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SMH: iTunes music store set to open

Once upon a time I looked forward to a time when the iTunes Music store would be available in Australia. I assumed, for instance, that the range and price of the music in Australia would be about the same as it is in the US.

Australians might be able to legally download music to iPod players as early as tomorrow, with Russell Crowe saying it was the launch date of Apple’s iTunes digital music store here.

The launch date has been a tightly-kept secret up until now, with Apple and record labels refusing to divulge exactly when the digital music store will open in Australia.

The US version of iTunes, which is only available to US credit card holders, has sold more than 300 million songs at a cost of $1.27 per track.

But actor, and occasional rocker, Russell Crowe told 2UE’s John Laws that iTunes Australia would cost $1.80 per track, a Queensland newspaper reports.

Even though US$0.99 is AU$1.27 Apple Australia are going to set the price at an indefensible AU$1.80. I realise they might have to hedge a little, but 41%?

The cost of tracks is largely determined by record companies, Mr Sarronwala said.

“Pricing is largely set by the recording industry and applies across the board to all digital music companies. The industry sets the wholesale prices, and from that retailers set their retail prices, meaning variations between the key players are not generally that dramatic,” he said.

What’s with that? Do they source their music from the local Australian music establishment or from the US? How much is the pound of flesh demanded by the local music industry?

A quick look at the UK and French stores indicates that the price of music might be universally higher outside the US. If French and UK iTunes users were able to buy US tracks they’d pay 78 eurocents, or 51 pence respectively. Though their local iTunes stores they pay 99 eurocents and 79 pence. Thats a 27% and 54% premium at current exchange rates. Ouch.

In that light, Australia doesn’t look quite so badly ripped off.

I’ll wait and see what the real price will be. Apple Australia may suprise us… in either direction. For instance, AU$1.80 doesn’t end in a 9…

Sigh

I’ve just spent some time in and around Melbourne. On Tuesday night I spent a lovely evening in and around a Japanese Noodle shop at Federation Square. A place that was built to resemble the slowly expanding Combine city in Half Life 2, or vice versa.

Me and my companions were eating fabulous noodles, sashimi and that soy-bean-cooked-in-the-shell-dish-I-can’t-remember-the-name-of, listening to restaurant soundsystem-quality Moby when we noticed a helicopter with “Sheriff” written on the side hover and manoeuvre over the top of South Gate. We noticed it even though it only hung around making those helicopetery sounds for about 2 hours.

We walked over to where the noise was and saw squads of police in american-style uniforms with guns being pointed at what was either a mass hallucination that we weren’t party to, or future CGI renderings. They were running up a footbridge, then staring over the side and then method acting some dejected resignation when whatever the thing is that was on the bridge had flown the coop.

Perhaps it’s a modern remake of “One of our dinosaurs is missing?”

We quizzed some people wearing official-looking yellow vests what it was all about. They said it was actually Ghost Rider with Nicholas Cage.

You heard it here first.

So here’s the spoiler: At some point in this movie there’s a scene where “cops” get to both ends of a footbridge surrounding something. while being escorted by a “sheriff’s” helicopter and then point their guns at something, then run up the bridge — from both sides! They look up, they look down, then walk away.

Sorry to spoil it for you, but a scoop’s a scoop. There may have been half a million Melbournians there, but I think I have an eye for detail they don’t.

I must admit that I have considerably less skill as a celebity columnist than James Wolcott :)

I sometimes lament that the perjorative definitions of bureaucracy and politics have eclipsed more useful definitions of these words.

Of course the English language owes some of its success to its ability to survive and embrace mutation. English thrives by absorbing the most commonly mangled syntax, spelling, semiotics and semantics into a kind of practical working set that eventually becomes codified in dictionaries and literature. There’s comedy gold in reading modern statements and interpreting words with their traditional definitions. Take politics for example…

> Indeed, Mr. Bush showed no sign of backing away from the Bolton nomination. Speaking before the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, he brought up the subject in the first moments of his address, saying, “I welcome you to the nation’s capital, where sometimes politics gets in the way of doing the people’s business.”

