Starting the last days of this month, January, and continuing over all the 12 months this year, Biker Boy will release one song each month. First song is January song.
The songs will be released the first full week of each month. Thus, monday, next week February song will see the light of day.
Stop calling us. Stop mail us. Just stop with what you are doing and listen for a minute.
Yes, we are talking to you, journalist. We have answered your questions regarding the 'downloading' scenario for at least three years now. We often talk to you at great length. We can notice that you are curious and often possess great analytical power and wit.
However, when you finally deliver your piece 'on filesharing' for print or the airwaves, all that talk, all that jazz, seem to be lost. It's the language of media, we know. You have to be 'pro' or 'against' something. You need to sell papers, get viewers, listeners, need to find people with strong opinions and make a fuzz about 'the issue'. But we are tired of it.
You see, in the real world, life goes on. There is progress. At blogs, between real people, nuanced and informed debate take place. On the more official side of things, in the broad massmedia outlets and in the music biz though, there are a complete stalemate. It's noizy people arguing like childs. Going on in a rethoric fashion bending facts however they want, to fit their fake theories, all in the pursuit of their own special intererests(as in = PAYCHECK).
This is not an issue to take lightly. Go ahead, please, pretty please with sugar on top, argue like idiots over building a mall here or there, about having privatized day-care or not, over giving grades in 7th class or not, over just any 'issue', but please, dont do it about this one.
This issue is about our whole culture. You know, that itsy bitsy thing that separates us from being ants. This is fucking important, ok?
In 1999 we downloaded music in big fashion for the first time. Since then it's been an endless stream of music, movies and words with absolutely no end. In front of us at the office there are five external hard drives at a total of 2.4 Terrabytes all completely clogged up with music and movies. Behind us are another room filled up with 2500 vinyl records and about 4000(no idea really, too many) CDs. That is, basically what it looks like when someone has had best of both worlds. Younger people might identify more with the 2.4 TB thing and older with the 2500 vinyl records(you do so bad want to come over and check them out dont you).
Anyways, what we are trying to point out is that the way culture is built today, is through filesharing. There are loads of things filesharing has had an impact on. Irreversible impact. Like how one builds ones identity. We remember the days of the 80s and 90s. The subculture of then seem to be half the mainstream today. The impact on identity might be the strongest impact filesharing has made. It's not your friends older brother that influence you anymore, it's the random and haphazardly downloading of culture that shape you.
Downloading of music, movies, games and programs is only one side of the story as well. On the other hand there is communities, blogs, websites with loads of information, free information of high and low(THE lowest) quality everywhere, all the time and it's increasing by the minute. It goes hand in hand with the downloading of music, movies, programs and games. It's stressful, highpaced, superficial and at times very rewarding. It's a world of culture under ongoing change at a level so basic that it probably will have replaced the old system completely in a couple of years. 4 years, counting from last thursday, is our guess. The change is exactly like the change when copernicus told people that the universe doesn't spin around the world. It's exactly like that. 9000 years ago, you built your cultural universe bit by bit at a pace painfully slow, like your own little Lego cathedral of culture. Today it comes crashing down upon you like the Niagara falls while you desperately try to keep up, going up for air, trying to focus, organize your thoughts until the waterfall just thunders down your neck hurling you down beneath the surface again.
And all the time you are being directed to new and newer pieces of technological equipment more and more perfect in style and function to handle your downloading life.
We cant remember if it was Stalin or Lenin that said something like "Wish for that you don't live in a time of changes". Lucky for both Stalin and Lenin, they are dead today. Luckily as well for a brave russian poet opposing the regime, the DIY-arsenal and infromation channels at hand is far more advaced than when Stalin and Lenin ruled supreme. Maybe a bit unlucky for that poet though is that politicans from all countries are lining up to CONTROL AND MONITOR us. Maybe that is a bit lucky for the poet since then the poet has something to oppose. However, there are a lot of unjust things in the world to oppose, so the poet can probably live without that CONTROL AND MONITORING. Just thought we should point that out, the 100% uneasy feeling we got that the CONTROL AND MONITORING thing is not the right way to go.
