R.E.M. - Reveal (2001)
I've never been a 'fan' of R.E.M. By fan I mean fan enough to purchase one of their albums. I liked their singles, but I've not really spent enough time listening to them to really start to enjoy them. And for some reason I've all but been ignoring the pleases of my R.E.M. obsessed friend to just sit and understand. But 'Reveal' finally caught my attention. The single/video 'Imitation Of Life' is amazingly simple and catchy, as all good R.E.M. is. The album itself is filled with 'Kid A'esque blips and blobs but they're subtle and add colour. This is production, not electronic music. It's one of the few albums I've picked up and really enjoyed the first 8 or so tracks off the bat, but I've got to say by track ten I get bored. I'm assuming for the moment that the last three or so tracks just arn't as good but maybe I'm not cut out to listen to a full album of R.E.M. I've just bought 'Automatic for the People' so we'll see.
Archive at Records Ad Nauseam
Regurgitator - The Fourth Single From Unit (1998)
Regurgitator B-Sides are a very touch and go affair. Most are just average remixes or bizare noise jams that are funny at first, are not really you'd call quality material. The Forth Single From Unit (a double A-Side for Song Formally Known As and Modern Life) has what is easily the one must-have Regurgitator non-album track, i like your old remix better than your new remix. Not a remix as such but a complete re-writing of i like your old stuff better than your new stuff into the style of Tu Plang. All guitars, drum, bass, vocals with none of the electronic Unitness of the original. The lyrics are significantly changed with Ben telling a long story of a Regurgitator fan purchasing the new album (Unit) only to discover that they hate it and that they've lost another fan. Many fans say I Like Your Old Remix... should have replaced I Like Your Old Stuff... on the album but both songs are required to make each as amusing as they are. This single has been long deleted so if you find it, buy up now.
Archive at Records Ad Nauseam
If I pay to download tunes from MusicNet or Duet it will expire unless I pay again. If I keep the same 75 songs (about 6 CD's worth) on my hard drive for a year, that is $120.00 or $20 a CD. If I want to continue holding those same tunes for an additional year each CD now costs me $40.00 - and I still don't own the music. I can see how this can be attractive to the record labels.
Meanwhile artists and record labels argue over royalties. Again, the labels don't want to pay anymore for digital downloads/sales but the artists want compensation. Current fee in the US is 7.5 cents per duplication (CD etc.), and artists are arguing it should be the same. Labels are being hypocritical (see Napster) and saying it isn't the same...
We need independant technology to allow artists to upload/publish their music in any format (MP3, WMA, WAV) and charge any amount for it, minus hosting fee + 10% resale for the indie website, bypassing the record labels altogether and avoiding the problems above. It's so easy...
An important message for the MP3.com Artist Community:
We're excited to share a breaking announcement that MP3.com has recently been acquired by Vivendi Universal. As a member of our most vital community, we wanted not only to share this good news with you and answer some of your questions, but offer our thanks for your role in our success. It is the talent, passion and dedication of artists such as yourself that has helped fuel our site over the past 3 years.
MP3.com has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vivendi Universal, contributing to their strategic objective of becoming the world's premier creator and provider of personalized information, entertainment and services to consumers. This new partnership is expected to strongly reinforce our efforts in online music, subscriptions, brand, content and, more importantly, technology.
Below is a short FAQ answering some of the questions you may have regarding the Vivendi Universal acquisition of MP3.com. In the meantime, we will continue to make open communication a number one priority and keep you updated on pertinent developments.
This announcement stands to benefit our artist community in great and varied ways by providing MP3.com with the resources and support needed to become the central point for the digital distribution of all music. We look forward to continued and shared success with our artist community.
Sincerely, MP3.com
Find the press release at the address below: http://click.mp3.com/c/n_935708506/t_dity/u_pr/pr/337.html
** FAQ **
Q. Who is Vivendi Universal? A. Vivendi Universal is a multi-national, $65 billion corporation that operates well-regarded properties in fields including telecommunications, TV/film, publishing, music, Internet and environmental services.
Q. Will MP3.com artists remain independent? A. Yes. The terms and conditions of the various artist agreements will not automatically change as a result of this transaction. MP3.com will continue to function as an independent distributor of music content for all independent artists and record labels.
Q. Will my music belong to Vivendi Universal? A. No. As stated above, the terms and conditions of the various artist agreements will not automatically change as a result of this transaction.
Q. Will MP3.com continue to operate as it does today? A. MP3.com will maintain its role as an independent distributor of music on the Internet. MP3.com will continue with current pursuits and work with new partners to innovate subscription systems and music offerings that reach a global audience across many devices.
Q. How will this announcement affect me? What will change? A. MP3.com will continue with its current offerings, including marketing, promotion and a full roster of online services for all artists.
Q. Will Payback for Playback continue? A. All current artist services will remain in effect.
Q. I'm also a shareholder. How will this announcement impact my stock holdings? A. Shareholders of MP3.com will receive $5.00 per share in cash or Vivendi Universal stock. It is not guaranteed that all outstanding shares will be exchanged for cash, but they will be exchanged for at least 50 percent cash and 50 percent stock - again, based on the aggregate election of all shareholders.
When a user downloads a song, it remains available for 30 days, at which point the user can decide to renew the license for 30 more days, as long as the monthly fee is paid again. For the moment, songs cannot be copied to a portable music player, or purchased for permanent use.
They expect the monthly fee to be around US$10 a month for about 75 songs.
It's becoming more and more clear to me that the whole "we don't like online music" thing is a front. They desperately want people to buy music online because it gives them the opportunity to charge stupid amounts for the most rediculously restricted content. I see carnage approaching.