What you all are missing here is that the album is a concept album "inspired by the film American Gangster." Apparently it is meant to be listened to start-to-finish, theoretically in one sitting, like a film, or seeing Jay-Z's ego, an opera. The tracks are inspired by scenes in the movie, apparently, and it's a pretty good album from what my friends say, although it sounds exceedingly pretentious.
I support this because he is an artist and I respect his desire for creative freedom. It's annoying, yes, but wait, judging by your responses, how many of you were going to buy it anyway?
It's fine if Jobs, a CEO, wants to smack around another CEO, however he ought to tread more lightly with the content producers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strask
Nice comments. A film is a good comparison. One wouldn't expect to be able to buy select scenes. You buy the movie. Its the same with audio books. You don't by chapters 2, 5, and 9: you buy the book. Not every album falls into the category of concept album but if that's what he's done then good for him.
As long as he doesn't let just one song be played on the radio, or make a video of just one song... you can't say that it's a whole or none and then go and release bits of it.
But, I'm sure we will be bombarded with the first single on the air and Mtv/BET.
It's all about the money/publicity. He's great at what he does (most of the time), but not 100%. I'm sure there are movements on the album that are weaker than other parts.
Gangsta my butt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by quinney
On the other hand, each song has a separate copyright, and may be
considered a separate entity.
You can copyright the album too. That's actually how you save money on copyrights... you end up filing just two forms instead of a form for each song, and you get the same protection.
This is fact and has always been. If you look back over the years this used to be a common problem with ALL "Grey Market" goods sold here. Sony grey market consumer electronics items (when Sony used to be king of the hill) were alway cheaper here and there was a market for these "illegal" items because they were much cheaper... The company always refused support for non American authorized versions. That's about all they could do to discourage buying grey market goods. They coukld also sanction dealers who sold it - but no more than that.
The iPhone is not contraband nor is it a weapon. Anyone is free to purchase it anywhere. Authorities are only concerned with standards concurence and have no right to confiscate or fine anyone usin them. Heck you could even bring your American left hand drive car over to th UK and drive it there (despite the Brits driving on the opposit side of the street) if you wanted - this is fact.
Concerning cars, you're probably right. With everything concerning the CE discussion: sorry, but you're wrong. The applicable law is the "Gesetz über Funkanlagen und Telekommunikationsendeinrichtungen (FTEG)" in Germany. Under § 11 it says:
§ 11 Inbetriebnahme und Anschlussrecht
(1) Geräte dürfen nur dann zu ihrem bestimmungsgemäßen Zweck in Betrieb genommen
werden, wenn sie die grundlegenden Anforderungen erfüllen und mit dem CE-Kennzeichen
versehen sind. Sie müssen den übrigen Vorschriften dieses Gesetzes entsprechen.
Translated that means: "You're only allowed to use devices that fulfill the basic requirements AND BEAR THE CE MARK.." The paragraph concerning the sale of these devices is § 10. You can purchase it, but you can't use it - period -
That's just the way it is (in Germany and the other EU countries)!
I like Jay Z. Too bad he doesn't realize all of his songs aren't good. I only want some of them. Radiohead can go scratch too. I like a LOT of their stuff, but not all of it. Pink Floyd should be listened to cover to cover, but I wouldn't go ahead and say Money shouldn't have been released as a single.
How about everyone stop messing around and allow a consumer to make the choice to buy something they want, instead of jamming shit they don't want down their throats?
No wonder BitTorrent is so active. If someone just wants one song off one album, they have somewhere they can get it for free. And that might not be a great, legal solution--but it should send a flag up to the big-head, huge-wallet CEO's everywhere that there is demand they are deliberately side-stepping. \
I have little interest in Jay-Z but he obviously worked very hard on this album and is proud of it and wants it consumed as a whole. so those consumers who are interested in doing that can decide to buy the album. Those that aren't can decide not to.
Jay-Z is out there working and creating. Cut him some slack. When one is creating an album of songs there is material that works in context, that doesn't necessarily stand out on it's own but improves the overall experience. If you are working on an album of interconnected material you will write differently than you will if you are simply putting together the minimum number of songs required to fill out a CD. Maybe when you've created something other than a snarky blog post you will understand.
