I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not, yet now when I post a youtube music clip on Facebook, Facebook make it very easy for me to promote that clip with dollars. When Facebook first started I was able to get a good amount of attention just by posting things into my personal Facebook stream. Now to promote to even to my own fans, i have to pay Facebook. Example, if I don’t pay facebook 5 dollars, I have around 1 like on the YouTube clip through the “organic” Facebook feed. If I do pay 5 dollars, half way through the campaign I have 12 likes, 1 less fan, and 100 plays through YouTube. As Facebook call it, the “organic reach” well it has been reduced over time drastically, or it seems that way to me. With no legitimate recording or publishing industry left in the world, this means in order for the artist to even communicate his message to people that already agree they are fans of the artist, she or he has to pay. Its a communication fee. Facebook Adds at the moment from my view are not so expensive, for the amount of personal exposure possible. Yet as more artists and business’s realise the hard core reality of the Internet..more will pay and prices will increase, I guess. As an artist it’s good that you can be in control of your promotion, and it’s so simple to do so. Yet when the only thing an artist can sell is the live performance, where does that put the value of digital art without promotion. i guess when you spend 1000s of dollars on creation of your art, 5-10 dollars is not a lot. Yet this could become a dangerous habit. 100 plays on YouTube does not pay the artists 5 dollars through the performing rights organisations, you would be lucky to get 2 cents. One project used a youtbe clip I made, and part of my song was performed more than a million times on YouTube, and I’m yet to be paid 1 cent. So in real terms im giving something away for free, with no return possible. Consider Most YouTube revenues goto the larger redundant recording and publishing industry. Id say more than 90 percent of What is sold on Itunes is major label Stuff, and less than 1 percent of the worlds population is buying music on a regular basis. I guess these stats are a wild stab in the dark, yet how to get the real stats. Not sure how to deal with the problem of how to promote what I create on the Internet…yet I want to transmit what I create on some level. I guess as a member of the public, when you do buy music, your feeding the disease not creating a solution.
Facebook promotion
March 17, 2013Fiat money and hungry ghosts
January 23, 2013I was watching a couple of different clips on YouTube about the current situation with the banking system, as is. Point of view the clips is that the value of money over time will decease and decrease. So that the crisis in the uk does not get worse, banks loan money to ghost companies at zero percent interest, the companies can’t get into more debt, yet carry huge historic debt. These companies are inactive, government prints the money to feed the hungry banks, the banks then feed the very very silent hungry ghosts. No one really knows what’s going on cause they cant really see these ghosts, so the queen of England stands next to the vaults of gold, telling everyone that the gold is here. Yet really the gold belongs to another pack of hungry ghosts in another country. Provided no one would dispute the value of money, and the hungry ghosts would not spend the money, the system will continue eternally.
Fio bank- low cost, costs more.
January 16, 2013I started to use this bank called fio, as it has no fees. The only time that you get a fee, is when you use another banks teller or do an international or fast transaction. So I joined the bank. Anyway the problem is that every time I goto use the banks teller, I guess 2-3 times out of every 5 visits, the machine does not work. So if I’m In a rush, I end up paying more than i would through bank charges from the other bank.
Hot yoga
January 4, 2013I have been doing this hot yoga quite often the last months here in Prague. Room is 42 degrees and lots of stretches, so today I was on the tram and as I walked out, top of my head clipped the tram door. Ive been in Prague a while and never did this happen. So i asked the instructor about it, she said that it’s not that I’m taller, it’s just that the body stands taller, or more the way it should. Good reason to do this yoga. Happy new year.
Czech execution
October 20, 2012Ive bumped into a couple of people lately that have been effected by owing small amounts, these amounts escalate to huge amounts. A man I know got 8 metro fines when he was 13 years old, those fines combined with legal fees add upto nearly 10 thousand us dollars, 8 years latter. If he paid the fines when he got the tickets, the fines would amount to less than 100 us dollars. Another mans mothers business went under, the bank have put the son to execution. To get out of execution, they have to pay many times more than what the mortgage was. If you dont pay, they will take it from any job the person ever gets. It’s really not that fair, yet the legal system allows, and even state run companies use the same companies as banks to get the funds back. I heard that some of the owners of the companies that collect are judges in Czech. A lot of Czechs are moving from Czech because of this.
