New Flash MP3 Player
My new friend Sean, who Clay Shirkey introduced me to, worked this up for me.
It's so cool. I am going to use this for all the MP3s I post on my blog from now on.
This song is by The Rolling Stones. If you dont' own it, you should buy the record. It's on the Top 50.
I don't know if you read french, but this other Flash-based tiny MP3 player is really really swell too:
http://www.estvideo.com/dew/index/2005/02/16/370-player-flash-mp3-leger-comme-une-plume
Highly recommended.
Posted by: Pierre | April 23, 2005 at 09:34 AM
Not related, but I just wanted to say I got a laugh out of seeing an advert for mycashnow.com on a VC's blog.
Posted by: Adam Fritzler | April 23, 2005 at 10:04 AM
Fred,
I like the idea of music on a blog... but dont you think playing the stones is tempting fate? As far as I understand it (and my understanding is fairly good on such issues), playing any music on demand requires a mechanical license from the songwriter/publisher as well as a license from the recording copyright holder (the record company). I suspect that the folks over at abcko (stones catalog record co.) would not be happy, though I will admit whether they should be happy is an entirely different discussion.
Worse yet, the flash player does an actual full download of the mp3 file which places a copy of the mp3 in the users cache (unless you are streaming using the flashcomm server, which I doubt). Once the song is downloaded into your cache, it is fully retrievable for placement in the recipients mp3 player. Functionally you are giving away a rolling stones song to thousands of people in manner that gives the recipients total control over the song.
Some might find this problematic.
Best Regards,
Hank Williams
Posted by: Hank Williams | April 23, 2005 at 10:34 AM
While copyright infringement is still copyright infringement, if you don't own the Rolling Stones catalogue something is wrong with you.
Posted by: Dave Chappelle | April 23, 2005 at 12:18 PM
For the lazy, you can just download the file here:
http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/files/01_gimmie_shelter.mp3
Use the (View) Source, Luke.
Posted by: Obi Wan | April 23, 2005 at 12:27 PM
This one looks good too:
http://musicplayer.sourceforge.net/
Posted by: Toby | April 23, 2005 at 02:50 PM
That is very cool.
Posted by: Jill | April 23, 2005 at 03:02 PM
Fred's posted on this before, but the rules around digital content are just screwy and not meant for today's world. As a business proposition, anyone who doesn't own the stones catalogue by now is more likely to go buy it or d/l it from itunes because of Fred's little flash player. Sure, some people will go to an illegal site and d/l it, or never buy anything and just take the one song from Fred and be on their way. However, just like Seth Godin's free books, generating a buzz around something by giving it away, I believe, makes the content producer more money in the end.
Posted by: Charlie | April 23, 2005 at 06:45 PM
The fact that you disagree with US copyright laws is uninteresting.
The fact that you think the posting of a Rolling Stones mp3 will generate buzz for the Rolling Stones and result in record sales is unintersting as well.
PS: This is not "just like" Seth Godin letting people download PDFs of Seth Godin's books. In fact, it's NOTHING LIKE THAT ALL. The Rolling Stones' record company letting people download Rolling Stones songs would be the same thing. (The difference lies in who owns the legal rights to do these things.)
Bottom line, this is unethical.
Posted by: Bob | April 23, 2005 at 10:46 PM
I'm digging this new feature, and just found there is a WordPress plugin to accomplish the same thing automatically in case anyone else is interested.
Posted by: Matt | April 27, 2005 at 11:13 AM