And thanks for including the obligatory excuse for illegal downloading. If you want to steal music, go ahead. But don't try to justify it with your dislike of some CEO or your disagreement with an artist who doesn't want to sell his latest work a la carte. Stealing music is not a lesson you are teaching anybody and its not some great moral or political statement. It's just stealing.
Yes I have. I was originally going to call him a "f*cking idiot".
Should I just have called him "stupid", the word he used to call Jay Z in his original post?
You don't seem to have an issue with insulting people that aren't here to defend themselves. I do, especially when the one doing the insulting has no idea what he/she is talking about.
Do you really think Jay Z is unfamiliar with the editing process? That every second of music that he records in the studio ends up on the CD?
You can't compare songs to movies. Movies are to theaters what tunes are to radio. So unless Jay-Z bans radio play of his tunes UNLESS they play it from start to finish without interruption, he is a jack ass. Something tells he will let the radio play go ahead, Jack ass. I have a policy, on iTunes, I buy it, not on iTunes, I steal it. Owners of content, you do what you want.
Jay-Z certainly has no obligation to the customer but it is his fans who have made him fabulously wealthy and famous. He owes them something. And he has given them a choice. I guess it's to the torrents for many of them.
And while opera composers might be upset with their works being used outside of the body of the complete work--and they would be S O L because it's all in public domain by now--the reality is that many individual songs take on a far greater significance outside of the piece they originally a part of. As an example, how many people who love "Nessun Dorma" have heard another single note of Turadot? I would guess most.
Jay-Z can do whatever he wishes with his music but my guess is when sales slow down he will have a change of heart, make individual songs available and look the keep the cash register ringing.
I'm not saying that this move is a great idea for sales or is not extremely egotistical, but your argument is flawed.
1: Just because we do something already doesn't mean it's the best way to do something, or that we have to keep doing it. Artists own copyrights, and can choose to limit the works, if they think that the piece works better as a whole. Sure, the concert hall scene has traditionally done it, and some pieces do work outside of context. Puccini's music is different from Wagner's and it's different from Adams even more.
But taking this away from opera, since it's not a little bit different, other pop and rock musicians have tried concept albums, and they are better understood together. Think of The Wall for example, or yes, a YES album. This is a fringe issue in New Media, but it is a sign of how digital downloading has changed whether you buy albums or tracks.
2: Jay-Z owes his fans something, but it's quality, not freedom. He owes them good performances and "product," not buying choices. Fans like him for what he produces, and it's simply fanboyish to assume that what you like is what an artist should always produce.
As far as I see there is one bug that can make you lose files and that only happens if you are moving a file from one drive to another and you disconnect one of the drives..... WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT????
Oh, I don't know, maybe because UNIX implements the "mv" feature. The real question is why would Apple implement a UNIX feature which would cause you to lose data?
As long as he doesn't let just one song be played on the radio, or make a video of just one song... you can't say that it's a whole or none and then go and release bits of it.
But, I'm sure we will be bombarded with the first single on the air and Mtv/BET.
It's all about the money/publicity. He's great at what he does (most of the time), but not 100%. I'm sure there are movements on the album that are weaker than other parts.
Gangsta my butt.
You can copyright the album too. That's actually how you save money on copyrights... you end up filing just two forms instead of a form for each song, and you get the same protection.
Why? why do you make the rules? Playing a song on the radio is different than what you sell for people to go home and listen to. He wants to sell the thing he made in the way that he wants to sell it. What is the BFD? If Apple wants to sell its operating system for its computers only isn't that OK? It's not like he made some ad hominem attack on our precious iTunes. He doesn't want to release one album on iTunes because he wants to sell it as a whole. If you don't like it, don't buy it.
As long as he doesn't let just one song be played on the radio, or make a video of just one song... you can't say that it's a whole or none and then go and release bits of it.
But, I'm sure we will be bombarded with the first single on the air and Mtv/BET.
It's all about the money/publicity. He's great at what he does (most of the time), but not 100%. I'm sure there are movements on the album that are weaker than other parts.
Gangsta my butt.
