But, now I have started working on new material for the site, including:

• Ten new reviews.  Eight of which are completed, and the remaining two just need some final tweaks.
• Several new essays.  These are mostly some pieces that I worked on as background material for a book I am working on…  However, with a little revision they should be worth posting here.
• Plans to work some of the material from this site along with more material into a second book.  This second book I expect to actually have finished by early next year.

Part of the reason that I have been away is that I haven’t been able to listen to as much music over the past several months.  Not that I haven’t been listening to any music at all…however I’ve really only been able to listen to music at home most of the time.  But wait, didn’t I review three Cowon iAudio devices just a few months ago?  Why yes, I did…and now it’s time to tell you a short story I like to think of as: The Rise and Fall of the iAudios.

Basically, all three devices are no longer functional, and the fact that the headphones I use are still functioning is something of a miracle.

Device #1 — the iAudio U5.  I stated before that I liked this device for use at the gym where I would typically have some podcasts and music loaded on it, and listen to it while I was walking or biking.  Since my workouts were nearly daily, the rate of churn on the device was very high.  It’s downfall?  The rate of churn.  This takes a bit of an explanation…

Unlike most of my readers, I don’t use the standard software for managing these devices because I run Linux on my computers.  Fortunately, the Cowon devices do not require that I use some special software with them.  I can just copy files to them just like you would a USB stick.   Now, around this time I had installed a new version of Linux of on my system…  And since it was fairly new, I was trying to give all the original applications and tools that it had configured.  Admittedly, I should have known better.  Almost everything that came with the Linux installation was excellent, except for the File Manager (Linux equivalent of the Windows Explorer) application.  I should have known better: I had used the File Manager before, and had issues with it.

And, that indeed, proved the be the case…again.  Several times when I used the File Manager it ended up not copying files correctly to the U5, and wouldn’t allow me to remove the U5 from the system.  A couple of times it caused problems that required me to erase all the files on the system, run a checking program to find things that were broken, and then reload.

Then the fateful time: it corrupted the storage on the U5 so bad that it could no longer start correctly.  It just hangs during the start up.  When I plug it in, it gets partway through the start up, then restarts itself.  It does this over and over again.

I don’t know if the device can be repaired.  I need to contact Cowon to find out if I can send it in for repair – but at this point I’m pretty sure it’s toast. The repair would be to replace the system board in the device, which is basically the same as buying a whole new device…

Device #2 – the iAudio 7.  This is the one device that I may be able to repair myself — if I can find a screwdriver small enough to remove the screws.  The story of what happened to this device is the simplest: I went to see the recent Sherlock Holmes movie at the theater one night, and had the iAudio 7 in my jacket pocket.  As I went to sit down in my seat it fell out of my pocket onto the floor of the theater (fortunately this theater is really good about cleaning up between shows, so I didn’t have to worry about getting sticky gunk on it).

I picked up the device and put it back in my pocket, making certain that it would not fall out again.  After the movie was over, I went to use it, and found that that the power switch was broken. It’s extremely loose, and doesn’t seem to be engaging the switch.  So, I think it’s just an alignment issue.  If I can open it, I might be able to get it fixed.

Device #3 – the iAudio 9. This is probably the most pathetic of all three of these stories.  I’ve had a bad habit of not always checking my pockets before washing my clothes.  This has led to my washing my earphones four times at this point, and even putting them through the dryer once, and maybe twice.  Remarkably, the earphones still work.

However, the one time that I missed the iAudio 9 in the pocket of my cargo pants it was the end of it.  I found it when the wash was done, I tried to dry it out and see if I could get it working, but it was not to be.

So, that’s the story of the demise of the Cowon devices.  Fortunately, I think one of them is recoverable.  And, in the mean time I have had another device come to my rescue: my Android phone.  So now I’ve been using my phone for listening to podcasts and some of the new music that I download from the net.

Well, that’s all that I have for this story.  Time to get to work on finishing up the rest of the materials to post over the next few weeks.  I’ll be writing a few more posts in the next few days regarding the upcoming reviews and maybe a few surprises.

