Another modest proposal from U.S. Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters. This time she proposes eliminating the current section of law that allows musicians to record covers, as long as they pay a fee. She proposes that a private organization set the rules and rates. Ms. Peters seems to be making this sort of grand gesture a habit. Link courtesy of the Lessig Blog
Apparently McDonald’s ad company wants to pay rappers to mention the Big Mac in their songs. (Yeah, I checked the date, and they would have been a bit early for April Fools. Now that doesn’t mean the Daily News didn’t get fooled.) Rappers could get $1 to $5 every time their song is played on the radio. I wonder if that would include Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s song It Takes Two. After all, this was one of the lines: “I like the Whopper, f*** the Big Mac!” ...
So, some companies are planning to compete with iTunes by offering a music rental service, where you can get unlimited tracks for a monthly fee but those tracks will die if you do not have a current subscription to the service. While I can see some advantages — trying out new music, getting rid of songs you never listen to — I’m wondering why the same companies that can’t compete with iTunes in the first place think folks will drop the “I bought it, it’s mine” mindset given to us by years of buying CDs, records, and tapes? And for that matter, why should we? Record companies obviously did well off of it. Can you imagine being the customer service person who has to explain to a customer why half their collection just stopped working? ...
Backstreet Boys + Matchbox Twenty + Goo Goo Dolls + Train There are some equations that should never be solved. I’m going to put this in the Music category, even though it pains me. Courtesy of Best Week Ever
Went to the Sarah McLachlan concert in Raleigh Friday evening. While we’re both fans, neither of us had seen her in person before now, and I was a little worried about how the whole singer/songwriter thing would come off in an arena (the RBC Center…or Centre, since RBC stands for Royal Bank of Canada). Of course, I had forgotten that Sarah is Big in Canada™, and that usually means Good Live, no matter where you see the act. (Think Rush.) The RBC Center is a good venue for that sort of concert — it was built recently to house hockey and basketball, meaning the seats would need to be fairly close to the court area. She hit the usual hits, as well as a fair amount of material from the latest album, much as one would expect, and the crowd was really into it. We got two encores, one that was probably planned and one that perhaps was not. (Oddly enough, someone threw a broken lighter up onstage during the concert. I’m not sure what that was about. Those floor tickets were too expensive to buy just to show up and throw hard objects.) ...