You can copyright the album too. That's actually how you save money on copyrights... you end up filing just two forms instead of a form for each song, and you get the same protection.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BushHater
You can't compare songs to movies. Movies are to theaters what tunes are to radio. So unless Jay-Z bans radio play of his tunes UNLESS they play it from start to finish without interruption, he is a jack ass. Something tells he will let the radio play go ahead, Jack ass. I have a policy, on iTunes, I buy it, not on iTunes, I steal it. Owners of content, you do what you want.
He's a Jack-ASS????? What is your damage? If its not on iTunes you steal it? This is a motto you are proud of? Grow up.
Honest about what? His lack of moral character? his bizarre allegiance to Apple? I don't understand the "if it's not on iTunes I steal it" mentality. Please explain why it is a justifiable position to hold.
You can't compare songs to movies. Movies are to theaters what tunes are to radio. So unless Jay-Z bans radio play of his tunes UNLESS they play it from start to finish without interruption, he is a jack ass. Something tells he will let the radio play go ahead, Jack ass. I have a policy, on iTunes, I buy it, not on iTunes, I steal it. Owners of content, you do what you want.
His idea only holds water if every Album/Disc were one continuous theme, ala concept discs. Otherwise, he can take his greedy ass elsewhere.
Honest about what? His lack of moral character? his bizarre allegiance to Apple? I don't understand the "if it's not on iTunes I steal it" mentality. Please explain why it is a justifiable position to hold.
Because some morons need a BS excuse to justify stealing? Is that a good enough explanation?
In a statement provided to the press this week and reported by Ars Technica, the musician known legally as Shawn Carter describes the concept of per-song downloads as illogical.
Because he knows he sucks. All it says to me is, like so many other musicians, he doesn't have a full CD of good music. Maybe a catchy single or two and the rest it's all a bunch of filler to complete the disk. He's betting on the sucker dollar. About 84 thousand CD's to reach a million dollars spent from people buying at $12 a pop. If he sells at 99¢ he actually needs a million people that think he's good to reach that much. He sucks, and he's standing up declaring it. My CD sucks! There isn't a million people that are going to think that I'm good, and I know it.
go to hell, you stinking microsoft astroturfing idiot.
Sorry, I meant that for another site altogether.
Anyway - Jay-z - whoever he is, is wrong. Most movies would be MUCH improved if we only watched select bits of them. Just like music and books, they suffer from the bloated imaginations of the writers and performers, suffering as they do from the classic 'legend-in-his-own-lunchtime' syndrome.
I strongly recommend PIRACY as a way to force the music book and film crowd to try quality instead of quantity.
Of course there are problems:
There is only one script for movies - known as 'Boy meets Girl', it has variations, but only on that theme.
In music, we have exhausted all the chord and note combinations long ago, and we are now in the age of the Grand Ripoff, where everything sounds like something you have heard before.
Books - same problem as movies, unfortunately.
In fact, downloading movies and music is a big mistake, because as Bob Dylan said recently - 'of course they steal music, it aint worth anything!'
I recommend stealing money or gold - much more value than the piles of crap that Jay-z and his ilk churn out.
If iTunes does not have the track, I travel the world in my invisible stealth 747 until I find the track in an illegal late-night chinese street market, and then my troops destroy an area equivalent to the radius of a CD multiplied by 0.035, using tiny napalm devices, no bigger than the width of a human hair.
Grow up, I say, and stop all this stealing of music that doesn't exist except as a computer file. Its not real!
Give me a large shiny Trombone, and then we will have music you can touch and feel. Enough of your magical computer files and their insane virtuality, Tarquin!
Let us dance Lady Eleanor, to the braying trumpeting row of the Sackbutt and other distasteful noises that will one day be recorded and endlessly repeated on futuristic devices. Until they do, my Lady, we shall sing the live-long day, our brows garlanded with flowers and our clothes all of Lincoln Green.
To the forest!
The Sheriff and his men will be here presently, their crossbows at the ready, the bolts tipped with deadly poison, their fish-like faces grimacing and growling in the soft Autumnal sunshine.
