Tag: digital content

  • Xiami + Chinese Indie Music Compilation Xun Guang Ji

    xiami-xun-guang-ji-seeking-light-collection

    Xiami had been pimping a new project they had going on for the last couple of days, and they’ve just revealed that it’s a 2-disc compilation featuring Chinese-Taiwan-UK Beijing-based indie artists. It’s a pretty good set that I’ve freely translated as the Seeking Light Compilation (寻光集, Xun Guang Ji) or in Español- Colección Buscando la Luz.

    See, this is what happens when you have no official ‘christian’ name.

    Check my English and Español announcements for translated group names and songs. Looking forward to exploring everyone’s discography.

    You can get the album on Xiami.

  • Yuguo Releases Sunset Strip and More

    Good news and bad ones~

    First, about a week or two ago Yuguo announced that they were finally releasing their third full studio album Sunset Strip (日落大道), which seemed like it had been in the planning for ages [1].

    It’s the 23rd in China, and it happened!

    yuguo-album-art-sunset-strip

    You can listen to the album (and download the songs) via Xiami.

    (more…)

  • Movie Streams, VOD, and Worldwide Online Distribution

    I’m still not sold on Netflix- never to this date I’ve ran into a film that I wanted to watch on it. At least in terms of this region, which doesn’t count with as much content as the US or Canada one. Similar issues with iTunes… and Amazon is out of the question.

    I used to subscribe to MUBI for a long while (at least for a bit over a year), but eventually turned off my subscription because I wasn’t watching anything, while things I had added to my watchlist stopped being available, and the selection of their films eventually was reduced to their now curated content. I’m only subscribed to EROSNOW now, and have seen a few couple of films there, but had to turn to other mediums when found links that were region-restricted or surprisingly without subtitles.

    My experience with streaming has been decent- and for as cheap as $5-9 bucks you can watch a lot in a month, and it just makes your life quite easy. Similar flawless experience with my first Vimeo On Demand watch. Thanks Joss Whedon for the heads up, and actually putting the film up there right after its premiere. To top it all off, subtitles in Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Japanese (plus English CC) were available making it the smoothest watch if you decided to watch it with any bunch of people.

    Paying $5 to stream a new movie can seem like the best way possible to make it look as if you’re going to the cinema. It takes me back to those days where I would watch 2 or 3 new movies a weekend. If studios ever decided to really go off their way to online distribute their new movies almost simultaneously, I’d be willing.

    Here’s In Your Eyes.

    Apparently Vimeo streaming is not as smooth (or at all) if you don’t have a Vimeo account, though. Take it as a good chance to get one, or don’t complain. I really don’t know any other streaming (paying) website that would let you use their content without an account. You need one in iTunes, in Amazon, in Netflix, HBO, et all. So please, people, stop complaining about THAT.

    Spanish (more serious) related note.

  • Paper Documents to Go Interactive

    For a few couple of years already, people have been calling on the death of printed paper. And in all honesty, I rarely print stuff for myself — a vast majority of printed documents refer to letterhead letters, which I usually just send on PDF by email. But if I’m printing something, it’s got something to do with branded documentation.

    We’ve talked about e-paper [1], digital newspapers, and Samsung’s flexible screens [1] are coming. People are supposedly using smartphones and are all over iPads, as sales for PCs are down dramatically as times flies by. Yet, people apparently still print stuff. At least that’s the premise for this project:

    For a long time, people have been playing around with interactive tables [1][2][3][4][5], though I don’t know anyone who can afford one. The guys from Fujitsu Laboratories seem to be aiming at consumer-range products. And though it may sound and look cool that you can turn all your printed documents into something digital and interact with it, wouldn’t it mean that your page with video included has already been digitally design?

    There’s digital pop-up books!

    creative-sandbox

    Of course, there ARE elements in our everyday life that aren’t digital — doodled post-it notes (I can’t think of anything else other than notes). The rest, they wouldn’t have been embedded elements on your digital source document. The question is, why print it?

  • Downloads, Streamings, and Buys- Oh, My!