I have finished listening to The Faust Cycle, but haven’t had the time to write up any further notes and thoughts.  Honestly, it is taking more time than I expected because the ending is more attention demanding than the rest of the piece.  Unfortunately, I won’t be making it to a 14 part review as I had originally planned.  At this point, I am planning to write two more pieces, for 10 in total.

I started listening to some releases from Music Trade.  I am quite impressed with the releases on this label.  They set a very different standard for Net Label releases.  I will talk a bit more about them in a few future articles.  Another label that I have started listening to is Pavillon 36 Recordings.  I already reviewed the release from Pharmacore a while back.  I will be living with the few releases I have on my system for a bit, then reviewing them.

I don’t intend to keep this site totally about music.  It’s really supposed to be about Free (Libre) Art, Culture, and Music.  Hopefully over the next couple of weeks, I will be adding more content about free literature, and other subjects.

I am also thinking about adding some of my own fiction and poetry to the site.

I am still trying to figure out what is wrong with the RSS feeds, so if you were following the site via RSS, I will be working on fixing it.  (Something has broken a couple of things, and I am still working them out…)

There’s a few more things, but it’s maybe a bit too early to talk about them…so I will leave on a little mystery note, just to say that I have a lot more ideas in mind for the site, and a lot more content that I am developing.

Please, if you have any ideas or comments, let me know either via the comments to this article, or by using the Contact Me form.

Thanks for hanging in there!

• Six articles on The Faust Cycle have been posted, and there will be six more of them.
• I posted my commentaries on: the Cowon iAudio 7 & 9 players, A Brief Word About Security, and the iPad & iBooks.
• I continued serveral series:  Finding Music Online, Shoestring Classical Series.
• I posted part two of my January Classical Listening article.
• I reviewed a new release by Pharmacore on the Pavillion36 label.
• And I started re-working the Links & Locations portion of the site.

I was highly encouraged this week to have had several wonderful conversations.  Ergo Phizmiz picked up on my series about The Faust Cycle and has been following it.  Embe from Netwaves noticed my site and has added it to his blogroll (with the condition that I not blog about U2 — not much of a risk there…), and I have added Netwaves to my Links & Locations.  Travis from Hiddenplace Music commented on the start of my commentaries on The Faust Cycle.

While I was out for dinner with a friend Saturday, we ended up in a coffee shop where I came across a magazine I hadn’t seen before.  The focus of the magazine is on contemporary African music.  Just a single issue of this magazine has given me a wealth of new labels,and material to start tracking down and researching.

The only other outstanding thing that I haven’t done yet is to write up something on my Droid.  Hopefully I will get around to that this week (I am still looking at music applications for it).

This next week will probably be a little slower.  I have the following things to do:

• Finish The Faust Cycle.
• Finish overhauling the Links & Locations section.
• Do some research for the Shoestring Classical series.
• Start checking on some newer independent material that I started reading about.
• Prep a new series for the site.
• And, I’m trying to find a new item to add to the site.

So, until next week, lets see what happens.

Oh, and if you are a fan of LOST – don’t forget the 3 hour start to this season on Tuesday.

• What will compete with iBooks and iBookstore?
• Is iBooks the best thing for the publishing industry?
• What damage is being done to consumers?

Those questions are discussed in the remainder of this article.

What will compete with iBooks and the iBookstore?

The automatic assumption (because Steve Jobs framed it this way) is that the competition is going to be between Apple and Amazon.  And that may be true for a while, but probably not for very long…

Remember, there is another horse in the phone and now operating system market: Google.  The Chrome OS is being designed to fit exactly the model that the iPad is offering: smaller screen, scaled down, connected functionality.  But, that alone isn’t why I have a gut feeling that Google may find itself in this market.

Remember Google went through a lawsuit regarding it’s Google Books, and they received very favorable terms (maybe not for the publishing industry, but for Google they were favorable).  They’ve been busy digitizing as many books as they can, and have been building a “library” infrastructure the likes of which I think Apple may have problems approaching, even with all the major publishers on board.

When you also consider there is some history of Google partnering with other companies, like Amazon, to provide services.  For example, the Amazon MP3 application that ships on the Droid.

