9 posts tagged “itunes”
Microsoft, please cease all efforts to compete in the portable music player/online music store space. You're embarassing yourselves.
I remember a time, early on in the iPod's domination, when some bigwig or other at Microsoft slagged off the iTunes Store ecosystem, saying it didn't give customers choice. It didn't take them long to release the Zune and the Zune Marketplace, effectively copying the Apple model wholesale... albeit totally ineffectively.
Oh, and by the way, early on the Zune couldn't play files from Microsoft's partners' stores that used their similar but incompatible PlaysForSure DRM. Oopsies! Needless to say, the devices didn't sell well, but that may be because they were only available in the US, and looked like they were fashioned out of Bakelite.
Then when Apple announced that it was trying to get rid of the DRM the record labels had insisted on, Microsoft were caught on the hop and fumbled a response.
And now their latest bullshit. Now they're trying to put the boot to the iPod by saying their Zune Pass allows you to fill your Zune for less than iTunes allows you to fill your iPod:
http://www.zunepass.net/?WT.mc_id=Display-MMN#/videos
Many, many, many things they neglect to mention here.
1. If you cancel your Zune Pass membership, you do not own that music. You get ten songs free every month, and that's that.
2. They suggest that you can only fill an iPod with music from iTunes. I pay just ten bucks more than their Zune Pass and get 100 DRM-free MP3s from eMusic every month. I also buy CDs, with prices as low as $7 a disc - far less than the $1 per song they quote for the iPod.
3. Not all of the songs in their library are even available with the Zune Pass.
4. Song purchases are slightly cheaper with the Zune Marketplace, but you have to buy fucking point cards in blocks of 400 at a time to shop on their store. You can't use a credit card directly.
I'm not an Apple fanboy. I have many criticisms about their devices and software. However, Microsoft are constantly ragging on them while totally glossing over their own more abundant flaws. The Zune HD looks like an attractive piece of hardware, certainly compared to its siblings, but it is far too little, too late.
Downloads:
- eMusic: http://www.emusic.com/album/Patrick-Watson-Wooden-Arms-MP3-Download/11443563.html
- iTunes (US): http://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=313783404&s=143455
- Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Arms/dp/B0028JSDFA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1243605993&sr=8-2
You must buy this album. Patrick Watson (the band, lead by Patrick Watson, the singer) are the point at which Andrew Bird, Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, Antony & The Johnsons and Bjork all meet.
These are my favourite songs:
Music is pretty much awesome. This week, Jess bought...
- Boo! Human by Joan Of Arc
- Plague Park by Handsome Furs
... and I bought...
- The Magic Position by Patrick Wolf
- Planet Of Ice by Minus The Bear
- Maplewood by Maplewood (they feature the drummer from Nada Surf)
... and have the following on their way from Amazon at some point...
- Narrow Stairs by Death Cab For Cutie
- I Know You're Married But I Have Feelings Too by Martha Wainwright
- At Mount Zoomer by Wolf Parade
- The Imagination Stage by Eric Matthews
- Saturdays = Youth by M83
Not all of these were released this year. I was in GAP when I heard 'Throwin' Shapes' by Minus The Bear (identified thanks to the awesome Patrick) and 'The Magic Position' by Patrick Wolf, a man I am already a huge fan of. I picked up Maplewood because it was $3 in the place I bought Minus The Bear From. And I think the M83 is from last year, I ordered it because our friend Tim likes them and sometimes raves over bands I also love. We're going to see a band called Assassins with him tonight.
On a related note, right now, I am continuing to rip all of Jess' music. We just picked up an Apple Time Capsule - a wireless hard drive on which I can put all of our music for both of us to access without needing to plug in to anything.
You'd think someone who has been involved in online for longer than most of its main users have been alive would be more embracing of the digital distribution of music. Oddly, for as much of a technophile I am, the idea of acquiring my music from the internet makes me retch.
But of course, I am very contrary. I dismiss the "vinyl is better" set as deluded luddites, but I cannot give up physical media because of my fetishist's love of packaging. Ruffling through a well-designed booklet is as important to me as that first listen of a new album.
