Category Archives: Music

Music

YouTube to ban indie labels that don’t sign on to subscription service

No more Radiohead: YouTube to ban indie labels that don’t sign on to subscription service

RT: June 17, 2014

Thousands of music videos are expected to soon disappear off of YouTube because the independent record labels behind those artists are not involved in new deals being cut by the Google-owned streaming site.

According to The Financial Times, YouTube will announce within a matter of days that videos on the site featuring recording artists from certain independent labels will be blocked, lest those labels sign licensing agreements that’ll let those songs to be included on a new service coming soon from Google.

When the forthcoming service, YouTube Music Pass, is finally launched later this summer, subscribers are expected to be able to not just stream videos from one of the world’s most popular sites, but back up that content to enjoy later on even when an internet connection isn’t available — a feature currently offered by competing, pay-to-list music services like Spotify and Rhapsody, but not YouTube. To get as much, however, customers will have to fork over a small fee, and so far independent labels have refused to agree to the licensing agreements involved.

Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s head of content and business operations, told the Financial Times that three major record label conglomerates — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group — have all signed on so far. Around 10 percent of the industry is absent such a deal, though, including some top-selling artists who are signed to smaller labels.

FT reported that XL Recordings, which boasts a roaster of groups like Sigur Ros and Radiohead, has not signed up, meaning those acts will likely have their videos taken off the site. Also void of a licensing agreement with YouTube is Domino records, which hosts the group Arctic Monkeys, among others.

“While we wish that we had 100 percent success rate, we understand that is not likely an achievable goal and therefore it is our responsibility to our users and the industry to launch the enhanced music experience,” Kyncl told FT.

Independent artists, however, have a problem with what Google has in mind. “YouTube are shooting themselves in the foot with their attempt to strong-arm independent labels into signing up to such low rates,” singer-songwriter Billy Bragg said in a statement earlier this month. “They’re in danger of launching a streaming service that lacks the innovative and cutting-edge sounds that independent artists bring.”

“Digital aggregation creates power, and now these companies — after years of talking about a big, open Internet future — are finally starting to show when it comes to be tough in negotiations,” Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey told National Public Radio recently. “They’re willing to use their access point as a source of power.”

(read the full article at RT)

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Corporate Welfare, Music, Privacy

RAP NEWS 25: NET NEUTRALITY [S02:E05]

RAP NEWS 25: NET NEUTRALITY [S02:E05]. Having covered conflicts in distant lands, we now turn our attention to our own native homeland, the Internet; where the battle for the hypersphere has reached new heights, as netizens take up arms against Telcoms and the FCC, to preserve the fundamental ethos that made the Internet what it is today: Net Neutrality. What is Net Neutrality, and why is it so important to the future of the Internet? Find out by joining Robert Foster as he takes a whimsical trip into the World Wide Web, with its founder Tim Berners-Lee. Let’s just hope no shady mega-corporatist, elite oligarchic malefactors pop up to mess with us on the way…

(source : The Juice Media)

Music, Privacy

Edward Snowden to Speak at SXSW Interactive Via Videoconference

Monday, March 10: Edward Snowden to Speak at SXSW Interactive Via Videoconference

By Hugh Forrest
SXSW: March 4, 2014

Surveillance and online privacy look to be one of the biggest topics of conversation at the 2014 SXSW Interactive Festival. The number of sessions on this topic reflect the importance of this issue to the digital creatives who converge in Austin each March. As organizers, SXSW agrees that a healthy debate with regards to the limits of surveillance is vital to the future of the online ecosystem.

On Monday, March 10 at 11:00 am, join us for a conversation between Edward Snowden and Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist of the American Civil Liberties Union. The conversation will be focused on the impact of the NSA’s spying efforts on the technology community, and the ways in which technology can help to protect us from mass surveillance. Hear directly from Snowden about his beliefs on what the tech community can and must do to secure the private data of the billions of people who rely on the tools and services that we build.

This session will be moderated by Ben Wizner, who is director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project and Edward Snowden’s legal advisor. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions.

“A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden” occurs in Exhibit Hall 5 on the first floor of the Austin Convention Center. The session will also be simulcast in two other large rooms in the Austin Convention Center — in Ballroom D (on the top floor of the building, near the SX Bookstore) and in Ballrooms BC (on the first floor of the building, at the southeast corner near Waller Creek). You must have an Interactive, Gold or Platinum badge to attend this session. Entry to “A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden” will be allowed on a first come / first served basis — we strongly encourage you to arrive early to Exhibit Hall 5 (or Ballroom D or Ballroom BC) to make sure that you get a seat.

However, if you cannot be at SXSW Interactive on Monday, March 10 at 11:00 am CST, then you can watch a free livestream of the session courtesy of The Texas Tribune. Based in Austin, the Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that promotes civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government and other matters of statewide and national concern.

Beginning Monday afternoon, March 10, a recording of the “Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden” will be available for free replay via the ACLU website.

Source:SXSW

Texas Tribune
ACLU replay

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Music, Tyranny

Pussy Riot – Putin will teach you how to love the motherland / Путин научит тебя любить Родину

Pussy Riot’s new video, called “Putin will teach you how to love the motherland” includes footage of the band’s protests.

The band told a news conference their treatment in Sochi is symptomatic of dissent being stifled in Russia:

“The Olympics has turned the police state into a total police state and the authoritarian regime into a totalitarian regime with preventive arrests,” Tolokonnikova said. “The Olympics has created an environment of sweeping violations of human rights in Russia. We are banned from speaking out here.”

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Alternative Free Press

Music, Tyranny

Pussy Riot attacked with whips by police at Sochi

Russian punk group Pussy Riot is attacked by government security forces as they try to perform under a sign for the Sochi Olympics

Cossack militia attacked the Pussy Riot punk group with horsewhips on Wednesday as the group staged an impromptu performance under a sign advertising the Sochi Olympics.

Six group members — five women and one man — donned their signature ski masks and were pulling out a guitar and microphone when at least 10 Cossacks and other security officials moved in.

One guard appeared to use pepper spray, another whipped several group members while others ripped off their masks and threw the guitar in a rubbish bin.

Police arrived and questioned witnesses, but no one was arrested.

The Cossacks violently pulled masks from women’s heads, beating group member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova with a whip as she lay on the ground.

(read the full report at The Telegraph)

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10649037/Pussy-Riot-attacked-with-whips-by-police-at-Sochi.html

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