en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices IanAR's Last.fm Journal http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal The Last.fm journal for IanAR. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. Stevie's Dear Disco? http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2009/07/03/2ud2tx_stevie%27s_dear_disco%3F Fri, 3 Jul 2009 11:09:13 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2009/07/03/2ud2tx_stevie%27s_dear_disco%3F I stumbled upon My Dear Disco's White Lies today, which showed enough potential to skim their 2008 album - Dancethink LP.

Then I noticed that track four - a Stevie Wonder cover, All I Do - is a ' free download' (0c download). Now, the album's a DIY release (i.e. not from a label we might expect to have any special leverage on All I Do), so how are they in a position to give away copies / plays of the song?

It seems like either: My Dear Disco have very deep pockets, Stevie's been kind enough to forgo royalties* or some lawyers are waiting for My Dear Disco to get very deep pockets (so they can empty them). If the band aim to get picked-up by a major and it's anything like the last option, despite what looks like some quite hefty PR, I wonder how such a liability would compromise due diligence in a label signing.

* - Clarence Paul & morris Broadnax are also credited for the song's lyrics.

I'm not down-on My Dear Disco, to my ears they have good potential, but this looked like an odd use of a song and I've failed to find it written about elsewhere. If you know more about this release or have other ideas about the usage / licensing, please comment.]]> [31 Mar 09] Stacey Kent's Knighted! http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2009/04/08/2msnpt_%5B31_mar_09%5D_stacey_kent%27s_knighted%21 Wed, 8 Apr 2009 20:51:52 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2009/04/08/2msnpt_%5B31_mar_09%5D_stacey_kent%27s_knighted%21 Way back in 2002, before this place, the collaborative filtering music discovery systems I used were Amazons' and my Yahoo! LAUNCHcast personal radio (now killed by CBS).

I think it was LAUNCHcast that turned me on to Stacey Kent's 2001 Dreamsville album and - man - Did I feel I was in on something good?! If you're not familiar with the release, I strongly suggest checking-out You're Looking At Me, Hushabye Mountain, I've Got A Crush On You and Dreamsville.

For years I felt like one of the select few who knew her. When I first joined AudioScrobbler in 2005, absence of her recordings was one of the standards by which I judged the LAUNCHcast's catalog better than here.

During 2006 she became streamable and in July I tagged her as lesser known yet streamable artists which, by then prevailing standards, would've meant that she had less than 10K listeners, on Last.FM.

Over time, her notoriety's grown'n'grown and, hey hey, my girl's: topped a million plays on Last.FM (with 130K+ listeners), her Breakfast on the morning train was Grammy nominated, won British & BBC jazz awards ... and now she's been knighted! - Awarded with the medal of Knight of the French Order of Arts and Literature (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by Christine Albanel (French Culture Minister), during a ceremony at the Quai Branly museum in Paris. 31 March 2009


Bravo, Stacey!
]]> [LAUNCHcast] Product Manager Reasserts Yahoo!s Commitment http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2008/07/30/23dzoc_%5Blaunchcast%5D_product_manager_reasserts_yahoo%21s_commitment Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:27:12 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2008/07/30/23dzoc_%5Blaunchcast%5D_product_manager_reasserts_yahoo%21s_commitment I've not been keeping-up with LAUNCHcast gossip of late but, today, got word from Steve (its product manager) and thought that - in light of Last.FM's recent streamability & audio usage licensing here - it'd be of interest to some here: Let me start by thanking you all for the postings and continued feedback. I'll do my best to provide as much information as I can.

We are still deeply committed to LAUNCHcast!

We maintain a dedicated programming team as well as continued engineering support for the product. We continue to add new music to the catalog and update all the popular programmed stations every week. Additionally, we have recently rolled out a fix for one of the top bugs that was causing an error with audio playback for some users.

Over the past year, we have been sidetracked by issues related to increased royalties and have spent time and resources putting mechanisms in place to help reduce costs. We continue to slog through royalty issues and have our eye on an end goal where Launchcast will be available on all platforms. Unfortunately, it's taking us longer to get there than we would like. Mac and Firefox support will not happen in the next few months, but we will get there. I understand the current frustration and will keep the group posted on new product developments.

Hope this helps and thanks for speaking up…(and listening)I've been awaiting Firefox - and improved open-systems support, in general - for over four years, so some of this sounds promising (it looks like a Music 2.0 LAUNCHcast remains a dream to far).

However, the general pithiness of the announcement makes it sound as if life's recently been a little uncomfortable for LAUNCHcast users - Ian My.Mashable.com/Scrawl]]> [3 Mustaphas 3] Omnidirectional Ear Sharing - Jul 08 - Top 40 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2008/07/09/2286jn_%5B3_mustaphas_3%5D_omnidirectional_ear_sharing_-_jul_08_-_top_40 Wed, 9 Jul 2008 20:03:48 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2008/07/09/2286jn_%5B3_mustaphas_3%5D_omnidirectional_ear_sharing_-_jul_08_-_top_40 The 3 Mustaphas 3 group is dedicated to the, you guessed it - Balkan's Szegerely town band - 3 Mustaphas 3.