> > * Bolton Gets Unequivoval Backing From Bush, but Not Powell NY Times 21-April-2005

I find humour in the implication that the President doesn’t do politics. He’s simply a polititian who is interested in doing the “people’s business.”

Politics is the process and method of making decisions for groups. Although it is generally applied to governments, politics is also observed in all human group interactions including corporate, academic, and religious.

> > * Wikipedia: Politics

“We mean by “politics” the people’s business — the most important business there is.”

> > * Wikiquote: Adlai Stevenson (5 February 1900–14 July 1965)

Via Terra Nova Everquest 2: Sony Online Entertainment gives in.

First I should explain the phrase “You’ve ruined your own lands, you’ll not ruin mine!”

This is a phrase you see a lot in the old world of Everquest 1. Usually it’s an angry downtrodden gnoll or orc fending off an invasion of its home by adventurers who it has accurately assessed to be murdering, loot-oriented, nihilist, barbarians.

First Sony gave people the ability to suspend their suspension of disbelief by offering the ability to order pizza in-game to be delivered in real life. Now Sony offer the ability to buy and trade in-game assets (including character accounts) brokered by Sony in exchange for wholesome, tangible, real life, freedom-loving US dollars.

Rather than continued vigilence in the war on those terrible, dishonest, gameplay-ruining, in-game item sellers Sony are becoming a convenient, honest, gameplay-ruining, in-game item seller. Options like designing an economy that is resistant to out-of-game trading are on the back burner - Sony’s weapon of choice is harm minimisation. According to the conveniently illustrated FAQ new EQ2 servers will be opened that feature the new sales system real soon now.

So, a cliche I used before was what problem are Sony trying to solve?

As I see it, the current situation is:

• Players use real money to get ahead by buying from the black market
• Resellers respond to demand and farm lucrative items excluding access to regular players
• Players lose interest because they don’t have access to monopolised items without $
• Players (rich and poor) lose interest because they can’t afford to keep up
• Future and present content is tuned for asset-rich characters handicapping asset-poor characters
• Players lose interest when other in-game characters change owners and suffer amnesia

When Sony introduce this service, on the other hand the situation will be:

• Players use real money to get ahead by buying from Sony
• Resellers respond to demand and farm lucrative items excluding access to regular players
• Players lose interest because they don’t have access to monopolised items without $
• Players (rich and poor) lose interest because they can’t afford to keep up
• Future and present content is tuned for asset-rich characters handicapping asset-poor characters
• Players lose interest when other in-game characters change owners and suffer amnesia

Of course, for rich players willing to hit up their credit card for a new sword or a shiny new bauble the incentive is the same no matter who you buy from. Sony’s pitch is that they are more trustworthy and reliable than other vendors.

I wonder if the new value proposition works? Very soon we’ll know.

The EFF writes a guide on how to blog anonymously right after my work colleague Girtby treats everyone at work to an email that tells people our secret blog identities. Mwahahaha…

I thought I should put him off sending it out until I had cleaned house. Or at least worked out in writing; Why do I blog?

Because I need to be the world’s #1 authority on the Google search phrase “metric shedloads?” Because I know the real story of Star Wars Episode 3?

Not really.

I blog because it’s a toy, a catharsis, a community and a way of further developing my l33t communication skillz.

My first blog equivalent was a late Saturday night radio program of no conseqence on a community radio station in a not so small rural town in the mid to late 80s. When I joined, the station had almost gone down when the only commercial radio station in town sued - successfully - because a 2ARM volunteer announcer had declared 2ARM the “second worst radio station in town.”

I became a volunteer radio announcer at the prompting of some friends and, I daresay, because my parents suspected that my roleplaying and wargaming hobby was a bit inscruitable and likely to be a bit of a dead end. Community radio was a kind of broadcast baby monitor for them.

While the rest of my school friends moved incrementally further away from AD&D, Dragonquest, Call of C’thulhu, James Bond RPG and Paranoia into rock and roll bands I spun vinyl and made up silly monologues for an audience of nearly tens of people! Maybe! More!

