RDK

Happy Birthday!

Hell, I've been listening to jazz for nearly thirty years now and I still don't pretend to know shit about it! Okay....well good luck with that. Well I just started reading Kart's book, so in about a week I should know as much as Larry...

Hell, I've been listening to jazz for nearly thirty years now and I still don't pretend to know shit about it!

I would normally have a perfect view of this (7 pm west coast time) from my living room window, but wouldn't you know it the skies are dark with rain clouds.

Great pop songwriter. Haven't listed to the ol' LPs in a long while, but Basher is never far from my CD player.

Damn. I thought there was a Mosaic set that I missed.

Gotsta keep up with the young folks' lingo dontcha know.

Just as Dave trounces Jay, Craig beats Conan afaic. He's seriously funny and hilariously serious, as evident in his past monologues about his own alcoholism and, more recently, about his becoming a U.S. citizen. Very moving monologue about the whole Britney thing last summer. Must be a youtube link somewhere... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bbaRyDLMvA A year ago - longer ago than I thought.

Oh snap. I was just listening to some Hirt last night. Don't ask...

Don't know if the post is still there, but Buddy Defranco has/had a website and forum and somebody once asked him about the set of his music that Mosaic released. Mosaic. And Defranco claimed that he never saw a cent of royalties from that.

Recent piece from the L.A. Times... ArtistShare makes fans a part of the inner circle A backstage pass? ArtistShare can top that. How does an executive producer credit sound? It can be yours, for a price of course. By Don Heckman, Special to The Times February 10, 2008 YOU say it's not possible to win a jazz Grammy with an album that isn't out in stores, at the listening posts or available on Amazon? Think again. Composer and bandleader Maria Schneider did it in 2005 with "Concert in the Garden," as did Billy Childs in 2006 and Brian Lynch and Eddie Palmieri in 2007 -- all on the ArtistShare label. And Schneider has two more nominations this year for "Sky Blue," also on ArtistShare. "I was the first artist on ArtistShare," says the New York-based musician. "Kind of the guinea pig. But it obviously worked well for me, and I got in on the ground floor with this new record business model. And, now, here I am again, heading out to the Grammys." "Sky Blue" is a worthy entrant. Schneider's compositions for her 17-piece ensemble -- especially the Grammy-nominated suite, "Cerulean Skies," with its atmospheric mixture of simulated birdcalls and flowing jazz rhythms -- are cutting-edge displays of 21st century big band jazz. The CD, filled with her trademark flowing instrumental textures, occasionally tinged with world music references and snippets of electronica, has been on most of the major, year-end best-of lists. ArtistShare is an apt name for a company that enabled the production and sale of recordings via a partnership between performing artists and their fans. "Our mission statement is very simple," explains Chief Executive Brian Camelio, who founded ArtistShare in 2001. "It's to develop relationships with fans, and make the biggest return we can for the artists. The fundamental premise is that music's true values are based upon the individual creativity and the unique process that each artist brings to a recording." ArtistShare offers levels of participation in the entire process of imagining and creating a recording -- a significant step away from the pay-by-the-item of the contemporary music marketplace. ArtistShare projects are announced on both the company and the artists' websites at a series of participation levels, each offering a range of perks that escalate as the price rises. "Sky Blue," for example, lists levels reaching from "Participant" at $9.95 to "Executive Producer Participant" at $18,000. The $9.95 folks receive a package that includes a downloaded copy of the album, a downloadable MP3 of a never-released Schneider composition and all of the notes relating to the "Sky Blue" recording experience. The $18,000 executive producer -- which is limited to one participant -- gets, among other things, a credit listing as executive producer on the "Sky Blue" album; an invitation to a recording session; VIP access for a year to the Schneider Orchestra's performances; an inscribed copy of the limited edition "Sky Blue" CD; and monthly "Sky Blue" video updates. The executive producer participant for "Sky Blue" was claimed by Johnny Koerber, a longtime jazz fan who works in investments in Connecticut. "I've always loved jazz, and always thought it would be fun to commission a piece of music," he says. "After I bought Maria's previous album, I got an e-mail asking if I'd like to participate in the new one. I thought, 'Why not?' so I clicked on my computer and e-mailed my interest. Within 10 minutes I had an e-mail back from Maria. "I thought I was just doing it to support an artist . . . but the welcome I received was something I'd never imagined, which speaks volumes for Maria and the organization." And that wasn't all. The final perk for Koerber was the opportunity to attend the Grammy ceremony with Schneider and Camelio. "It makes the whole thing so personal," she says. "When you make a record this way, you feel as though you have this whole family who's in your court. It puts the pressure on in a kind of scary way, but in another way it's kind of good. Because you don't want to let anybody down, and when you see people preordering and some coming in at a higher level, it's kind of like wind in your sails, and you're like, 'Come on, I can't let these people down.' " In addition to the personal gratification, Schneider's "Sky Blue" ArtistShare project has generated nearly $200,000 from the participants, with 15% going to the company, the balance (about $170,000) to her. Contrast that with a commercial recording she made before her association with ArtistShare. "It cost me $30,000 and the record company bought it for $10,000. It earned another $7,000 in royalties, but I was still out $13,000, and I'd given up half my publishing. "With ArtistShare, I can see everything, I know exactly what's going on, and the money is going directly into the music. I wonder how much pop artists -- who have tons of fans who want to see every little thing behind the scenes -- would make if they did a recording with this model." The company has about 100 artists on its roster, according to Camelio, who expects to reach the $1-million sales mark this year. Moving in other directions, ArtistShare is also offering participation in a book project, and FashionShare and FilmShare are on the horizon. The association with ArtistShare has enabled Schneider to compose and record music for a 17-piece ensemble, find an involved audience that offers both enthusiasm and financial support, and -- as a little icing on the cake -- win a few Grammys. "I can't even imagine going back to the sterile, old way of doing recordings after all of this." http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/gram...665,print.story

