From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V8 #155 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Friday, September 26 2003 Volume 08 : Number 155 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: Well, This Is An Interesting Development... [Sean Carolan Subject: Alloy: Well, This Is An Interesting Development... Folks, I thought this was interesting, given that simmering under many of the discussions here on Alloy, there's the issue of downloading music for free. On the one hand, there's 60 million people that swap files on one P2P service or another, which seems like a pretty good audience, and on the other, there's the fact that they mostly all tend to download the same damn thing, not to mention the likelihood that swappers never buy. And, of course, the anti-ripping directive on 40 (conspicuously missing from the Submarines remix disc) and the please-don't-share-this release of the Fever Pitch odds'n'ends MP3 - thanks, Thomas! - are certainly indicators that digital sharing is part of the playing field we're working with today. Then something like this happens: I get an e-mail from one of the PR companies that occasionally spam me, saying they'd like me to put up a link that lets people hear the entire new Seal album. (And, since I rather like Seal, I put up the link. It's at the top of the center column at www.altrok.com.) I'm listening to it now - it's embedded within a Flash player, and the interface pretty much lets you skip forward or back and, yes, hear the whole album. It's not heavily compressed, either - it's difficult for me, even with headphones on, to figure out which compression scheme they're using. (I'm usually pretty good at that.) So, while this seems like a big market test, I've gotta ask: are the people in charge of this communicating in any way with the people at the RIAA in charge of suing the 12-year-olds? - -HubCity ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V8 #155 ***************************