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Music Businesses The Internet Technology

Amazon Gags On Gaga 180

Posted by Roblimo from the ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga dept.
theodp writes "Having hawked Google Chrome over the weekend with an ad that aired on SNL, Lady Gaga turned her attention Monday to hyping Amazon's Cloud Player service. Fans were delighted to learn that they could download Gaga's entire 'Born This Way' album for a mere $0.99, until technical difficulties set in. 'Amazon is experiencing high volume and downloads are delayed,' Amazon said in a statement. 'If customers order today, they will get the full Lady Gaga, Born This Way album for $0.99. Thanks for your patience.' Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service, lowering the album's rating to three stars. So, was that karma for upstaging Donald Knuth at the Googleplex?"
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Amazon Gags On Gaga More

Amazon Gags On Gaga

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  • Amazon Gags on Gaga (Score:5, Funny)

    by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @12:29PM (#36229260) Homepage
    Amazon has better taste than I thought.
    • I don't think her music can stand on its own, but I enjoyed her performances on SNL as visual spectacle. I am not sure how her performances are supposed to be taken, or if she even has anything particular in mind; maybe it's unintentionally funny, or maybe that is the intention.

      • Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga (Score:4, Interesting)

        by obarthelemy ( 160321 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @01:37PM (#36230058)

        The girl can sing, and write lyrics and music. Can't dance though. Some of her songs are very good in their unplugged versions, and she does not shy away from catering to mainstream tastes with overproduced studio versions, videos, and her looks.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiqHICcqi9s [youtube.com] for an unplugged pokerface
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zet3eLu-ms#t=2m43s [youtube.com] just for fun, another good unplugged something else, by someone else.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Muros ( 1167213 )
          Thanks for that. Neither is the kind of thing I'd really listen to, more of a hard rock/metal type guy but I really enjoyed those.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by blair1q ( 305137 )

        Think Busby Berkeley meets Grace Jones.

      • Re:Amazon Gags on Gaga (Score:4, Interesting)

        by thomst ( 1640045 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @04:25PM (#36232082) Homepage

        I don't think her music can stand on its own, but I enjoyed her performances on SNL as visual spectacle.

        Speaking as a singer/songwriter/musician, I have to disagree. Gaga's material is not really my cup of coffee, but she certainly can write compelling songs. She sings very well, too - her voice is powerful, well-trained, and has decent range. And she can play a variety of instruments quite capably. (Before she became a pop star, she made her living as a session pianist in the demanding and very competitive world of NYC recording studios. You don't get those jobs because of hype - you have to be very, very good on your instrument.)

        As I say, dance pop is really not my thing. At all. But, out of curiosity, I watched her "Monster Ball" HBO special. Relentless pandering to her audience and her obvious self-esteem issues aside, under all the glitz and spectacle, I was pleasantly surprised at her songwriting and performance chops. In particular, her new single, "Born This Way", with which she closed the show, is a genuine pop anthem - and, behind the closing credits, her a capella reprise of its chorus was even more powerful than the kitchen-sink production number that preceded it.

        As for the "visual spectacle" aspect of her show, her (occasionally tiresome) speeches to the audience made it quite clear that she cultivates a fan base of people who consider themselves social outcasts - and gays, in particular. Since outrageous flamboyance is pretty much the sine qua non of gay pop culture, hers makes perfect sense, when seen in that context.

        Anyway, I don't plan to buy her albums, but I have gained considerable respect for her as a writer, singer, and musician.

  • Humm.. paints bad. (Score:3)

    by Tei ( 520358 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @12:29PM (#36229266) Journal

    As a user of Reddit, this is not news to me. Reddit is down more than any other normal website, and seems something to do with some *magical words here* from Amazon.

    I have read somewhere that the cloud is a good solution for scalability. Maybe the Amazon Cloud sould search for a Cloud hosting solution :D

    It seems Amazon has the skill to cut wikileaks money, but lack the skill to create a proper cloud.

  • Personal anecdote: I had no problems at all downloading the album.

    • Re:There is no such thing as karma. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Haedrian ( 1676506 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @12:35PM (#36229348)

      I'd say the fact that you successfully downloaded the album in question is a sign of bad karma.

      • Re:There is no such thing as karma. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by cpu6502 ( 1960974 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @12:51PM (#36229546)

        >>>I'd say the fact that you successfully downloaded the album is a sign of bad karma.

        The music you listen to isn't any better. (Probably.) I like Gaga's songs, and radio music in general, which has led a lot of friends to criticize me for it. So I naturally ask, "What do you listen to?" and then they play stuff that sounds, amazingly, like the stuff on the radio. (Except with an 'alternative' label.)

