Category: Music

Sticking it to the BPI, part two: Hello Spotify!

Posted by Martyn Drake – April 29, 2010

I recently posted that I was going to drop Spotify Premium because (a) many of the BPI member record labels have shares in Spotify and (b) the artists were not being paid enough.

I’ve re-evaluated my initial stance and found that it isn’t being fair to anybody. I’ve come to the conclusion that artists who are being denied greater royalty payments should be taking this up directly with their labels, and that by using Spotify at least they ARE getting paid – no matter how small that payment may be. But ultimately it is up to the artists themselves to negotiate what they should be paid and if they’re not happy with it, they should leave their label and move to another, or go independent.

I found that I missed Spotify and my playlists. I missed the iPod Spotify app. And it works out the cheapest way of listening music. I will still buy albums and tracks that I really like from iTunes or elsewhere, to provide greater income to the artists.

In terms of sticking it to the BPI, I’ve been reading that quite a few of the members are not fully in agreement with the way the BPI conduct themselves and have been quite annoyed by the way BPI has represented their interests. Hopefully these companies that are BPI members will either break away or put in the appropriate challenge to the BPI management to ensure that their interests are being properly represented.

iPod Touch 64Gb/3rd generation external battery?

Posted by Martyn Drake – April 27, 2010

Does anybody know of a good quality external battery product that will work with a third generation iPod Touch (64Gb) that will allow me to continue to use the device while the external battery is in use? Apple’s recent tightening up on third-party hardware manufacturers who develop accessories for the iPod and iPhone devices has meant that some products will not work. I recall staying in a Novotel recently which has a Bose iPod docking/stereo system and would not charge my iPod because Apple did not approve it.

Because of Apple’s ever increasing iron grip on who can do what with their products (especially those who buy them), I am very nervous about buying third-party products for this thing unless I’ve got confirmed acceptance from the retailer or manufacturer, or somebody who has already got a later generation product and has tested it themselves.

Sticking it to the BPI, part one: Bye, Bye Spotify

Posted by Martyn Drake – April 11, 2010

Since the BPI and chums have been successful in getting the Digital Economy Bill passed through the Lords by an elevated unelected Peter Mandelson, I’ve decided to make a small gesture by stopping my Spotify Premium subscription since there are good number of BPI members who are shareholders of the service – that’s right, they own a good chunk of Spotify. The consequence of record labels owning Spotify is that they dictate how much money the aritsts themselves get. From what I’ve been reading, this isn’t very much at all.

I’ve instead decided to put the money I used for Spotify into HideMyAss, a VPN proxy system which proxies your connection through to a variety of servers in different countries. It’s actually very useful in watching services that restrict by geographical location. Which will be useful when the UK Government start blocking particular services it deems as being potential copyright infringers. All thanks to that new gal in town, DEB.

Correction on the Alice in Wonderland review..

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 19, 2010

In my original review I mentioned that the music by Danny Elfman sounded too much like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was basing this mainly on what I could remember having compared the initial openings of both films. Upon listening to the soundtrack on Spotify I now declare the Alice in Wonderland score to be Danny Elfman’s best work. Love it to bits. The choral arrangement, the dramatic overtures and the whole kit and kaboodle is just wonderful.

Thanks, Spotify, for jogging my memory.

The love affair is over: Nexus One a big pile of unfinished business

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 4, 2010

When I first got my Nexus One back in January, I was over the moon. Here was the very latest in HTC hardware and Google Android OS in one neat package. We had a wonderful honeymoon period in which everything seemed to work, despite all the naysayers on Google’s Nexus One forums.

Then the symptoms started creeping in. Losing the 3G signal in an area where 3G works well, Wi-Fi connections at home wouldn’t automatically connect and had to manually be connected through Settings, touchscreen would lose calibration, forcing me to twist the phone around like a baton until the bloody thing accepted the correct input. Google eventually rolled an update back in February which fixed the 3G part, but Wi-Fi was still giving problems and the touchscreen still is causing problems.

