There's quite a few big changes going on at This Music Wins blog over the coming weeks. At a time when I'm going through possibly the most important set of exams of my life, the blog really seems to be taking off, my readership having risen almost ten-fold since March time. With more readership however comes more demand, and as more legitimate people stumble across my articles, so do more blog-haters. In the last week, the last twenty three files i've uploaded to my Box.net account have been reported by the RIAA as having infringed copyright. Fair enough, you might say, after all, the music from bands such as Cults, Wolf Parade, The New Pornographers is not copyrighted to my name. But as far as i've been aware, the tracks from future and past albums which I have made available were designated by the labels as promotional for the bands. All were widely available across the legal blogosphere, often pushed by labels as a means to build healthy hype for their newest releases.
Of these twenty three files, two I had been given the exclusive right to post (which I have in writing) from the respective promotional company. Another four, were from my own band - the latest EP of which had been displaying in my left sidebar for free download for around a month. If I don't own the copyright to these, i don't know who does. Certainly not a self-righteous office worker somewhere across the pond with nothing better to do than maintain personal vendettas against legitimate music blogs such as mine.
My problem lies not in the fact that the files have been reported and subsequently deleted by Box.net trying to cover their back from these unfounded claims. My problem lies in the fact that this copyright system is tailored to allow music to be removed from servers with absolutely no evidence to back it up. If musicians ask me to take their music down, I am more than happy to do so. The current system however allows absolutely anyone to report any file with no evidence whatsoever in their favour. That's the internet equivalent of a police state. Imagine if all of society operated on this principle. If i didn't like what someone was doing/saying about me, I'd be able to walk into the police station and report them for murder. They'd get life imprisonment without so much as a trial - and i wouldn't need a shred of evidence to back myself up.
Of these twenty three files, two I had been given the exclusive right to post (which I have in writing) from the respective promotional company. Another four, were from my own band - the latest EP of which had been displaying in my left sidebar for free download for around a month. If I don't own the copyright to these, i don't know who does. Certainly not a self-righteous office worker somewhere across the pond with nothing better to do than maintain personal vendettas against legitimate music blogs such as mine.
My problem lies not in the fact that the files have been reported and subsequently deleted by Box.net trying to cover their back from these unfounded claims. My problem lies in the fact that this copyright system is tailored to allow music to be removed from servers with absolutely no evidence to back it up. If musicians ask me to take their music down, I am more than happy to do so. The current system however allows absolutely anyone to report any file with no evidence whatsoever in their favour. That's the internet equivalent of a police state. Imagine if all of society operated on this principle. If i didn't like what someone was doing/saying about me, I'd be able to walk into the police station and report them for murder. They'd get life imprisonment without so much as a trial - and i wouldn't need a shred of evidence to back myself up.
The next problem is that the servers which host the infringing content (in this case blogger/google and box.net) have to cover their backs. They can't be expected to employ the resources to investigate every single copyright claim - so within their company the vast majority operate a very simple policy - removing any content that is reported. Ninety percent of the time this operates very smoothly. All the underhand music blogs which spread entire album links/leaks to their readers and P2P sharing services which host illegal file sharing are removed without much hassle. But the remaining ten percent, who try and write a decent article on a song and then need something to share with their readers - get caught in the crossfire. The creation of the RIAA, an organisation which takes a highly irrational approach to the whole thing means that I don't get a chance to share promotional MP3s with my readership; and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.
The polite, albeit sarcastic email which I sent to the RIAA explaining the situation was never replied to - I should have guessed. Box.net will delete my account and google may delete my blog if repeated reportings mount up. The only solution in my eyes is to dodge MP3 hosting providers and skip from service to service; and to move my blog hosting to wordpress.org on my own URL. The latter of these changes you will notice has already happened. You should be seeing a new look and layout, with all the articles hopefully maintained, over the next couple of months. I hope you'll enjoy it. Anyway, on to this week's update.
BATHS
Beginning on a much lighter note, here's the new video for "Maximalist", by Baths on Vimeo by Ben Sifel.
BATHS 'maximalist' from ben sifel on Vimeo.
(Pre-order Baths "Cerulean" from Amazon.com
)MALE BONDING
I'm not sure if you can remember the picture right back up at the top of the page, but that's Male Bonding. They've played a lot of dates with some of my favourite lo-fi punk bands PENS and Veronica Falls and are building up a hell of a lot of hype on the blogs this past week or so. They've also done a split 7" with Dum Dum Girls (who's LP never arrived from Amazon), and have a bunch of shows coming up with Ganglians and Blood Red Shoes. Their aggressive reverbial lo-fi is right up my street. The full-length debut LP "Nothing Hurts" comes out May 27, 2010 - and is sandwiched by an extensive set of UK Tour dates. Check out the Sub Pop Soundcloud or download "Franklin" direct from the label below.
Male Bonding - Franklin by subpop
(Buy Nothing Hurts from Amazon.com
)MOUNTAIN MAN
Mountain Man provide a stark contrast to the above. The name suggests tranquil acoustics and natural imagery, which is correct, but doesn't warn you firstly that this project is a group, and secondly that its made up of three women. With distant vocals and much more direct finger-picked guitars, the sparse set up and rich harmonies from the Vermont Trio see their first full outing on July 20 - when Made The Harbor comes out on Partisan Records. Hear Soft Skin, the latest track to surface from the 13-track début below.
Mountain Man - Soft Skin (MP3) (pre-order from Amazon.com
)
PHANTOGRAM (ALAN WILKIS REMIX)
Alan Wilkis sent along his latest remix to me earlier this week - this time of NY electro-rock band Phantogram's "Mouthful of Diamonds". Their label, Barsuk, called it a "joyous-new wave infected delight", and as far as i'm concerned that description is just about spot on. The remix has drive, a strong beat and all the Shoes-esque erratic dance sounds which characterised the new wave movement. Highly recommended.
Phantogram - Mouthful of Diamonds (Alan Wilkis Remix) (MP3) (buy Eyelid Movies from Amazon.com
)
Mountain Man - Soft Skin (MP3) (pre-order from Amazon.com
)PHANTOGRAM (ALAN WILKIS REMIX)
Alan Wilkis sent along his latest remix to me earlier this week - this time of NY electro-rock band Phantogram's "Mouthful of Diamonds". Their label, Barsuk, called it a "joyous-new wave infected delight", and as far as i'm concerned that description is just about spot on. The remix has drive, a strong beat and all the Shoes-esque erratic dance sounds which characterised the new wave movement. Highly recommended.
Phantogram - Mouthful of Diamonds (Alan Wilkis Remix) (MP3) (buy Eyelid Movies from Amazon.com
)
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