I Bleed Music

ibleedmusictshirt

Music Lovers. This might be promising for us. Google buys Simplify Media- http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/20/google-buys-simplify-media-to-power-music-syncing-for-new-itunes-competitor/ At least the product is in good hands but I agree with one of the comments "shouldn't Google of all companies be able to develop cloud sync without BUYing it?"

And the only reason I have an issue with the Google buying power is it scares the shit out of most users. Big companies generally tend to stifle competition and creativity. Luckily with Google's business philosophies, this is the exception....for now. I haven’t been a fan of Google multimedia apps or the directions in which they take them…Picasa was one of the biggest disappointments for me. However, after seeing the direction in which they’ve taken products like Google Docs and Calendar, I think they get how we like to interact with each other, collab, and share.

http://www.zazzle.com/bleeding_heart_i_bleed_music_tshirt-235840220443522738 (I Bleed Music) I bought this t-shirt after talking to @Azyxa about what's in our blood. :) I'm pretty sure a lot of us who love music and the ability to share music on a personal level are going to be watching the direction Google takes this technology.

Music appreciating and distribution has come a long way in the last decade but not enough. I’m hoping it continues to shift back more in our direction. I wrote this silly “call to arms piece” ten years ago after the collapse of napster, Lars the Douchehead, and the whole RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) suing 35k individual music listeners. I remember being so livid at how backwards it seemed that an industry was going after its own customers in fight that wasn’t really about piracy but about adapting to new technology.

It’s embarrassing but remember I wrote it ten years ago during the time when MTV had the largest grasp over popular music and Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera vs Hanson was as diverse as it got. And while we have come a long ways, I still feel like it applies because we haven’t utilized technology enough to exercise our consumer power (just read how much artists have to pay itunes to put songs up on their site…gag me):

Call to arms. The music revolution is here. We can no longer sit back and let the corporation dictate what we desire. How long will we be the dress-up dolls of "American Pop Culture"?? How long will you be a mindless child? You let them tell you what you want to hear, you let them tell you what you should look like. How long will you let them tell you how much you should have to pay for music you've never heard of?

Why hasn't the music industry caught on to technology? Why? Because they are still the greedy, money basking corporate hogs they've always been. We all know that cds don't cost a lot to make and that the technology exists today to combine many types of artists. In fact, we can make our own compilations.

How much longer will it be until they realize that we don't want to pay sixteen dollars for twelve songs of the same artist? Very few cds have come along where the entire compilation is worth every cent. Far too often, we've been forced to buy eleven so-so-maybe-listen-to-once songs for that one hit song we bought the damned thing for in the first place. I would have to agree that five dollars would be worth buying a cd full of artists I want to hear. NOW, here they are taking away my free forum of music.

Am I supposed to weep for the all mighty corporation who refuses to mold to the changing technology? Am I supposed to weep for the artists who makes more money than god for just dressing up like a barbie doll? We are the masses. We are the collective society who you feed off of.. I do not weep for you.

I feel we should protest the music industry. Do you they think that we actually believe that the only good music produced today is by broadcasted on MTV? How many countless number of artists are there out there that haven't been given a chance. What of those who don't believe in compromising their music? What of those who will perform simply because they love music? Don't fall for it at all. Don't give in thinking that the only music in the world comes in the form of a plastic wrapped cd case! BRING THE MUSIC BACK to the PEOPLE.

We have just advanced too much in my opinion to not be able to distribute and share music more easily between artists and music lovers. As I said in the Flattr post, micro transactions and flexibility with how we distribute appreciation is becoming more and more available. It is well within our hands to begin to shape the arts and distribution of the arts.

The top-down approach to distribution offers little sympathy to most artists these days because of the mistrust we have of the music industry. After the iTunes revolution and single song service, we have seen a bit more diversity but little improvements in how we share music (simplify media being a huge exception). Dropbox is a giant step towards music appreciation but then ignores the rights of the artists to be paid for their work. Currently, there is no balance because neither side has really devised a mainstream technology to address our desire to share the fuck out of the music we love.

