Friday, September 30, 2016
The Kirkland by Bogner – A Limited Collection of Distinguished Kerrisdale Residences
At a Glance
- prime location in upscale Kerrisdale
- 5-storey mixed use concrete building
- 20 spacious luxury residences
- 46 underground parking spaces
- private balconies & grand terraces
- local boutique shopping & international dining
- top-rated private & public schools nearby
The Essence of Contemporary Luxury
The accomplished team of Bogner Group and Rositch Hemphill Architects return to bring you The Kirkland, 20 luxury Kerrisdale residences that offer an unrivalled living experience in the heart of Vancouver’s established Westside. Located on the site of the historic Kirkland Metal Shop, Bogner has incorporated the façade of the beloved 1920s structure into the new building’s design that complements the evolving fabric of the neighbourhood, while honouring its past. Its grand New York-style lobby welcomes you into elegant interiors providing a sanctuary of regal comfort. Private balconies and grand terraces extend living spaces into the lush, tree-lined outdoors. The Kirkland redefines luxury living in Vancouver.
Find Out About New Presales & Get Access to VIP Openings & Special Promotions!
Leafy streets and lush parks, charming shops and friendly faces greet you when you stroll the elegant sidewalks of Kerrisdale. Known for its brown brick sidewalks and stylish black street lamps, Kerrisdale Village is lined with charming shops and services to satisfy your every need. Experience Faubourg Paris’ authentic French patisseries, have a cappuccino at Caffé Artigiano or dine at one of many fine restaurants. Pick up your daily groceries at a family-owned green grocer, or visit Moores Delicatessen & Bakery, Hager Books, the historic Hills of Kerrisdale, or one of many excellent boutiques along the way. Contemporary comforts complement the vintage charm, making this an ideal west side locale.
Pricing for The Kirkland
Pricing for these stately Westside residences has yet to be released. For VIP access to priority announcements, subscribe to our list above.
Floor Plans for The Kirkland
The Kirkland offers a limited collection of superlative 2- and 3-bedroom homes, ranging from 1,173 to 2,028 sq ft. Without question, they will sell quickly. Contact me today if you wish to view available options.
Amenities at The Kirkland
Amenities available for this outstanding West Side Vancouver residence are still to be finalized. Yet, just outside your door, restaurants, cafes, boutique shops, professional services, grocery shopping, pharmacies, schools, a community centre, public library, and recreational activities offer everything needed for a refined West Coast lifestyle.
Parking and Storage
Full details have yet to be released, but there will be 46 underground parking spaces serving both residents and retail customers.
Maintenance Fees at The Kirkland
The Kirkland is still in pre-construction, so maintenance are not yet available.
Developer Team for The Kirkland
Bogner Group, a widely-respected boutique Vancouver developer, has been creating luxurious homes of outstanding quality and distinctive design throughout the Lower Mainland since the 1970s. Bogner focuses their attention on a very few carefully-chosen developments, closely monitoring each stage of the design and construction process with meticulous attention to detail.
Bogner Group has again partnered with award-winning Rositch Hemphill Architects to render their vision into rich, vibrant spaces that are the epitome of style and comfort. RHA is a Vancouver-based architectural firm that consistently ranks among the city’s top commercial and residential design firms. In more than two decades, the firm has designed in excess of 20,000 housing units, the majority of which are located in western Canada and the US Pacific Northwest.
Expected Completion for The Kirkland
Construction is set to begin in January 2017, with completion expected in Fall/Winter of 2018.
Are you interested in learning more about other condos or townhouses on the Westside of Vancouver?
Check out these great Westside Presale Condos!
The post The Kirkland by Bogner – A Limited Collection of Distinguished Kerrisdale Residences appeared first on Mike Stewart Real Estate Specialist 604-763-3136.
from Blog – Mike Stewart Real Estate Specialist 604-763-3136 http://ift.tt/2cGv33e
The Grey by Westland – Ultra Luxury West Point Grey Pre-Construction Residences
At a Glance
- exclusive West Point Grey location
- 4-storey mixed use concrete building
- 29 residences on three levels
- excellent city, mountain, water views
- large terraces, patios, or private roof decks
- 15,000 sq ft of commercial space
- near some of Vancouver’s finest schools
- close to Pacific Spirit Regional Park
Epitome of Modern Elegance
Conveniently located at the north end of Dunbar Village on West 16th Avenue, the residences are placed in a predominantly single-family neighbourhood. With this in mind, homes are designed to appeal to the luxuries and comforts of single-family living. Designed by acclaimed IBI, the four-storey structure complements the historic neighbourhood with a composite of natural stone, metal panel, glass and concrete. The Grey is a timeless illustration of contemporary elegance.
