Free Music??

So today I listened to a few different podcasts from the website, onthemedia.org. Each was good and explained a lot. Lets first discuss "Facing the (Free) Music." It discussed the music industry of 10 years ago and how music was the first to fall towards new technology including Napster. Rick Karr, the host was discussing Napster with a former employee of the Recording Industry Association of America. She discussed how record companies sat around a table all together and looked up their artist's hits on Napster and found everyone. It had mixed reviews from the industries, people were amazed but also freaked that their music was on Napster. After the women said that she also admitted that companies had wanted to join efforts with Napster but unfortunately couldn't find common ground and never made a deal. Karr said it was a lost opportunity.

Karr then talked with Tim Quirk who has been wanting to make a internet service, that was not illegal but featured some of the same things that Napster did back in the day. He then discussed what Europe has for their people. It is called Spotify. It's like a internet radio that you can request the songs that come on. It's all free, until you want to put it on a device then you have to pay 10 Euros for a month, which is a lot cheaper then America. This is something I wish we had. But then again, we have Pandora and Youtube and can make playlists on Youtube the way we want.

I don't understand why industries can't just find a better way to get in touch with people and find something that everyone likes. Can't they make it so the people and industries are happy? It doesn't look likely.

The second podcast that was featured was about Girl Talk. If you don't know who or what Girl Talk is then you should learn. He takes different aspects of top 40 pop songs and makes them into something new. In the podcast they discuss whether or not he is breaking any anti-copyrighting. I don't think he is. He is taking little aspects of different songs and making it into his own style and music. For now when it comes to labels, they are just learning to sit back and see what happens, that is why they're probably not doing anything. It makes their specific songs into new stuff and gets promotion for their songs.

I think things are going to change in the next 10 years just like they did in the past 10 years. I'm sure the i-Pod will have some competition sooner or later, probably from it's own company. COncerts, downloading and copywriting music are all going to change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrd7sO9G2yQ&feature=channel

3D Technology. Love it or Hate it?

3D is what Hollywood and the rest of the world is talking about ever since "Avatar" came out. Things are changing all around us. If people didn't know there are now at least three different televisions that you can purchase that can offer 3 dimensional viewings. Many critics agree that this is the new technology for movie watching.

The podcast by Lenard Lopate which featured Lawrence Cormack and Phul McNally. McNally works at Dreamworks Animation and Cormack is an Associate Professor of Psychology at University of Texas. Throughout this podcast they discussed 3D technology and how it effects the brain and eye movement. But they also discussed 3D sickness that people sometimes have after watching a movie. I was shocked to find out how they created the 3D films was with two cameras and then in post - production they worked with the computer graphics. They discussed the cameras directors are using and how live action cameras are different but amazingly they are getting smaller and smaller, so small they could be hand held. A very difficult task that filmmakers had to deal with was projecting and capturing the system. They also discussed of how people get sick during a 3D movie because of motion sickness. And the fact that people's eye's are moving back and forth, is what causes some pick to feel sick during a movie. There was a caller that called in and he made a smart comment about the glasses and how they are kind of like sunglasses. The men did a fine job explaining that the movie is actually very light and in post-production they make it that way and for the future they are finding ways to make it better.

Then they discussed what made 3D technology so famous and popular, "Avatar." The fact that people kept going to see it over and over, not for the story but for the atmosphere of the movie, is what the men said. They said that viewers were submegered into the story and they loved that they were in the movie. I think thats why so many people like 3D, they like the action on the screen. The fact that the person or object in front of them is somewhat real and you are sent into the movie.

I like the ideas of 3D movies for most movies, including action and horror movies. It would be so much fun to sit in a war movie and see the reality of the setting. The viewer can feel apart of the action instead of feeling like they are just watching it happen. Though the whole 3D technology is brilliant and very futuristic, I would not want to see certain movies in 3D. In the magazine, Entertainment Weekly, director Judd Apatow commented saying that in his movies, featuring nudity sometimes, no one would want to see someone's stuff in 3D.

My question to the people making these movies is why can't you make a 3D movie and a 2D movie? My point is to instead of forcing viewers to sit through a movie that they may not want to see in 3D, why not have the best of both situation?s

The New iPAD

The iPAD is the newest technology that is going to come out April 3rd. Many people are excited about it basically because it can do everything an iPod touch can. You can type, send e-mails, look at pictures, and read books. People have been comparing it to the Kindle which can only read books. People like it because of its sleek and modern design. My question is will it work? The iPod had plenty of problems when it first came out. For example, the battery on most iPods did not last very long and it would freeze sometimes. I would wait to get one.

This is a huge example of convergence technology not only because it is the iPod but bigger but because it has all of the gadgets of a computer. The fact that it is basically a computer but its a touch screen. People have not seen anything like this before. he sheer fact that a person can type, read a book or magazine, and look a pictures in one device clearly shows how much of a developed and technological world this has become. At the beginning of this decade, people never imagined something like this. And now not only is it real but we can take it home and use it in our daily lives. It makes me think what else will happen in the next ten years. The iPad will not only change our present lives but also the future as well.

Many people will probably say the iPad is stupid or pointless which is what people thought about the iPod touch and people that the iPod was weird and dumb when it first came out. But look around, go to schools, look on the subways and buses almost everyone you see has an iPod. I think it might take time for the iPad to mainstream but it took time for the iPod and the iPod touch to mainstream as well. We will not know how it activates until April 3rd.