A Universal Problem?
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Thu., Oct 20, 2011
Zoe Keating's experience with her royalties going astray will sound depressingly familiar to RF diary readers. 

Is Grooveshark Purposely Screwing Over Musicians?
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Thu., Oct 20, 2011
That’s the not unreasonable question Flavourwire are asking given that Grooveshark keeps putting up King Crimson and Robert Fripp material to which it does not have the rights. Check out the comments section.  

Grooveshark - A Scarcity Of Ethics?
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Wed., Oct 19, 2011
Jakko Jakszyk has weighed into the the debate at Digital Music News about Grooveshark’s ethics and business practice. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for Jakko's comment.

Geeks Of Doom Have WOW Factor
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Wed., Oct 19, 2011
The 2OAPT tour continues to attract rave reviews (including lotsa pics) and Tony Levin has taken a little time out to do this interview for Geeks Of Doom. 

Paul Geller of Grooveshark accuses Fripp of being economic with the truth
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Oct 18, 2011
Grooveshark's Paul Geller has written to Digital Music News accusing Robert Fripp of being economic with the truth. Check out Mr Geller's call for truth and transparency here.

2OAPT Pix
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Oct 18, 2011
There's a great gallery of photographs by Mark Colman taken at the 2OAPT's appearance in Portland here. 

Grooveshark
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Oct 18, 2011
There's an insight into the working methods of Grooveshark in the comments section of the Digital Music News. My thanks to Rockette for sending in the following post. He writes "The row about Grooveshark rumbles on at Digital Music News. Most commentators deplore the company’s lack of ethics, and of course there are the usual dismissive comments from Brave-New-Worlders claiming that the only future for the music biz is for all artists to give away their tracks for free.

This recent anonymous post caught my eye:

I work for Grooveshark. Here is some information from the trenches:

We are assigned a predetermined ammount of weekly uploads to the system and get a small extra bonus if we manage to go above that (not easy).The assignments are assumed as direct orders from the top to the bottom, we don’t just volunteer to "enhance" the Grooveshark database.

All search results are monitored and when something is tagged as "not available", it get’s queued up to our lists for upload. You have to visualize the database in two general sections: "known" stuff and "undiscovered/indie/underground". The "known" stuff is taken care internally by uploads. Only for the "undiscovered" stuff are the users involved as explained in some posts above. Practically speaking, there is not much need for users to upload a major label album since we already take care of this on a daily basis.

Are the above legal, or ethical? Of course not. Don’t reply to give me a lecture. I know. But if the labels and their laywers can’t figure out how to stop it, then I don’t feel bad for having a job. It’s tough times.

Why am I disclosing all this? Well, I have been here a while and I don’t like the attitude that the administration has aquired against the artists. They are the enemy. They are the threat. The things that are said internally about them would make you very very angry. Interns are promised getting a foot in the music industry, only to hear these people cursing and bad mouthing the whole industry all day long, to the point where you wonder what would happen if Grooveshark get’s hacked by Anonymous one day and all the emails leak on some torrent or something.

And, to confirm the fears of the members of King Crimson, there is no way in hell you can get your stuff down. They are already tagged since you sent in your first complaint. The administration knows that you can’t afford to sue for infringement.

Judging by the way Grooveshark have conducted themselves in their dealings with Declan Colgan and Robert Fripp, this has the ring of truth. In the old days, the enemy of musicians were what Zappa called "the old cigar-chomping guys"; now it appears there is a new foe, somewhat younger but just as devious and unscrupulous.  As Pete Townshend said, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

Play it Frippy, very Frippy
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Tue., Oct 18, 2011
My thanks to Andrea Tolin for alerting me to this episode from Live At Daryl's House. Andrea writes "during the "Greg Biek" part, the guitar player tells to the keyboard player to slow down, to take his time....and Daryl said 'play it Frippy, very Frippy'".

Bill B In Sweden
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Sun., Oct 16, 2011
Here's a link to a piece about Bill Bruford who is currently speaking about his work in the USA. Bill will also be speaking in Sweden next month and you can find details of the public part of his itinerary over on the news page of his website.

Markus Reuter Talks
:: Posted by Sid Smith on Sat., Oct 15, 2011
Here's an interview with Markus Reuter, who is currently turning a few heads on the 2OAPT tour. For those unfamiliar with Markus' work there's Kopfmensch  a kind of young persons guide to Markus Reuter. Details about each of the tracks is available here.