The TV Companies Don’t Know How to Take My Money

Lately I’ve been getting down to brass tacks when it comes to my anti-piracy stance. I’m really trying to avoid the rampant downloading of music, games, movies and television that I’ve done in the past. For the most part this initiative has been working out pretty well for me. There’s a perfect solution for everything; iTunes for music that integrates with my iPod seamlessly, Blu-Ray for movies in stunning quality, and Steam and other resources for games delivered digitally the day they come out. All of these I can get with top quality at reasonably pricing.

Well, there’s a perfect resource for almost everything.

Unfortunately, television is the broken gear of my media consumption machine. There are so many potentially viable solutions: iTunes, network streaming (ABC, Fox, etc), buying Blu-Rays, buying DVDs, online rentals, online streaming sites (like Hulu)… and yet none of these provides a solution that gives me, a consumer that is willing to pay, a product that I find worth paying for.

Here is an impressive chart I’ve put together describing the options:

iTunes Network Streaming Blu-Ray DVD
Availability Some shows available, next day Not in Canada Recent shows available, after season ends Available, after season ends
Price Hit or Miss Free Acceptable Acceptable
Automatic Yup Nope Nope Nope
Quality Mediocre Bad Amazing Mediocre
Device Compatibility Apple products none With lengthy conversion With conversion
DRM Horrifying Bad Beatable Beatable
Permanence Yes No Yes Yes
Online Rentals Online Streaming Piracy
Availability Some shows available, after season ends Not in Canada Yup, same day
Price Acceptable Free Free
Automatic Nope Nope Possible
Quality Mediocre Bad Mediocre
Device Compatibility none none With conversion
DRM Bad Bad None
Permanence No No Yes

No matter where I turn, there’s really no good way to get my television fix – unless, of course, I’m willing to resort to piracy. Why is it so hard for a company to product a single, compelling marketplace that meets all of my criteria? As it stands, I haven’t purchased any of the TV shows I’m watching at the moment… not because I don’t want to, but because nobody is giving me the right venue in which to do it.

2009
10/29
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
443 comments

Music: Reverso by LisM

Reverso, by Lism, an album that doesnt exist

Reverso, by Lism, an album that doesn't exist

You can totally click that image to go to the album iTunes page. Wordpress is cool like that.

About a year ago I purchased the album Parabolica, by Aoki Takamasa. It’s electronica that takes a strong influence from new age, using subdued, repetitive beats to give a sort of calming and productive atmosphere. After listening to the album about 35 times I had more or less burned out on it. When I decided to go on a Genius-influenced iTunes shopping spree and saw LisM’s “Reverso” advertised as an options based on Parabolica, it didn’t take much thinking. I took the plunge.

I think what I like so much about this album is that it does what Parabolica did, but better. Instead of using harder beats to drive the melody, Reverso is underpinned by strong sounds with the melody instead carried by higher pitched sounds. It’s difficult to describe, but if you can imagine a bass guitar playing background to a piano’s melody, but electronic, you’re on the right track.

The most interesting this about this album though, and the reason I chose to post about it, is that it doesn’t seem to exist. After buying it and enjoying it, I tried to look up reviews to see what other people thought. A Google search brought up no results. Searching just the name of the album, I managed to find an amazon.co.jp listing, but even there it looked like there was only one (five star) review. For an album as interesting an dynamic as this I would expect more press.

Ultimately, I’ll use this music as background when programming, writing, or trying to be productive in any other way. It works well to soak up all the panic over a situation and divert my attention to where it matters most: resolution.

2009
10/24
CATEGORY
Music
10 comments