Anyways, back to us know. We wont be interviewed anymore. Practically all interviews so far has been pretty backwards and non-constructive. Even the lengthy ones. Sorry for dissing you like that DN, SVD, Aftonbladet, Expressen, GP, Sydsvenskan, SVT, SR, Fokus, DI and all you others that has phoned, mailed and met us. But it's the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and you need to get your act together. You see, the people know shit by know. They don't have to be told things over and over again. They are tired of it and they want to move on.
This doesn't mean that we wont make our voice heard. We will, just that it will be at our initiative and at platforms where our thoughts doesn't goes unheard. Or, at the minimal risk that a journalist actually sets up some form of journalistic piece that looks like it will make things move forward, we will of course be happy to chat! We actually do have some suggestions of how media should approach the subject. Here are two ideas: 1. Write 200 pages full of text about it during one week in a daily newspaper. 2. Air 40 hours of serious interviews and debate during one week in national television.
Repeat x 3
Until then, thank you very much for your interest and hopefully you will get better at your job soon.
By the way, the swedish journalist Anders Mildner wrote a great text(a rare exeption to the rule in the media) the other day about some of this stuff we just wrote about above. We could link to it, but why bother. Here's the full text, only in swedish though, cut and pasted without any respect for copyright WHAT SO EVER(BUT HOW ARE YOU GOING TO EARN MONEY THEN, HOW CAN YOU BE 'FOR' THAT BLA BLA OSV. ETC. M M)
BTW, there should be "Text blogs" just like there are "Mp3 blogs". Hyperlinks, pfffft, that is so 2007.
Anders Mildner:
"Fildelningsveckan, del 3
Två val.
Det är vad medierna ger dig.
Vill du föra fram en åsikt måste du välja mellan att kalla dig pirat eller antipirat.
Debatten blir därefter. När diskussionen mallas efter tanken att debattörerna måste vara antingen FÖR eller EMOT fildelning missar journalisterna ett gäng viktiga frågor.
Komplexa ämnen kan inte diskuteras i termer av ja och nej. Det vet ju alla egentligen. Testa dig själv så får du se: Är du för eller emot invandring? För eller emot kulturbidrag? För eller emot vägtullar? För eller emot tillsatser i maten? För eller emot ett svenskt försvar?
Men om man lägger FÖR eller EMOT åt sidan ett tag, dyker det snabbt upp en rad stora frågor som kommer att påverka morgondagens samhälle.
Till exempel:
– Hur skapas kultur i dag och hur kommer den att kunna skapas imorgon? Vilka begränsningar för skapandet som inte funnits tidigare håller vi på att införa och med vilka argument?
– Vad händer med integriteten på nätet? Vad händer med den ökande övervakningen – och exakt varför ökar den?
– Vad håller på att hända med den kulturella allmänningen? Och varför är det ingen som ens nämner denna i debatten?
– Vad händer med kulturkonsumenternas rättigheter? Och då syftar jag inte bara på DRM, utan också om vad som händer när den digitala kultur som distribueras av multinationella företag går mot gratistjänster – samtidigt som den privata fildelningen förbjuds. Finns det inte en maktfråga här (mellan medborgare och stora företag) som vi missar?
I dagens SvD är förresten Google-chefen Nicklas Lundblad inne på besläktade tankegångar:
”Det är en komplex debatt. Den vinner knappast på att förenklas till frågor om upphovsrättens vara eller inte vara eller på den polarisering som nu pågår. Det vore intressant att ersätta debatten mellan pirater och antipirater med en diskussion mellan reformister och klassicister – de som vill reformera upphovsrätten och de som föredrar den precis som den är. Det är där de stora framtidsfrågorna döljer sig, snarare än i utformningen av sanktionsfloran.”
