Monday, June 23, 2014

What a wonderful Idea it was for the US and UK to remove Saddam - The map shows the consequences

Jihadist fighters in Iraq seized three border crossings into Syria and Jordan and four nearby towns over the weekend, giving the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) control over much of the country's western frontier and directly threatening the country's main power supply.

Isis can now add large swaths of the Iraqi border to a 300km stretch of land it already controls along the Euphrates river, from Mosul in the north to Saddam Hussein's home town, Tikrit, which now gives the group a launching pad for potential attacks on strategic sites, including the lifeblood of Iraq's electricity generation, the Haditha dam. The gains also bring the crisis in Iraq to the doorstep of Jordan, a key ally of the United States.

The latest Isis offensive comes as Iraq’s polarised political blocs face a week of intense lobbying to form an inclusive government that could unite the fracturing country.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, is in Baghdad.

The latest Isis offensive in western Anbar province has seen the group take four towns in recent days.

Iraqi officials said the militants took over the Turaibil crossing with Jordan and the Walid crossing with Syria after government forces there pulled out.

Al-Qaim, a restive town on the Syrian border, fell a day earlier.

The capture of the crossings follows the fall on Friday and Saturday of the towns of Rawah, Anah and Rutba. They are all in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where the militants have since January controlled the city of Falluja and parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi.

The rank is sergeant. Sargent was quite a fine painter. I am surprised that, you, with your deep military connections didn’t know the difference. Sort of a “Corpseman” problem I suppose. I did take the OTS test, but they rejected me because I was too smart to become an officer.

Sunni militants have blitzed through the vast desert of western Iraq, capturing four towns and two border crossings and deepening the predicament of the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad led by Nouri al-Maliki.The latest military victories - including two border posts captured yesterday, one along the frontier with Jordan and the other with Syria - considerably expanded territory under control by ISIS just two weeks after the Al Qaeda-inspired group began swallowing up chunks of northern Iraq.The lightening offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) takes the group closer to its dream of carving out an Islamic state straddling both Syria and Iraq.Moreover, controlling the borders with Syria will help it supply fellow fighters there with weaponry looted from Iraqi warehouses, significantly reinforcing its ability to battle beleaguered Syrian government forces.It came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Baghdad today on a surprise trip to push for Iraqi unity and stability.Flying in from Jordan on a visit which the State Department had sought to keep secret amid security concerns, Kerry was to meet with beleaguered Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iraqi leaders across the political and communal spectrum.

... Moreover, controlling the borders with Syria will help it supply fellow fighters there with weaponry looted from Iraqi warehouses, significantly reinforcing its ability to battle beleaguered Syrian government forces.

Israel thinks it’s a good idea to further weaken Syria? Why, so their ground forces can face ISIS, with US weapons, in Jordan?

Mubarak, Saddam and Assad, all kept the Islamists under control. Your Neocon friends, the Israilis and our best friends the Saudis, fixed all that. The folly is unraveling a city at a time. the numbers of “”foreign” fighters is estimated at 10,000. I wonder how difficult it will be for them to get their hands on a nuclear weapon?

Deuce ☂Mon Jun 23, 05:29:00 AM EDTMubarak, Saddam and Assad, all kept the Islamists under control. Your Neocon friends, the Israilis and our best friends the Saudis, fixed all that. The folly is unraveling a city at a time. the numbers of “”foreign” fighters is estimated at 10,000. I wonder how difficult it will be for them to get their hands on a nuclear weapon?

So you like mass murderers like Saddam and Assad? Mubarak did keep control and wasn't a great guy but not the mass murderer like Assad and Saddam.

As for your number of 10,000 foreign fighters? Latest reports there were about 2,000 european jihadists (moths to the flame) and several thousand other arabs. The rest, the infrastructure? Baathists. Saddamists.

But a force of 10k? Out of a population of MILLIONS?

LOL

Fact is that the ISIS suck and are the new and improved sunni saddamists/baathists/jihadists.

Iran, with it's ied's in iras, support of syria and hezbollah, it's brutal murder of it's arabs, the brutal repression of it's kurds and others is now about to get the blow back it deserves.

Look to NUMEROUS uprisings in Iran now. Arabs in the south, being starved of water are pissed. Secular Iranians? Will continue to hide and flee. There are over 50 different ethnic groups in Iran, in fact over 55% of Iran is NON-persian.

It's going to be a hot summer...

Higher gas prices

And of course islamists killing islamists.... by the dozens of scores on a monthly basis.

Since the Rosenbergs gave the Soviets US nuclear secrets, the Soviet Union produced approximately 55,000 nuclear warheads. They are not all accounted for and neither are the components to build them. ISIS will have nuclear weapons. Anything is for sale. It is reported that ISIS now has over $2 billion in cash and gold.