Admittedly, there is current disagreement between Amazon and Google regarding Google Books (see references), however the entry of Apple into the eBook space might change things and force an alliance between Amazon and Google.

Is iBooks the best thing for the publishing industry?

As a pretty devout Free (Libre) Culture supporter, I don’t think it is.  And, when I consider the possible implications to our legal system regarding Trademark, Copyright, Patent, and Service Mark laws, I almost get noxious.

The fact is, the propagation of the store model based on Apple’s iTunes is a bad choking point on the propagation of culture.  We would have a distribution system that would only allow for materials that are acceptable to other publishers and to Apple to be allowed in the store.  At least with Barnes & Noble and Amazon, there are self-publishing partners for those that want to publish a book without an agent / contract / publisher, etc.  And, while Google offers it’s Market for applications on Android, you can actually install other applications without using the Market (you just have to enable this feature).  You can make a bet this kind of functionality will be available in Chrome OS.

Even now, there are numerous eBook applications for Android available through the Market.  I bet those applications  will quickly find their way to Chrome OS as soon as it is sufficiently developed.  This will alos open the door for public domain texts from the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg to find their way to this platform. This isn’t as likely to happen if Apple and the publishing industry have their say.

What damage is being done to consumers?

The more I look at the current situation, the more I see a major problem: iTunes, Amazon MP3, the Kindle, etc. are allowing the music and publishing industries to cling to a business model that is outdated and outmoded by the current technology.  At some point we need to make these businesses realize that they need to be accountable to society in general, and not just the narrow markets that they have set in their minds.  Unfortunately, until they do see that they need to change their models, they will continue to cling to whatever is closest to their current business models for as long as they can to the detriment of society at large.

Another factor of this is that they are still looking towards a false economy of scarcity to allow them to price items in the digital economy.  One of the things I noticed in several TV stories that I saw was taht some publishers were hoping this was going to provide them with a way to control the pricing of their content.  The New York Times is a big advocate of pushing pricing models that match their old pricing schemes (with the changes in the media and their losing market share and capitalization, they are searching for any model that allows them to put off the inevitable need to find a new model that works for them).

Don’t get me wrong, there have been, and continue to be good things happening: dropping DRM in iTunes, the Creative Commons, netlabels, more music distribution channels (like Jamendo and Magnatune), etc.  However, most of these are incremental steps.  The don’t represent the major strides that need to be made in order to remove the locked-down approach that the music and publishing industry take over and over and over again: such as with DRM on the Kindle.

I hope with Google having a tendency towards having a more open platform than Apple, that we might be able to see some real change in the direction of this new media technology.

References

• Can the Apple iPad iBook Store take on Amazon?
• Apple reveals iBookstore and app for the iPad
• Apple iPad and iBookstore: Is this the publishing industry’s savior?
• iBooks: Apple’s New iTunes-Like Store And App For Books (VIDEO)
• Google Books Settlement Agreement
• Amazon To Contest Google Books Agreement

• Last Sunday’s Re-spin was, I think, pretty well written.  I managed to get some information in there that will help guide me forward with the site, and it hit on some interesting topics.
• My Editorial on Jamendo’s Future was a hard written piece, and I am not completely certain that everything I have been thinking was well represented.  At least, that was the conclusion I came to after I read the response from Jorg Fischer, which was well reasoned, stated and quite insightful as to where some of my article was weak and could be improved on.
• I was very pleased with the launch of a new recurring series: Finding Music Online.  I think this is a series that is going to continue building, and will allow me to expand several other areas of the site. Be looking for the next installment in that series very soon.
• I write the first of the two-part January Classical Listening articles intending for it to be a filler.  But, as I got into it, the article took on a life of it’s own I hadn’t expected.
• The only actual libre culture review this week was OG’s 01. I felt bad that I spent so much space in the review on issues that were more about Jamendo, listeners, and my struggles than it was about his music.  Fortuantely, the music itself was wonderful, and the artist was very appreciative of my review.
• I finally posted my review of the Cowon iAudio 7 & 9.  I have personally liked all the Cowon music players I’ve owned so far, despite the minor flaws I found.

