Scraping the Web Now, Asking for Permission Later

Apple

Federico Viticci, writing at MacStories about Apple’s details on their AI model being trained on web content:

As a creator and website owner, I guess that these things will never sit right with me. Why should we accept that certain data sets require a licensing fee but anything that is found “on the open web” can be mindlessly scraped, parsed, and regurgitated by an AI? Web publishers (and especially indie web publishers these days, who cannot afford lawsuits or hiring law firms to strike expensive deals) deserve better.

I agree wholeheartedly. I felt similarly when I looked at the data that trained Google’s AI. I see Chorus and our forum very clearly in their training data. We didn’t agree to that. Our community never agreed to that. Google played a massive role in devaluing small and medium sized websites (and the online ad business) and we’re certainly not going to be the ones getting any publishing deals. None of it sits well with me.

Hawthorne Heights Pick Ten Essential Emo Albums

Hawthorne Heights

 JT Woodruff of Hawthorne Heights has picked his ten essential 90’s emo albums:

Initial Records ran a festival in Kentucky called Crazy Fest. And one of my friends took me to that for the first time to see all of these bands. And Bleed American had just come out, and I had never heard Jimmy Eat World before that. So Bleed American was my introduction, but his introduction was Clarity. So he’s pissed when he’s listening to Bleed American, and I’m in love, because I’d never heard the intricate beauty of Clarity. So I listened to Bleed American. It’s so incredible — still one of my favorite records. And then I hear Clarity and I’m absolutely blown away.

Ace Breaks Down The Early November Album

The Early November

Ace Enders breaks down The Early November’s new album track-by-track:

This song flirts with the torture of regret within the mind, which is why there are voices whispering throughout the beginning of it. Picking which one to listen to, be influenced by, not be influenced by, etc. The fantasy of “if I could only do it again.”

That perpetual never-ending gnawing. Eventually coming to a moment of realization within and gaining clarity by being honest with yourself.

Spotify to Launch New Premium Plan

Bloomberg:

Spotify Technology SA will introduce a new, higher-priced premium plan for its most ardent users later this year, according to a person familiar with the plan. Users will be charged at least $5 more per month for access to better audio and new tools for creating playlists and managing their song libraries, said the person.

Spotify Announces New Price Increase

Variety:

The Spotify Premium Individual plan is increasing by $1, from $10.99 to $11.99 per month, according to the company’s updated price listings. The Premium Family plan, which provides access for up to six members a household, is going up by $3, from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.

America’s Best Decade

The Washington Post

Andrew Van Dam, writing for The Washington Post:

So, we looked at the data another way, measuring the gap between each person’s birth year and their ideal decade. The consistency of the resulting pattern delighted us: It shows that Americans feel nostalgia not for a specific era, but for a specific age.

The good old days when America was “great” aren’t the 1950s. They’re whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you’d never heard of war crimes tribunals, microplastics or improvised explosive devices. Or when you were 15 and athletes and musicians still played hard and hadn’t sold out.

ICQ to Shutdown

Michael Kan, writing for PCMag:

On Friday, the ICQ website posted a simple message: “ICQ will stop working from June 26.” It now recommends users migrate to the messaging platforms from VK, the Russian social media company that acquired ICQ from AOL in 2010, but under a different corporate name. 

It’s an unceremonious end for a software program that helped kick off instant messaging on PCs in the 1990s. ICQ, which stands for “I Seek You,” was originally developed at an Israeli company called Mirabilis before AOL bought it in 1998 for $407 million.

ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger. Those were the days.

Spotify to Discontinue Car Thing

The Verge:

Spotify’s brief attempt at being a hardware company wasn’t all that successful: the company stopped producing its Car Thing dashboard accessory less than a year after it went on sale to the public. And now, two years later, the device is about to be rendered completely inoperable. Customers who bought the Car Thing are receiving emails warning that it will stop working altogether as of December 9th.

Unfortunately for those owners, Spotify isn’t offering any kind of subscription credit or automatic refund for the device — nor is the company open-sourcing it. Rather, it’s just canning the project and telling people to (responsibly) dispose of Car Thing.

DOJ to Sue Live Nation/Ticketmaster

Legal

The New York Times:

The Justice Department and a group of states plan to sue Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, as soon as Thursday, accusing it of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry, said three people familiar with the matter.

