Kevin Daoust (dot) Com

I awoke this morning to the news that comedian George Carlin had died from heart failure. He was 71.

I have been a fan of his for a long time. His brand of comedy really stood out with me because of it’s honesty. He always knew what words to use (his mastery of the English language is second to none) and what buttons to push. He was able to make us laugh at the absurdity of society, as well as take a long hard look at the world around us. I remember taking a road trip to Orillia to see him at Casino Rama with two friends. He performed the show that would become Life Is Worth Losing and, as always, he made you laugh and he made you think.

I don’t think that there is a comedian today that is or was as fearless and as honest as he was. Along with Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, he was a member of what many comics have called the Holy Trinity of Comedy.

We’ll miss you George.

If you don’t see a video above, click here.

Human beings do amaze me sometimes.

I find that when I interact with most people, they are, at the very least, polite and courteous. Conversations are often pleasant, and most people stay in check. I might not agree with their opinions all the time, and I’m sure that they don’t often agree with mine, but we do keep it civil. I’m also happy when this applies to people I interact with online (either blog comments, messages on Facebook, etc.)

However, this doesn’t apply to everybody.

Recently, CBC.ca started allowing people to post comments on news stories allowing people to share their opinions. While I agree that sharing opinions with others has a real value, I can’t stand to read most of the pages worth of comments on some stories. It would seem that, behind the anonymity of an Internet handle, most people take the opportunity to say things they wouldn’t if people knew who they really were. And it can be bad…

I cannot believe some of the things that I’ve read on these comment boards. Some people have been using this system to post things that are highly argumentative, unfounded, inappropriate and sometimes just plain stupid. Some of the comments posted on certain stories also make me turn my head in disgust because of the shallow or rude nature of them. The last thing I want to read on a story about something tragic are comments that are far from appropriate. (Yes, it can be THAT bad.)

The term “Internet Troll” has been adopted to describe such people. Arguing with Trolls on the comments board doesn’t help the situation since all we end up with is something equivalent to a shouting match that takes the focus away from comments made that are more appropriate or legitimate. And, if the Troll is only looking for attention by posting such stuff, arguing back only encourages him.

While this is nothing new (Trolls have been around as long as there has been an Internet for them to post on), it never ceases to amaze me what some people are capable of saying. I don’t even read comments on news sites anymore. While a few comments might catch my attention, I just don’t want to land on the one that ruins the rest of it for me. I noticed that CBC has disabled the comments function on certain stories, and I really can’t say that I blame them. Considering how sensitive the subject matter of some stories can be, there really is no place for shenanigans like this.

I do applaud the CBC (and other news sites) for allowing people the opportunity to chime in, but let’s remember to be civil with one another. I certainly don’t want to single out the CBC either (considering that they are the source of most of the news I get during the day) because I’ve seen other sites (news and otherwise) that have the same problem. And while I might expect this kind of behaviour in some places, there is certainly no room for it on others.

I don’t mind reading an opinion, as long as it’s informed.

Let’s keep it civil here folks.

And, above all, don’t feed the Trolls.

From what I’m reading these days, there are two schools of thought about DRM (Digital Rights Management): you’re either for it or against it. Right now, the wind is blowing against it as more and more companies are now selling music online that is free of that li’l piece of code.

But some people are still holding on to it as tightly as they can for as long as they can (such as the RIAA). I recently read a piece on exclaim.ca (DRM is here to stay) talking about David Hughes’ comments about how DRM is still alive and well and necessary for music subscription models (you know, the type where you pay a fee and get access to unlimited amounts of music). Now some people might like that type of service, but as I said in an earlier post (A subscription-based iTunes?), I’m not too crazy about it (I’m just the type of guy who likes to own what he pays for). And after the problems that Microsoft gave it’s customers after its MSN music store shut down its licensing server (Microsoft Screws MSN Music Store Customers), customers might be leery in using these types of services.

Meanwhile, Napster (that li’l program that started the whole music downloading craze) is now selling music that is DRM-free (Napster Joins the MP3 Club).