Och för den som vill se hur den här debatten ser ut i ett internationellt perspektiv, kan jag verkligen rekommendera en läsning av två texter.
Först Paul McGuinness tal från Midem.
McGuinness har varit U2:s manager i 30 år och rott hem en skivförsäljning på över 150 miljoner album. Han tar bland annat upp Sverige och Renforsutredningen.
Sedan kommer alltid lika läsvärda Bob Lefsetz arga svar.
McGuinness är intressant eftersom vi i Sverige inte har NÅGON från skivindustrin som debatterar fildelningsfrågan.
A&R-folket och skivbolagsdirektörerna har gömt sig i åtta år och skickar istället fram Ifpi. Och sedan undrar man varför inga musiker hörs i debatten? Eh, ja, är det så konstigt? Hur kan man kräva av 20-åriga musiker (som bara är intresserade av en enda sak – nämligen att spela) att de ska ta den här diskussionen om skivbolagschefer med mer än två decenniers erfarenhet av branschen inte ens uttalar sig?"
Check out Anders article with his links. Bob Lefsetz is highly recommended, he is right on the money a lot of times(although his musical taste even is beyond Mojo)
Hello, Scientology/IFPI/Big Oil/Weapon industry/The influence of corporations in political desicions. We are Anonymous.
Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind--for the laughs--we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell.
You cannot hide; we are everywhere.
We cannot die; we are forever. We're getting bigger every day--and solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, for we are many.
Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are your SPs.
Gradually as we merge our pulse with that of your "Church", the suppression of your followers will become increasingly difficult to maintain. Believers will wake, and see that salvation has no price. They will know that the stress, the frustration that they feel is not something that may be blamed upon Anonymous. No--they will see that it stems from a source far closer to each. Yes, we are SPs. But the sum of suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC.
This Friday we are going to Göteborg/Gothenburg aka Götlaborg for the P3 Guld gala as our very own choir The Sweptaways will perform! The Gala is broadcasted live at the radio P3 from 20.03 and in SVT from 21.30.
The Sweptaways and us are dressed up to the max and we are expecting a party!
Pretty please, with sugar on top, vote for our act Elias and the wizzkids for the Myspace award at the swedish Rockbjornen gala. Everyone can vote, and as MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT. So vote as crazy. Think about all those convicts in the US, they dont get to vote at all!
IN RETURN, we at the Sthlm Office and the Malmoe Office of Hybris will buy you a pint of beer of your choice at the pub if you can track us down any given monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday or sunday. Wouldnt be too hard if you try in Malmoe. The Malmoe office is all over the bars in Malmoe. Sthlm might be trickier. But give it a try!
It was a knock-out victory where the people voted massively for Familjen! Familjen was also nominated in the Best Hiphop/Dance/Soul category. It was a really close call, he was second right after Adam Tensta. Thats alright though, Adam Tensta deserved it big time, they are collaborating at Familjens upcoming single by the way where a remix by Adam Tensta will feature!
2008 is upon us. So far it's been a rocky little road these first small days of january.
A little insider update for you: Musicbrigade, one of the biggest - at least in employees - mp3 stores in Sweden has gone bankrupt. Musicbrigade got something like 10 million $ in private equity to develop the site. Also, the site Nimson, whose idea was good - combine webmagazine/mp3 store and evolve new ideas as they come - but never really lived up to the idea in practice - closed as well due to financial reasons. Nimsons opposite could very well be the mobile operator 3 that has huge financial power and goes for the mainstream ringtone market rather than small indie acts like Nimson did. The result seemed to be the same though since 3 sacked some 120(according to somewhat uncomfirmed sources) employees in their music department and related departments. The mobile operator that spent a lot of commercial budget to niche itself as a music mobile choice in Sweden now swithches its focus to broadband(again not totally confirmed sources). Whatever the exakt number or what 3 will do one thing is painfully clear: Mp3 sales and the ideas that has come up so far are definitely not creative enough. Nimson, Musicbrigade and 3 is certainly not the world, but they are the world in microversion of some kind. As insiders of the music biz we have noticed that the response of big media 'happenings' in whatever form does not translate into sales of mp3s in any significant form. Nor at iTunes, nor at klicktrack, nor anywhere. Maybe in Norway, but they have cash everywhere there, those oil-hustlin' happy little devils. In Norway even the polar bears & penguins have eMusic accounts and iPods.
