294th day of 2009 - 71 remaining
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
U2 gig to be streamed on YouTube
U2's concert at
the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California on Sunday will be streamed live on
video-sharing website YouTube, the band have announced.
Manager
Paul McGuinness said that, as the gig was already being filmed, it was
"the perfect opportunity to extend the party beyond the stadium".
Fans in 16 countries, including the UK, the US, Australia and India, will be able to watch the show at 0330 GMT.
It will be the band's penultimate concert of the year.
YouTube
said it would place adverts around the video "in the normal manner",
and that clips from the concert would be available on the site after
the gig ends.
The site will also offer
viewers the ability to chat to one another using Twitter, or to give
money to Bono's RED charity via a "donate now" button, while they watch
the show.
McGuinness said that U2 had "wanted to do something like this for a long time".
He added: "Fans often travel long distances to come to see U2 - this time U2 can go to them, globally."
However,
it is not the first time that U2 have dabbled in live streaming - they
allowed fans to watch a Boston date of their Popmart tour in 1997 via
Microsoft's MSN website.
YouTube has also
experimented with live broadcasts in the past, most notably with its
YouTube Live show, which premiered on 22 November, 2008 with
performances from will.i.am and Katy Perry.
The company, which is owned by Google, is keen to expand its business beyond hosting short amateur clips.
Earlier
this year, it began streaming Hollywood movies like Cliffhanger to
users in America. UK broadcaster Channel 4 has also announced it will
offer a full catch-up service via YouTube by the start of 2010.
However,
live streaming poses bigger technical issues than offering pre-recorded
content, and issues over music rights may prevent the U2 experiment
becoming more commonplace at any great pace.
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thought to ponder:
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
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Story Of The Day:
A woman from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is
seeking a divorce after discovering her husband had nicknamed her
'Guantanamo' on his mobile phone. The woman made the discovery while
examining the list of contacts in her husband's phone when he left it
at home one day.
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"Vic Mizzy, a songwriter who composed the
catchy themes for the 1960s sit-coms 'The Addams Family' and 'Green
Acres,' has died. He was 93.
Mizzy died Saturday at his home in Bel Air.
He
wrote songs that were recorded by Dean Martin, Doris Day, Perry Como
and Billie Holiday in the '40s and '50s. His hits included 'Pretty
Kitty Blue Eyes,''My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time,' and 'With
a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho.'
But his most famous work was the
theme to 'The Addams Family,' a tune accented by finger snaps and
opening with the cleverly quirky lyrics: 'They're creepy and they're
kooky, mysterious and spooky, they're altogether ooky: the Addams
family.'"
thanks rich !
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San Antonio, Texas police are investigating the wounding of a man after
his 83 year old father allegedly opened fire with a gun, when the
victim refused to stop drumming.
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A Lebanon, Pennsylvania police officer arrested a man in a convenience
store after noticing a bag of marijuana stuck to his forehead. The
suspect was spotted walking away from the store men's room looking
anxiously at the inside of his baseball cap. When the man approached
the officer, he looked up, and the officer noticed a small plastic bag
stuck to his forehead that appeared to contain marijuana. The man was
arrested.
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What is the future of music online?
By Ian Youngs
Music reporter, BBC News
For years, the music industry has, in the words of Bonnie Tyler, been holding out for a hero.
For
the industry, this hero must come up with an idea that is great enough
to tempt fans away from illegal file-sharing sites, while
simultaneously making money for artists, songwriters and record labels.
Spotify and We7, the music streaming services funded by adverts and subscriptions, have come closest so far.
And
for a while, it looked like Sky and Virgin would save the day. They
planned services offering unlimited downloads for an extra fee on top
of an existing broadband and TV subscription.
But
both are believed to have stumbled because major labels did not think
they would generate enough cash. Sky launched a watered down service on
Monday.
The struggle to offer unlimited downloads on a subscription is seen as a missed opportunity by many observers.
So
other than being punished, how will fans be tempted away from illegal
services, and how will artists, songwriters and labels make money in
the future?
A range of industry
executives and commentators offered their visions of the future at the
In the City music conference in Manchester.
ANDREW ORLOWSKI, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE REGISTER
Virgin's planned all-you-can-eat
subscription download service was "the best British piece of technology
I'd seen in the last 10 years", Mr Orlowski says.
"Virgin
spent millions of pounds and it would have been the world's first legal
P2P service, with no DRM restrictions. Virgin hasn't cancelled it but
they've stood the teams down because the music business is so hard to
deal with.
"It was going to be an
amazing-looking social network, the first social network with music
attached. And it would have completely changed the debate.
"You
could stream and share files, put them in a locker in MP3 format and
play them later. It used the music that's already on people's
computers, and would have allowed the music business for the first time
to have an offensive weapon rather than a defensive one.
"It
would have made people on Facebook think, 'I don't get music on this
social network - why am I on it?' It would have completely changed the
dynamic in a positive way."
