Give Me Something To Bitch About

Sorry for the late comic. I was preparing for, then participating in an actual job interview for an actual job. The Experiment isn’t over, just evolving. More on that as things develop.

Re: The background of this comic – I asked Twitter what my background color scheme should be and Josh suggested (rather CHALLENGED) “dopefish3d @hijinksensue no no no, houndstooth, alternating between mauve and periwinkle.” Far be it form me to back down once the gauntlet has been thrown, so there you go. I don’t really like it, but I still win.

I’ve really been relying on the “I would totally buy form iTunes if not for all the DRM sadness” crutch for years. Now I have nothing to justify my thevery.

The iTunes Music Store is a brilliant piece of technology. I know people who aren’t normally susceptible to traditional ads and upsales that MARVEL at how ITMS gets them to fall for “you just bought this song… your playlist would be twice as awesome if you added these other 3 songs… i bet some hot chick would totally do you if you played those 4 songs for her and burned some incense and got all suave talkin’ with lotions and oils and shit… click here to buy some incense…” But is it really “getting you to fall for it” if it is actually helpful and you enjoy the shopping experience? Their marketing genius can’t be denied, but you are welcome to debate the true nature of their intent. Is Apple the next RIAA or are they the harbingers of fair and just digital distribution?

I don’t have these questions about Bit Torrent. It’s like paying cash for RAM in China Town. It’s cheaper than retail, comes in a paper sandwich bag that said “RAMS” in Sharpie marker, and I know before I buy that if anything goes wrong the people that provided the goods would sooner drug me and steal my organs than help me out.

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51 Comments

  4. I am unfortunately right there with you on the BitTorrent justifications. "The record companies owe me for all those years I bought overpriced CDs" can only ring true for so long…

    • I disagree, from all the crappy movies, CDs, and games I bought in my youth I consider myself paid up at least until I'm middle-aged.

      Great comic, the facial expressions and hand gestures really sold it.

  5. Opportunity cost doesn't mean money. What if you place a high marginal valuation on not paying money for music?

    further pontification abridged by liquor and my most recent piracy -For The Masses a Depeche Mode tribute album. Mmm the Cure covering Depeche Mode.

  7. Love the use of hands in this one, especially Joel's in panel 3 and Josh's in panel 4. It's like he dropped a blanket on the remote, and now he's trying to find the remote under it and change the channel without lifting it off. Excellent.

  9. That made me spit some cherry coke out of my nose. And if you knew how much I cherished cherry coke, you would know how awesome that joke was.

    Damn, son.

  10. The background works, oddly enough. Maybe it's cause Josh is there. (Thinly veiled gay jokes.)

    Anyway, most regular recording artists still DON'T get paid enough from music sales, and they ARE being ripped off. Or Lou Perlman'd, as I say. You could still be an audio snob and claim ITunes isn't high enough of a bitrate or something. I dunno, I just like CDs to hold onto.

    Also Joel's pompadour is in the way of too many bubbles! And Josh wouldn't be voyeuristic if he couldn't pull a steady audience!

    • And given some of Josh's stories on the podcast, do you really want to see anything set to "super best friends only"? There could be eye-bleeding…

    • All the songs are now DRM free, even the .69 and .99 ones (or will be eventually, 20% of the catalogue still has DRM, but they say it will quickly be 100% DRM free), and it's $1.29 for the high end songs.

      So essentially they are adding or subtracting $.30 based on a song's popularity. Allegedly the majority of songs will end up being .69, since the majority of the iTMS is filler music.

      • Because why go with a standard that will play on everything from cell phones made in 2000 to advanced PMP devices to the friggin wii via flash when there's a wiki page to guide users to buying a new player?

        Amazon got it right, iTunes is faking it. End.

        And I'm not even factoring in being able to buy songs with pepsi points…

        • Actually Wii upgraded their picture channel to exclusively play AAC files (it also, very inexplicably, dropped MP3 support).

          Though, if the file is not DRM'ed and you have iTunes set to import files as MP3's then you should be able to right-click on the track and select "Convert to MP3", and it will automatically convert it.

          The real reason Apple is sticking with AAC is you tend to get a higher quality sound vs MP3 at similar file sizes.

  24. Mp3 is limited to 2 audio channels, while AAC is limited to 48.

    If you're happy with just using 2 channels for the rest of your life, knock yourself out.

    • Thats what sucks. AAC is a better format. Period. We are just talking math, not coolness, and AAC has better math. That said, I still go with MP3's when I do my own compression. I dont know why.

  25. Re: The background

    Oddly enough, it works.

    ((Also, my justification has always been the same. I use file sharing to introduce myself to new groups. If I like their stuff, I hunt down the physical album. If I don't, I delete the files and move on to the next group I'm curious about.))

  29. Anyway, most regular recording artists still DON’T get paid enough from music sales, and they ARE being ripped off. Or Lou Perlman’d, as I say. You could still be an audio snob and claim ITunes isn’t high enough of a bitrate or something. I dunno, I just like CDs to hold onto.
    Also Joel’s pompadour is in the way of too many bubbles! And Josh wouldn’t be voyeuristic if he couldn’t pull a steady audience!

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