I hate to say I told you so. Well, actually, I don’t - in fact I rather enjoy it. To that end, here’s a quote from a blog post I made a little while ago about the MPA trying to jail people who put up lyrics and chords for songs online:
The Arctic Monkeys “then proceeded to go in straight to number one in the uk with their debut single. i can guarantee that when they release their album, that too will go into number one.”
Well, this is exactly what they did today (although, unfortunately, they didn’t manage to get the double and stay at the top of the singles chart as well).
Having bought the album yesterday (yes - bought, not downloaded), I personally feel that this is well-deserved. The album is witty, well-produced, full of great riffs and amazingly tight. The point is though, that they managed to do this by releasing their music for free online. People then bought it because they liked what they heard. People making good music have nothing to fear from having their music shared online, which is exactly why the record companies are scared - they believe that people won’t buy a lot of stuff when they realise quite how awful it is.
However, they don’t even need to be scared by this, since if you have a look at the album charts, also in the top 10 are Daniel O’Donnell and James “cockney rhyming slang” Blunt - people are more than happy even to buy crap.
Single sales in Britain went down when the rules were changed so that a CD single could only have 3 tracks. This meant that to get all of the B-sides a band were releasing, people had to buy two singles rather than one. This was an extremely cynical way to try and increase single sales - it backfired, people saw through it and had no intention of forking out up to £8 for only four songs they hadn’t heard (and, frankly, probably weren’t much cop).
Time to start trusting your consumers Mr Record Company Executive. Your customers don’t want to have the threat of jail for downloading a few tracks from a P2P network, and they don’t want to have their computers infected with malicious software - is this really much of a surprise?
I’ve been reading through the bulging mailbag that this site receives on a day-to-day basis. For example, one reader wrote to tell me of an “Admir able Pharam nacy” for all my Viagra needs - I’m not entirely sure what they were implying. Another was kind enough to tell me of ladies I can chat with in Thailand, which I thought was nice of them.
Yet another informed me that someone had died and had left me something in their will. I was intrigued by this, but I was a little concerned that I would have to stay a night in a haunted house of some description, as I believe is the custom. However, I got in touch with the solicitors involved, and they said that in fact all I needed to do was send them £1000. I did this, but they later came back and said that there was some extra work that needed to be done before they could read this man’s will, and that could they have another £2000, of course I was more than delighted to help those charming fellows with their thankless work, so I sent it over. I’m yet to hear from them again, since October last year, and their email address keeps coming back as un reachable, and, come to think of it, they never mentioned a postal address. Still, I’m sure they’ll give me a call soon.
Anyway, amongst these, I found a very interesting proposition:
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappppp!!!!!
I am a regular reader of your site and I like it very much. The Corgis are enamoured by your fascinating links, and personally, I really like it when you get a bee in your bonnet about copyright, like everyone else.
However, I was chatting it through with Philip and Charles, and we came to the conclusion that the site would be everso slightly improved were there some link where I could find out what you were listening to.
I’ve got to be off now, since I have to collect some flowers from children.
In a while, crocodile,
The Queen
Buckingham Palace
Well, with a suggestion such as that, I thought I should act, so, if you look closely down there on the left or your screen, you’ll find a link that will tell you what I’ve been listening to recently. If you can’t be bothered to do that, the same link is here.
This is of the original CSI:Vegas bunch. There’s probably a few missing - I realised when I was watching it last night, I left out the hobbley pathologist guy…
You can see more famous minifigs on my flickr.
As I’m sure you’ll recall, back in September 2005, I sent off my name to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, authors of Freakonomics, since they were offering to sign a bookplate, then send it to whoever asked for one. I am pleased to say that they sent one to me but a few days ago.
It seems as though this is a better move on their part than I may have thought, since I have quite a scruffy, dog-eared copy of Freakonomics, and I’m now tempted to go and buy another copy to stick the bookplate in.
There’s a lesson in here somewhere.
