Let’s say my goal is to sell 10,000 copies of something. And let’s say that
if by putting DRM in it I sell 10,000 copies and I make my money, and if by
having no DRM 100,000 copies go into circulation and I still sell 10,000
copies. Which of those is the better outcome? I think having 100,000 in
circulation and selling 10,000 is way better than having just the 10,000 that
are paid for and nobody else benefits.

[Tim O’Reilly on Piracy, Tinkering, and the Future of the Book](http://tpsq.us/e)

At its core the digital copy is without a body… And nothing gets embodied as much as music in a live performance, with real bodies. The music is free; the bodily performance expensive.

Truth. Quit perfecting tracks in your home studio. Quit debating the merits of different music software on forums. Play shows. Play lots and lots of shows.

But somewhere along the way the bottom line started improving, and I became less obsessed with tracking every little thing. Now I sort of think of the whole engine as a special genetically engineered cow who eats music and poops money — I have no idea what’s going on in its gut, and I have the luxury of not really caring that much about the particulars. […]

The state of the industry makes a lot more sense when you think of it this way, all these new business models rising and falling, internet radio choking on insanely high performance royalties, Radiohead and NIN giving stuff away and making a killing. This is the thing about the new landscape that drives everyone crazy: you can’t see inside the cow; you can only build one, feed it music, and wait for it to poop.

I think that’s the best description of the current state of the music industry I’ve read. In long over-beer discussions with friends I’ve called it a black box: put music in one end, money comes out the other and don’t even think about trying to directly correlate inputs with outputs.

But man, feeding a cow and waiting for it to poop is a much more vivid way to put it.

Some naysayers still think the iPhone is a toy and not a functional production tool, but we’re inclined to disagree.

Strongly.

Thanks, Beatportal!

Mission Accomplished.

iDrum for iPhone shipped a week ago, and the initial response has been fantastic, but for me, nothing tops this video.

And the site itself: Soundcloud

For anyone that participates in far-flung collaborations over the internet that don’t involve a webcam and a towel, this looks like the business.

Registration is closed, so if any of my dear readers are already members please invite me!!!

I’ve had two occasions to contact a software company for support in the past week–two occasions remarkable in how different they were from each other.

First, I had need for Xendai’s Bellhop to automate some FogBugz typing. I downloaded it, wrote some scripts, and found a pretty serious bug. Not a showstopper, but definitely annoying. I fired off an email, not expecting much–Bellhop is donationware, after all. Well, the author got back to me in a couple hours, thanked me for the bug report and told me he wouldn’t be able to get to it until the weekend.

First thing Saturday, I get an another email from the author telling me he’s reproduced the problem and that he’ll have an update ready shortly. He thanks me again for taking the time to send in the bug report:

As far as I’m concerned, your bug report is donation enough–thanks for reporting it.

Wow. I’d be blown away with this level of support from any company, but from a part time indieware developer on a donationware product? Just try to stop me from donating. Sure enough, an update was available a few hours later and now Bellhop works perfectly.

Cut to my other support experience. This one for Digital Performer, a $500 application developed by a company with a full-time support staff. Digital Performer 5.13 just refuses to run on my new Mac. I tried everything, repairing permissions, uninstalling, reinstalling, installing an earlier version then installing the 5.13 update, etc.

So I give up and sheepishly create a new support ticket on MOTU’s site Sunday afternoon. Well, check the screenshot above: it’s Wednesday and the ticket is still ‘Unread’. This would have pissed me off anytime, but in light of my experience with Bellhop, well…

And yeah, I have Jim Cooper’s number, so I could call the batphone and get this sorted out in a jiffy. But you know what? Good support shouldn’t just be for insiders. So fuck you, MOTU. I give up on you and my favorite music software. I’ll spend my $195 for the DP 6 update on something else. I’ll also take the $3,500 I had earmarked for HD192 interfaces and spend that somewhere else.

Can anyone recommend a music production application with passionate user support?

And special thanks to Faizel at Xendai for raising my expectations.

This whole Direct Note Access breakthrough reminds of me of a bit of advice I got once (and have shamefully never followed): Ask yourself, “What’s the hardest problem in my field?” Then ask yourself, “Why am I not working on it?”

… who would have thought that Electronic Mail would supplant the nation’s own great and venerable post?!

In related news, any bets on how soon till you have to suffer horrible dancing silhouette mortgage ads in order to look at family photos? Photoshop Express, anyone?