The last straw came when I went on-call for work. I found that I’ve missed out on emergency SMSes due to delayed sound alerts. Due to the speaker being positioned where it is, I also found that the alert sounds are quite muffled in comparison to our four year old Sony Ericsson non-smartphone. In short: I don’t trust the Nexus One in it’s current state. I was also hacked off that photos taken didn’t show up in the Gallery after the most recent OTA update. I could access them through USB and through the Camera application itself, but not through the Gallery. A reboot of the phone seemed to have fixed it and the photos then turned up in Gallery. I shouldn’t have to do that, though.

Thus I’ve stopped using it and gone back to the SE. The battery life lasts well over a week, I can hear all incoming SMSes just fine, and as a phone only, it does what it says on the tin. The Nexus One tries to be too clever and fails. The AMOLED is also a complete arse to work with in strong daylight. My wife has also been complaining about the quality of calls recently and has kept asking if I’m on hands-free when I’m not.

I’ve decided to go running back to Apple despite my earlier grumblings about them. Love them or hate them, they do make exceptionally fine products. Which work. I’m starting off with an iPod Touch 64Gb and assuming that I’m able to switch my contract to Memset late next year (or after the T-Mobile/Orange merger allows the legal purchase of an iPhone on my existing contract with T-Mobile), I’ll go iPhone. I’m finding it hard to go back to the Android platform right now – especially how well I’m finding the iPhone/iPod App store and how well multi-touch and Apple’s capacitive display just works. The quality of the applications seem a lot more professional too.

The irony is that I had no problems with the HTC Hero. It was a little slow, but it worked well. I hope the HTC Desire works better than the Nexus One – I’d so hate it to turn out like the Nexus after Sense UI has been applied.

I now split my smartphone use between the Sony Ericsson and my iPod Touch. Phone for the phone related stuff, iPod for the apps, calendar and everything else.

Universal Pictures: bullying the market yet again..

Posted by Martyn Drake – February 12, 2010

Update: 22nd July, 2010: See my post from the 21st July 2010 that suggests that Universal may be getting around to selling titles to LOVEFiLM again..

Update: I’ve started a thread about it here. Some interesting replies.

I learned yesterday (despite this being announced last November) that Universal Pictures are bullying DVD and Blu-Ray rental firms like Blockbuster and LOVEFiLM into new terms for rental of their movies. In short, titles I’d like to rent from LOVEFiLM cannot be rented and I must either buy a copy of the DVD or Blu-Ray or watch it in the cinema. This is not LOVEFiLM’s fault, and I applaud them for not caving into their demands (whereas Blockbusters have, and corporate whoring such as this is absolutely deplorable and I object most strongly to any form of exclusivity of film titles – which is also why I’m against the recent announcement that Tescos are bank rolling movies for Amber Entertainment so that they can create straight-to-DVD titles to be sold exclusively through Tesco stores). I was rather looking forward to seeing Inglourious Basterds and BSG: The Plan – but no, Universal have said no to that. I bet Kick-Ass won’t be available either.

We must not forget that Universal walked out on iTunes for a short period as they were unhappy with the costs that Apple were charging their customers. Universal wanted a higher price put on their films. Apple tried to reason with them, and it failed. They eventually came back, but the result is that NBC Universal films and TV shows cost a significant amount higher than what they are on physical media. For example, to buy all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica in HD on iTunes would cost £175 whereas the Blu-Ray edition costs £101. You don’t get any of the special features on the Blu-Ray, and you’d be responsible for backing up all the media files with no option of re-downloading from iTunes should your backups fail.

Once again, film studios are becoming far too greedy, and they clearly do not trust the consumers who buy their products. I’m also immensely hacked off with Universal Music after they practically accused all iPod owners of being thieves. Therefore the whole Universal stable is worth avoiding like the plague. I will not support their films or products until they start getting around that negation table and become a lot more reasonable. I will continue to support and subscribe to LOVEFiLM for whom I feel have done the right thing. They cannot and must not be bullied or threatened into deals that are unfair and unjust.

In other news, I hear that Warners Music is looking to get out of Spotify and other free streaming services. If this happens (and especially with Spotify Premium), then I’ll boycott Warners too.

I’ve already just made my stand against Universal and I hope they choke on it.

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