liz_marcs | I got a gift! And I have a question about Music from the Cube...

As Imeem is the only embeddable streaming option accepted by El-Jay, I'm still SOL, as it were.

If there is a good source of embeddable streaming audio, you should ask them to write to LJ to get added onto the list.
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=268&view=full

I'm leaning more to a FLocked comm as the best of all bad options.

To be honest, I haven't found a streaming host I really like yet. I have quibbles with just about all of them. Plus, there's the issue that streaming sites might get dinged in the current dust-up about paying per-play royalties to music publishing. If that actually goes through, all the streaming hosts in the U.S. will be forced to close-up shop.

I've been looking at this of and on, oh, since I started doing the reviews a little over a year ago. I've been hoping the law/technology would help solve the problem, but it really hasn't.

Plus, the links to those Music from the Cube posts are starting to show up in far too many places outside of LJ for comfort. It started off as kind of cool when I'd get the odd ding. While it's not a flood by any means, there's been enough of an uptick in recent months that I'm starting to get nervous about it.

If a locked comm at least (temporarily) solves the problem, I think that might be the way to go.

Alternative suggestion. Vox allows streaming MP3s, and I'm told it does it well, plus it has LJ cross post functionality.

You could post to Vox, use the cross poster, then we all see that you've done a post from here and go there to listen.

Or just f-lock everything here. Open communities are still going to get people in trouble if they do try to get you for something.

Or you could do what Warren Ellis does and upload stuff, but state "for review purposes only, will be deleted in a week, will be removed upon request".

But, ultimately, your call.

Eh. The Vox MP3 streamer is good, but I'm not overly happy with it. There's no way to make the tracks automatically load one after the other. I put reviews up on my Vox and I put streaming tracks there, but it's more for my benefit than anyone else's.

As for F-locking the Music from the Cube posts here, like I said I'm not too in love with that option (it was the first option I considered). But my FList is, uhn, already overwhelming at the moment. Plus, there's the whole "ceiling" issue on the number of friends a personal LJ can have. A community doesn't have the limit.

I've looked around at the other filesharing comms on LJ (and I'm a member of a few), and they all seem to operate the same way. The comm is locked down to friends only, there are disclaimers on the user page, and FAQs.

Also, I'm thinking that strength-in-numbers might work in my favor. If the filesharing comms get dinged, they'll be dinged en masse, or there'll be some warning from LJ/Six Apart to stop doing it. At that point, it would just be a matter of deleting the comm. Sure, copies might be on a server somewhere, but at least it would be "gone" from the Internet for all intents and purposes.

I've been looking at this issue off-and-on for a year (in fact, I had considered moving the reviews off this LJ when I started doing them more than a year ago), but lately links to the reviews been showing up in the damnedest places. I haven't gotten in any trouble or anything like that, but I figure it's a matter of time.

I'm not in love with doing a fileshare comm (maintenance alone is making me unhappy), but right now it's the best option given the uncertain legal environment on streaming in the U.S. right now (yes, they're going after streaming, too).

I think a flocked comm is a great idea -- I _love_ the MFTC posts, and would be sad if you quit doing them or went to streaming (stremaing just doesn't really do it for me, sadly). Also, TPTB are going after streaming? WTF?

Also also, that mood icon is hott.

I'm definitely going to a FLocked comm as the lesser of all evils (I've set it up and have been playing with settings for the past hour or two.)

Like I said, I haven't gotten into any trouble over them, but in the past four months there've been a few links showing up in various non-LJ places (like on the chatboards of an artist's official Web site). I'm such small potatoes that I highly doubt someone would go after me personally, but I'd feel more comfortable putting an extra layer between me and a possible RIAA legal letter.

As for streaming, it comes down to royalties paid on songs played. The draconian rate structure would pretty much shut down any U.S.-based on-line radio or streaming music companies (Last.fm in the U.K. would not be affected) because the amount of money the streamers would have to pay could easily exceed gross income. Needless to say, a lot of big media companies are trying to fight it.

David Byrne (ex-Talking Head frontman), who streams music on his blog, explains the problem with the rate structures best.

I voted to have only you do reviews on this proposed Comm, not so much because I don't want to see other reviews, but because limiting it to you might be safer-- less free music floating around from the comm to piss off the music companies. Of course, theoretically, this comm will be locked down enough to prevent that problem. So tabulate that answer however you like. If you did open it to other reviewers, they should stick as close to your format as possible.

I've made the acquaintance of some really cool music I NEVER would have run across otherwise, so I really do want to thank you for these reviews, however this turns out.

Hob

I have voted for Whatever regarding the membership - one way I could think of would be to limit the membership to people you, in a way, know - trust can only be direct, because transitive trust doesn't work. (I trust Bob. Bob trusts GWB. Do I automatically trust GWB? No.)

Also, I voted for more people doing reviews - a) because we get more, differentiated opinions, and b) more tastes - for example, small, local groups, or even national groups which aren't known in the US.

Just my two cents.

I got a gift! And I have a question about Music from the Cube...

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