Hooray for OCA!

The Open Content Alliance is getting some ink in the New York Times. Score one for actual open access to information!

Head made of Radios

I'm currently downloading the pay-what-you-want new album from Radiohead. I think their decision to distribute their album themselves, on their own website, for a user-chosen price is a fascinating idea. There have been complaints about the less-than-CD-quality audio compression of the download. I'm not sure this will make a difference. There is as yet no perfect solution for digital music distribution, where everyone walks away happy - and I mean everyone. A model where bands and labels make some money, and consumers don't feel ripped off? Pie in the sky, at this point. Labels aren't (and probably won't be) content with making just some money, and as for us consumers, well...

I can only speak for myself. I'm still willing to pay for music, but only up to a point. If you must know, I chose to pay four pounds for the album download. A fee of 45 pence was tacked on (credit card companies have to take their cut, of course) - that converts to just over $9 total. Which is about as much as new CDs should cost. I think $8-10 for a new CD is ideal. Why is the actual cost twice that much?

Of course, there's the question of whether the music is any good in the first place. I'll know in about 10 more minutes.

Get over it

I don't know if you guys read Tom Friedman's columns in the New York Times. I agree with much of what he has to say, even though a lot of people on the left like to trash him for his allegedly pro-outsourcing, pro-globalization, pro-seal-clubbing book "The World Is Flat" (I haven't read the book, so I can't say for sure what his stance is on seal clubbing). But his latest column really made me want to stand up and cheer. Jeez. Let's not lose sight of what we're all about. Bad stuff happens to good people sometimes. It's no reason to go Rambo.