause there’s one born every minute.

(Chorus)

I pledge my allegiance to all things dark
And I promise on my damned soul
To do as I am told, Lord Beelzebub
Has never seen a soldier quite like me,
Not only does his job but does it happily.

I’m the fear that keeps you awake,
I’m the shadows on the wall,
I’m the monsters they become,
I’m the nightmare in your skull,
I’m a dagger in your back,
An extra turn upon the rack,
I’m the quivering in your heart,
A stabbing pain, a sudden start.

(Chorus)

And I’d do it all for free,
Your tears are all the pay I’ll ever need.
And I’d do it all for free,
Your tears are all the pay I’ll ever need.

It gets so lonely being evil.
What I’d do to see a smile,
Even for a little while,
And no one loves you when you’re evil…

I’m lying though my teeth!
Your tears are all the company I need!

And who says Goth’s don’t have a sense of humor? ;)

Wimoweh

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This is great — Kookaburra pointed to a fascinating article about the origins and history of “Wimoweh” (more popularly known as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”) called Where does the lion sleep tonight? that I’ve been browsing off and on for the past hour in breaks between jobs. Lots of neat tidbits in the article.

Like [the Weavers’] earlier recordings, it took place with Gordon Jenkins presiding and an orchestra in attendance. Prior to this, Jenkins had been very subdued in his instrumental approach, adding just the occasional sting and the odd swirl of strings to the Weavers’ cheery singalongs. Maybe he was growing bored, because his arrangement of “Wimoweh” was a great Vegas-y explosion of big-band raunch that almost equalled the barbaric splendour of the Zulu original. Trombones blared. Trumpets screamed. Strings swooped and soared through Solomon’s miracle melody. And then Pete [Seeger] cut loose with all that hollering and screaming. It was a startling departure from everything else the Weavers had ever done, but Billboard loved it, anointing it a Pick of the Week. Cash Box said, “May easily break”. Variety said, “Terrific!”

BuyTunes blows

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Earlier this week BuyTunes popped up attempting to capitalize on the success of the iTunes Music Store by moving the same general idea to the Windows platform.

So far, the word is that they suck.

I already knew that they were blatantly ripping off Apple’s ads. I’d link to the BuyTunes versions, but that brings up the second major issue: they’ve restricted their website to Internet Explorer for Windows only. Any other browser, and you get redirected to this page. So far, things weren’t looking very good.

Then Jennifer at ScriptyGoddess actually tried to use BuyMusic’s services. Let’s just say that she’s not a satisfied customer.

First problem. After you buy an album, you need to download it. Sure, I knew that. What I didn’t know is that you have to download EACH SONG INDIVIDUALLY. One click per song. With Two large sized albums with many songs on it – it can be just a LITTLE annoying.

[…]

Second problem. Before each song plays – it has to download and verify your license. You can’t mulitple select a bunch and do this. You need to do this before EACH SONG will play.

[…]

Third and VERY big problem. […] Since I’m using Windows200, they force you to use a windows media plugin…[that] CRASHES consistently EVERY time I try to burn a CD. It is simply impossible to create a cd from my machine using that plugin.

[…]

And here comes problem number four. The “Main” license is the one I downloaded the first time to my machine (the windows 2000 box with the defective Roxio plugin). Subsequent downloads are “secondary licenses” from which you are not allowed to transfer to a mobile device, burn a cd, or do ANYTHING with except listen to them on that one machine.

[…]

In walks problem number five. Here’s their oh-so helpful (probably computer generated) form letter to me…

We apologize if you have experienced trouble downloading your music to a digital media player or copying your music to a CD. Unfortunately, We are unable to provide technical assistance after you have downloaded the music from BuyMusic.com to your primary computer. In addition, we are unable to credit you back for failed or damaged copies once you have successfully downloaded the music to your primary computer.

Sounds like BuyMusic is bound to be a bust, to me.

KMFDM

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Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitlied
Keep Madonna From Doing Music
Kylie Minogue Fans Don’t Masturbate
Kill MotherFucking Depeche Mode
Klingons March Forth During Missions
Kill Me For Drug Money
Keine Macht Für Dich Mehr

Metallica smokes too much crack

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I couldn’t make something this bizarre up.

Metallica are taking legal action against independant Canadian rock band Unfaith over what they feel is unsanctioned usage of two chords the band has been using since 1982 : E and F.

“People are going to get on our case again for this, but try to see it from our point of view just once,” stated Metallica’s Lars Ulrich. “We’re not saying we own those two chords, individually — that would be ridiculous. We’re just saying that in that specific order, people have grown to associate E, F with our music.”

Metallica filed a trademark infringement suit against the indie group at the US district court for central California on Monday. According to the drummer, the continued use of the two chords causes “confusion, deception and mistake in the minds of the public”.

Think this is a joke? Here’s the official press release from Metallica’s site.

I hope this is a joke, a spoof, or some stupid publicity stunt. Whatever it ends up being, as far as I’m concerned, Metallica has just officially crossed over into the “too dumb to be food” category.

(via jc)

[UPDATE]{.underline}
D was just kind enough to inform me that, indeed, this is a hoax. It’s rare that I get taken in by hoaxes — good job!