Comments
What you all are missing here is that the album is a concept album "inspired by the film American Gangster." Apparently it is meant to be listened to start-to-finish, theoretically in one sitting, like a film, or seeing Jay-Z's ego, an opera. The tracks are inspired by scenes in the movie, apparently, and it's a pretty good album from what my friends say, although it sounds exceedingly pretentious.
I support this because he is an artist and I respect his desire for creative freedom. It's annoying, yes, but wait, judging by your responses, how many of you were going to buy it anyway?
It's fine if Jobs, a CEO, wants to smack around another CEO, however he ought to tread more lightly with the content producers.
Nice comments. A film is a good comparison. One wouldn't expect to be able to buy select scenes. You buy the movie. Its the same with audio books. You don't by chapters 2, 5, and 9: you buy the book. Not every album falls into the category of concept album but if that's what he's done then good for him.
As long as he doesn't let just one song be played on the radio, or make a video of just one song... you can't say that it's a whole or none and then go and release bits of it.
But, I'm sure we will be bombarded with the first single on the air and Mtv/BET.
It's all about the money/publicity. He's great at what he does (most of the time), but not 100%. I'm sure there are movements on the album that are weaker than other parts.
Gangsta my butt.
On the other hand, each song has a separate copyright, and may be
considered a separate entity.
You can copyright the album too. That's actually how you save money on copyrights... you end up filing just two forms instead of a form for each song, and you get the same protection.
This is fact and has always been. If you look back over the years this used to be a common problem with ALL "Grey Market" goods sold here. Sony grey market consumer electronics items (when Sony used to be king of the hill) were alway cheaper here and there was a market for these "illegal" items because they were much cheaper... The company always refused support for non American authorized versions. That's about all they could do to discourage buying grey market goods. They coukld also sanction dealers who sold it - but no more than that.
The iPhone is not contraband nor is it a weapon. Anyone is free to purchase it anywhere. Authorities are only concerned with standards concurence and have no right to confiscate or fine anyone usin them. Heck you could even bring your American left hand drive car over to th UK and drive it there (despite the Brits driving on the opposit side of the street) if you wanted - this is fact.
Concerning cars, you're probably right. With everything concerning the CE discussion: sorry, but you're wrong. The applicable law is the "Gesetz über Funkanlagen und Telekommunikationsendeinrichtungen (FTEG)" in Germany. Under § 11 it says:
§ 11 Inbetriebnahme und Anschlussrecht
(1) Geräte dürfen nur dann zu ihrem bestimmungsgemäßen Zweck in Betrieb genommen
werden, wenn sie die grundlegenden Anforderungen erfüllen und mit dem CE-Kennzeichen
versehen sind. Sie müssen den übrigen Vorschriften dieses Gesetzes entsprechen.
Translated that means: "You're only allowed to use devices that fulfill the basic requirements AND BEAR THE CE MARK.." The paragraph concerning the sale of these devices is § 10. You can purchase it, but you can't use it - period -
That's just the way it is (in Germany and the other EU countries)!
I like Jay Z. Too bad he doesn't realize all of his songs aren't good. I only want some of them. Radiohead can go scratch too. I like a LOT of their stuff, but not all of it. Pink Floyd should be listened to cover to cover, but I wouldn't go ahead and say Money shouldn't have been released as a single.
How about everyone stop messing around and allow a consumer to make the choice to buy something they want, instead of jamming shit they don't want down their throats?
No wonder BitTorrent is so active. If someone just wants one song off one album, they have somewhere they can get it for free. And that might not be a great, legal solution--but it should send a flag up to the big-head, huge-wallet CEO's everywhere that there is demand they are deliberately side-stepping.
I have little interest in Jay-Z but he obviously worked very hard on this album and is proud of it and wants it consumed as a whole. so those consumers who are interested in doing that can decide to buy the album. Those that aren't can decide not to.
Jay-Z is out there working and creating. Cut him some slack. When one is creating an album of songs there is material that works in context, that doesn't necessarily stand out on it's own but improves the overall experience. If you are working on an album of interconnected material you will write differently than you will if you are simply putting together the minimum number of songs required to fill out a CD. Maybe when you've created something other than a snarky blog post you will understand.
