Opinion – Rocknerd

2019 in music: your comprehensive and reliable global guide.

13 January, 202014 January, 2020 Industry, Live, Opinion, Record, Theatre 2

The punishment of luxury is in the air for all to see. And it’s ugly now, and it’s getting worse every day. Hey! Hey! Hey!

I ran the Perth indie record charts, from 1989 to 1991. Corruption! Manipulation! Propaganda!

10 September, 20183 November, 2018 Indie, Opinion, Record 1

An excuse to get Perth bands into a published record chart, so they’d get some publicity and could use it in their marketing. And to propagandise Australian indie to the masses. Includes THE HITS OF 1989!

Reripping the CDs, as you do.

12 June, 201815 June, 2018 Audio, Opinion 0

Here’s to cdparanoia and EAC, to turn the music trapped in the silver abominations back into the pure data they were meant to be.

Richard Syrett on Theodor Adorno, the Beatles, conspiracy theorists and … me.

6 June, 20186 June, 2018 Esoterica, Opinion, Pop, Radio, Rock 0

Did you know that Frankfurt School philosopher Theodor Adorno wrote all the Beatles songs? I sure didn’t! In fact, I still don’t.

How to make Spotify suck less than YouTube for streaming.

9 May, 201816 December, 2019 mp3, Opinion 0

I actively try to use Spotify, because I like the idea that the artist will get at least a penny shaving. So why do I keep just using YouTube? Because it’s not a goddamn pain in the arse.

Oh, eMusic, no — don’t go blockchain! Another Kodak moment.

6 April, 201817 July, 2018 Industry, mp3, Opinion 3

It looks like eMusic’s attempt at a comeback last year didn’t work out so well. Behold: the eMusic Blockchain Platform! … a Kodak moment indeed.

Last week after “Dynasty” I had crows feet under my eyes. Paid two days for getting high. Mark E. Smith is dead.

25 January, 201825 January, 2018 Opinion, Post-Punk 2

Sounds like MiG 20 crack, huh? Over! Over!

Björkcoin: Björk’s cryptocurrency album project dissected (impolite ranty version).

12 November, 201725 November, 2017 Indie, Industry, Opinion 6

My restrained and professional assessment of the incompetence and stupidity all through the Björk cryptocurrency project was reasonably popular and widely read. This expanded version adds what I was actually thinking when writing up this collapse board cascade of slapstick coded-by-dildo incompetence.

Those Crazy Socialist Juggalos

5 November, 20175 November, 2017 Opinion 0

On the most unexpected political alliance of the year: the Juggalo youth subculture and organised socialism.

YouTube stream ripping: the record industry is being thick again.

12 September, 201719 September, 2017 Industry, mp3, Opinion 3

I feel like I’m giving away the game here by revealing the truth to the terminally incompetent, but good Lord this is ridiculous.

The virtual reality hype slowly faces up to real reality.

28 August, 201728 August, 2017 Film, Games, Opinion 2

Despite continuing attempts to keep the Virtual Reality hype going, the real reality has not improved since late last year.

Karlheinz Stockhausen as synthesizer music for ten year old children.

27 August, 20175 October, 2019 Classical, Esoterica, Opinion, Record 1

At age ten I’d heard synthesizers were cool, so found some Karlheinz Stockhausen to start me off. I, ah, didn’t quite know what to make of it.

How Spotify dragged the record industry kicking and screaming to its own survival.

22 August, 20179 May, 2018 Industry, mp3, Opinion 0

You’d think people running a business would do things that would make money and have them still be around next year. But, welcome to music!

When did music journalism stop wielding the axe? Particularly against the industry?

2 August, 201719 January, 2018 Industry, Media, Opinion, Writing 0

Music journalist upset at not being able to put the boot in any more? YOU ARE NOT SHORT OF TARGETS.

Spotify’s extruded pop product substitute is worth it for the industry outrage.

12 July, 201717 July, 2017 Industry, Media, mp3, Opinion, Pop 1

Spotify outrages the record industry by not giving them even more free money. The actual listeners are fine with this.

Master Quality Authenticated — “high-resolution” audio with … lossy compression.

17 May, 201721 May, 2017 Audio, Opinion 8

An audacious innovation in the “high-resolution audio” field: hi-res audio that does lossy compression. And the record companies love it.

Warner does a deal with YouTube. The record industry is outraged!

8 May, 20179 May, 2017 Industry, mp3, Opinion, Your rights 0

Warner has signed a completely expected deal with YouTube, because they do great business with each other and fully wish to continue. The music industry is hilariously outraged that Warner did the obvious deal with a fantastic and essential publicity outlet.

The music industry’s sense of entitlement. How to get the money rolling again.

4 May, 20175 May, 2017 Industry, Opinion, Writing 0

Eamonn Forde opines at The Quietus that the reports of the record industry’s rebirth are greatly exaggerated.

You’d almost think there’d been some sort of horrifying plummet in people’s financial circumstances.

On “data-driven” discovered genres, artistic conversations and faces in clouds.

3 May, 20179 May, 2018 Opinion, Writing 0

I am sceptical of the “data-driven approach” to cultural discovery. It reifies statistical artifacts, filter bubbles and faces seen in clouds.

Why Spotify wants some Blockchain; how music industry Blockchain dreams work.

27 April, 20179 May, 2018 Industry, mp3, Opinion 6

A detailed examination of why music industry Blockchain (capital B) dreams are not going to work out.

The Spotify-Universal 2017 deal, with windowing, probably won’t change much.

5 April, 20177 April, 2017 Industry, mp3, Opinion 0

Apart from revitalising the torrent sites, but everyone seems to have noticed that bit now.

Record labels want money YouTube doesn’t earn, just because Google has some and they’d like it.

3 April, 20177 April, 2017 Industry, Opinion 1

With cites that they know this money doesn’t actually exist yet.

Music journalism: still dead, thank goodness.

26 March, 20175 May, 2017 Opinion, Writing 5

“Can music journalism exist at all?” “Do Music Journalists Matter Anymore?” I mean, if you have to ask …

All these streams will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

20 March, 201721 March, 2017 mp3, Opinion, Record, Writing 1

There is no “cloud”, there’s just someone else’s computer. Will we find a listener who cares?

Whatever happened to Winamp? (which you can still download, by the way)

5 February, 20173 May, 2017 Audio, mp3, Opinion 27

Fifteen to twenty years ago, Winamp was the MP3 player that everyone used. It was the first MP3 player not to suck: playlists, shuffle, convenience. And you can still download the last version.

Virtual Reality: it’s the new 3D! Expensive, consumers don’t want it and it makes you throw up.

14 December, 201628 August, 2017 Film, Games, Opinion 5

3D technology has been the next big thing for only the last sixty years. It offers amazing improvements over ordinary moving images: darkness, muddier colours, blurriness, headaches from watching for more than twenty minutes and slower action sequences so the viewer doesn’t bring up their last meal.

The time has come to listen to Ethernet cables.

25 November, 201617 May, 2017 Audio, Opinion, Writing 7

The sound with the Pearl becomes lighter and has less impact and detail compared to the Supra. Stereo image shrinks, but more obvious is a reduction in detail. Changing to Cinnamon with only one switch in my network produces a surprising result.

What the death of What.CD fails to mean for all of humanity.

19 November, 201625 January, 2020 mp3, Opinion, Your rights 0

There’s a lot to be said in favour of massive copyright violation in the interests of cultural preservation, but “fixed targets are stable and sustainable in a world including the record companies” is not any of it.