Anyway, today we were bumming around outside due to the characteristic good weather and happened upon a trendy t-shirt shop. While looking at their designs, a great remix of a Thom Yorke solo song, 'Atoms For Peace', came on the store's sound system. I made a mental note to look it up when I got home.
I did a search and found out it was a remix by Fourtet, with the first link being to a site called eMusic. It turns out, eMusic is a rival service to iTunes. For $10 a month, you get to download 30 songs in unprotected MP3 format and keep them - even if you cancel your membership (there are more expensive plans and booster packs too). Additionally, during the trial period, you could download a further 50 free songs and keep them if you decided it wasn't for you.
Their catalogue is mostly made up of music from independent labels (Thom Yorke released his solo material on XL Recordings) but they have a lot of artists I like or want to listen to, so I've signed up for the trial.
While I don't think I could ever move over to iTunes - with its barely-cheaper-than-CDs pricing, restrictive DRM and their insistance on pushing the rubbish AAC format - I could easily add eMusic to my normal CD consumption for checking out bands I normally wouldn't hear about.
Link:
This weekend, I decided to merge my MP3 collection with the back-up on one of my external drives. I'd added lots of new stuff since the last time I did it, and I am paranoid about losing my music collection as it took so freaking long to rip the CDs... which, by the way, are over 4,000 miles away.
It worked to some degree... but for some reason, it kept duplicate copies of a large number of songs that were on both my internal hard drive and the external one.
Now, as much as I love iTunes, there is one feature that is shockingly backwards: Show Duplicates. Being a TRU FAN of several artists, have multiple different versions of songs - remixes, acoustic versions, live versions, demos, out-takes, and even slightly different mixes. iTunes, for whatever reason, cannot work out the difference.
I found a plug-in for iTunes that lets you choose the criteria on which it compares songs, and I was able to use that to only classify songs as duplicates if the title, artist name and album name were all the same. Other than the special 10th anniversary edition of The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers' two near-identical CDs (the inability to also match disc number is the problem here), there are no issues with this.
Once I've thoroughly checked this back-up for holes (aided by keeping a second back-up disc - I told you I'm paranoid!), my next step is to start ripping the CDs Jess has but I don't. By the time I'm done, we should have 13,000+ songs all in. Not enough to fill either external hard drive or my iPod, but still a scary amount.
Until about 2001, Smashing Pumpkins were my favourite band. Then they had to spoil it all by reforming without James Iha and releasing numerous versions of their new, inferior album, only cementing the belief that this was nothing more than a cash grab.
As it stands, there have now been 12 versions of the album (discounting basic regional variations), with different-coloured covers and slightly different bonuses:
- Original CD
- Special Edition CD
- LP
- Best Buy CD
- Target CD
- iTunes (Original)
- Amazon.de CD
- Mueller CD
- HMV CD
- 101CD.com CD
- Best Buy CD/DVD
- iTunes (with American Gothic EP)
This must be a record... surely? Where's Norris McWhirter when you need him?
Continuing my last post about how the way music is released is changing, I saw the most ridiculous thing today.
The point of downloading music is that you don't have to go to a retail location and buy a physical asset. Also, in theory if not in practice, you are saving money by not buying a physical asset with all of the overheads they entail - manufacture, shipping, the cost of running and staffing a store, etc. This doesn't really hold true - iTunes and their competitors charge about the same as Amazon for most new albums, which is one of the main reasons I still buy CDs: if I am going to pay that much, I may as well have something physical and unrestricted to show for it.
Anyway, back to the ridiculous. As you may know, Starbucks are making in-roads to retailing music. It started off with jazz, world music and the other generic coffee shop soundtrack fodder, but they've slowly been edging towards music by well known and popular acts. Paul McCartney, Feist, The Police, Dave Matthews Band, Joni Mitchell and the like. While picking up a latte and a bagel, you could also buy CDs, and this was fine.
Today, alongside the CDs, I saw what I initially thought were CD copies of the new KT Tunstall album, Drastic Fantastic. It was about the same size as a CD case, albeit... wait, way too thin. It was actually just a giant iTunes voucher that allowed you to download the album. What's more, the fucking thing cost $15! The actual CD, which you can use on any device you please, is only $12 on Amazon right now.