And thanks for including the obligatory excuse for illegal downloading. If you want to steal music, go ahead. But don't try to justify it with your dislike of some CEO or your disagreement with an artist who doesn't want to sell his latest work a la carte. Stealing music is not a lesson you are teaching anybody and its not some great moral or political statement. It's just stealing.
Have you read the posting guidelines recently?
Yes I have. I was originally going to call him a "f*cking idiot".
Should I just have called him "stupid", the word he used to call Jay Z in his original post?
You don't seem to have an issue with insulting people that aren't here to defend themselves. I do, especially when the one doing the insulting has no idea what he/she is talking about.
Do you really think Jay Z is unfamiliar with the editing process? That every second of music that he records in the studio ends up on the CD?
Jay-Z describes the concept of per-song downloads as illogical.
"As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles," Jay-Z says.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
You can't compare songs to movies. Movies are to theaters what tunes are to radio. So unless Jay-Z bans radio play of his tunes UNLESS they play it from start to finish without interruption, he is a jack ass. Something tells he will let the radio play go ahead, Jack ass. I have a policy, on iTunes, I buy it, not on iTunes, I steal it. Owners of content, you do what you want.
Jay-Z certainly has no obligation to the customer but it is his fans who have made him fabulously wealthy and famous. He owes them something. And he has given them a choice. I guess it's to the torrents for many of them.
And while opera composers might be upset with their works being used outside of the body of the complete work--and they would be S O L because it's all in public domain by now--the reality is that many individual songs take on a far greater significance outside of the piece they originally a part of. As an example, how many people who love "Nessun Dorma" have heard another single note of Turadot? I would guess most.
Jay-Z can do whatever he wishes with his music but my guess is when sales slow down he will have a change of heart, make individual songs available and look the keep the cash register ringing.
I'm not saying that this move is a great idea for sales or is not extremely egotistical, but your argument is flawed.
1: Just because we do something already doesn't mean it's the best way to do something, or that we have to keep doing it. Artists own copyrights, and can choose to limit the works, if they think that the piece works better as a whole. Sure, the concert hall scene has traditionally done it, and some pieces do work outside of context. Puccini's music is different from Wagner's and it's different from Adams even more.
But taking this away from opera, since it's not a little bit different, other pop and rock musicians have tried concept albums, and they are better understood together. Think of The Wall for example, or yes, a YES album. This is a fringe issue in New Media, but it is a sign of how digital downloading has changed whether you buy albums or tracks.
2: Jay-Z owes his fans something, but it's quality, not freedom. He owes them good performances and "product," not buying choices. Fans like him for what he produces, and it's simply fanboyish to assume that what you like is what an artist should always produce.
As far as I see there is one bug that can make you lose files and that only happens if you are moving a file from one drive to another and you disconnect one of the drives..... WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT????
Oh, I don't know, maybe because UNIX implements the "mv" feature. The real question is why would Apple implement a UNIX feature which would cause you to lose data?
As long as he doesn't let just one song be played on the radio, or make a video of just one song... you can't say that it's a whole or none and then go and release bits of it.
But, I'm sure we will be bombarded with the first single on the air and Mtv/BET.
It's all about the money/publicity. He's great at what he does (most of the time), but not 100%. I'm sure there are movements on the album that are weaker than other parts.
Gangsta my butt.
You can copyright the album too. That's actually how you save money on copyrights... you end up filing just two forms instead of a form for each song, and you get the same protection.
Why? why do you make the rules? Playing a song on the radio is different than what you sell for people to go home and listen to. He wants to sell the thing he made in the way that he wants to sell it. What is the BFD? If Apple wants to sell its operating system for its computers only isn't that OK? It's not like he made some ad hominem attack on our precious iTunes. He doesn't want to release one album on iTunes because he wants to sell it as a whole. If you don't like it, don't buy it.
As long as he doesn't let just one song be played on the radio, or make a video of just one song... you can't say that it's a whole or none and then go and release bits of it.
But, I'm sure we will be bombarded with the first single on the air and Mtv/BET.
It's all about the money/publicity. He's great at what he does (most of the time), but not 100%. I'm sure there are movements on the album that are weaker than other parts.
