4 ms·
Um...music (information) wants to be free? Why sign up for a system which provides almost no return? ETA: Sorry, the first line was a "couldn't resist", prese
by ctdonath 13y ago
Um...music (information) wants to be free?
Why sign up for a system which provides almost no return?
ETA: Sorry, the first line was a "couldn't resist", presented (badly) as just raising another popular meme and invoking discussion of the conflict thereof.
The second line refers to the fact that somewhere he signed a release whereby (however obtuse, obfuscated, and nigh unto unavoidable) such financial abuse was consented to. In comparison, consider how schools are offering near-free degrees (real ones, like MIT) in retaliation to exorbitant student debt, and doctors & patients are opting out of the hideous costs of government-run healthcare by returning to cash & subscriptions (I don't mean to provoke arguments over those, just as points of comparison). Somewhere, somehow, alternatives exist where real payment is demanded and he actually would get paid (and no I don't mean "make money performing", as some music just isn't per se).
- owenjones 13y agoI believe music is more than "information", when I buy an album, I'm not buying the sheet music but the recorded of someone more talented than myself performing that music. How do you apply "information wants to be free" to music like this?
- sliverstorm 13y agoIt's... um... information about the emotions of the artist?
- pessimizer 13y agoBeing written down is not what makes something information, so I'm not sure why sheet music would be any more information than recorded music.
- sliverstorm 13y agoIf you are going to argue: 1) Information wants to be free 2) Everything is information ... I don't think we can have a useful discussion.
- pessimizer 13y agoI'm asking what makes sheet music any more information than recorded music. Are you trying to say that I'm somehow calling an airport restroom, a freshly cut flower, and a brand new car information? Or are you just disqualifying me from the conversation as a rhetorical trick to avoid answering a simple, straightforward question?
- sliverstorm 13y agoa brand new car information? I thought I detected you heading in that direction. Yes, people do try to make that argument. Sheet music is like an instruction manual. Follow the instructions, you can make something. I consider instructions to be information. Recorded music, on the other hand, is a performance. A performance is art, while sheet music describes art? I don't have technical definitions, this is just how I see it.
- icebraining 13y agoIt's not a performance, just a recording of one. No hay banda, no hay orquestra.
- owenjones 13y agoI'm saying that a recording of a band performing a song IS more than information, there's the added value of someone performing that deserves compensation.
- pessimizer 13y agoWhat does deserving compensation have to do with whether it's information or not? People who provide information often ask for compensation. You're arguing for the existence of a soul.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- owenjones 13y agoNothing and I never claimed that it does? I disagree with the whole "information wants to be free" rhetoric in regards to music in this specific context. Yes an MP3 is literally and pedantically information, however it also has an additional worth to me that I find rewarding to pay for. I believe people who enjoy music but use this argument to acquire it for free are deluding themselves.
- ctdonath 13y agoHow do you apply "information wants to be free" to music like this? How do you differentiate? An .MP3 is just another data file, trivially copied, with the added downside that government has decreed that under certain common circumstances anyone can play it while paying him less than a pittance for it. I'm not advocating this view, just noting the painful reality thereof.
- owenjones 13y agoI meant it more as a personal question to people who say this. If an artist's music has value to someone, I'm curious what sort of mental gymnastics they perform to believe "All information wants to be free; therefore I will acquire this music for free." It's always struck me as just a way to absolve yourself of guilt for pirating music. I think the real phrase should be "Information is just information, people want it to be free."
- tsotha 13y agoHe didn't. Legally Pandora can play the song and pay rates set by the government.
- weisser 13y agoYou cannot opt-out of Pandora.
- TylerE 13y agoSure you can. Don't publish through traditional channels, retain your own copyrights and masters. Sell vinyl out of the back of your van at gigs. Plenty of underground acts have paid rent that way.
- sp332 13y agoNo, you can't. Copyrights only guarantee you certain royalties if your work is used. They don't let you opt-out of having your work used at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_licensing#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_licensing#United_St...
- TylerE 13y agoYes, you can. Even if you are on a traditional label. Compulsory license covers, well, covers, not the original master recording. Before you make any counter-argument, consider the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and AC/DC, which are not featured on any of the legal stream services.
- solnyshok 13y agoi thought Beatles succumbed to YouTube sometime ago
- taternuts 13y agoYeah - they can pretty much play anything they want and only have to pay the artist if they go through the motions to register with them. It seems like quite the racket to me.