Sam's Thoughts » music http://sam.abuelsamid.com Random thoughts from a random mind Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:38:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=185 Apple goes too far with subscription money grab http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2011/02/19/apple-goes-too-far-with-subscription-money-grab/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2011/02/19/apple-goes-too-far-with-subscription-money-grab/#comments Sun, 20 Feb 2011 02:46:00 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=1089

You have to give Apple credit for chutzpah. Last week they announced a new subscription system for content available on iOS devices and they are trying to grab revenues that they have no legitimate claim too.  I love Apple design and I prefer to use Apple computers and iPods over any [...]]]>

You have to give Apple credit for chutzpah. Last week they announced a new subscription system for content available on iOS devices and they are trying to grab revenues that they have no legitimate claim too.  I love Apple design and I prefer to use Apple computers and iPods over any competing brands. However, I have avoided being drawn into the iOS ecosystem which includes iPhone and iPad. Apple simply exerts far too much control over these devices for my liking.

When Apple introduced the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch several years ago they set up a system that allowed both paid and free apps. Aside from a one-time $99 to join the developer program, developers could create and distribute apps through the store at no additional cost such as hosting fees. Developers that opted to charge for their apps would split the revenues 70/30 with Apple. This wasn’t an entirely unreasonable split since Apple provided the distribution servers and credit card processing. It’s generally been acknowledged that Apple makes little or no profit on this deal since its costs were roughly comparable to its 30% of the take. A fair deal all around.

The new subscription system allows publishers to distribute apps such as News Corp’s “The Daily” and charge a recurring subscription fee for content, just like a newspaper or magazine sub. Apple insists on take a 30% cut of this revenue which is OK if it is handling data distribution and credit card processing. However at the same time that the subscription payment system was announced, it declared that any and all purchases through apps must be handled through its in-app payment system and the subsequent 70/30 split.

This is actually very problematic for many companies. For example, Amazon offers a free Kindle e-reader app for iOS devices (and Android and Blackberry as well). Kindle users can buy books directly on their devices but on other machines, the app sends users to a mobile browser to search for books and make purchases on the Amazon web site. The books can then be downloaded through the app from their library.  Nowhere in this process is Apple facilitating anything. They are not serving data or handling financial transactions, Amazon is bearing all the costs of distribution. So why does Apple deserve any payment.

This actually started when Sony submitted a reader app similar to the Kindle App that also tried to bypass the in-app purchase system and Apple rejected it. Apple subsequently told Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other distributors that they could no longer get away without paying Cupertino its due. The situation gets even worse for streaming media providers like Pandora, Rhapsody, Netlfix and Hulu.

Those companies spend a lot of money on licenses and a distribution backbone independent of Apple.  Apple provides no service to them other than then customers that bought its products and want to use a variety of services. However, Apple already profited handsomely when it sold the devices. If Apple wants an ongoing revenue stream from media streaming it needs to get off the pot and open its own service.

Being forced to pay Apple 30% of gross revenue for the privilege of access to its huge customer base is just outright extortion on Apple’s part. Most of these companies are money losers already losing such a large chunk for no reason would make then totally unviable. If they raise prices to pay off Apple they will also have to raise the price charged to users on other platforms like Android and Blackberry because Apple also mandates that media distributors cannot charge its users more than any other platform.

The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have apparently opened a preliminary anti-trust investigation into the new Apple practices.  Unfortunately it seems unlikely that the feds will end up doing anything of significance to Apple. Given that, people should stop buying iOS devices until Apple backs down on this issue. The money grab needs to stop.  Apple should not be paid for doing nothing.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2011/02/19/apple-goes-too-far-with-subscription-money-grab/feed/ 4 Now’s the time http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/22/nows-the-time/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/22/nows-the-time/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:01:56 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/22/nows-the-time/ Today is the day!  If you haven’t already click on the Bum Rush Now button in the post just below this one.  It’s just 99 cents to tell the RIAA where to go.