So what do we do? Norway already voted out of Sweden way back so we cant cut in on their cash.
One thing is for sure, what is lacking is not more complicated shit for people. If you do not know what complicated shit translates as in the music biz we will give you a short tutorial here. Complicated shit means having trouble copying songs you bought to a friends harddrive or having trouble copying it period. Complicated shit means paying 1 $ or more(since the dollar is worthless nowadays you would pay more in the world that is not participating in fucking things up in Iraq) for 1 song. Complicated shit is paying 1 dollar for each song that you need if you need a lot of dollars for drinking and other things of lifes necessities. If you grandpas ruling the music biz happen to read this we can explain that drinking is the same life necessity to young people as your pacemaker. Close your eyes and think of how much you loved that smoke you got in your rationing pack during WW2. Drinking for young people today is something like that. Complicated shit is in short having to deal with a business model so out of touch with what you need that you are having serious problems with coming up with something you need so little as the current mp3 store model.
In no other area than the music biz would a business model as the mp3 store look today survive. However, since the ones supplying the content for the mp3 stores have very deep pockets, they can flog that dead horse forever and ever. And another obsticle for change is the hierarchy in the music biz. See, the music biz is run by 4 people. The CEOs of the major label. And those kids don't like each other. The only thing they seem to agree on 100% is that they don't like people that like music that much. They like money though and the goal of them all is to be bigger than Universal and Universals goal is to buy the world. The CEOs of the major label decided in 1999 that they didn't like Napster and that the best way to handle the new situations was to give a really good shot to turn the world into North Korea. Since then nothing has changed. One of our biggest interest by far is North Korea. We would LOVE to go there. To live there sucks though. We know that because we, you know, read books written by journalists and smart people and stuff. The CEOs of the major label probably read books too. It would just be blablablaing to sit here and say that they don't read books. However, they do not do shit in the real world. Why should they? They are all too busy creating false worlds on TV with fake, useless artists, doing worthless things, and making big bucks of it too! We also think that they have made this anti-stance/war-on-filesharing-thing as a part of themselves. Talking about it at dinners with friends and at parties and conferences with colleagues to the point where they can't change. It's a part of them now. A part of their not so-real world.
In the real world(not mtv) though, people are doing things like downloading songs. Downloading songs is far beyond just downloading. It's the way the culture of the western society is built today. Downloading is how young(and the not so young) fulfill themselves today. Downloading is building legacy. Legacy for artists. It's what is happening in the real world(not mtv).
Music can be sold and bought on the Internet. But only with creative knock-down ideas that flows with the stream of development, using what is happening as opposed to working against it. The ideas need to roll with the chaotic ways music is going on the Internet. It could work, with an idea that has passion and love, sex, money(armani, a-a-armani) and maybe some religion, justice and death. Yup, the PSB wisdom works in all fields. Girls, boys, arts, pleasure. See? It's all there, just up for grabs! NY, NY. Uh-uh.
