Aka this is now the second reason for me to despise UMG.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 22:10 (four years ago) link
haha Jon I was waiting for you to bring that up, it's been on my mind as well
― Ambient Police (sleeve), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 22:11 (four years ago) link
Then sent it to Spotify iTunes et al but not before applying audibly disfiguring watermark technology to it
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, June 18, 2019 6:09 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Where can I hear this?!
― space invaders are smokin penises!!!! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 22:30 (four years ago) link
WOW, forgot all about that...
https://www.mattmontag.com/music/universals-audible-watermark
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 22:41 (four years ago) link
It damages some kinds of music more than others, but you should still be able to hear it on any UMG-owned track which was supplied to streaming and download vendors prior to mid 2013. Ensemble vocals, pianos, acoustic guitars and strings played quietly are the most harmed in my experience. If the same track appears on a reissue or remaster issued later than mid-2013 (iirc - older posts by me will have this date correct) it will sound better. They either stopped using the watermarks or dialed it back to be virtually inaudible.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 22:46 (four years ago) link
wow
― space invaders are smokin penises!!!! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 22:52 (four years ago) link
In the classical realm, this is why recently issued massive box sets along the lines of “such and such pianist - the complete Deutsche Grammofon recordings” have been very welcome on Spotify- even if not remastered, (and such things usually aren’t, they’re just straight up recompilations) they have been reconverted from UMGs lossless files for the occasion and thus are absent the nasty distortion which was formerly SOP. Xp to self
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 22:54 (four years ago) link
Still hoping the complete Alfred brendel Decca box will appear on Spotify, for example, cause vast tracts of his recordings are only on there in shit form.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 22:56 (four years ago) link
End of digression
hands up, how many people armchair archiving in this thread have ever cataloged a tape vault
*raises hand*
I haven't read the thread or posted until now, but I've catalogued film and video and tape vaults, and made slightly successful and wildly unsuccessful efforts to get a large organisation to undertake subsequent preservation actions
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 01:18 (four years ago) link
hands up, how many people armchair archiving in this thread have ever cataloged a tape vault*raises hand*
HI DERE
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 03:13 (four years ago) link
Taking sides:1. cataloging the archive of a behemoth major label that's absorbed multiple labels over many decades.2. cataloging the archive of a research/experiment group of an academic department that had been collecting data for years and then published - only now it's ten years later and someone needs to go back over the data. btw, the group disbanded and the data is all in a format you can't read.3. cataloging the 30+ year archive of a indie record label that was also run by an occasionally paranoid, full-time druggy, hoarder.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 03:28 (four years ago) link
Is it any wonder the original Apollo 11 television tapes were lost?
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 03:29 (four years ago) link
was there more to this https://twitter.com/extinctophonics account than shows up now?
― akm, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 03:45 (four years ago) link
Yes, as the text of the one tweet there now indicates.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 05:22 (four years ago) link
Y'all oldtimers will remember how I big-upped a synthpop "one man band" called Language, really a project by percussionist and singer Steven Hale that also included Gang of Four lead singer Jon King's sister Debbie and Eddi Reader, before she went on to fame in Fairground Attraction ("Perfect"). They were very short-lived, releasing one EP and a few singles, all produced by Alan Shacklock (chosen because he produced Junior's "Mama Used to Say", which Hale was a huge fan of). In fact, I almost reverted back to one of my old display names for the summer, "Goodbye Indian Summer", which was the name of the first Language song I ever heard, before choosing this one. Language were an A&M recording act, and after seeing how A&M were one of the impacted labels I PMed Mr. Hale (a FB friend of mine) to ask if he'd ever heard anything about this and if he knew where his masters were. Of course he didn't know a thing about what had happened and I have yet to hear back from him after PMing him a link to this article. This could be an example of one of those lesser-known artists impacted by this fire, a recording artist that would have been best served by a remaster because of how under-appreciated they were and how much better their music would sound if it were remastered in crystal clear digital sound. I'm really hoping Mr. Hale comes back to me saying that the masters are located elsewhere, because it would be a real shame if they ended up being lost to the flames. Also, while you're at it, look up "Goodbye Indian Summer" and "We're Celebrating" (and the music video for "Touch the Radio Dance", which was once displayed at MoMA) because Mr. Hale's music was really, really good.
― Dee the (Summer-Hating) Lurker (deethelurker), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 06:48 (four years ago) link
Hmmm....
It appears that the Steve Hoffman Forum thread on Jody Rosen's The Day The Music Burned was pulled from the site today after it reached 67/68 pages.— Stephen Thomas Erlewine (@sterlewine) June 19, 2019
― Dan Worsley, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:56 (four years ago) link
they knew too much?
― maffew12, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:03 (four years ago) link
couldn't let it get too nice
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:15 (four years ago) link
Steve Hoffman himself now in undisclosed location.
