Inspired by Detroit techno’s backstory, I’m currently reading this:
Juan Atkins took on the character of the book’s “techno rebels”: those who understand the details of technology’s interaction with society and ecology and argue for the benefits to both, over the exploitation and destructive nature of its side-effects. The book came out in 1980, so seems dated and naively optimistic given what the ‘00s and 2010s brought us, but as a manifesto for a more positive blend of societal change and more harmonious use of technology, it’s a real treat.
No, I am well aware of the meanings and implications of these words and ideologies. I mean liberalism, i.e: the ideals of scientific materialism brought on by the philosophy of liberalism and the so-called “Enlightenment” which had its beginnings in the 17th century. This is the belief that the five senses of an individual offer an accurate depiction of reality and anything that the senses do not detect does not exist, thereby undermining the spiritual traditions of the world, atomizing people into individuals in a meaningless mass of other individuals, and encouraging people to put great stock in earthly things. This led to economic power overthrowing the divine right of monarchy. During the age of revolution, the merchant class overthrew the aristocracy and became the defacto rulers of the world and placed economic principles upon the highest pedestal. Now modern people believe the economy is the highest good. Justice is seen in terms of economic distribution, freedom and happiness are measured in wealth, and political access is purchased with coin. Meritocratic principles and honor were essentially eliminated from society. Capitalism came from liberalism, therefore capitalism is a leftist system. Anyone calling themselves a conservative while believing in capitalism is a liar or a fool; one cannot be a conservative and believe in capitalism simultaneously. The ideals are mutually exclusive.
Western conservatism , especially American conservatism, is not similar to the non-western conservative societies which is based on less on economic and political ideologies ( of the west)…however, that is also losing it’s grip to the appeal of “sexy” materialism.
I’m putting this here as to not start a new dedicated rant thread…
Overall I like Soundcloud and pay for the Pro Unlimited subscription.
But, that fkn auto-play station thing drives me mad and makes me want to cancel it!!!??
Firstly, if I switch it off once, stay the FCK TURNED OFF…???
Secondly, when it switches itself back on uninvited, the tracks are SOOOO FCKN BAD!?? It’s always some shite hyped/over-compressed/auto-tuned absolute drivel I would never listen to… it might not be as bad if it was something akin to what I choose to listen to on SC. It annoys the hell out of me.
I’ve just left a playlist playing and went to the WC… playlist ends and this FCKR comes on full blast, talk about a turd ruining a turd… rant over
I’m pretty sure it must default new accounts to have it on, like an ‘extra’???
I didn’t do anything, it just plays annoying music at me from time to time.
very interesting… what Ive been encountering (having a Pro account, and also having the soundcloud app installed on my phone) is that sometimes I will pick up my phone and discover it is playing back music from my soundcloud page - with ZERO apps being actually open on the phone - and therefore no way to stop the playback or change it without actually opening some app that does have audio playback and starting that up, like youtube or something else…
its happened a few times but not everyday - so it seems to be a strange bug or poorly implemented feature
Honeymoon phase is long gone for these older web companies. Gotta make that revenue now. Vimeo has also been subjected to sharp turns in the subscription model too. There used to be one or two tiers. Now there are 5 or so and the lowest (paid) ones become deprived of basic features like adjustable playback rate on your video’s players (which was reverted after public outcry).
Its total bollocks.
Was free. Now you have to pay. For the same bloody thing, well not quite, its worse… now there’s advertising.
Youtube is bollocks as well. Was once free, with no adverts. Now its full of adverts, oh but you can pay for ‘premium’ to remove the adverts… who are these fuckheads that come up with this shit?
I uploaded a track to my soundcloud the other day, (literally the only time Im ever on there is to upload something) aparently I cant upload any more unless I pay for a subscription. Thats me done then.
I actually don’t have an issue with this, they’re a business who provide a service. They monetise it through advertisements or subscriptions… fair enough.
What’s fkd is subscribing and still being irritated by adverts… let’s face it, we pay mainly to not be annoyed!
I wonder what are the newer viable alternatives to Soundcloud?
Aside from all that, I’m still getting at least two messages per track from bots disguised as cheeky catalogue models telling me if I let them harvest my organs they’ll guarantee me at least 4,311 new followers. I keep asking them for cheese and pickle sandwiches instead but no takers so far…
SoundCloud has always been a binfire, but it’s a binfire that makes it easy for me to post tracks on here, which is all I really use it for.
I reckon it won’t be long before we’re all trading tapes and writing fanzines like it’s 1981 again.
Yeah. Till we switch to a system where we let everyone have what they need we can t expect Soundcloud etc to run all these servers for us for free. I don t like how it s done, but I understand something has to be done to generate income.