Find Out About New Presales & Get Access to VIP Openings & Special Promotions!
The Grey will feature two-bedroom to three-bedroom plus den homes, as well as penthouse level homes, and rarely available ground-level commercial space. Penthouses will have private rooftop balconies and many homes will benefit from large outdoor terraces. As The Grey is located on the crest of Dunbar, north-facing homes will enjoy spectacular views of the water, North Shore mountains and Downtown Vancouver. All these large homes will carry the Westland pedigree that can only be offered from an ultra luxury single-family builder. A first-of-its-kind personalization and customization program will be handled through the exclusive Westland Design Centre.
Pricing for The Grey
Details have not yet been released. For priority evaluation of pricing and floor plans, join our VIP list above.
Floor Plans for The Grey
All residences have two or more bedrooms, including two 1,087 sq ft 2-bedroom suites, 18 2-bedroom + den homes from 1,132-1,353 sq ft, two 1,400 sq ft 3-bedroom condos, and seven penthouses from 911-3,500 sq ft. To consider available options, contact me today.
The Grey Interiors
Superior Interiors
- Two finely-crafted, custom colour palettes by Guo Interiors coordinate with your personal style
- Over-height, smooth-painted 9’ ceilings in living and bedroom areas visually expand the scope of each room
- Wide-plank engineered hardwood flooring flows throughout the living and bedroom areas
- Side-by-side washer and dryer laundry closets offer the ultimate in domestic convenience
- Solid core doors in each room create additional privacy and security
- Custom-designed built-in closets allow for impeccable organization of your possessions
- Automated smart-home technology by Creston controls temperature and lighting through a sleek wall-mount keypad
- Additional smart-home technology available through the Westland Design Centre
- Tailor your home with our pre-selected options for customization and personalization at the Westland Design Centre
Connoisseur Kitchens
- Italian-imported, custom-stained oak veneer cabinets designed for the needs of the at-home chef
- Oversized kitchens with islands for family-style cooking and entertaining
- Renowned, state-of-the-art Gaggeneau appliances:
- Multi-language options
- 36” 5-burner gas cooktop with stainless steel high CFM hood fan
- Stand-alone 24” integrated refrigerator column
- Stand-alone 18” integrated freezer column
- Built-in microwave
- Built-in, ultra-quiet speed dishwasher
- 24” handleless, automatic door-opening wall oven
- Each home includes the option for a one-of-a kind culinary entertainment centre with an integrated pantry that features:
- Gaggeneau coffee maker
- Gaggeneau refrigerated wine column
- Pull-out storage
- Custom bar with mirrored wall and lit display shelving for your finest cognac
- Custom-designed drawer and door organizers keep kitchen essentials in their place
- Integrated soft-touch, self-close doors and drawers maintain a visually clean kitchen and minimize noise
- Kitchens offer convenient under-cabinet task LED lighting for precision work
- Easy-to-maintain solid quartz countertops with full-height quartz backsplash and marble-top island make a statement
- European-designed, arched chrome Hans Grohe faucet
Show-Stopper Bathrooms
- Italian-imported, wood veneer cabinets hover over exquisite tile floor
- Master bathroom features:
- Opulent free-standing tub enclosed within a stunning frameless glass bathing room
- Flush-mount, custom-stained oak, mirrored medicine cabinets with built-in lighting and electrical outlets
- Nu-heat flooring for year-round comfort
- Pristine white countertops are paired with Hans Grohe wall-mount or free-standing faucets and fixtures
- Oversized 5’-wide porcelain marble slab creates a spectacular bathing experience
- Powder room features:
- Exceptional oversized, three-sided vessel sink
- Duravit wall-mounted lavatory
- Sparking chrome Hans Grohe faucet
Amenities at The Grey
Residents will enjoy the services of a dedicated building concierge to provide you with conveniences, such as key and dry cleaning drop-off / pick-up, parcel and grocery deliveries. A meeting room and small gym are also available.
Parking and Storage
Most homes come with two parking stalls located in a three-level parkade. A limited number of additional parking stalls will be available for purchase. Each residence comes with one storage locker.
Maintenance Fees at The Grey
Provided with pricing information.
