New Fee May Hurt Small Clubs
The Calgary Herold reported yesterday that new fees for international performers have been introduced on July 31st, 2013.
Non-Canadian musicians, technicians, sound engineers, crew members and tour managers may now be subject to a $275 fee, per person, per venue. This amount is added to the $150 work permit fee that most of these people are required to pay to work in Canada.
Prior to the introduction of this fee most bands were subject to a maximum of $450 to play Canada’s smaller venues. But now the fees have quadrupled for some international acts resulting in extra expenditures that will be passed along to consumers.
This new fee will also hurt new and upcoming international performers who have not yet gained enough of an audience in Canada to play the larger venues, some of which are tax exempt.
A petition against the implementation of this fee is available at change.org. Please consider signing this petition.
Thank You.
$10 off $50 Gift Card Offer
Select Rexall pharmacies are offering a $10 discount on $50 iTunes gift cards until August 22nd, 2013.
Please consult your local Rexall flyer for details.
The New Game Consoles – First Impressions by a Non Gamer
Yesterday I was browsing my usual sources when I noticed that several game consoles
Reading through the technical specifications one can gather that both the
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Both have Blu-ray players so they can play DVDs and Blu-ray discs and both have access to music and film services online via an Ethernet port or 802.11 b/g/n wireless network connectivity.
Cloud services are a big selling point with both consoles and both of these devices are powered by 8-core x86 processors with 8GB of RAM so they should be able to handle everything. But I haven’t been able to confirm an ability to use Skype on the PlayStation 4
.
I don’t know if they are expecting to implement it in response to the requests by PS3 users. But they did install it on the Vita so a Skype app may make it’s way onto the PlayStation 4
like it has on Xbox One
I haven’t explored the full functionality of Skype on my home entertainment system. But I would want to have access to it so I’m going to look into this a little more.
In regards to Youtube and Facebook, both devices appear to have apps to handle those social networks so I would probably use either to browse both sites. And both devices will probably have CinemaNow and Netflix apps, in case I want to use those online film rental services.
The ability to stream music and video from home computers and network drives is also made available on both devices.
A DLNA compatible network drive should be accessible on the PlayStation 4 whilst media on Windows PCs should be accessible on the Xbox One
allows the use of used games, allowing me to dabble in gaming as well.
The PlayStation 4’s lower sticker price at $399 makes it more attractive than the $499 Xbox One
I currently have a Blu-ray player and Smart TV with most of the apps and capabilities that I want but either game consoles would probably fulfill my needs if I were to decide to upgrade. And I have no particular preference for either when it comes to games because most of the games I play are on my Windows based PC.
Had the Xbox One
PONO No Go?
In September 2012 Neil Young had introduced a prototype of his new PONO audio player during an interview on Late Night With David Letterman. And as an audiophile I have been awaiting updates on this new technology since.
This higher resolution audio technology promises to bring 24 bit or 32 bit recordings to consumers when most have only been exposed to the 16 bit recordings of CD or lower when it comes to mp3s. But some question whether it will sell because of the lack of sales in SACD
Personally I would love to have the depth of vinyl on a digital format. But even I would probably buy only a select amount of albums in this new format so I don’t know if it would get beyond niche market status. And though the PONO is portable I would probably only use it at home with higher end, noise cancelling headphones because I can’t stand headphones than sound like tin cans and strip the bass out of music or ear buds that don’t stay in and allow so much noise in that you need to raise the volume.
An interesting article on the possible pros and cons of this technology can be found at Evolver.Fm. But the article also concedes that little is known about the specific selling points of PONO other than it promises to bring high resolution recordings to consumers. The technology is still being worked on according to mypono.com and though most of the major labels have shown interest in PONO nobody knows if it will rely on a cloud service or not.
If this technology is deemed viable it will probably take some time to get it up and working so all we can do is speculate.
Alberta Flood Aid
A concert to help the victims of the flood in Alberta has been organized and will air online and via select Canadian cable and satellite providers today at 6 pm Central / 8 pm Eastern.
The four hour event will be hosted by Corner Gas star Brett Butt and feature performances by Jann Arden, Johnny Reid, The Sheepdogs, Corb Lund, Colin James, Tom Cochrane, Nickelback, Ian Tyson, Matthew Good, Randy Bachman, The Sadies and Loverboy.
- Where to Tune In :
- Online on Youtube
- Access Communications (Regina & Area)
- Bell Fibe TV – Channels 993 (HD) and 994 (SD)
- Bell Satellite – Channels 832 (HD) and 399 (SD)
- MTS TV – Channels 801 (SD) and 1801 (HD)
- Rogers Digital Cable – Channel 1 (Rogers Digital TV customers in ON, NB and NL)
- Rogers TV – Channels 369 (HD) and 368 (SD) (Ontario)
- SaskTel maxTV – Channels 605 (HD) and 602 (SD)
- Shaw – Channels 4 (SD) and 214 (HD) (Calgary)
- Shaw – Channels 11 (SD) and 214 (HD) (Edmonton)
- TELUS Optik TV – Channels 675 (HD) and 135 (SD)
- TELUS Optik – Channel 5 (SD) (Calgary and Edmonton)
- TELUS Optik TV channels 997 (HD) and 9997 (SD) (Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge)
- TELUS Satellite TV – Channels 832 (HD) and 399 (SD)
$10 Donations to the Calgary Foundation Flood Recovery Fund can be made by texting ABFLOOD to 20222 or via an online form.
Various FAQ Added
I’ve just added a general frequently asked questions page, in which I address questions I had previously been asked. It will of course expand over the next few days, as I start remembering some more emails.
Hope it helps you.