Machine Shop: Hype Machine Team Blog

Thanks to Dan Porter and Ned Sherman, Taylor and I are at the Digital Music Forum in New York. The event consists of panels on all things digital music for two days, along with networking breaks and all the usual conference goodness.

The first panel of the day, “The State of the Digital Union”, was easily the best one. There was some healthy debate on DRM and discussion of Steve Jobs’ recent Thoughts on Music.

A quote from Thomas Gewecke (President of Global & US Sales of Sony BMG) sums it up well:

“DRM is all about letting the user do things”

Thomas and a few other panelists argued that DRM would work well, if the technology vendors cooperated and created inter-operable systems, so that the resulting DRM-protected audio files would work on all devices.

I wholeheartedly agree – it’s likely DRM would work great if that condition was met. Consumers would even embrace this technology, if it was properly implemented and presented. Though, assuming that hell has no intention of freezing over, I am not holding my breath for the iTMS-Zune-Rhapsody open-standard DRM system.

A neat addition to the panels was a Mozes.com live SMS message board where attendees could post real-time commentary on the panels by sending a SMS. A good source of spicy questions from the audience and great comments:

“Problems in music will definitely be solved by 50 year olds in suits in this room”

This one appeared just as the first panel was wrapping up. Enough said.

The other panels were fairly predictable. A panel on branding touched upon the difficulties in working in the experimental user-contributed content space for brands. Another panel on mobile content revealed that, well… people buy a lot of ringtones and would buy even more if it was easier.

And that’s all for today, tomorrow’s lineup looks more promising.

That’s much less typing for everyone, all fingers celebrate!

Had this for a while, but now the switch is official!

The other week I picked up a Blackberry and in addition to the fine e-mail device that it is, it also turned out to be a killer mobile entertainment gadget.

After all, if I can read Craigslist on the subway, bus or during uneventful lecture moments, do I really need fancy overproduced mobile video?

Craigslist beats crappy video anytime.

Stumbled into interesting, and at times surreal, footage of Frank Zappa on CNN Crossfire where he debates free speech & censorship as it applies to music lyrics.

Wikipedia has more to say on the subject, indicating that these appearances were part of a larger debate started by the Parents Music Resource Center in their campaign to create a rating system for music similar to that used by the MPAA. The result was a little different than they hoped, but now CDs with explicit lyrics do carry a relevant generic label we’ve all seen.

Check the two appearances out below – well worth watching if only for Zappa’s arguments:

March 28th, 1986 (Click to watch at Google Video)

June 13th, 1987 (Click to watch at iFilm)

Rough Trade is an independent record shop just off Portobello Road in London. It has been around for over 30 years and really is what an indie record shop should be, complete with knowledgeable staff, an interesting selection, quirky background music and beautiful posters that completely cover all of the walls.

The passion that this place attracts is quite like nothing else. Earlier this week, I got my hands on a 2-CD compilation put together from stories, discoveries and recommendations of the shop’s customers in the past 30 years. There are 30 songs and 30 stories included in the booklet by a diverse group of people. As Rough Trade puts it:

The doors of Rough Trade Shop were first opened 30 years ago, but the album to celebrate this birthday isn’t compiled by the staff themselves. This time, it is the choices of their customers, thirty of them to be precise. They requested not only a favourite record selection from the last three decades but also for fond memories and tall tales from the culture at the counter.

Most of these have had a very personal connection with the store ranging from Bjork who was inspired to create music by records she bought there, to record label founders who looked to the shop as a never-ending source of passion.

The set of tracks is nothing short of amazing, and the stories are a mix of history and insight, or are just plain fun. Wow.

Naturally, they sell it on the site (they also have better photos), but the web is no substitute for an experience like this. If you are in London and have never been there, you owe yourself to visit and feel.