The 3 Mustaphas 3 group on Yahoo! is now over 101 lunar months old, so I though this a golly good time for the Scrobblers of Mustapha to make a special sharing of their omnidirectional ears ... ¡Forward in All Directions!

Thus, I've been back through the group's weekly track charts for the last sixteen weeks and collected up all the tracks that Friends of Mustapha have scrobbled more than once, then accumilated those scrobblings/plays over the whole period, to derive a form of four lunar month track chart. The top fourty+ tracks from the chart, plus the odd tune from the Mustaphas, can now be found on my 3M3 Omnidirectional Ear Sharing - Jul 08 station. The tracks are as follows:

The 3 Mustaphas 3s were pioneers of the and favourites of John Peel, but've not made new recordings since the early 90s - so I thought the amalgamated favourites of the 24 Scrobblers of Mustapha would make interesting listening.

Please let me know what you think of the selection, I expect it to play for over two and a half hours, without repetition - Best, Ian My.Mashable.com/Scrawl]]> [One Little Indian] Independents Day 08 - Free 10 MP3/ZIP Track Compilation http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2008/07/04/21yga5_%5Bone_little_indian%5D_independents_day_08_-_free_10_mp3zip_track_compilation Fri, 4 Jul 2008 18:12:28 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2008/07/04/21yga5_%5Bone_little_indian%5D_independents_day_08_-_free_10_mp3zip_track_compilation I've just heard from One Little Indian, on MySpace, that they've released a compilation - "To celebrate independent music we want to share with you the reasons why we value our independence and our artists so much."

Independents Day 08 - Tracks are as follows:
  1. Land of Talk - Summer Special
  2. Chris Bathgate - Restless
  3. HK119 - Mind
  4. The All New Adventures Of Us (Tanaou) - 45 Forever or 45 forever
  5. Stalkers - In Your Street Today
  6. Underground Railroad - sticks and stones
  7. Rose Kemp - Nannys World
  8. Matthew Ryan - It Could Have Been Worse
  9. Jesse Malin - Russian Roulette
  10. Shelleyan Orphan - Something Pulled Me
Download MP3s or ZIP here (tinyURL.com/ID08OLI) or via The Independent newspaper coverage and join the One Little Indian group :)

Enjoy! I've got mine, but'm yet to listen - Ian My.Mashable.com/Scrawl

Edit 05 Jul 08: tinyURL added.]]> [NIN] Lights In The Sky - Tour Players Free EP http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2008/06/05/20e3bq_%5Bnin%5D_lights_in_the_sky_-_tour_players_free_ep Thu, 5 Jun 2008 11:15:27 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2008/06/05/20e3bq_%5Bnin%5D_lights_in_the_sky_-_tour_players_free_ep Whipping-up excitement, for the Lights in the Sky tour, we have:
  1. A Place to Bury Strangers - To Fix The Gash In Your Head
    Prev-released on A Place To Bury Strangers
  2. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - We Are Rockstars
    Prev-released by EMI/Virgin UK, on You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into
  3. Crystal Castles - Crimewave (Crystal Castles VS Health)
    Prev-released by Trouble Records & Last Gang Records, on Crimewave - Single (a collaboration with HEALTH)
  4. Deerhunter - Like New
    Prev-released by Kranky, on Fluorescent Grey
  5. Nine Inch Nails - Echoplex
    Prev-released on The Slip
Downloadable as a complimentary zip of MP3s,
under -> dl.NIN.com/lightsinthesky

A further wrinkle in Trent Reznor, et al's music marketing mastery!

I love this scheme! More folk come to gigs early enough to gigs to catch the full support act and the come more enthused. The venue sells more beer, the music folk sell more copies of music / merchandise, plus secure more loyalty and contact details!

From my notes in the listing, this looks to've won buy-in, not only from the bands involved but, also, from two or three independent labels, possibly one other band, and EMI! - This is what I call in idea with momentum!

Engage! Enjoy! Enthuse! - Ian My.Mashable.com/Scrawl

Related articles:]]> [Goldfrapp] A&E (1st Seventh Tree Single) Artwork Now & 3 Feb 08 Release http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2007/12/08/t0m_%255Bgoldfrapp%255D_a%2526e_%25281st_seventh_tree_single%2529_artwork_now_%2526_3_feb_08_release Sat, 8 Dec 2007 21:51:40 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2007/12/08/t0m_%255Bgoldfrapp%255D_a%2526e_%25281st_seventh_tree_single%2529_artwork_now_%2526_3_feb_08_release Plans are firming for the first fruit from Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree (click for track listing).

The fruit (I mean single), will be the track seven - A&E

A couple of hours ago, I received a release schedule, as follows:
  • 03 Feb 08 - for download* to UK-based** customers
  • 11 Feb 08 - for UK** disc sales
  • 12 Feb 08 - for USA & Canada download & disc sales
* - The format of downloads is yet to be specified.
** - These dates may be correct for the whole of the European Union (I await clarification).