Gangsta my butt.
You can copyright the album too. That's actually how you save money on copyrights... you end up filing just two forms instead of a form for each song, and you get the same protection.
You can't compare songs to movies. Movies are to theaters what tunes are to radio. So unless Jay-Z bans radio play of his tunes UNLESS they play it from start to finish without interruption, he is a jack ass. Something tells he will let the radio play go ahead, Jack ass. I have a policy, on iTunes, I buy it, not on iTunes, I steal it. Owners of content, you do what you want.
He's a Jack-ASS????? What is your damage? If its not on iTunes you steal it? This is a motto you are proud of? Grow up.
He's a Jack-ASS????? What is your damage? If its not on iTunes you steal it? This is a motto you are proud of? Grow up.
No he is being honest!!!
No he is being honest!!!
Honest about what? His lack of moral character? his bizarre allegiance to Apple? I don't understand the "if it's not on iTunes I steal it" mentality. Please explain why it is a justifiable position to hold.
You can't compare songs to movies. Movies are to theaters what tunes are to radio. So unless Jay-Z bans radio play of his tunes UNLESS they play it from start to finish without interruption, he is a jack ass. Something tells he will let the radio play go ahead, Jack ass. I have a policy, on iTunes, I buy it, not on iTunes, I steal it. Owners of content, you do what you want.
His idea only holds water if every Album/Disc were one continuous theme, ala concept discs. Otherwise, he can take his greedy ass elsewhere.
Honest about what? His lack of moral character? his bizarre allegiance to Apple? I don't understand the "if it's not on iTunes I steal it" mentality. Please explain why it is a justifiable position to hold.
Because some morons need a BS excuse to justify stealing? Is that a good enough explanation?
In a statement provided to the press this week and reported by Ars Technica, the musician known legally as Shawn Carter describes the concept of per-song downloads as illogical.
Because he knows he sucks. All it says to me is, like so many other musicians, he doesn't have a full CD of good music. Maybe a catchy single or two and the rest it's all a bunch of filler to complete the disk. He's betting on the sucker dollar. About 84 thousand CD's to reach a million dollars spent from people buying at $12 a pop. If he sells at 99¢ he actually needs a million people that think he's good to reach that much. He sucks, and he's standing up declaring it. My CD sucks! There isn't a million people that are going to think that I'm good, and I know it.
BushHater? Are you declaring your gay?
go to hell, you stinking microsoft astroturfing idiot.
Sorry, I meant that for another site altogether.
Anyway - Jay-z - whoever he is, is wrong. Most movies would be MUCH improved if we only watched select bits of them. Just like music and books, they suffer from the bloated imaginations of the writers and performers, suffering as they do from the classic 'legend-in-his-own-lunchtime' syndrome.
I strongly recommend PIRACY as a way to force the music book and film crowd to try quality instead of quantity.
Of course there are problems:
There is only one script for movies - known as 'Boy meets Girl', it has variations, but only on that theme.
In music, we have exhausted all the chord and note combinations long ago, and we are now in the age of the Grand Ripoff, where everything sounds like something you have heard before.
Books - same problem as movies, unfortunately.
In fact, downloading movies and music is a big mistake, because as Bob Dylan said recently - 'of course they steal music, it aint worth anything!'
I recommend stealing money or gold - much more value than the piles of crap that Jay-z and his ilk churn out.
Grow up, I say, and stop all this stealing of music that doesn't exist except as a computer file. Its not real!
Give me a large shiny Trombone, and then we will have music you can touch and feel. Enough of your magical computer files and their insane virtuality, Tarquin!
Let us dance Lady Eleanor, to the braying trumpeting row of the Sackbutt and other distasteful noises that will one day be recorded and endlessly repeated on futuristic devices. Until they do, my Lady, we shall sing the live-long day, our brows garlanded with flowers and our clothes all of Lincoln Green.
To the forest!
The Sheriff and his men will be here presently, their crossbows at the ready, the bolts tipped with deadly poison, their fish-like faces grimacing and growling in the soft Autumnal sunshine.
Because some morons need a BS excuse to justify stealing? Is that a good enough explanation?
That works for me.