MIKE SMITH, HEAD OF COLUMBIA RECORDS UK
The first step to making money from music is ensuring the current copyright laws are enforced, Mr Smith believes.
"We've got a perfectly good strong copyright system in place. The law exists. That law needs to be enforced.
"And
if that law is enforced then I think the opportunities for the future
of the music business are enormous, whether that be a streaming model,
a subscription model, the sale of MP3s, the sale of albums, the sale of
deluxe fabulous edition specialist albums.
"I think we've got a great future as an industry, as long as government has got the strength to step up and support copyright."
No
all-you-can-eat download services have yet been approved because they
do not offer enough money back to the artists, he says.
"If
there is a way of properly being able to remunerate the songwriters and
recording artists, then there is the potential for that. But I haven't
seen a business model where that looks especially strong.
"Those
are being examined all the time and there are opportunities for the
future but I don't think a particularly great business model has been
brought together yet."
MARC MAROT, SEG MANAGEMENT, EX-HEAD OF ISLAND RECORDS
The young generation are prepared to pay
subscriptions for mobile phones, broadband and pay-TV, Mr Marot says -
so why not music?
"I feel the
subscription model is the way forward for the music industry. The Sky
and Virgin initiatives are a really promising start. But they are a
little bit tame.
"The concept of every
household in Britain that has a Sky subscription also paying, for
argument's sake, £9.99 per month that is going into the coffers of the
music industry - that's going to be a vast improvement in the music
industry's health.
"I personally would
like to see an all-you-can-eat for a higher price, say £19.99. The
major labels have been so excruciatingly slow in coming to the
inevitable conclusion that these initiatives have got to be taken.
"But
anti-competition laws mean they're not really allowed to talk to each
other very much, so they've had to come to their individual
conclusions. Largely speaking, the record industry is getting its act
together very quickly now."
JON WEBSTER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, MUSIC MANAGERS' FORUM
A system to grant innovative new companies
licenses to use music should be introduced - and the government may
have to force record labels and publishing companies to take part, Mr
Webster says.
"I think that has to be
done on a compulsory licence basis, where everyone just puts all their
music in. Licensing seems to be the issue at the moment.
"If
the industry can't solve the problem, the government should step in to
try and impose it if necessary. It's not a popular view but it's one of
the things we've got to do to break the logjam."
Spotify
is a good start at offering attractive new services, he says - but
there are doubts about whether it will generate enough money to
survive.
"It would be a dreadful shame if
it failed because the costs of the music being supplied to it were too
high. The great conundrum is - should the music industry be supporting
models that compete with free and therefore drive the price of music
down? Unfortunately I think that's the way we're going to go."
ANTHONY VOLODKIN, FOUNDER, THE HYPE MACHINE
The future will revolve around finding innovative ways to use music, especially on the web, according to Mr Volodkin.
"One
example is music games - they've created value where there was nothing
like that before. People suddenly pay for Rock Star or Guitar Hero.
That came from out of nowhere and is a use that people couldn't
envision just a few years ago.
"More of that will happen. For that to happen on the web, though, the way people work with rights on the web needs to ease up."
Record
labels and music publishers demand too much money from new services, he
says. "Currently you need to spend several million dollars in advances
to get some of these licences for content.
"It's
all about making it easier to create services that let people interact
with music online, and then I think smart people won't settle for just
letting people play stuff. They'll come up with interesting ways that
you can interact with music and money will start changing hands."
SEAN ADAMS, FOUNDER AND EDITOR, DROWNED IN SOUND
Licences to use music for digital services
should be easier and cheaper to obtain from record label and
publishers, Mr Adams believes.
Each new digital service should be given a two-year licence to sink or swim, he says.
"I
think 95% of music that's downloaded illegally could be turned into
music that's downloaded in legal means if things are licensed in the
right way."
Drowned in Sound has stopped
running a podcast because each episode would cost £20,000. "I don't
have £20,000. But Laura Marling signed a record deal on the back of us
playing her in a podcast. And various artists said they were selling
hundreds of records on the back of us playing them."
He
adds: "Instead of cutting people off the internet, I'd much rather they
sent the worst offenders into studios for a week to do community
service to understand exactly what goes into the process of making
music.
"I don't think for a second they'd consider not paying something towards the creation of that content."
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Jim Morrison's Ghost Spooks Historian
Jim Morrison's ghost has left a music historian spooked after making an appearance in a photo taken at The Doors singer's grave.
The 1997 picture of Brett Meisner was taken by the rocker's grave
at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France - but the writer didn't
notice the Morrison-like apparition behind him until he revisited the
photo in 2002, and posted the shot online.
The photo has been authenticated by experts and is now being used
to promote new book "Ghosts Caught on Film 2: Photographs of the
Unexplained".
But Meisner now states he regrets going to visit Morrison's grave because he has been plagued by eerie events ever since.
He tells Britain's Daily Express newspaper that his marriage broke down
and a close friend died of a drug overdose, and now he's become a
target for Morrison fans who insist the rock star's ghost is haunting
them.
