Two New Authors! And I've got two more books on the WAY!

Working with an INCREDIBLE writer - the first time I read her work - the HAIR literally was standing on the back of my neck - can't say much more but we're using a new company to do the web/blog and Social Media -which is all underway, and I'll be her manager, literary agent, and more...as MORE things are to come! 

I've also got a book tentatively called "State Rights" - but you'd be surprised that it's FICTION but based upon a "time period" and some timely events...a "Forrest Gump" meets reality...

And I'm getting out my 2nd Edition to fit with the many changes over the past few years...it should be a good read - but it's probably going to be more like the "The Truth about the Music Business, Digital Media, Social Revolution, and the storm of new technology" -

I just LOVE to write and have cranked out more material as of late - it's time to get it all into completed formats - but I may release my Fiction - very similarly to Valkyrie Morgan - in 3 episode for Vol1 and then 3 more for Vol II  - we'll see how it unfolds - as "State Rights" could be a LONG tail - or end up short- but as much as I write - probably in the ORDER of "WAR and PEACE' - we'll see...only with TIME will we know...

SM @ MSO

AL KOOPER on Ronnie Hammond and Robert Nix

I should take a picture of my Platinum Album that Robert Nix gave me from the Atlanta Rhythim Section-I'll get around to it later - HOWEVER:


I'll PREFACE this post about a LETTER that I just read with the fact that Robert Nix and I are both back in MS and still trying to set the MOON on FIRE! Robert and I met in Nashville and became FAST FRIENDS and he gave me my FIRST PLATINUM RECORD for the work I did for him and for the Atlanta Rhythm Section - tracking EVERY song and everything they did while in Atlanta and under the management of a pretty Ruthless Company that messed the ENTIRE BAND, and or course Robert, over pretty bad - it would break your HEART to hear the stories I've heard about artist and writers that DID NOT GET PAID nearly what they should have or outright had their BAND NAME STOLEN FROM THEM! There never seemed to be any limit to the GREED in the music business!
But this is about Robert and Ronnie Hammond - Go in PEACE RONNIE!
------------

From: Al Kooper
Re: Ronnie Hammond – Atlanta Rhythm Section

I knew Ronnie Hammond well. I befriended the band they were b4 ARS when they played New York as “The Candymen”. They were Roy Orbison's back up band and they opened for “The Blues Project” and “Blood Sweat & Tears” when I was a member of each and Orbison took time off. They were signed to ABC-Paramount back then.. We became good friends and when I played Atlanta as Al Kooper with my band in 1972, they invited us down to hear their just built studio and jam. I fell in love with that studio and also the other bands I heard in town when I spent that week there.

I bought into the studio and had my roadies pack up my apartment in New York City and I never even went back HOME from that trip. I moved to Atlanta in 1972, started my own label (Sounds Of the South) and signed two of the bands I heard in town that week (Lynyrd Skynyrd & Mose Jones) Robert Nix, ARS drummer played on Skynyrd's track "Tuesday's Gone" and Ronnie Hammond and Ronnie Van Zant challenged each other for the same woman on more than one occasion. I played on two ARS albums and they backed me up on one of my solo albums. When I heard he passed away, I hit You Tube to see what he looked and sounded like lately and he had aged pretty well. However only he and the keyboard player remained from the original band and that was sad.

It rang my bell when you quoted "Doraville," cause that's where Studio One of which I was part owner for awhile was. "Free Bird" "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Saturday Night Special" were all cut by that Jacksonville band...... in Doraville. I was told Ronnie wasn't feeling well and went to the doctor's office and promptly died right there.

Give 'em hell up there in Heaven, Ronnie.

Al Kooper

-------
If you don’t know who AL KOOPER is then you have to KNOW – read his book! But it all started with his training as a HORN PLAYER and when Bob Dylan was recording “Like a Rolling Stone” the keyboard player didn’t show or they just needed some Organ on the track and Al said “sure I can do it” – first RECORDING STUDIO GIG and FIRST TIME to play KEYS on anything and then the tale just goes on for years and years! I’m a HUGE FAN of everything AL KOOPER has ever done!

Steve Moore
MUSIC SQUARE ONE (and) High Cotton Records

MY SPACE & FACEBOOK FAN PAGES for ARTISTS, BANDS, etc.