I stumbled on an article on CNN.com called Your blog can be group therapy that talks about how people are using blogs for therapeutic reasons. They write to express their thoughts and feelings, to reach out to others and put their hearts on their sleeves in the hopes that somebody out there will read it. Blogging does seem like the perfect outlet for a couple of reasons: 1) the authors can write with a large amount of anonymity available to them (if they chose to do so), and 2) the opportunities to speak to your readers and have your readers speak to you (through comments) provide an extra degree of support that the author may need. The article does include a few examples of this. I took a quick read of a couple of the blogs mentioned in the article, such as Snickollet, and I can see how this can be helpful to some people. Snickollet reads like a journal, but for the person behind the keyboard, putting their life in writing on the Web for all to read is probably a much-needed release.

Some people do this in conjunction with therapy while some other don’t. Either way, with today’s culture going online more and more, it’s only logical that people use this medium to vent their emotions. Besides, a free Blogger account is a heck of a lot cheaper than a therapist’s fees.

Call me crazy, but I think that Trent Reznor has probably created the near-perfect digital distribution model. He has built upon what some others have done and really took it to the next level.

Consider some of the things that came first. Radiohead releases In Rainbows with “pay what you want” pricing. I don’t know if they were the first to release a record this way (with “pay what you want” pricing), but they did get a lot of attention because of it. Most people paid nothing for the record in which the files were encoded at 160 kbps and were free of DRM. So, regardless of whether or not you paid, everybody got the same product. The digital download was also made unavailable after a few months.

Next, we have Saul William’s record The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! (which was produced by Trent Reznor). The album was available for free at 192 kbps and free of DRM, and for $5 people could chose between 192 kbps, 320 kbps and Lossless FLAC formats (also free of DRM). As with In Rainbows, the free version of the record is now unavailable, though the album can still be purchased for $5.

It should also be pointed out that In Rainbows also had a physical release with different versions (ranging from CD to vinyl) and The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! will also get a physical release with additional tracks.

Moving on to Trent, Nine Inch Nails recently released Ghosts I-IV, a collection of instrument tracks in a variety of moods. Along with that variety of moods was a variety of purchase options that included a free edition of Ghost I (at 320 kbps), a full digital edition for $5 (available at 320 kbps MP3 files, FLAC and Apple Lossless), a two-disc CD edition for $10, a vinyl release for $39, a deluxe edition (that includes the multi-track files for remixing and a high resolution edition of the album on Blu-Ray disc) for $75 and an ultra-deluxe edition for $300. Here are some of the reasons why I think that this is one of the best distribution models out there:

• The files on the digital releases are high quality (320 kbps) and free of DRM.
• One volume of the record has been made available for free, rather than the entire work (though considering that the full version has no DRM, one could download the entire record for free if they wanted to. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, so people are free to distribute it.)
• No DRM means that it can be used in any MP3 player without problems.
• He has set a (reasonable) price of $5 for four albums worth of music on the digital release (no overhead to produce = more savings for the customer, regardless of the number of tracks).
• Given that he is selling the CD directly, he has cut out the middle men and set a low price tag of $10 for the CD version.
• He has given the customer a lot of choice on how they wish to purchase the record (Digital release, CD, Vinyl, etc.).

Not being tied to a record label means that offering this much choice and freedom with one’s music is possible. While it can be argued that, because of NIN’s popularity, something like this can work really well for them and not for anybody else. It may be true, but artists interested in distributing their music themselves should take notes on this. If you have a CD to sell, it doesn’t hurt to give people a taste of it (much like the free version of Ghosts I) and sell a full-length digital copy yourself. Again, it’s about giving choice to the consumer. If a person would rather buy the MP3’s from the start rather than a CD, it wouldn’t hurt to give them that option.

I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg on what he has in store for the future. A few days ago, NIN released their latest single Discipline to radio and as a free download only hours after it was mastered. His blog has also been peppered with the same cryptic “Tic Toc Tic Toc” messages that were posted prior to the release of Ghosts I-IV.

Sure enough, NIN released their new record The Slip today, available absolutely free through their Web site, in a variety of digital formats under the same Creative Commons License as Ghosts I-IV.

And it continues…