The Art of Asking

“The fact is ‘property’ didn’t come to mean possession until the 17th century. […] Like water, the essential nature of ‘property’ must ultimately conform to the vessel it’s in. Once, we dwelled in a brick and mortar world, now […] we swim in a digital ocean. The only certainty is that in such a fluid situation, 20 years hence ‘property’ will not mean what it means today.”

When Scott Hansen finally quit his day job to pursue music full-time, he wasn’t some 20-something bartender in LA or New York. Nor was he some young shit-kicker living couch-to-couch, waiting for his “big break.” No, Hansen’s life was far more… responsible.

By David Holmes - Pando

According to an organization called Tru Optik, as many as ten billion files, including movies, television shows, and games, were downloaded in the second quarter of this year. Tru Optik estimates that approximately ninety-four per cent of those downloads were illegal. The law seems to be completely out of whack with the technology.

by Louis Menand - The New Yorker

As with the content industries before it, 3D rights owners face a dilemma. Do you resist it and hope 3D printing is a passing fad or do you embrace it? Make the wrong choice and it may well print your lunch.

by Mark Owen - The Guardian

Ultimately, all these scenarios have to satisfy the same human urges: What do we need music to do? How do we visit the land in our head and the place in our heart that music takes us to? Can I get a round-trip ticket? Really, isn't that what we want to buy, sell, trade, or download?

by David Byrne - Wired

Have you ever tried to do something that required help from other people?  How did you get them to help?  For 3 years during and 2 years after high school, I tried to make a living playing rock and roll.  This meant living in a van named Trogdor with 4 to 5 other guys going across the country in search of supporters.

by Scott Hoch - NationBuilder

https://vimeo.com/14912890 

“As Isaac Newton once said, ‘We stand on the soldiers of

giants.’ Which is what he was doing when he adapted that saying from Bernard de

Chartres.”

 

“Thank goodness for David Shields and his new book, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, which, among other things, is a literary battle cry for the creation of a new genre, one that doesn’t draw distinctions between fiction and nonfiction, originality and plagiarism, memoir and fabrication, scripted and unscripted. . . . Shields, brilliant, thoughtful, and yes, original, is calling for an ‘ars poetica for the burgeoning group of interrelated but unconnected artists in a variety of forms and media.’”

While celebrated for various awards and accolades over his career, Reznor has long been known for various corporate entanglements and outspoken disputes against the music industry where in May 2007, for example, he spoke out against the pricing and distribution of the Nine Inch Nails album YEAR ZERO in Australia. Attacking Universal Music Group, the parent company of his then record label Interscope, he stated: ‘As a reward for being a true fan you get ripped off’ (Bruno, 2007). Reznor would go on to urge fans to illegally download his songs at a live performance in Sydney in 2007 as a way of drawing attention to those involved that what they are doing is not right; that they are ‘ripping people off’ (Moses, 2007)