IPOD - MY GOD (or, the evil that men do) I know that there are those of you who think IPODS and their ilk (or should I say spawn) really are the greatest things since sliced bread. I did not have much of an opinion of them either way until recently, but in what should come as no surprise I am here to piss on your parade, and really, you'll thank me in the end. Now, lets get a one thing straight right off the bat. Nobody appreciates something that makes life easier more than me. If you haven't yet figured out that I'm as lazy as the day is long you've learned nothing about me. Like a Shaker, I have nothing against a good days work, but any contrivance that makes that work easier (and especially better) is something I am ready to heartily endorse. As I noted above IPODs were not an issue I had thought much about until this past Christmas. If anything my only gripe was people were again settling for a sound experience that sucks. However they came to mind because my kid had told me back in November that she wanted an IPOD for Christmas. She's a little young for it I thought and probably only suggested it because she heard a friend say they wanted one at school, but still, I liked the idea of her liking music that much. Thus started the slow process of my wheels turning and where this journey took me, well, it was a place I didn't like at all. The first problem was when I realized that if I bought one I'd have to "fill" it. That means I would have to spend the entire new year burning every disc she liked into mp3's and uploading them for her. Christ! The thought of the time and work involved in that task is simply staggering. I really don't have the time for that and upon consideration of the problem it dawned on me that it would be JUST as easy to get her a walkman and let her listen to the discs themselves, that way I wouldn't have to do any work and she could choose whatever she wanted. Even better was the fact that I wouldn't have to buy her anything because there are a couple of walkman players kicking around the house right now, and I've already made lots of compilation discs with music she specifically likes so that chore has been done as well. So then, what possible purpose was there in doing all the work (and paying the costs) involved with an IPOD just so she could listen to music the same way"? (That "way" by the way is having a little box attached to small headphones that really suck) Come to think of it, she could be doing this already and didn't even express an interest.... what's going on here? Well, in her case it was simply the age old song of kids hypnotised by a new technology. It doesn't need to make sense or be fiscally responsible. "It's cool dad, I want it." Case closed. Well, she didn't get it and in the end I don't think she cared. Good job of parenting, case should be closed....However, that conundrum started making me think about the people who do own and use them. NOBODY would go to all the trouble of burning cd's to mp3's to use an IPOD instead of a walkman. NOBODY, because it just doesn't make any sense. On top of that the sound sucks both ways, and certainly if anything it is worse on the IPOD. What possible reason would anyone want one of these things for........ Then I knew why, and shame on all of you that do it. Oh yes, I know you can pay for downloads and a large number of people do actually do this, however many do not. Stealing may or may not hurt crap bands that sell half a million albums, but it's going to kill indie music because we don't sell enough as it is. IPODS are the rage because they are convenient for people who don't care about sound quality but they also compliment all the piracy going on, and I find that terribly un-acceptable. Maybe I am a bit naive for just getting this issue in focus, but in my defence I was raised better than to think that way. I also don't want to hear the excuses of those who do it either. I went to college too, I had no money too. Nobody was broker than me. Once years ago someone called me and asked me to come over and do something and as I was going out I remembered my car was out of gas and I looked in my wallet. It was empty. I had to call back and say I couldn't make it. It was empty because I didn't have a job at the time because there were none. You kids now have no idea what it's like to live in a time when there literally is no place to work or make money. Yeah, it's harder to make a fortune in the stock market now than it was 9 years ago. Wow, life's a bitch... What did Dr. Evil say, "Boo frickity hoo"? I used to go to record stores and look because I couldn't afford to buy. (And lets not forget you kids make more than I did 25 years ago making minimum wage, (my first job payed $3.50 an hour, stellar huh?) but records still cost the same (or more) then than they do now. (Albums were $14-$16) It wasn't until the later 80's when they were trying to phase records out that their price came down. Many times when I was young I could only buy one (or two if I was lucky) at a time and even then I had to keep walking back and forth trying to choose between the FIVE I really wanted. I didn't even have the luxury of the internet where I could get anything I wanted. You can't imagine how hard it was just getting the first Tears For Fears or Lloyd Cole albums. It took months of actual work, actual