Seeing as how both links for Starving the Artist here go to Amazon, and Amazon.com is down, I should point out you can also buy it at Barnes and Noble (plus it’s on sale there!).

I wonder how much money Amazon’s losing.  I’m guessing it’s a lot.

BTW, If you’re ever looking for a good way to see if a site is down for just you or for everyone, use http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com

You can read more about this at Torrentfreak. However, for more information I recommend checking out this article over at The Register in the UK, where representatives from the web host say they know nothing of this injunction, and even go so far as to refer to The Pirate Bay as “fully legit.”

The sad part is, that if the Pirate Bay gets disconnected, it’s almost certain we’ll see it pop right back up in some other country on another web service. I hate to say it, but perhaps it’s time we consider actually putting together laws that require ISPs to block access to sites that are known to be operating illegally. Otherwise, it’s just going to continue to be a game of whack-a-mole.

The news of this has been all over the web (WSJ has one of the best pieces of coverage), but I think Patrick Ross of the Copyright Alliance has one of the best responses to it on their blog.

I left my thoughts on the Copyright Alliance’s site, but thought it was worth sharing here as well. So, consider this my official response to the news.

“This is one of the best pieces of news I’ve seen reported in a long time. It’s about time this happened. I remember a few years ago, I was talking to some people I knew and found out that they don’t ever buy music – instead they only download from Limewire (or did at the time). The thing is, when I told them that what they were doing was illegal, they had no idea. Their response was “but I bought some pro version and a plan.” It was only after explaining to them that it still was unlicensed and nothing went to any of the artists or creators that they saw just how misled they had been.

Limewire’s entire business plan was built around the theft of copyrighted materials, and as you said, they were just fine with that. It’s good to see that the Judicial System has stepped up and given them the smack they so deserve.”

It’s about time.

The full title of the book is Starving the Artist: How the Internet Culture of “Free” Threatens to Exterminate the Creative Class and What Can Be Done to Save It.  It’s not a book about copyright law or an argument that “free is evil” – instead it’s a discussion of our current state of how we value other people’s work and creations, and how it should not be up to us as consumers to decide whether or not we want to pay what the creator is asking (if they are asking for anything at all). In some ways it’s a response to Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price and tangential to Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur.

With the massive amount of creations available to us through the new distribution channel of the Internet, as well as the greatly reduced costs of creation, we are at a point where we can very easily find enough media to fill our time, made available free of charge by their creators.  The fact remains, however, that many creators would like to be compensated for their work – whether monetarily or in other ways.  But above all, creators deserve our respect for what they’ve done. If you want something, but aren’t willing to pay for it (in whatever manner and at whatever price it is offered), then there are plenty of other alternative options instead of that specific product.

The fact that a creator has made something that you want means it has value to you.  Otherwise you wouldn’t want it.  To take something that’s not yours, without permission, however, is stealing – and is a blatant act of self-serving narcissism in which the one taking feels they are entitled to something that they, in fact, are not. If one wants to steal, that is up to that individual – but in my moral framework, stealing is wrong …

Here’s the full description of the book:

For a lot of people, creation is their livelihood. For others, it’s where their livelihood ought to be. As Richard Florida wrote in his 2004 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, “Stimulating and glamorous as it may sometimes be, creativity is in fact work…The creative ethos is built on discipline and focus, sweat and blood.” All music, art, movies, writings and games were brought into being by their creators – and for these creators to have created them, there was some underlying motivation to do so. Without their creators and their motivations, creative works simply would not be.

Why then, in today’s Internet culture, is all creative work expected to be free?
Why is it that some individuals feel it is their right to take things that do not belong to them, without receiving any permission to do so?
Why, in the Internet culture of “free,” are those creations we enjoy and value most the ones that we are most likely to simply take?

This is not a book about copyright, nor is it a book about the evils of free.

This is a book about right and wrong.
This is a book about respect.
This is a book about the value of creative work.