Israel was delighted along with the Saudis when civil war broke out in Syria. Israel even joined in air attacks. It was a collosal error.

ISIS is smart enough to recognize that the only thing that Israel has is a nuclear deterrent. ISIS will not be defeated by the Iraqis. ISIS will border Israel. You will have two religious states, sise by side. I fear that ISIS is here to stay.

ISIS has come out of the Syrian conflict and won the “hearts and minds” of a lot of highly motivated Muslim youth. Many are very, very smart. Israel will the rue the day they got what they wished for in Syria and Iraq.

Yep, with the Zionists now in control of the Ukraine, the ante has been upped.

While the Russians are essentially weaker than the US, they have capacity in a number of areas. The US cannot match them nuke for nuke. The US cannot match them tank for tank, in the Ukraine or in Poland. The US has no military option to play against Russia. So if a stray nuke, from the Ukrainian stockpile were to have found its way to the Euphrates valley, why, my oh my.

Jack HawkinsMon Jun 23, 09:00:00 AM EDTYep, with the Zionists now in control of the Ukraine, the ante has been upped.

While the Russians are essentially weaker than the US, they have capacity in a number of areas. The US cannot match them nuke for nuke. The US cannot match them tank for tank, in the Ukraine or in Poland. The US has no military option to play against Russia. So if a stray nuke, from the Ukrainian stockpile were to have found its way to the Euphrates valley, why, my oh my.

By not moving expeditiously against the weapons that the ISIS garnered in Mosul, the target has now dispersed. In the days that have gone by, that equipment has been moved, not towards Baghdad, but to the Euphrates valley.

Now we have round two of "The Great SCUD Hunt", but on a grander scale. It will not be a replay of Stormn' Norman's crushing of Saddam's conventional forces in Kuwait. It won't be "Shock and Awe", but more like the Israel's failure in Lebanon. where they ran numerous air ops, bombing the same piece of Beirut, over and over, because there were no 'targets of opportunity'. Yet the missiles fell relentlessly upon Haifa.

The Israeli have gotten their cake. Their "Yinon Plan" is well developed, the countries around them are fragmenting, all according to their program. With every civilian killed or kidnapped, the Israeli strike out blindly against the easiest target, even when those targeted strikes give sustenance to the killers and kidnappers.

Syria murders 160 thousand men women and kids, make up to 6 million refugees (real ones not like the palestinians) mostly sunni folks.Iran and Hezbollah (and russian equipment assistance) rush in with advisors and in Hezbollah's case, troops.

this now spills over and the Sunnis, which is pissed about Iran, Hezbollah and Syria AND IRAQ take the battle to Iraq as well.

Isis and others will be creating a new Islamist state from Jordan to southern Iran. Kudistan is carving out it's place.

Someone posited that Jordan would have to enter a mutual defense treaty with Israel or become another bloody battlefield. I wonder what ruminations are passing through the mind of Abdullah II as he picks at his lunch, today?

As to the prowess of the IDF when facing the ISIS in battle, I think you know the answer. If you do have doubts, you may get your answer before too long. When the IDF smashes the ISIS like a bug, I wager the UN will be badmouthing the IDF within less than 24 hours, demanding proportionality, return of territory pacified, and an immediate halt to fighting.

Mr. Kerry will be on a plane to Tel Aviv faster than a blackbird on a June bug. Israel should insist that he drive up to the new Israeli Embassy in Jerusalem.

When the IDF smashes the ISIS like a bug, I wager the UN will be badmouthing the IDF within less than 24 hours, demanding proportionality, return of territory pacified, and an immediate halt to fighting.

Are you sure they're up to it? Seem to have had a spot of trouble in Lebanon, 2006. Reminded me of Jellico in the battle of Jutland when two of His Majesty's ships went down in short order. "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today."

Despite his shrewdness, Nasrallah has been a compulsive gambler for whom only one step separates success from catastrophe. For many years, he won, but in the summer of 2006, his winning streak was broken. First, he kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, sparking war with Israel; second, he chose after that war to challenge the Lebanese government of Fouad Siniora, plunging Lebanon into a long crisis and Hezbollah into the murky waters of Lebanese politics.

