Random music news for Saturday, May 13, 2023
Love gadgets? Here are all the things unveiled at this weeks Google i/o conference. Meanwhile, over at the music news desk, here’s what’s happening on May 13, 2023.
- In a “favourite mom” poll, Beyonce was beaten by…Lois Griffin.
- Canadian Music Week is almost here. We have the lineup for the music festival.
- AI now allows us to bring voices back from the dead. But should we?
- Google has announced that they’re putting AI into just about everything.
- Those “leaked” new Frank Ocean songs online? Fake, created with AI.
- The numbers are in from Record Store Day 2023: They’re the best in 15 years.
- The first Beatles song to pass one billion streams is…
- These album covers are ugly. Proceed with caution. (Via Rick J)
- If you’re a fan of quiet-loud-quiet-loud rock, you should read this.
- We’ve had King Charles III for a week. According to Numeris data, about 7.6 million Canadians watched the coronation with 71% of them watching live. (Via Broadcast Dialogue)
- The Cure’s on tour. Here’s what’s happened so far.
- Podcast revenue is expected to reach US$4 billion in 2025.
- Quick follow-up on this week’s Westminster Dog Show: Country star Tim McGraw’s pup, a Bracco Italiano named Lepshi, won “best of breed.”
- YouTube is testing ad blockers.
- Facebook now has there billion users but many of them are old. Discuss.
- Speaking of which, whatever happened to Facebook’s dive into the metaverse? This.
- This is an updated list of all the stars who want to buy the Ottawa Senators. That includes Ryan Reynolds, Snoop Dogg, and The Weeknd.
- Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider has a novel. It’ll be out next month.
- Okay, so that was a weird conspiracy. I’m glad we know the truth.
- Well, this was awkward. (Via Tom)
- Webcam? Who needs a webcam when you one of these?
BONUS: Oh, great. Aliens are listening in on our cell phone calls.
BONUS BONUS: What about a video on Logan Roy’s 84th birthday done in the style of Arrested Development? Happy to oblige.
YouTube ad blocking…
While I understand that a business needs to make money from their ad revenue, YouTube has done so many wrong things with their ads that ad blockers aren’t going away.
First is the malware that is present in a LOT of the ads that have popped up over the years on many websites, including YouTube (YT). When there is a good chance of a virus, spyware, or ransomware showing up in an ad on YT, time for ad blockers.
Second is that even though YT is getting LOTS of money, they have taken away revenue from those who create the content that YT gets rich off of. Most professional YouTubers, Elizabeth Zarhoff, our favourite song analyzer, is now having to do mid video ads for different companies to afford to continue making videos for our enjoyment. Maybe if YT wasn’t so greedy with the $$$ and shared it around a lot better, maybe I wouldn’t mind the ads as much
Finally, my biggest peeve with YT is that they are playing un-skippable ads about every 3-4 minutes now. That means that if you are in the middle of watching to your favourite live concert version of a Phish song (is there any other versions???), there is a good chance that mid song, there will be an ad or two, completely harshing the buzz and ruining the song.
I also think that as soon as YT comes up with some way to block ad blockers, the ad blockers will find work arounds as they always seem to do.
So, in conclusion, YT needs to pay their creaters better, control the malware, etc. that is all over the ads, stop blasting ads in the middle of the videos if they are longer than 3-4 minutes, and stop forcing users to bed to their will…because we will either go elsewhere or find ways around the crap