Developer Team for The Grey
Westland, a family company, was established in 2008. Since that time, Westland has designed and built over 40 ultra-luxury custom homes in some of Vancouver’s most coveted neighbourhoods – Shaughnessy and Kerrisdale. Completely original, each of these custom homes were meticulously designed to express the unique personality of the homeowner. Coming this fall, Westland will bring a whole new level of personalization and customization to condos with their collection of two- and three- bedroom residences nestled on the corner of 16th and Dunbar.
IBI Group are a globally-integrated architecture, planning, engineering, and technology firm. From high-rises to industrial buildings, schools to state-of-the-art hospitals, transit stations to highways, airports to toll systems, bike lanes to parks, IBI design every aspect of a truly integrated city for people to live, work, and play.
Expected Completion for The Grey
Sales start Fall/Winter 2016. Completion date is yet to be determined.
Are you interested in learning more about other homes in Point Grey, Kitsilano, or the Westside of Vancouver?
Check out these great Kitsilano presale condos!
The post The Grey by Westland – Ultra Luxury West Point Grey Pre-Construction Residences appeared first on Mike Stewart Real Estate Specialist 604-763-3136.
from Blog – Mike Stewart Real Estate Specialist 604-763-3136 http://ift.tt/2djhFzP
Triomphe by Millennium – 340 Brentwood Park Pre-Construction Luxury Condos
At a Glance
- dramatic 46-storey highrise
- 1- to 3-bedroom homes
- exceptional views in all directions
- balconies up to 378 sq ft
- 2-storey amenity pavilion with rooftop pool
- high-end Bosch appliance package
- air conditioning
- pets allowed
A Residential Masterpiece
Triomphe by Millennium Development Group is poised to set a new benchmark for luxury in North Burnaby. This dramatic tower designed by Chris Dikeakos Architecture features nine-foot ceilings, premium finishes, air conditioning, spa-style bathrooms, and large balconies in every home. Contemporary interiors by prestigious Mitchell Freeland Design offer timeless elegance in two colour schemes for spacious open floor plans designed for entertaining and easy living. With many homes boast stunning views of downtown Vancouver and the North Shore mountains, it’s no surprise that this gateway to Brentwood is generating a great deal of excitement.
Find Out About New Presales & Get Access to VIP Openings & Special Promotions!
[
Located at the corner of Halifax Street and Gilmore Avenue, Triomphe is ideally situated to provide you with convenient transportation connections to Vancouver and throughout the Lower Mainland via Skytrain, Highway 1, and Lougheed Highway. However, you needn’t travel far for daily necessities, shopping, and casual dining. Within a ten-minute walk, choose from Whole Foods, Save-on, or Costco for groceries. Banks, hairstylists, a post office, travel agents, medical and dental clinics, London Drugs, telecom providers, and more are all found at Brentwood Town Centre. Not in the mood to eat in? The Keg, Joey’s, Cactus Club, Browns Social House, Sushi Garden, and White Spot are but a short stroll away.
Pricing for Triomphe
For interested buyers, contact me for details.
Floor Plans for Triomphe
This project is currently in pre-construction. A variety of open floor plans will be available, including studios, one and two bedrooms, one and two bedrooms with den, three bedrooms, and three 3-bedroom townhouses. Sizes range from 477 sq ft to 1,364 sq ft. For priority viewing, we recommend joining our VIP list by subscribing above.
Amenities at Triomphe
Triomphe residents will enjoy an incredible array of amenities. The magnificent 40′-high marble and bronze lobby boasts a lounge and dedicated building concierge. A two-storey amenity pavilion offers a rooftop pool, hot tub, and lounge, steam rooms, a dance/yoga studio, music/games room, business centre, social lounge with widescreen TV, a barbecue area, and a fire pit. There will also be a terraced garden with children’s play area and a shared guest suite for visiting family and friends.
Parking and Storage
Triomphe is slated to provide 408 underground parking spots, including 17 handicap parking stalls, 34 electric vehicle charging stations, four car wash stalls, and 74 visitor spaces, along with four electric shared cars. Ample bicycle storage will also be available with 340 storage lockers, 340 slots in secure bicycle rooms, and visitor racks to accommodate 68 bikes.
Maintenance Fees at Triomphe
Forthcoming.
Developer Team for Triomphe
Millennium Development Group is an award-winning, Vancouver-based real estate developer and master-planned community builder. They strive to create legacies through thoughtful design and high-quality construction that complements the natural beauty of the West Coast landscape. Millennium’s projects include mixed-use complexes, residential towers, shopping malls, office buildings, and industrial centres representing approximately $6 billion built or under development in Canada and abroad. Notable projects include the Olympic Village, City in the Park, One Madison Avenue, Bristol at UBC, and One University Crescent at SFU.
