Interesting Links for 19-1-2011

[andrewducker]

• Music companies to sell singles as soon as they are played on the radio. Why the fuck weren't they already doing this?
  (tags: music business industry piracy)
• Stephen Fry explains how GPS and the Internet work. And fails, miserably.
  (tags: stephenfry technology internet gps funny)
• Labour and Conservatives team up to fight human rights
  (tags: rights law labour conservatives uk)
• Fear of Spiders Can Develop Before Birth
  (tags: fear spiders)
• Gay couple win disctrimination case against B&B that wouldn't rent them a double room.
  (tags: religion lgbt rights uk)

Comments

[blearyboy.livejournal.com]

In Ye Olden Days, music generally went on sale around the time it was released to radio stations. Oh the fun we had back then, when you'd see your favourite band on Top Of The Pops entering the charts at number 38, then slowly climb up the charts over the next few weeks. Would they make it up to number 1? Oh the drama! Jumpers for goalposts, whatever happened to Spangles?, etc.

Single sales started falling dramatically in the mid-90s which changed the way the charts work. Singles rarely climbed up the charts; normally their first week position would be the peak. Thus in order to get a number 1, you had to enter the charts at number 1. Record copmany strategy for this was simple: release the song to radio stations early, build up a buzz and get everyone down to HMV on day of release.

It's all changed again now of course. One phenomenon that doesn't get discussed much is that some post-iTunes entries in the singles charts aren't even currently on release as singles. For example, when X Factor released a cover of Hallelujah, angry fans (including myself) bought the Jeff Buckley version instead. It wasn't available as a single, we just bought track 3 from the album Grace. Jeff's version ended up making number 2 that Christmas.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

“A stupid person's idea of a clever person” was also said about Aldous Huxley

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Probably true of him too, but I've only read Brave New World so I'm not really qualified to comment.

I saw that episode of QI and was suitably amused by Fry's authoritative waffle. In the same episode he also touted the usual urban myth about the origins of the concept for Snakes on a Plane. He seems to be the interweb embodiment of the expression, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

Sadly the internet is proving to be his downfall as well as his saviour, as it's very easy to refute the stuff he comes out with, be it misinformation about the world or about his own socio-political faux-pas.

Mind you, you can't fault him entirely for his mistakes on QI. His perfomance on there, let us remember, is not so much "The brain of Stephen Fry" but "The brains of Stephen Fry plus those of the behind-the-scenes research team in his ear."

He should stick to history and history of music. I've never heard him go wrong on those.

[andrewducker]

I guess this is the problem with non-technical people trying to explain technical things, it's very easy to get a vital facet wrong (GPS signals go from satellite to handset, not vice versa. A microsecond of difference equates to about 300m of accuracy), and then when you simplify things for the studio audience you've got things really quite wrong. If you're simply repeating a bit of history then the chances of you misunderstanding are presumably significantly lower.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Fry at his best is extremely amusing. I just wish he'd STFU about things he doesn't understand, such as computer technicalities and female sexuality.

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

I loved* the rhetoric that was being used while they were debating the prisoners voting issue. I know it's a divisive issue (I'm for, some people I know and love are against), but I want there to be more debate than just the condescending comments that I heard on the radio.

--
* not necessarily loved

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

Laughed lots at the report's statementthat "[Straw and Davis] argue that the Commons should be given the chance to stand up to the ECHR and defy what they see as an illegitimate challenge to a democratically elected Parliament". Democratically elected by those who aren't in prison, that is.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I envisage some sort of a flowchart. "What's wrong? People aren't buying the stuff I want to sell. Conclusion: THEN SELL IT TO THEM, DUMBASS!" I mean, selling things to people who want them is like rule one in capitalism, if you're not doing that, no WONDER your business model isn't working :)

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

i basically don't buy major label music anymore, on the grounds that I refuse to give money to people *that* fucking stupid.

this is just another example of music execs being about a decade behind the industry they're supposed to run. Albeit a spectacularly baffling and revealing one

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen bookstores with special displays of books recently discussed on NPR, either.

[andrewducker]

Discussing a book on NPR doesn't give it to you for free though.

I have seen bookstores pushing whatever book Oprah has been talking about recently.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I have seen bookstores pushing whatever book Oprah has been talking about recently