Tweet ]]> Today is the day!  If you haven’t already click on the Bum Rush Now button in the post just below this one.  It’s just 99 cents to tell the RIAA where to go.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/22/nows-the-time/feed/ 0 Bum Rush the Charts! http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/20/bum-rush-the-charts/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/20/bum-rush-the-charts/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2007 19:13:58 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/20/bum-rush-the-charts/ For far too long now the big record labels that comprise the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have abused their customers and their suppliers, the musicians. They charge too much money for product, and provide a lot of crap in return. And not nearly enough of that money gets back to the [...]]]> For far too long now the big record labels that comprise the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have abused their customers and their suppliers, the musicians. They charge too much money for product, and provide a lot of crap in return. And not nearly enough of that money gets back to the poeple who created the content that makes the business possible. Now a group of podcasters are trying to organize an effort to show that the RIAA is obsolete and unnecessary. Mark Yoshimoto Nemkoff of Pacific Coast Hellway created Bum Rush the Charts. The idea is to pick one band that has made their music podsafe (available to podcasters to use on their shows free of charge), and get as many people as possible to buy one particular song on one day to try and drive the song to the top of the iTunes chart, ahead of all the stuff that the RIAA is putting out.

The band that was chosen is Black Lab and their song Mine Again. Chrisopher Penn of the Financial Aid Podcast has set up a special iTunes affiliate account and all the commissions from purchases through that link will go to the Student Loan Network iTunes account. Black Lab has also committed half of any money they make to the fund as well. So for $.99 you tell the RIAA that they can take a hike, get a great song and contribute to help some kids education. All of this is going to happen on Thursday March 22, 2007.  I’ll add the appropriate link here on Thursday morning so make sure you come back to this post then and buy the song.  thanks

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/20/bum-rush-the-charts/feed/ 0 Free music from SXSW http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/03/free-music-from-sxsw/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/03/free-music-from-sxsw/#comments Sun, 04 Mar 2007 01:38:27 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/03/free-music-from-sxsw/ For the third straight year, the organizers of the South by Southwest Festival are offering up a collection of free music by some of the hundreds of bands that are playing in Austin, TX next week. The first release for this up now, and contains 739 mp3 files of all kinds of music. The [...]]]> sxsw 2007For the third straight year, the organizers of the South by Southwest Festival are offering up a collection of free music by some of the hundreds of bands that are playing in Austin, TX next week. The first release for this up now, and contains 739 mp3 files of all kinds of music. The files are in one huge zip file and they can be downloaded by via bittorrent. If you haven’t already used bittorrent, head over to Azureus and grab their torrent program. Azureus runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. Once you install Azureus, download the torrent file from here and drop it onto the Azureus window, and start downloading. It’s a big 3.1 GB file (the zip file with all the mp3s, not the torrent file, that one is small) so it will take a few hours to download if you have a fast net connection. Fortunately the nature of bittorrent is such that the more people share the faster the downloads go. After it’s done please leave Azureus open, and keep sharing with everyone else. After all, we learned in kindergarten that it’s good to share. This is all perfectly legal and the songs are released under a creative commons license so you can pass it along. Go sample the new music, you won’t be sorry!

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2007/03/03/free-music-from-sxsw/feed/ 0 Another MewzikCast http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/07/17/another-mewzikcast/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/07/17/another-mewzikcast/#comments Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:36:06 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=307 In case you haven’t checked it out yet, Max has recorded a Mewzikcast. If you haven’t listened yet go check it out.

Tweet ]]> In case you haven’t checked it out yet, Max has recorded a Mewzikcast. If you haven’t listened yet go check it out.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/07/17/another-mewzikcast/feed/ 0 MewzikCast 5 http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/07/01/mewzikcast-5/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/07/01/mewzikcast-5/#comments Sun, 02 Jul 2006 02:08:17 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=298 Max recorded MewzikCast 5 and it’s up now. Go check it out and if you like it make sure you subscribe to the feed so you don’t miss any.

Tweet ]]> Max recorded MewzikCast 5 and it’s up now. Go check it out and if you like it make sure you subscribe to the feed so you don’t miss any.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/07/01/mewzikcast-5/feed/ 0 New MewzikCasts http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/26/new-mewzikcasts/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/26/new-mewzikcasts/#comments Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:57:22 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=294 In case you haven’t checked it out, Max has a couple more MewzikCast podcasts up. He’s got some really grat music on there.

