Dan Kantor

I paid $0 for the new Girl Talk album. Here's why.

After loving Girl Talk at the APW Festival I wanted to pick up an album of his. Grant posted one of the songs off the new album and I loved it as well. So I searched Amazon and iTunes for the new album, but it wasn’t available in either of those places. I eventually found it through Girl Talk’s MySpace page

Girl Talk is offering the new album in a name-your-own-price scheme ala Radiohead. Sweet! I have been saying for a while that if albums were $5 instead of $10, I would buy more than 2x the albums I buy now. I clicked the link and grabbed my credit card, ready to pony up $5 for the album. That’s when I hit this:

The external link looked extremely shady. It lived at an IP address without a domain name. It even had the word “illegal” in it! Being the confident web surfer that I am (being on a Mac helps) I clicked on.

There was a tiny form at the bottom of the page where you enter your price:

The page was not secure:

I sat there for a while thinking about what to do. I did believe that this page was legit. But entering my credit card info here gave me the creeps. I eventually entered $0.00 and was taken to a page with links to the mp3 file.

The moral of the story here is that artists (really all content producers) need to be smart and think about commerce from beginning to end. Girl Talk is clearly ahead of the curve in offering his album at a name-your-own-price plan. But he did not follow this through to the end and present a safe environment where people can feel secure in buying it. Maybe partnering with Amazon or TopSpin, etc would have helped him. I’m not sure. But he did lose out on $5 at least from me.

ps - for those that think I was wrong in downloading the album for $0, right after that, I bought 2 tickets to go see him live at Terminal 5 on November 15th.

pps - after I bought the album, I entered $5 just to see what would happen. It had instructions to send money via paypal. Oh well, maybe next time.

All Points West Music Festival (Day 3)

Day 3 was a great day for music. Jeff met me at my apartment, we grabbed some sandwiches and took off on the 3 rail journey. We arrived about an hour earlier than we had planned for, so we hit the beer garden to kill some time. It was a dark, gray day out and the crowd was much smaller than the day before.

At 3:15, we headed over to the main stage to catch Rodrigo y Gabriela. A bunch of my friends saw them in the city a few months ago and have been raving about them ever since. Well, they totally blew me away. They are a brother and sister duo who both play the guitar. And the drums. Sort of. You see, they both bang on their guitars like they are bongos. It sounds amazing and must truly be seen to be believed. Their hands move so fast, as they strum the strings while banging the wood. Crazy! It started raining during their set and I swear as they banged on their instruments harder, it rained harder.

After the set ended, we had about 3 hours until Trey came on. Jeff proposed we go play some games. They had these carnival games there but I avoided them as I only wanted to spend money on food and beer. Well the joke was on me all weekend, since all the games were free! We played for a while (I won on the football toss with a sick shovel pass) and then went and grabbed some food.

After killing some more time at the beer garden, Trey finally came on at 7:30. He opened with Sand. Jeff commented how he has pared his group down to him, a bassist, a drummer and a pianist. For those keeping score, that’s Phish’s setup. The second Sand came on, my body forgot that it was hurting like a mo-fo and I started dancing. I don’t know what it is, but Trey’s guitar just forces me to dance. Around 8:10, Jeff called it quits and took off for the ferry. I tried to convince him to stay for Jack Johnson, but I knew that if it was Radiohead again tonight I was so out of there.

At 8:30, Trey ended and I walked over to Jack Johnson. He came on 4 minutes later. The set was very mellow and he played a bunch of songs off of all his albums. I can’t complain about the selection although there was a few songs off his new album that I wanted to hear that he didn’t play. I knew that Jack would invite a bunch of guests on to the stage since he always does and Matt Costa and Ben Harper both played that day. But what a total shock when he brought up Trey. They jammed to Mudfootball with Trey wailing on his guitar as Jack sang. Oh man was it awesome! I pretty much never thought I would see these 2 playing together. That was worth the (steep) price of admission right there.

So there it is - All Points West wrapped up. I definitely had a great 3 days. It was tiring and at times painful, but the music more than made up for it. I had many moments of critical thinking about my job. I think that I have one of the best jobs I could ever ask for. I work on music players all day that are seen by million of people. But at a music festival like this, it really hits you how much it is truly ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC. Music is the universal language that brings everyone together. Watching it in a forum like this just makes you realize that even more. I thought about a bunch of things this weekend that I know will influence my work. I was truly excited when I woke up this morning.

All Points West Music Festival (Day 2)

Day 2 was an episode straight out of LOST. Text messages arrived 1 hour after they were sent and I was left stranded on a pseudo-island to fend for myself. The day started just like Day 1, I jumped on the E, transferred to the PATH at WTC, and go onto the LightRail at Exchange Place. As I was waiting for the LightRail, I got tapped on the shoulder by my friend Adam and his girlfriend Perrie. We walked in together. As we approached the entrance the day started to reveal itself. There was a line to get in, unlike yesterday when I walked right in.

We sent texts to Jeff to let him know we were in, and walked all the way to the far side beer garden. After waiting on a 10 minute ID check line, we got into the garden and waited another 20 minutes for some beer. We each drank 2 beers and I got up to head over to Kings of Leon. I had no idea of knowing that would be the last time I saw any of my friends that day. They were all planning on seeing The Roots at 7:15. My plan was to catch 45 mins of Kings and then meet them over there. I lied down on the grass towards the back and watched KIngs play a bunch of songs I didn’t know. I did recognize 1 song but it wasn’t either of my favorites - Arizona or Knocked Up. The sun was starting its descent and it was truly enjoyable to be there.

At 7:10, I got up and walked over to get a slice before settling in around The Roots. I sent texts to Jeff, Adam and 2 other people to find out where they were. No response. The Roots came on and I stood in the back waiting to meet up with my friends. I’ve seen The Roots at least 10 times and I swear every time I see them its a different ensemble on stage. This time they had a tuba (played by Tuba Gooding Junior). As always, they rocked although they did seem a little more “rocky” than “rappy” this time. I didn’t realize until half way through that they didn’t have Scratch, or Rhazel, or any other scratch human/machine. This definitely detracted from the sound somewhat. I love the scratching.

After The Roots, at 8:15, I walked over to the beer garden to grab a drink and try and find my friends. Unfortunately, they were not letting anyone in to the beer garden! The crowds were too large. Defeated, I walked over to Radiohead and sat down against the bleachers in the back. Then a miracle happened. I got like 10 texts from my friends. Apparently it was 7:30 and they were all enjoying beer in the garden. Shaking my head like Daniel Faraday, I could only imagine what Desmond must be going through at this point! Then another message came in saying they were exactly where we were last night for Radiohead. I got up and started fighting like a mad man through the crowd to reach the spot. I wasn’t just fighting the crowd, it was getting darker every minute and Radiohead was sure to take the stage any second. I eventually got to the spot and couldn’t find anyone. I thought I saw Jeff twice but it was just some other tall dude in a tee-shirt. Then the sun officially said its goodbye and Radiohead entered stage right. Game over. I stood shoulder to shoulder with strangers for about an hour then made my retreat back to the outer crowds. I watched for another 45 minutes or so, then got a chocolate soft serve and called it a night.

I am leaving in about an hour for the third and final day. I am extremely excited for Jack Johnson tonight! It’s just me and Jeff today, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we don’t lose each other.