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - G.B. Shaw

Well, that's hardly fair now, is it? They purposely pick contestants who are dumber than fifth graders. Plus, she's blonde.

It's up to your individual ethics and moral compass I guess. Illegal copying contributes to a negative spiral - it results in fewer sales of music, and is helping to destroy the industry. Labels shut down, get bought out and shuttered, inventory ends up in some storage facility in some mountain somewhere, never to be seen again, and people lose their jobs. Availability of music dwindles, and artists lose established avenues to provide us music. Not sure if I agree with all of this. Yes, there are repercussions due to illegal downloading, but there are many other factors as well (imo greater) contributing to the decline in record sales. Since the rise in digital distribution (legal or otherwise), I'd argue that the availability of music (especially the rare and oop stuff) has increased dramatically. And artists (especially jazz artists and the smaller markets) have far more avenues of exposure than they did before. It's not "destroying" the industry; it's changing it.

Why, is the Rocket now illegally burning CDs too?

Sure it will - it will increase it tremendously. Or at least it will turn the p.d. stuff that's now being legally sold/traded into stuff that's illegaly sold/traded.

Chuck Dickens, iirc. And I believe it's "The law is a ass," as awkward as that sounds (but i believe there's an explanation for that too). As for the rest of your post:

Buying a music CD means buying the rights to use the music contained therein and not just buying the actual disc. You can make copies of the music to various formats for your own personal use as long as you own those rights. By selling the CD, you also sell those rights and every other copy that you keep becomes illegal. When you buy digital downloads, you only buy the rights to use those files. You are not allowed to sell those rights or the file. It's all in the iTunes small print. It's all quite simple really. From a legal perspective you may be right: if you buy only copyrights with downloading it might be fine, though I still have some doubt: if your hard disk crashed, you should pay again the copyright or suppose that your back up stood fover, will your heirs have it as heritage? Is there any expiry date of copyright for personal use in legal downloading? And if your heirs want to share the inheritance and you have all your cds and a legit back up, what's about copyrights? All this is a paradox, but IMO show the holes and failure of these kind of laws. Heh. Good points. If I buy emusic or iTunes tracks and burn them to CD to listen to in the car (or whatever, which is my legal right to do for personal use) and then die, do my heirs get to play those mp3s or burned CDRs? And if you consider them inheritable proprety, why can't they be passed on/sold to someone else while one is still alive? Yeah, some of this is silly conjecture and ethical mind games, but these are all serious questions that need to be considered as we, as a society, move toward a digital future and sound recordings become increasingly less confined by a physical medium. Even now, personally, I still value the object and tend to consider mp3s and CDRs relatively "worthless." I think a lot of us do, but that's a mindset that is rapidly changing.