The entire concept is so backwards and ill-thought that several portions of my brain have collapsed trying to comprehend it. Do the majors really not understand why illegal downloading is so prominent, and why artists are increasingly shying away from them to get their music out there?
This isn't about the childrens' book series, Meg and Mog, although they were great.
Mog is yet another social networking site based around music. While Last.fm wins for user interface and the ability to show people what you're listening to day in, day out; and iLike wins for Most Annoying iTunes Plug-In Ever, Mog's strength seems to be its handy little program that uploads and compiles a list of all the music you have on your computer.
Due to the logistical difficulties of moving my huge CD collection 4,000 miles, all of my music is ripped to my Mac and so it's taking a very, very long time to upload this list (I started it running Wednesday night; when I left for work this morning 1,500 of the 11,000+ songs on my computer were up). Still, you can keep checking in to see what I've got at:
http://mog.com/music_collection/full_list/19/154028
There is some absolute shit in there, naturally - I have no idea why I own three Britney albums, for example, and there are a lot of shitty bands such as Babyshambles, Kaiser Chiefs, Creed and so forth due to soundtracks/compilations I own - but on the whole, I think I have pretty decent, varied tastes.
Hopefully I don't kill their servers before everything I own is listed.
Tip: The page is listed by artists. Click on the orange arrow to see albums, then songs. The names link you through to that artist/album/song page on Mog.
You're supposed to listen to forty songs at random then answer these but I couldn't sit through forty songs, so I took the last forty songs on my Last.fm list as these were mostly played at random anyway.
40. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – Worlds Apart
39. Bettie Serveert – Tom Boy
38. The Smashing Pumpkins – Thirty-Three
37. Aphex Twin – Gwely Mernans
36. Manic Street Preachers – Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier
35. The Dears – We Can Have It
34. No Doubt – Running
33. Nine Inch Nails – The Line Begins to Blur
32. Rufus Wainwright – Greek Song
31. Jonathan Richman – My Love Is a Flower (Just Beginning to Bloom)
30. Nada Surf – Your Legs Grow [Alternative Mix]
29. The Auteurs – Home Again [Live]
28. Weezer – No One Else
27. Bright Eyes – At the Bottom of Everything
26. Hope of the States – The Black Amnesias
25. Frou Frou – The Dumbing Down of Love
24. Bright Eyes – Theme From Pinata
23. PJ Harvey – Dress
22. Doves – Last Broadcast
21. Johnny Cash – Thirteen
20. March, April – There Is Always Madness
19. Danger Doom – Old School
18. Johnny Klimek And Reinhold Heil – Good Thoughts
17. Strangelove – She's Everywhere [Live Acoustic]
16. The Smashing Pumpkins – Galapogos
15. The Cure – Fascination Street
14. Sleater-Kinney – The Swimmer
13. Arnold – Moroccan Roll (Part Two)
12. Throwing Muses – Green
11. Johnny Klimek And Reinhold Heil – Breaking And Entering
10. Ours – I Heard You Singing
9. Foo Fighters – Exhausted
8. Hammond Jr, Albert – Call an Ambulance
7. Regina Spektor – Ghost of Corporate Future
6. Joanna Newsom – Sawdust & Diamonds
5. Nada Surf – Fools
4. The Zutons – Pressure Point
3. Queens of the Stone Age – I Never Came
2. Kylie Minogue – Slow
1. Counting Crows – Walkaways
1. Which song do you prefer, 1 or 40?
I prefer 'Walkaways' by Counting Crows.
2. Have you ever listened to 12 continuously on repeat?
No. I only ever listen to random songs from that album - In A Doghouse by Throwing Muses.
3. What album is 26 from?
'The Black Amnesias' is from Hope Of The States' first album, The Lost Riots.
4. What do you think about the artist who did 15?
I love The Cure. They are brilliant.
5. Is 19 one of your favorite songs?
Not particularly, but it's listenable.
6. Who does 38 remind you of?
I've never really thought about it, but the entire Mellon Collie album was a 1997-1999 thing for me so I'd say my morose teenage self.
