I’m Back
I totally went underground there for a few days, no email, no work, no nothing. Just sat around enjoying leftovers and recharging the batteries. Felt pretty good. But now I am back “at work” and will have something to post on Friday.
Some news: the reason my link to that Eagles/Kelly Clarkson mashup no longer works (as commenter Michael pointed out), is that the RIAA is cracking down on mashups. Mashuptown has been warned, and they’ve taken everything down. So gather ye rosebuds while ye may because it’s going to get harder and harder to find mashups until this lunacy stops, if it ever does. As Cory points out in his BoingBoing post, the idea that a mashup harms the artists or labels involved is just silly. He says:
Mashups are a really dumb target for the RIAA. There’s just no universe in which someone who downloads a mashup of Prince’s 1999 and the Benny Goodman orchestra performing “In the Mood” thinks, Well, now I’ve heard that, I have no need to buy the CDs those songs originated on.
Preach it!
Comments
jp3z says
Yay! Welcome back! And yes, the RIAA is clearly retarded.
The Almighty Charles says
I'm glad money isn't the thing I live for. The RIAA is such a shining example of what greed does to your reputation and image.
Mary says
Is it a measure of my gullibility or my optimism that I just Googled for that Benny Prince mashup (and failed)?
Mike Salsbury says
Glad you're back, and "ditto" to the quote about the RIAA going after mashups. It's going to be interesting to see just how far they go. I figure we'll know they've really lost it when they sue some poor schlep for happening to write an original song that happens to share a single chord played on the same instrument used by one of their RIAA artists, claiming his including that one note in his song somehow devalues their artist's work.
BTW, I have a review of your album up on my blog:
http://mikesalsbury.com/mambo/content/view/337/
Gle3nn says
This topic reminded me of the silliest lawsuit I ever saw.
Mike Batt was sued for copyright infringement over the track "A One Minute Silence", which consisted of one minute of silence and was credited to "Batt/Cage". The publishers of John Cage's music alleged that the credit invoked Cage's famous "silent" piece 4'33", and that the trust was entitled to receive royalties. An out of court settlement was reached, with Batt paying a six-figure sum to the John Cage Trust.
Silence is indeed golden. Don't even try to sample his work or remix it.
Glenn says
Mike, I'd have to disagree on a couple of points -- people don't have to like Baby Got Back to love "Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow". I actually like most of the songs on the album even better. Also, soft and melodic isn't what I'd use to describe Mandelbrot Set, although it describes some of the others well. I don't get the math either, but I love it. (Also "I Crush Everything" may be the only song on the album not about about an evil genius. Of course, one may have been involved with creating the protagonist.) But keep preaching Coulton gospel!
On the RIAA front, The Onion wrote a great piece this week about the RIAA cracking down on word of mouth.
Daniel says
To paraphase Douglas Addams, the RIAA are a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first with thier backs to the wall when the revolution comes.
The Almighty Charles says
I, too, disagree with Mike. I sing the Mandelbrot chorus at work constantly, and "spacelab in space" I always felt was intentionaly redundant, and therefore hilarious. But you know what they say: "Opinons are like assholes. I guess that makes me an opinion."
JoCo says
Mary: that's sad, it does sound like a pretty excellent mashup. I would say optimism.
Mike (and his disagree-ers): Thanks for the long and thoughtful review Mike, I appreciate the press. The intent of "spacelab in space" was to be redundant, but I'm not sure why, or how it relates to the song or character. I just put it in because I thought it was syntactically weird and thus pleasing to me. As for the Mandelbrot Set, I don't get the math either...