The nine day transatlantic delay, for download availability, is curious! Obviously, this will amplify the temptation for European purchasers to file-share to their yankee and flapping head friends. I think that, some combination of a few things is going on:
  1. The delay's an oversight, on the part of EMI/Mute and they'll change the schedule to synchronize download releases.
  2. During the delay period, downloads will only be available in some DRM'd format, that EMI consider uncrackable, within the nine days *looks back and forth between red-rag and bull*
  3. EMI see their failure to collect revenue - due to file-sharing, in the delay period - as a loss-leader, which they're enduring (and forcing the artist to endure), in order to perform surveillance and capture some valuable P2P inelegance.
  4. Other stuff I've not though of.
Watch this space! :)

]]> [Stockhausen] Deutsch Abstract Pioneer of Electronic Age - Passes http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2007/12/08/t0l_%5Bstockhausen%5D_deutsch_abstract_pioneer_of_electronic_age_-_passes Sat, 8 Dec 2007 06:02:33 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2007/12/08/t0l_%5Bstockhausen%5D_deutsch_abstract_pioneer_of_electronic_age_-_passes I just heard, on BBC News 24, that Karlheinz Stockhausen is no longer with us *fighting back the tears*

Associated Press look to have the best early coverage. Melissa Eddy said:
At La Scala, the famed Milan opera house, conductor Daniel Barenboim said Stockhausen "will have an influence on music history."

"The force of his music will be very much missed," Barenboim said.

Stockhausen's electronic compositions were a radical departure from musical tradition and incorporated influences as varied as psychology, the visual arts and the acoustics of a particular concert hall.

He was considered by some an eccentric member of the European musical elite and by others a courageous pioneer in the field of new music. Rock and pop musicians such as John Lennon, Frank Zappa and David Bowie have cited him as an influence, and he is also credited with having influenced techno music.

So taken were The Beatles by Stockhausen's music, they asked permission to use his photo on the cover of the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He appears fifth from the left in the back row.

Not everyone's admiration was so great. British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who founded the London Symphony Orchestra, was famously quoted as answering a question of whether he had ever conducted any Stockhausen by saying, "No, but I believe I once trod in some."

Stockhausen sparked controversy in 2001 when he described the Sept. 11 attack on the United States as "the greatest work of art one can imagine."
]]> [Sigur Rós] Give The Green Finger Hoppípolla (US Polotics) http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2007/11/15/t0k_%5Bsigur_r%C3%B3s%5D_give_the_green_finger_hopp%C3%ADpolla_%28us_polotics%29 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:08:23 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2007/11/15/t0k_%5Bsigur_r%C3%B3s%5D_give_the_green_finger_hopp%C3%ADpolla_%28us_polotics%29 I just discovered a great looking new movement - called The Green Finger - it seems to be exploding all over the Web, so this one, featuring Hoppípolla, not the only video for it.

I'm not sure that Sigur Rós or EMI have approved this usage, if not, I honestly hope they will - this could be monumentaly important!
If you're not aware of the movement - especially if you vote in the United States - please take 60 seconds to watch this - Best, Ian My.Mashable.com/Scrawl

]]> [Direct Cinema] BBC Radio 4's Rockumentary Documentary http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2007/11/13/t0j_%5Bdirect_cinema%5D_bbc_radio_4%27s_rockumentary_documentary Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:48:28 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/IanAR/journal/2007/11/13/t0j_%5Bdirect_cinema%5D_bbc_radio_4%27s_rockumentary_documentary
Another great BBC Radio 4 reco' from Ali of Furniture Farm ...
BBC - Radio 4 - Factual - Rockumentary Rollercoaster said:
Andrew Collins explores the world of the rockumentary. With its outlandish characters, bizarre situations and concert footage, the rock world is fertile ground to the documentary film maker.

Contributors include D A Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, Susan Steinberg, Julien Temple, Ondi Timoner, Bob Smeaton and Joe Berlinger.
In brief, starting in 1965 London - with Subterranean Homesick Blues - this charts the history of the direct cinema style of rockumentary, featuring: Bob Dylan/Dont Look Back, The Rutles/Eric Idle (and some copycat outfit called The Beatles), Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Monterey Pop Festival 1967, Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Spinal Tap/This Is Spinal Tap, The Rolling Stones/Gimme Shelter/Cocksucker Blues/Charlie Is My Darling, David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars, Woodstock, Talking Heads/David Byrne/Stop Making Sense, Sex Pistols/Malcolm McLaren/The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle/The Filth and The Fury, The Dandy Warhols/The Brian Jonestown Massacre/DiG!, Metallica/Some Kind of Monster and others.

All very interesting, in this age of YouTube and mobile phone video! Dave Clark Five and Madonna/Truth or Dare (aka In Bed with Madonna) are cited, in antithesis of the style, also Lily Allen, which seems odd (considering her MySpace history).

I plan to flesh this out later. I'm slapping this up quickly so y'all have a chance to catch the show, on-line (streamable for only a week, 'til 20 Nov 07, I think). Have fun! :) Ian BBC Radio 4

Digg this, please!
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