This is a book for the creators. May you keep on creating.

If you’d like to read more on this topic, I’d love it if you picked up a copy of my book or read it on Kindle.

If you don’t know what a Roomba is, the basic idea is this: it’s a robot that vacuums for you.  (Scoobas mop). Yeah, it doesn’t take too much work to vacuum.  But what a Roomba does is quite a bit more than that – it’s the things you don’t really think about when you think of vacuuming.  Of course the actual “work” part of vacuuming is gone – but the additional benefits are where these little robots really shine.

Roombas are small in height, which means they go under all your furniture – no more moving the couch to clean up the cat hair that’s accumulated.  They’ll go pretty much everywhere you need them to go, and they’ll do it for you pretty much as often as you want.

The basic gist here is that you really have better things to do with your time. Technology is out there that makes it completely possible for you to free up more time for that “doing” I’ve been going on about.  Living life and growing as a person doesn’t involve vacuuming or other remedial tasks.  Go do yourself a favor and pick up a Roomba for yourself.  Run it every day (it’s as simple as pushing the “clean” button) and then proceed to go about living your life.

Your house will be cleaner than ever, and as a result you’ll feel better in both body (from not having to breathe in all the dust, dirt and dander you never even knew was accumulating every day) and spirit (a clean house makes you more at ease, plus you have a bit more time for yourself).

My one warning: Don’t fall prey to watching your little robots do their thing.  Yes, it’s mesmerizing – but you’ll end up wasting more time than you saved.

Here’s a snippet of the current work-in-progress.

For a lot of people, creation is their livelihood. For others, it’s where their livelihood should be. I may be modest at times, but I know I’m no Picasso. For people like him, there obviously was a motivation to create – but there was also a cost. In his lifetime, Picasso created an estimated 50,000 individual works. If nothing else, that’s a lot of paint, paper and time.

Still, the obvious question here is “What if Picasso had not been able to create as his profession?” Of course there is no way he’d have created 50,000 works – there simply isn’t enough time in one’s life to do something like that as a hobby. Or, if somehow he could have still produced as many works, it is highly unlikely he would have had the drive to do so, much less perfect his craft to the level which he did.

In the time before creators were easily able to share their works directly with the public (before the printing press, the phonograph or the Internet), much of the work was commissioned by church of government. Works of art we consider core elements of our culture would not have existed had it not been for these commissions. Some works took years to complete, such as Michelangelo’s painting of The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which took four full years of Michelangelo’s time.

What is even more telling with this example, however, is that Michelangelo himself resented the commission for this work, believing it only served the Pope’s need for grandeur. So, in actuality, had it not been for the commission and promise of payment, The Creation of Adam would never have existed in the first place.

Of course, not all creators benefit financially from their work. In fact, many never expect to. This does not mean, however, they never desire to. With today’s technology it is much easier to acquire the tools to create, and much easier to distribute the creation once complete. The larger issue, and one that is oftentimes forgotten, is that these only make up the material costs of creation. As I’ve already mentioned, to create requires some sort of incentive to do so – and this is true for the most part because creating a work does not come without cost to the creator.

In Chris Anderson’s book, Free he says, “But some others have simply accepted that, for them, music is not a moneymaking business. It’s something they do for other reasons, from fun to creative expression. Which, of course, has always been true for most musicians anyway.”

Assumptions like this are at the core of what has been happening to reduce the value of music and other creations, which in turn has reduced the perception that being a creator of any sort is a viable career path. Having worked in the music industry for over a decade now, I can without a doubt say that the majority of musicians do so for some sort of future payment in mind. For many musicians, obviously this desire to be paid for their work does not come to fruition. There is only room for so many hits in the world. The fact remains, however, that the act of creation is not a selfless one. Whether it be for the hope of playing a gig, getting recognition from fans, getting signed to a label, being heard on the radio, or simply the hopes of using your music chops as a way to get “closer” to the opposite sex, very few musicians who go beyond school band or playing in the comfort of their own home do so for “fun” or “creative expression” – for them to succeed at their craft requires time, and time, as we all know, is not free.