In looking over the things that I promised last week, I see there were a few that I didn’t hit:

• I didn’t get the new Shoestring Classical Collection article out. That was a matter of trying to resolve a technical issue.  I just resolved the issue today, and now plan to start working on the new article.
• I didn’t get around to writing up anything on my Droid.  I have set out a plan for reviewing some things with it (not the phone itself, rather some applications that are appropriate to this site), but haven’t had enough time to work with the applications.

I sat down and did a mini-brainstorming session yesterday, and came up with a few new things to add to the site.  Not posts or series, but rather longer-term articles / essays.  I’m not going to jinx myself by talking about them specifically now, as they are bigger in scope and will require more work to produce.

With a few of the pieces I have been working on lately, I’ve been doing more research.  The fun part about this is: there is a lot more that I can work with.  It also means there is a lot more research that I need to do, and some more things for me to consider.

I started listening to an unusual piece tonight: Ergo Phizmiz’s “The Faust Cycle: or, the House of Dr. Faustus”. It’s an amazingly large work: 14+ hrs.  It was released by the Headphonica Netlabel. This is more than a somewhat daunting piece to attempt to listen to, it seems about as insane to try to listen to it as it does to have created it in the first place.

According to the artists website, the piece too three years to complete and made his head hurt — and that’s only one of 46 Reasons to Download The Faust Cycle from the artists own blog.

I love an insane challenge!  Until next week…

1. First, there was the review of Bielebny’s Punxsutawney, a release that I thought was okay, but it was a bit challenging to listen to.  This was a first time issue for me: the artist was soliciting reviews, and I felt that what I had to say wasn’t exactly positive.  Well, as it turned out, on the whole I had more positive things to say than negative.  Which is always a good thing.  (I personally would like to keep the reviews mostly positive.  There is so much material out there to listen to that’s worth highlighting the material I think is worthy, rather than spending time on the stuff that isn’t worth it.)
2. Next I reviewed graphicsgroove’s graphiqsgroove2009 a recording that I really loved.  This is one that will end up on my playlists for years to come.
3. And then came the “long quiet” until I published an article about the San Diego School and Local Authorities over reacting to a kids science project, and in the process Viloated the Parents Privacy when it was known there was no issue.  This was a story that caught my eye yesterday, and something I just had to write about.

And that’s all that was published on the site this week…  The reason being I’ve run into some technical issues that left me in a position of not wanting to make too many changes to site in the event that something broke.  (I have one of two issues resolved now, so I know there won’t be any major issues that would cause the loss of anything.)

Despite the technical issues, there have been several other events and things going on:

• Space Weirdo has published my review on their website in English and Spanish. This was a real honor.  This is the first time that anyone has approached me to re-publish any of my writings, and a double honor to have it translated into Spanish.
• I received the Cowon iAudio 7 and iAudio 9 to replace my currently non-functional iAudio U5.  I will write an article, there’s been plenty of reviews of these devices, but getting the pair of them together was quite an interesting experience, and even has one or two common points between them
• I recieved a new box set of Grieg Songs & Lieder. To be honest, this isn’t my normal area of musical interest or expertise, but given that the works are by Grieg I felt the need to give them a run.
• I’ve been listening to a lot of new material.  I’ve plowed through something along the lines of 30-40 hours worth of music.  There will definitely be some articles about my listening this week, some of which may be formal reviews.
• I’ve started several more articles, which will also be published this week.  There are two editorials, and another Shoestring Classical Collection.
• During the week I started considering some new columns or series to start writing.  Hopefully I will get to start one of them this week.  (Part of the expanding line of ideas I’ve been working on for the site.)
• I’ve started working on my other website – a more geeky linux thing called LinuxTweakers. That site is not ready for prime time just yet, but it should be up and running pretty well within a day or two.
• The final event of the week: I got a new phone.  I got a Droid.  I mention it here becuase I am looking at some of the music apps that are available for it, and am impressed thus far.  I will be writing something up about that in the near future once I get some more time to play with it.

