Geek News Roundup for 11/29/09 -- Facing The Music

A couple years ago, I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks in a theatre in Colorado (and yes, I'm looking forward to the Squeakquel) and I couldn't help but notice how much it seemed to criticize the music industry, without stating such criticisms outright.  But in the two years between the first and the second movie, I've learned more about how the music industry works and my original assessment is more true than ever.  At the beginning of the month, Timothy Quirk posted to his website an account of what he went through in order to get $62.47 from his label, and revealed that things aren't as glamorous as you think they are for a rock star.  The article itself links to another article that details the mathematics behind putting an album out, and demonstrates that the major labels can make a profit off of you while you go broke in the process.

Of course, the industry has even more nefarious ways to make money off of the backs of artists than just to impose ridiculous expectations on them.  Up here in Canada, our big four labels used what they called a "pending list" to pretend they were going to compensate artists and then they hoped no one would notice when they didn't.  It didn't work.  I'll personally be interested in finding out what happens in the next few days in regards to this case.  And I'd love to see what happens if all the major Canadian labels have to pay out in excess of $60 billion dollars to artists.  It kinda makes sites like this all the more hypocritical, when they were in operation.  If you can get one of those copies to work, more power to you; the URL was taken from the propaganda shown above.  (Also, this article is full of win for the graphic used.)

The music industry isn't the only industry that can complain about sales being down.  The Xbox 360 looked poised to break into the Japanese market a few years ago when it was announced that Mistwalker and Square-Enix (among others) were making games for the system.  Considering that the Japanese love their RPGs, this should've made the 360 a household name.  Number.  Household number.  But bad news lurked in Microsoft's future, for not only did Mistwalker cancel one of their 360 projects, but Square-Enix later started porting their 360 titles to PS3 and PC.  Then came the sales figures, which seem to indicate that Microsoft is now 0 for 2 in Japan, having already failed with the original Xbox, and now with the 360.  Case in point: the PS2 outsold the 360 in Japan this year.  A system long obsolete beat Microsoft's latest piece of hardware!  In the United States, of course, it's another story, but Microsoft will have to rethink their strategy if they want to have a slice of the Japanese market.

Savvy gamers are gamers who can get their games for cheap, and this holiday season, Wal-Mart wants to be where savvy gamers shop.  They've lobbed the first volley in what may be a heavy price war against their main competitors.  Of course, shopping at Wal-Mart can be more than some can bear, so if you don't mind buying games at a higher price, there's always Gamestop.

Anyway, Christmas is coming.  And 'tis the season to make your own Christmas cards!  The TSA isn't having a good Christmas, though.  And neither are Canadians who wish to have intelligent discourse with Internet users in a certain age group.  But fans of the vinyl medium are in for a treat, as record players have made yet another comeback.  I almost bought the new Owl City vinyl, but figured the CD would be easier to rip to my PSP.  Still, it would be fun to start up a collection of modern music on a medium that was supposed to be obsolete once cassettes came out.  Surprise, the vinyl has outlasted both cassette and 8-track, and might last at least as long as CDs themselves.

Oh, and here's some bullshit for you.  Considering how SETI@home is supposed to work, there's no way it could've slowed down any kind of program running on the system, given that it only uses CPU cycles that aren't being used in the first place.  And lastly, this is probably every gamer's dream.  Well, except for the RPG gamers.  I don't think we'd particularly enjoy having world-destroying gods after us.