7. Does 20 have better lyrics or music?
Lyrics. It's not my favourite April March song.
8. Do any of your friends like 3?
Um, that's a good question. I don't know many people who like QOTSA, and of those who do, I know fewer who liked Lullabies To Paralyze.
9. Is 33 from a movie soundtrack?
If it is, it's going to be some pretentious Lynchian flick.
10. Is 18 overplayed on the radio?
Last I checked, they didn't play many movie scores on the radio. It's from One Hour Photo.
11. What does 21 remind you of?
Nothing in particular, it's one of Johnny Cash's many latter-day covers. This was originally a song by Danzig, and I love both versions.
12. Which song do you prefer, 5 or 22?
'Fools' by Nada Surf, no contest. It's also a cover, but it's just so pretty. I worked out a way to play it on guitar and spent hours singing it to myself once.
13. What album is 17 from?
It's a b-side on the 'Sway' single.
14. When did you first hear 39?
I saw Bettie Serveert supporting Counting Crows back in 1997, I heard the song then.
15. When did you first hear 7?
When I got the album (Soviet Kitsch). It was a few years ago now.
16. What genre is 8?
According to my genre system, it is Alt.US - meaning it is alternative rock and indie originating from the United States.
17. Do any of your friends like 14?
I should think Rose likes it. Maybe Tim. I really dont know many people who talk about liking Sleater-Kinney.
18. What color does 4 remind you of?
Orangey-red, as that is the colour of the sky on the cover of the album - Who Killed The Zutons.
19. Have you ever blasted 11 on your stereo?
It doesn't really lend itself to blasting. It's weird that in the last forty songs I listened to on random, iTunes played two pieces of music from the same movie soundtrack.
20. What genre is 37?
Electronica and synthpop by my classification.
21. Can you play 13 on any instrument?
I have never tried.
22. What is your favorite lyric from 30?
"If you were here, baby, we'd increase the dose. There was no fear in my room when we got close."
23. What is your favorite lyric from 23?
"It's sad to see lonely, all this lonely, close up."
24. Would you recommend 24 to your friends?
Yes, although many of them already like Bright Eyes and have Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, because they're cool. Like me.
25. Is 2 a good song to dance to?
Well, it's super-electronic pop by Ms Minogue, but given that in the video they all had to lay down on beach towels to effectively convey the message of the song through the medium of dance, maybe.
26. Do you ever hear 16 on the radio?
I never heard any Smashing Pumpkins on the radio.
27. Is 32 more of a "night time" or "day time" song?
Night time, definitely.
28. Does 36 have any special meaning to you?
It reminds me of goofing around while playing music with my friend Jay. Sometimes, he would play this and we would both sing it. It's my favourite song on the album (Everything Must Go).
29. Do any of your friends like 31?
I doubt it.
30. Is 25 a fast or slow song?
A very slow, downbeat song on a consistently fantastic album - Details.
31. Is 35 a happy or sad song?
The Dears have an optimistic melancholy to all of their songs.
32. What is one of your favorite lyrics from 9?
"After the bliss has long ended - this caution, this fault."
33. Is 34 better to listen to alone or with friends?
Alone, sighing, because you miss someone special.
34. When did you first hear 27?
When Theresa lent me I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - which was around the time it came out.
35. Name 3 other songs by the artist who did 29.
'Light Aircraft On Fire', 'Unsolved Child Murder', 'After Murder Park'. Luke Haines, frontman of The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder, is like the scandal and obituary pages of the music industry newspaper.
36. Do you know all the words to 6?
God no... have you seen the lyric sheets for that album?! Here are the lyrics to that one song:
http://www.uplyrics.com/joanna_newsom_lyrics_8005/sawdust_and_diamonds_lyrics_346071.html
37. Does 28 have better lyrics or music?
Better music, Rivers Cuomo is very hit and miss, lyrically.
38. What album is 10 from?
It's from a live, acoustic recording which is mostly just frontman Jimmy Gnecco. It's about Jeff Buckley and is rather pretty. In the same way 'Memphis Skyline' by Rufus Wainwright, another song about Jeff Buckley, is pretty.
