I’m not sure you can trust the veracity of most blogs.\u00c2\u00a0 Little reporting, if any, is done and most tend to be biased in some fashion.\u00c2\u00a0 But make no mistake, the blogosphere is the ultimate cop.\u00c2\u00a0 When some politician or businessman tries to falsely spin a story or BURY a story there’s always some disgruntled person with a keyboard out to set the record straight.\u00c2\u00a0 And, as the record labels fail to realize, the Internet is conventional word of mouth on steroids.<\/p>\n
In case you’re living under a rock, in an inane move, the Grateful Dead removed their live recordings from archive.org, where they were distributed for free.\u00c2\u00a0 You know the drill…\u00c2\u00a0 Wait a MINUTE!\u00c2\u00a0 Trading cassette tapes person to person is ONE thing, but on the Net you’re trading with everybody almost INSTANTLY!\u00c2\u00a0 We can’t have that!\u00c2\u00a0 How can we SELL the live shows if everybody can get them for free!\u00c2\u00a0 John Perry Barlow, sometime lyricist for the band and EFF honcho, just about committed suicide.\u00c2\u00a0 The band just didn’t GET IT!\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind that this is what sustained their multiple decade career, the free dissemination of their music.\u00c2\u00a0 But that Jerry-led touring revenue is gone.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to make a buck in this world, fans be damned.<\/p>\n
Only one problem…\u00c2\u00a0 The Net buzz\/reaction was DEAFENING!\u00c2\u00a0 It was like people found out Jesus wasn’t God’s son.\u00c2\u00a0 It shook their belief in the band to the core.\u00c2\u00a0 The volume and vitriol ended up in long, prominently-placed articles in the "New York Times" and "Los Angeles Times".\u00c2\u00a0 And then, almost instantly, the band did a mea culpa.\u00c2\u00a0 They saw that one false move was going to eviscerate the career they had left.<\/p>\n
It’s kind of like the Sony rootkit fiasco.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to be you had a run of defective vinyl records and nobody who didn’t purchase one KNEW!\u00c2\u00a0 And who gives a shit about music, really, when people all over the world are dying.<\/p>\n
Well, it turns out MILLIONS of people care about music.\u00c2\u00a0 And even more so, their COMPUTERS!\u00c2\u00a0 This is an event that won’t be forgotten for decades.\u00c2\u00a0 Read the following article, especially the comments at the bottom: For Sony, a Pain in the Image<\/a><\/p>\n But, you say, that was an article written by the MAINSTREAM press.<\/p>\n But I ask you, how many teenagers have a subscription to "BusinessWeek"?\u00c2\u00a0 They never even used to see it.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t pick it up at the dentist’s office.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, it’s just a click away, adding fuel to the fire, its legitimate press imprimatur giving it added weight.<\/p>\n But the most shocking story passed about on the Web this week is the one about the war profiteer bat mitzvah.<\/p>\n Read the facts here: Not-so-Petty cash to rock bat mitzvah<\/a><\/p>\n Read the analysis here: 50 Cent, the War Profiteer and the $10 million Bat Mitzvah<\/a><\/p>\n