I see a future where all music is tagged with a shit ton of meta data that links back directly to the artist, creator or its distributor. So say if you found this awesome remix of a song, there would be software integration with your player to send them a piece of cake :)

We’re all going to have to shift how we think of pay/per as I’ve said before. The old model of the shopping cart/checkout isn’t going to hold. Just look at the post @Jemimus made about NOT being able to pay for something he appreciated due to outdated international copyright laws. Seriously, we’re too wired to be this globally stunted.

Maybe we can be a generation of digital tips instead. Can the world turn on tips? Would you play for tips? I think a lot of people would and it’s why I’m closely watching the micro transaction market and will do whatever I can to promote a fundamental shift in our online economy. I truly believe it’s the key to promoting more growth of doing in the meta…well hell, in the world.

Signage, Sneakers, BJs and Loving Yourself

I went out to the permit office again today to drop off some drawings. As usual, it took forever only to end up me handing my drawings to some lady who said “thanks and you’re done.” However, while waiting I discovered two things. The first was that one of the three signs hanging on the door had been modified by hand.

The “how to prevent flu” sign had a few cute modifications which I took a snapshot of and wondered how bored someone must have been to get up and do that. I was tempted to keep modifying it myself if there weren’t so many other people waiting around.

The second involves this guy I always see every time I go to the permit office. I noticed him immediately because he has these awesome grey sneakers I really want. Today I noticed he was reading a book so I peered over to spy on what he was reading..a William Gibson novel! I almost LOL’d outloud. At this point, I was tempted to ask him to let me take a picture of his book. I could say I knew a bunch of people would would really appreciate the humor in the fact that I was sitting next to a book written by an author that cost me -300 geek points. I think the particular book he was reading was called Idoru. I was just about to gain enough courage to ask but then he put the book away and started to make calls to his office. Through my stalker skills I obtained that his name is Mark. If I see him there again next time, I’m fucking going to get a picture of those sneakers if it kills me!

Afterwards, I met Flipmax for lunch at BJs. While I was in the bathroom there I took a few pics of the pictures in the women’s restroom. They have these pictures of large floral prints and then men with totally ripped abs in between them. I always laugh when I see them because I try to imagine what the pictures in the men’s restroom looks like. I’m going to send Flipmax in next time to take pics.




Because it turned out they didn’t have spaghetti with meat sauce available and I had to order the Toscana instead, the manager said my meal was free! And because I have such a weak will, I let Flipmax convince me to order a pizookie even though I did my best to resist.

I then stopped by the post office to mail off some wowcast pens that I had promised to send like two months ago! Finally can check that one off my list! When I got home, I noticed my mom had sent me a package from Amazon. It’s a book called Love Yourself and Let the Other Person Have it Your Way. /facepalm. It’s a book she says she recently read and changed her life drastically. From what she explains, it sounds like one of those pay it forward type philosophies.

I’m a bit skeptical of course. I read the segment on Sadness as it definitely applies right now and there’s this stupid line that reads “Could you say “Yes” to the remaining sadness and just let it come up and out? Continue repeating this exercise on the sadness until you are at zero on the scale with regard to sadness.” What..the..fuck. What does that even mean? At least give me a hammer or something and tell me to bash my head in, something constructive. I mean, I get the philosophy but seriously? seriously? I need like you know...something concrete to work with here. I’m a robot for god sake, need processes to run or something.

Anyhow I’ll try to get through more of it just so I can tell her I tried. ....omg. just read this part: “The only one that can make you happy is you and the only one that can make you unhappy is you. Once you know that, the problem of relationships is all over.” This is seriously dellusional shit man. Come on. If this was really true, we wouldn’t need a fucking other person in this world. Why do we even need to make friends then? What’s the point of any relationship then? If we’re good enough on our own, we don’t need anyone else. I can tell getting through this book is going to probably stress me out. lol.

$ocial Appreciation, Inspiring the DO!

I’ve been delving into the ideas of creating a forum for DOING. There is so much online that is all about inspiring thought and ideas but for me, the next step is in the doing. And it’s so easy in the culture of the meta to just sit back and absorb. I’ve been doing it for years and years.

As a meta society, in order to stay user driven and be able to continually form and shape our own world as we like it, we’re going to have to really start the DOING now.

