3 posts tagged “internet”
'Net radio station Pandora, whose music genome project sought to create the most comprehensive music database of all time, which allows listeners to create customized radio stations by matching up new songs and artists with what the user likes to listen to, may be folding. A Washington Post Article quoting founder Tim Westergren states that the recording industry has doubled the amount of royalties internet radio stations are required to pay to artists and copyright holders, and that that figure now represents about 70% of Pandora's operating revenue, whereas satellite radio pays half that amount and traditional radio pays nothing.
This screams, once again, of old music industry model profiteering tactics being employed to shoot artists, independent labels, and, ultimately, the industry itself in the foot. Doing away with an amazing technologically based site like Pandora that provides invaluable exposure for artists large and small would be a real tragedy, especially as they have been doing the right thing and paying royalties all along. The message then becomes, play by the rules, and we'll just try to squeeze you for every cent we can with no regard for the good your business can do for our clients and our industry. Sad, stupid, and typical.
I heard a radio program the other evening while driving featuring a college professor who'd written a book whose thesis was basically that the internet enhances intellectual laziness. He went on to state that kids these days would have trouble writing long form essays such as law school applications (he didn't mention that having fewer lawyers would be a good thing for the country, but I digress), and that students now are complaining if a teacher assigns a 500 page book, because they are too used to reading short info-snacks online and too used to LOL style shorthand communication.
This filled me with a boiling anger. I bet this gentleman can't really figure out how to use the internet, gets frustrated, and rails against it. It always annoys me when "old model" people sound off like this. Technological innovation has, of course, always changed the world and the way we live, and the internet is the best effort of this yet.
Check out Google CEO ERIC Schmidt on Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" sounding off on this in smarter, more succinct fashion than I can.
What is it about the internet that emboldens every idiot to publicize themself? There needs to be a serious psychological study on this and a comparative analysis to pre-internet forms of highly published unmitigated douchebaggery.
Check Dimitri the lover out, and listen to the radio interview on there. When I listened to the douchiest phone message in history at holytaco yesterday, I doubted its veracity, but this guy appears to be a bona fide internet personality. Amazing!
Oh and happy Canada day all! I actually love Canada and Canadians and it is, honestly, a pure coincidence that I should write a quip about this guy today - not one of our fair neighbor to the north's finest specimens.
