A hacker stole $31M of Ether - how it happened, and what it means for Ethereum

posted July 21, 2017 #

a good read but damn, $31M

Birdcloud UK

posted July 21, 2017 #

As you may know, I'm a fan of Birdcloud; the country duo known for writing irreverent and satirical songs. I've posted about their controversy, effective unravellings of said controversy and even put out an album from them.

They recently announced a rather large European tour that will take them around the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Germany and Italy. I'm happy for their success and ability to see more of the planet through their bonkers performances. However, I wonder if their songs will translate to those audiences? For me, a song like Livin' with My Granny is not so much about growing up in Southern poverty as it is about poverty in general. Maybe the references to cornbread won't matter so much. Fortunately, most of their songs - i.e. Do What I Want or Here in Body - aren't regional specific as much as they are commentary on lamentable self-destructive behavior.

Godspeed Birdcloud!

posted July 21, 2017 #

who is she https://t.co/DeoMOvlAuO

posted July 21, 2017 #

Sections from the “Unsorted” folder, volume III https://t.co/mZB73aeWGd

What's your favorite non-guitar solo?

posted July 21, 2017 #

a worthwhile question

Emily Martin Winfield

posted July 21, 2017 #

Portland artist Emily Martin Winfield has a slew of paintings on her official site, along with an active blog of new works and process pieces and social media for updates and inspirations. I'm particularly intrigued by her pieces that feel like old world postcards, an exotic bird or kimono depicted simply but beautifully; like a relic from another place.

posted July 20, 2017 #

the a/c is out at the office so this was inevitable https://t.co/We3O0o5WTU

posted July 20, 2017 #

This killed me https://t.co/BDzD4Ln3cR

posted July 20, 2017 #

Here go meat https://t.co/5DxHUpLKZ7

posted July 20, 2017 #

Stumbled on this @jasminkaset show from a @Lightning100 show in 2016. Great to hear these Quiet Machine songs live:… https://t.co/TcadWSRqcQ

Reikai Doushi

posted July 20, 2017 #

I make no claims to be well-versed in the world of indie video games or even the sorted histories of well known games. So, reading through this Matt Hawkins piece on Mortal Kombat Clones as the Ultimate Form of Self Expression was a real eye-opener. I don't feel particularly compelled by Mortal Kombat but I do love a cheap knock-off, in just about any more.

Scrubbing through videos of Brief Karate Foolish and Dong Dong Never Die is a bizarre undertaking, while these knockoff Fatality compilations waiver between hilarious and a bit sad.

In the end, I was most pleased to learn about Reikai Doushi, a fighting game done with claymation puppets that pre-dates Mortal Kombat by a few years. It's certainly a bit awkward (and probably worse to play than to watch) but just knowing that it exists is a real treat. Learn more about it, and other clones, here.

Patrick Joust

posted July 20, 2017 #

I was trying to determine what style of photography Patrick Joust was the most adept at but I think he's just got a damn good eye for just about everything. He's a Baltimore resident (by way of California) capable of snooping out the surprising and the adorably weird and quiet places. It's a huge body of work spanning across his official site, Flickr, Tumblr and a rather clever Instagram but it's an enjoyable journey of work no matter where you start.

posted July 19, 2017 #

Trent Reznor's name backwards is Ron Zertnert.

posted July 19, 2017 #

I started a running 2017 playlist for #themusicdigest on @BreakThruRadio thanks @yewknee for the idea! https://t.co/vjcwayO7Zp

posted July 19, 2017 #

Once a year I rediscover this song and remember how much I totally love Bryan Ferry + Sax https://t.co/41H88rZRYK

posted July 19, 2017 #

Would be amazing if someone responded to a question with an occasional "fair point" instead of mindlessly defending their position. #pmqs

posted July 19, 2017 #

Check out the ever awesome Jay Leo Phillips (https://t.co/xnagoZ4vi1) on BoomBox! https://t.co/zC8PeFYSu0

How a big dog became a symbol for white, male America

posted July 19, 2017 #

a very long read on Big Dog and how its toxic masculinity vibe is back in style. :facepalm:

Bait and Switch: How Apple Created Nintendo’s Best Console

posted July 19, 2017 #

to read

The Benefits of DistroKid

posted July 19, 2017 #

I've been wanting to write about the benefits of digital distribution via DistroKid for awhile now and just decided to bite the bullet. I don't partake in too many mega posts but this one I just wanted to get off my chest.

