Every time I come to Seattle I notice how the quality of the light is different here. It has to do with the latitude. The light is noticeably different than San Jose or Philadelphia. It is something that I forget after I leave. I have to come back here again to remember it.
I do not think I have captured this light difference in my photographic. I think I would have to be a much better photographer to capture it. It is hard to describe how it is different, it just looks different.
This difference is on of the things I like about Seattle. I am not sure if I would see the difference if I lived here. I might stop noticing if I was here everyday.
At Autumn's party we were talking about the back on the day on the web. Some how the conversation came back to my first web site, The Bill Gates Fountain of Dreams. I have not had it up for a while. Autumn suggested checking the Wayback Machine on the Internet archive
This means the music industry is losing more money putting DRM on music than it is saving by keeping sales. This is money that could be coming to the labels bottom lines. This money could be helping you. Instead you are wasting it. Just think of all that money you wasted suing people using P2P networks. That must have been a pretty penny.
I know that the music industry will come out against this report. They will say it is cutting into their bottom line. They will say that something has to account for the lack of sales. It could not be that the music coming out sucked and that the people running record labels are out of touch. It could not be that you had no idea how to promote your music on the internet until Myspace dropped. I think I am going to believe the study.
I am here once again to look at the state of my heart. The last year have not been kind to me in terms of romance. I had some good times in 2007, but they were not to last. Abigail broke up with me twice in that time. The first time really screwed me up, the second time just made me feel like crap.
I really loved Abigail. Both times she broke up with me really hurt. I am still not sure what happened the second time. It really did not make sense to me. I guess that is what happens when you try to restart something. It might be for the best because now I can put it all behind me now.
Loving Abigail taught me something about myself. I know that I can totally put myself out there for someone. I know that I can get past all of those worries and anxiety to really connect with someone. In the past I was worried that I would be able to do something like that at all.
The problem in the post-Abigail era is that It is harder to be alone. I find myself being lonely more often. Before I meet Abigail I did a pretty good job of being alone without being lonely. Since the break up I find myself wanting to share things with someone else. There are more nights when my bed feels empty and I know it will not change anytime soon.
That being said, I am in rush to find someone. There are a bunch more things in my life that I am focused on. I would like to resolve those things first. I do not have the energy to put into looking for a relationship. If a relationship happened unexpectedly I would not walk away from it because I am not ready. I just think that I need to work on other things first. Things that would just get distracted by a relationship.
St. Valentines Day is here again and I am alone again. That is par for me. I have been alone many more years than I have had a Valentine. I wish I have someone to spend the day with. It would be nice if I had someone, but I will not be crying myself asleep because I do not.
Someone in the office bought a Mooninite sign. This one is from Portland not Boston. It is a nice piece of handy work. This is not just a cheap thing. They spent some money on this.
Looking at it I cannot figure out how someone thought it was a bomb. Yes it has batteries and LEDs. It had no where for explosives to be. I know it was hanging on walls, but I just don't see it.
There are lots of funny videos on YouTube about this. Seeing this just shows me how the media is changing. I know that YouTube is a secondary media. They are taking the news and commenting on it again. I wonder if anyone in the regular media looks at this and change the way they look at the way they do their job. My guess is that they do not so far. Maybe they will in the future. This is one of my favorites.
All of this makes me wonder what will come of this. Personally I hope that it makes people think more
I was tooling around YouTube and found a copy of Epic 2015. It is an updated version of Epic 2014. It is interesting to see what they updated. No there is no mention of television at all.
I first saw Epic 2014 back in 2005. They funny thing is that if felt really true back in 2005. That was before I started using Flickr all the time. That was before YouTube or MySpace got really big.
Now I watch this video and I feel like it has to be redone again. I am more confident then ever before that big companies will have a hand in the media of the future. Even if that media is nothing like what it is like today. I think that much of the current media will be able to make the jump.
There is no mention of TiVo or Television in this version at all. There is no mention of Flickr, MySpace, or Google Video. I think that they do not pay enough attention to social networking.
I wonder if we will see a new version of this. If I was writing the next version it would not end with death of the New York Times. I do not think that is the worst thing that can happen. I think it would be much worse if every other news paper in America shut down and all you could choose from was the New York Times and USA Today. I think we are in closer danger of losing all the local media. I think that would be a much bigger problem.
