jessevondoom

Yeah they're IRENE scanners. Pretty amazing, actually. Able to lift sound off the most delicate old recordings. Probably a lot of possibility for repair of lost fragments visually:

http://irene.lbl.gov/

And there are laser turntables for commercial purposes as well. Not a visual product, in interesting still...

I think it's an important point that constructive criticism has a positive intent and it's rarely mean-spirited. Might be hard to hear, but the critic isn't just being an asshole.

(Did have an art-school teacher who used mean similes to teach, but that was the rare exception. And he had a consistent flair for mean, so it was sort of an odd joy to behold.)

You just mesmerized my four year old — she sat still longer than I've seen in ages. If beautiful interactive visualization ever gets old I think you have a future in toddler mind control...

Correct. I was addressing the commenter saying that uploading them legally and streaming to many is no different than a bar. My whole point was that a bar licenses the music.

Purchasing music under a personal license doesn't allow one to broadcast or perform the work, so the justification is off.

And it's actually considered the same thing for web streaming — it doesn't have all that much to do with copies. By law webcasting falls under a performance so webcasters are on the hook for both publishing and performance royalties. (Radio gets a waiver on performance royalties and only pays publishing. So the composers get paid, but not necessarily the performers.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_radio#US_royalty_contr...

Wow. Great example of turning a limitation as a strong aesthetic. Can't wait to try it out!

You do understand that bars and venues pay site licenses to PROs like ASCAP and BMI, don't you? And DJs don't need permission thanks to compulsory licenses, but they are required to report all plays if they're on-air or spin records in a licensed venue.

Understood. But we're not talking about a Tier-1 CEO, and we're not talking about an established company.

Rather this is someone with no journalism experience at a nonprofit startup. If we were talking about a first-year startup in a failing industry with $5mil in total funding there wouldn't even be a suggestion of a CEO salary close to that.

But my larger point is that this is an organization that needs public support to succeed. Burning through all of your funding in the first year while paying top-level executive salaries in a down economy doesn't build public confidence.

That might be true, but $400k is a whole lot more than breathing room.

But regardless...my point is that this doesn't help instill public trust at all — especially in a massively down economy. My worry is of the double-edged sword: if they fail with a big cash influx it's easy to point to them and say that new thinking in/around nonprofits interfacing in mainstream industry is a failure.

They were given enough capital to last beyond one year...I just hope the gamble pays off so we don't see experimentation in the space end with them.

This just kills me. I run a nonprofit building open tech for the music industry. While we're not without reach or connections, but it's still challenging as hell. No investors, a long road to true 501(c)3 status, and the reality is that finding millions from a wealthy benefactor doesn't happen for most.

I guess my point is that most startup nonprofits don't get the benefit of healthy salaries or even seed money. It's a labor of love — not unlike any entrepreneurial venture, but without the potential payout at the end of the road. I think new and innovative nonprofits have a real place in our economy, but hearing about $400k salaries for unproven CEOs at a first-year nonprofit doesn't win new people over to the side of innovative philanthropy.

If they blow it and don't make it past this first year (and it sounds like there's a good chance of that happening) then it could be a real black mark on new model nonprofits...

I'd actually consider paying the pre-order fee to keep it in a perpetual state of pre-order. Goes from epic vaporware to a whole new vapor-based business model.

So...Karnov? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnov

Am I the only one who thinks "gang rape" is a little extreme here? Granted, I'm on the low end of the "majority" but I find the perspective all sorts of wrong.

My family was left penniless just paying the healthcare bill for our first daughter, and even then I would never compare a broken system to gang rape. I'm not saying we should discount the woes of middle-class America, but I think it's irresponsible to act as though the poor don't have it worse — and even more irresponsible to imply that the poor and the rich are somehow in collusion to "rape" the middle class.

His initial point is a good one, but it strays really far.

Well said, though I would add that there are groups who are working to spread alternate viewpoints in the industry, the public, and on a policy level. It's well worth your time to check out the excellent policy work being done by the Future Of Music Coalition (futureofmusic.org) and I'd also suggest checking out the A2IM which has not-insignificant pull in some of the same circles as the RIAA.

It should also be pointed out that the RIAA works directly from policies set at very high levels of the majors. There are a lot of people who internally see things in a very different light. So turning complaint into education can be a very effective agent of change.

There's something to be said about the service feeling worth it. With a product you can game the feel, like extra weight in a remote. But with a service...

I worked for years as a bike messenger. There's some minor vocational mystery as with the locksmith, but clients generally understood that our job was dangerous and that we did it well. Still...the only time we saw a tip was when we got documents to an office just in the nick of time — too early lacked the drama. There's a perception of extra effort, which anyone appreciates when you're paying a professional to do something that's impossible for you but easy for them.