Chris Dikeakos Architects is a Burnaby-based architectural firm with a strong reputation for multi-unit and highrise residential design. Their work ranges from concept and design development to construction drawings and site services, site capacity studies, master planning, urban design, and rezoning. Projects include the tallest residential highrise in San Diego, the tallest pure residential highrise in Los Angeles, and Solo District and Station Square in Burnaby.
Mitchell Freeland is a Vancouver interior design firm known for creating timeless contemporary designs. Recipient of numerous accolades, including the prestigious IIDA Global Excellence Award, their experience ranges from hotels, airline lounges, condominium lobbies and suites, to private residences, restaurants, corporate offices, spa/fitness facilities, and libraries. Prominent projects by Mitchell Freeland Design include The Ritz Carlton Los Angeles, The Residences at Hotel Georgia, and the Grand Horizon Tokyo.
Expected Completion for Triomphe
Spring 2019.
Are you interested in learning more about other condos in Brentwood, Highgate, Lougheed, or Metrotown?
Check out these great Burnaby Properties!
The post Triomphe by Millennium – 340 Brentwood Park Pre-Construction Luxury Condos appeared first on Mike Stewart Real Estate Specialist 604-763-3136.
from Blog – Mike Stewart Real Estate Specialist 604-763-3136 http://ift.tt/2cGw6jI
Spotify Adds "6 Animated Layers" Of Lyrics In Japan, Global Roll Out Pending
Ever since Spotify removed one of its core features - song lyrics - earlier this year, users have been clamouring for their return. So there was cause for excitement when it was announced that lyrics were included in Spotify's Japan launch yesterday.
While I have not been able to see it in action, since it's invite only (and I don't speak Japanese), the description of song lyrics on its new service in Japan from a Spotify spokesperson sounds pretty interesting:
"Lyrics has rolled out for the Spotify Japan launch, for the first time on mobile (Android & iOS) as well as desktop. This is a brand new experience with six animated layers on desktop.This is currently only available in Japan but we're looking forward to seeing a similar lyrics integration rolled out globally.We are partnering with local provider SyncPower on lyrics support in Japan."
from hypebot http://ift.tt/2dti9Bg
Rock And Roll Magic In The Cloud [Jack Isquith, SVP Of Slacker Radio]
Here Jack Isquith reflects on how the transition of music from it's cumbersome physical form onto the significantly more accessible cloud has made it enjoyable in way that seems miraculous.
___________________________
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Buddha
Guest post by Jack Isquith, SVP of Content and Programming, Slacker Radio
Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey. Actually, greetings from Ocean Grove New Jersey, a beautiful spot, especially in the summer, just one town over from the spot Bruce Springsteen made famous -- Asbury Park.
Ocean Grove wasn’t always this serene, this beautiful. In the 1970’s, when a tough economy hit the Jersey Shore, they used to call this place “Ocean Grave.” There were hard times here in Ocean Grove, despite its history as the vacation destination for presidents like Grant, Roosevelt, and Wilson, heavyweight boxing champions James J. Corbett and Max Baer, and department store magnate F.W. Woolworth.
Maybe that rough and tumble nature appealed to a young leather-jacketed Springsteen, who titled his first album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and spent his formative rock and roll years here. Based on songs like 4th Of July, Asbury Park, it certainly seems like Springsteen spent a lot of time right on this boardwalk, ducking in an out of dusty pinball arcades, sleeping on the beach, chasing girls under the boardwalk and getting his shirt tails caught in the tilt-a-whirl.
I say apparently, because I don’t know exactly what a young Springsteen was really up to on this strip of beach, but thanks to modern technology – an iPhone and a signal, I can conjure up a pretty good idea. With a click of a button, I can not only look up the lyrics to Springsteen’s songs about Asbury Park but also listen to his complete discography, as it’s all at my fingertips through streaming music services like Spotify and Slacker Radio. In fact, earlier this morning, I listened to Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle while running on the boardwalk.
"streaming music... feels like magic"
For me, an obsessive music fan who grew up in a pre-Napster era, streaming music in this immediate-gratification way, feels like magic. The ability to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, is incredible. The idea that I can have a song that matches the exact moment I’m in, without any planning at all, seems like a miracle.
