Entertainment: Disposable Music

The Music Industry, much like any other segment of the entertainment world, is an ever changing world these days. With the advent of technologies like the MP3 and the almighty iPod, your average consumer just doesn't have the same appreciation of the effort involved in making a record. Gone are the days where you would wait with baited breath for your favourite record store to open up Tuesday morning so you could get your hands on that new album by your favourite band. Why wait, when you could probably find a pre-release leak online? Or if you're one of those who still do prefer to pay for your music (good for you!), you can still pre-order it from iTunes or Amazon and have it download while you sleep on release day.

To make matters worse, modern computer technologies have made it even easier for your average hobbyist musician to build a halfway decent recording studio in their bedroom for a relatively low cost, thus adding even more to the deluge of "artists" out there shoveling their crappy music down our throats. Never mind that it was there has been that candy-coated bubble gum music, where a complete song can be written and recorded in a day (trust me, I've seen it happen) since the dawn of time, there just happens to be more half-assed music out there than ever before. Sure, it also lets the talented underground musicians and bands get heard in ways that were unthinkable even ten years ago, so there is some silver lining to this otherwise murky cloud.

Only once in a while now, can you pick up a record, put on some headphones, lay back and soak it all in, front to back, and appreciate the awesomeness that it is.

Entertainment: Green Day's American Idiot to Become a Movie!

This story is of particular interest to me, since Green Day happens to be be one of my favourite bands.

Universal has given the green light for American Idiot, the Broadway musical based on Green Day’s acclaimed album of the same name to be adapted into a full length feature film.

A concept album tackling the ideas of love vs. rage, "American Idiot" follows three characters: the aimless Jesus of Suburbia, punk rock freedom fighter St. Jimmy, and Whatsername. It was released in 2004 and quickly became one of the band's biggest albums. It also spawned Grammy Awards, as did the Broadway version.

The studio is in negotiations to pick up the screen rights and has set Michael Mayer, the director of the stage production, to helm the big-screen adaptation. It is also expected that Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong will be courted to play the role of St. Jimmy, a role which he performed many times on Broadway and will be performing the role once more as the production nears it's close on April 24th.

Oscar award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who wrote Milk, is in discussion to write the screenplay. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, who optioned the rights before Idiot began its Broadway run, will produce via their Playtone banner along with the band, Pat Magnarella and Tom Hulce.

Hanks and Goetzman were producers on the mega-smash "Mamma Mia!," the adaptation of the musical based on the ABBA songs. Universal was behind that musical, which got it on the hunt for other musical projects. Not all of them are created equal, however, and the studio recently put In the Heights into turnaround after it was deemed too pricey.

An American Idiot movie has been talked about since the album originally came out in 2004. Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt told us a while back that Armstrong himself has a vision for how he'd like to see it filmed: "Billie has full pictures in his head of each of these characters and, you know, their emotional turmoil and triumphs and every bit of what we believe should be the making of a good movie, and that is emotional investment."

Entertainment: C-32 No More?

In an update to our previous post, the recent call for a Federal Election has put the call for copyright reform by the wayside. Again. This is the third time parliament has been dissolved before any changes to our current copyright laws could be changed. A few questions arise from this: What does this mean for the average listener to be able to access music via The Cloud or other streaming/download sources?  What does this mean for musicians and how do their rights get protected?  How about that proposal where ISPs should pay the same kind of fees broadcasters do? And ultimately, what does this mean for the future of radio?

Clearly, this will not be in the forefront of any candidates campaigns, but it should be. If you get the chance to talk to your local candidates about this and other issues, you'd be doing every music fan and musician a favour.

Entertainment: Viral Videos

The Internet has given a voice to everyone, and it's not always clear that that is a good thing. In fact, at times it is very clearly NOT a good thng. One of the more recent activties out there is a You Tube video that has swept the nation, and is widely regarded as one of the worst songs ever. Don't know what I mean? Just take a look. I warn you though, you may require a drill to get this little nugget out of your head.

What's worse is that it's spawned a series of equally questionable videos, which lead this geek to think that the music industry is definetly grasping at straws now. If my kid ever comes to me with a "check out this cool music, dad!" I will promptly sit her down with the first four Black Sabbath albums, the Ramones and a pile of other great records from when music was still good.

Entertainment: Google Music

After much talk and speculation as to when this might happen, a number of music industry sources are saying that Google has reached a point where its employees are testing a new Google Music service, which would allow users to buy and store music in the cloud, making the songs accessible from just about any web-connected device including your PC, tablet or smartphone via streaming.

