Elbows Music Blog Community

Anthony and co can do what they like, there is just a lot going on on the homepage that's all.

My eyes burn with the rage of jealous envy.

At least it's not...wait for it, wait for it...PLASTERED WITH VAGINAS.

VagHype.

the ads in question are for UK users only

mjrc can you post a screenshot?

I've actually kind of got used to it now and am wondering a little why I made a fuss. It was just quite a shock first time and the top banner is pretty flash intensive.

aww

fwiw, I'm seeing the same thing as mjrc on mac safari 3.2.1

the arrow thing should be fixed now, i think do you still see it?

Posted by: anthony@hypemthe arrow thing should be fixed now, i think do you still see it?

 nope, they're gone.

what were they?

what about mussolini?

Dangit!! Why do they get EVERYTHING good over there?!? Isn't it enough that they got the Beatles? the Sex Pistols? and they had to go and nick Madonna from us.... now they get the good ads too? We know who you think the master race is here, Anthony, that's all I'm sayin'

I think I'd prefer a dose of the fucking clap to Madonna, frankly.



Just go away, you stringy old witch.

Can HypeM sell ads for me please? Radio 1's Big Weekend full site sponsorship. Well done whoever sorted that deal.

Not to start something here, but I still don't understand why so many bloggers support hype machine. I think it's great when I do a search for a band and find tracks that have been released by bands legally for promotion...but when I do a search and see that people can piece together full albums...it's kind of just like a torrent/site that share a bunch of rapidshare links. I used to be in the school of thought that, hey, the music industry didn't adapt as well as the film/television industry when it came to rise of digital downloads/leaks/etc, but they are much better now. At least most indie bands are making a few track available to give impatient fans a taste.

I don't want this to be seen as an attack, just rather a long question to hype machine, because I really don't know. Do you guys have some sort of filtering process you're trying out when it comes to illegally leaked/posted tracks?

That's fair, tart. I really don't want to start something, but I can see how it could become a back and forth discussion, so I guess don't respond on this thread. If someone from hype machine wants to e-mail me the answer to my question, that I am honestly interested in getting cleared up, I would appreciate it. welistenforyoublog@gmail.com.

Haha, The Hype Machine is not the Pirate Bay.

We do not have torrents, rapidshare links to full albums or links to blogs that post such content. Nor do we present any of the content we find in a way that facilitates someone to get full albums (no bitrates, grouping by album, etc). It may not seem this way to you, but that is a big deal and significantly separates us from other sites on the web. By your argument, Google is an even better tool.

If someone asks us to remove a track from our listings, we do promptly and remove blogs that cause repeated complaints from our system (as per DMCA). Finally, in our blog selection process, we don't add sites that would be likely to do any of the above - a process which is not perfect, but helps.

Sorry Anthony, what you said just isn't true.

If you type in Grizzly Bear or Clues or any leaked album, a ton of tracks that were not sent out by the band pop up. You support blogs that definitely break these rules, like pretty much amazing. I remember when that blog was leaking the Spears album track for track and did other others in a similar way...and all those tracks showed up on hype machine. If you want a real laugh, read what Anthony read above and then search PASSION PIT, tell me all those tracks that pop up are legal...the whole album is there...yet:

"We do not have torrents, rapidshare links to full albums or links to blogs that post such content. Nor do we present any of the content we find in a way that facilitates someone to get full albums" -Anthony@hypem

Just pick a band + google tracklist + search hype machine = full album. Just as bad as torrents.

Dave, that's not the point.  The fact that it can be done more easily elsewhere is not the point either.  The fact is that the Hype Machine, like most blogs including my own, directly benefits from borderline/semi-legal activity.  To say that the Pirate Bay is flat out wrong, whereas my blog, your blog and Hype are not is simply not right.  I will do as I please until the music industry as a whole manage to get a fucking clue, but I am not kidding myself that I don't benefit from playing fast and loose with the law from time to time.



Obviously the easiest way to get a whole album is the most worrying, but Hype still facilitates quite enough illegal activity.  As do I, I am not playing holier than thou, but it is definitely not a spurious question.

Yes indeed, agree with all of that. 



I just wonder sometimes, because we can all get a bit preachey, myself included, for a bunch of people whose hands aren't entirely clean.  Not something I lose any sleep over, of course.

Gentlemen, it is very easy to point fingers.

Do keep in mind that even the seemingly "simple" things that have to do with filtering content, are not so simple when you start actually getting them to work. You may be aware that even YouTube has not fully solved this problem.

This is just one of the problems, of course, there are more challenges in all this that similarly look easy on the surface but turn out to be much harder when you start.

--

Not entirely on topic of the thread, but I've been really loving this essay tonight: http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/comment_water.htm It's impressively sober and smart on the future of music.

How exactly would you define "illegal mp3"? Technically the whole thing is in an undefined zone, which can mostly be credited to the faults between labels, parent companies, artists, PR companies, copyright protection associations, and the ambiguous nature of both domestic and international copyright law. The legality of an mp3 can be defined depending on its location of distribution, its location of where it's being downloaded, who's distributing it, and how it's being distributed.

If there was a large list of every single song released with information including where, how, and to/by whom mp3s can be distributed, then we can easily create a filter to censor out illegal mp3s, but it's otherwise impossible. Taking the pot analogy once again, it'd be like the difference between smoking pot in your house and in front of a police officer if the law said that "smoking pot is illegal in public squares, but is legal on streets and at home, except it cannot be smoked in front of private buildings unless the owner specifies otherwise, although if the owner allows the smoking of pot within or in front of their building, the city and/or the state can disallow the smoking of pot without permission of the owner." And you'll sit there wondering what the hell you're allowed to do.

Bureaucracy is a wonderful thing. And definitely, if copyright law dealing with intellectual rights of digital media was as black and white as you make it out to be, music blogging along with everything else on the internet would be a lot easier... and censored I guess.