The recording industry is yet again offering a downloadable music service consumers can’t use - no MP3s, songs not transferable to portable music players and downloads that are no longer playable if the user’s subscription lapses.

Analysts consider the products of Musicnet (BMG/EMI/Warner) and Pressplay (Sony/Universal) unmarketable - the companies having failed to meet consumer expectations due to excessive paranoia and prices.

See also analysis from InternetNews and especially from MP3 Newswire. “Let’s just say that governments have bigger worries than chasing Napster clones right now.”

The point of this exercise in futility, from Velvet Rope poster ‘Thousandaire’:

“I worked for one of the majors, and it was a supposedly “tech savvy” label (that’s all I will say publicly about where I worked). Nobody in their new media division believed that the download programs would work, they viewed it as “we want to show that there is a dollar value on a download to establish damages.” The attempts to build systems can be viewed as a way to prove damages when suing other download services. (i.e. “you have 50,000,000 members, and that is cheating us out of $500,000,000 a month that they would otherwise be paying if you weren’t around). Heck, the labels made a business model out of suing the likes of MP3.com out of existence.”

That sounds alarmingly plausible. “These MP3s had a street value of one million billion zillion dollars …”

Bird Blobs: Ian Wadley is the greatest guitarist in rock. Vodka Party: have a tuba. A good night surrounded by unfamiliar attractive people.

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It’s too loud and I’m too old. But a good cause, a good show (The Redresser, Mustang, Casanovas, Speed Demons, Fez Perez and Six Foot Hick), a full house and a good time had by all who survived.

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An excellent article on CNet, updating on the issue in depth.

Also: an interview with SunnComm, who did the copy protection on the Charley Pride CD.

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The power ballad is one of the finer sprouts of the hard rock’n'roll tree. When the adolescent males have slammed, stagedived and pogoed their little hearts out to your fast ones, going up to four (or even five) chords (on acoustic, of course) with that big, slow “thump … tha-THUMP … thump … tha-THUMP” drum line will cement your cred as a truly great writer of truly moving songs and not just another spandex-clad, fretwanking attention-seeker searching the front row for male adulation and female lust dumb enough to lead to a night with you.

As a musical form, this heavy metal/cabaret pop crossover’s spread into the ‘alternative’ field has enabled a host of single-riff bands to say that, yes, they are real and deep songwriters of the kind that will live off their publishing for the terms of their natural lives, since it’s now a well-known fact that selling a million records through a major will probably leave you deeper in debt than selling a hundred thousand, let alone what you got selling four tapes a night at the Empress.

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The first major release of a copy-protected CD appears to be “Rock Your World” by Michael Jackson, according to Need To Know - the promo copies work on most CD players, but are unrecognised by current CD-ROM firmware.

This is a problem for all consumers - as the UK Campaign for Digital Rights points out, “These new CDs will play fine to start with, but underneath, the sounds have been subtly corrupted. Your CD player has to work much harder to play the music correctly, so after a few scratches, you’ll have tracks going wrong MUCH SOONER than with normal CDs. In truth, these CDs are not as good quality as normal CDs.”

The Campaign recommends a policy of taking back non-playing CDs as defective immediately (pointing to the ‘CD Digital Audio’ logo, which does constitute a claim that the disc meets the logo’s standards), or taking it back if it fails after a short time.

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In light of recent attempts of mine to pick up, it’s probably good to remind myself of why screwing musicians sucks. This article was written a few years ago and is a little bit dated - I’m not sure if Michael Gudinski has any actual influence in The Biz these days - so if anyone has any ideas to update it I’m not too proud to steal them.

Dedicated to the forgotten buttress of the rock industry, the non-musician wife or girlfriend.

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Clear Channel, the company working to ensure as absolute a playlist monoculture in the US as possible - and which is sniffing around radio in Australia - has blacklisted several hundred songs in the wake of the events of last Tuesday.

Included are songs about war, the word “Tuesday”, “Walk Like an Egyptian”, and even “Peace Train” and “Imagine”. According to Fucked Company, the list has indeed been confirmed as being for real.

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Factsheet 5, the magazine of fanzine reviews, is to recommence publication after a three-year hiatus.

The new publisher is Dwayne-Michael Alborn, a 22-year-old marketing student who was “interested in going into the catalog sales area … With the numbers we ran and the numbers Seth had, I’d say it’s a definite career opportunity.”

Factsheet 5 was started by Mike Gunderloy and ran from 1982 until late 1991. It was taken over by R. Seth Friedman, who published it from 1993 until 1998, covering the time of the zine craze of the ’90s.

Friedman has been trying to sell the magazine for some time, having stated in late 2000 that “if a new publisher is not found by the end of January 2001, the magazine, its web site and P.O. Box will be shut down for good.”

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We have just set up a household MP3 server and it has changed our lives. Like a thousand-disc CD changer without the delays and clunking and whirring noises.

Ever played your ENTIRE CD COLLECTION on shuffle? You Will(tm). Shits on radio, fer sure.

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It’s your turn to write something. I’d like you all to list what gigs you’re thinking of attending in the coming week (the rock week going, of course, from Wednesday to Wednesday), a bit about each show and why you consider it a serious prospect.

(Melbourne readers may find the Beat gig guide useful as a crib sheet, assuming Beat remembers to update it this week.)

My own weekend is filled with social interaction of a nonmusical nature on Friday and Saturday. But on Thursday, I will be going to see Tankt, an electronic band (the bleep end of “industrial”), at 9th Ward (cnr Flinders Lane and Elizabeth Street). Principal in the band is Jarod Smullen, a fine fellow who is nearly as arrogant about music as me; I’ve decided I’ve got to check out what he produces himself. (MP3s available on the band website.)

And yours?

or I’ll come around and rip your ears off personally.

(Or you could watch a tape as I probably actually will ;-)

“Long Way to the Top screens on Wednesday nights at 8.30pm, from 8 August to 12 September 2001.” Website at http://abc.net.au/longway/ .

Damn. I can’t wait for this one to be released on video. Did I mention the box of Dancing In The Street I just got, by the way?

Clinton Walker’s classic book on Australian post-punk indie rock, Inner City Sound, came out in 1982 and has been unavailable on the face of the earth for most of the years since.

However, some enterprising preserver of culture has recently seen fit to make available a bound photocopy of the entire book.

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You, like me, have a four-figure count of vinyl records that you have spent five figures on, and a two dollar turntable that’s needed a new needle for at least two years now.

Well, read about the ELP Laser Turntable and weep.

(No, that’s not Emerson, Lake and Palmer …)

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According to Whammo, the Continental is to return as a live venue.

“The good news is that while the Continental Cafe will change names and hands, it will most likely remain a live music venue, with a downstairs venue, a bar and a restaurant included. After the furore at the news of the venue’s closer, current landlord Morris Libermann has found a new tenant who will continue to run the premises in Greville St, Prahran, as a music venue.”

This despite reports on RRR Breakfast from those who’ve seen the inside of the place stripped back already.

Jodi Phillis: What you’d expect, well worth not missing. Fibrotown: Country indie rock, surprisingly good. Cornish Arms: Good venue. Rating: Damn fine night out.

Missed the first band, Grandview, who started unnaturally early. (Nine or something; normal start at the Cornish Arms is apparently 9.30, we arrived just before ten).

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