With the digital music explosion, the issues of copyright, authorship and ownership have never been so important. Tune in to hear a re-broadcast of Jim and Greg’s interview with legal expert Lawrence Lessig. Listen
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The Grammy-winning violinist vents his frustration at CBC’s cuts to classical music.
Canadian violinist James Ehnes comes across as an easygoing, laid-back kind of guy. Originally from Brandon, Man., he has a matter-of-fact way of expressing himself - articulate, but unadorned with drama or artistic licence.
But if his spoken words aren’t as vivid as the notes he plays on his 1715 “Ex Marsick” Stradivarius, there’s weight and substance to his statements. And when he says he’s “upset and alarmed” about something, he’s not just striving for effect. He means it. [full article]
While I’m at it, here’s a link to the Podcast 101 piece done by Kevin Rose and Dan Huard of Systm. Take notes, there’ll be a quiz tomorrow.
Prompted by the release of Apple’s iPhone in the UK, yesterday the BBC announced an optimized download directory of BBC podcasts for the iPhone (and iPod Touch).
Now, that’s moving fast.
The BBC also say they plan to release versions for other mobile devices soon.
For now, point your iPhone or iPod Touch to:
bbc.co.uk/podcasts
Whenever I find myself talking about great audio, usually with people who are passionate about radio and podcasting (like the other evening at the Ottawa Podcast meetup), a few great resources come up time and time again:
“Radio: An Illustrated Guide” by Jessica Abel and Ira Glass. This is a comic book on how the This American Life team produces the best damned radio show going.
Ira Glass on Storytelling (a 3-part YouTube video). Glass is the genius behind TAL.
“From Idea to Air“ by Tod Maffin. An e-book by the CBC’s Tod Maffin on what makes compelling audio and how to get it to air.
And of course the seminal …
“Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting” by Robert McKee
All great sources for starting discussions around engaging audio.
I’m flying between Winnipeg and Ottawa, listening to a favourite Coltrane recording. I thought I’d get down a few musings (laments?) on digital music and audio fidelity prompted by the EMI/Apple announcement.
Dynamic range, warmth and depth have all but disappeared it seems in today’s music recordings. Music is compressed in recording, in mastering, in broadcast; often at all three stages. The loudness effect is ubiquitous. Broadcast audio is so pumped that it never seems to vary more than a few db. What results is music that is shallow, cold, harsh and without any kind of imaging or space.
Our new formats don’t help things. We have gone from vinyl (with its many short-comings, granted), to cassette tape, to Compact Disc, to MP3. Even though CDs have potentially more bandwidth than vinyl, it’s not used.
For most people MP3 and AAC files compressed at 128k have become the way they listen to music. Add to the mix iTunes EQ settings (which usually counter, or undo, any ‘psycho-acoustic’ EQ inherent in the MP3 and AAC file compression) and the result is unlistenable.
Do our ears not know any better anymore?
Has the convenience of iPods, iTunes Music libraries and huge hard drives won out over sound fidelity?
Has the requirement to sell music on the radio, in movies, in video games and on the web over crappy computer speakers made the dumbing down of recordings necessary?
Has the focus on computer rigs done away with the concept of home audio systems?
Maybe the music that’s being consumed as 128k MP3 files doesn’t need — or deserve — better engineering or more bandwidth.
Is anything likely to reverse this trend, or will high quality audio become even more of a niche interest?
ps. It’s often said that we are now more discerning with video than we are with audio, what with the prevalence of gigantic plasma and LCD displays and “surround sound” in home theatre systems.
I don’t think so. Check out a TV retailer, where the colour on the display models is so saturated and overblown the reds almost make your eyes bleed. Or what about the stretching of a 4:3 aspect ratio image to cover a wide panel display? Every bar’s got’em. And what about the compression artifacts in a digital cable or satellite-to-home? A fast-moving image sequence is horribly chunky. People don’t seem to mind watching the ridiculously distorted images, over-saturated colours, and overly compressed video. I can’t bare it.
As with music, it probably doesn’t help that most of the broadcast “content” is shite.
Sound Opinions this week looks at the recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board in the US that would dramatically increased royalty rates for streaming music on the web, a decision which may in fact put many internet radio stations out of business. Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot explore the issue with John Simson, the Executive Director of SoundExchange, artist Jonatha Brooke, and owner/operator of Radio Paradise, Bill Goldsmith.
From Tod Maffin’s Todbits blog:
Next week, CBC Radio will add new podcasts and increase the frequency of shows available to listeners. Starting Monday, April 2, CBC Radio will add 12 new podcasts. In addition, the flagship network programs The Current, Sounds Like Canada and As It Happens will move from weekly to daily highlight podcasts.
It’s encouraging to see our national broadcaster embrace podcasting as it’s done. Hats off to Tod for his efforts on that front.
Link: full post
Link: CBC Radio podcasts
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Jason Fry outlined last week’s ruling by the US Copyright Royalty Board which proposed new performance royalty rates for online radio stations.
An online radio station would pay .08 cent per song per listener for 2006 (the rates are retroactive), .11 cent in 2007, .14 in 2008, .18 cents in 2009 and .19 cents in 2010. Seems like little enough, but it adds up — and this small change is a big change for small Webcasters. Under a deal brokered in 2002, small Webcasters had met their royalty obligations by paying artists and record labels 12% of revenue, but the new rules would do away with that exemption.
These rates would in effect kill Internet radio. For services like Pandora and “indie” stations like Radio Paradise, fees would surpass revenues. The ruling would also affect terrestrial radio stations that simulcast on the net as well as XM/Sirius satellite radio. Podcasters now operating under the ASCAP/BMI podcast licenses would also have new fees heaped on. The issue can be traced back to … The Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, natch.
This is not a done deal and Internet stations and listeners are preparing to fight the ruling.