Thinking about all this and more makes you wonder what advisors some folks have. Like Horace Engdal, the guy that is in charge of the Nobel prize commitee for literature(he spell checked this blog btw, he is such a sweet guy!*hugz horaze*), what was he thinking when he wrote this? Do you call that literature Horace!? The article (non-required reading) Horace wrote contains more or less the same narrow minded view on the phenomenon of filesharing that COUNTLESS other small brains have expressed as soon as someone points out that the current development with more fierce laws and whatnot is not the way to go. Seriously Horace, you're supposed to be a really, really smart guy. You read ALL DAYS ALL THE TIME don't you? Just read, read, read. Your brain must be like really heavy, just growing, growing, growing. Is that all you could come up with on the subject? Not one deep original thought? Maybe we should give you some reading advice? Please contact us if you need a short list of literature tips. We would be more than happy to provide it. You know, Strindberg and Ibsen don't have all the answers to filesharing! Or maybe they do, if you know how to read them properly! We think you need some schooling on this subject Horace. Damn Horace, we like you, you know. Sometimes we defend you. We even like that book you published some years back where you sort of wrote some cut up and unstructured poems/novels about your day and stuff that in reality was nothing more than a personal egoblog but written on a typewriter(you haven't switched to computers yet, have you? our guess). And you choose really good winners for the NP in literature sometimes. We have our office in Gamla Stan at Köpmangatan. It's really close to where you work! Come by sometime and we can talk over some weissbeer and ale.
That horrendous piece of literature Horace wrote was a response to another article by the way. The world is upside down on this issue so some parliament members from Moderaterna, swedens answer to Mike Huckabee(Sometimes), published an article where they said something like "the copyright industry is never content, they will continue and continue to lobby for tougher laws and surveillance when they realize that nothing works, and we don't want that kind of surveillance society". It was a good article in many aspects. Just like Barack Obama pointed out, in the red states, they don't like having federal agents poking around in their libraries!
In other news, the EU-commission has made a statement how to make the music biz develop and flourish. The way forward isof course DRM and tougher laws. Yes! We are gonna party like it's 1999! Ah, the EU-commission. You didn't need this in Sweden can we tell ya! You have a serious reputation and popularity problem here. If we would to vote about the EU again every day for the next 20 years it would probably be 'no' every day. Not that we here at Hybris are that opposed to the EU we should add, hey co-operation is the best way forward. Maybe sounds a bit hippie-ish in these times of individualism, but it's the truth and nothing but the truth. Keep that in mind pretty please with sugar on top EU-commission? Try to co-operate with your population. Trying to master the citizens in this particular issue is a waste of time. The war is lost, if there ever was one. Wasn't it just a slaughter after all. Like David vs. Goliat only David did bring his friends to the party. And a dancefloor just to rub it in your face.
As a round up, we like to share our view of surveillance and shit: the UK got it wrong, the US got it wrong, Saudi arabia got it wrong, Iran got it wrong, North Korea got it wrong, Stockholms Lokaltrafik got it wrong, the EU seems to be getting in line of getting it wrong. Sweden got it right. We were right in having sparse monitoring of our citizens digital and physical doings, having very few surveillance cameras, restricting different government bodies to co-run registers and having strong integrity laws. At the same time we have high transparency in the public sector. All this is very good because the little guy knows what the big guy knows and what the big guy doesn't know. We have said this before, but since no one is listening, we say it again: the less control you apply, the more control you get. The only way to control is by little control. One more time for baby Bush jr types: You can only get trust by trusting other people. You earn it. Not by intimidating and bullying them. Once they are out of high school, they will go to collage, get degrees, run DC-hubs, build torrentsites, start making you clean their cars and make their hamburgers ETCETERA.
In the end it all boils down to this: the current ideas has failed, the current laws and regulations prevent new good ideas to develop. There need to be a new world order, one where the backbone is not made in 1984 but in 2008.
There need to be a Digital Renaissance. Renaissance is the french word for rebirth. It was a cultural movement that brought us out of the middle ages and into the future and then some with a vengeance 4.0 style. The world adjusted to this cultural movement. It is time for the world to adjust into The Digital Renaissance.
Well, if you read this far, you're probably really interested in Hybris, or a bit of a cultivated slacker that reads too many long blogs and that probably qualifies for someone that should be interested in Hybris. This is some of what we got coming for you this spring:
February - TIAC new album! March - April - The Kid, Rubies, Vapnet and Juvelen with new albums!!!
Soon Biker boy will start releasing singles as well. For Biker boy, this year will be the year of singles. Starting with 'January song' in, yes, January.
