But, I rarely take advantage of this capability. I have to, gulp, admit that I’m kinda addicted to this iTunes Music Store thing. Is it a new disorder? You betcha. And one I highly recommend catching.[Joe Wilcox]
How to Make a Sonic Purée From Pop Snippets
A new interactive program retrieves Internet song files, slices off audio snippets and blends them into sonic collages. [New York Times: Technology]
N.A.G is the app and on first pass it seems like it will be a lot of fun to use. You search for artists or songs and then it creates sonic landscapes based on your query. Jam on!
Last.fm: Music to Listeners’ Ears
An Internet radio station out of London is experimenting with a technique that automatically tailors the music it plays to individual listeners’ tastes. Some say the approach, which uses collaborative filtering, could prove revolutionary. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Seems very cool, but currently is not letting me sign up… can’t figure out if it is a mac thing or if they are just over-run with requests.
How Apple’s DRM works
The author of the excellent PodWorks iPod utility is working on reverse-engineering the DRM in Apple’s iTunes Store AAC files, documenting the ways in whcih the DRM restricts your use of the file, and how those restrictions may be defeated.Link [via Boing Boing]
iTunes hurts Creativity in Music?
Instead of tunes that were able to dodge the traditional commercially oriented gatekeepers by being attached to other tunes that did follow the rules of the game, each individual iTunes will be subject to the pressures of mass appeal. Consumers will likely purchase songs they know from radio, and thus become subject to the whims of programmers who are governed by commercial, not artistic, interests. iTunes allows a 30-second preview of songs, but we know that some of the best tunes don’t even get going in that time. The 30-second preview just reinforces the need for each tune to be catchy and pleasing right up front.[Salon.com Technology | iTunes — the “i” doesn’t stand for innovation]
Maybe, maybe not. I can’t say I agree with this perspective at all. There are benefits to both sides of the coin here. It is now easy for listeners to find and buy and listen to tracks and albums without even leaving home – legally. It’s all about choice – whether you want the whole album or just a song or two.
Personally I am an album buyer, though I have (disclosure) yet to buy anything from the iTunes Music Store. I find the experience is very similar to what you find in physical retail… You can sample some (either full or pieces) and buy either singles (from their section) or full albums.
The Real test of a music store…
The real test of any music store is its ability to move the chart toppers. While it’s great to sell and offer a deep catalog, the cost to run something like the apple store or Amazon/CDnow would be a losing proposition without major hits.
Checking the Apple store for today’s releases is unfortunatley disappointing in that regard… No Radiohead… No Ruben Studdard… and No Clay Aiken.
There are a few new releases listed for today (Tuesday is when new music is released publically by the way) but nothing from the big three for this week.
UPDATE – I stand corrected… There are now singles available by each of the finalists from American Idol, though no mention on their albums.
Major Music Stores on the Horizon?
Seems logical that everyone is taking a renewed interest in Music Stores thanks to the early success of the Apple efforts…[LaTimes via MacRumors]
Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and AOL Time Warner Inc.’s America Online unit are among the companies expected to launch services to compete with Apple’s 6-week-old iTunes store, which charges 99 cents to download a song onto a personal computer. Viacom Inc.’s MTV, another popular Web destination, is also exploring a download venture, according to sources.
It seems that only Microsoft could compete on the same level as Apple, bundling the store, the browser and the DRM scheme across devices. The magic of the store is how EASY it is to use and how EASY it is to use YOUR music. Because a purchased track is instantly available within a music library you can burn it, copy it to your iPod or stream it to another Mac. Microsoft is the only player that seems to be able to do most of that from within the Media Player. Real could get there, I supopse with their jukebox software, but they have not taken the download idea to seriously instead choosing to go for the streaming approach.
Jobs vows no payola
The iTunes Music Store won’t take money to promote acts, according to an independent record distributor’s report of comments made by Apple’s CEO at a private briefing. [CNET News.com]
Hail to the Thief…
Order the new Radiohead from amazon, or see if it shows up at the apple store… I could also stream it from MTV and grab it with AudioHiJack…
Unfortunately the Apple Store currently has no Radiohead, so it seems that Amazon is the best option for now.
BEATS PER MINUTE
Does anyone know of a Mac OS X native audio application that can measure the beats per minute of an existing audio file?… [Mr. Barrett]
As a matter of fact I do… iTunes BPM Inspector
Does the FCC have a license to broadcast?
