David Gerard

Rock stars were not formed whole from the brow of Zeus.

23 January, 20098 September, 2016 Rock 0

From The Guardian: 1970s rock stars with their parents. “Life photographer John Olson’s extraordinary pictures of the biggest rock stars of the 1970s at

Microsoft employees give up all hope.

22 January, 200926 December, 2016 mp3 0

It’s not just Microsoft’s DRMed music at twice the price, which will be as popular as a Zune running Vista. It’s the PR guy’s

Now I’m gonna be twenty-two.

6 January, 200923 May, 2014 Punk 0

Ron Asheton has died aged 60, apparently of “natural causes” with no suspicious circumstances. LOOK, PUNK ROCKERS, THIS JUST ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH. JUST BECAUSE

Most tasteful. Souvenir. Ever.

6 January, 2009 Rock 0

Almost fifty years ago, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a plane crash with some guys called Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. His

Kids think Guitar Hero controllers make music.

1 January, 200931 December, 2008 Musician 3

From Jed: Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips has a double-necked guitar where one neck is a Guitar Hero controller. “He went with the

Whatever happened to Festival Records.

31 December, 200831 December, 2008 Record 0

Festival had a truly spectacular decline and fall. When it finally died, it seems it was bought by Warner, who, being helmed by the

Annoying people without excessive weight.

4 December, 20084 December, 2008 Audio 0

What we used to call “ghetto blasters” in the 1980s are too heavy and annoying and expensive in D-cells. In the modern age, you

Ten thousand statistically grammar-average band names.

9 November, 200830 June, 2024 Musician 6

When building MusicSeer (now inactive) in 2002, Brian Whitman needed a way to ferret out bad user information. So he wrote something to generate

And now for some words on music. The Gold Afternoon Fix demos.

7 November, 200815 January, 2017 Rock 0

Any Church album recorded after 1990 is complete shite — tedious stoner hippy noodling with no songs at all and far too much pot.

Wow, games really are the new rock’n’roll.

6 November, 20084 September, 2016 Games 0

It must be INTARWEB PIRATES, not games being set to outsell CDs and DVDs put together by next year. Not that I plan to

Support slot of the year.

15 October, 200815 October, 2008 Live 0

The epic tale of how Deathboy supported Tricky. Includes handy hints on getting a free hotel stay.

Looked beyond the day in hand, there’s nothing there at all.

7 October, 200815 August, 2011 Post-Punk 0

Why not cheer up your readers with a string of album giveaways? The Times gives you music for global financial crises: Closer by Joy

“DRM-free” as blatant lie.

26 September, 20082 June, 2017 mp3, Your rights 0

Customers loathe and despise DRM. What’s a marketer to do? Advertise products as “DRM-free” when they’re nothing of the sort! After Sony and Nokia

One more such victory will utterly undo us.

25 September, 200814 May, 2017 Film 0

*ahem* I told you so.

DRMed, limited “DRM-free unlimited” music services on mobile phones.

24 September, 200814 May, 2017 mp3 0

DAS BUNKER, British Phonographic Industry, Wednesday (NNGadget) — Sony-Ericsson has announced PlayNow Plus, a new plan for unlimited “DRM-free” music downloads on phones. “Pay,

Step right up!

13 September, 200812 November, 2016 Industry, Your rights 2

The content industry is addicted to control. We tell them over and over again that DRM is mathematically impossible. There is no such thing

Never gonna run around or desert you.

12 September, 200830 April, 2017 Pop 0

Rick Astley takes us through his finest Rickrolls. I had someone Rickroll me by phone a couple of months ago.

DIY advance copies.

10 September, 2008 Musician 0

Oasis are giving away three songs from their forthcoming album, Meet The Beatles. Not as downloads — as sheet music. With Arts Council funding,

Spore: unintelligent design.

8 September, 200826 December, 2016 Games 0

Music is too fragmented for anti-DRM campaigns to do much. Games are much more hit-oriented. So Spore is having the crap beaten out of

Ladeez gemmun. The $2500 THX-certified door.

4 September, 20084 September, 2008 Audio 0

It’s not a $500 ethernet cable, but you’d better be in serious need of serious silence to drop $2500 on a door. Mind you,

Metallica “welcome” album leak.

4 September, 200827 August, 2016 Metal, mp3 0

“That’s how things are done these days,” says drummer Lars Ulrich. “Also, there’s the novelty of anyone wanting to listen to a Metallica album.”

And what you gonna say in private?

27 August, 20086 September, 2016 Your rights 1

The ridiculously widely publicised default judgement against a filesharer has attracted the sort of attention they’d probably rather it hadn’t. Michael Coyle of Lawdit

I love MySQL with a love only Hans Reiser could understand.

21 August, 2008 Rocknerd 0

I got sick enough of this with Squishdot. MySQL just ate itself all by itself and had to be restored from backups. Fortunately, I

Woman fined £16,000 in apparently nonexistent court case.

19 August, 20086 September, 2016 Your rights 0

Davenport Lyons, “a leading London law firm,” has put out a press release, which has been run as-is by large chunks of the press,

My memory has just been sold.

18 August, 200818 August, 2008 Media 0

The zombie technology of the magazine suffers the final insult: Mygazines.com, a magazine-sharing site. The hard part in nailing them for this blatant copyright

Never mind the money, you’re not getting paid anyway.

17 August, 200820 May, 2017 Industry 0

Radiohead’s In Rainbows did zillions of copies through bittorrents and filesharing, suggesting they’re replacing the radio, not the CD. Not that the death of

Join us now and free the photos.

16 August, 200816 August, 2008 Media 2

One of my other pastimes is Wikipedia. We’re all about the free-as-in-freedom content — not just no-cost with-permission, but wide-open to reuse, including commercially.