Nasrallah's gambles have transformed Hezbollah's identity and standing. The group gained the respect of many Lebanese, Arabs, and Muslims as it acquired the sheen of victory as a resistance movement. Now, however dominant Hezbollah is, it is developing into just another Lebanese political party, corrupted by its participation in day-to-day politics. Yet inside Lebanon, its record includes the terrible destruction it brought on the country through its unilateral actions. Worse, it is viewed increasingly as a narrowly-focused Shi‘i force serving as a tool, if not a fifth column, of Iran with the aim of advancing a host of Iranian interests—inside Lebanon, against Israel, and across the Sunni divide.[4]

Two years after Hezbollah's war with Israel, Lebanon is a divided country teetering on the verge of a civil war that is largely a result of Hezbollah's bellicosity toward Israel and its refusal to submit itself to the domain of politics with the rest of Lebanon. Hezbollah itself is a battered and bruised organization struggling to regain its standing inside Lebanon.

Meanwhile, two other realities are indisputable: First, since the 2006 war, quiet has prevailed along the Israeli-Lebanese border such as has not been known there since the late 1960s, prior to the arrival of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) forces in Lebanon. This quiet derives above all from Hezbollah's wariness of Israel. The organization is concerned that it and its supporters will not be able to withstand the strain of a new round of fighting. The second reality is Nasrallah's disappearance from public events. Prior to the 2006 war, it was customary for him to participate monthly in more than dozen meetings. For example, in October and November 2005, Al-Manar television and the Lebanese National News Agency reported twenty-eight public meetings, speeches, or media events. His need to remain hidden is a blow to someone who depends on frequent public exposure, and it reinforces the perception of Hezbollah's vulnerability to assassination and sabotage. Indeed, rumors are rife of Iranian dissatisfaction with Nasrallah. On the eve of Mughniyeh's assassination, reports circulated that Tehran had supplanted Nasrallah's leadership with his deputy leader Na‘im Qasim.[5] While both Nasrallah and Qasim denied the reports,[6] Iranian disappointment with Nasrallah's conduct during and after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and its belief that Nasrallah endangered Iranian interests by his uncalculated behavior has been evident in many reports in both the Lebanese and Arab media.[7]

On the morning of July 12, 2006, Hezbollah fighters attacked an IDF patrol moving along the Israeli-Lebanese border. Nasrallah later admitted that he had thought at the time that the Israeli response would be minor, localized, and limited, like past Israeli reactions to similar Hezbollah provocations.[10] Instead, the government of Israel launched an all-out war against Hezbollah.

The war lasted thirty-three days and brought ruin and destruction not witnessed since the end of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90) on the Lebanese side of the border, from the towns and villages in the south to the Shi‘i suburbs of Beirut. The fighting killed close to 1,300 Lebanese civilians, together with perhaps 600 Hezbollah fighters. Nearly a million Lebanese became refugees, including most of the Shi‘i population of southern Lebanon.[11]

As the war ended, Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah had won a "divine victory."[12] After all, Hezbollah had survived the Israeli assault and had quite a few successes in the fighting such as striking Haifa for the first time since 1948,[13] as well as hitting the Israeli military vessel, Hanit, off the Beirut shore on the evening of July 14, 2006.[14] However, the gains did not outnumber the losses. Hezbollah suffered severe blows during the fighting, hence Nasrallah's admission that if he realized there was even a one percent chance of a sustained military response from Israel, he would not have given orders to kidnap the Israeli soldiers.[15]

hence Nasrallah's admission that if he realized there was even a one percent chance of a sustained military response from Israel, he would not have given orders to kidnap the Israeli soldiers.

[18] Despite such a result, Lebanese Shi‘a had no choice but to rally around Nasrallah. There was no one else in Lebanon let alone at the U.N. or in the international community who cared about them. Communal Lebanese government leaders focused on the interests of the Sunni, Maronite, and Druze communities even though these communities barely suffered in the war. However, the damage inflicted on the Shi‘a clearly reduced Nasrallah's room for maneuver, as evidenced by his admission at the end of the war.[19]

As the weeks and months passed, the degree of damage inflicted on the organization's military power also became clear. It was just as painful and significant as the damage done to the organization's political power. First, Israeli forces destroyed Hezbollah's stockpile of strategic missiles, primarily Zilzal unguided rockets from Iran, during the first moments of the Israeli attack on the night of July 12, 2007. Nasrallah had hoped to use these missiles against central Israel. This was a severe blow to the Hezbollah leader, who lost an important bargaining chip even before the campaign began. Indeed, the precision of Israeli intelligence, which enabled Jerusalem to strike at the organization's strategic stockpile, surprised Nasrallah.[20]

Second, Israeli assessments estimate that Hezbollah lost about a third of its elite fighting force. While Hezbollah has no difficulty attracting volunteers to its ranks, turning them into skilled military operators is a lengthy and complex process.[21] Third, despite the mistakes made by the IDF in conducting the military campaign, Israeli soldiers triumphed in every face-to-face battle with Hezbollah.[22]

Nasrallah concealed these facts from the Lebanese people and perhaps even from Iran. Hezbollah fed reports of successes and victories to both audiences.[23] Despite the false reports, however, Tehran likely realized the scope of disaster Hezbollah had suffered, and there is no doubt that Nasrallah himself grasped the extent of the damage that had been done to his organization and himself.