I had the FCC press broadcast on today in the background while doing some emails and noticed that both before and after the press conference they played some pretty lively jazz music. Is this music that was licensed for broadcast or just something they felt like sharing I wonder…
Microsoft prepares reply to iTunes
As the recording industry swoons over Apple’s 99 cent download store, the software giant renews its bet on more-advanced subscription services. [CNET News.com Entertainment & Media]
Will it be a premium service for MSN, or just a service that runs Windows only?
Krakow Responds…
Gary Krakow responds this week to the response he received to his pretty negative review of the iTunes Music Store from last week…
I’ve received thousands of e-mails in the past week on the subject of Apple’s new iTunes Music Store. Many wrote to say they couldn’t hear the sound quality differences I spoke about, others said I should have been more clear that the problems with compressed music go beyond Apple’s format. And, of course, there were the usual e-mails from people who think Bill Gates dictates every word I write. Below is a sampling of the more printable reader reaction, along with my responses.
New: MP3-to-AAC Converter
From Italy comes a drag-and-drop MP3-to-AAC converter that promises better quality than iTunes while freeing space for more tunes. [Macintouch]
Jobs interview in Time
Cool article with Steve Jobs in Time on the iTunes Music Store
iTunes 4 – total track limit removed
iTunes 4 seems to have corrected the “limit” at 15,000 tracks. I have roughly 20K tracks and the app seems to be working just fine! This is great news as it was not easy to manage an iPod with either multiple libraries or another app. Even though Audion is nice, it is nowhere as easy to deal with an iPod as iTunes.
Ground Control to Major Tom…
Apple Said to Be Entering E-Music Fray With Pay Service
In a move that thrusts it into the contentious area of digital commerce, Apple Computer plans to introduce an online music service. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on. (let the news begin!)
Apple Music Service: the good and the bad…
Though Apple declined to comment before the announcement, those who have used the new service say it’s as easy as buying a book on Amazon.com. Recommendations based on listeners’ preferences are plentiful; the system seamlessly interplays with Apple’s free iTunes jukebox software and with the iPod.
Downloads of single tunes are available at sites such as Bestbuy.com and Samgoody.com, but the offerings aren’t very deep and pricing is all over the map. The new Madonna single, American Life, is available for $1.49 at BestBuy, while Before You Love by Kelly Clarkson is $2.49. Apple is expected to have a much wider selection and consistent pricing, with songs that easily can be moved to portables or burned to CDs.
Wolpert argues that for all the expected hype from Apple chief Steve Jobs about the convenience of buying single tunes, “on Rhapsody you get unlimited songs for $9.95. So if you found 50 songs to listen to, it would cost $9.95. On the Apple service, that 50 would be $50. That could be a problem.”
my digital obsession
Since I am now way past the 15,000 track usable limit of iTunes my options for managing and listening to music day to day have had to change. For streaming music to my stereo, at work or on my laptop, I work with SliMP3 which allows me to use my browser or the IR remote with my stereo to control the tracks.
On our desktop computer I have been playing with an interesting player/manager called MP3 Voodoo. By far the most interesting feature is “view by cover” which is like having all of your albums on your desktop. You see everything, sort and select as you might normally expect, but the focus is mainly visual. Of course you need to have the covers saved (as cover.jpg) in each album folder of MP3s that you collect… Seeing the covers is a great way to recall what you have and also explore music you might not have listened to in a while. They can also be reviewed while listening much like you might have an album out on your coffee table as you listen.
SliMP3 is about to support covers which will let you view the cover of albums that are playing, though you will still be limited to choosing what to listen to by the usual text options.
Since covers don’t automatically get pulled in with albums that get ripped (in any app I have tried), the process is unfortunately pretty manual. There are a few apps that can find covers, but they have been less than perfect and actually pull down the occasional incorrect picture, which kills any faith you might have for things to run in large batches. My solution is an espresso of two (or three) and some time to kill. This weekend was very successful for cover retrieval, but I am sure there will be many more filled with tracking down the rest. I think my current album count is over 1800 at the moment… I am sure it will continue to grow!
Apple to Buy Universal Music Group?
Seems like it may actually happen according to the NY and LA Times…
With a bid of between 5 and 6 Billion, Steve Jobs could become the most powerful man in the music business.