Tweet ]]> In case you haven’t checked it out, Max has a couple more MewzikCast podcasts up. He’s got some really grat music on there.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/26/new-mewzikcasts/feed/ 0 MewzikCast 2 is up http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/17/mewzikcast-2-is-up/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/17/mewzikcast-2-is-up/#comments Sat, 17 Jun 2006 18:35:09 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=285 The second edition of Max’s MewzikCast was posted last night. Go check it out if you want to hear some great new rock that corporate radio seems to have no interest since they cant afford the payola. If you like the show make sure you subscribe to the feed so that you get the [...]]]> The second edition of Max’s MewzikCast was posted last night. Go check it out if you want to hear some great new rock that corporate radio seems to have no interest since they cant afford the payola. If you like the show make sure you subscribe to the feed so that you get the new shows automatically when they are published.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/17/mewzikcast-2-is-up/feed/ 0 Max’s First Podcast http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/08/maxs-first-podcast/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/08/maxs-first-podcast/#comments Fri, 09 Jun 2006 01:38:33 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=273 My son Max recorded his first podcast night and I just finished posting it. It’s called the MewzikCast and as you might have guessed it’s a music show. Go check it out and subscribe to the feed if you like it. He picked out all the music himself, came up with the name and [...]]]> My son Max recorded his first podcast night and I just finished posting it. It’s called the MewzikCast and as you might have guessed it’s a music show. Go check it out and subscribe to the feed if you like it. He picked out all the music himself, came up with the name and did all the talking. I just helped with the technical side. This was just his first attempt and I’m sure they will get better as he goes along. Mewzik is Music

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/06/08/maxs-first-podcast/feed/ 0 Gerry’s music http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/05/30/gerrys-music/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/05/30/gerrys-music/#comments Tue, 30 May 2006 13:54:33 +0000 Sam http://473682489 My friend Gerry has recorded some his songs and put them up on his Myspace page. He has some great songs and is a really good guitar player. Gerry always brings his guitar along to parties and it’s to L. Ron, Ron. His music has kind of Steve Earle feel to it and I [...]]]> My friend Gerry has recorded some his songs and put them up on his Myspace page. He has some great songs and is a really good guitar player. Gerry always brings his guitar along to parties and it’s to L. Ron, Ron. His music has kind of Steve Earle feel to it and I really like it. I particularly like Good of the Country. Head on over and give it a listen.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/05/30/gerrys-music/feed/ 0 Living With War http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/28/living-with-war/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/28/living-with-war/#comments Fri, 28 Apr 2006 13:37:57 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=234 Neil Young has a new album coming out next week titled Living with War. This a classic anti-war protest album. One song in particular is drawing a lot of attention, “Let’s Impeach the President”. The Faux News guys are all over this one proclaiming how can anyone dare to criticize King George? Here are [...]]]> Neil Young has a new album coming out next week titled Living with War. This a classic anti-war protest album. One song in particular is drawing a lot of attention, “Let’s Impeach the President”. The Faux News guys are all over this one proclaiming how can anyone dare to criticize King George? Here are the lyrics

Let’s impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

He’s the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let’s impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government’s protection
Or was someone just not home that day?

Let’s impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he’s cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There’s lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean

Thank God

Living with War
I’ll definitely be getting this one when it comes out. Another really good anti-war album to check out if you haven’t already heard it is Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts… Now” which he released in 2004. I’ve long been a fan of both Steve and Neil. It would interesting to hear a collaboration between the two of them. Go give both of these records a listen and then call you congressional representatives and urge them to move for the impeachment of this criminal in the white house.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/28/living-with-war/feed/ 0 Munk Interview http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/21/munk-interview/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/21/munk-interview/#comments Fri, 21 Apr 2006 18:20:05 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=225 Last week on Accident Hash, C.C Chapman did a very interesting interview with Munk. Munk had some very interesting things to say about the music industry. Basically, he is making a good living as a full time musician, with no big label record deal, and no real physical distribution. He said that he may [...]]]> Last week on Accident Hash, C.C Chapman did a very interesting interview with Munk. Munk had some very interesting things to say about the music industry. Basically, he is making a good living as a full time musician, with no big label record deal, and no real physical distribution. He said that he may well never release another physical CD. He records all his music at home with a laptop computer, simple mixer, his guitars, bass and keyboards. He also has someone play drums sometimes. Take a listen to Munk’s music, you can hear it at emusic. It sounds as good as anything ever recorded in a big studio. The big music companies sign bands then take them into an expensive studio to record. Once the CD is released the costs of recording, promotion and distribution get deducted from the band’s royalties. The dirty secret of the music industry is that the vast majority of bands with recording contracts with labels never actually make a dime from record sales and often end up owing the label money. If they make any money at all it is from ticket and merchandise sales. Today with digital recording and downloads of music, a musician or band can record their own stuff and then distribute it on-line for a tiny fraction of the cost of actually pressing cds and getting them into stores, where many of them may sit unsold. There is also the issue of payola (money that record labels pay to radio stations for airplay). Munk