So, that’s about it for now.  Hopefully I can overcome my last technical issue, and I will get to start adding some new and different things to the website.

But, after watching the interview, there was much more than just the sound-bites that are worth thinking about and considering.  Read on for my reactions and thoughts.

The Sherman Alexie interview was quoted in an article on the CNN website: eBook Digital Piracy. The article spends most of it’s time talking about Digital Piracy as an issue facing publishers, and very little time looking at the positive side to eBooks.

To me it is astounding that there is still a major imbalance in terms of what is being presented in the national press and national media when issues of technological change are being presented.  The missing element is in looking at the successes that technology has brought about.  For example, nowhere in the CNN article was there any mention of Creative Commons, O’Reilly Media, Project Gutenberg, etc.  Or, for that matter, authors like Corey Doctorow, J. C. Hutchins, James Boyle, amongst others. The media seems to be scared of looking at issues from the perspective of changing media.  They seem doubly blind by the fact that they are part of the change.

But, I digress from the point of this article:  Sherman Alexie’s comments.

Open Source versus Artistic Ownership

The first thing that really stunned me in Mr. Alexie’s comments is his confusion over “Open Source” and “Artistic Ownership”.  If anything, there is more of an ownership in the Open Source community than there is in the arts in general.  Why do I say that?

In “Open Source” communities, you are recognized by your contributions: you increase your visibility or mind-share through your contributions.  This is  a fact documented as far back as The Cathedral and the Bazaar and Homesteading the Noosphere (the pivotal essays by Eric S. Raymond). It is your mind-share that is your “ownership”.

The same exists in the online artistic communities.  Those authors that chose to publish their works under a Creative Commons license do not lose their ownership.  If anything, they are able to propegate their ownership further by specifying the types of uses that their works are released under. By specifying with in any license that attribution (CC-BY) is a requirment, the creator has the ability to allow others to build on their work, while still maintaining a strong portion of their mind share.  In the many of the older works, once they entered into the public domain, anyone could build on the works, without having to specify an attribution.

The practice of borrowing from another authors work is common in literature.  As an example, Laurence Sterne was so taken with Shakespeare’s works that he named one of his characters Yorick.  And, went so far as to work the line “Alas, poor Yorick!” into The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (the reference is at the end of Chapter 1.XII. of the Project Gutenberg edition linked to here).

But this isn’t an isolated case.  There are whole tomes dedicated to examing the cross-referential and influential materials that authors choose to build upon in their works.  I’m certain that Mr. Alexie’s works have been subject of such intellectual endeavors themselves, and he would be hard pressed to say that he has never written anything that doesn’t have references to other literary works.

But, don’t take this the wrong way.  There is nothing wrong with this whatsoever.  The act of using references to other works is a part of the art form being practiced.  It is seen as being part of the dialogue between authors and society.  It is part of the tapestry that is woven to carry on a conversation on many levels that has continued for hundreds of years, and I would argue is a necessity if any of our works of art and culture are going to have meaning beyond the moment that they are published.

Destruction by Digitization

Okay, I think I’ve flogged that point.  However, Mr. Alexie didn’t stop with that one statement.  He went on to say that digitization of literature was destroying the culture of the book market.  While on his latest book tour he found himself attending more afternoon movie matinees, instead of doing local promotional work (like interviews for local newspapers and TV, etc.)  And that there was a decline in the independent book sellers, and the literary communities.

That may well be true.  However, I wouldn’t have linked the digitization of books to this phenomena.  From everything I have seen, this was well in decline before the advent of the Kindle, or any of the other book readers.  In fact, I would suggest that there is an even better chance that there will be a resurgence in the reading community because of the digitization.  However, it will take place in a different form, as the technology will enable different forms of community to emerge.

Just to understand what the difference will be, just look at this article.  I am responding to an interview with Mr. Alexie by providing the full context of his actual statements, in their original form by actually embedding the interview in this article.  This is something that no published article could do. I would have to carefully transcribe the interview, and either quote or paraphrase it very carefully within the body of this article in order to respond.  With this new technology, I allow the reader to actually experience Mr. Alexies comments in their complete context.

