Links and Thoughts 13: 22 May 2014
Pentatonix – Love Again
Good Morning.
[It’s an open secret that I’m a big fan of Pentatonix – here’s a little something I put together for myself, if you need an introduction (2hrs40min) – yes, there is some cheese in there, but the music is worth trudging through the reality show framing]
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I need a good tag for sociology and urban studies:
“Just a few miles from my house, right across the Maryland border from Washington, DC, sits a partially restored old amusement park dating from the Art Deco era. The old carousel still runs in season and delights kids; you can still buy cotton candy there. But it’s not really an amusement park today – there’s no roller coaster, and the old bumper car pavilion is now an occasionally used music hall. It is certainly unlike any amusement park I ever knew.
“Instead, today it exists as a place of respite for adults and of play for kids, and as an evocation of an amusement facility rather than a fully-functioning real one. It challenges visitors to bring our imaginations with us and meet it halfway, as a partial expression of the past and of a culture that no longer exists in the same way.”
Older buildings, continuity of place, and the human experience : Better! Cities & Towns
Media:
Want better online comments? Moderate, moderate, moderate, moderate : Nieman Journalism Lab
Music:
“Compositions have been protected by US federal copyright laws since the 1800′s. Sound recordings only became protected in 1972, around the time that technology—notably, good-quality cassette tapes—made it possible to bootleg music at scale. But this change was never applied retroactively, so recordings made before 1972 aren’t protected.
“That wasn’t an issue up until relatively recently, because there wasn’t much money in these old recordings. Terrestrial radio stations don’t pay royalties on sound recordings, from before 1972 or after; they only pay composition royalties (i.e., to publishers and songwriters).
“But under a federal law passed in 1995, digital music services—such as Pandora and Spotify, as well as digital radio like Sirius XM—do pay sound recording royalties. In fact they’re Pandora Media’s single biggest cost.”
The future of digital music may hinge on Elvis : Quartz
see also: “a dispute that is four decades in the making” – Record Labels Seek to Punish SiriusXM Over Pre-1972 Music : Hollywood, Esq. @ The Hollywood Reporter
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Today’s Book Recommendation is The Death & Life of the Music Industry in the Digital Age by Jim Rogers. The most interesting assertion of the book is that independent record stores weren’t killed by the internet, but rather by price predation by Wal-mart and the like: a $5 CD hurts more than a digital-single download, because people who buy just the single and the market for Albums were and are different. Once the idea that a CD only costs $5-10 took root, the economics for record stores collapsed. If you want a counter to the usual drumbeat of music-internet-nonsense (or at least, a different point of view) Roger’s book is worth checking out. The link above is to a book review — I’m sure you can find places to buy it.
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Diary entry for 22 May:
If patterns held, I would take the music links above and take this opportunity to start riffing about digital music, or the byzantine nature copyright laws. Either topic is too big to tackle in my three-paragraphs-and-a-snark format, so I’ll let it rest.
Too many projects demand my attention. It’s back to work. —M.
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