I’m reminded of what going to the beach, or any kind of trip, used to be like. It took me as long to sift through my CDs and cassettes to find exactly what we wanted to hear, as it did to make and pack food, towels, beach chairs, and the like. I still remember the looks I got from my family already settled into their seats in the car, as they waited for me to run into the house for one more album.
Now, with digital music access, we can skip that whole step. Want the perfect album or song no matter where you are…? Grab your phone, and you’re covered.
Let me take you back to that boardwalk in Asbury Park for a second. Yesterday, I strolled into the Silverball Pinball Museum, which sits right on the boardwalk. I had no plan to go play pinball when I set out in the morning but stumbled upon this place, filled with old school vintage machines celebrating Scooby Doo, Evel Knievel, The Beatles, Elton John and KISS. With a click of a button, I was listening to Pinball Wizard from The Who and Get Back from The Beatles, followed by songs from Elton John and KISS. If you have your phone and a digital music subscription, you are ready for any musical serendipity that comes your way.
I started to think about how often in the last few years I have enjoyed this ‘living-in-the-moment” aspect of digital music in the cloud. There’s a lot to be said for immediate access, with no planning needed. Sometimes I find myself having a very specific and unpredictable experience like playing pinball in Asbury Park, but more often I’m simply accessing my music when at the gym, or working on documents, or settling down for a family dinner. In each case – there are a slew of well-crafted playlists and radio stations for these activities across the premiere digital music providers.
The usefulness and innovation of the cloud seems to be consistent with the normal course of technological innovation – making the miraculous, commonplace. I’m not so musically obsessive that I would rank the perfect song at the perfect moment up there with the invention of the printing press, telephone, airplane or the internet writ large, but it’s a bit of a miracle in my view just the same. After all, until you’ve heard Born to Run at full blast while navigating the Asbury Park Boardwalk, you don’t know really know rock and roll magic.
from hypebot http://ift.tt/2dKRsMG
What Whore Houses, Meth Labs And YouTube Have In Common [Op-ed by Maria Schneider]
In this op-ed from Maria Schneider, the five-time Grammy-winning composer/bandleader explores the alarming similarities between the operations of YouTube and more conventional criminal organizations.
____________________________
Op-Ed by Maria Schneider on Music Technology Policy
[Editor Charlie sez: We’re pleased to publish this guest post on YouTube written by Maria Schneider, a five-time GRAMMY-winning composer and bandleader, a board member of the Council of Music Creators, and an active supporter of MusicAnswers.org.]
By Maria Schneider
OK, I know: that title really hits below the belt. I apologize. After all, it’s not fair to legal whorehouses that pay their share of taxes to lump them with meth labs and YouTube.
When a nail salon or spa has a back room for illegal prostitution, we shut down the business. When a dry cleaning plant is a front for a crystal meth lab, the government comes in with guns ablazing. Businesses that cover for illegal activity get boarded up and their owners thrown in the slammer. Just because a business carries on facade of legal activity—even offering us a good value from the facade—doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to the criminality going on.
Before buying YouTube in 2006, Google execs, themselves, acknowledged the video site’s throbbing criminality by describing it as a “rogue enabler of content theft,” whose “business model is completely sustained by pirated content.” Ten years later, it is still commonly understood that a good percentage of YouTube’s music and films are, indeed, stolen content. And just like the tactics of the seedy businesses described above, YouTube has undertaken elaborate measures (much of it through its Content ID technology) to cover for endless unlawful acts that take place in its own illicit digital backroom.
Before I move on—for those of you who think the three illegal activities I describe don’t carry the same weight—plant these facts in your brain: prostitution, in some forms, is legal in many places in the world, including Holland, but copyright infringement and piracy is illegal and criminal virtually everywhere. That’s right, everywhere; even in North Korea.
Money Laundering: A Meth Lab often uses completely separate businesses to cover income and launder the revenue generated. Beyond the violations of drug laws involved in meth, state governments crack down on these labs because money laundering denies them tax revenue. YouTube, while not technically laundering money, has its own neat and clean, built-in way to hide and convert the income it siphons from copyrighted content, so it’s a wonder that every one of our 50 states, and cities and aren’t hopping mad.
