@Tag All you say is true, and I can't see this approach working well for the majority of bands either, TBH. But note that neither myself nor SoH are advocating the ditching of properly recorded CDs (there'd be nothing to copy!) — I suspect that a significant proportion of their revenue comes from record sales. The point I'm making is more that, if people are giving you free promotion through gig videos and pirated copies, why try to stop them, provided it's not having a large impact on earnings?

It's an interesting case study, regardless of feasibility for the rest of the industry. It would be interesting to see live/record earning breakdowns for some more prominent bands and artists.

That model works for live bands, but not everyone is a live band. While I believe some major changes need to happen in the music industry, I think it would be sad for it to go in this direction. Some music is best recorded in a studio. It's an environment where a performance is perfected and creativity abounds. A classic example is The Beatles. Their best music came from when they camped in a studio and quit touring. Under the new live model, that couldn't work.

And that's just regarding the artists. There are people behind them who make the recordings possible. I'm studying to become an audio engineer. It's not a lucrative business as it is and if the live model were to become the norm, I can only assume I would have to find a new job. Free recordings, for the most part, would be done by amateurs. Only the biggest live acts could afford a high quality recording, and even then it would just be treated as an advertisement for their concert, not a work of art. My point is not that the recording business should exist for the sake of jobs (obsolete jobs should disappear), but that it is difficult to imagine a model of free recordings. More than just the bands make their living from recordings, too. In a free model, they disappear and recorded music will, in a word, suck.

The music business needs to adapt, but I don't think abandoning the recording business and simply accepting piracy is the answer.

That's my two cents.

Copyleft or it didn't happen. [/sarcasm]

LOL !

"Even after we developed apparatus enabling duplex communication with the test subject, it failed every test we could throw at it. IQ, ink blot… even when we asked it to identify the Blackberry Playbook amongst some other tablets, it failed — it kept jumping at the iPad"

Thanks everyone, should be fun! @ralf I suppose this is the equivalent of driving school — being taught out on the road. @krawallmeitze congratulations! You are the first troll I have met on D*.

never been on the road before?.....what happened to driving school?

Hi Barnaby, I am sure you will do just fine. Driving is a very pleasant thing, although surfing the internet is even better. So if you like surfing the internet you will not be happy with driving. Sorry to say that. #krawallmietze is boring herself! I bet she think Edward Cullen is cooler than Charlie Swan, which all stupid people think!

@gaberlunzie That's a fair cop! I'm stuck on my perceived absence of absolute (and therefore ANY) truth. If nothing can be proven as true then everything is merely perception..well at least maybe? ugh therefore am I dreaming? If I am not dreaming then how could I possibly embrace any morality...as morality seem to be completely subjective...or something like that...my brain hurts.

I posted the link for general interest. I'm very much a nominalist, not a Platonist (although I realise many mathematicians are), so it's beyond me how something can exists if it doesn't manifest as and in something.

Thamx @gaberlunzie have bookmarked that in the favorites folder labeled "Someday" (as for the time being my computer has no sound...i blew up it's ability to make sound a couple months ago! Go Me!)

Wow @Barnaby Walters Thank you! Great tip! Making me think I may want to get a BIT more researchy...wouldn't have done any of that and can see why I need to...

@zach I drew up some plans based on a variety of sources (my instrument, some helpful makers) and got a maker to have a look over it.

@brendan sounds great! With something like that (long-ish neck and lots of strings) the trick will be to make it not fall apart and play well at the same time :) If you plane the fingerboard straight whilst the neck is under artificial tension (clamp body and put wedge under headstock), it'll help prevent the strings pulling it into a serious bow when everything's tensioned up. Let me know if you need any tips+tricks…

Yeah a lot like that! Except mine will most likely suck? I'm just going at it. * sort of a reversed coffin shaped body *Longer neck (b=about the same length as a baritone gtr) *8 strings (like mando, tuned in 5ths) *Humbucker and Mic options * Tremelo System (unless it screws everything too much) *Possible fretless (I play Violin) but prolly fretted.

Basically I have no idea what I am doing. Will either be genius or garbage.

For me, the most important with FF is that I can use the extensions I need: Adblock Plus, Firebug, Rikaichan, Ghostery and, yes, even Social Fixer (aka "Better Facebook"). Performance on OS X is more than decent, so I've feel no need to turn to Safari or Chrome...

Thanks :) I've always loved Peter Firmin's illustrations, and like to think my style pays small homage to them. Noggin the Nog and the other smallfilms are way better than the crap that I would have had to put up with as a child if my parents weren't oldskool!

This reminds me of the pie full o' blackbirds in Noggin The Nog.

Yes, I have considered that there may be more than three. As for why… All I can say is that it's nothing to do with regurgitated fish :)

Well, thats why FF rocks.

Probably a visitor running off a VM testbed.