Saturday, March 27, 2010

Internet Radio Was My DJ








I had the opportunity to mix live sound for a popular 6-piece central Indiana band called The Tides last night at Wings in Anderson. What was interesting to me warranting a posting was the fact that it was the first time that I used my iPhone to provide the break music between sets. I pulled up one of my custom reggae stations on Slacker Radio and easily connected it to the board with a stereo mini plug to L/R rca cable. Surprisingly, I had never done this before and usually just use an iPod or a laptop to supply the background music. In my opinion, it was pretty cool to be able to utilize a ‘custom station’ that I had personalized over time to perfectly set the mood with the exact vibe and ultimately, this streaming method reduced the amount of “gear’ I had to bring or worry about charging, etc….

I wonder how many other sound engineers are using their smartphones like this and what their experiences are like? For my initial test, the sound quality was excellent and my AT&T 3G connection worked flawlessly!

And no disrespect intended, but now I wonder if the venue's ASCAP/BMI license would actually pay the artists I streamed for this type of usage? I know that Slacker has to pay Sound Exchange for the non-interactive royalty rates, but what about the "performance" aspect of rebroadcasting internet radio in public? Who pays for that and how does that money find it's way back to the artist who wrote, performed or published the song??

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Web Standards for E-books

Here’s an excellent article about the real world challenges and pitfalls of producing an eBook in 2010.  Toronto journalist and author Joe Clark does a wonderful job of watering down and simplifying the often complex process of using XHTML and EPUB to produce eBooks that look good, no matter what device they are read on. (Thanks to Dave H. over at MacRaven for sharing!)

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Quote of the Day:

Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book

“The only thing I think is a mistake is people trying to hold back e-books or Kindle and trying to head off this revolution by building a dam. It’s not going to work.”

-Anne Rice

http://htxt.it/rIMS