Google and YouTube facilitate the theft of billions of dollars in stolen intellectual property. It’s impossible to calculate the losses to photography, journalism, music, movies, cartoons—the list goes on and on. These creative works were bringing billions in “sales tax” into our city and state tax systems as well as contributing billions in “income tax” to state, local, and federal governments. As we’ve all seen our incomes plummet amidst the theft of our creative works, so have the amount of taxes we pay plummeted. When all the value is siphoned off our work, making someone else rich, that “someone else” must be paying the tax, right? Wrong. No one is paying that sales tax, and the vast majority of state, local, and federal income tax has vanished into thin air, too.
Remember, the biggest economic value in this “free” pirating culture comes to the big data lords in the form of data, and the “value” that data creates. It’s the mountains of information about all of us that’s then turned into artificial intelligence from analytics. Their market capitalization in the hundreds-of-billions is based largely on the trade secret IP of their big data that was harvested on our backs. That market value was created with no state, local, or federal income consequences. And even if there ever is an IPO or other stock event where investors in companies like Spotify (another big data company) might be making money off this scheme, they are paying the lowest (capital gains) tax rate there is. And we all know that corporations have a whole host of tax loopholes (loopholes we regular folks don’t have) to hide the real dollars that they do make on things like ad revenue.
Governments should be furious. We, the people, should be furious. Can our economy survive when, more and more, we “pay” by watching endless ads? All that tax revenue vanishes, poof. It doesn’t go back into our schools, our roads, our healthcare, our police force, into the arts, protection of our water, air, and the many things that make our society function—this untaxed fortune mushrooms in size within the secret vault of a worldwide giant that uses it to further devour us for its own gain. Through this “redistribution” of assets, they drain our cities, states and national culture of vitality. Now tell me, how is that different than an illegal whorehouse or meth lab? Their crime is actually more insidious, because it’s so well hidden amidst all the entertaining content and Google/YouTube cutesy-ness. And just like the other businesses,addiction benefits them, too.
YouTube Hides the “Source” of its Music to Encourage and Protect Piracy
When we view/listen to a musical work on YouTube, YouTube provides no information about if (or how) the music is licensed. It seems clear that—like any criminal enterprise—they simply don’t want us to know. YouTube’s pirated videos look exactly like legitimate videos. Even if we want to avoid pirated music on YouTube, we can’t, since YouTube hides the identity of users who upload content to their site.
YouTube could easily determine a large amount of what’s illegally uploaded, as it’s painfully obvious just from reading what the uploader writes in their comments. But YouTube acts as if they don’t know and can’t know. While they make the takedown process incredibly demanding, they don’t ask even the tiniest bit of scrutiny from uploaders.
We deserve better. As a culture, we place great value on the “sourcing” of our food, medicine, clothing, water, and even our coffee, demanding that they come from a trusted or sustainable source, without exploitation or criminality. But when it comes to music, we have collectively allowed these big data companies to pull the wool over our eyes and serve us up a steaming cow pie of exploitation and piracy.
Enormous sums are spent by “big data” to convince the public that “piracy” is not a legitimate crisis. Like a broken record, they push propaganda messages through their surrogate affiliates, like the EFF (Electronic Freedom Frontier) and FFTF (Fight for the Future), promoting false justifications to drown out the cries of musicians, and to divert the public’s attention from their own backroom business. Their propaganda goes something like this:
- “Musicians want to take away your “fair use” rights!
- “Copyright enforcement will create a chilling effect on the internet!”
- “Musicians are doing fine and can just earn plenty of money from concerts and t-shirt sales.”
- “We pay out billions to artists!”
- “Copyright lasts too long anyway, so it’s OK to pirate things.”
- “Get over it you whining, self-entitled musicians. This is the digital age and you just have to learn to adapt.”
- “Music should be free.”
Each of these seven justifications is preposterous.
Myth 1: “Musicians want to take away your “fair use” rights!”
Of the many DMCA takedowns I’ve been forced to file, not once did any user ever assert their “fair use” rights were violated, nor are they likely to, as I’ve never violated someone’s “fair use” right to my music in a takedown. I’ve actually never encountered a “fair use” of my music uploaded on YouTube. I’ve yet to meet any other musician who has ever been challenged on fair use grounds either. The massive volume of piracy violations on YouTube completely dwarfs “fair use” complaints. For YouTube to assert that wrongful takedowns of “fair use” content justify not cracking down on piracy, is beyond perverse.
Fair use is an important legal concept that absolutely must be protected, but it’s completely irrelevant when it comes to full-track uploads of music. There is no “fair use” of a whole track or whole CD, especially when the YouTube video image is a still photo of the CD cover art.
