Two days ago two years ago my band did their first "full band" gig. Since then we've had a break, recorded a CD, tried out a new bass player, regained our old bass player, lost a drummer, gained a drummer, done a ton of gigs, got radio play, got reviewed in the street press, joined APRA, got invited back to do gigs, been offered support for artists who actually make money. It's been nice.

Looks like we might have another gig in March. More on that later. It's interestingish.

Demo recording is on pause so we (I) can get some more equipment (ie. a new computer). Anyone want to sell me a cheap (but good quality) preamp?

[remove rant about work, more on that later]

Tried to add user comments to the page for each news item as per instructions linked from ScriptingNews today but kept getting error:

Sorry! There was an error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "postTime" hasn't been defined.

...when I added a new news item. Comments removed for now.

New York Times article on selling CDrs of back-catalog music instead of "pressed" CDs. Via Slashdot, who always find something to complain about any idea...

The major music companies may fret over falling revenue, but one label saw its business jump 33 percent last year thanks in part to the recordable compact discs that the industry says are hurting its sales.

The label, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is using recordable CD's, or CD-R's, to ensure that each release in its extensive catalog is always available.

Slashdot winger: "I don't want to pay good money for a CDr that may only last 10 years", so rip it the second you buy it and store it somewhere you're happier with.

Personally, this idea is bloody brilliant and Sony, EMI, Universal should take note. Particularly for the out of print b-sides everyone wants and would happily pay a bootlegger $50 for. How hard could it be for the major labels to set up a harddisk storage farm with WAV files ready to burn? I suppose there are a lot of quality assurance issues they're scared of...

I believe a Japanese indie company started doing this last year?

And wow, Uni's being targetted because apparently students are using their network to trade MP3s. No? It was bad enough in 1996 when only a few people knew what an MP3 was I can only imagine what it's like now. But I'd love to see a list of how much of this stuff is actually illegal.