leg work and a lot of praying and looking. That's why I do not own a lot of stuff pre-1985 that I really wanted. But all that's changed. Just go on one of these new mp3 search engines, type the band or song name in and 37 selections come up. These things are so invasive they can even read the code in the mp3 itself so even if the file is not named correctly it can find it and you can own it, free and clear. I know this is happening because my counter can track where hits come from and people are getting to my site from these engines, and every day their numbers increase. And I am not talking about clips bands let you have to hear what they sound like. Obviously if the band gives it to you it's not stealing. And to me the worst part, the absolute worst part is that there are people in bands I know who do this. They lament nobody buys their music as they go about stealing the music of others. Twenty year olds who spend the day calling Bush a criminal spend their nights actually committing crimes. To me the hypocrisy is vulgar. It's a fact that when an indie album gets made it usually only gets pressed in a quantity of 500 up to 1,000 if the label is hopeful. If they sell all the copies it's a windfall of a success. On a planet of what, 6.5 billions that's pretty fucking sad. Even in the economic suckfest that was the 80's your average good indie album sold 50,000 copies. (perhaps because you couldn't steal them online) What makes todays sales figures even worse is that now the whole world is interested, as indie is big in Japan, the Philipines, Germany, Scandinavia etc... where it was mostly a UK/US affair in the 80's, yet selling out of 1,000 copies is a good days (er...excuse me, two to three years) worth of work. (because that's about how long it takes 1,000 copies to go OOP these days) Boys and girls, that fucking blows. Not only that, but it is such an insult to the bands that work so hard and deserve what little they do get from the meagre 1,000 that get sold. These people ought to be selling 100,000 copies, they ought to be making a living at music, but instead they are not. And the unkindest cut of all of it is the people that supposedly love the genre so much are the ones who are indeed sending it to it's grave. So lets see, you all make more money than I did at your age, your parents CERTAINLY make more money than mine did, you live in much better economic times than I did, you can actually find what you want right now and on top of it you don't even have to leave your damn house to get it! There are even places like Amazon that sell used copies of stuff often for just a few dollars, and yet thousands, thousands of you choose to steal it instead. One very odd and in fact bizarre point some of these people have the nerve to throw back at me is that I sometimes get free promos. "You don't have to pay for it" or "You're not helping the band." In the first place my site costs me hundreds of dollars to run each year, and this does not include payment for my time. Were we to factor that in, even at only $10 an hour my site costs me a good 4 grand a year. At $15 a disc, I am nowhere near getting 266 discs a year to recoup that. I only take in maybe 2 to 3 dozen promos a year, and of that only a dozen I really even wind up liking. I'd also like to note I buy far more than I get free and many times have even bought when I knew I was going to be sent one anyway just to help the label and band. Yet in the end let us not forget I am in essence in the industry and I am providing free publicity for these bands, and a good deal of it at that. You get reviewed on the Spinzone, the couple of months you're in the new reviews section thousands of people are going to see your album and read about it. I think the cost of a promo, a press sheet and a mailer envelope are the least they can shell out for publicity like that and the business I know it brings them. If I'm not helping the bands, (and you too) what the hell am I doing then? A lesser point to all this is the fact that these stupid machines become the centers of your musical universe as well. You could be well on the way to owning a nice 2 channel setup for what one of these stupid things cost, and it would sound a HELL of a lot better. I am troubled that it appears just hearing the song is more important than hearing the music. It's yourself that you're cheating out of the joy of a well recorded or fine album. If you don't care then may I suggest you read the book "Pierre" by Maurice Sendak. All I can say is you are missing out on a wonderful experience, and I can only assume the lack of caring stems from never having heard a decent stereo in your lives, which is another pity we won't get into here. So there we are. I know the biggest whiners on this issue are the mega major labels or the super rich schlock rock bands from 30 years ago, and when they cry it hardly engenders sympathy. Frankly, I don't care about them and they can fight their own battles anyway. But for many of you to bitch about the world and then go trample the daisies yourselves, it simply sucks, and it is absolutely inexcuseable in my eyes. You can't afford it? Join the club. Do any of you actually think I can afford to buy every album that catches my eye or ear? Well, I can't, but I don't resort to stealing it. Finally, I know there are those who