In the wake of the 2006 war, the following facts have become clear: First, Hezbollah, which represented itself as the "defender of Lebanon," turned out to be its destroyer, due to the extensive devastation it brought down on the heads of the Lebanese people in the course of the war. Second, Hezbollah's deterrent charm was dispelled. The war made it clear that the organization could no longer carry out military operations against Israel along the Lebanese-Israeli border and expect Israel to refrain from retaliating. Third, Hezbollah was perceived more and more as a Shi‘i organization serving Iranian interests.

Thus, there is nothing surprising in the fact that since the war, Nasrallah has devoted himself to repairing and rebuilding his power while, at the same time, taking greater care than ever before to preserve the quiet along the Lebanese-Israeli border. He has no desire to rekindle the confrontation with Israel until his position in Lebanon has improved.

The Galloway comments were from April, McCain was standing with the Ukrainian Nazis in that time period, the Israeli were speaking of funding an exodus from the Ukraine.

Lo and behold, after the coup Mr Petro Poroshenko is elected and the leader of the "Right Sector" Sashko Muzychko was murdered.The Israeli announce that with the election of Mr Poroshenko, they will not fund the exodus program from Ukraine.

Today, there are 50,000,000 refugees, as many as from WWII. This horrifying fact and the equally horrifying fact that Islam is responsible for most of the misery gets about 1/1000th the news coverage of an Israeli soldier kicking some stone chucking punk squarely in the ass.

He calls his troops “the Blue Helmets of Maidan,” but brown is the color of the headgear worn by Delta — the nom de guerre of the commander of a Jewish-led militia force that participated in the Ukrainian revolution. Under his helmet, he also wears a kippah.

Delta, a Ukraine-born former soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, spoke to JTA Thursday on condition of anonymity. He explained how he came to use combat skills he acquired in the Shu’alei Shimshon reconnaissance battalion of the Givati infantry brigade to rise through the ranks of Kiev’s street fighters. He has headed a force of 40 men and women — including several fellow IDF veterans — in violent clashes with government forces.

Several Ukrainian Jews, including Rabbi Moshe Azman, one of the country’s claimants to the title of chief rabbi, confirmed Delta’s identity and role in the still-unfinished revolution.

In disproportionate retaliation for the murder of an Israeli teenager in the Golan, yesterday, the IAF put some major hurt on the Syrian Army, this morning. Both Syria and Hezbollah are bitterly crying out to various peace organizations concerning the Zionist aggression. Naturally, it is unconfirmed that PM Netanyahu replied, לפוצץ אותי.

Jack HawkinsMon Jun 23, 12:10:00 PM EDTThose ISIS fellas are smarter than the average Muslims.allen was correct when he made that observation some days ago.

Das Allen made no such observation.

Das Allen made the observation that as a culture (aggregate having a mean) Jews have higher IQs than the world's other cultures. While unstated, but derived from peer reviewed research from some of the world's most noted facilities and researchers, this deviation is 0.25-2.0. Having already posted on this site some of the research, I will not argue the point.

In dealing with tribal groups (including blogs), science cannot overcome superstition and conventional wisdom and must expect strong reactions when the tribal mores are challenged. As we quickly learned, even bitterly lapsed Roman Catholics and other pagans become quite loquacious and animated when doctrines in which they deny faith are critiqued by a Jew. I do not take it personally.

It was noted that Bob could not find a connection between the goings on in the Ukraine and Zionism.Which would be an indicator that he only reads the Mainstream News and watches TV.

In which case he would have missed out on these two stories, which are connected to the International Banking Cabal, whose key players are the cornerstone of modern Zionism.

(not satire – it’s the UK today!)

If you were in the centre of London today you might have noticed 50,000 people taking part in a massive march against the government’s austerity policies:

no more austerity (this is an image: seen @ http://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/austerity-protest-in-london-june-21st-2014/)

If you did notice, you’re doing better than most of the UK press who seem to have entirely missed it.

It seems the BBC are capable of tracking down a single Scot in Brazil who cheered a goal against England but fail to notice 50,000 demonstrating on their doorstep.

Then a much bigger story, that occurred in Iceland ...