Well it looks like MY SPACE is in REAL TROUBLE and the decisions they have made in their recent efforts to try and SAVE the company have FAILED MISERABLY!  And Facebook has failed to really grasp what really happens at the GRASSROOTS of the music business which is what they are supposed to be about - helping out up and coming band! 

Music Fan Pages – were at one time was THE exclusive purview of My Space (and they are STILL vying for bands and artist at MY SPACE more so than anything else - but they have just suffered a huge BRAIN DRAIN and lost 50% of their Employees so we'll see how much longer they can last) so FaceBook Fan Pages are going to FILL that GAP in services and hence gain more market share – but even FaceBook is getting IT WRONG!

I’m certainly no expert on how to code such huge endeavors such as My Space or FaceBook but I have been using both for SEVERAL YEARS NOW and I know how I “NEED” to use these services and I know how I “WANT” to use these services and NEITHER My Space or FaceBook are really making it very easy to do….

In regards to My Space, I can say that the NEW INTERFACE is just HOSED – page load times are insanely slow – trying to fix anything on your “pages” is just ridiculous and you can’t customize your HTML CODE like you used to – it’s all hurry up and wait – and HOPE that your changes are accepted before your browser FREEZES.

They are trying to save the company by AD REVENUE and that was at least the SMARTEST THING ZUCKERMAN figured out when FB was first started – it better be COOL before you start pounding people with ADS or you’re doomed for failure! Especially back in mid-2000’s when FREE was really what the internet was about!

My BIGGEST GRIPE with MY SPACE is that IF you want to change your BAND NAME (which you used to could do easily) you’re STUCK – even if you’re going back to a band name that you used to use AND your ORIGINAL ACCOUNT NAME!

In short, if you used to have myspace.com/myoldband and that was your USER NAME – and you switched to myspace.com/mynewband – due to line up changes or for whatever reason and you decide to go BACK to your ORIGINAL user name – and change the name back to myspace.com/myoldband – you’re STUCK – you can’t change a THING!

That means that the YEARS of work you did adding friends or accepting comments, posting songs, etc are just WASTED! – (even if you held out the hope of getting paid via BMI/ASCAP for “PERFOMANCES” – yeah RIGHT!) You won’t see a dime! GREAT BUSINESS MODEL for the songwriters, publisher or OWNERS of the copyrights – yeah, BMI/ASCAP – you guys were behind the ball as well! But seriously, My Space,

what are you thinking? The good folks at MY SPACE have taken a pretty viable entity and just RUINED IT – and that take us to how FaceBook took over and really messed up as well!

It used to be that FaceBook was about adding FRIENDS – well that was GREAT – in fact, you could hook up with old friends from a LONG TIME ago – all was well with the world unless you were being STALKED or contacted by people that you really didn’t want to hear from and there was NOT a blocking tool – but after some REALLY bad things happened with FaceBook users then FB got a wake up call and started to implement MORE privacy controls, blocking features, etc – they STILL have OPPRESIVE if NOT BLATANT copyright and publicity rights violations but again, I digress.

When FaceBook created FAN PAGES – well that was their entrée into getting BANDS to sign up so they could take on MY SPACE – that’s cool – why not? But then BUSINESSES got into the FRAY and everything got pretty much out of control – way too many companies signing up which meant that BAND FAN PAGES fell by the wayside. Why else call them “FAN PAGES?” – Who is REALY a FAN of a “business” or BRAND! Sure you may LIKE that brand but were you a FAN? Hence they changed the game again – and now you have to LIKE a business or a Band. But what really got me is when they MOVED your BAND PROFILE off your “personal page” and made you move it to your BANDS FAN PAGE! Now there goes your up to 5000 friends that can NO LONGER access your music, videos through PAID and/or ROYATLY based applications like REVERBNATION – and spins or views of videos COST NOTHING to the viewers – if they want to BUY your song(s) – well that’s a different story.