actively buy because a lot of you write me, and I want you people to know how much the bands appreciate you. It is a fact they make their albums out of an internal "need" or desire to do it, and making money is almost always a side concern. It means more to them to hear their work was well received, but it's also nice to get paid for that work too. Why would those of you that steal, oh, excuse me, you gave it the nicer sounding name of "sharing", why would you want to deprive them of that? I don't get it, and as a result the bands don't get it either. I'm also not talking about making discs for friends. You're not going to hand out a million songs on your own. That isn't the case with a computer and the web however. That's it. Nothing new or heady in any way. I just thought I'd tell you we all know it goes on, some of you reading this do it, and I don't like it. If this makes you reconsider your life of crime, that's great. I thank you and the bands thank you, and you'll be helping save the scene you love. If you don't care and you prefer to remain a cancerous leech who simply exists to suck the lifeblood of others, well, you have a nice day too. POSTSCRIPT Upon further thought one other thing came to mind, and this is actually addressed to those people who do purchase their downloads for these infernal machines. Does it not concern you at all that you are in actuality buying nothing? You purchased a "download", which is now on a microscopic hard drive. You have nothing "physical". Nothing to hold, no cover art to enjoy, no booklet to read and nothing which will always be useable. (yeah, some do have art downloads available but printing your own is NOTHING like the real deal) But my real concern is viability. I know enough about computers to know that one day that IPOD is gonna go down. And knowing indie like I do, 5 years from now when you lose that song you love I'll bet the farm that band, that download is long gone off the web. You lose it and you've lost it. So what then, you have to back up everything you buy 20 times to insure you don't lose it? It isn't safe keeping it on any hard drive anyway, so what's the only safe option? That's right, copy it all to CDR. But even cdr's can act up in time, they are not foolproof like a regular disc. In any event this course of action brings one thing to mind instantly... Why didn't you just buy the real damn thing to begin with? Just like books on computer have not replaced real books like everyone said they would, simply because nothing is like holding a real book, so too I believe one day people will wake up and realize all they are losing using IPODs. And you know, the sooner you change and start getting the real things the less remiss you'll have. Imagine all the stuff you'll aready have and not have to go back and look for. Finally, (for real) let us not forget that while yes, some futuristic IPOD that can store 1,000 albums will certainly be easier to have and take and use while not taking up the space 1,000 real discs would, (while still sounding like crap) however, it is also that much easier to lose everything instantly thru disc failure, theft, damage or any of the myriad of catastrophies that plague man. Like a wise man once said, "You pays yer money and ya takes yer chances." POSTSCRIPT TWO I was contacted by a gentleman who read this and said he agreed with it 100% and who posted a link to it in a forum discussing the issue. Of course that brought the unholy out of the woodwork who instantly pronounced me "an asshole". Yes, hardly original and nothing we haven't heard before. However they didn't bother to include any facts used in reaching that conclusion, so in case there are any doubts I would like to point out that the above is solely my opinion, which I have a right to, and condensed the points I made were as follows: 1 - Stealing is illegal 2 - The net has made stealing (now called sharing) so easy many people don't even realize they do it, did it, or that it does do harm. Even if you download legally, very many do not, and it does not take much to hurt indie labels and a scene that was already crippling along like a pig on stilts. 3 - Buying cd's and then burning out and uploading mp3's is a lot of work. 4 - Buying downloads puts you in the position of having more work in the form of backups, otherwise you risk the permanent loss or costly replacement of everything you own. 5 - A side point was that the sound quality blows. (compared to many other alternatives) If anyone can prove any of the above statements are not true, please write to me with proof. Points 3 and 5 are matters of choice, so one cannot argue it. If someone says "It's a lot of work burning and uploading mp3's but the later freedom makes it worth it for me, and I am happy with the sound I get." then what can I say? It does not however change the fact that it IS a lot of work and the sound does blow compared to very many (and by no means very expensive) alternatives. It also does not change the fact that these machines make the piracy that goes on all the more inviting and rewarding. Even if you love your Pod, if that final point does not give you pause then you were a selfish prick to begin with, and as I said before, you have a nice day. But beforeyou go you may wiah to check out this study by the BBC which appears to validate my points.