While I doubt it is actually art from an alien species (Oh Lord, do I have
to defend my view now? Note I said "doubt", not "I am absolutely certain
about this!"), the idea itself is certainly not impossible.

Of course art is quite subjective, so that may not be the best way to
start a conversation with another species that more likely than not does
not know your language, to say nothing of your patterns of thought or
other aspects of your culture.

But then again, who knows how an alien might think? Sending art or music
across the galaxy would be a rather sophisticated indicator of intelligence
and non-threatening gesture towards opening a dialogue with others. Or
maybe the guy tapped in to an interstellar version of PBS.

I would hope that some real scientists would check into this guy's claims,
but he will probably be dismissed in that area, which is a shame.

I wonder: Did he get the "signals" from SETI@Home, which is what I am
assuming based on his claim that they were from Arecibo. Has anyone
else analyzed the signals? Maybe this is all just a "hoax", but one designed
to make people aware of the wider possibilities through art.

I have to say I like the idea that the galaxy is humming with music piped
between the stars, like interstellar musac. Note - this is just speculation.
I can't back it up at the moment nor am I trying to strongly defend the idea,
I freely admit this.

Don't worry, Phil - you can critique his idea, my idea, and any others to your
hearts content. I have already said we are more on the same page than you
seem to think when it comes to analyzing claims through the filter of science,
but if you'd rather get into a fight about semantics and miss the overall picture,
that's up to you.