Munk has bypassed this system completely. He sells his music directly through sites like emusic, itunes, and cdbaby. He has also had his music played on commercials and TV shows like The Sopranos. His songs have gotten lots of play on podcasts, and he doesn’t have to pay podcasters to play them. Go listen to the interview and you can hear what he has to say and also hear some of his music.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/21/munk-interview/feed/ 0 Coverville http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/06/coverville/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/06/coverville/#comments Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:28:09 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=217 Brian Ibbott was one of the earliest music podcasters back in the fall in 2004. Brian had a distinct twist to his show though. His show is called Coverville and he plays covers exclusively. He found a way to legally play licensed music by playing the ASCAP/BMI fees because the songs are all cover [...]]]> Brian Ibbott was one of the earliest music podcasters back in the fall in 2004. Brian had a distinct twist to his show though. His show is called Coverville and he plays covers exclusively. He found a way to legally play licensed music by playing the ASCAP/BMI fees because the songs are all cover versions. He does his show three times a week and typically plays 5-6 songs per show. Some shows have a special theme and he also does “cover story” shows where he plays covers of songs originally done by one artist. Some recent cover story shows included one where he played covers of Nick Lowe songs and another of covers of Johnny Cash songs. Brian manages to find some incredibly obscure covers of well known songs. A lot of the songs are really good, but some of them are really atrocious. Some of the more interesting songs I have heard on the show include Don Ho doing his rendition of the Peter Gabriel hit Shock the Monkey and Phyllis Diller covering (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.

Brian’s two most recent shows were truly good for a laugh. Last Saturday on April 1, he released his first episode of Originalville which includes a marvelous rendition of the Men without Hats classic Safety Dance. You really need to listen to this one all the way through to get the full impact. Check it out, it’s worth it. Then yesterday Brian did an interview with Richard Cheese. Richard does lounge renditions of hit songs, including a peppy mambo version of Sunday, Bloody Sunday by U2. Richard is a very funny guy. Go over to Coverville and peruse the archives. I’m sure you’ll find some fun surprises in there.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/04/06/coverville/feed/ 0 Danko Jones http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/30/danko-jones/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/30/danko-jones/#comments Fri, 31 Mar 2006 01:23:26 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=214 Sometime last summer I first stumbled across a band called Danko Jones. They are trio from Toronto. I don’t remember which podcast I first heard them on, but it was probably The Rock and Roll Geek Show. At any rate I loved what I heard, and I checked out their site at Dankojones.com. I [...]]]> Sometime last summer I first stumbled across a band called Danko Jones. They are trio from Toronto. I don’t remember which podcast I first heard them on, but it was probably The Rock and Roll Geek Show. At any rate I loved what I heard, and I checked out their site at Dankojones.com. I downloaded a couple of tracks directly off their site, and then found more of their music at emusic.com. These guys have kind of garage-rock punk sound and they have a new album coming out in May. This week I heard the first new track from Sleep is the Enemy on Accident Hash and also on the Daily Source Code. First Date is hot. It’s got a great hook and just rocks. I already bought this and the other 2 non-album tracks that emusic has up. One these b-sides is a pumped-up cover of the Elvis Costello song Pump It Up. If you like good rock, go check these guys out.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/30/danko-jones/feed/ 0 More Free Music http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/17/more-free-music/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/17/more-free-music/#comments Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:37:27 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=207 The 2006 South by Southwest Festival has been going on in Austin, TX this week. Over 1300 bands have been playing at clubs around the sity all week, along with various conference sessions. For the second year the organizers have mad available free songs from many of the bands including all kinds of styles. [...]]]> The 2006 South by Southwest Festival has been going on in Austin, TX this week. Over 1300 bands have been playing at clubs around the sity all week, along with various conference sessions. For the second year the organizers have mad available free songs from many of the bands including all kinds of styles. There are over 900 mp3 files included all absolutely free of charge. The downloads are available via bittorrent (an amazing technology). If you don’t already have a bittorrent client, go grab a copy of azureus, and then grab the 2 torrent files here and here. Just a warning, these two downloads will get you over 3.5 GB of music, so make sure you have some space available before you start. Azureus is great because it is written in java so it works great on windows, macs and linux.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/17/more-free-music/feed/ 0 Free Music http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/11/free-music/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/11/free-music/#comments Sun, 12 Mar 2006 00:52:49 +0000 Sam http://sam.abuelsamid.com/?p=203 I was listening to Insomnia Radio #69 the other day heard something really amazing. Lorenzo’s Music is a band I’ve heard on quite a few music podcasts over the past year. The band has really latched on to podcasting, and have come to the realization that the more people hear their music, the more [...]]]> I was listening to Insomnia Radio #69 the other day heard something really amazing. Lorenzo’s Music is a band I’ve heard on quite a few music podcasts over the past year. The band has really latched on to podcasting, and have come to the realization that the more people hear their music, the more they can make money by getting people ot shows, selling merchandise, and selling cds. They have realized that people sharing music is actually a good promotional vehicle. Because of this they have decided to make all three of their cd’s available for free download under a creative commons non-commercial share-alike license. This means that anyone is free to download, burn and share the music and use it for any non-commercial purpose. This band has a really unique sound that they describe like this:

Lorenzo’s Music is Tom Ray (vocals), Mark Whitcomb (guitar), Scott Beardsley (drums), Bryan Elliott (saxophone), and Chris Boeger (bass). They are not a punk band experimenting with 30′s-style swing, an indie rock band trying their hands at Chicago-style blues, or a hardcore band exploring their love of latin rhythms. They are simply a group of talented guys who obviously see no reason why they can’t just do all of the above.

Their sound is a really unique blend with almost Tom Waits like vocals. Here is a sample from their latest album Solamente Tres Palabras. If you like it go over and download them all. Then tell your friends.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/03/11/free-music/feed/ 0 WHO HASN’T DREAMED ABOUT PERFECT HEAD? http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/02/02/who-hasnt-dreamed-about-perfect-head/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/02/02/who-hasnt-dreamed-about-perfect-head/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2006 23:51:23 +0000 Sam http://abuelsamid.com/blogs/sam/wordpress/?p=169 P.W. Fenton, the wonderful guy behind the digital flotsam podcast has a new music podcast out that is definitely worth a listen. P-Dub plays a bunch of podsafe music of various styles. I don’t even know how to describe it, you just need to listen to it. You can find it at perfecthead.com I [...]]]> P.W. Fenton, the wonderful guy behind the digital flotsam podcast has a new music podcast out that is definitely worth a listen. P-Dub plays a bunch of podsafe music of various styles. I don’t even know how to describe it, you just need to listen to it. You can find it at perfecthead.com I love the podcasts that P-Dub creates. He is a musician, and I think a former radio guy, and always a pleasure to listen to.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/02/02/who-hasnt-dreamed-about-perfect-head/feed/ 0 New stuff I’m listening to. http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/01/21/new-stuff-im-listening-to/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/01/21/new-stuff-im-listening-to/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2006 23:27:49 +0000 Sam http://abuelsamid.com/blogs/sam/wordpress/?p=156 I’ve bought a some great new music in the past couple of weeks. I picked up Severed by Munk. Munk has kind of Nine Inch Nails feels to it. I heard Munk on Accident Hash and a few other podcasts. Earlier this week I also heard Edison Rocket Train on The Rock and [...]]]> I’ve bought a some great new music in the past couple of weeks. I picked up Severed by Munk. Munk has kind of Nine Inch Nails feels to it. I heard Munk on Accident Hash and a few other podcasts. Earlier this week I also heard Edison Rocket Train on The Rock and Roll Geek Indiecast. Their sound is mix of delta blues and garage rock. You can get both of them from emusic.com. I love finding all this great new music from podcasts.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2006/01/21/new-stuff-im-listening-to/feed/ 0 I do buy music http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2005/11/16/i-do-buy-music/ http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2005/11/16/i-do-buy-music/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2005 14:29:49 +0000 Sam http://abuelsamid.com/blogs/sam/wordpress/?p=111 For anyone who has been reading my recent rants on sony and drm, I just want to clarify something. I don’t have a problem with paying for music. I think musicians should be compensated for their work. I just don’t believe in supporting overpaid executives and lawyers for big media companies. In fact in [...]]]> For anyone who has been reading my recent rants on sony and drm, I just want to clarify something. I don’t have a problem with paying for music. I think musicians should be compensated for their work. I just don’t believe in supporting overpaid executives and lawyers for big media companies. In fact in recent months (coinciding with listening to podcasts) I have purchased more music than I have in a long time. It’s just that I now get it either directly from artists through their websites or from online stores like emusic.com that sell mp3 files with no drm and give a much bigger share of the proceeds back to the musicians. I have purchased music from Brother Love, Brad Sucks, the Arts and Sciences, the Black Furies, Jukebox Zeros and others. Demonstrate to the world that we don’t need drm. Buy non-drm music and boycott anything that is copy-protected.

]]> http://sam.abuelsamid.com/2005/11/16/i-do-buy-music/feed/ 10