        Point: People are so damn quick to criticize other people's tastes. And I'm sick of it. If that guy wanted to download Gaga's album for 99 cents, big fucking deal. It's HIS life, not yours, so stop insulting the man.

        • I'm with you! I listen to nearly everything (not much country though) depending on my mood.

          Lady Gaga is actually a very good singer. You can find her old stuff on youtube that she did pre being famous. Her current act is all about entertainment with music and visuals and I think she delivers.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by icebike ( 68054 )

            I tend to agree.

            But Gaga on MP3 is better than Gaga on Youtube.

            As you say, she can actually sing, unlike so much else of what passes for pop culture these days.
            She is a distraction to her own music, which stands by itself. You might say her music does not need HER.

            I prefer without the visuals.

        • Agreed. I like Lady Gaga. I find it interesting that there seems to be so much vitriol on a site popular with geeks towards a woman who was heavily inspired by things like Metropolis. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, they all stink.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by praxis ( 19962 )

            If all opinions stink, then would you like to live in a world where there was no opinion? Opinions are what make us.

        • Not only that, but they neglect to realize that there would be no 'alternative' without a mainstream...

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by jd ( 1658 )

          If you can find this [youtube.com] on the radio, I'd be impressed. Same with these guys [youtube.com] or these [youtube.com]. Radio just doesn't play the stuff I listen to. Ever.

          Now, your point of not judging other people's music, that I can agree with 100%. Except for rap, though I suppose I'll allow two [youtube.com] exceptions [youtube.com], so I guess it's less a rule and more an opinion. Yeah, I quite agree that it's their life, their choice in music, etc. I'm not a fan of Gaga but that doesn't give me any right to judge those who are. I do question the inclusion of some

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

          Actually I find her music too be okay. But if you like her that is great. That is the funny thing when I went back and got a much of the music I really liked from my youth and listened to them I realized one thing. Most of them are really bland. I wonder how many people will feel the same in 20 years. Oh and the music that I used to really like that I now think is bland. I still kind of like it. Not because it is great but because of the memories it brings back.
          If you like Lady Gaga then you like like Lady

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Zerth ( 26112 )

        Some of us only bought it for the free 20 gigs of cloud storage.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by chill ( 34294 )

          Ditto. For $0.99, I just had it store the album in my cloud drive. I may use the storage at some time.

          Though in all honesty, I prize bandwidth more than storage space. I can't envision seriously using teh clouds without a hell of a lot more bandwidth. Thinking about how all this won't scale at the office if EVERYONE tried to do it at once...

          • Or worse, consider how fast the cloud hype ship will crash when employers start blocking the cloud at work.

            Since mobile internet already has tight caps, there's not much else use for the cloud.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by cpu6502 ( 1960974 )

        >>>>>I had no problems at all downloading the album.
        >>
        >>I'd say the fact that you successfully downloaded the album in question is a sign of bad karma.

        -1 Adult Acting Like a Teenager Who Never Learned Any Manners "Any comments that hurt or insult others are Not Acceptable."

    • Re:There is no such thing as karma. (Score:4, Funny)

      by coinreturn ( 617535 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @12:38PM (#36229384)
      There's a "Post Anonymously" checkbox, you know?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by b0bby ( 201198 )

      I downloaded about half the songs before it died on me; now it says it has been too long & I can't finish the download. I figured my kids would want it & for $0.99 it *should* have been easier than TPB. But no, now I have a ticket open with Amazon. I've had good luck buying their mp3s before, so I guess I'll let this one slide.

  • Thanks for inappropriate ratings (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Duradin ( 1261418 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @12:31PM (#36229300)

    Thanks for making the ratings less useful.

    You may think you're all-important and that your one time shipping experience should mean as much as someone who is reviewing the actual usefulness and quality of the product but all you're doing is adding more useless noise to the reviews.

    So hats off to you Mr. Garbage-In.

    • Agreed. That annoys me too when people down rate a product because of some problem unrelated to the quality (or lack thereof) of the product itself.

      • Which is why you always read a majority of the ratings.

        I've bought stuff with a 2.5 rating because all of the 1 stars were "Amazon was slow" "Reseller double charged me". One person wrote a scathing review of a Canon camera because it didn't come with batteries (AA) or an SD card. All the 5 star reviews were reviews of the product.

        • I hope in that case you click on the "No" for the "Was this review helpful for you?" question.

          (Just like I mark non-reviews on netflix as non-reviews.)

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MozeeToby ( 1163751 )

      But... they're not getting me my (nearly) free stuff fast enough! I'm deserve to get this album now because they told me that I could have it and I want it now and if I can't have it now I'm going to do whatever I can to hurt them.
      [/sarcasm]

      Honestly, people complain about food stamps and medical care being the problem with the entitlement generation, but I really don't have a problem with feeling entitled to basic human needs. The idea that you are entitled to the latest Lady Gaga album, and being so angr

    • Indeed. I'm not a huge fan of the Gaga, but down rating her album because Amazon is having problems is like saying the album sucks becasue the store you bought it in has roaches. It's unfair to her, and unfair to others who are trying to judge the quality of the product.

    • Amazon need to add a rating system for service/delivery etc for the morons who don't understand the purpose of the rating system that exists but who also need an outlet to complain about their experience.

      It might seem like people are abusing the system (and that's true) but it's more true that the system is failing to adequately deal with a phenomenon that exists and isn't going away any time this millenia.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Not to mention that a lot of people would still rate all other options negatively anyway, out of spite. Given the people in the story, I'd say they're very, very spiteful.

          When's the last time you saw an e-bay review saying "Instead of office chair package contained bobcat. Would not buy again." (xkcd) and then proceed to give 5 stars for shipping?

          As it is, the vast majority of reviews are either all 5 stars or all 1 star (or 0 stars, whatever the minimum is), instead of actual individual ratings.

    • I see this all the time on apps. People downrate the app because they failed to download it while driving in a tunnel under Antartica in a lead-lined car during a solar flare.

    • Well, how else are we pissed-off customers supposed to rate Amazon for poor service (or worse: damaged goods that were supposed to be "new" in quality)?

      I don't see a rating bullet for amazon.com anywhere? And there should be. So until there is, I'd downrate their product and let other customers know if it's poorly packaged, or not-as-advertised (like when I purchased a 10-game anthology that was only 5 games).

    • Thanks for making the ratings less useful.

      Just like the Slashdot polls, the ratings are wildly inaccurate. "If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Shippy ( 123643 )
      I know, right? I'm not a huge Gaga fan, but hey, $0.99 is a steal. When I went to purchase the album, there was a clear indication on the page that downloads were delayed. I just left my Amazon Downloader going and it was still done in only a couple hours. Some people are just whiners.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by bkpark ( 1253468 )

      Thanks for making the ratings less useful.

      It depends on what you are trying to get out of the ratings. If the rating is meant to reflect the entire purchasing experience, it's entirely appropriate that the overall rating should include how pleasant it was to buy from a particular vendor.

      Yes, if you want to use the rating to gauge to product and buy it elsewhere, rather than the site where you found the ratings, including the vendor performance would make the rating less reliable for you, but it's you who are using the rating in an unapproved manner

      • If I want the "entire purchasing experience" I'll wander on down to an Apple store.

        When I want product A to go from warehouse B to doorstep C I use Amazon. If it's poorly packaged or something goes wrong with the shipping there's appropriate feedback channels with Amazon, which are not the product reviews.

    • So hats off to you Mr. Garbage-In.

      Scary thought: These are some of the people that vote in elections.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PhxBlue ( 562201 )
        If American Idol is any indication, people get far more involved with entertainment than they do with politics. So some of them probably do vote in elections, but a lot more of them probably don't.

    • These people do not know how to separate the Gaga album from the Amazon service. I see it all the time on the http://what-is-what.com/ [what-is-what.com] website: people rate the product or service under discussion instead of rating the article, even though the rating form is very clear.

    • A person's ability to use a given product is definitely a consideration in the quality of that product. Some users' experience in trying to use the product was poor, therefore they gave it a poor rating.

      If the "product" is an mp3 copy of a Lady Gaga album then the ratings are valid because they couldn't receive the item as the terms of the sale agreed.

      Even if the "product" is a license to listen to digital reproductions of a Lady Gaga album then the ratings are still valid because their inability to a

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lahvak ( 69490 )

      It depends how you interpret the ratings. Interpreting the ratings as a measure of quality of the actual album is flawed, as only people who are interested in the album, and mostly people who will actually purchase it will rate it. I personally would give the album the lowest available rating based on the stuff I have heard from it, but I and other people like me are not very likely to go there and rate it. So the rating cannot be in any way an objective measure of quality of the album.

      If you, on the oth

  • GugaGaga (Score:5, Informative)

    by wasimkadak ( 1960958 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @12:32PM (#36229302)
    Didn't care much about the album. The 20GB cloud storage offered with it seemed worth it.

    • When they just opened, they gave out 20Gb to anyone who'd make any album purchase, and there were in fact a bunch of $0.99 albums there on day 1.

    • Indeed, and if you bought a CD recently, you get a dollar off the download, so I got the download, and 20GB of storage for a year, for nothing. Order #: D01-7112762-2631304 Subtotal of items: $0.99 Discounts/Promotions: - $0.99 ------ Total before tax: $0.00 Tax Collected: $0.00 ------ Total for this Order: $0.00

    • There were/are many other cheap albums (though not AS cheap, but still). Personally, I liked getting my 20GB with the purchase of The Who's Greatest Hits on sale for, iirc, $2.99.

      • Yeah, each month Amazon rotates a bunch of albums into the $5 or less category. I usually scan through and find a couple things I want, and been having luck trying a bunch of new to me classical music.

        • Yeah, it is nice. Though I usually find Independent artists that I like and pay full price for, and feel good about doing.

  • "Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service"

    Fortunately those people are morons so we can disregard their silly protest. Amazon should cancel those one-star ratings, but then they'd be accused of censorship, influencing the rating, etc. The whole thing sounds a bit silly to me.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Quirkz ( 1206400 )
      Yeah, I'm always confused when the product is fine, but people rate it low because of delivery problems. What does the delivery have to do with the quality of the product? Should be separate ratings, especially for some place like Amazon, where you know what the delivery process is like.
  • ...apparently, this would be the best way to DDoS Amazon :).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rednip ( 186217 )

      Anonymous should have used an album...apparently, this would be the best way to DDoS Amazon :).

      Yea, throw money at them until they buckle from the traffic!

  • I thought it was put to rest that Lady Gaga does not have a penis. Is this new evidence?

  • A Day Late and $6 short (Score:5, Informative)

    by VGPowerlord ( 621254 ) on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @12:41PM (#36229416)

    So, I saw this and went to Amazon, only to find out that the "today" mentioned in the summary/article was yesterday, May 23rd. /. editors REALLY need to:
    1. Post stories sooner.
    2. Fact check.

    • So, I saw this and went to Amazon, only to find out that the "today" mentioned in the summary/article was yesterday, May 23rd.

      You think that's bad. An official sales representative for an electronics company mailed me to inform that part of my order will be available last May 25th (bit lost in translation. For the Dutch: "25 Mei jl.")

      I don't know if I'm dealing with time-travelers or file a complaint that despite the item being available for a day shy of a year they haven't sent it to me yet.

  • Look at the big picture:
    Gaga's going to make boat loads of cash from her 0.99 album, Amazon's going to give her a nice gift (more cash) for promoting their cloud service, Gaga got media headlines on this, more people are aware of Gaga (more popular) and will likely sell more stuff in the long run.

    and.... Don Knuth is still... Don Knuth... Now who was he again?

    Karma is only karma if everyone appreciates it. Otherwise it's religion and no one cares.

  • Other than this being a story digging on Amazons cloud performance, why exactly should I give two shits about Lady Gaga and her ability to whore out her music? IMHO, 99 cents is overpriced.

    And yes, people abuse the star rating system for stupid crap such as slow shipping...been going on for years.

    • Have you ever noticed how different people care about different things? Yeah... this is one of those cases.

  • "That ain't no woman, that's a man, man!"

  • In soviet russia... (Score:4, Funny)

    by numbski ( 515011 ) <numbski&hksilver,net> on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @02:07PM (#36230400) Homepage Journal

    ...Lady Gaga gags on you? Soviet Russia might be better than I'd first thought!

  • Amazon's not alone.

  • Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service, lowering the album's rating to three stars.

    Stroke of fucking genius. Next time I do a restaurant review the taxi driver better not get lost on the way home, or I'll say the wine was piss and the food wasn't fit for pigs.

  • What was described is really one of my pet peeves about online ratings systems. The ratings system at Amazon is clearly intended for the product itself, but you'll often see lower marks because of something unrelated to the product (e.g., shipping times, difficulty reaching the seller). To me, that destroys the value of the ratings system.

    I often refer to customer ratings at Amazon and other online retailers when making my own purchase decisions [Full disclosure: I'm a regular reviewer at Amazon.] Often

  • Some frustrated users meted out one-star ratings for the album as their way of protesting Amazon's slow service, lowering the album's rating to three stars

    I didn't see the ad, but happened to see it show up in my Amazon MP3 app on my phone due to the popularity. Listening to the album snippets, I assure you, it deserves the three stars.

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