Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, Spoon, Others Auction Off Protest Signs for Charity; My Sign Is Now a Coffee Table

By Nobodaddy on 09-30-2008

The music market took an extra large hit this week on Wal-Street, when the value of DRM songs from Wal-Mart began to plummet at a rate not matched since the great Wax Recording Crash when vinyl came along. After it was recently uncovered by economic experts that Wal-mart, who began offering DRM MP3s in August 2007, had been irresponsibly offering customers cheap DRM music that it could not support after the company switched to DRM-free music this past February, music consumers fell into a panic and many analysts began to paint a doomsday picture of the future of digital music.

With little time to spare before the impending crash, frazzled Wal-Mart publicists addressed the panic-stricken nation on the internet, highlighting, in a nutshell, the details of a highly controversial DRM music bailout plan:

As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site. If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.

While naysayers of the DRM bailout argue fiercely about "what bullshit" it is to have to burn physical copies of all of their DRM digital music after it has already been bought and paid-for, proponents of Wal-mart's daring and unconventional bailout procedure counter with an insistence that sacrifices must be made if our global music economy hopes to recover from the crippling international stigma of DRM.

"DRM-free digital music is the future of digital downloads," said one particularly attractive proponent who later accompanied this reporter to dinner. "I know that burning CDs to back up all of your old music from Wal-mart is a sacrifice for many, but think about the alternative: without compliance, this music will be lost forever, and the face of digital stores will be permanently and irrevocably damaged on the world stage." My, what pretty words! Isn’t she great!?

By Annapocalypse on 09-29-2008

The following is a public service announcement from Providence, Rhode Island’s Deer Tick:

“Attention fans! By now most of you are aware of the ongoing tick problem in this country. We in Deer Tick have decided to spread awareness and educate others about tick bite prevention during our upcoming fall tour. Until the tour starts, however, please read our top three tips below on how to avoid tick bites:

1. Play our debut album, War Elephant, at a deafening volume. It’s a proven fact that ticks hate loud music (and deaf people).
2. Avoid tick-infested places by staying inside on your computer and buying tickets for our shows.
3. If you absolutely must go outside (and you will have to, because you bought tickets to our show), be vigilant and do a daily tick check. Also, wrap yourself in saran wrap and/or tin foil at all times. If any area of your body inadvertently becomes exposed, come back inside and listen to more Deer Tick.

Be safe, everyone! See you in October!

Love,

Deer Tick.”

Only you can prevent tick bites: