Apple Bans Developer for Bogus Reviews on iTunes
Normally I just write about music and guitars on this site, but Doug Marks, the guy behind the Metal Method DVD Course, let me know about a pretty serious issue: the proliferation of bogus review sites and misleading Google ads. For most people, guitar lessons are a hobby, but for Doug it's how he makes a living. So he has a vested interest in getting this problem fixed.
I blogged about it on InfoWorld:
These sites purport to provide objective evaluation of consumer products, but they are simply paid advertisements. The sites are typically either selling the products or receiving a kick-back or commission for referrals. If you dig into these sites its not uncommon to see half a dozen similar sites with the same format and content, but slightly varied graphics. I have no idea whether these sites make much money, but the fact that there are so many, is a strong indicator. Even Google is benefiting from the ad words these sites are running.
Doug has exposed some of the dubious practices among his competitors and has raised the issue to Google. But so far, no response. And its not just scams about guitar and piano lessons. There are fake review sites on language instruction, vitamin supplements, exercise equipment and even software packages. I don't know if the competing guitar instruction sites are good or not, but it makes me suspicious when someone goes to the trouble of creating these kind of misleading ads.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons the FTC's is requiring bloggers to disclose their financial relationships effective December 1. And hopefully it will get tougher for these scam sites to operate.
Apple Removes Developer from iTunes
Interesting note that today, Apple uncovered a developer who was posting bogus reviews for their applications on iTunes. Apple wasted no time in removing all of the developers applications and their reviews for violating Apple's iTunes policies. Looks like at Apple takes this a lot more seriously than Google does.
Have you seen these bogus guitar lesson review sites? If you've used any of these other products, let me know what you think of them. In fairness, I should also say that I'm an affiliate with Metal Method.
Sometimes when you're playing guitar it feels like someone is adjusting the suck knob the wrong way. I don't know that there's a cure for this other than practice, practice, practice. But here's some links to some resources that might be helpful.
, The Far Side Gallery
Yngwie Malmsteem is one of the uber-shredders of the guitar world, up there with Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert and Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap. Not your cup of tea? Well, it's a pretty, ah, specialized area with an audience that is becoming "more selective," if you know what I mean. This parody showcases Yngwie's special talents quite well...
And as a bonus, here's Nigel's classic guitar solo where he outdoes Jimmy Page's use of the violin bow from the funniest rock and roll movie ever, " This Is Spinal Tap
As Spinal Tap's David St Hubbins says, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."
Over on the left margin in the Sponsor links you'll see a new link from Alltop, the "online magazine rack" created by top-rated blogger, enterpreneur, and hockey fanatic Guy Kawasaki. Alltop now has now added a new category guitars.alltop.com (which features this site along with, GuitarFlame, GuitarNoise, GuitarNoize(!) and many other good sites with goofy names.)
I've met Guy many times over the years and he's one of the nicest (and smartest) guys in the tech industry. His blog, "How to Change the World," is a must-read for startup companies who want to build great products. He's recently published a book called "Reality Check" which culls some of the best material from his blog including essays on the "Top 10 Lies of Entrepreneurs," "How to Bootstrap a Company" and "Hindsights" his speech to graduates which is his recommendations to kids going out into the world includes this gem:
Learn to play a musical instrument. My only connection to music today is that I was named after Guy Lombardo. Trust me: it's better than being named after Guy's brother, Carmen. Playing a musical instrument could be with me now and stay with me forever. Instead, I have to buy CDs at Tower.
I wish I'd taken guitar more seriously earlier in my life; instead I wasted years working hard and studying. But I'm making up for it now by playing guitar and hanging out in low-life bars. If you're in your twenties or thirties, trust me on this. You will never have as much time to learn a musical instrument as right now.
Alltop also has other categories that might be of interest including Music, Gadgets, Photography, Movies, Books, Running, Tech News, and Startups. Or at least these are the topics I find interesting. Alltop is growing every day and there are now hundreds of different categories. Check it out, you will find a few gems in here.
Maybe life as a rockstar isn't so bad after all, at least according to these photos of Bono cavorting with bikini-clad students while on vacation in St Tropez, France. But where's guitar player The Edge? No doubt he's off practicing scales or testing out some new Line 6 gear. Who wants to hang out with a bunch of underage girls anyways...
My wife and I went to see The Rocker last night. I'm a big fan of Rainn Wilson, especially in his role as Dwight, the clueless cubicle dweller in The Office. So I had high expectations going in, along the lines of Spinal Tap meets The Office. Forget it. This movie is the worst rock movie I have seen in ages. Maybe the worst rock movie ever.
I can forgive the premise of a Pete Best type story of a drummer who gets booted from his band just before their career takes off and then 20 years later takes up with some high school kids to give it another shot. And I can forgive the pop pastiche songs, which were better than I had feared. But what can't be forgiven is that there's no humor in this movie. The writing is without humor or dramatic tension. So what you're left with is the equivalent of a Disney after school special. What's worse is the movie has a great cast with SNL and 30 Rock alumni including Jason Sudeikis as the slimey record company rep, camoes by Amy Poehler, and Fred Armisen, Will Arnett and Lonny Ross who make up the fictional Vesuvius in the style of GnR. Unfortunately, the funniest people in the movie have a total of about 6 lines and not a single joke between them. All tolled there are maybe 2 decent jokes in the entire movie. One features Pete Best though it's not even clear until you see the credits.
This is a dud of a movie. Don't go see it and don't even rent it on DVD. Just avoid it. If you want a great rock comedy movie, check out Spinal Tap, Still Crazy, my favorite of the genre.
Like most blogs, I have a list of recommended sites over on the right-hand side of my blog. Some of these are links to companies and some link to other blogs. One of my favorites is GuitarFlame, a blog by Ovidiu Oprescu, a 31-year old guitar player from Romania with 14 years of guitar playing under his belt. Ovidiu's blog is a great read for any guitar player. He mixes it up with news, editorial, insights into live playing, you name it. And even if the English isn't always perfect, it's quaint and definitely better than my Romanian!
I don't think I've ever gone to his site and not learned something, whether it's about AC/DC's use of an Fm chord in their new album, Jeff Becks' 22 year-old bass player, the fastest guitar player in the world, or modelling guitars. He's also a regular commentor on this blog and even though I haven't met him in person, he seems like a really nice guy with a passionate flame for music. Ovidiu is a gold medalist when it comes to blogging. So wander over to GuitarFlame and cozy up to the fire!
Ok, I'm behind. I've had a lot of travel recently and more coming up, so bear with me. I've got half a dozen stories in the queue which I'll try to complete in the next few weeks. You can expect some reviews of recent music by The Hellacopters and Vampire Weekend, a review of the very funny book "Rock On" by Dan Kennedy, as well as Don Felder's "Heaven & Hell" memoir of his time in The Eagles. I'll also take a look at the guitar instruction site Infinite Guitar, a report on my visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Oh yeah, and I've been banging on an awesome Washburn custom HM 526 guitar and a very affordable Randall KH15 Kirk Hammett practice amp. So expect a write up on those also. Any day now. No, I'm not selling them on ebay. I swear.
And if we're lucky, I'll also get a guest posting on Soul Detective, a great site for out-of-print R&B music and maybe something to deal with dreaded Guitar Acquisition Syndrome.
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