Article on Gypsy people from the 1880′s, Czech opinion then to now.
September 22, 2012I found an old book at the Kolbenova market, Andrej a Czech friend did a translation on an article. Situation for gypsy people seemed better in the 1880′s than today. Although the article does not paint a fully positive picture of Gypsy people back then, it does show they had a way. During communist times the Gypsy population were not able to roam as they had, were put into blocks of flats. Gypsy children put into schools with handicapped kids, in the 1990′s Czech doctors were sterilizing the women. Recently the city council in Usti Nad Labem, built a wall to separate the gypsy people from regular Czech’s. In another city Novy Bor, the community wanted the Gypsy people to leave, making public protest. Gypsy people moved from Prague because of an increase in real-estate prices.
Translation of article from Czech to English. 1880 perspective.
The life of the Gypsies is everywhere alike. With little exceptions they lead the free, unrestricted life of nomads. Every corner, every place can be their home, if only the wood, water is somewhere in the vicinity – and the people, who give something in exchange for fortune telling and who, unwitingly, would share their fortune with them. Places and people like that are abundant everywhere and so Gypsies’ homeland is very extensive. Having found such a suitable place, our caravan unharnessed the horses and left them freely to pasture, men have gone to find the stock of horse feeding and other necessary things, women have dispersed to surrounding villages to get food and other needed stuff. Here they would tell fortune, there they would heal the cursed livestock and on their way back they brought money, butter, eggs, flower and fowl. Something has been awarded by good and gullible housewives, other things have by itself – of course by means of good witchcraft – ended in bags and pockets of skilled Gypsy women. And so in few hours the camp is stocked with all that is needed. Under the pot the fire is crackling merrily and in a little while each one in the camp is full with dinner. Afterwards everyone rests in his own way or finds the way to amuse himself. Some devote themselves to sweet dolce far niente, other enjoy their pipes, and some of course dance and play in nice harmony with all around. Such scenes come off at best when, after the day of sorrow and starving, the camp has been succesfully stocked up with all needed.
getting old..
September 21, 2012When i was in my 20′s every week or so a new song would come into the stream, and i would get a pick me up from it. Maybe getting old or older (for me) is when I can’t find anything much more on the musical waves, and start panning back through things, looking for something to wake that buzz back up again. If i’m looking through curent stuff, i don’t find much that grabs me in a hurry, if i tried to be grabbed by it.. I could look harder though.
If i were in my 20′s now though i would be finding that somehow though, so as not to get so old so quick, i guess its good to get that.
Idea of energy not troll proof
August 20, 2012I explained the idea of both water being storage and a building potentially being a giant radiator, for better use of energy. It got shredded by more experienced trolls quick at http://www.brmlab.cz . I guess the thing with energy and how it’s created and used, is that it’s not looked at on a small scale. Creation of energy is looked through eyes of mass production, and the devices that create energy around that system, are looked at in the same context. Creation of energy is kind of impersonal. Also, the electric wind generators are not as expensive as I thought.
It does make good sense to make off peak electricity not just available to the large companies at cheap prices in the middle of the night, though. If it was provided at the same price to everyone, that the hydro electric companies can buy the power at, (to pump water up hill) more might innovate with that cheaper energy, the value of that energy would be more, less emissions.
Making a recording space/ festivals
August 5, 2012Where my space is at the moment, they have a couple of rehearsal and recording places around. In past times the music business as I understand revolved around making dollars by selling physical things, broadcast and concerts. Now bands sell things at concerts. The things they sell need to be made and they need a place to practice. Few bands are signed to labels or publishers, and the bigger publishers/labels even though they produce only a slight amount of what is created, control the flow of the system, as the system of rights management has not changed as much as the changes in technology, in comparison to other digital things, like software (maybe?).
Maybe more competition existed in 80′s than now, publishers/labels then spent funds developing songs and music. Now the PC and internet has changed that. Hip hop music makes it easy for remaining large publishers/labels, as bands often use things made in the past already popular, as part of the creation. Best form of exploitation of art in the business maybe, owning a studio with rehearsal spaces, or getting bands to pay you, to play in your venue.
