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  • in music
  • 3 min read

Vinyl (R)Evolution

When I was 17 or18 years old, I wanted to be a DJ with a friend of mine. I grabbed all of my parents vinyl records, trucked them over to my friend’s house and then… we didn’t do anything. He and I eventually had a falling out and a couple years later when I inquired about getting the records back, I was dismayed to learn that his basement had flooded and they were trashed.

I don’t think my father has forgiven me to this day.

I grew up heavily influenced by music, including my parents listening to their records and favorite artists such as ABBA, Billy Joel and Elton John. I remember periods of my life based on the music I was listening to at the time and if I hear a specific song it can take me back right to that moment.

I’ve been thinking about buying a turntable for the last few years and re-creating some of those memories. I participated in Record Store Day last year shopping at a local store and picking up a number of CDs and this year on Record Store Day I went out and this time picked up some used and new vinyl records and then bought a turntable off Craigslist. (An early 80s Pioneer direct-drive).

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I’m one of growing number of people getting back into vinyl – just visit The Future of Vinyl blog for non-stop media coverage of the growth of vinyl over the last couple years – it’s now the fastest growing segment of the (dying) music industry. Even large retailers like Best Buy are getting in on it. (Though I found their selection disappointing – very few new records, just 180g re-issues of older material, and for the same prices as the local stores, who I would rather support).

I own more CDs than I can count, and even if it’s in my head, I do think vinyl sounds better. There is something to be said for the crackle and hiss of a well worn and loved album playing on a stereo.

I don’t know what’s more fun – listening to the albums or shopping for them. I’ve already bought over 60 records in the last 6 weeks, the bulk of them at two events. The first was a private collector who put an ad in Craigslist and was selling over 5000 records with most of them going for 3 for a dollar. The second sale was today at the Minnesota Record Show which is held four times a year and features a number of dealers selling records for a few bucks each to rare albums worth hundreds of dollars. On average at an event like this or in the local record stores, used albums are about $3 each. I have bought a few re-issues on 180 gram vinyl of some of my favorite albums of all time, such as Depeche Mode’s Music for the Masses. (Most albums are 120 grams – the thicker the album the higher the fidelity).

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But what impresses me the most is the resurgence in current artists releasing vinyl day and date with CD – and including MP3 or FLAC downloads for free when you purchase the vinyl record. I’ve picked up some great new albums, including the latest from The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers and Broken Bells.

My wife laughs at me every time I say “I’m going downstairs to listen to some records” but I’m enjoying the experience immensely. She also says I’m done collecting for a while, but don’t tell her, I have my eyes on some more new releases and I heard about another upcoming show…

eBook Readers & the Publishing Industry

I’ve been wanting an eReader for a while. When the Kindle first launched, I was in awe. I quickly sat down and calculated the number of books I buy in a year and compared that against the cost of a Kindle and the savings of buying an e-book for $10 vs. the hardcover price. Let’s just say there wasn’t much of a savings. I finally got to touch a Kindle at GUADEC this summer, and my mind was made up that I had to have an eReader in the near future.

I love tech gadgets and am an early adopter. I also love content and media, and own hundreds (if not over a thousand now) music CDs, hundreds of movies (including Blu-Ray that I bought over 2 years ago), and tons of books. My bookshelves are full to bursting in my office, and I have boxes of books stored in my closet without room to display them.

I’ve waited patiently debating an eReader. I travel once or twice a month for work, and having an eReader would definitely save space. This week, my flight was delayed hours on Tuesday, and then canceled later that night. I had finished the book I had brought an hour after getting to the airport, and then bought another one swearing in my head the whole how I wished I had a an eReader.

The good news is that when Barnes & Noble announced the nook last month that I pre-ordered one. As much as I love Amazon (I buy almost everything there now – movies, music, books and electronics) I found the nook more aesthetically pleasing as well as it was running Android, and the formats they’re using seem a bit more open than the Kindle. (My nook is supposed to ship tomorrow, still crossing my fingers with all the delays they’ve had for the last week or two!)