Who knows how many people really listened? Every now and then someone would approach me and ask if I’d play more Smiths, and less Eurythmics. Every now and then some other announcer would congratulate me on some sophisticated mixing. The surprising revelation of who your audience is was the most rewarding part.

Some announcers had a fantasy that they played to a stadium’s-worth of listeners, a veritable shed load ;) This made them buy better clothes, change their primary mode of movement from walking to sauntering, and wear sunglasses at night. I think community radio is sometimes more genuinely driven by the fantasy of announcers than roleplaying is by the fantasies of players.

Being a volunteer announcer helped with:

1. Burning all of my spare cash on new records (~= paying for hosting and domain registration)
2. Keeping an audience, numbering in the tens, amused
3. Letting me get that slightly extroverted part of my introverted personality type out there
4. Giving myself an avenue for airing ideas, even if it’s just for working out how to construct an argument

I figure BS is that same radio program delivered from Sydney with no sound and better taste in music. It’s certainly not the second worst blog on the Internet. It is also very unlikely to be sued by the blog that aspires to be the second worst.

I’m selling my EQ2 preorder box.

EQ2 is set in a parallel revenue stream to EQ1 and 500 years in the pastfuture (of EQ1). I haven’t played it so I don’t know if (like EQ1) you can pickpocket the beaks from birds, if snakes still kick, or if bats that seem to have 2 wings sometimes drop 3 - that’s all part of the adventure!

For around US$14.99/month you can slay rats, bats, snakes, order Pizza Hut online, quest and roleplay with tens of thousands of other players. Kill gods and watch them respawn before your very eyes… oh wait, that’s EQ1 again.

Do you think I’ve oversold it? I find myself incapable of writing according to the eBay style guide.

Note my restraint! The line “…order Pizza Hut online, quest and roleplay with tens of thousands of other players” used to read “…order Pizza Hut online, quest and cyber with tens of thousands of other players.”

For some time I’ve been reading Footnoted - a blog by Michelle Leder. It’s a very entertaining (or depressing, depending on how you look at it) insight into the excesses and altered realities of the CEO stratosphere.

At your next performance review, why not bring along a few concrete examples of the types of perks you would like to become accustomed to? For an example of something that might inspire your boss to think creatively about your system of performance-based rewards try this one:

If you could make, say, $550K a year while sitting around on something called administrative leave, how hard would you beat the pavement to find that next job? Probably not all that hard. That’s exactly the situation at Oregon Steel Mills (OS) where ex-CEO Joe Corvin has been on an investor-paid leave since the summer of 2003 when he resigned. Under the agreement, the company said it would pay Corvin $550K a year for nearly three years, unless he found another job. That’s $50K more than current CEO James Declusin made last year, according to the proxy, making Corvin the highest paid employee. Or non-employee. Not so surprisingly, the former CEO hasn’t found another job yet. But Corvin, who left the company for the oft-cited other interests, probably should at least begin thinking about updating his resume because he only has another year of leave left. The administrative leave is set to run out on April 6, 2006. After that, the company will cut him off (or give him a fat consulting contract). So here’s to another year of doing nothing!

I received an email asking me to come good on a promise in a previous post, which talked about disclosing how WoW performs on my Dell D600 laptop. Oops!

Since I changed BS to WordPress 1.5 Bloglines seems to be unable to use the old RSS feed URLs. The old ones still work in my browser, but I don’t have the sophisticated and discerning tastes of an RSS aggregator so what would I know?

To fix it please wave a rubber chicken over your aggregator or update your favourite blog-aggregating software to read from:

This link for posts: http://brainsnorkel.com/feed/
This link for comments: http://brainsnorkel.com/comments/feed/

Britney, I apologise!

Making Light has a great catalog of April 1st 2005 shenanigans.

My favourite is BoringBoring.org … oh, and NASA’s announcement that water has been found on Mars.

Thanks Britney! This April 1st prank letter is the best!