Icelanders Overthrow Government and Rewrite Constitution After Banking Fraud-No Word From US Media

Can you imagine participating in a protest outside the White House and forcing the entire U.S. government to resign? Can you imagine a group of randomly chosen private citizens rewriting the U.S. constitution to include measures banning corporate fraud? It seems incomprehensible in the U.S., but Icelanders did just that. Icelanders forced their entire government to resign after a banking fraud scandal, overthrowing the ruling party and creating a citizen’s group tasked with writing a new constitution that offered a solution to prevent corporate greed from destroying the country. The constitution of Iceland was scrapped and is being rewritten by private citizens; using a crowd-sourcing technique via social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. These events have been going on since 2008, yet there’s been no word from the U.S. mainstream media about any of them. In fact, all of the events that unfolded were recorded by international journalists, overseas news bureaus, citizen journalists and bloggers. This has created current accusations of an intentional cover up of the story by mainstream U.S. news sources.

An “iReport” on CNN, written by a private citizen in May 2012, has questioned the reasons why this revolution has not been widely covered in the U.S., suggesting that perhaps the mainstream media is controlled by large corporate interests and thus has been unwilling to report on Iceland’s activities.

Read more athttp://guardianlv.com/2013/12/icelanders-overthrow-government-and-rewrite-constitution-after-banking-fraud-no-word-from-us-media/#ruBMWB8C6orqGzhV.9

Just because Leslie Moonves, Michael Eisner, Rubert Murdock and Brian L. Roberts do not want you to know about things happening in the world, does not mean you have to be ignorant of those goings on.

...those ungrateful Poles...after all the US has done for them...Well!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2664969/Polish-minister-calls-US-ties-worthless.htmlPolish foreign minister 'caught on tape dismissing relationship with U.S. as he compares it to giving oral sex and getting nothing in return'

But since it was all mainly on one subject it's pretty easy to summarize. I would merely observe that

1. In talking average IQ's one has to remember it is just that, an average. When we look at the average IQ for the Swedes, it becomes painfully obvious that Bob, like one or two others here, is ensconced comfortably in the low end of the bell curve.

2. Were Israel to fight ISIS, IMO it would be a great thing. Will it happen? Unless ISIS initiates a conflict, I would doubt it. I agree with Deuce on motivations.

3. WRT Jordan. The ISIS blitzkrieg has employed conventional war tactics in Iraq even though they operate out of little clown cars and the backs of pick-up trucks. While it worked in Syria which was already torn by civil war and Iraq which was torn by sectarian strife and was burdened by an army in name only, were they to attack Jordan in the same manner they would be quickly thwarted by Jordan's air force. The same would apply to Iran. I would think that if they attack Jordan it will be through terror and other asymmetric means. Probably the biggest threat Jordan has remains is its refugee problem and the tens of thousands of it has taken in.

allenMon Jun 23, 01:15:00 PM EDTJack HawkinsMon Jun 23, 12:10:00 PM EDTThose ISIS fellas are smarter than the average Muslims.allen was correct when he made that observation some days ago.

Das Allen made no such observation.

Das Allen made the observation that as a culture (aggregate having a mean) Jews have higher IQs than the world's other cultures. While unstated, but derived from peer reviewed research from some of the world's most noted facilities and researchers, this deviation is 0.25-2.0. Having already posted on this site some of the research, I will not argue the point.

In dealing with tribal groups (including blogs), science cannot overcome superstition and conventional wisdom and must expect strong reactions when the tribal mores are challenged. As we quickly learned, even bitterly lapsed Roman Catholics and other pagans become quite loquacious and animated when doctrines in which they deny faith are critiqued by a Jew. I do not take it personally.

Das Allen made the observation that as a culture (aggregate having a mean) Jews have higher IQs than the world's other cultures. While unstated, but derived from peer reviewed research from some of the world's most noted facilities and researchers, this deviation is 0.25-2.0. Having already posted on this site some of the research, I will not argue the point.

More pure nonsense from the resident nitwit.

How can you define the IQ of a Jew when you can't even agree on what is a Jew. Jews are scattered around the globe. The Jewish population probably includes every race. Do you measure by religion, ethnicity, race? What culture are you measuring, the US, Israel?

The largest concentration and recently the largest population of Jews is in Israel. A quick check of google shows that Israel doesn't appear near the top in any ratings of national IQ.

In dealing with tribal groups (including blogs), science cannot overcome superstition and conventional wisdom and must expect strong reactions when the tribal mores are challenged. As we quickly learned, even bitterly lapsed Roman Catholics and other pagans become quite loquacious and animated when doctrines in which they deny faith are critiqued by a Jew. I do not take it personally.

More nonsense.

No one complained about your 'critique' of Christian beliefs. What was complained about was your methods and the manner of presentation.

Jews find all those things amusing but simple minded, as IQ tests bear out. Indeed, some linguists posit that the very word Christian derives from the root word for "cretin" (Frankish), which means retarded (more or less). Oh, we Jews also think it is a good idea to know the language before translating the book or making moronic commentaries on its content, meaning, and implications.