By publishing in this manner, I am adding to the conversation that needs to take place between the old and new media, between authors who have built their ways working around the older methods and those of us who have adapted to the new media. And most importantly, between those creators who were used to having communities form around their work, and those who are trying to form a community with their work (ie, those that are taking a more active role in building their community, versus the passive role the creator has taken in the past).

Scarcity and the Physical Object

The final point that Mr. Alexie made that I will address was feeling of loss for the physical object of the book itself, in it’s physical form. To this, I can only say that there is a level of undeniable truth: there is a loss of the physical object, and those of us who are book lovers do feel it.

However, there are two other points that are worth considering: first, the physical form of the book uses a resource that there is a limitation on.  We cannot keep using paper at an incredibly high rate, deforestation is an issue that we need to be concerned with on a ecological level.  This planet doesn’t have infinite resources, and we can recycle and reuse the resources to some degree, but paper is one of the items that we will eventually need to be concerned about exhausting.  And consider, if there is less of a physical object to ship, the less of a carbon footprint is created.  (That is, if there are fewer of the phyiscal objects, the lower the net energy put into the creation, distribution, etc.)

Which, brings up my second point: scarcity.  One of the articles I was reading suggested that removing artificial scarcity was alway a good idea.  I would suggest that this is one of the factors that Mr. Alexie should actually be applauding.  Why?  Because (a) the removal of a physical object makes it more likely he will be able to build a larger audience.  According to Amazon’s stats, owners of the Kindle bought three times as many books, as non-owners of the device did.  This was discussed briefly  in the previously referenced CNN article. (b) By removing the scarcity for the common object, the actual scarce object (ie, the physical books themselves) take on a higher value.  Those who want to actually own a physical copy of the book will evntually become a smaller segment of the population, and typically that segment is willing to pay more for the phyiscal object.

This is a corner we are starting to see come about in the music industry.  Those that want the physical media are paying more for it (believe me on this one, I know it first hand) than those that are willing to purchase the digital form of the item.  Just look at the businesses iTunes, amazon.com and WalMart have built around digital music.

I personally don’t believe that all the barriers to scarcity are completely removed by the digital model. Several factors such as: bandwidth, network accessibility, and storage are still elements that are subject to scarcity rules at this point (but they are becoming less and less of a factor over time).  However, with the adoption of the digital model, the physical objects have taken on a more significant role.  How many people purchased the deluxe editions of the Lord of The Rings movies?  And the prices for these editions were far greater than the same product in their non-deluxe edition.

Summary: So What Happened to Piracy?

So, what happened to the point that started this whole essay: eBook Piracy and Open Source?

Well, once I explained why Open Source and Piracry weren’t logically linked above, the subject of piracy itself become an almost non-issue.  There are so many other factors to consider, that eBook Piracy itself became the proverbial mole-hill.  And, in fact, the last subject above brings up the example that proves that piracy becomes a mole-hill: the music publication industry today is a greatly changed place.  Certainly it’s not completely recovered from the problems it has been having over the past couple of decades, however the change to digital media has actually turned about the piracy issue.  These days, many people are much more likely to go to iTunes or Amazon and purchase a legal (and notably, DRM free version) of the work they want.

What the industry hasn’t figured out yet is how to engage the new market in a model that reflects it’s overall makeup.  There is still too much generalization in some respects.  For example, we see marketing concepts taht work for Brittany Spears teenagers being applied to the Frank Sinatra generation.  The fact is, they are different sub-markets that respond to different stimuli.  Until they understand this and work with large cross sections of the market in a manner that is appropriate, they may not get back to where they were.  In fact, I might suggest they will never get back there because as a strictly business model there is a large difference between the purely entertainment oriented population they appeal to and the more artistic or socially oriented groups.  I don’t believe the two are as closely inter-related as has been believed in the past.

And when you start looking at the other factors: removing scarcity, making the truely scarce more valuable, increasing the overall artistic ownership for the creator that works with his / her audience, the re-invention of the community, the need for the creator to be more engaged in the act of building their community, etc. piracy pales by comparison.