The other thing someone mentioned to me today, is that festival rock for the people got washed out. The festival had no plan for wet weather, yet it rains that time of year often. Some German fans from having my song in the x-files wanted me to go and buy tickets, as huge bands were playing, and they could not pay via credit card online. The line-up attracted a heap of people from other countries. As the company had no online payment system via credit card, when the festival failed to full-fill the service they offered, they did not have to pay the people back. Yet they could blame the technical problem, on the weather. Act of God. My guess is that the festival only paid a deposit to the large bands. So when the weather washed the concert out, and the big bands did not arrive, festival did not have to pay the “people” back. So bad weather made for bigger profit. Czech style music business. Yet maybe i’m wrong?
Buildings using off peak
July 29, 2012I was thinking more about using off peak power and solar power. One idea might be that buildings would have a huge resource of water under the building. And a huge tank ontop of the building. During the day solar power would regulate fans that would drive the cooling system in conjunction with the water falling back to the ground, possibly driving turbines to create power or drive heating systems during the winter. Off peak low cost excess power from nuclear power plants and wind generators during the night would drive pumps, putting the water ontop of the building. The building in effect being a giant radiator.
The whole situa…
May 21, 2012The whole situation with this band using my lyrics without permission, brought up some old stuff with what i consider a miss-use of rights. So I wrote this letter to EU, yet again i figure that i will get an email from the EU saying, thank-you for your email, we appreciate this information. Yet at this point we don’t see any need to investigate OSA. Yet i still reckon its worth the effort to make a complaint. This organizations need regulators working in their offices full time. They make the law up as they go.
If you want to complain about issues that relate to business and how its not really possible to do business, because of organizations like OSA, you can mail comp-greffe-antitrust@ec.europa.eu
Hi EU,
another new track
May 3, 2012Here is some other new track, i woke up and decided that i had to add some extra part to this song, and it worked well.
new song
April 24, 2012Quite excited with the sound that producer got with this track today..thanks Geoff
new song recorded
April 17, 2012
on the weekend i recorded this song with Geoff Tyson, American producer living in Prague.
The other thing that happend on the weekend was that band Lush 3, who i helped re-write their lyrics, decided after telling me they would not use any of my changes, would use all of my changes. What the band in conjunction with the producer did was this. They waited till the last possible moment to ask me for permission to use the content. They made an offer in a totally inapropriate way, that was totally not fair. When i told them i did not want them to use the content, and that they should find another writer, they just released the content anyway. They did not attribute me for the work, did not pay me for the 3 days work. This is how the Czech music business works..and Czech bands are confused why they can’t get any gigs out of Czech.
the long long recession
April 9, 2012I was talking to an analyst for a magazine in the US for the economy and finance. He mentioned that the next thing to go wrong, is that long term interest rates, that is the 10 year bond rates, will go from 3 percent to 10. The reason why the government is tuned into this idea, is that the government is responsible for the debt. This means in effect with a higher rate of return, that the debt is worth more, as it has less value because of the inflation. This will also mean that the economies don’t fail, like they did in the great depression, yet the world will be on the brink of something like the great depression for a long time. Or at least the western economies would be. Business’s that are locked up in debt are not going to be able to function.
In the studio i made some new song.
hello blog
March 28, 2012Its been an age since i wrote anything here, not sure why, its not that i don’t want to write anything, its more that i’m just not in the habit. Lately i’ve been spending time in the hacker space http://www.brmlab.cz , i started a project to scan objects, have 4 kinect scanners, also, have an idea to create some public screen, so people could send pictures with GPS location to the screen. just thought to write at least something here.
x czech president Vaclav Havel
December 20, 2011the x- president Vaclav Havel has died, 75. He was interesting political figure, i watched a clip on youtube where he said it was as if he fell of a bridge into the job, also saying he’s neither left or right. more artist than politician. its quite hard times for Czech’s with this, at the moment Vaclav Klaus is president, he is a conservative politician and not much liked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJS-l97eyU
December 20, 2011price rise in organic nuts
December 16, 2011I noticed that the price of organic nuts has gone up more than 20 percent in the supermarket in the last month. The amount of crowns that i get for one US dollar has been fluctuating a lot lately, from around 12, to now 19 within a six month time frame for one US dollar. This is ok for the big business’s as they can carry a lot of stock, and are able to use derivatives to protect a supply price. Yet smaller shops, are going to find these fluctuations difficult, and in the end are going to be less competitive. I think after the x-mass time, prices are really going to rise. Inflation is going to hit hard here.