The same arguments could have come from the Nazis in talking of the Jews or the Gypsies. Denigrate them. Give the eugenics argument. Use lies (IQ, what a joke). Misrepresent (offer an incomplete and misrepresented etymology). The "Das Allen' you used seems strangely apropos.

Even more telling is your use of "Jews find..." and "We Jews..." as if your 'master race' theories represent the totality of Jewish thought. Were that true, and if the Jews had the numbers and the power and based on other comments you have made here I suspect we might have seen a similar holocaust perpetrated by you and those that believe as you do.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.


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how much money do artists make from itunes or streaming services

I decided to write this post after stumbling across an article in The Atlantic titled “How Musicians Really Make Money in One Long Graph.” It showed how many monthly sales or streams an artist would have to achieve in order to earn monthly minimum wage. The information, which came from informationisbeautiful.net was unbelievable. But not unbelievable as in really surprising or shocking–literally unbelievable. For example, the article said that an artist would need over 4,000,000 streams per month on Spotify to make monthly minimum wage. After doing more research, I found that this claim is untrue, at least in many situations. This post will focus on how money is made from music downloading and streaming because I doubt physical music has much of a future. Although physical music was more popular than purchasing downloads in 2012, physical sales declined a whopping 12.8%, according to The Huffington Post. This post will use information about Spotify, Pandora, and iTunes because they are the most popular online music services, even though using Pandora when Spotify exists is like using a typewriter when you have a computer. I didn’t actually bother to check the claim that those three are the most popular, but how many people do you know that use Napster or Amazon? (Yes, Napster is still a thing and it does streaming now.)

spotify’s royalties

Spotify is a music streaming service that offers users three options: listening for free on a computer with ads, paying $5 a month to listen without ads, or paying $10 for being able to also listen on mobile devices and download music. The actual formula for calculating royalty payments for Spotify is very complicated, but Rolling Stone gave the royalty arrangement of one band manager. In that situation, if a song is streamed 60 times, the songwriter receives 9 cents and the artist receives 38 cents, which is then split with the label depending on the contract. Using the Rolling Stone rates, I calculated that an artist would make over $25,000, which would be split with a label, if people streamed their songs 4,053,110 times, the amount the Atlantic article says would be needed to make monthly minimum wage. I also calculated the combined amount that an artist and label would make using the Atlantic rates, which was over $7,500, less than a third of the money Rolling Stone reported would be made. Since the actual Spotify royalty formula is extremely complicated and is different for different artists, I checked a couple other sources to get an idea of which figure was generally more accurate. According to NPR, Erin McKeown, who doesn’t have a label, gets $0.004 per play, which means she would make over $16,000 if her music was streamed 4,053,110 times. A second Atlantic article, which came out after the unbelievable one, talks about how cellist Zoë Keating’s songs had been streamed 72,800 times and she only made $281.87, meaning she makes around $0.0039 per play, almost identical to the amount McKeown is payed (note that Keating’s figures are after CD Baby’s 9% commission). In a 2011 blog post titled “Spot the Spotify Payment,” independent artist David Harrell writes,

Without any promotion in the regions where Spotify is currently available, our total number of plays is relatively small, though our Spotify activity seems to be increasing each month. The per-spin payouts we receive via CD Baby are quite variable, ranging from around two hundredths of cent to more than one cent for each stream. (We also had a few spins that rounded out to ‘$0.00000000’ after CD Baby’s commission.) I’m assuming the payout amount depends on free vs. premium listens, as well the subscription prices in each region and currency exchange rates.

Harrell says that he made an average of approximately $0.0029 per play from August 2009 to March 2011 before CD Baby’s 9% commission, meaning he would make about $10,500 if his music was streamed the amount of times the first Atlantic article claimed was required to make monthly minimum wage (Harrell later made an updated post where he said the average payment for stream in June, 2012 was around $0.008). Just to clarify, McKeown, Keating, and Harrell are all independent artists. According to Keating:

Spotify does not pay the same per play to Indie rights holders as it does to Major labels. Majors are shareholders in Spotify and their deals are confidential. That matters to me, but doesn’t seem to matter to others.

Therefore, I can’t disprove the original Atlantic article, but the fact that information from three indie artists and Rolling Stone provide much higher royalty situations at least demonstrates that the Atlantic article greatly oversimplified Spotify’s royalty agreements. Also, it is important to mention that a 2013 New York Times article said the following about Spotify’s rates, further explaining how complicated the company’s payment methods are:

Spotify declined to comment on its rates, but according to a number of music executives who have negotiated with the company, it generally pays 0.5 to 0.7 cent a stream (or $5,000 to $7,000 per million plays) for its paid tier, and as much as 90 percent less for its free tier.

is spotify bad for artists?

