Unhelpful Robot Remixed into a Song!

So, two years ago I recorded a series of cell phone alerts I titled "Unhelpful Robot", and they were pretty popular for a while. I haven't checked in on them for a while, but apparently people have still been downloading them, which is pretty rad.

Well I just received a message from a DJ in Amsterdam who has used Unhelpful Robot in a club track, that he's actually played FOR OTHER PEOPLE. I can't tell you how exciting this is for a lowly sound designer like myself. I cut my teeth recording club tracks, and I wasn't that good at it, so having someone else not only enjoy your work, but SHARE it with you, is pretty rad.
So now I'll share it with you!

"What Dave Does" by Save and Sound:

Save and Sound feat Some Audio Guy - What Dave Does by Save and Sound

Download the original Unhelpful Robot alerts!
SomeAudioGuy on Freesound!

Pay what you want for Girl Talk's newest album 'Feed the Animals'

Love it.

Hate it.

It's some of the most creative mash up I've ever heard.
I'm a couple days behind on this one, but I took a little time to give it a listen. Twisted, imaginative, frenetic, fast, it's Girl Talk, and for a "pay what you want" it's totally worth checking out.

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

any price grants the download of the entire album as high-quality 320kbps mp3s
$5 or more adds the options of FLAC files, plus a one-file seamless mix of the album
$10 or more includes all of the above + a packaged CD (when it becomes available)

That's not a bad deal ($5 for FLAC), and if you dig on mashups, I don't really think it gets much better...

What the HECK is going on with the Music Industry‽‽‽

Yes, THREE interrobangs!

But seriously, what is going on? It seems every day over the last week I've been reading about incredible change, and yet I'm still seeing business as usual.


First off is the whole debacle over Trent Reznor's remix site remix.nin.com. After butting heads with Universal (apparently releasing NIN samples in this manner would impact Universal's lawsuit against Youtube/Google, lol), Reznor just threw the site up anyway. Universal's control is weakened, but not completely absent as Reznor did make some small concessions. From LiveDaily.com:

The head-scratching apparently ended on Monday (11/26), when Reznor unveiled remix.nin.com, where an FAQ explains how the site is dealing with the aforementioned concerns about fans using unauthorized materials in conjunction with their NIN remixes. The site describes unauthorized materials as "samples of songs by other artists, or samples from movies, TV shows, or video games," and says that any remixes containing such elements "will be rejected during the approval process."
"Please understand that it is not our wish to impose these restrictions on your creativity or the functionality of this site, but we have no choice in the matter," the FAQ continues.

So Universal's been hamstrung, and apparently so has Warner. Hot on the heels of Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr's admission of mishandling music's digital conversion (add that to Doug Morris bumbling through his explanation of how these new intarwebs frighten his age-ed soul, via Wired), we're now witnessing an accelerating drop in CD sales. Warner specifically, is reporting a 58% drop in CD sales over this time last year, and a net profit of only five million dollars (as opposed to twelve last year, via Yahoo/Reuters).
Warner's plan is to get more involved in artist "packaging" including image rights, management, advertising, and touring revenue, but for a company that is, admittedly, reactionary and obstinate about change, one has to wonder if they can actually shift gears fast enough to stay relevant. Madonna has already left to pursue more non-traditional distribution, not to mention a whole slew of others like NIN and Radiohead. Will others follow their example, or stay with the current, failing business model?
[Cartoon from HijinksEnsue]


Lastly, EMI is considering pulling funding for the RIAA. One of the Big Four that support the fan-suing organization, it's looking to cut a significant portion of the $132 million it contributes to the RIAA each year. This would be a positive step in my opinion, and right in line with EMI's new radical stance (Idolator), but I can't let go of that number. One HUNDRED and THIRTY TWO MILLION dollars, every year! That's TEN times the profit Warner made LAST year on album sales. You really have to question an industry that will pay ten times what it makes to sue and harass the very customers it's trying to attract. [Story @ Ars Technica]


So, we've got all this news, newsnewsnews, and yet the RIAA is still blackmailing people, artists aren't getting paid any better for their work, and it still costs me $15+ for a new-ish album (unless I go "gray market", or locked DRM crappy low bitrate download). Great.

*sigh*

Enough bitching from me, back to work...

NIN: Calling All Music Mixers!

I know Reznor's been doing this since Perfect Drug (and probably less visibly even earlier), but Nine Inch Nails have released the entire multi-track session for their single 'Survivalism'. You're free to do whatever you want to it (except for selling it I'm sure).
If you're into remixes, deconstructions, or if you just want to fart around with some professionally recorded audio GO HERE NOW.

The samples should be in "garage band" format, and I'm downloading now, though I'm an Acid man, so I'll see if they'll do anything for me.

***OK, so everything is in .aif, which is fine, though the project files wont work. Thas cool though, as I can still use the audio.

Sweet!