He says, "At first it was sort of interesting to see how many
people felt a spiritual bond with Jim and the photo, but now the whole
vibe seems negative."
See the photo.
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Boy George Turned Nasty In Jail
Boy George was forced to toughen up during his stint in prison earlier this year for fear of falling victim to other inmates.
The former Culture Club frontman, real name George O'Dowd, was
jailed in January for the false imprisonment and assault of male escort
Audun Carlsen in 2007.
He served just four months of his 15 month sentence and was
released in May for good behavior - and he admits his time behind bars
changed him dramatically.
He says, "You've got the classic picture of the balconies and the
banging cups. I knew what to expect. I was quite hostile. Very hostile.
And very grumpy.
"Not because I felt that way particularly, but because I felt it
required that. The situation required me to be a bit feisty, a bit
don't-[bleep]-with-me."
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Stephen Hawking's successor named
Cambridge
University has named the man who will succeed Professor Stephen Hawking
in one of the world's most prestigious academic positions.
The
celebrated physicist, who has motor neurone disease, completed his last
day as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics on 30 September.
The university said Professor Michael Green had been elected as the 18th person to take up the position.
Professor Green will start work in his new role on 1 November.
The academic already holds the John Humphrey Plummer Professorship of Theoretical Physics at the university.
'Internationally known'
He is a pioneer of string theory, the idea that the fundamental building blocks of space and time are tiny vibrating strings.
Peter
Haynes, head of the department of applied mathematics and theoretical
physics, said: "Michael Green has played a leading role in theoretical
physics research in the department since 1993.
"He
is internationally known as a pioneer in string theory which over the
last 20 years has become one of the most important and active areas of
theoretical physics."
Professor Hawking has taken on a new role as director of research.
The Lucasian Professorship was established in 1663 and previous holders have included Isaac Newton.
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Blood from leech nails suspect
Police
in Australia matched blood taken from an engorged leech found at a
robbery scene to a suspect - seven years after the crime.
The leech was found shortly after officers arrived a the rural property
in Tasmania, whose elderly resident had been robbed by two men, reports
the Hobart Mercury.
It was the only piece of evidence found
during a full forensic examination of the house, so officers decided to
take a DNA profile from the blood inside it.
Det Insp Mick
Johnston said: "As there was no evidence of any leech bites from the
victims or the police present we thought it was a good chance to have
come from one of the offenders.
"We took it from the scene because it didn't belong there."
Seven years later, the blood was found to match that of Peter Alec
Cannon, who had been arrested and charged with drug offences.
Cannon, 54, pleaded guilty in court to the 2001 aggravated armed robbery.
Crown prosecutor John Ransom said: "The leech was found next to the safe and it had this man's blood in it."
Detective Inspector Johnston said he had never heard of a leech being involved in a crime scene before.
"It is the oddest way of convicting anyone I have ever been involved
in. I have not been able to find any similar cases anywhere in the
world - nothing like this at all," he said.
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Psychedelic hearse for wilting flower generation
A Somerset man has created a psychedelic hearse to offer funky funerals to the hippy generation.
Matthew Shuter, 54, says he saw a gap in the market with the 'baby boomer' generation now reaching their later years.
So he bought a Daimler hearse and had it covered in a funky psychedelic pattern.
Mr Shuter, who lives near Taunton, said: "The woodstock generation is
now dying out. They really lived a colourful life - they wouldn't want
to go to their funeral in a boring black hearse."
As well as
funerals Mr Shuter says the unusual vehicle is perfect for festival
goers, or beach bums who need a way to transport their surfboards.
He said: "I had the idea while I was at Glastonbury this year. I
noticed there are lots of flower power camper vans out there in all
sorts of shapes and sizes.
"It doesn't just have to be used
as a hearse - it's a brilliant surfing vehicle and requires minimum
adaption to take a surfboard in on the rollers."
Mr Shuter,
who owns an electronics business, bought the three door 1989 Daimler
from a second-hand dealer before taking it to a printing company to
have it vinyl wrapped.
He said: "The guys at the company
thought my idea was a bit strange but they went along with it, they saw
the sense in it when I explained."
But Mr Shuter does not intend to pursue his unusual business idea himself. He plans to auction the psychadelic hearse on eBay.
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Bodypainter's naked ambition
A New York artist is earning a living - by bodypainting surreal faces on to naked women.
Andy Golub, 43, specialises in daubing exotic designs onto female skin,
covering groups of girls from top-to-toe in his vivid designs.
He exhibits his group paintings in local galleries, but also works on individual women on a commission basis.
And sometimes he just takes his brushes to the street in search of willing 'canvases' to paint for parades and parties.
He said: "I've been bodypainting for four years and I've been a professional artist for 10 years.
"A single bodypainting takes around three to four hours, but for a performance I paint in around 30 minutes.
"And if I do a large group of people at a party or a parade, it's much quicker than that.
"People often hire me to paint them, mostly women. Sometimes a man will
hire me to paint his wife or girlfriend as a birthday present."
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