Keating says she made over $45,000 dollars on iTunes from October 2011 to March 2012, the same time period when she made less than $300 on Spotify. Does this mean artists shouldn’t use the service? Not necessarily. Keating also explains:

I think Spotify is awesome as a listening platform. In my opinion artists should be view it as a discovery service, rather than a source of income. […] I wish Spotify would do more to facilitate the connection between listeners and artists — i.e show that the artist is playing nearby, or add links to buy music. It’s early days, so maybe this will happen eventually. [sic]

I know Spotify currently provides concert notifications because I can see them on my own account. There are other arguments to why Spotify is good for artists as well. For example, it could decrease the amount of piracy because people can stream as much music as they want on their computer for free, although there are ads. Also, it can lead people to listen to more obscure tracks that they otherwise wouldn’t download. I know this from my personal experience. Before I used Spotify, I would rarely buy music from iTunes, opting instead for using Pandora. When I did buy music from iTunes, I usually only purchased my favorite tracks from my favorite artists. With Spotify, I listen to many of my favorite artists’ less popular songs that I would not have purchased on iTunes and likely wouldn’t have shown up on Pandora. In general, I listen to much more music now that I have Spotify than when I used Pandora and iTunes. People being exposed to a greater amount and variety of music means that they are probably more likely to attend live shows.

The data is based on if an artist receives 16% of sales. Rolling Stone says that artists generally get 12-20% of sales, depending on their popularity. It is also important to note that an artist would get $0.89 if they were not on a label. iTunes does not only use $1.29 downloads, though. The aforementioned New York Times article says that “[o]n a 99-cent download, a typical artist may earn 7 to 10 cents after deductions for the retailer, the record company and the songwriter, music executives say.” However, that download is not specified to be from iTunes.

The rates go up every year, but the broad formula is that big ‘pure play’ companies, such as Pandora and Slacker, pay either 25 percent of their total revenue per year, or a little more than $.001 per song — whichever is greater. These payments go to a music-business collection agency known as SoundExchange, which then pays 50 percent of it to the copyright owner (usually a record label like Warner or Sony), 45 percent to the artist and 5 percent to non-featured performers. Smaller Internet radio companies pay slightly lower rates.

They also provide a graphic to illustrate this concept.

If you want to learn more about how artists make money in today’s complicated music industry, I recommend checking out David Harrell’s blog and money.futureofmusic.org. The latter site provides very in-depth information on how musicians make money.

Update: Since I wrote this post well over a year ago, there have been many more interesting articles written on this subject. Also, many celebrity musicians have weighed in on whether Spotify and other streaming services are good for the industry. Here are a few of the most notable celebrity opinions about Spotify, Pandora, etc.:

Taylor Swift pulled her entire catalog from Spotify. Her label claims that she earned less than $500,000 for US streams from the service in the 12 months prior to her music’s removal, less than she would make by selling 50,000 albums. Spotify says that she was paid $2 million for worldwide streams and would have been able to make $6 million a year if she stayed with the service.

Bette Midler made an anti-streaming tweet that got a lot of attention. However, her royalties do not seem typical; if you use the Pandora royalty rates from the Rolling Stone article, Midler should have made around $1,880. A Pandora spokesperson said that the company paid over $6,400 for Midler’s streams (I assume the spokesperson is referring to the total payment before it was divided between Midler and the label). I don’t know why Midler reports that her royalties were so low. Maybe she is in a bad situation with her label.

.@Spotify and @Pandora have made it impossible for songwriters to earn a living: three months streaming on Pandora, 4,175,149 plays=$114.11.

Nigel Godrich and Thom Yorke of Atoms for Peace made a series of tweets explaining why they’re pulling music off of Spotify. In an interview, Yorke called Spotify the “last desperate fart of a dying corpse.” Yorke’s other band, Radiohead, self-released their 2007 album online and let fans pay any price for it.

David Lowery of the band Cracker says that he was paid only $16.89 for over a million streams on Pandora of the song “Low,” which he owns 40% of. Using the Rolling Stone rates, he would have been paid a little over $200, so either Rolling Stone‘s or Lowery’s rates are inaccurate.

Aloe Blacc, who co-wrote and sang Avicii’s hit song “Wake Me Up,” wrote a piece in Wiredcalling for streaming services to “pay songwriters fairly.” He says that he was paid less than $4,000 by Pandora for co-writing the song, which was streamed over 168 million times in America. However, Pandora says it paid $250,000 to rights holders for “Wake Me Up,” so Blacc’s low royalties must be due to the way the money is split between the rights holders.