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:29 (four years ago) link
i assume someone made safety copies of him in case he can't be found.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:30 (four years ago) link
They did, but apparently that copy has after the fact harmony overdubs by the Picks, so it's just not the same.
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:34 (four years ago) link
What an unimaginable loss
― mick signals, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:37 (four years ago) link
I’d been keeping up with that thread, more-or-less, and Hoffman only chimed in to say, “Should we keep the thread going or not?” It seemed like there were potential legal issues for Steve in keeping it going (or so Steve thought). In the years after the fire and before the Times piece, threads about what might’ve been lost in the fire were routinely deleted.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:43 (four years ago) link
Really? Insane. I'm surprised the users didn't start a new board over that.
― maffew12, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:48 (four years ago) link
Thread is still there in the ‘Off Topic’ section at time of posting.
― michaellambert, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:48 (four years ago) link
Of course it may now be a back-up copy rather than the original master.
― michaellambert, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:49 (four years ago) link
lmao
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:52 (four years ago) link
original timestamps lost forever
― maffew12, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:59 (four years ago) link
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-universal-music-fire-lucian-grainge-memo-lawsuits-20190618-story.html
Genuine contrition, or damage control?
― Anne Hedonia (j.lu), Thursday, 20 June 2019 12:36 (four years ago) link
At least UMG is up 2 something kewl: https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/06/youtube-music-and-universal-music-group.html
― Consider the coconut (morrisp), Friday, 21 June 2019 04:08 (four years ago) link
xpost -- gotta be the latter.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 21 June 2019 04:17 (four years ago) link
https://variety.com/2019/music/news/vivendi-universal-music-group-fire-noise-arnaud-de-puyfontaine-1203248649/
― Consider the coconut (morrisp), Friday, 21 June 2019 04:20 (four years ago) link
https://variety.com/2019/music/news/universal-music-fire-zero-impact-on-company-value-1203249173/
― Consider the coconut (morrisp), Friday, 21 June 2019 04:25 (four years ago) link
https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/childs-play-review-1203248744/
― Consider the coconut (morrisp), Friday, 21 June 2019 04:29 (four years ago) link
(Just seeing if you’re paying attention with that last one)
Chucky, firestarter.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 21 June 2019 04:41 (four years ago) link
seems like UMG is basically legally backed into a corner here where they have to deny deny deny now; even a well-meaning and more circumspect upper management can't realistically take steps to retroactively address this. In a saner world, this is where the government would step in and have library of congress or smithsonian start a taxpayer backed archiving process but i'm not holding my breath.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 21 June 2019 16:46 (four years ago) link
it appears that thread just got moved to Off Topic and not deleted on SHF for whatever weird reason.
― akm, Friday, 21 June 2019 21:54 (four years ago) link
Could somebody link that Hoffman thread? I don't know their site that well, particularly when it comes to them hiding/burying stuff.
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 21 June 2019 22:12 (four years ago) link
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-day-the-music-burned-article.849828/
you have to be logged in to see the other forums.
― akm, Friday, 21 June 2019 22:35 (four years ago) link
In a saner world, this is where the government would step in and have library of congress or smithsonian start a taxpayer backed archiving process but i'm not holding my breath.Ppl keep saying this, but I still don’t get what is being suggested... The gummint’ can’t force UMG to hand over their tapes.
― Consider the coconut (morrisp), Friday, 21 June 2019 22:54 (four years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain_in_the_United_States
― Ambient Police (sleeve), Friday, 21 June 2019 23:45 (four years ago) link
(yes, they can, and they should)
Good luck extending eminent domain to recordings; I’ll be watching the cases with interest.
― Consider the coconut (morrisp), Friday, 21 June 2019 23:47 (four years ago) link
it won't happen, but stop being so obtuse. of course the govt can seize private property.
― Ambient Police (sleeve), Friday, 21 June 2019 23:49 (four years ago) link
I don’t think I’m the one being obtuse here, lol
― Consider the coconut (morrisp), Friday, 21 June 2019 23:58 (four years ago) link
My suggestion is that the government bails these guys out and BUYS the masters at an obscene premium (with 50-70% to be divvied among artists) but with limited reproduction rights. Effectively a national archive.
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 22 June 2019 00:04 (four years ago) link
Cheap at a billion and better use than another stealth bomber but certainly not a priority for this administration.
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 22 June 2019 00:05 (four years ago) link
xxp
fair enough, I just think there's plenty of existing precedent for this kinda thing as forks notes, but that assumes willing parties on all sides which is not exactly the case here from what I see
and on the legal side I guess this is more related to forfeiture, ianal
or yeah, what forks just said as well
― Ambient Police (sleeve), Saturday, 22 June 2019 00:05 (four years ago) link