    I know so many people who would download loads of music for free, but still buy the stuff they liked (usually discovered from their own or other people’s free downloads). Now those same people listen to Spotify and feel that they have paid the artists, so no longer feel the need to buy the songs they like.

    Comment on Artists, Please! Don’t Put Spotify Play Buttons On Your Site…

    Additional info: How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

  • Music Production Schools’ School of Pop

    We’re always bombarded with news at how the music (and movies, and everything else) industry is losing money to piracy, even though we keep hearing all these facts about how Glee has had more songs charted than The Beatles.

    When Sarah, from the Music Production Schools’ design team, emailed me this infographic depicting all these facts onto one place… is hard not to share, right?

    I won’t lie to you, the numbers are good — though I really don’t know how that works with adjusted inflation — but the numbers also make me sad. To imagine Katy Perry standing on similar ground as MJ or Flo Rida standing on similar ground to The Beatles… or Ke$ha selling MORE than The Beatles. It’s depressing.

    Mainly because there are MUCH better artists out there, and half the world haven’t even heard about them. I think it’s a crime that everyone knows Katy Perry, but it’d be rare if someone knows who Shiina Ringo is.

    In any case, this is an infographic about sales~ so there you have it.

    Full infographic after the break~

    (more…)

  • Another One Bites the Dust?

    I don’t want to say it’s a sad SAD day, because I’m pretty sure there are so many worse things going on in the world right now, but I was pretty shocked to find this one out after my ISP was wonky and wouldn’t let me on Facebook and Twitter. I seriously could only use Google-based websites and the Chinese ones.

    Anyway, Megaupload is dead. Or at least, dead for the moment. I wonder what people that had paid for premium accounts and had loads of files stored are going to do. It’s like… their lives are gone. PUFF! That’s it. I hope they have physical copies or other backup uploads.

    Could you imagine the repercussions for all those file upload systems? So uploading your iTunes backups to dropbox would be ilegal, cloud systems wouldn’t really be possible, right?

    And what about all those Blogger sites, WordPress and other websites that dedicate to it. Does it mean that all those sites are getting axed next?

    Anyway, it always happens this way. A site gets shut down, it gets bought, or something happens to it. There’s people outcry, and we move on to the next thing.

  • Almost YAM – YAMMIES or YAMMERS. Plus! Music!!

    Hi, guys!

    YAM011 is almost done. The Lima Film Fest ends tonight, so I’ll be closing the issue — hopefully on time, for a release on the 15th at 00.00hr. My timezone, not yours. GMT -5, FYI.

    While I was writing the editor’s note — and addressing everyone on the Facebook group — I wondered what to call YAM readers. I thought YAMMIES would be nice, but then the Urban Dictionary told me those are tits/knockers. But then again, Penn & Teller said that pretty much any noun in plural can mean knockers. LOL Watermelons, lemons, air bags. There you go, wouldn’t be much of a difference.

    So… then I thought about YAMMERS, but that can’t be good, right? So maybe YAMMIES is fine. Sounds a bit like “jammies” because you know… I’m a Spanish speaker. To me, the sound of a Y with a vowel, and the sound of a J with a vowel is the same. When I first moved to Canada, Yellow and Jello were the same to me. Well, I still can’t get it right. Frak.

    Anyway, it’s getting late. I just wanted to post the streams to some of the albums we are reviewing and rating in the new edition of YAM. Not all, but most of them~ Thank you, Xiami ;P

    * denotes that they have a written review.

    Anyway, happy listening! Off to zzzz. Busy day today.

  • Hello Xiami.com

    Hi, China! You rock.

    Right next to Haoting.com, there’s Xiami.com – whose name makes little sense to me… apparently it means Dried Shrimps. Huh, right? xD Anyway, seems like it has a pretty collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Western music…

    No region restrictions!

    Highlights? Which we reviewed and rated on the latest YAM~~~

    Just hit the PLAY button there.

    Also, big info!

    Bibi’s soon-to-be released i.Light.Fish album contains a song written by Diane Warren. *Excited*

  • jonsi – go stream

    I have been enjoying this for a little more than a week.

    just spent $35 USD on the limited edition… just to proof that you pay for the goods.

    so stop complaining music and movie industry. just make good stuff happen.