Monday, December 08, 2008

Still Here - A Rant

Yes, I'm still here. I haven't been posting much of late - too busy, generally lazy, the holiday season, you know. I have had plenty of ideas but motivation? Not so much. And there is actually a pretty good reason for the apathy.

Since October 20th I've had 7 of my posts deleted by Blogger/Google in conjunction with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Here's how it works; the post is deleted, they inform you via e-mail that they've done it, and they tell you what post got x-ed. The clincher is they don't tell you what content triggered the deletion. Most of the posts x-ed were Funky Fridays with multiple tracks. The only clear content deleted was a Madonna post. The real clincher is that 5 of the 7 posts deleted were old, off the front page, had no content - the links to music were dead. The Madonna post included. So all that really got deleted was my writing. And that just pissed me off.

I know that we audio bloggers are a controversial group to the music industry, but personally I don't think I cost anybody sales by posting a track here and there. I've never hidden what I do. I've been doing it since August of 2001, and recently had my millionth page view. I never go negative, and generally everything posted gets good press. It is clear that the industry doesn't know what it is doing - I get sent music all the time by labels, often the same ones who decry the internet interference.

So that leaves me uncertain of what I want to do here. I'd like to keep on keeping on, but don't want to have to keep reconstructing deleted posts, which I have been doing. What a drag.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude - sorry to hear that. what jackassery. don't suppose switching to some non-google blog engine is an option at this stage in the game?

sara c. said...

fuck em.
i'd find out later, when my readers would comment saying that the zshare link i put up was broken. whaddaya know, they deleted the song, but left the post.
there's too many of us for anything to happen yet. i mean, they sure as hell don't want us to ban together and file a law suit for millions, now do they...

anyway, hello from a fellow blogger
love your touch ;]

Anonymous said...

I've been following your blog for a long time, and you have some of the best taste/range in tunes that I've seen (along with motel de moka). I'd hope that most people are following your RSS feed and aren't as concerned with older posts.

Please keep it up, you've inspired me to put my own blog together to spread music and good vibes to the masses. I've also found some great artists with your help, which has made my DJing better, which has made lots of young people in DC feel good.

I wouldn't worry about losing old writings (unless you want to save them yourself)...as long as you're continually putting the good stuff out there, you're providing a great service.

To me, at least.

Thanks.

Dave Bloom

PhoenixReborn85 said...

Hey man,

I've been following your blog. Just move it to wordpress or make your own website. A lot of bloggers are doing this now because Europe just does not know what it is doing in regards to this. Though I love your blog I would suggest moving it or retiring it. Blogger is dying.

Anonymous said...

yeah - keep up the good work...

frankenslade said...

That's sad to hear. You're the second music blog I visit regularly to have hit such problems. I wish the music biz would realize the service any of us do by stoking the dying embers of their industry more than their own efforts at CONTROL seem to do. It's not like the industry funded media is exposing us to new and back-catalog music of an variety or depth. Happy holidays. Hope The Man lays off your case.

Anonymous said...

This shit is going on all over. go to 17 seconds or the vinyl villain blogs for full rants and rundown. These industry people are wankers, they don't know whats good for music. Fuck em and keep going.

Anonymous said...

Please keep on puttin gud music via this blog !! Its getting less and less usual to listen such good music ;)

Phil said...

It's vare annoying Mr SIART, but some people have a big problem with these mp3 uploads.

But far from killing the music industry as the Internet Stazi are forever trying to tell us, it's actually feeding more and more interest in NEW music. The only things affected are album sales because the format doesn't fit in with the digital age. Instead of trying to crush the audio bloggers, why don't they try to be CREATIVE and come up with a replacement for the album. L'idoits.

Anonymous said...

Have to echo what's been said above, have been a reader/listener for some time of the best music blog out there but always failed to comment. Thanks for helping me discover and re-discover too many people to mention all of whom I then paid money to download or even encouraged me to walk to my local record store.

Hope you can find the will to continue, it's too good a blog to die!

Joseph said...

Gotta echo all of the people hoping you keep it up. I love your blog.

DJ Talbot said...

Well, I'm missing your blog. I have had only one take down notice, and it was directly from the artist and quite polite. I work in the legal field and I turned down work from the RIAA. I'm no hero or anything, but I simply don't want to participate in their B.S., even if I loose a few bucks. Other B.S. is o.k.

Unknown said...

Keep yer chin up, Mr. SIART. The music industry wankers should be paying you to keep interest up and out there, esp. for the back catalog stuff. You do good work...