I agree it's a stupid thing to do, but I thought i explained above why people would do it. After you've ripped the music, the CDs are expendable, they take up a lot of room, and one can sell them. The physical object is essentially junk at that point. You can either store the discs in the garage or make some money selling them. Most of us here are collectors who appreciate the artwork, notes, and physical object that goes along with the music. But for many others (and I'm loathe to use the term "younger generation"), the physical CD holds little meaning. It simply takes up space. Honestly, I have a harder time understanding why someone who would rip all their music to digital would want to keep their CDs in storage. I thought for a brief moment of ripping at least some of my collection to mp3, but then realized it wasn't worth the bother. I have scads of LPS and CDs, but I also have thousands of mp3 tracks (mostly emusic stuff) already and there's no reason I need to duplicate them on multiple formats. In the car I can play CDs; at work, CDs or mp3s; at home, any of the above.

Any more details on this box? Are they all "one track discs" (how annoying!) and is there much repetition between sets? I still can't find any setlist anywhere on line.

Buying a music CD means buying the rights to use the music contained therein and not just buying the actual disc. You can make copies of the music to various formats for your own personal use as long as you own those rights. By selling the CD, you also sell those rights and every other copy that you keep becomes illegal. When you buy digital downloads, you only buy the rights to use those files. You are not allowed to sell those rights or the file. It's all in the iTunes small print. It's all quite simple really. Personally, I wouldn't base any moral, ethical, or legal obligations re: downloadable music on iTunes' "small print." But the fact that one can't (easily) burn to disc, transfer, and/or resell (hey, I'm paying for them) iTunes files is one reason I stay away from iTunes as much as possible, prefer emusic by a wide margin, and would still rather own the physical CD or LP.

Hey, in America, it was only extended to protect the MOUSE, so it only makes sense that they'd do it in the EU to protect the Fab Four. BTW, I've been telling people that this was going to happen at exactly this time for exactly this reason. This should not surprise anyone. Money always talks. But money can't buy me love. Maybe not, but it's what I want.

Brain teaser #37 (collect them all!): So I buy a used CD and later resell it. Okay. So I buy an album from iTunes - legally paying for it - and then burn it to disc for my listening pleasure. Can I later resell this (legally purchased) copy? Does it make a difference if I delete the original iTunes files? Artists have been paid, there's still only one copy out there. Hmmm....

I got most of those 128k files quite recently, so it seems in many cases they just haven't bothered to upgrade those files. Knowing that it can take them over a year to replace a faulty mp3 with a flawless one I'm not surprised. Going back to the original discussion, I don't have a problem with mp3s and iPods myself - I actually use both quite extensively. It's the selling and STILL USING of music that I have a problem with. The only ones that emusic still have at 128kbs should be clearly labeled as such (and there aren't many). Everything else has been upgraded to VBR. Depending on what program/device you're using for playback, they might report the VBR files inconsistently - but they still sound much better than they did in the early years (5-6 years ago now).

While I don't aprove of the practice I can certainly understand the mentality behind it. Say one has 500 CDs - a good bookshelves' worth - and you rip them all and find yourself listening to your iPod far more than your CD player. What do you do with the physical discs? Yeah, the collector in us tells us to keep them, and ethically (legally?) we're required to as well... but practically, the discs take up a lot of space for something you're never gonna use again and you can get good money for what you now consider nothing more than junk... Does the rule also apply to 20 to 50-year old LPs that I've bought new or second hand over the years and now want to burn to CD so that i can get rid of the albums and clear out my basement?