Last.fm Shoots Down Rumors Over U2 Album Leak 93
nandemoari writes "Internet radio site Last.fm has denied reports that it told the record industry which of its members had listened to a leaked U2 album. The site claims the entire story, published by Techcrunch, was made up.
Last week the record industry became extremely concerned after U2's forthcoming album appeared on several torrent file sharing sites. While there is no way any users could have acquired the album through Last.fm, the site's statistics suggest that more than 8,000 users have played the unreleased album on their machines."
Looks like the privacy paranoiacs win this round.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Very often I see comments dismissing any reasons for not freely giving out any and all seemingly-trivial personal information...
Well, this is the perfect situation for justifying the desire for what is now often considered excessive privacy. While some information alone may not seem sensitive, the conclusions others' might draw about you from it, combined with other info (like your profile data), may indeed be worth protecting.
Of course, if no one gave out any information, the internet would be very blank... So clearly a balance between giving out personal info and linking that personal info together is necessary. For example, the only way I'd submit my playlists to Last.FM is if it were done in an anonymous fashion, such that my user account doesn't link back to me, my IP, or any other personally-identifying info. Otherwise, I'd be happy to include some profile info, but don't count on getting my playlist too!
Does it matter? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nice Relationship (Score:4, Insightful)
30 years and counting
Re:I'm going to start leaking album plays via last (Score:0, Insightful)
I remember when somebody released fake U2 tracks with miscellaneous burping, farting, and cursing noises. They were a damn sight better than the album.
Re:Having heard it, I promise you (Score:5, Insightful)
It's an interesting premise.
There's a school of thought that says the pirated music encourages more people to buy through album sales based on 'previews'. And yet the RIAA claim this sort of piracy decreases sales.
Perhaps it's just that people hearing the full album realise it's shit. I wonder if albums sales would decrease even further if radio stations played the full track-listing before the CD was available to buy.
Re:Having heard it, I promise you (Score:5, Insightful)
Advertising based on word of mouth is fickle for advertisers. If you have something good, then it works better than anything else. People trust friends. If your product sucks, then people still trust their friends, and won't touch your product.
Internet P2P programs like BitTorrent amplify this effect. Now, you can listen to something yourself, and figure out for yourself how much you like it. Thus P2P results in a dramatic decrease in control for advertisers. It is even more fickle than word of mouth.
If you have a poor product, but from a band with a good reputation, then you want to blitz market the product. Let no one listen to it in advance. Have it show up at stores in massive quantities the day of launch, and sell as much as you can on the first day. This way you can scam as many people as possible for first day sales. With some luck, this first day blitz will cover your costs, and everything will turn out OK. The movie industry specializes in this tactic.
P2P threatens to completely destabilize this advertising tactic. The record companies, which are really big advertisers, will not be happy about this loss of control. Even if P2P ultimately makes them more money, the record companies still won't be happy about the loss of control.
Re:Does it matter? (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if they were reporting it, the moment they started acting on the fact the ID3 tags showed leaked albums, people would change all their ID3 tags to leaked albums in protest.
Probably not such a good idea since the Supreme Court struck down the Fourth Amendment [freep.com].
Re:Having heard it, I promise you (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps it's just that people hearing the full album realise it's shit. I wonder if albums sales would decrease even further if radio stations played the full track-listing before the CD was available to buy.
I'm not much on psych (I think it is clear from my posting history that I am not a people person) but the news articles which might seem contradictory have already told this tale. People who download mp3s do buy more music than people who don't. They don't buy the same music. At the same time, it's clear that many people both a) don't want to have to worry about music expiring and yet b) are tired of buying CDs. I just had to explain this whole WMA DRM thing to my lady over the issue of some library audiobooks that she thought she could listen to at her leisure (nope.)
Giving people what they want is the key to having customers. Being able to do it at a profit is the key to making money. The music industry has basically controlled what the masses want to listen to ever since the birth of commercial radio. Suddenly there is a new medium for media delivery which allows people to find out for themselves what they want and this has all the major corporate media producers scared shitless. That's what net neutrality is about, that's why companies like Verizon and AT&T want to control the entire network from end to end. When they can no longer tell you what to think (or at least, are just one voice of many) then you're going to stop buying their crap. If they can stop you from using the network connection you paid for in any way that they don't authorize, or at least marginalize any use of which they do not approve, then your mind belongs to them. That's why I get that creepy "big brother is watching" feeling when I see an Oscars Recap [slashdot.org] on the front page of slashdot. It's just another tendril of the media conglomerate reaching out to... touch me. In my private zone :(
Re:Last.fm Official Response (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Last.fm Official Response (Score:3, Insightful)
I hate the fact that your post has been up for an hour and is only at +3 instead of +5. What is wrong with slashdot mods? I guess they prefer conspiracy theories to fact as long as those theories validate their biases, namely that the RIAA has infiltrated all these music sites and that everyone is giving away their names and IP addresses. The conspiratorial anti-corporatism here is worse than usual.
Re:Last.fm Official Response (Score:3, Insightful)
As an independent artist I was considering joining your service until I read this (from the lastfm.com Terms of Use):
When you upload Your Upload Information via the Website, you irrevocably grant to Last.fm, its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, and partners, without any credit or compensation to you, a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, unrestricted, irrevocable, royalty-free and fully transferable, assignable and sub-licensable right and licence to use, reuse, modify, adapt, alter, display, archive, publish, sub-license, perform, copy, reproduce, disclose, transmit, communicate to the public, post, sell, translate, create derivative works of, distribute, make and export Your Upload Information (in whole or in part), or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, software or technology of any kind now known or developed in the future, for any purposes whatsoever including, without limitation, for advertising, marketing, publicity and promotional purposes, such as developing, manufacturing and marketing products and targeted advertisements using such Uploaded Information. You hereby waive any moral rights (or any similar rights in any jurisdiction) you may have in and to any of Your Upload Information, even if such material is altered or changed in a manner not agreeable to you.
It is a truly sad day when an artist forfeits the rights to their art with no compensation or guarantee of credit whatsoever. As your service relies on the creations of others, I recommend a Creative Commons [creativecommons.org] license. Respect the artist and they will respect you.
Re:Does it matter? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Last.fm Official Response (Score:3, Insightful)
From time to time, the Properties may contain functionality through which you can upload or submit information, data, software, messages, photographs, audio, video, text and other materials to, through or on the Website ("Your Upload Information")
Most of the content uploaded to last.fm beyond your playlists is stuff that becomes part of artist bios. These are a wiki. You agree to similar when you submit information to Wikipedia. ("Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein." from the GFDL)