But now comes word that the publishing industry doesn’t get it and is fears change and the changing financial models. It’s rumored that Amazon loses $2 per eBook bought, and now we are hearing the publishers want to delay new releases 4 months after the hardcover comes out but before the paperback comes out. When will content companies figure out that not giving consumers what they want is bad for business?

There are authors (Iain Banks, Chuck Palahniuk, Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman) that I will always buy the physical copy. I want to continue to build on my collections and there is a tactile difference in having a physical book. But I will buy many more books once I have my nook. I’ve already been adding to wishlist on bn.com for the moment my nook arrives. I have dozens of posts tagged “books” in my RSS reader that I want to buy. The fact that they’re slightly cheaper as an eBook and no shipping is nice, but having immediate wireless delivery right to my eReader is even better.

So the publishers are worried that Amazon (and to a lesser degree Barnes & Noble) have set a pricing ceiling of $9.99 per book. We’ve been through this argument before – the record industries felt Apple had set a similar ceiling that songs were only worth $0.99 and now we’ve seen new releases and popular tracks increase to $1.29 this year. And that’s ok. I worked in the retail industry for 15 years and have been through anti-trust training a couple of times. The publishers can set their price and the retailer can sell it for whatever they want.

If the publishers are so worried, why are they not raising the cost of the books? If Amazon is losing $2 per book, that means the cost to Amazon is $12. If the publishers raise it to $15, it will make the retailers re-consider whether losing more money is acceptable. While the publisher can’t dictate the actual retail price sold, they do have options. And lowering the cost after it’s been released a while happens all the time across all retail categories. There is no reason that months after the release the cost comes down and the retailer can re-price, at say, $9.99. This is seen all the time in the movie space, though rarely in music. Now that we are starting to have competition in the eReader space there are all kinds of tricks the publishers can do to partner with the retailer to save the retailer money on the back end as well, including marketing development funds, sell through credits and more.

But for the publishers to flatly state “We won’t release an eBook for 4 months” won’t make consumers happy. Nor, in my opinion, will it make consumers buy a hardcover once they’ve invested $200-$400 in an eReader. I’ve learned this lesson – I rarely buy a movie on new release day for $20-$30 when I subscribe to Netflix and know if I wait 3-6 months I can probably get it for $10-$15 on sale (I just got Watchmen on Blu-Ray for $10 last week!).

At this point, it’s difficult to read the future. These statements from the publishers could just be posturing as they dig in for negotiation with the retailers. But I’m not hopeful. There are plenty of lessons for content providers to learn from in the music battles of the last 10 years. And if there is one lesson they should employ, it’s to extend and embrace the new models rather than try to prop up a dying business model. Change is hard – and if consumers want to buy more books because they have an eReader, it’s in the publisher’s best interest to figure out how to do that, rather than making it harder for consumers to buy from them.

  • in music
  • 2 min read

Favorite Songs of 2007

I’m involved in a CD swap, so I thought I would put a compilation together of some of my favorite songs released in 2007. I had to pare my initial list down from about 35 to 21 to get it to fit on one CD, so some good ones got left off.

(In order of how they live on the CD, not popularity. Artist / Song / Album. Minneapolis artists in italics)

  1. Arcade Fire / Intervention / Neon Bible.

  2. Bruce Springsteen / Radio Nowhere / Magic

  3. Bloc Party / I still Remember / A Weekend in the City

4. Brother Ali / Truth Is / The Undisputed Truth

  1. Spoon / The Underdog / Ga Ga ga Ga Ga

  2. Dolores O’Riordan / Loser / Are You Listening?

  3. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club / Not What You Wanted / Baby 81

  4. The New Pornographers / All the Old Showstoppers / Challengers

  5. Feist / 1234 / The Reminder

10. Dan Wilson / Breathless / Free Life

  1. Ryan Adams / Halloween Head / Easy Tiger

  2. Linkin Park / What I’ve Done / Minutes to Midnight

  3. The Shins / Phantom Limb / Wincing the Night Away

14. Cloud Cult / Pretty Voice / The Meaning of 8

  1. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings / Let Them Knock / 100 Days, 100 Nights

  2. Tegan & Sara / Nineteen / The Con

  3. The Donnas / Save Me / Bitchin’

  4. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists / Who Do You Love / Living With the Living

  5. Lily Allen / Friday Night / Alright, Still

  6. The View / Same Jeans / Hats Off to the Buskers

  7. Rilo Kiley / Give a Little Love / Under the Blacklight

A few of the artists who came close, but didn’t make the final cut:

  • Chris Cornell
  • Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  • Modest Mouse
  • Joseph Arthur & the Lonely Astronaugts
  • LCD Soundsystem
  • Arctic Monkeys
  • Tori Amos
  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!

Best of Bootie 2007

It’s time for my annual post telling you to go download the Best of Bootie. The 2007 compilation features 21 of the year’s best mashups from the usual suspects such as A + D, Party Ben and more.

My favorites this year (so far, after 3 listens):

    1. The Illuminoids with Donita Sparks – Pretend We’re Alala (L7 vs. CSS) – Los Angeles
    1. team9 – Britney – Dead Or Alive? (Britney Spears vs. Dead Or Alive vs. Daft Punk) – Perth, Australia
    1. Divide & Kreate – Illiterate City (Jackson 5 vs. Guns N’ Roses) – Sweden

Give it a try – it’s one of the few ways I actually here pop music these days. More at Boing Boing.

Extreme

My favorite late 80’s / early 90’s rock band, Extreme, has announced their re-union, along with a new album and tour in 2008.

Say what you will about More than Words and Hole Hearted, but when Extreme came out in 1989 with their first album, and Pornograffiti in 1990, they had a refreshing twist on the hair metal bands of the day. Their blend of funk, with horns, and Nuno’s guitar playing put them head and shoulders above their contemporaries, such as Winger, Slaughter or Poison.

I saw them a number of times live, including headlining at the Eagle’s Club right after Pornograffitti was released, with Alice in Chains opening, before Alice in Chains broke big. One of the two times I saw Alice in Chains, and it was already clear that Layne Staley was in the throes of the heroin addiction that would later kill him, as Alice in Chains performance was awful, and they were booed off the stage.

Extreme live was a different story – Gary Cherone’s energy is infectious, and Nuno’s guitar playing is absolutely amazing. I’ve seen them in everything from a small club to an arena, and they always rocked the house. I always swore I wouldn’t be one of those old guys who goes to concerts of the bands he followed in high school, but I may have to make an exception for this one.

A month with Quod Libet

For the last month I’ve been runnign Quod Libet instead of Banshee. I had run in to two critical problems with Banshee about a month ago:

  • Banshee was taking 80 minutes to start. (Since fixed, I think it was something with Foresight, as Banshee hasn’t had a release in a while).
  • Banshee’s Last.fm reporting plugin hasn’t reported songs correctly to Last.fm for a long time. This is a known bug in the plugin, without a known fix that I’m aware of.

Banshee’s Last.Fm integration may sound like something trivial, but I really enjoy browsing my profile to see what I’ve listened to. Unfortunately, my profile isn’t close to accurate as all the music I listen to at night via Banshee isn’t being reported. Between that, the old data that is still in my Last.fm profile from my wife listening to music via the Xbox (yes, the James Taylor in my profile isn’t from me listening to it), and the Last.fm radio streams, it’s not really an accurate reflection of my music tastes.

Quod Libet is a GTK+ music player, that also includes Ex Falso, a tag editor. Quod Libet is a favorite of a couple of Foresight users, so I thought I’d give that a try. A simple:

<br /> sudo conary update quodlibet

And it’s installed in Foresight!

My first impressions of Quod Libet, is that it comes across with a basic view, but once you start digging, it’s quite the powerful player. The default view includes a search box, People (artist) Album, and then the song list. Search is fast, feels a touch faster than Banshee.

Other views you can choose from include Playlists, Search, File System, Album, Internet Radio and Media Devices.

I tend to listen to full albums at a time, and not create playlists or listen to random songs, so Quod Libet has worked well for me. I’ve been impressed with it’s simplicity, and as I’ve dug deeper, even more impressed with the number of features and advanced funtionality it has. While it doesn’t have the visual appeal of Banshee, it just works, and that’s all I’ve asked it to do.

The only minor complaint I had, was that due to a DDOS attach, the Quod Libet team lost some it’s website, and the documentation on plugins is non-existent. While there is a nice list of plugins available, I had to get some help to figure out how to setup the sub-directories on where to put the plugins, and only one or two have worked out of the five or six I’ve attempted to install. Granted I haven’t spent that much time trying to configure the plugins, but it was just a small disappointment.

If you’re looking for an alternative to Rhythmbox or Banshee on a GNOME desktop, give Quod Libet a chance, the best thing I can say about it is that it “just works”. And works well.

Buying Spree

I’ve been on a bit of a buying spree for CD’s over the last month or two, especially picking up a lot of indie bands.

In no particular order:

  • The New Pornographers, Challengers: One of the best albums I’ve bought in a long time. I’ve always like the New Pornographers, but it wasn’t a disc I would spin over and over. This disc is amazing – Neko Case and the whole gang did a heck of a job writing some very memorable songs that are guaranteed to get stuck in your head. My favorite track by far is All the Old Showstoppers.
  • Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight: I bought this and the Challengers on the same day, and both of these have vied for the same playing time, with Under the Blacklight probably getting the edge in total playtime. I was introduced to Rilo Kiley a few years ago on 89.3 The Current, and ended up getting their last release free from the station at a volunteer opportunity. I really liked, but this disc is a major step forward. The title track, Under the Blacklight, 15, Smoke Detector and Give a Little Love are standout tracks. (I also picked up Take Offs and Landings, their second album but first released commercially.)
  • Interpol, Antics: Very similar to their last album, but it seems a touch more mellow. I need to listen to this one more.
  • Tegan and Sara, The Con: I absolutely adored their last disc, but this one doesn’t live up to that. The Con is more of a concept album, and while not a departure from the twins’ signature sound, it doesn’t have the 2 or 3 songs that you couldn’t get out of your head that So Jealous did.
  • Fountains of Wayne, Traffic and Weather: I don’t think these guys get the credit they deserve. They write catchy pop alternative songs with interesting lyrics, but all that everyone remembers them for is “Stacy’s Mom”. Good album, on par with their last effort.
  • Dolores O’Riordan, Are You Listening?: The former frontwoman for the Cranberries unleases a solo album that was 3 or 4 years in the making, and it was worth the wait. If you ever liked the Cranberries even just a little, pick this up. Ms. O’Riordan’s songwriting and lyrics have matured, and this album has it all, from mellow to rockin’ out.
  • Garbage, Absolute Garbage (Special Edition): Greatest hit collection from the alternative band from Madison, WI. I’ve seen Garbage live a few times, and they have always been one of my favorite bands. From Butch Vig’s catchy pop sound to Shirley Manson growling or purring, Garbage is the real thing. I made sure to pick up the Special Edition and get the second disc of remixes, which were a bit of a disapopintment. But I’ll give it to Garbage, the songs collected for the greatest hits album were perfect.
  • The Donna’s, Bitchin’: The follow up to Gold Medal, this all girl band left their label and is publishing this independently. They’ve cranked the amps up to 11 for this album, and are rocking even harder. What I love about this album is the classic 80’s hair band feel The Donna’s bring. While not over the top, most songs are anthem rock songs without going too over the top. I highly recommend this album. (I have a friend who digs The Donna’s for the song Take it Off from the Gold Medal release, as he can play it on Guitar Hero).
  • White Light Riot, Atomism: This local band from Minneapolis has been getting some airplay on 89.3, and have an indie sound that’s a little harder than some of the current indie favorites out there, and a couple of the songs are pretty catchy. Due to some of the favorites above I haven’t listened to it as much as I’ve wanted, but I’ve been happy the few times so far that I have.
  • Bruce Springsteen, Magic: I was blown away by Radio Nowhere, the first single from the album, and unfortunately the rest of the album doesn’t sound like it. I’m a Springsteen fan though, and while the rest of the songs don’t rock as hard as that one as it mellows out a bit, the rest of the album is good. If you liked The Rising, you’ll like this release.