But NOW you’ve got to go PANDER to your friends to JOIN your FAN PAGE – not cool! I know I HATE it when I get some really bad band that wants me to become a FAN (or NOW “LIKE” that band) and with the Band Profile being MOVED that also meant that ALL of your “personal friends” had to join your Fan Page just so that you could get “spins” and/or downloads from Reverbnation – hence royalties went from being PRETTY DECENT to NOT SO DECENT unless of course you want to BUG all of your existing friends to JOIN your FAN PAGE – and unless you’re offering some INCENTIVE (coupons for business, or in the case of bands – a FREE something) and that’s insane as BAND/ARISTS and SONGWREITERS already are GIVING AWAY their music basically FOR FREE anyway – how are these young bands supposed to make ANY MONEY much less a living when they are giving away everything for FREE!

I’m all for the bands that want to GIVE AWAY FREE downloads if that’s their business model as they can make money in SO MANY OTHER WAYS – but for those bands that are just getting started even an EXTRA $25 a month is a HUGE HELP – and of course, I think it’s better to give away your CD – IF your fans buy your T-Shirt for a reasonable price! The fan gets a FREE CD – the band gets FREE ADVERTISING when that fan wears the T-Shirt; a pretty good trade off!

But NOW FB no longer allows you to CHANGE your BAND’s PROFILE NAME if you have over 100 LIKES – not sure WHY there’s a 100 “LIKES” cut-off point but a lot of bands need to change their name and NOT have to start COMPLETELY OVER building a fan base on FaceBook Fan Page – so instead of Facebook being a COOL alternative to “MY SPACE” to post your music AND also a way of generating actual REVENUES – you’re STUCK with your ORIGINAL FAN PAGE or you have to START ALL over again and bug your “friends” to LIKE your NEW BAND PAGE. Once again, big business comes into the COOL SCENE and messes it up for EVERYBODY!

I just wish that both of these companies would try to look at things for the ARTISTS and/or BANDS POINT of VIEW and understand that name changes (even trademark issues will come up – case in point – I’m changing my band name BACK to Steve Moore & The New South because FACEBOOK has ALLOWED at least four of five OTHER “Cowboy Killers” use the same name) At least at one time on MY SPACE you couldn’t have the same BAND NAME (or at least USER NAME) on your account so some other band couldn’t cause confusion in the market place as to which band is which! You surely don’t want to buy songs from the WRONG BAND and get inferior music – or music that’s NOT even what you THOUGHT You were buying!

And I certainly don’t want to have to file injunctions in FEDERAL COURT to get these OTHER BANDS to STOP using my band name as I KNOW I was first in time – hence first in right – but FACEBOOK should NOT allow bands to use the same name that’s already been taken! The other option is to take on FACEBOOK in a class action to stop rampant TM infringement – but whomever wants to fight a company with unlimited amounts of MONEY to battle it out in court is going to be losing before they EVEN START! And don’t expect the USPTO or any other organization to help you out – as nobody really cares about the ARTIST anymore- sure they LOVE to listen to music- and they have their favorite bands – but since it’s so accessible and for the most part FREE I doubt any regular fan would even take the time to write a letter to FB to complain or even help out the band that’s haven their name STOLEN on FACEBOOK!

Well that’s enough ranting for today – as now I’ve got all this work to do to create a new FAN PAGE, change all my accounts with Reverbnation, etc, change ALL of the logos, take down ALL of my songs from iTunes – and change EVERYTHING back to the ONE NAME that I KNOW that NOBODY else is USING – in short, I’ve got to START ALL OVER AGAIN - thanks to the NEW policies of My Space and FaceBook!

On behalf of myself and 10’s of thousands of other similarly situated bands, artists, songwriters and publishers – I’d like to say “Thanks FB and MY SPACE!” That’s all we needed was a TON of work lost and a TON of work to get BACK to where we were – which is NOW IMPOSSIBLE!

SM @ MSO

Crowdsourcing - OR Crowd Sourcing

“Crowd Sourcing” was first "coined" by Jeff Howe and was a featured article in Wired Magazine back in 2006 - (which by the way I've been reading WIRED for a LONG TIME!)

Be that as it may, if you have a unique skill set - such as a "graphic designer" or perhaps are an expert at After Effects, Illustrator or even an APP Developer - the list is just too long to mention - this is a GREAT WAY to keep yourself and/or your small business OUT THERE and actively seeking one-off type jobs.