Despite that, YouTube refuses to accurately educate its users with the facts about full-track or full-CD use. Why? Because losing mountains of pirated work from their site would cost YouTube hundreds of millions. The lack of education on this point among users is obvious when you start doing “searches” of user upload comments. Type in, “I don’t own this,” and you’ll find endless users admitting they don’t have the rights to put something up, or type in, “fair use,” and you’ll find endless users incorrectly justifying their upload is covered by “fair use,” as if saying it’s so, makes it so. YouTube knows this, ignores it, and continues encouraging this behavior with inane and misleading “copyright education” videos.
Are we to believe the most powerful analytics company in the world, one that created language translations, maps of the world, virtual reality, and is developing self-driving cars, can’t locate such blatant admissions on their own website? They can and should warn their users to take the content down or face removal of their YouTube channel.
For any user who feels their “fair use” rights were violated through a wrongful “takedown,” the DMCA gives every uploader a very straight-forward way to file a “counter notice.” And when they do, YouTube is required to put the video right back up. It will then stay up, unless the copyright owner somehow (never happens) files a federal lawsuit at a cost of thousands. So even when there might be a bad “takedown,” the uploader has an immediate, free, and relatively painless way to make sure the video in question goes right back up, and stays up.
Myth 2: “Copyright enforcement will create a chilling effect on the internet!”
YouTube and its surrogate mouthpieces like EFF love to say that the enforcement of our constitutional copyright rights will somehow slow the growth of the internet. That’s hogwash for three reasons: 1- the internet is full of very successful legitimate services, businesses and applications that don’t depend upon stealing copyrighted work; 2- where else do we justify the criminality of a business because it somehow allows for economic growth? Just think of the historic implication of following that twisted reasoning, and imagine the world we might be living in if that logic ruled the land; 3- YouTube’s value and growth has skyrocketed at an unparalleled pace and its parent company is now the most powerful and richest company in the world. “Chilling effect” on Alphabet and Google? Are you kidding me?
Myth 3: “Musicians are doing fine and can earn plenty of money from concerts and t-shirt sales.”
This piece of propaganda is the most offensive and demeaning of them all. Even if it was true (which it definitely isn’t), theft should never be justified because the victim has other avenues to earn income. Let’s start with the fact that not all songwriters and composers “perform.” Add that no musician can perform continually. Remember that the touring life of a band or a musician may not be that long. But how about the principle of the matter—we don’t justify stealing apples from an orchard because the farmer can plant some other fruit in between the trees. People don’t work a lifetime to have their work ransacked by companies that aren’t inventive enough to make money except by stealing it. The irony is that many musicians “perform” at a great financial loss in order to promote their records. Now we’re told to tour just so everyone can steal our music?
Myth #4: “We pay out billions to artists!”
All the big streaming businesses that are gutting music creators, love to spout this misleading mantra. The figures may sound impressive in the aggregate, but they’re an illusion. A billion dollars when spread across all the music in the world, in the context of the many billions of users and trillions of “plays,” is peanuts. The simple truth is that income for independent musicians,worldwide, is plummeting across the boards, largely at the hands of one American corporation. Remember, YouTube isn’t just exploiting music from the U.S.; this American company is exploiting the entire world’s music. And the amount of YouTube ad revenue that ends up in most musicians’ pockets is mere pocket lint. It’s not even worth talking about. It’s even less than Spotify pays, and the money Spotify pays out is so horrifically low that artists again and again publicly share in disgust the amounts they’ve received. The whole streaming “model” based primarily on ad revenue is fatally flawed. It can’t ultimately work if it’s not sustainable for the people that create the music. And if it does continue, it can only happen at the peril of creative culture as a whole. Read this passionate letter to the European Commission from 20,000 of Europe’s creators. And T-Bone Burnett’s recent keynote at Americana Fest Nashville, illuminates truths about the power of art that we all need to hold at our core. Thank God artists are waking up out of our collective technology coma and are speaking out.
Myth #5: “Copyright lasts too long anyway, so it’s OK to pirate things.”
Nice try. First off, a philosophical disagreement should never be used as a justification for theft. Furthermore, the length of time that a copyright lasts in the U.S. is the same as in almost every major country. It’s consistent with major international treaties. But just as important, there is a long history, involving centuries of thought and major figures in literature and the arts, that justifies the length of the copyright term. The debate involves strong copyright advocates, withcompelling statements from people like Mark Twain and Victor Hugo. Copyright encourages the creation of music, literature, and art that define the very core of who we are as a culture and as a nation. This is exactly why it was written into our Constitution. There is zero justification to shorten the term of copyright in the U.S. to somehow be different from what it is in the rest of the world. Do we really respect art and culture less than North Korea?
