Tuesday, 11 May 2004

Music Plasma I played with a few names on the MusicPlasma site. My suggestion for them would be to use Google as a meter for an artists influence and populariity. They had Warren Zevon in a bigger sphere of influence and popularity than U2...hello, have you been awake the past decade? Then I started looking for specific artist's names in Google and above are the results. Seems right to me. 9:16:16 PM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   Sony's entertainment business is killing its electronics business Music: Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life Mood: fine Nothing new here, but well said.... Sony's acquisition of a couple of minor entertainment companies has had untold consequences. It's a poison pill that is killing Sony, one piece at a time. Back from 1976-1984, Sony was the company that spent hundreds of millions on the defense of its VCR, bringing it all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that the entertainment industry didn't have any right to its business-model; that if new technology could make the old business irrelevant, that was tough shit, and the movie companies needed to stop pewling and get with the program (they did, and made lots of money, besides). But ever since Sony "aquired" Columbia, it's been acting like its electronics business was a minor business unit that couldn't afford to disrupt its precious entertainment arm (despite the fact that the entertainment arm's contributions to Sony's bottom line are minimal when compared to the gadget biz). When the first MP3 players appeared in the market, from little companies like Creative Labs, Sony brought out proprietary devices that played stupid formats like RealAudio and OpenAG, which no one wanted to hear. On the other hand, these formats did come with use-restrictions that kept Sony's music execs from getting too anxious and sad. The result was that Creative Labs, a little outfit in Singapore, ate Sony's lunch, followed by a bunch of late diners to the table, including a bunch of no-name Korean companies, and most recently, Apple. Sony, who invented the walkman and made billions off of it, has now become an irrelevant player in the personal stereo market, with a market share that's barely a blip on the chart. And Sony -- a company legendary for tis ability to refine its designs to capitalize on lessons learned in the market -- keeps on repeating the same mistakes, as Derek points out: Apparently, Sony's hard drive player cannot play MP3s, WMA and (of course) Apple FairPlay-locked AAC. It only plays the Sony's proprietary ATRAC3 format; if it's like Sony's MiniDisc players, forcing consumers to convert to ATRAC3 also forces them to accept certain DRM restrictions. In related news, the Washington Post and New York Times both deemed Connect embarassing, noting its poor interface, proprietary DRM format and codec, copying restrictions ... too many to count. Link [BoingBoing] 8:53:23 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   The Mystery of Picasso I watched this brilliant movie for the umpteenth time this Sunday. I suggest that you turn off the sound and play other music and find new contexts... Other opinions here, here, and here. 8:48:09 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   Music Plasma My universe accoding to Music Plasma. They are missing a lot of connections, but maybe the plasma will grow. In any case, fun to play around with. via [BoingBoing] 8:03:32 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   Blogging the blogging Ottmar: In case you haven't noticed the news item on the Luna Negra home page, Canton came up with a nice survey regarding the subscription/members-only site. You can win two concert tickets, to be drawn at random from all surveys - and we get your feedback! You can bet your ass that I filled out the survey. I want to win those tix. And it's always fun to test out your buddy's web programming efforts. Canton just came out to visit and it was a week of fun. Hours of Fluxx, the crazy card game, Kraftwerk of course, bouts of geek talk, watching the sun set, hanging with friends at Jupiter, watching a movie in the open air on the side of some kind souls house with the Bay Bridge off in the distance, hanging out at Rachnronix, and on and on. [iceplant radio] Keeping tabs on Canton. 8:03:24 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry

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