With the new growth in Word From Home Business - and I'm not talking about SCAMS such as MLM or products like Melalueka where you have to have hundreds of people below you actually selling products for you and/or bugging all of your friends and family to "buy these products" - and talk about how GREAT they are and get almost NOTHING in return! What a waste of time and energy – and it kinds of makes you look BOGUS since you’re even CONNECTED with these companies where if you read about them – you’ll get about 1 out of 100 POSTIVE REVIEWS and 99% are all BAD and talk about how big of a SCAM the whole concept is!

Crowd Sourcing is a GREAT WAY to have access to a host of talented people and let's face it - with every facet of the design world - whether is WEBSITES, or Graphics, Branding/Logo design, or just about ANY type of job where you are using specialized applications to do your work in - it's virtually impossible to keep up with EVERY new release and/or UPDATE for these new software apps, or even be able to afford to buy these huge suites such as CS-5 so that you can learn about 3 or 4 of them and maybe if your LUCKY master two or three of them - then CROWD SOURCING is for you!

In today's world, you have to focus on a NICHE - in fact, if you really want to be a HUGELY SUCCESFUL business - you have to focus on a truly different niche - that really should NOT even be SEXY like the MUSIC BUSINESS - as I can assure you tens of thousands are trying to find a NICHE to stay in the music business. Find something that NOBODY else really even wants to do!

In FACT, you've GOT to find something that fewer people are CLAMMERING for to build a new business model! For example: this new venture I'm looking at for New South Development and we are entertaining the idea as we do more and more research - but this new venture is focusing on a NEW and UNIQUE way of "thermal treatment" for solid/liquid waste - yes, it's GREEN, yes, it's GOOD for the environment as the byproducts are Nutrient Rich "ORGANIC" Liquid Fertilizers, a minimal amount of SOLIDS that can be used for "ORGANIC COMPOST" and the best part is that you create Methane (so instead of just burning it off - which is WORSE for the environment --- you can use the methane (similar to Propane) to POWER you treatment operations! But I digress...(more to come with another PRODUCT and BRAND from New South Development)

So just that I'm being clear, IF you are really good at your particular niche - then join the CROWD SOURCING NETWORKS and/or GROUPS- sure you may submit RFP's and/or bids that get turned down - but you're more than likely doing that every day anyway - why not give yourself MORE OPTIONS to be FOUND and HOPEFULLY HIRED for that really good ONE-OFF project and if you're really good at what you do - then the company that finds you through crowd sourcing - could end up hiring you (if even part time) for MORE WORK - and for those that are struggling to KEEP themselves busy with new projects, finding new clients, etc - this is THE BEST WAY to get your name into the POOL of others that are offering similar or the same types of services.

And how does this work for Musicians, Producers, etc - well there's plenty of people that need back ground music or mastering work done or a HOST of other products/services that YOU can do and/or create - but also don't think of it as just about getting YOUR music or work out there for the masses - also think of it as a way to get your Album Cover Art, Your band Logo, your EPK or any number of things you need to get done to further your career- use the CROWD to get the BEST DEAL on what you need by having people BID ON YOUR NEEDS!

In this down economy and with it being a "business hiring" dream - as people will take a job for next to nothing - at least you don't have to look for a FULL TIME GIG - you can work from HOME legitimately AND if you work with the RIGHT "CROUDSOURCING" GROUPS - you could end up landing a really GREAT PROJECT to add to your PORTFOLIO and in the PROCESS get that exposure that you need to get MORE work and BETTER TYPES of work that are best suited to HOW YOU WORK and WHAT YOU CAN DO! Especially if you have a UNIQUE SKILL or are REALLY GOOD at YOUR NICHE!

Just some random thoughts again as I was cleaning out some old articles and magazines and taking them for RECYCLING - so I figured I "RECYCLE" this information!

SM @ MSO

The Major Labels and the TOP 10% Money Makers vs. FREE MUSIC

I hear a lot of people talking about the Major Record Labels making HUGE PROFITS off the backs of the people who support the music they put out, but I can assure you that NOTHING CAN BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! The major labels are going BROKE! In fact, many have CLOSED and two have filed for Bankruptcy leaving only about two left standing and their days are NUMBERED I can assure you.