To give you some background, I've used a variety of digital distribution services to ensure the yk records releases are on as many digital streaming platforms as possible (iTunes / Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify, etc). These services all do the same thing - take your audio files, service them to the platforms with a designated release date and collect royalty payments for the plays you receive. I also upload directly to Bandcamp for a number of reasons but that's another blog post.

For my own personal gratification, I'm going to run through my experiences with each service and the pro's and con's.. ultimately revealing that DistroKid is the best deal out there at the moment as far as I'm aware (the title of this post was the Spoiler Alert). This isn't an ad by any means but I don't think enough people know about the service and that's a damn shame.

Here's what I've used:

Reverb Nation - an album costs $19.95 to distribute everywhere for the first year and $49.95 every year after that, in perpetuity. For Pancho Chumley, my labels first release in 2009, that's $370 to keep an unknown album from a new artist online for eight years. The initial release takes between 14-30 days to show up on all the services.

Their reporting is abysmal and their site interface is cumbersomely archaic. However, their Customer Support is friendly and fairly responsive. There's a whole social network behind ReverbNation that may have some benefits but I've never had much of any success with it despite distributing multiple artists on the platform.
Tunecore - the Go To distributor for just about everyone I know. They've garnered nearly 1 Billion Dollars in streaming revenue from everyone using them (not hyperbole) so there's clearly a larger user base. It's $29.99 for an album for the first year and $49.99 every year after that. So, that's $380 to distribute Pancho Chumley for eight years. Oh, and they offer a ton of "add-on" services for one-time fees, i.e. tracking YouTube usage of your music wherein you garner 80% of the revenue. Not cheap by any means and, again, the initial release takes 14-30 days to show up on all the services.

Their interface is nice, their reporting is okay. It's not easy to read but if you are comfortable parsing through spreadsheets, you can figure out where royalty payments need to go for each artist. I've never interacted with Customer Service but they're clearly doing something right with such a huge amount of artists using them.
DistroKid - founded by Phillip Kaplan, the company is notoriously small (3 people) and cheaper by leaps and bounds. It costs $19.99 per year for unlimited songs for one artist. So, if you're a band or musician operating under one name, you can put everything you have on all of the streaming services for $20. There are more tiers beyond that depending on how many artist names you want to use, including the plan that I'm on for 20+ artists at $240/yr. That's $240 for unlimited songs and albums for twenty artists. Sounds like more than the above but those prices are for one artist for one year. It compounds very quickly when you have a decent catalog. Oh, releases take 2-3 days max to show up on streaming services, often it is same day.

They also offer one-time upgrades for a fixed fee, as well as a Leave a legacy option in which your music is on the streaming platforms for as long as they exist, even if you stop paying Distrokid.

They also offer royalty sharing so if you want to automatically divert a percentage of royalty income to another person, you can have the system handle it rather than paying yourself out, doing the math and then paying it out manually. This is an enormously helpful feature that gets overlooked far too often.

The downsides to Distrokid? The interface is just OK, the reporting is good but waffles between a seemingly inaccurate overview and extremely granular payments. These are nitpicky issues tho and, on the whole, it's clearly the better service.

Even at its most expensive - $1199.99/yr for 100 artists - Distrokid is clearly the better value. It does the exact same service as the others with faster delivery and better royalty management. No brainer decision.

There are plenty of other digital distributors as well - usually tied to a physical distributor that can help get placement and promotions for your records. That's a value that none of the above offer and would bring enormous benefit. Nothing helps an album more than eyeballs and earholes. Quote me on that.

Why did I feel compelled to write all this out? Mostly because it was shocking to see how much the original services I used are gouging me in terms of price vs benefit. I've been migrating everything off those services and on to Distrokid and hope others do the same.