The government plans to argue in a lawsuit that Live Nation shored up its power through Ticketmaster’s exclusive ticketing contracts with concert venues, as well as the company’s dominance over concert tours and other businesses like venue management, said two of the people, who declined to be named because the lawsuit was still private. That helped the company maintain a monopoly, raising prices and fees for consumers, limiting innovation in the ticket industry and hurting competition, the people said.

Bruce Springsteen Documentary Coming to Disney+

Bruce Springsteen

Variety:

“Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band” will follow the band’s 2023-2024 world tour, featuring footage from band rehearsals and backstage moments, conversations with Springsteen as he develops the setlist and archival clips of the E Street Band. The project is intended to complement Springsteen’s existing body of autobiographical works, which includes the memoir “Born to Run,” the live performance (and documentary) “Springsteen on Broadway,” and the films “Western Stars” and “Letter to You.”

The documentary is directed by Thom Zimny, the longtime Springsteen collaborator behind “Western Stars” and “Springsteen on Broadway,” as well as music docs “The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash” and “Willie Nelson & Family.” Zimny also produces alongside Springsteen, Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau, Adrienne Gerard and Sean Stuart.

Vinyl Me, Please Fires and Sues CEO

Denver Post:

The Denver record company Vinyl Me, Please has ousted its top executives and sued them for allegedly funneling company funds to their pricy pet project in RiNo.

Vinyl Me, Please was founded in 2012 and has become a popular record-of-the-month subscription service in the dozen years since, with 20,000 subscribers today, it said. CEO Cameron Schaefer and Chief Financial Officer Adam Block led the company in recent years.

But the company’s board fired them, along with Chief Strategy Officer Rich Kylberg, in March. And on Wednesday, all three were sued by the company they led.

The stated cause for their ouster is a new 14,000-square-foot vinyl record production plant at 4201 N. Brighton Blvd. That plant, which started pressing records this year, has been hyped by national and local media, as well as Schaefer, Block and Kylberg, since 2022.

Cold Years Talk with Kerrang!

Cold Years

Cold Years talked with Kerrang! about their new album:

“I think Against Me! were the last punk band who got a million-dollar deal,” he ponders. “If you look at how major labels invest in bands, a lot of the time the money’s in pop music or hip-hop or viral sensations off TikTok. The days of punk bands getting deals like that are gone. We all work normal jobs because we want to do this – I want to be able to pay my bills so I can go on tour assured that I have a wage to come home to. Brexit’s killed it for Europe and we have a lot of upfront costs now, so it’s not a viable living anymore unless you’re doing it 365 days a year, because record sales aren’t what they used to be. So it’s a hard life, but it’s also an amazing life, because I get to experience things not a lot of other people experience. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

The Starting Line Talk With Variety

The Starting Line

The Starting Line talked with Variety about the Taylor Swift shoutout:

“You know, it’s been sort of a point of conversation of, how much do you lean into something like this?” Vasoli admits, a little cagey even with himself about how much to be seen as taking advantage of it. “Because something like this is not something you really plan for in your music career,. The reverberations have been very big and we’re just sort of trying to accept it with gratitude at this point, sitting back and just seeing what happens from it.”

Although the singer says those two concert dates “are it for now, there’s gonna be more that’s coming down the pike and more that’s getting booked. The vast majority of the band has day jobs that keep them obligated to stay home a little bit, more than some of the other bands. So we don’t hit the road for too long on a regular basis, but we’re trying to get into a rhythm where we can do more of it.”

“There’s been an uptick in us playing together, and a really great interpersonal dynamic between the band members recently that has been very creative and inspirational, playing together recently. So we’ve been into a creative process writing new music since last year. We’re just collecting everything and figuring out the best way to get that out there. But we’re generating music and have been for a bit of time. With us trying to get back into a more usual pace with the band, after all this time, it’s nice that we’re getting a little bit of light on us at this moment, especially given that we’re engaging more than ever since like 2007, when we kind of let our foot off the gas.”

Update from Adam of Fenix TX

Fenix TX

Adam from Fenix TX has posted an update on GoFundMe:

Everyone always asks what can they do to help or what do I need and I always say the same thing: “I’m fine just keep praying for me and my family.” Well, now I need all the help I can get as I begin a new fight. I’m unable to work and provide for my family at this time and seeing my family having to take on the extra stress breaks my heart. I must travel to the east coast for a brand new treatment and I pray that this will be the one that finally helps me, because if not, I’m pretty much out of options. 

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