tuneage:

Phantogram - “When I’m Small”

Perhaps 2010 is front-loading a lot of its good music, or maybe I’m just taking my sweet time this year. But whatever the reason, I seem to have a stack of music to listen to that’s a mile high and I’m barely making dents in it. A band that I’ve been hearing a lot about in the last month or two and have only in the last week started to listen to is Phantogram. At times I get a trip-hoppy vibe similar to The xx, though not quite as minimal. Other times I hear tinges of soul and hip-hop and even Beach House in their moody indie-electronic music. It’s a winning combination for me, and my repeat listenings to their debut record Eyelid Movies will no doubt be a factor in me being perpetually a week or two behind the music curve for the first part of this year.

Google’s experimental fiber network

“Che” and the Digital Cinema Revolution on Vimeo

Via eightyoneandon

by Mike Masnick:

from the a-thorough-look dept

I’m at the Midem conference this week, and in preparing for it, Steven Masur asked me to write up a chapter for a book he was putting together of thoughts from various thinkers for a gathering of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (IAEL) here at Midem. Below is what I submitted. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, there’s little that will surprise you, but even so, it may be a good read, as it’s got a whole bunch of different things I’ve discussed about — things like “CwF+RtB” all summarized in one single place. Later, I’ll do another post on what I discussed this year at Midem, since it builds on what’s written below, and digs in much deeper on how to create compelling reasons to buy.

It’s no secret that there’s a lot of concern these days about what the music industry will look like going forward — especially from those who work on the label side of the business and have been around for a bit. A variety of things have caused rapid change in the market. Competition from other forms of entertainment, such as the internet, movies and video games, have put more pressure on the industry, as consumers have been presented with significantly more options for their entertainment attention and dollars. And, of course, there’s the ever-present specter of unauthorized file sharing — or, as the industry prefers to call it (accurately or not), “piracy.”

While the industry spent many years fighting the rise of the internet as a distribution and promotion method for music, it was eventually forced to recognize it. The labels eventually licensed music to Apple and iTunes (as well as some other stores). It took them way too long to recognize that people wanted DRM-free music, but they’ve finally come around to recognize that as well.

More »