Rather than get into the details of the audience discussion (you can get the gist from the Twitter discourse or  can get the overview from MediaLoper), I want to discuss a bit the bigger point the publishing industry doesn’t seem to be getting – they no longer hold the keys to the kingdom.

For hundreds of years now, the barrier to entry to create a written work that can easily be duplicated and made available to the masses has relied upon a very closed system, with a very high cost of entry.  During those times logistical issues greatly limited the amount of content that could be created (how many printing presses exist, for example) or how many books could really be sold (how many bookstores could exist, and how much shelf space was available). So it was extraordinarily important for any publisher to make very discriminate decisions as to what books they would publish and ultimately attempt to get onto a store’s shelf. During this time they were the tastemakers and ultimately responsible for the continued desire for people to want to consume the written word.

Obviously in this day of low-cost Print-on-Demand, endless digital space to store works, a limitless long-tail shopping experience through places like Amazon, these logistical issues are no longer major barriers. Anyone can publish a book or write a blog, and there is a tremendous amount of content out here for all of us to consume. There is no barrier to entry other than having access to a computer, which really has reduced the ability for the publisher to be the “curator.”  Since everyone today has the ability to have a voice both among friends and family but potentially loud enough for the entire world to hear, the people are today’s curators and tastemaker.  This is why it was so disappointing to hear with such adamacy at yesterday’s panel that this was a key component of the traditional publishing industry.

The  ultimate “New Think” for the publishing industry that I’ve been pushing both in book publishing, as well as in the music publishing industry is to change the mindset that publishers are in charge and the customers should trust them.  Instead, publishers need to stop trying to be tastemakers and instead realize that they are ultimately administrators of extraordinarily valuable copyright-protected content that they can build a brand around. Find content or creators that already have a following (and sometimes take risks on ones that have a potential to be big), cultivate those creators and their content with your professional editing staff and then get the content out to people.

But in no instance, think it is your job to decide what is and is not worthy of publication. Yes, you should decide what is worthy of having your logo slapped on it, as you are building a brand – but the concept that it is your job to be the ultiate curator and gatekeeper, as well as to create one single item that people should buy is not going to work anymore.

Give people a quality product, from a respected brand, in whatever way people want to consume it, and you will continue to be relevant. Just keep in mind that people have the choice to ignore you now and go elsewhere too. Remove some of the internal decision process and instead watch trends. Take care of the intellectual property you administer, as well as take care of those who create it for you. The cream will ultimately rise to the top with or without you – so if you want to have a stake in the cream then invest in it and care for it – but don’t for a second think you’re the ones who decide what the cream is anymore.

That’s what this thing called The Internet does for you.

Footage from the Actual Panel (yes, the first question is me):

So what is the point here? For many its to network – to find like-minded game-changers who you can learn from or work with to help build their next big application or web site.  For others, especially at SXSW it seems to be mostly to drink and party.  But for myself, the one benefit I get is that when I’m listening to the right presentation a spark ignites into a lightning storm in my head. Most presentations fail at this, but for the few that do, they get me fired up in an internal brainstorming session that basically gives me the opportunity for insight – or in rare instances, genius (I never said I was modest).

So are the conferences worthwhile? Looking at each individual piece I’d have to answer with a pretty adamant “no.” However, looking at the one or two instances where ideas are triggered, or even simply reassuring us me that we’re on the right path, those instances are extraordinarily valuable.

The bigger question I ask myself now is this: if I forced myself to disconnect from daily routine and instead take time to look at things from the outside, would these ideas still arise? Or do I need to fly halfway across the country to listen to a bunch of people talk about in five days what I could read online in a few hours to enable this process?

I’ll be thinking about this for sure while I’m here. Still have almost four long days to go yet.