Baseball is only a few weeks away. I always look forward to baseball. Baseball is my favorite sport. I enjoy being able to check the scores everyday to see what is happening. I enjoy watching baseball tonight and sports center. I enjoy those games where it feels like nothing is happening, but you cannot turn away.
I was surprised how much of a baseball town San Francisco is. Most people would expect it to be a Football town with the 49ers and the Raiders. Sports fans seem to get more excited about the Giants and the A's. It might be because the 49ers will never be as great as they were in the 80s ever again. It is not their fault, no team will be that great again.
Maybe it is the transport nature of the area. Baseball fans from all over seem to get along better than football fans from all over the place. I will go to a Giants or A's game to see anyone play. For football I would rather stay home and watch the Eagles than go to a 49ers game.
Baseball season will be here before I know it. That is a good feeling about time flying.
I heard on the radio that the Police are planing a reunion tour. They are getting back together for the Grammys tonight. I have to say that this is a bit of a disappointment. I loved the Police when I was young, but I cannot see an artistic reason for them to get back together. I cannot see what they will do that will be interesting or good for music. I think they are just getting back together for the money.
For a long time they were the Police where the best band that never really got back together. They never put a new album out and they never went on tour. I know they recorded one song, but that is under the bar.
Now the Smiths are the best band to break up and never get back together, that can get back together. I cannot see the Smiths getting back together. I think that Morrissey would never do that. The Clash are already in the Hall of Fame for that. Of course the Clash could not get back together now.
If the Police put a good album out I will eat my words. I just can't see them doing it. I cannot see them making an album anywhere close to Synchronicity or Ghost in the Machine. If they just go on tour you know it is just about the money.
It looks like the forces of status quo in the music world are lining up against Steve Jobs in the fight over DRM. I expect the Record Companies will not just rollover to for Steve Jobs. My guess is that think the record labels think they have the control when it comes to iTunes and Apple.
Let me be clear: we advocate the continued use of DRM in the protection of our and of our artists’ intellectual property. The notion that music does not deserve the same protections as software, television, film, video games or other intellectual property simply because there is an unprotected legacy product available in the physical world is completely without logic or merit.
But let’s not lose sight of the core issue. By far the larger issue for consumers in the music industry is interoperability. As a content company, we of course want consumers to seamlessly access our music and to use the music they have purchased on any platform and with any service, physical or digital.
The issue is obscured by asserting that DRM and interoperability is the same thing. They are not. To suggest that they cannot co-exist is simply incorrect. At Warner Music, we continue to seek a balance between appropriate protections for our intellectual property and a robust and satisfying music experience for consumers. Interoperability sure would enhance that balance, while eliminating DRM would do just the opposite.
We will not abandon DRM, nor will we disadvantage services that are successfully implementing DRM for both content and consumers.
I recognize that there are interesting music business models that only work with strong DRM. Any kind of music rental service like Rhapsody only work DRM. You have to be able to turn off the music if the customer quits paying for it. The problem with this business model is that it depends on the music companies putting DRM an the rest of their music also. It is the only way money can be made off the business model.
Bronfman makes a classic mistake in his argument above. He claims that Music deserves the same protection as Movies, Software, or Television. He is saying that Intellectual Property is Intellectual Property no matter what the form. He is making the mistake of viewing music the way he wants to view music, not the way his customers want to view music. Most of the customers I know view all these forms as different from each other. That is what is important in the end.
I think Apple has more control than the companies recognize. I am not sure if the average person could tell you what label their favorite artist is on. The average record label might say this is unimportant. The record label controls distribution. A major artist would not need to be with a able to get their album on iTunes. If they cut out the record company, they might be able to take the smaller sales that would come from not having a physical CD.
This week TiVo and Amazon announced an Unbox on TiVo. Yep, I have been working on this one. It is pretty cool. I cannot say much about it right now. I hope all my TiVo DRV using Friends check it out when it is launched.
I was going to write about Wal-mart getting into the video download business earlier in the week, but there has been too much stuff going on. Now I feel I cannot write about it because people will think I am only bad mouthing it because we are competing against it.
It would be nice if I lived in a world where I could blog anything I wanted without worrying that people might read it the wrong way and get me fired.