Myth #6: “Get over it you whining, self-entitled musicians. This is the digital age and you just have to learn to to adapt.”
It’s amazing that we celebrate the wealth of those who made their fortune off of the digital world, like Steve Jobs and his 260–foot yacht, yet a musician who makes significant income is demonized and told that they have enough. Why is it OK for a musician’s main asset in life, their music, representing a whole life’s work, to be distributed for free involuntarily? The internet puts almost zero copyright protection into place to the financial benefit of a host of corporate monsters, and to the benefit of a population at large that, before all of this insanity, had been perfectly happy paying for recorded music for a hundred years.
These are Constitutional rights we’re talking about. For many musicians that invest in their own recordings, their music and recordings become their main asset. A good share of recordings cost the same as many folks spend on a house, with budgets going from $15,000 to $200,000 and more. Additionally, the creation of the music often requires years of work. It’s not only equivalent to investing in a home, it’s like building it, too. We wouldn’t expect we could take over someone’s home and say, “Oh, you can figure out another place to live and put your things.” And almost all recordings certainly cannot be produced for less than the cost of a new car. We don’t steal cars justifying, “Oh, you can find some other way to drive to work.” If my music files are “just digital files,” not worthy of protection, then logic follows that I should be able to similarly raid my neighbor’s Fidelity 401(k) account; after all, it’s just a digital file, too.
We all know, if someone robs a house, steals a car, or illegally accesses someone’s bank account, they will (and should) go to jail. We certainly don’t say to the victim, “Oh, quit your moaning and learn to adapt!” There’s no “adapting” when assets are stolen, again and again, leaving one in debt every time one invests in one’s own work.
Myth #7: “Music should just be free.”
Even for someone who believes this myth, the reality is music isn’t and can never be free. It costs those who create it everything they have—their time, training, talent, technology, and more—to bring it to the audience. What’s more, everyone who uses YouTube, thinking how wonderful it is that all this music is available for a couple of clicks, is forgetting a crucial aspect of the transaction: they’re paying their internet or cellphone service provider—and they’re paying them a lot to gain access to all that “free.” Furthermore, users are in the end, paying for the ads when the advertising cost is factored into the price of the products they buy, and finally, users are paying by allowing these data lords to hijack their own privacy rights, as the ads they see are based on their private activity. And the more powerful artificial intelligence gets, the more focused the ads will get, which will push the cost of the ad more directly on to each user. It’s a fleecing for our entire society in the end. There’s an old saying, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” and that’s certainly the case with free music.
In Closing
I believe the average YouTube user would wish to respect the rights of all who make music if they fully understood the reality. If they could truly see the destruction this whole system has brought to musicians’ lives, and if they became cognizant of what it’s ultimately sucking out of their own lives, I believe they’d be horrified. They’d not only be concerned about the musicians it’s directly hurting, but they’d also be worried for music, the arts, and culture itself. The worst offense of the data lords is the manufacturing of a new culture to feed their own greed, a culture they systematically trained, an unwitting audience that’s now fully indoctrinated to expect music for “free.” The calculated effort was described by none other than Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, when he said, “Music needs to be like water. It needs to be ubiquitous.” I guess Mr. Ek thinks that water, like music, will just be there forever, no matter how much we exploit and abuse the source.
The current “era” of institutional music theft will not last long. In 30 years, society will look back on this era with embarrassment and disbelief. We all know it’s wrong. Our justifications for allowing “piracy” to fuel the most powerful company in the world are as poor as they were for allowing big companies to illegally pollute or to abuse worker’s rights. It’s time we demand more from these big data corporations. It’s time, we as a culture, force them to step out of the shadows, own up to their abuses, and convert to being legitimate businesses that employ every available measure to uphold the constitutional rights of creators, and assure users that the music hosted on their sites is there lawfully.
______________________________________
Are you a performer, songwriter, composer, producer, or fan, who wants to to help protect the future of music? Sign on at musicanswers.org.
Read Maria Schneider’s ‘YouTube’ Installment #1, YouTube, Pushers of Piracy
Read Maria Schneider’s ‘YouTube’ Installment #, Content ID is Still Just Piracy in Disguise: An Open Letter to Rightsholders and a Music Industry Ready to Renegotiate with a Monster
from hypebot http://ift.tt/2dqt1DT