Why? Because the labels stuck to the old business paradigm where they WERE making a TON of money but that model is BROKEN! The internet has changed EVERYTHING!

As for those ARTISTS that are getting RICH by charging high rates for LEGAL DOWNLOADS of songs – don’t even think that is the case! In fact, for 10 years in a row CD sales are dropping at an INSANE RATE! In fact, if you follow Sound Scan – you would know that CD SALES are dismal – and most retailers have dropped the number of SKU’s (CD TITLES and how they are tracked) that are available to a very small amount.

Wal-Mart – was the LARGEST distributor of MUSIC for quite some time – PERIOD. As you saw Tower Records file for bankruptcy – nobody stopped to think about all of the independent record labels or distribution companies that were caught up in that whole process and many of them lost HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars as their inventory that they had SHIPPED to TOWER was now owned by the bankruptch trustee – will they EVER see any money out of those bankruptcy proceedings? NO! Not a dime because you can’t sell CD’s anymore! That’s just how it is!

So what happened to these smaller companies? Many of them lost so much money that THEY TOO had to file for bankruptcy as a small company cannot afford to lose $25,000 much less $250,000 – so these purveyors of music that were NOT necessarily representing the “mainstream’ music that you heard on the radio but were trying to break NEW ACTS that had worked for years to get to the level of being able to put out a CD and I can assure you that the amount of time and money that is spent on a FULL CD is mind blowing! What happened to these ACTS? They’ve faded into obscurity – their music careers are OVER – they have to go back to the BAR CIRCUIT and try to make a living by giving away CD’s if you are willing to buy a T-Shirts just to TRY make some merchandise money to pay for the gas in the bus, equipment maintenance, CHEAP hotels (or sleeping in the van) and eating fast food! Keep in mind the COVER CHARGE has NOT CHANGED since the 80’s – that’s 30 years of inflation and yet people are not willing to pay more than $5.00 to go see a band and yet people wonder why there aren’t nearly as many GREAT new bands out there.

There is simply no way for a standard touring band in today’s market to even make more than minimum wage or LESS once you factor in the hours of rehearsal, drive time to the gig, set up, play for 4 hours, tear down and hit the road again. It used to be in the 70’s when I fried chicken to buy my first guitar – Minimum wage was like $2.35 an hour – I can’t really remember – but I did what I had to do to buy my first guitar – practiced and practiced and our band made $875 at our first GIG! That was 1977! You can’t even get that as a guarantee from a bar and it’s now 2011. Also, I could play solo gigs for $200 or so a night for years – not any more! So if you look at the early 80’s and compare that $200 a night to the minimum wage – I was making a KILLING! But you can’t do that anymore – unless cover charge goes up – the only way to make any decent money is to play private parties….

But enough of what it was like THEN – let’s talk about NOW. Did you know that ONLINE SALES took a HUGE hit last year? Yes that’s right – after Wal-mart was replaced by iTunes as the number one retailer in the world – LEGAL DIGITAL DOWNLOADS STIL TANKED! So who’s making all this money? Well it’s the Justin Bieber’s (sp? Who cares?) and Taylor Swift’s of the world – and I don’t even want to tell you how bad of a deal you get IF you make it on American Idol – you sign away your LIFE just to get on the show – sure you’re going to make money – as you have to TOUR, and TOUR, and TOUR and work 18 hour days hitting talk shows, meet and greets, in-stores, etc, etc – it’s SUPER HARD WORK and if you don’t keep it up they forget all about you and then your done- what happens to all of those bands or artist that have had JUST ONE HIT - who knows but they are not making a KILLING in the music business that’s for sure – as music has become TOO DEVALUED! Seen the viral video that got 64 million spins on youtube? Did they get rich? NO – they made less than $50,000. Heard a band on Pandora that you hear over and over think they are making a killing? No! They’ve got to get 50,000 spins to make $400.00. That’s insane! But what do you do if you want to get your music out there just to even SEE if people will like it?

Do it all yourself – but that takes YEARS of work! Which you may never see much return by way of money but if you love what you do – then just maybe everybody will catch on and follow you. With PRO TOOLS and home studios, anybody can make a good CD – but even if you can make your own music, get it on iTunes, and tour, tour, tour to try to build a fan base – without a LOT of money behind you (which used to come from the major labels) how are you going to PAY for all the promotion, production for larges shows, etc. It take money to make money – so sure that top 10% that you see on TV etc are making some good money – but for HOW LONG?

