
Indeed, there was no motivation to write about some of the news. For instance, there was the item that reported that Brittany Spears takes in about $7 million a year and spends about $6 million. So with all those Doritos and child support, she still clears a million dollars a year! How? Why? I don't know and, to be honest, I just don't care.
Here in Stockholm, Pirate Bay, the file sharing site, got whacked with a huge fine and jail time for the operators by a judge who is being questioned about his bias. The Local reported on April 23rd that Tomas Norström, the trail judge, is a member of Svenska föreningen för upphovsrätt ('the Swedish Copyright Association') and sits on the board of Svenska föreningen för industriellt rättsskydd (Swedish Association for the
Protection of Industrial Property). These memberships automatically make him a member of the international organisations ALAI and AIPPI. In the words of Captain Renault, "I'm shocked, shocked." I might have cared about this ten years ago, but now it seems to be a tempest in a tea pot. If the labels had figured out that something is better than nothing, then they wouldn't have left all the money they could have earned on the table while they spent big money chasing their customers and the Pirate Bays of the world. It has not stopped file sharing one iota. Now they are facing the fact that, while the labels are still trying to protect CD's, the public is moving beyond file sharing and into "music from the clouds" from services like Spotify.

I had been trying to get on this Spotify thing for quite awhile. I clicked on the web site to try the "free" service (it carries both audio and display ads) but there seems to a waiting list that is dauntingly long. Each time I relinked, they reminded me I was already on the list. I hate standing in line for anything, much less free music. But the other day, I discovered a link that gave me a link..and now Spotify is ensconced on my hard drive.
It is clean and easy to use, I'll give it that. But it's far from perfect.
"Users can access 6 million tracks via searching for artists, albums, titles and genres. Spotify features a large and constantly growing library of music, giving users access to tracks from all major labels as well as numerous independent labels. However, some major bands aOf those they do have, Spotify carries extensive catalog choices, but not everything in the artist's catalog and there are a lot of repeated songs from best of and greatest hits packages. There is a proclivity for renditions of the artists songs by other groups. I'm not talking about Patty Smith doing Nirvana, either. How about "Streets of Philadelphia" by Studio 99?re either very under-represented or are completely missing from the library, including AC/DC, The Beatles, Metallica, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd." (Wickipedia)
For those of you who love the shuffle aspect on your tune players, it does OK. If I choose Don Covay, it will give me Soloman Burke and Otis and Carla Thomas in something called "Artist Radio". But it will be heavy on the chosen artist. There is also a section called Radio. You can format it by decade and musical genre. I chose 60's / rock, soul, r & b, blues and hard rock. Don't be surprised when Eddie Fischer or a Christmas tune pops on. But it IS convenient and when they get the portability sorted out, having Spotify on the iPhone will be really handy. To have the music called up nearly instantaneously is very convenient and freeing up hard drive space is always a blessing.
In surfing the net, Spotify has some big plans in the future. For now, it's a nice add on to the music pile. Certainly more convenient and a lot faster then the search and download method. But you are tethered to the computer, and they don't have a way to conveniently search the catalog like in iTunes. And for guys like me, who like to cut across genres and eras when listening, it has a looong way to go. But it's a start and a glimpse into the future. But will a person who said this like this system? Shervie thinks not.
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