30 search results for "bjork"

There’s a lot to talk about this morning.

The Shins

Apologies to Shins fans waiting for the recording from last night. I did not attend, and wasted my ticket. Between the rain, my not feeling well, and lackluster reviews of the show and the venue, I did not really feel up to attending.

Server Outages and new Server Limits:

The Springsteen and Morrissey recordings have brought users to this site in record numbers. The total number of visits the day after the Springsteen concert was 118,000, roughly 5 times the record number of hits for a day on this site. The record number of visits have continued throughout the week. Those numbers have essentially crashed the server on multiple occasions, and have brought download speeds down to a trickle.

Unfortunately, my host has now put limits on my server capacity. The total number of visitors at any given time is limited to 150 distinct ip addresses. The total number of files one user can download at once is now limited to 5. And upload speed from the server has been capped at 2.5 megabytes per second. That’s a lot of speed if you’re downloading alone, but a slow speed if you divide it by 150.

There have been complaints and frustrations communicated in various forums on the web about the crashes and the speed reductions. I understand these complaints, but want users to know that these limits come from the host, and are a direct result of the popularity of the site.

Support the Artists:

I am capable of tracking the total number of purchases of official CD’s that are made through links on this site. I must say that I am profoundly disappointed at the number of people who download from this site, and the subsequent lack of purchases of official releases. I understand that of the 5000 people who downloaded Springsteen, most if not all of them already own Magic, or of the 3000 people who have downloaded Bjork, most or all already bought Volta.

It is the goal of this site that those 8000 people be exposed to other artists, and support those artists. Springsteen fans would be more than happy with the music of The Hold Steady, or The National, and Bjork fans would love Regina Spektor, or Animal Collective, or Kria Brekkan. In other words, if you already own Volta, click on the link and buy Begin to Hope!

nyctaper is currently considering implementing a limitation of downloads, where access would only be granted if confirmation of purchase of the official release is offered. This is something that we don’t want to install, but may be forced to do if users do not support the bands.

Support the Site:

The plan for this site was that donations and ad revenue would make it a not-too-expensive proposition. nyctaper was willing to operate at a loss in order to be able to implement a new model of music exchange and artist promotion. In this regard, the site has been a complete failure. The total number of donations thus far has amounted to $134. That represents less the price of the ticket for Springsteen. Commission ad revenue has generated zero. We did not envision being in the hole for roughly 12 thousand dollars within six months of the opening of the site.

Ironically, today we were accused of being bootleggers.

Plans for the Future:

At this point, nyctaper will continue to exist until the end of the shows listed below. We can not continue to afford to operate past that period without any significant user support.

Upcoming Events:

The Decemberists:
November 1, 2007
November 2, 2007, Terminal Five, NYC

Fiery Furnaces:
November 3, 2007, Hiro Ballroom, NYC

Pylon:
November 7, 2007, Mercury Lounge, NYC

Phil Lesh and Friends:
November 8, 2007, Phil Lesh Tickets at Nokia Theatre Times Square

mum:
November 9, 2007, Church of St. Paul NYC
November 10, 2007, Society for Ethical Culture Concert Hall NYC

Yo La Tengo:
November 16, 2007, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

Pierce Turner:
December 2, 2007, Joe’s Pub NYC
December 9, 2007, Joe’s Pub NYC

Yo La Tengo:
December 6, 2007, Maxwell’s Hoboken NJ (12/6 sold out, click link for tickets to other nights)

I will not attend Neil Young at the United Palace because I can not afford the ticket price, and no user has offered to sponsor my attendance.

Recordings will be posted at this site for each of those concerts that nyctaper attends and records. As with any future plans, some of these concerts may not be attended or recorded by nyctaper, for reasons out of my control. Please check back to the site often for updates as other concerts will be added.

I have received numerous requests to attend and record certain specific events. Please bear in mind that my time and energy are limited. Specific requests are more likely to be successful if accompanied by a guest list pass, complimentary ticket or other incentives.

We’ve had our first visit from a representative of a music industry entity, in the comment section of the Squeeze recording. Read here.

This is a post that I emailed to Bjork’s management, and posted in the bjork.com 4Um earlier this year. I feel it pretty much summarizes the current position with regard to the free share and trading of unofficial live recordings:

Over the last several years, it has become apparent that the transfer
of music through the internet will eventually become the primary means
by which performers will promote and ultimately distribute their media.

One of the interesting by-products of this move to internet distribution
has been the free share of fan-produced live recordings through networks
such as bit torrent (www.dimeadozen.org),
direct connect, and ftp/http downloads. The ultimate realization of this
phenomenom is the huge archive of live material shared, with artists’ consent,
at www.archive.org.

Among the fans of Bjork, the internet distribution of her live material has
been a reality since the early days of low bandwidth distribution. Such
fan sites such as etoile polaire, the dwave ftp, and the Bjork trading
group set the stage for the current high bandwidth distribution of lossless
audio and DVD’s of fan produced recordings at the Bjork Hub.

As Bjork now embarks on her first tour in nearly four years, many
realities have changed in the world of live music, fan recordings and
internet distribution. The rapid free share of unofficial live recordings
has essentially eliminated the market for illegal bootleg selling, and has
created an atmosphere where the artist and the recordist can work
cooperatively to archive the material, promote the artist’s official product,
and satisfy the demands of a fan base who seek a particular artist’s
output beyond that available in the official catalog.

Within the last two years, the policy in the bjork.com 4Um has permitted
the free share of fan-produced unofficial recordings. In this atmosphere,
the Bjork Hub has thrived in its goal to archive all available unofficial
recordings, catalog the archive, and share those recordings among the
dedicated fan base in a cooperative and friendly environment.

It is in this context, that the Bjork Hub sincerely requests that
unobstrusive, discreet fan recording be permitted during the anticipated
2007 Bjork Spring Tour. With artist permission, fan recordings are
generally of a much higher quality, since the recordist does not secrete
the equipment in fear of security, and the surrounding fans are often
cooperative in their behavior. Additionally, any attempts to bootleg any
recording from the tour (as occurred with multiple recordings of the 2001
and 2003 tours) will be completely frustrated by the free share and easy
distribution among the fans.

We hope that this sincere request will be considered and approved.

And a summary of the nyctaper site:

“My site exists as a experiment in a new paradigm of promoting artists, and encouraging fans to support them. I do this at a substantial cost to my own pocketbook because I believe in live music, I can afford it, I get to attend many excellent concerts, and believe that ultimately sites like this will help artists adapt to the use of technology to spread their music and further their careers.

Its discouraging, but ultimately not surprising, that a representative the music industry would take such a negative approach to my site. However, I continue to be motivated by the incredibly positive reviews of fans, and most importantly the cooperation, encouragement and participation of the artists themselves many of whom take an active role in the distribution of their music through my site.”