2024-12-24 20:26:28
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound-alike
A sound-alike is a recording intended to imitate the sound of a popular record, the style of a popular recording artist, or a current musical trend; the term also refers to the artists who perform on such recordings. In the voice-over world, it may also refer to those who recreate the voice and vocal mannerisms of a given celebrity’s vocal performance (see also impersonator).
Sound-alikes are usually made as budget copies or “knockoffs” of popular recordings. The cost of writing and recording a new song that sounds similar to a popular song is usually negligible compared to the cost of music licensing for playing the original recording or the royalty fees to record a cover version. If the sound-alike recording is dissimilar enough to avoid infringing the original writer’s copyright, the user of a sound-alike can evoke the spirit of a song, or sometimes make listeners believe that the work being played has been recorded by a particular artist, without the expense of engaging a highly paid artist.
A cover version is sometimes referred to as a sound-alike, but in the stricter sense, a sound-alike must contain differences that are significant enough to suggest to a listener that those recording the song sought to perform a work different from the work to which it sounds similar. A recording intended as an interpretation of a work is not a sound-alike; it is a cover version, for which many countries require licensing for any performance or distribution.
Sound-alike recordings have been used in movie soundtracks and radio and television commercials since their origin, while sound-alike artists have long recorded jingles and other musical material for commercial use.
Sound-alike albums have also long been issued by small, budget-minded record companies, as a way to cash in on the popular artists, movies or show tunes from hit plays currently in style. Lou Reed began his recording career working for one such company, Pickwick Records, but years later became a star in his own right, as an original performer. Other such companies were Hit Records of Nashville, Tennessee and Embassy Records of the United Kingdom. Bell Records of New York City also issued sound-alike budget records in the 1950s. Madacy Entertainment also releases sound-alike albums under the title The Countdown Singers; Drew’s Entertainment currently releases sound-alikes through the name “The Hit Crew”.
Sound-alike albums have been known to chart. In 1971, the sound-alike album Top of the Pops, Volume 18 reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart. A medley of sound-alike recordings of Beatles songs recorded by the Stars on 45 reached number one on several national charts in 1981. On February 3, 2012, a sound-alike version of the will.i.am track “T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)” by “Kings of Pop” was available for download before the release of the original, and entered the UK Singles chart at number 40, the first cover to do so. Other sound-alike covers of “Whistle” by Flo Rida and “Payphone” by Maroon 5 have also entered the top 40. In 2011, The same week Sak Noel’s single ”Loca People” reached #1 in the UK Official Charts, a sound-alike version by CDM Chartbusters reached #55 on the charts.
Many of these sound-alike versions of popular songs available on download sites continue to generate strong download sales prior to the release of the original song.
Read the whole thing, it’s amazing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound-alike
2024-12-20 04:16:32
Honestly, this would make me inclined to apply:
“Always wanted to work in porn but don’t have the feet for an OnlyFans? Now is your chance”, joked the LinkedIn post by a senior staff member at the media regulator.
Colour me unsurprised that it was baroness Kidron who lost her sense of humour:
Leading children’s rights campaigner, Baroness Kidron, told the BBC the comments treated dealing with porn companies as a “perk”, and “trivialised” the issue of violence against women and girls.
In a statement, Ofcom told the BBC it was “a mistake from a well-intentioned colleague wishing to attract attention to a recruitment post”.
2024-12-19 19:51:04
Douglas Adams wrote about the human tendency to introduce processes that make people feel empowered when in fact all they are is a kind of placebo, e.g. to help politicians cope with their overall powerlessness by actively making the lives of others less rich, protecting them from novelty and innovation:
Nick Clegg: We welcome the EDPB’s opinion on AI – but it’s frustrating that it has taken many months of unnecessary delay for regulators to approve the same legal mechanisms that the industry proposed at the start of this year. This slow motion decision making prevents Europeans from accessing the latest AI technology. We urge European regulators to quickly apply these principles in a pragmatic and transparent way so the EU can deliver the growth that leading European political figures are calling for.
Mark Zuckerberg: It’s sad that I basically have to tell our teams to launch our new AI advances everywhere except the EU at this point.
https://www.threads.net/@zuck/post/DDvI6d5yYci
Ref:
And the curious fact is that the Shoe Shop Intensifier Ray mentioned mere seconds ago is, in actuality, a phoney – designed to make Dolmansaxlil Executives feel they’re doing something excitingly aggressive when, in fact, all they need to do is wait. The Shoe Event Horizon is now a firmly established and rather sad economic phenomenon, which in future times will be taught as part of the basic middle school “Life, the Universe, and Everything” syllabus.
The European Union has its own “shoe shop intensifier ray”, it’s called “regulation”.
2024-12-19 05:50:23
…I’m trying to replace my beloved copy of “Gödel, Escher, Bach” and eBay is suggesting the “AA Trucker’s Atlas of Britain” as being “inspired by your recent views”
I deeply, deeply hope that there is a subculture of British truckers who are into algorithms & the development of consciousness.
2024-12-19 03:56:01
Note that client side “your message has been scanned for abusive content” scanning extends far beyond the warned-of metadata collection into content surveillance, thereby breaking end to end security:
General Recommendations
Apply these best practices to your devices and online accounts
1. Use only end-to-end encrypted communications.
Adopt a free messaging application for secure communications that guarantees end-to-end encryption, such as Signal or similar apps. CISA recommends an end-to-end encrypted messaging
app that is compatible with both iPhone and Android operating systems, allowing for text message interoperability across platforms. Such apps may also offer clients for MacOS, Windows, and Linux, and sometimes the web. These apps typically support one-on-one text chats, group chats with up to 1,000 participants, and encrypted voice and video calls.
Additionally, they may include features like disappearing messages and images, which can enhance privacy. When selecting an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, evaluate the extent to which the app and associated services collect and store metadata.
https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/guidance-mobile-communications-best-practices.pdf
2024-12-18 20:52:03
Heaven forbid that our children seriously get into cycling as a hobby:
Microcosm, a web forum hosting service that runs 300 sites including cycling forums and local community hubs, said that the sites would go offline on March 16, the day that Ofcom starts enforcing the Act. [… It] has hosted websites including cycling forum LFGSS since 2007, is run as a non-profit funded by donations and largely relies on users to follow community guidelines. Its sites attract a combined 250,000 users.
Archived at: https://archive.ph/94rzg