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2009-04-21

HBO's "In Treatment" back with its second season


HBO always deliver quality TV series. Case in point - "In Treatment", starring Gabriel Byrne as a sympathetic psychologist, with 25-minute episodes all showing his sessions in real time with four recurring patients, while at the same time showing aspects of his personal life. Almost no music, just intelligent and emotional dialogue showcasing psychology at work - how people really are.

(Read a good and explanatory review here.)

If you were one of those who caught the first season of "In Treatment" (all 43 episodes of it), you'll be delighted to know that it's back with its second season. Gabriel Byrne is still the therapist, but some circumstances have changed, and this season is (so far) even more personal than the first. Some moments are heartbreakingly well written and extremely touching, and each episode leaves an impression.

Both seasons come highly recommended by yours truly, and the series has also won several TV awards. Buy the first and second season, it's great viewing and it goes much deeper when you watch a few episodes in a row.

And oh - be sure NOT to find out the ending of season one before you commence with season two, you'll kick yourself if you do. (The same thing goes for Dexter season one and two.)

William Orbit - five hours of recorded interviews

Grand pop/electronica master producer William Orbit has a new album and two EP's out.



"My Oracle Lives Uptown" (Kobalt Digital) is available to buy on CD and LP from digital stores likeAmazon, eMusic and iTunes, and the EPs "Optical Illusions" and "Purdy" can be found in the same places.

To promote his new music William has done many interviews and guest appearances on various shows lately, and below you can listen to and download over five hours of recordings.

And for many more radio appearances than I have catalogued here, go to William's "OrbitStreamcast", which has several streams with tons of his music and radio interviews. You can literally lose track of time in there, listening to so many Orbit exclusives!

OK, here are the shows I've catalogued:

With Dave Pearce,
22/3
-2009 on BBC 6 Music:
(2 min 34 sec)

Download from Rapidshare

'Fireside Chat' on Red Bull Music Academy,
April 2009:
(60 min of William talking about and playing specific productions)

Download from Rapidshare

With Claudia Winkleman,
3/4
-2009 on BBC Radio 2:
(21 min 24 sec of conversation plus two songs)

Download from Rapidshare

With Lauren Laverne,
4/4
-2009 on BBC 6 Music:
(22 min 9 sec of conversation plus two songs)

Download from Rapidshare

With Rob Da Bank,
6/4
-2009 on BBC Radio 1:
(9 min 59 sec of conversation plus one song)

Download from Rapidshare

With Janice Long,
7/4
-2009 on BBC Radio 2:
(78 min of conversation plus 12 songs)

Download from Rapidshare

With Mark Coles on The Strand,
7/4
-2009 on BBC World Service:
(7 min 45 sec of conversation)

Download from Rapidshare

With Natalie Haynes on Loose Ends,
17/4
-2009 on BBC Radio 4:
(6 min 30 sec of conversation - starts at 05 min 27 sec)

Download from Rapidshare

With Gabby Logan,
19/4
-2009 on BBC Radio 5:
(32 min 34 sec of conversation)

Download from Rapidshare

With Mark Radcliffe/Stuart Maconie,
21/4
-2009 on BBC Radio 2:
(20 min 54 sec of conversation plus two songs)

Download from Rapidshare

With Kate Silverton/Bill Turnbull on Breakfast TV,
29/4
-2009 on BBC1:
(6 min 32 sec of conversation)

Download from Rapidshare

With Chris Hawkins on Close Up,
1/5
-2009 on BBC 6 Music:
(37 min 2 sec of conversation)

Download from Rapidshare


Thanks a million to Chris Gregory for recording the shows and providing the download-links for each interview!

And by the way, check out William's blog on his website.

P.S. It seems like the staff at the BBC reception surely knows William's face by now!

2009-04-18

The future of music - people will download music for free no matter what



After the verdict against Pirate Bay, I just had a thought about how things will turn out for the artists, record labels and downloaders.

The true fans will still continue to pay for the music, because they want to help the artist and/or collect the releases. These fans want "no bullshit"-records with added value, such as bonus content and "behind the scenes"-material. The closer they feel they get to the artist, the more willing they are to pay.

And then there are the people who download music illegally, but aren't THAT into the music they get. Or they ARE into the music, but can't or don't want to pay for the music at the moment. These people will find a way to get the music for free no matter what. And they probably wouldn't have bought the music they download - they just want to have it for free.

But if these people download something and really like it, they might eventually buy it. There are studies saying that downloading is for many a way to check out new music.

Also sites like Spotify and Deezer are going to help out artists, since they get compensation for each song played through these sites. If enough fans play the music enough times it might become a considerable source of income for the artists/songwriters/producers.

At the moment it's extremely easy to get music for free:
* BitTorrent sites
* Soulseek / Kazaa Lite / eMule / Ares / DC++ / Morpheus / Gnutella and other P2P-programs
* Rapidshare / Megaupload / Depositfiles / Filefactory / Uploaded / Sendspace / Zshare / Badongo and other storagesites
* various links from mp3-blogs ++

For downloaders using sites like this, it's a thrill to be able to find things for free and not pay. They are like detectives looking for hidden information. Or kids picking fruit!

So yes, it is kind of sad how it's possible to get anything for free these days, and it surely changes the way artists think and maybe even work. But let's face it - realistically no one can stop this from happening. Maybe a few major torrent sites or P2P-protocols will be closed, but others will take their place, and in any case searching through Google is the worst enemy here. And no one will ever close THEM down.

I sincerely think the only way to continue making a living from now on is to keep making great music. Many artists will continue to tour and make more money that way, some of them may not. In any case there's no point in wasting energy trying to prevent people from stealing music - focus instead on making it. For the true fans.



P.S. Personally I'm deleting from my MP3-collection most of the things available on Spotify - and if I ever have to pay for Spotify I will. So "approved" places like Deezer and Spotify will probably be one of the new revenues for artists.

2009-04-03

Tip: How to mass-delete files from your Rapidshare-account


So you've got a Premium account on Rapidshare, and you've uploaded (with RapidUploader) lots of files there for backup, in case your harddrive dies.

But - then you discover there was something wrong, and you need to delete all the files, and re-upload them. And when you look for it, there's no easy way to delete all of the files at the same time, it looks like you have to delete each file one by one. What a hassle!

Luckily this is not the case. You CAN delete them all in one click, just go to Settings-page and under "Files view" you select "List view". If you get an error message when you click save, make sure you delete whatever is written in the "Login alias"- and "New password"-boxes.

Still no way to rename files already uploaded, but anyway - happy uploading.