Music

Maybe they ARE serious

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Sony will be selling DRM-free tracks through Amazon. Hopefully this means they’ll drop that stupid trading card scheme.

Now that Amazon will sell DRM-free tracks from all major labels, that leaves iTunes as the only significant store still selling DRM-crippled music. I’ve bought a lot less music in iTunes over the last year for that reason. When I want to buy an album, I always check eMusic first, and if it isn’t available I’ll then try Amazon. I’d only buy it in iTunes as a last resort, if I can’t find it elsewhere.

How NOT to sell DRM-free music

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Sony BMG can’t possibly be serious about wanting to sell DRM-free albums. The only explanation for their hare-brained scheme is that they want to be able to say that they’re dropping DRM without actually doing it.

To download one of their DRM-free albums (no individual tracks are avaialble), you need to go to a store, buy a card for a specific album, and then go home and enter the PIN from that card to actually download the album. Not all of their music will be available that way, only a select group of 37 albums.

Of course you could just buy a CD as long as you’re going to the store and rip it when you get home, although the RIAA considers that illegal.

Merry Christmas my a____

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Reason.com: BBC Radio 1’s decision to remove the word “faggot” from the classic Christmas song Fairytale of New York angered their listeners until they finally reversed their decision.

It may have been done with the most progressive of intentions, but BBC Radio 1’s decision to censor a lyric from Kirsty MacColl and Shane McGowan’s Christmas standard Fairytale of New York looks rather to have backfired this morning.

A decision by Radio 1 chiefs has meant that Fairytale, a ballad apparently conducted between two rowing drunks, has been edited so as to obscure the lines “You cheap lousy faggot” and “an old slut on junk”, a decision that was criticised this morning by MacColl’s own mother.

The song had been played unedited for 20 years.

Pogues lyricist and singer Shane McGowen was asked to comment, but his answer was completely incoherent.

(via Metafilter)

RIAA Argues That MP3s From CDs Are Unauthorized

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Via Slashdot:

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes “In an Arizona case against a defendant who has no legal representation, Atlantic v. Howell, the RIAA is now arguing — contrary to its lawyers’ statements to the United States Supreme Court in 2005 MGM v. Grokster — that the defendant’s ripping of personal MP3 copies onto his computer is a copyright infringement. At page 15 of its brief (PDF) it states the following: ‘It is undisputed that Defendant possessed unauthorized copies… Virtually all of the sound recordings… are in the “.mp3″ format for his and his wife’s use… Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs’ recordings into the compressed .mp3 format and they are in his shared folder, they are no longer the authorized copies…'”

WTF? The RIAA is really overreaching now. No reasonable person can tell us that we don’t have the right to listen to the music we buy anywhere and any way we want.

Someone needs to put a stop to this. The RIAA serves no useful purpose. They’re not helping the artists in any way. All they’re doing is trying to preserve an outdated way of doing business that their customers have rejected.

My top albums of 2007

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With the Grammy nominations announced today, I decided to post my list of the top albums for the year, which is quite different.

  1. Neon Bible, Arcade Fire I’m completely hooked on this album. The songs stick in your head with irresistible hooks. They make great use of unusual instruments like a hurdy-gurdy and church organ.
  2. Kala, M.I.A. I still prefer Arular, but this album is a worthy follow-up with great songs like “Jimmy”.
  3. Rokku Mi Rokka, Youssou N’dour Great catchy songs and a great voice. A bit different than his usual material. Ashley Maher (see #4) wrote the song “Boul Bayékou”.
  4. Flying over Bridges, Ashley Maher If you like Senegalese rhythms but are looking for a more mainstream “pop diva” style with English vocals, this album is for you.
  5. Hvarf – Heim, Sigur Ros Half of the album is live versions of older songs, but it’s their most beautiful music ever.
  6. Dub Qawwali, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Gaudi Most remixes of the Qawwali master are awful, but this one is an exception. These are fresh sounding Reggae arrangements, released 10 years after Khan’s death.
  7. Super Taranta, Gogol Bordello This is their best album yet. The music is their most energetic and it moves pretty far beyond their Gypsy Punk genre.
  8. Don’t Mess with the Dragon, Ozomatli I was lucky enough to see their free show at Apple’s WWDC, which inspired me to buy this album the next day. “Magnolia Soul” is their best song ever.
  9. In Rainbows, Radiohead I bought this album to support their experiment and I wasn’t disappointed. Most of the songs are more upbeat than usual.
  10. Twelve, Patti Smith A worthy comeback album with unexpected cover versions of songs like “White Rabbit”, “The Boy in the Bubble”, and “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

Narrowly missing my top 10 were “Volta” by Bjork, “Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur” (various artists), “Icky Thump” by The White Stripes, and “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” by Spoon.

If you consider reissues, “Mothership (Remastered)” by Led Zeppelin would be near the top of my list. I haven’t listened to some of those songs since I was a kid and I forgot how great they are.

Oakland Park honors its most famous resident

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On November 28, 2007, the Oakland Park City Commission unanimously voted to name the city’s new downtown park after Jaco Pastorius, The World’s Greatest Bass Player. Jaco’s hometown celebrates its most famous artist with a tremendous honor: a living memorial with a focus on the arts. The 2 1/2 year grassroots effort has come to fruition. Now south Florida residents and Jaco fans worldwide will have a place to reflect upon and enjoy the legacy of a music giant. There are also plans to incorporate Jaco’s name and story into the City’s various performing arts events.

The park is located in downtown Oakland Park, Florida, at the intersection of Dixie Highway and NE 38th Street. It is between Dixie Highway and the Florida East Coast Railroad. (via Grass Roots Project page)

Jaco went to Northeast High School, which is right up the street from me.

Apple & iPod: The New Hitmakers

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Via Mashable!:

It seems that if you’re a band, and you can get your song in an Apple iPod commercial, you can expect a surprising amount of success.

The most striking example of this is when Nick Haley, an 18-year old university student in England, made an amateur commercial for the iPod Touch. He paired his images with a song named “Music is My Hot, Hot Sex” by a Brazilian band called CSS (short for Cansei de Ser Sexy which translates to “tired of being sexy”). The commercial impressed Apple and they brought Mr. Haley to Los Angeles to to professionally make his commercial and they kept the same song.

Since the ad debuted, the critically acclaimed band, which had no commercial success in the USA, has climbed the charts, selling thousands of albums. Feist has also seen similar success with their song “1234″ being used recently in ads for the iPod Nano, and has since sold tens of thousands of albums and landed a spot on Saturday Night Live.

I fell in love with a few bands, including The Fratellis, Jet, and Ozomatli after hearing their songs in iPod commercials. Ozomatli even returned the favor to Apple by giving an awesome free show at this year’s World Wide Developers Conference.

"In Rainbows" Distributed by ATO?

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Via nancies.org: Weeks of rumors broke into the press today with the New York Times reporting that Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” will be distributed by ATO Records. The band made waves recently by selling the release online on a name-your-price basis, rather than surrendering ownership or distribution to a label. Dave Matthews and Coran Capshaw’s ATO Records — an imprint of RCA/BMG — has earned a reputation as a label that’s willing to let artists do their own thing, which is presumably what attracted Radiohead to them.