One of the things I always say to people is JUST DO IT! I know it’s Nike’s logo but you don’t need fancy footwear to create anything. All of us are self conscious and unsure of the format for which we should produce anything. I see us all looking at each other for inspiration or guidance. That’s a totally valid way of kicking down the door to creating.

CREATE content, CREATE events, CREATE flow. Flow is huge for me as a concept in the meta culture. The problem with the RL is that there is little organic flow of how we communicate, exchange, or distribute. Everything has been so top down and motivated and manipulated by power. Most of the transactions of production and economy are all designed by the power of marketing and NOT inspiration and true value.

For example, I have this Rem Koolhaus book on my shelf that I bought in college called Mutations. At the time I bought it, it was hella expensive.. like close to eighty dollars. It was a trend going around in the studios so I felt like I needed to pick it up too. All the cool kids were reading it etc. It turns out the book, while has some interesting points about architecture in developing cities, was totally over-rated.

A few years later, I came across a web article that pretty much summarized the book but with more valid inspirations as to how to think about the future of how we build cities. I would rather have contributed to that online article than the over-hyped/well packaged Koolhaas book.

And that’s how I feel about a lot of the individual user-generated content online. That Flattr concept is really about distributing the flow of economy in truly organic way based on interest and use and not on brilliant marketing ploys. What I like about it is that you can see it as a true system of free flow meta economy.

For example, I can see myself giving a cake slice to someone who wrote a blog post on geocaching and sparked my interest in creating my own geocache user account to start my own adventures in the RL sharing/exploring game. I see myself wanting to give a bunch of cake slices to davek4981 on youtube because his cover of Iambic 9 Poetry on the Eigenharp brought me immense pleasure in my life.

I’m not a fan of monetization for profit sake for online content. I think there is a huge danger in doing something for only money. It ruins, in my opinion, the authenticity of love for creating. But that has always been the limitation of meta distribution right? I’m intrigued by this idea of a continual and renewing flow of creating value to intellectual, artistic, and plain life sharing data.

It’s a way of showing value to something which has been hard to quantify until now. I know it’s a small start to the DOING movement but for me, it’s a good start. I hope it doesn’t get abused or manipulated by marketing or meme trends. I just think it’s an amazing way for us to start generating a culture of user-rich content.

I can even see it as being something small like wanting to give a cake slice to someone for showing me their grocery haul or sharing their newest haircut from the salon or teaching me about HDR photography :D With a flow of giving/sharing, learning/inspiring, doing/thinking we continue to grow on each other. I don’t see the monetary trend of a true system like this being mono-directional but flowing crazy like a the veins in our body…constantly renewing and refreshing.

I’m immensely thankful people are starting to evolve towards the meta. These are exciting times.

Time to start doing. GO!

Extensions

It is a little strange to realize how accessible the meta seems and yet we need some basic devices in which to extend our reach. For me, the keyboard, the mouse, and my headset are all critical tethers that have actually become an extension of myself.

I don’t exist very well without these pieces of technology that help me jack in. Just recently, when my favorite Plantronic headsets finally broke (Plantronics .Audio 450 - Headset ( ear-bud ) I had to switch to my Gamecon headset and I just hate them. I loved the flexibility of my ear-bud set…being able to take one ear out and listen to my speakers and to not have something so bulky over my head.

Turns out Plantronics .Audio 450 has been discontinued and replaced with the .Audio 480 which I tried recently and hated. I don’t like noise canceling gear when I’m at my computer. It really sucks because the .450 were such an awesome fit without being jammed into your eardrums. I think the problem is you have to have the right kind of ear though and they do have the flaw of breaking every year or two but still…they’re so worth buying every other year.

I tried to buy some from Amazon but I think the stock list was wrong and I got sent some other headsets. I just tried ordering another one from Amazon from another seller as linked above and am hoping desperately that they’re the right ones. I don’t feel myself without the correct extensions.

I’m sure that sounds weird to most people but I kind of equate it to the one-button apple mouse or a non-ergonomic keyboard for some. Either it offers fluid movement to and from the Meta or it doesn’t for each individual. I think I’m ready for the day where they insert the chip in my brain.