At home this has not ever been too much of an issue, as I make an effort to incorporate life in my home and yard (I have several cats, a large freshwater aquarium, a variety of bird feeders and a fairly robust flower garden area). At work, on the other hand, I never really gave it much thought until recently.

I’ve been working at Musicnotes for almost nine years now, and while I always tried to make my office have a definite feel of me (family photos, batman figurines, a Harley Quinn snowglobe and some old music press photos from The Beta Band and Wilco), I never reallly paid much attention to the idea of balance. Lately, however, this has changed.

The concept of balance between technology and nature has been on my mind quite a bit lately, and it’s definitely a major theme in The Unfortunate Expiration of Mr. David S. Sparks, but it’s something I’m finding to be quite important in a healthy existence – both for myself as well as for humankind.

Rather than try to save the world, however, my focus lately has been on fixing my world. As I already stated, my home has this balance – but my working environment did not. And, since I spend the majority of my waking hours in my office, this imbalance in favor of technology is doing a disservice to my own well-being.

So what did I do? Exactly what I suggest every one of you do – find a way to bring balance to your environment. For me, that meant bringing in elements that had been missing. There simply was no life where I was working, and there was no positive flow of energy. So what I did was rearrange my office, following a few tips of feng shui, including situating my desk so my back was no longer to the door, incorporating some lush plants  (I’ve learned cactus and bonsai are serious no-nos), and setting up a small saltwater aquarium in an eight gallon biocube (a lot of work and patience, but absolutely worth it).

The result? I am much better able to take a step away from my technological and Internet-focused day to zone out (some people might call it meditating) while focusing on these very organic distractions. They bring me back to equilibrium with life, and calm my nerves of their everyday pressures.

It’s therapeutic, to come back to nature once in a while. I recommend you all make a similar effort. You won’t know anything was missing until you do, but once you’ve done so, you’ll feel much more whole.

Ever since getting my Kindle I’ve become more and more accustomed to reading on its e-ink display. For a while it was all I read on (other than the computer, but I refuse to read full-length novels on a computer screen). Sure, at first it took a bit of getting used to: holding a hunk of plastic and not having the feel of paper beneath my fingers, but when I started reading a new book (who shall remain nameless), it simply was not available for Kindle – so I had to read it in dead-tree form.  I hated it.

Why? Mostly because of all the reasons I put forth a few months ago as to why you should buy a Kindle. I hate the nuisance of trying to hold the book open (I can just set my Kindle on the counter and read while I do anything, like brush my teeth). I hate that I’m stuck with whatever text size the publisher decided was appropriate for the book (again, it’s nice to set the book down, increase the font size, and read while I’m doing something else). I don’t like searching for something to use as a bookmark or even worse, losing my place when my son pulls the bookmark from its place in the book (the Kindle keeps track of where you left off).

But the biggest reason I don’t like reading books anymore is because of all the waste. Seriously, I generally read a book once and am done with it.  Then it either goes on my shelf or to someone else to read (and being a fan of content creation, I don’t particularly like the used book market, although I do succumb from time to time just to clear my shelves). Either way, there have been a lot of trees killed for my entertainment over the years – and with e-reader technology there’s absolutely no reason for this to continue.  Yes, the Kindle takes other forms of resources to create – but once it’s done it’s made it’s made, and it seriously uses very little electricity.

So this is a call-to-action for all of you writers and publishers out there.  Go put your book up on Kindle (I already did), or chances are I will not read it. It’s disappointing how many books I’ve come across lately that I want to read, but are not available on Kindle. And, since there are a lot of books out there, the ones that aren’t on Kindle are put on my list of books to read someday, when the publisher comes to its senses and does so. In the meantime, if you’re not on Kindle I’m skipping over you.

By the way, publishers, authors, etc. You’ll get a lot better royalty in e-books than in traditional print. Chew on that for a while.