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On Thursday, October 17th, six WCBN-ers drove to NYC and back to think about radio's current status and future at WFMU's Radiovision festival, a one-day conference attended by all sorts of radio-minded people from our home and abroad. 

The WCBN contingent split into two cars and made our way through the serene and beautiful states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey until we settled at our temporary home base: the home of one very, very nice Aunt of a station member. For those wondering, through our knowledge of the nuances of alternate side parking, WCBN was able to pay no more than $2 for a weekend's worth of parking. So take that NYC and your over-expensive parking garages. Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, we stopped by King's Family Restaurant to eat chicken wraps with ranch, ice cream waffles, and a Frownie. 

Anyways, we took Friday as a day to explore NYC in the ways we saw fit. We visited Columbia University and its old buildings as well as some tall church and even a building with some dead guy named Ulysses and his wife inside (thanks to the "convenient" end of the shutdown. Good job guys!) We made our way over to Harlem and walked along 125th street after stopping at the Apollo Theatre.

Afterwards, the WCBN team, unafraid of any amount of European tourists, decided to venture into the MOMA (which conveniently free on Friday nights thanks to niqlo and its very profitable Japanese clothing). As always, Monet was killing it, but I personally would have liked more Kusama. In an exhibit on sonic forms, Tristan Perich, Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), and Haroon Mirza (an artist featured at UMMA not too long ago) all had very interesting pieces. Tristan Perich's was a wall of speakers each producing a sound of a different wavelength. As you approached the wall with your ear and moved along the length of it, the individual tones were able to be perceived from the resulting white noise. 

Being visually exhausted from a couple of hours of art, we ventured down to Other Music where we stocked up on a smattering of new and freeform friendly releases. Expect some new surprises soon on your dial! 

The night came to a close with an Indian techno version of Happy Birthday courtesy of the apparently most well-lit restaurant in the city, Milon. 

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/07/14/thom-yorke-and-atoms-for-peace...

Saying they are defending the rights of new and emerging recording artists, Thom Yorke and Atoms for Peace have removed their tracks from Spotify, the commercial music streaming service.

Best known for his work with Radiohead, Yorke pulled his 2006 solo album “The Eraser” while the band Atoms for Peace, which Yorke leads, took down their ’13 disk “Amok.”  As of earlier this afternoon, both tracks from Yorke’s ’09 two-sided single “The Hollow Earth” and “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses” are still available on the service, as are some of his remixes and guest appearances.

A representative for Spotify had no comment.

Yorke wrote:  “Make no mistake, new artists you discover on Spotify will not get paid.  Meanwhile shareholders will shortly begin rolling in it.  Simples.”

On its website, Spotify, which is reported to have some six-million paid subscribers, claims to pay royalties in relation to an artist’s popularity on the service.  “For example, we will pay out approximately 2% of our gross royalties for an artist whose music represents approximately 2% of what our users stream,” it states.  “A popular song or album can generate far more revenue for an artist over time than it historically would have from upfront unit sales.”  To see the full statements, go here.