“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-18 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from the week of April 29, 2018
This Week’s Podcast
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Who Is Watching?
The question of who is going to watch over us, and who may need to be watching over the watchers goes back to ancient times. The Roman satirist Juvenal asked the question of “Qui custodiet ipsos custodes?”, or who will guard the guardians? As we look at all the nonsense that is going on on the internet these days, the question of who will be acting as our guardian out there is becoming ever more important.
With concerns about how we may be manipulated by foreign governments or the spread of hate speech videos on the web, more people are asking why this is allowed to happen. Facebook and YouTube are both being seriously pressed to come up with answers about how these things happen on the services they provide. But they’re not the only places that may need custodial staffs to help remove the garbage that is building up.
I was fascinated and a little disturbed to see a story reported on CNBC that says Google Maps, of all places, also needs to be supervised to prevent an epidemic of false reviews and fake accounts on the service. Google Maps, like Yelp or other business-oriented services, have an option to leave reviews and create accounts for local businesses. And those services are constantly fighting folks who leave fake reviews or set up what are called “ghost” business accounts as a way to hack the system. There are even what are called “black hat search engine optimization experts”, who are making a business out of breaking the rules for profit.
So what’s the big deal? Simple. If you really want to find a reputable business in 2018, your search begins on the Internet. The more spam reviews and “ghost businesses” there are out there the harder it is for you to find the one you need.
The question is what are these services doing to fight back, what kind of guardians are being employed? They will tell you about the millions of dollars that are invested every year to do just that. But clearly, it’s not a priority and they aren’t having a lot of luck. Even the most sophisticated software has its limitations. So the best answers are two that set most of these companies to mumbling to themselves. Hire more actual humans, and have more government regulation.
The reality is that until both the industry and the regulatory bodies get serious about cracking down on this stuff, it’s just going to get worse. Passively sitting back and hoping it will all go away is a failure for everyone.
It’s Update Time
So this is the week! The week when a compulsory event takes place, one that most of us dread and a small, nerdy handful actually look forward to. Yes, it’s time for another update to your Windows Operating System. If you have no idea what that means the good news is that you’re not alone. The bad news is I’m going to tell you.
Every so often the smart men and women out at Microsoft decide it’s time to “improve” how our Windows software works. While I’m sure this is all done with the best of intentions, most of us have come to dread these updates. The problem is that you will have just figured out how to make your computer do what you want it to do, to look the way you want it to look, to sound the way you want it to sound, and the new update is going to mess some of that up. Now to be fair, it doesn’t happen every single time. But here’s an honest question, how many times does it have to happen to be really, really annoying?
Right. And number higher than zero.
So starting on Monday of this week, folks can manually update their Windows 10 systems. This is the domain of the seriously geeky. No regular person wants anything to do with the whole process, let alone trying to do it ourselves. So we will spend this week listening to these folks complain or compliment the changes. And we’ll no idea what they’re talking about.
For the rest of us, the change will begin automatically rolling out beginning next week, on May 8. In case you’re wondering, no you can’t not get updated. That’s the mandatory part I mentioned before. It’s coming. I’m just trying to give you a heads up.
So what’s new and exciting? Honestly, I don’t see a lot to get excited about. They claim they will be making the settings portion of the software simpler and easier to use. I’m always in favor of that. Cortana, the Microsoft Personal Digital Assistant, and Edge, the new web browser, are supposed to get some tweaks to make them better (be honest, how many of you even use them?). Plus there’s something called “Timeline” which will allow you pick up projects where you left off on them more easily, even if you worked on them on your smart device. Sounds interesting, but I’m not seeing it as a need, so I’ll withhold judgment on that one.
So the important take away for most of us is this, an update is coming. That means it’s a good time to back up all our stuff and get ready to spend some time troubleshooting, again.
You’re welcome.
Everything Old Is New Again
Once upon a time, if you wanted to hear music you either had to be a musician or know where you could find them in the wild. It was a live performance or nothing. In 1863 you could cheat a little with the invention of the player piano, but that still required that you own an instrument. In 1877 Thomas Edison changed that when he patented the first practical machine to record and playback music. Wax cylinders and shellac discs would hold sway for a time, only to be replaced by vinyl records. The 45s and 33 and 1/3s would be the kings of recorded music until just over a quarter of a century ago when the compact disc arrived. Digital sound was now the king. Until digital downloads arrived and the sale of physical media took a dive. But history just keeps repeating itself. The old technology is replaced by the new.
Or does it?
Because for the first time since 2011, physical media music sales (that’s CDs, vinyl, and cassettes) outsold digital downloads. Is that a sign that the old media is coming back? That everything old is new again?
Certainly, the fans of physical media, especially vinyl aficionados would have us believe that. Sadly, that’s not really what’s going on. Sales for digital downloads have dropped precipitously. Single track sales are down by twenty-five percent and album sales are off by twenty-four percent. It’s interesting to note that vinyl sales are actually up by ten percent. CD sales are down by six, and overall the total dollars for physical media is down. But at one point five billion dollars it is ahead of digital downloads, which only logged one point three. That sounds like really big numbers to we mere mortals, until you look at the revenues for streaming music. Streaming made up more than half the total music industry revenues for the first time in 2016. It extended that lead last year to nearly two-thirds of total revenue, clocking in at almost six billion dollars. That comes largely through streaming services like Spotify and Pandora.
And the growth looks like it will continue. Lower cost, limited tier paid subscriptions that limit playback to a single device grew last year by one hundred twenty-five percent.
All of which sounds really good for the music business. But the RIAA, the recording industry trade association, notes that overall industry revenues are still forty percent below peak levels.
Whether the industry can survive the technology still remains very much in question.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2018
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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