For those who don't know what "The Cloud" is, it refers to "Cloud Computing", where information is stored and presented to the users in a simple way that is easy to understand without the users needing to know how the services are provided. This simplified view is called an abstraction. Similarly, cloud computing offers computer application developers and users an abstract view of services that simplifies and ignores much of the details and inner workings. A provider's offering of abstracted Internet services is often called "The Cloud".

 

 

Proof that Google Music exists was found a couple of weeks ago when a user on the XDA Developers forums did an update to the latest build of Android Honeycomb and a new music option appeared and started syncing with his collection. It turns out that it was indeed a working version, the insiders have said, although the final version will likely look a little different.

Such a service from Google has been widely speculated about for years, and at one point we thought it may launch last year, but the main problem with launching such a service is getting the major music labels to sign up to licensing and royalty deals. Negotiations with at least some of the top publishers and with the four largest record labels are still ongoing, with delays primarily due to the complexity of the subject matter: Google is after cloud music rights, and not just for songs acquired from Google Music.

Apple's iTunes has made no move to offer a cloud-based solution for streaming music yet, and that’s exactly what Google wants for its Music service. It’s new ground for the music publishers and therefore they are cautious of signing away their music to a large online database users can access forever. The fact that Google is thought to be testing Google Music internally does suggest progress has been made, though. If the service is working, then music publishers can see exactly how it functions and come up with a deal they are happy with, or changes they require. The issue then becomes can a deal be struck that both Google and the music industry is happy with?

Entertainment: This Just In!

The soothing sounds of the Sexy Sax Man! Beyond epic! Don't believe me? Just watch.

Entertainment: Bill C-32

This is an issue that's close to the hearts of everyone in the radio industry.

You may remember last year's "Save Local TV" campaign, which was launched by local broadcasters to allow them to charge carriage fees. As someone who has been working in broadcast, I've noticed some things that the public advertising doesn't make clear, and is even more vague in the large markets where the main broadcasting hubs reside. Most of the major broadcasters, such as CTV, Global, and the like have smaller "satelite" stations in local area far from the center of the Canadian universe that is Toronto, and it costs these broadcasters money to create, develop and deliver their content to the cable and satelite companies that send it off to the home viewer.

Ultimately, this argument is sort of a moot point now, since most of the carriers own most of the broadcasters. Plainly put, everybody owns everybody else. But I digress...

The issue at hand now, is Bill C-32, particularly the sections that will result in saving broadcasters tens of millions of dollars. The general public might view this with much the same light as they did with last year's campaign. "Don't these broadcasters have money to spare?" Well, not an endless supply. I was confused about this, too, but as someone who works in the industry, I was able to get a little better insight to the issue.

The Bill is an update to old copyright laws, tariffs (fees) and other issues that radio broadcasters deal with on a regular basis. Some want to charge the broadcasters multiple times over for the same piece of audio, be it a song, or what have you. And this, for the broadcasters, is the key point. They are essentially forced to spend millions of dollars needlessly for content they have already paid for, thus, lining the pockets of giant record labels and other content providers.  This money rarely, if ever, finds it's way down to the artists, who we love, but often barely scrape by. And a lot of that money leaves Canada, making it even harder for the struggling Canadian artist.  Bill C-32 will help broadcasters keep their money in Canada, with greater benefit to Canadian artists and all Canadians alike.  The idea is to for our broadcasters to use this money to support and help grow local and national tallent.

Contact your local MPs and let your voice be heard. Support your local broadcasters, support your Canadian tallet, and help keep Canadian money in Canada.
Check out isupportmylocalradio.ca for more on this controversial Bill.

Geek Culture: Meet the Geek

I'm a geek.  I was born a geek.  I've lived my entire life as a geek.  I will die as a geek.  When I was growing up, the term "geek" was an inflammatory statement, meant to hurt.  Nowadays, it's a way of life, that is widely accepted, and even embraced.  Works for me!

I'm the son of a computer programmer, and for a laugh, I hacked into my father's company's mainframe when I was 13, with an old tank of a laptop (it was smoking fast for the time!).  I've been working with computers since the days of the Commodore64, and the Atari1030xt.  I've been playing video games since the days of ColecoVision and the Atari2600 (the old "wood-grain" model).  I'm also a musician, and so I've been working with Digital Audio Workstations (or DAWs) since I was 15.

I have a degree in Audio Engineering, with a minor on Broadcast Technology.  I was the Canadian support manager for a major international music software company.  I was a technical wireman for over four years, building a variety of television studios in the Greater Toronto Area.  I now work as a radio engineer for a major entertainment company in Canada's largest market.  I have 3 laptops of various degrees of awesomeness, a Mac, two iPods, an iPhone and a Blackberry.  And at my desk at work, I have a Cisco IP phone, and a computer with not one, or two screens, but three.  I also have a display of action figures on a shelf above these three monitors.

And I read comic books, and love superhero movies.