Hey, they like the same music I like

[elfs]

The other day, we took Stormy out to dinner for her 14th birthday. I am so not ready for her to be 14. We went to her favorite restaurant, a Japanese hibachi steakhouse she loves, where we feasted and gave her gifts and had a good time.

As I was sitting there, I listened to the (sadly, too loud) radio playing overhead. Like most restaurants, I assumed they were commercial subscribers to XM or some other network that provides music for businesses. But the mix was bizarre: Lady Gaga, Bonnie Pink, Mariah Carey, and Ayumi Hamasaki, all in a row. It sounded a lot like the pop/jpop playlist on my iPod.

"The music, what channel is this?" I asked the waitress.

"It's one of the waitress's ipods," she told me.

Comments

[kengr]

Oh lord. They better hope ASCAP, the RIAA and the like never find out that they are doing that. Can you say *major* fines?

That's *why* services like Muzak exist. So businesses can have background music without having to negotiate directly with the recording labels and other "performance rights" associations over the fees.

Hell, it's not even legal to use AM/FM/Satellite radio for that, IIRC.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

That's why I didn't name names. And XM does have a commercial service.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

I've been using Audacity to clean up some sound files, especially to "de-thump" some overbassed recordings. To that end, I've been using the equalization tool, which has several presets. One of the presets is "am-radio", another called, "Decca 78rpm" … and there's also one called "RIAA". Looking at the "RIAA" one, I thought, "No, that's not right," and went to edit the file where the presets are.

I changed the "RIAA" equalization preset to -70db, across the board.

Because that's what the RIAA wants: for it to be impossible for anyone to listen to anything without paying them, every time. (And no, paying the RIAA does not pay the artists. Go read why Magnatune was founded.