When was the last time you want to a TRUE ARENA show? They used to have them all the time but now all but the very BIGGEST stars can even get an arena to sell out. Most are lucky to get ½ full…and even bands like US – that have a HUGE following are NOT making a ton of money of music sales – they make it from TICKET SALES!

So the bottom line for those that want FREE MUSIC and think they are being ripped off – don’t buy those artists music, do NOT buy major label acts music either! Support the mid-level band that are jus trying to make a meager living – and don’t forget about those young and truly talented, hard working artist/bands that will spend years working on their craft only to fall by the wayside – and if they didn’t PLAN for a way to make a living in something other than music – what will you hear from then next? “Would you like fries with that?” So these days if you put all your eggs in one basked and don’t make it – which is the ONLY way TO MAKE IT – then you are going to have a really hard life.

And those are just the FACTS – THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS!

I'm all about supporting songwriters, artists and bands that are out the breaking their backs just TRYING to do what they love and HOPING that it's enough to just pay the bills - but i can assure you that only the VERY TOP ARTISTS (whose careers are eventually going to fail) are the ONLY ONES that are making much money - the stuggling bands that are REALLY GOOD can't seem to get a BREAK but again, if they are doing it for the LOVE of music - then I'm all for it - and will support them as much as I can - which is what I've been doing for the past 30 years - developing bands, helping band, working as their producer, their attorney, their mentor, and putting up MY OWN TIME and MONEY to help them!  But this is just how it is - only a very small percentage will hit the big time - the REST will fade into obscurity...
 
I just wish the more people actually understood the TRUE nature of the music business before they rant about how much the labels or the big acts are making - rememember you have a better change of getting hit by lightning that having a career in the music business and that is a cold hard FACT!  I just wish it was different and that more people understood that it's the mid-level bands and the up and coming bands that are facing the toughst times EVER!  They are going to work so hard - just to come up empty handed! It's SAD but it's TRUE!  So if we make music almost FREE - how will these poor musicians, writers and bands even make even enough money to live at the POVERTY LEVEL?  They won't and they aren't already!
 
Which is why I've taken a complete 180 and do NOT CARE about the music business or making money - I'll give you my music for free (not that I'm any good anyway, my good years are way behind me) but I still do it for one reason and one reaon only - BECAUSE I LOVE MUSIC!!  And more importanltly - "I love to PLAY music!"  And if EVEN just a few people enjoy what I do - then that's enough for me!  All it takes is for somebody to say they Liked JUST ONE of my songs or came to one of my shows and really enjoyed it and that will make my DAY!  But I can assure you I don't play live anymore as I can't afford it - it's just too much work for too little money - and I'm NOT going to go play unless I bring the WHOLE PA, Lights and everything else as I want to put on a GREAT SHOW - but you can only do that for so long - so I spend my time in the studio and writing and hope that when I finally release something - that just a few poeple will reach out and say - "hey that's pretty good!" And again, that's fine with me...
 
But I can't speak for the other Artists and Bands that are still trying to make it BIG! But I do wish them all the luck in the world!  Bless them all!
 
SM @ MSO

Pandora - are they going to drive away their listeners?

I had planned on Blogging about Pandora soon anyway, but the e-mail I got today sparked me to write this IMMEDIATELY!


I remember when I first discovered Pandora – I thought it was really cool – sure there are a lot of other services out there which I use or used but I just though Pandora had something special if they could just HANG ON until they could get the revenue to stay open.

What I liked is that one could type in a song or an artist and there it was for you to hear AND you could create YOUR OWN RADIO STATION based on that ARTIST or SONG! And then it got to be a lot more like Arbirton as Pandora would then use some algorithm to predict similar songs and/or artists which was not the BEST algorithm as I would get some pretty weird stuff on my station (or rather stations as I created a LOT of stations based upon my own VERY VARIED musical tastes). But you could always say “I don’t like this song” and it was gone from you play list or “LIKE the song” and it would come up more often as well as other similar songs/artists in that vein – but the math just didn’t work that well. As you got to hear a LOT of stuff you did NOT like – so I just hit the “thumb down button”.

Then they had to start to ad advertising – understandable. You’ve got to have revenue but these ads were not obtrusive – you just had to LOOK at it. Then they added advertising that you had to HEAR. That was OK too – it wasn’t too obtrusive and I surely understand that they set a time out feature as they shouldn’t have to pay for streaming songs to an empty room – but I did like to turn on ambient music to go to sleep with…so when it timed out – no problem. But then those ADS got LOUDER and more often and that’s when it got annoying.

However, I stuck with them even though Pandora was NOT my only source of streaming radio – but I did get turned on to a lot of new artists and songs that I would have NEVER heard otherwise. I can assure you that my local radio stations would NEVER play that type of music – as my tastes are very eclectic and I do NOT like the over homogenized and pasteurized mocha-chino land over-corporate McDonald Land chain store music that Terrestrial Radio tries to cram down your throat at the behest of the major labels trying to break and maintain their latest acts including their FIRST hit that was OVERPLAYED in the first place and the second single by the same artist that doesn’t even belong on the air. In short, if I’m in my car, its Satellite Radio and being such an avid music fan, I don’t even subscribe to ANTYHING but music. I could care less about the hundreds of channels of talk, sports, or anything else – I want MUSIC and I want the type of music that suits MY TASTES and with Satellite you can get some good music – and I grow tired of listening to my iPod or other devices through my car speakers…my paid for songs get BORING as well…

Well now Pandora has really taken it to a level that is just really BAD – they not only have commercials – but they are LIMITING how much music you can hear on one month – and since I work in front of my computers ALL DAY and in to the night – I listen a LOT. So I get an E-mail today saying I’m approaching my FREE LISTENING LIMIT!! WHAT?? According to Pandora most people do not listen more than 40 hours per month – and “the number of ADS a listener hears decline sharply after 40 hours” HUH? That makes NO SENSE whatsoever! I’m all about paying royalties, even though the royalties paid for 40,000 spins of ONE SONG on Pandora do NOT amount to much for the songwriters or publishers – in fact, Streaming Radio, is HURTING the writers and driving down royalties – but that’s a price every writer or publisher has to pay in order to even GET SPINS – as that’s better than NO SPINS at all! But give me a break – you’re going to SHUT me down unless I pay – well – I understand you need your money – but you may end up sending me to another FREE SERVICE and LOSE me as a customer all together! Sure I could pay the $39 per year, but until you get your computers to pick better music and NOT bombard me with stuff I do NOT want to hear, then we’re at an impasse. I could pay the $0.99 to keep listening with ADS included or just pay out the $39 – but again, once they shut me off – I’ll go searching for another place for music before I break out my credit card! Get it RIGHT and I’ll gladly pay –I’m already helping spread the word as I tweet and post to FB what I’m listening to – thus getting you MORE LISTENERS –  but IF I’m going to PAY – you’d better start getting your math right as well as be paying MORE to the writers and publishers and quit driving down the value of music!

SM @ MSO

Typography - Who Cares or has the time?

I've never really got why anyone would want to reaally STUDY typography, especially since you've got so many 1000's of choices these days.  In fact, I can't remember how many different Fonts I have downloaded for the variety of apps that I use - some install automatically (depending on your OS) and some you have add to the app later on - which isn't a problem - but keeping track of what's what is a REAL PAIN! 

Further instead of SEARCHING and searching (or better still wasting TIME looking) for a particular font to either match what you're working on or what you WANT to add that needed look for your graphic or Document work and THEN try to remember the name - then there's a really cool FREE APP that's out there - (can't I've even tried to use it on a MAC) but it works GREAT with PC's!  Just add the font or compare fonts in a single viewing pane so you can COMPARE on the fly!  It's insanely easy - and saves an incredible amount of time wasted browsing around the 1000's of fonts on your machine.

It's FONT VIEW OK - you can get it from CNET (one of my FAVOURITE places to get apps so much so I subsribe to their updates - LOADS of GREAT INFO!).  Be that as it may, it allows you to COMPARE FONTS and then PICK the ones that you need with a side by side comparison...just too easy.

Try it - you'll LOVE IT!

SM @ MSO