Welcome back, my friends, to the show that seemed to have ended. We’re back with a brand new Conversely, and we do hope that you enjoy the new format. We’re trying some new things, hopefully having some new guests, and as always we’d love to know what you think. If you didn’t take our survey yet, please clickety click on this here link.

Today’s episode goes deep into the realm of mythology, as we explore Joseph Campbell‘s monomyth and The Hero’s Journey, a theory about our unending, timeless human desire to understand the world through the stories of heroes and their paths toward enlightenment.

More specifically we talk about rock stars and CEOs. But, well, that’s just how we do it on Conversely.

As we mention in the episode, this was all kicked off by an idea Mike had while driving, that went a little something like this:

We’ll let you read up on the rest. Here are the show notes:

• Joseph Campbell – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Monomyth – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) (Amazon affiliate link)
• The Power of Myth (25th Anniversary Edition) – Bill Moyers with Joseph Campbell (Amazon affiliate link)

We promise not to screw it up.  Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going.  We will operate Tumblr independently.  David Karp will remain CEO.  The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve.  Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster. – Marissa Mayer on the Yahoo Tumblr acquisition

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Hello and welcome to this not-really-an-episode of Conversely. As you may have noticed, we haven’t been recording Conversely episodes lately.

Don’t worry, we’re coming back. Soon.

In the meantime, we’re looking for your feedback so we can make Conversely awesome. Like, really freaking amazing awesome. We’re not messing around here, we want Conversely to be the best entertainment technology podcast in the world.

And so we need your help.

We’ve put together a little survey – it’s only a few questions, shouldn’t take more than a minute or two – and your responses will help shape the future of Conversely.

Thank you all so very much for listening.

Almost two years ago, Jason Calacanis wrote a scathing resignation letter to YouTube that seems oddly apropos given the recent news we discuss re: Zoe Keating.

Lots of fish in the sea. But only one Poseidon.

If you like this episode (and we know you will), please consider dropping us a rating or a comment at iTunes. We thank you in advance.

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Show Notes:

• Google Tells Zoe Keating: Sign Music Key Deal or We’ll Block Your YouTube Channel – hypebot
• Unprofitable Shazam Raises Another $30 Million – Digital Music NewsDigital Music News
• Avid is making a free, but limited version of Pro Tools | The Verge
• Music Row will play on as a national treasure
• StartUp — Gimlet Media

You know, we usually put show notes here.

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We certainly hope your 2014 was as awesome as ours was, and to celebrate we’re bringing you a very special episode of Conversely: our year-end music wrapup. That’s right, we rant and rave and rant some more about the music we loved and hated in 2014. You better count on at least one Taylor Swift mention. And possibly some death metal.

And we welcome back our very favorite special guest ever, Mr. Jonathan Sexton!

Did you have any favorites in 2014? Let us know! Drop us comments on our blog.

WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE SHOW NOTES

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ERRATA:

• Mike incorrectly states that Bruno Mars lifted the line “Gotta kiss myself, so pretty” from Morris Day in the movie Purple Rain. We can’t find proof of this anywhere. But come on, that’s totally something Morris Day would say.
• Shawn picked Boy & Bear’s “Southern Sun” from the album Harlequin Dream, which unfortunately came out in 2013.
• Mike picked HAIM’s “The Wire” from the album Days Are Gone, which came out in 2013. Officially we won’t allow these 2013 picks, but it’s safe to assume we listened to these songs a lot in 2014.

SHOW NOTES:

Reading list:

• List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 2014 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Music Critic Top 10 Lists – Best Albums of 2014 – Metacritic

Our top singles | Spotify Playlist | Rdio Playlist

• Shawn
  • Bombay Bicycle Club – “Eyes Off You” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Boy & Bear – “Southern Sun” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Dustin Tebbutt – “Bones” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
• Brian
  • Hozier – “Take Me To Church” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • TIE: Pharrell Williams – “Happy” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • TIE: Taylor Swift – “Shake It Off” | iTunes | Spotify (conspicuously missing) | Rdio (yeah right)
• Jonny
  • MisterWives – “Reflections” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Wild Cub – “Thunder Clatter” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Foo Fighters – “I Am A River” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
• Mike
  • Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Sturgill Simpson – “The Promise” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • HAIM – “The Wire” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio

Our top albums:

• Shawn
  • Elbow – The Take Off and The Landing| iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Alt-J – This is All Yours| iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Beck – Morning Phase | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
• Brian
  • Alt-J – This is All Yours| iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Chance the Rapper – Acid Rap | it’s a mixtape, so yeah…
  • Garth Brooks – Man Against Machine | garthbrooks.com
• Jonny
  • Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country Music | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Ryan Adams – Ryan Adams | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
• Mike
  • Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country Music | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • St. Vincent – St. Vincent | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Beck – Morning Phase | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio

Honorable Mentions:

• Shawn
  • Hozier – “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Little Dragon – “Klapp Klapp” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Les Claypool’s Duo De Twang – Four Foot Shack | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Phantogram – Voices | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
• Brian
  • Led Zeppelin – IV (Deluxe Edition) | iTunes | Spotify
  • The Newbeats – “Bread & Butter” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
• Jonny
  • The Preatures – “Is This How You Feel?” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Jack White – Lazaretto | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • The New Basement Tapes – Lost On The River | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
• Mike
  • Sun Kil Moon – Benji | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Job For A Cowboy – Sun Eater | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio
  • Dirty Loops – “Hit Me” | iTunes | Spotify | Rdio

What goes around comes around, right?