I need to go buy the new Radiohead album off their website now. I’ve also been poking around Amazon’s store, and they are promising an album downloader for Linux. I’m really looking to give that a try. But more on physical vs. digital another time.

Last.fm

I’m a big fan of Last.fm and since I started using Banshee, I’ve reported all my my music through it. A couple of tools came to my attention today.

Digg linked to the Mainstream-O-Meter to measure how mainstream your listening habits are. Digg, being the force they are, have made the site go offline temporarily. My music came in at 68% mainstream. 68%! I like to think I’m a little more eclectic, but maybe I’m not. Or maybe tech geeks like me who use Last.fm just have similar tastes. 🙂

Pscott linked the second one, LastGraph, which graphs out your music listening habits over time. You can set the background color / theme, and the date range you want to graph.

Here’s my 2007 graph:

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And here is since I started using Last.fm in Oct. 2005:

all-music

Click through to Flickr to actually read them. A couple of notes:

  • I hacked my Xbox, and added Last.fm reporting. My wife listening to music through it really skews it. (Dixie Chicks or U2 anyone?)
  • I’m definitely a streaky listener. I get stuck on an album or artist and listen to the crap out of it. (Liz Phair, Chili Peppers, The Shins)
  • You can tell when I installed my home theater in August of last year. From August to December, I wasn’t spending any time in my office on my PC. It was all about the new, big TV. The little music I listened to was on the Sonos through the network. (I so wish Sonos had Last.fm reporting built-in!)
  • I also listen to a lot of 89.3 The Current, both on the radio through the home theater, and streaming online through Banshee. That is not reflected in the graph. That is truly eclectic listening.

I’m a big enough fan, that I’ve actually subscribed for over the last year. I can’t say I’m thrilled by the recent acquisition by CBS, but I love the statistics Last.fm collects and lets me share, both on their website and through the badge on this blog.

Derivative Works

Big Media is nothing if not two-faced about the creation of derivative works. From the music industry busting re-mix artists – the same artists paid by the industry to promote their artists in dance clubs, to the film industry’s penchant for remakes. And how many movies made today are born from an original idea? Even this year’s Best Picture winner, The Departed, is a remake of a Hong Kong film.

Techdirt takes a look at this issue, using the story of the fans who re-made Raiders of the Lost Ark shot for shot starting in 1981 and taking the next 7 summers to complete it. As Techdirt points out, this couldn’t be done today. The author does a great job in pointing out the irony in the movie business on the subject of copyright.

Click here to read the article.

Stop the RIAA – Join the Petition

The EFF has started a petition to send to Congress regarding the RIAA’s tactics in stopping music piracy.

From the petition:

We respect reasonable copyright law, but we strongly oppose copyright enforcement that comes at the expense of privacy, due process and fair application of the law.

We urge you, as our representatives in Congress, to stop this madness.

As of this morning, the petition is at 80,758 signatures – with 100,000 signatures the EFF can send this to the Senate and House Commerce and Judiciary Commitees.

I purchased 3 CD’s last night – I’m all for supporting the artists, but the music industry’s governing body is out of control when they’re blackmailing 12 year old girls and suing families who don’t even own a computer.

Sign the petition today, the RIAA’s madness has to be stopped.