Me Just Now

The Promised Post Regarding Nine Inch Nails

noreply@blogger.com (Aidan Blenkinsopp) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:12:00 +0000

Hello a further time.

I like the internet and I like music. I like it when somebody sees the potential in the former for disseminating the latter in an interesting way.

On Monday Trent Reznor released Nine Inch Nails' new album on the internet in a variety of different formats both physical and digital. He also leaked the album and uploaded it to bitTorrent websites. He seems to be doing alot of awesome stuff in the last year or so.

1. Releases and album and creates a massive back story for it, involving leaked videos, leaked usb drives at concerts and a truckload of websites to suck the user in. Look here and here for info! Also, he releases alot of tracks from the album in multi track format on his website so that anyone can download them and remix them - this resulted in a fan made remix album available somewhere on the net.

2. Produces and releases an album by Saul Williams in two formats, both only available online. One being a free download and one costing $5. There is no difference in quality between the two downloads. Apparently 18% of people paid, I was one of the 82% that didn't but I have my reasons, more of which later.

3. As a last obligation to his record label, he releases a remix-album of Year Zero. The DVD edition comes with the whole of the original album in multi-track format and also saved as ableton live files or garangeband files.

4. In conjunction with the above he launches a remix site where you can download even more of his songs and remix them or reinterpret them. Stay tuned for my up-coming 'Hand that Feeds' remix...

5. Releases a 36 track instrumental album on his website. The album is available in various packages included the option of getting a physical copy. It cost me £10 for a double CD including the postage. I also got a free download of the album and lots of other web goodies besides. You can download the first 9 songs for free if you wish, with this you also get all the web goodies. He also uploaded the album onto lots of torrent sites to ensure that a decent quality version is doing the rounds. The album is also going to get a physical release but will remain available from his site. This was my problem with the Saul Williams release - I was waiting for a CD to made available, I like CDs.

It is obviously easier for Trent Reznor than some band that are just starting out to do this as he is an established artist. He has probably made enough money to retire and if he wants to he can do a massive tour and rake in some more cash. The important point for me is that he needs to do none of this, and since leaving his label he is doing it of his own inclination. Regardless of whether or not his music is good (I happen to find a slight majority of it very good indeed) what he is doing is worthy of note and so I have noted it!

Just for good measure, here's a banner for the new album....

Byeeeeee. x

Semi Detached

noreply@blogger.com (Aidan Blenkinsopp) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:57:00 +0000

Hello,

I moved house just before Christmas, and haven't had the internet at home as a result, which is why everything has been quiet. After having broadband for probably the last six years, not having it at home has been alarmingly odd. Anyway, we're getting connected tomorrow, so I should be able to do a full and interesting update soon. This is a hugely self-serving entry that will hopefully ensure that I do actually start writing some interesting posts....

Lots of interesting things have happened since Christmas:

I've started freelance work
I've sort of started forming a company with two chums
I've started getting reasonable at football
Other stuff!

I'll be back in a few days to update! Promise...

Aidan x

Adventures in Video!

noreply@blogger.com (Aidan Blenkinsopp) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:04:00 +0000

Hello again,

I've long harboured a desire make awesome videos, a desire that I'm clearly yet to fulfill, and it was with this in mind that I decided to do the dissertation for my current course (an MSc in Multimedia Games Engineering) on video. In my head I was going to make the most amazing film ever seen, using a camcorder and adding special effects in premiere and photoshop. I was planning on making Lord of the Rings using my more ugly friends as Orcs. However my tutor swiftly scuppered my plans and reminded me that I couldn't do a dissertation which was essentially me arsing around. I concede that he probably had a point, even if it means the world will have to live without me making awesome videos for a little longer.

In the end he decided what I should really do is some kind of melding of Flash and video. As you can no doubt imagine, this prospect was a lot less thrilling than my original idea of faffing around with special effects and filming in my basement with a green screen. However, as he is marking the thing I had to agree, and so the last few months I have been slaving away discovering what one can up get to with video and Flash - and the result of my toils is THIS. Have a go on the thing and tell me what you think. It is intended to demonstrate that video can be fairly interactive and can be used in more ways than simply providing something to watch a la YouTube and Google Video et al. It's fairly unpolished, and if I get time before I hand it in I need to make a couple of changes, but it works, it's mildly amusing and I managed to fit a Flash Gordon reference into it, so all in all I'm pretty happy with it innit.

You may notice (because it says it alot) that the music is by Nine Inch Nails and I will take this opportunity to warn you that Trent Reznor and his awesome new website will be very likely be the subject of my next post on here.

Right, I'm off to write my bastard dissertation.

See yas laters,

Aidan x

It's a new dawn, it's a new day etc

noreply@blogger.com (Aidan Blenkinsopp) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:20:00 +0000

Greetings,

I just formatted my hard drive and installed Windows Vista Ultimate and I am now excitedly going about setting up my computer and making it bad ass. Occasionally I get a little depressed that the prospect of spending all day installing stuff like firefox, last.fm, messenger and the like is really appealing to me - despite all evidence to the contrary I still refuse to accept that I'm a geek - but this slight dusting of wretchedness soon disappears when I contemplate how sweet my computer is going to be now I've got rid of all the crap that has been pissing me off for the last few months. Again, the fact that I will inevitably fill it up with more crap necessitating another format and clean install in a few months is a thought which will not burst my bubble of contented geekery.

I don't really know much about operating systems and what makes one better than the other from a technical point of view, but so far I'm really quite impressed with Vista, it seems quite logical in terms of layout and I like how they've ditched 'my documents'. My previous 'my documents' folders were total disarray at all times and I think the new system may cause me to be slightly more organised from now on. This can only be a good thing.

Ta ta

Aidan x