The Rolling Stones

Medialoper Bebop Episode 24: Steal This Podcast

November 30, 2011 by Jim Connelly

This week, Tim, Kirk, & Jim discuss the the following Rolling Stones-permeated topics.

First off, you’d think that a newly-released Rolling Stones live album from the early 70s would be a cause for celebration, but as it is confined to Google’s Android platform, it’s as cause for consternation and the spur for a long, serious discussion about how music exclusivity — whether via artificially high prices or artifically enforced platforms — encourages piracy.

Not only do artists like U2, Nirvana & Bob Dylan end up burying musical treasures in “Super Deluxe” box sets with exorbitant prices, it’s gotten so bad the Elvis Costello wrote a blog post encouraging his fans not to purchase his recent live album until next year. (2:20 – 23:20)

Then, on the heels of a report that she might be pro-life, we do an interview with the iPhone’s built-in personal assistant, Siri, to try and determine what her politics are once and for all. (23:30 – 30:15)

Finally, even though Kirk’s mix is a bit of a mess, he still has time to talk about the new album from Tom Waits, reissues from the Rolling Stones and the entire Linton Kwesi Johnson catalog. (30:16 – 40:30)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:35 — 66.8MB)

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Medialoper Bebop Episode 21: Harry Potter and the Naked Grab For Cash

October 26, 2011 by Jim Connelly

This week, Jim, Kirk & Tim are not quite as organized as in previous weeks, which is really saying something (really saying something) (bop bop shoobie do wah).

First off, Kirk’s impending trip to San Francisco sparks a discussion about what having the San Francisco Giants being the MLB champions for a year meant to Tim & Jim, and how the Rapture could have kept the Giants champions forever. (3:45 – 7:10)

Then, we discuss the decision by Warner Bros to put the Harry Potter DVDs on moratorium at the end of the year, and wonder what it might mean for the future of digital media vs. physical media. (7:14 – 19:56)

We look at the first world problem of how iPads are affecting bandwidth in hotel rooms, and Kirk’s PROTIP for solving the problem. (19:57 – 25:45)

After that, another voicemail from Medialoper Bebop Commissioner Gordon Loper. Yep, we’re still in trouble over that whole “Hitler” thing. (25:46 – 28:10)

This week, it was Tim’s turn to do “In The Mix,” however, he’d had a busy week, and tried to discuss albums he hadn’t even heard, and we had to bring in the Commissioner to find out if he could even do that. Tim’s controversial and theoretical mix might include Tom Waits, Noel Gallagher and Coldplay. And Peter Gabriel. (28:12 – 33:50)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:18 — 59.5MB)

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The Mess of The Rolling Stones Back Catalog

September 4, 2008 by Jim Connelly

Yesterday, Kassia took issue with a Wall Street Journal article that trumpeted the fallacy that closing off a major avenue of music distribution was somehow a good thing.

One of the examples that the article used to show that selling a lot of music on iTunes was somehow a bad thing was the fact that while The Rolling Stones have sold 6,000,000 songs digitally since January 2006, they’ve sold the fewest amount of back catalog albums among the six top-selling catalog artists.

This, of course, is one of those made-up stats that purports to mean something while meaning very little. How is it not not a good thing to be among the top six selling catalog artists of the past two years? Or sell six million songs, many of which go back decades, and many many of which you’re no doubt reselling to some of the same people you’ve previously sold them to?

However, by using the high songs / low album sales as an example as how digital distribution can harm an artist, it totally ignores two very very important facts about The Rolling Stones.

Since the very start, they’ve been marketed as a singles act.
Their back catalog is a confusing mess, which is a huge factor to its relative — relative! — paucity of sales.