The Costanza » Apple

The end of MP3

Tory Regan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:03:44 +0000

Yet another way to obtain cheap music is soon to be released.
A new application for Iphones by music retailer Lala allows users to buy the right to stream songs from a digital locker forever for just 10 cents each.
From what I can gather, songs load and play fast but in not so amazing quality. You don’t have to download anything because the song just plays automatically instead of having to wait 2 minutes for Itunes downloads.

The application is free so it’s likely going to be popular.

The peoples’ choice

Tory Regan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:56:34 +0000

Image from poker-for-me.com

Lady Gaga’s awful song Poker Face has just become the most downloaded song in the UK ever.
This is not an opinion blog and this will not be an opinion piece. I don’t like Lady Gaga but a lot of people do, obviously. Apparantly, this song, which I do not like has had 779,000 downloads in the past year.

If you’re interested, Kings of Leon also rate highly, with Sex On Fire being second most downloaded song in the UK ever. So I don’t doubt the Brits’ music taste because Kings of Leon rate very highly in my books aswell.

Meanwhile, the most downloaded song in Itunes history? Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey according to Edible Apple.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the best selling album of all time. This makes me think about the differences of downloading compared to the buying of albums.

Are artists who make best selling albums only becoming best sellers because the people of that generation didn’t download music?
Sure, Lady Gaga has a most downloaded single but how many people have bothered to download or even more rare, buy her whole album?

In the list of best sellers, ACDC, Meatloaf, Pink Floyd and The Eagles also rate highly. The latter 3 are favourites of mine so I do see why these albums have sold a lot. Plus, it’s all music of my parents generation which I, along with most teenagers, was brought up on.

It’s hard to say which accomplishment means more in this day and age, being a top download or being a top record seller. Consider it.

Tory.

They believed the lie

Tory Regan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:44:33 +0000

Over the last few years we have been made to believe the lie that our music piracy is making musicians poor and corrupting the world. But on the 18th of June, just 4 days ago, it was announced that in fact our music piracy is benefitting the world!

Basically, this article from the UK says that some guys from some well thought of US universities are publishing a paper which asserts the benefits of internet piracy.
In my last blog I covered a few of the many reasons why people would want to pirate music. Obviously there are a lot more reasons, both good and bad.

Reading some of these articles makes me realise why I’m a journalist. I have to put these big words and big ideas into little bitesize pieces so that it’s understandable for anyone to read. Right now, I need someone else to put all this complication into bitesize pieces for me!

The basic jist of this article so far seems to be that economists say that the point of copyright, which stops piracy, is so that artists are able to make money off their product, ie: their music.
Their study shows that while a ‘business model’ may be destroyed by the technology of file sharing, artists will still produce new work.

An example of this according to them is that if music becomes free, people may have to pay more to see an artist perform live so that the musician still makes some cash.
I don’t know about you but I’d be happy to pay almost any amount of money to see the bands I love perform live.
My understanding has always been that artists make like 10c off every CD and make most of their money from performing live. Although I’m not sure how true that is but it sounds like if that is true, not much is really changing.

Left to right: Bob Bryar (drums), Frank Iero (guitar), Gerard Way (vocals), Mikey Way(bass), Ray Toro (guitar)

The next point is interesting. What about bands who don’t like live performances? I can see how stressful performing live could be and I personally understand why not every musician would want to follow in the footsteps of a band such as My Chemical Romance who performed live for 3 years straight (I think).

As much as I love this band and was glad they were touring a lot (therefore coming to New Zealand a few times), I do wonder how much of a toll 3 years of touring would take on a person’s mental health aswell as physical health.

Electronic devices such as Ipods and MP3 players have recieved a boost in sales because of ‘file sharing’ and music piracy. I guess this is because people put music from CD’s onto their computers so they can listen to it anywhere they like rather than just where there is a CD player.

Gone are the days of CD Walkman’s where you needed a physical disc to play your music. You can get music files straight from your computer to your ears now.

Physical album sales have fallen which is predictable. However, more albums are being created than ever! This means that music piracy and file sharing have not affected the quantity of music being created even if it’s not being sold in the conventional ways. An interesting point to me is that there has been no research into the quality of the music being released. There may be more of it but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily better than CD’s.

The whole paper by the economists can be found here. If you think you can make sense of it.

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” – John F Kennedy.

Tory.

Picture: My Chemical Romance from Quizilla.