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SHOW LINKS:

• Sony/ATV CEO Slams Cheap Songwriting Royalties Paid by Pandora, Spotify: ‘Totally Unacceptable’ – TheWrap
• But wait, what about this, Marty? Sony/ATV’s Martin Bandier on New, ‘Quite Reasonable’ Pandora Deal | Billboard
• Warner Music Group Revenues Top $3 Billion Following Acquisitions, Streaming Gains | Billboard
• WMG Releases Fiscal Year-End Report : MusicRow – Nashville’s Music Industry Publication – News, Songs From Music City
• Warner Music Group | News (the full earnings release)
• Pandora Signs First Direct Label Deal With Merlin | Billboard
• Merlin Network – Representing the rights of independent record labels worldwide
• Less Could Mean More: Why Merlin’s Deal With Pandora May Pay Off | Billboard
• Bitcoin for Rockstars — Backchannel — Medium

Oh Billboard.

Show Notes:

• Billboard 200 Makeover: Album Chart to Incorporate Streams & Track Sales | Billboard
• Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ Returns to No. 1 on Revamped Billboard 200 | Billboard
• Lefsetz Letter » Blog Archive Billboard’s New Chart – Lefsetz Letter
• Year in Music 2014 | Spotify
• Can Technology Make for Better Concerts? | WIRED

Traditional depictions of The Devil – a.k.a. Satan, Beelzebub, El Diablo, Lucifer, Abaddon… you know, that bad guy, the baddest guy – typically describe a red-skinned, horned, winged, terrible creature, a fallen angel tempting humans to sin, the sworn enemy of God himself, and the enemy of virtuous humans everywhere.

In today’s music industry, the devil wears green.

We spend the better part of this podcast discussing the recent tiff between The Green Devil and The Biggest Pop Star On The Planet.

We also welcome our very special guest, Wes Davenport of Echo Ave.

SHOW NOTES (really just a reading list this time):

• Taylor Swift Catalog Removed from Spotify | Billboard
• Nikki Sixx Speaks To Taylor Swift’s Record Company President About Decision To Remove Catalog From Spotify – Blabbermouth.net
• $2 Billion and Counting | Spotify Blog
• Aloe Blacc: Streaming Services Need to Pay Songwriters Fairly | WIRED
• Garth Brooks Weighs In on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube Controversies | Rolling Stone (apparently the devil does wear red)
• The future of music sales is here. So how CAN the artists make it pay? | Music | The Observer
• Steve Albini on the surprisingly sturdy state of the music industry – in full | Music | theguardian.com
• How To Make Streaming Royalties Fair(er) — Cuepoint — Medium

Just how much difference does lossless audio make?

On this episode, we put that theory to the test. TIDAL has launched in the US, and we’re testing FLAC lossless audio next to Rdio 320kbps AAC. You’ll have to listen to find out the results.

We also welcome our newest team member Justine Avila!

And here’s the world’s worst captcha, which Mike encountered on Ticketmaster this morning.

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SHOW NOTES:

• CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” That’s awesome.
• YouTube Music Service Could Cost Artists, Labels $2.3 Billion Per Year In Lost Income – hypebot
• Borrell: Digital dashboards will wipe out half of FM stations – RAIN News
• Hidden track – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Mike’s personal favorite hidden track #1 (and #2, technically)
• Mike’s personal favorite hidden track #3 is Funkytown, by 1990s Minneapolis funk outfit Greazy Meal (a cover of the Lipps Inc. one hit wonder). It appeared in the negative space before track 1 on the CD Visualize World Greaze. Here’s the video.
• YouTube is still predominantly a desktop platform (contrary to Mike’s statement), but mobile views are currently at 40% worldwide, according to YT’s stats.

Here are the songs we used for our audio tests, links to TIDAL, Rdio, and iTunes for good measure. It’s probably worth noting that the audio we used in the podcast was taken from FLAC versions, though our podcast is encoded in the extremely lossy 128kbps MP3 format. We just put it in the podcast for reference.

• Esbjörn Svensson Trio – Tuesday Wonderland | TIDAL | Rdio | iTunes
• Green Day – Jesus of Suburbia | TIDAL | Rdio | iTunes
• Miles Davis – All Blues | TIDAL | Rdio | iTunes
• Dave Matthews Band – Crash Into Me | TIDAL | Rdio | iTunes
• Jimi Hendrix Experience – Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) | TIDAL | Rdio | iTunes
• Alan Jackson – Like Red On A Rose | TIDAL | Rdio | iTunes

And finally, is FLAC really lossless?