Jay-Z will likely acquire Aspiro, which owns both WiMP, a Scandinavian streaming service, and Tidal, the US and UK version of WiMP. Jay-Z’s company will pay $56 million if the deal goes through.

more interesting articles on streaming services

Streaming is credited with dramatically reducing the amount of music piracy in Norway. An International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) study showed that in 2009, 80% of Norwegians under 30 downloaded music illegally; in 2014, the rate had decreased to 4%. In the first half of 2013, total music sales in Norway increased by 17%, thanks to streaming.

Spotify now has a website called Spotify Artists, which explains the company’s royalty policy in detail. Spotify says that, on average, artists earn around $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream. (These rates mean that Laura Sheeran should have made around $240-$336 for 40,000 streams, instead of merely $16.) However, the company stresses that it does not pay a fixed royalty for every stream a song gets. The image below shows Spotify’s formula for paying out royalties. Since the label or publisher is paid royalties from Spotify and it then distributes them to the artist, the amount of money an artist makes from streaming varies depending on the artist’s contract.

Timecalculated the Spotify royalties for the most popular songs of 2014.

Cuepoint, a music blog, published an article with suggestions on how to improve Spotify’s royalty system. The author suggests that profits from users with paid subscriptions should be divided between only the artists that those users listened to. For example, if a user with a paid subscription listens to an obscure death metal band one time and then never uses the service again, that band should get all of the money from that user, instead of it being divided among all of the artists on Spotify, including ones that the user never played. Another blogger, Brendan Moore, made a post explaining what the new payout to artists would be from his subscription to Rdio, a streaming service similar to Spotify, if the company adopted the proposed royalty model.

If you’re interested in this subject and have a lot of time on your hands, you can read some of The Guardian‘s ten recommended articles about Spotify. If you really have a lot of time on your hands, you can read a 25-page essay by Aram Sinnreich, an assistant professor at Rutgers University, called “Slicing the Pie: The Search for an Equitable Recorded Music Economy.”


Q:

Restore local uncomitted changes in git

I've been working locally on a project, and once I was ready to commit my changes I did the following:
git add .
git add -A
git commit -m 'commit message here'
git push

Next git asked me to pull from the repo to get up to date changes. The repo was currently empty, in a past commit I deleted all the files.
So when I did the pull it deleted all the project files.
Without thinking I did a git git reset HEAD@{1} to undo the pull. I have no idea what happen, I just want my uncomitted changes back. I have a copies of the project, but not my uncomitted changes.
I did another git reset HEAD@{1} -- and it listed the uncommited files
When I did git reflog it list my commit that did not go to my remote server. Is it possible to recover those files? Or get my repo back to that state?
In reflog, this is where I need to get back to: 12a467c HEAD@{7}: commit: latest version 2015
Is this possible?

A:

In reflog, this is where I need to get back to: 12a467c

Well, then:
git checkout 12a467c

This will place you in that commit. At this point, you need to figure out how to recover your branch. Before contemplating the next step, you should do a
git checkout -b recovered-lost-branch

So it won't get lost, and you can switch to your branch, and figure out what to do next.


Q:

Supporting multiple class interfaces through templating and SFINAE

I have a class which is derived off a class provided in a third party library.
Between versions of the third party library, they promoted a member in one of their classes from private to public, but in the move, they deprecated a method for accessing the member. Example:
// Old class
class A
{
    public:
        int &GetA() { return a;}
    private:
        int a;
};

// NewClass
class A
{
    public:
        int a;
};

My code uses an instance of A, but I want my code to work with either version, in case someone hasn't updated the library.
class B
{
   public:

   int & ReturnA() { return GetInnards(m_a);}

   private:
   A    m_a;

  // If m_a has a GetA member function call this:
  template(typename aType)
  int & GetInnards(aType &a) { return a.GetA(); }

  // If m_a does not have an GetA() member function, call this:
  template(typename aType)
  int & GetInnards(aType &a) { return a.m_a; }
};

It seems like I should be able to use SFINAE, but I'm missing something.
Also, there is nothing I can test with an #ifdef, so I can't go that route. I need to detect if a method exists, and or if a member is public.

A:

Well... given a couple of template functions as follows
template <typename A>
constexpr auto hasGetA (A const &)
   -> decltype( std::declval<A>().GetA(), std::true_type{} );

template <typename ... Ts>
constexpr std::false_type hasGetA (Ts const & ...);

you can write your method
  template <typename aType>
  auto GetInnards (aType & a)
     -> std::enable_if_t<true == decltype(hasGetA(a))::value, int &>
   { return a.GetA(); }

  template <typename aType>
  auto GetInnards (aType & a)
     -> std::enable_if_t<false == decltype(hasGetA(a))::value, int &>
   { return a.a; }