Music

Music is a necessity. Though I focus mostly on alternative/industrial/EBM/electronic styles, my tastes are eclectic and wide-ranging.

iTunes and iTMS for Windows

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Well, the rumors were true — and then some! Here’s some quick highlights of today’s Apple Event:

Hell Froze Over

  • The iPod is the number one .mp3 player on the market, with a 31% market share.
  • Two new accessories (for 3rd generation iPods with the Dock Connector) have been introduced:
    • The Belkin iPod Voice Recorder, which allows you to record voice memos on-the-go and then sync them to your Mac or PC when you’re back home.
    • The Belkin Media Reader, which allows you to move photos off of a camera storage card (Compact Flash, [Type 1 and 2], Smart Media, Secure Digital [SD], Memory Stick, or Multi Media Card [MMC]) and onto the iPod for later import into iPhoto. Never have to worry about running out of space on your camera again!
  • The iTunes Music Store has been upgraded:
    • There will be over 400,000 tracks available by the end of the month.
    • Over 200 independent labels have joined with the iTMS for distribution.
    • Integration with Audible now allows for to be purchased directly through the iTMS interface.
    • Gift Certificates can now be purchased for family or friends through the iTMS. Choose how much you want to give, send it off, and the recipient gets an e-mail. One click, and they’re in the iTMS with credit in their account.
    • Parents can now set up Allowances for children — \$10 (or whatever amount is chosen) per month in downloads charged to the parent’s credit card. Essentially an automatically-renewing gift certificate.
    • Celebrity Playlists — recommendations of songs from popular artists.
  • iTunes for Windows is now available.
    • Runs on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
    • Complete feature parity with iTunes for the Mac.
    • Rendevouz music sharing over local area networks works between Macs and PCs.
    • iTMS access is built in to iTunes for Windows, just as it is on iTunes for the Mac.
    • Each track purchased from the iTMS is authorized for play on up to three computers — this can be a mix-and-match of Windows PCs and Macs.
  • Two big promotional partnerships were announced:
    • America Online: AOL’s music store now integrates directly with iTunes.
    • Pepsi: 100 million songs will be given away through redemption codes under the cap of select Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, or Sierra Mist bottles. 300 million bottles will be printed, with a one in three chance of winning a free download.

    : http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/books/ “Apple – iTunes – Audiobooks”
    And those are all the key points. Pretty damn impressive! I’ll be playing with iTunes on Windows as soon as I get to work today…

(Much thanks to MacRumors live coverage of the event!)

Rebecca, ecce! tantae clunes isti sunt!

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‘quislibet’ has translated Sir Mix-A-Lot’s ‘Baby Got Back’ into Latin, and given an English re-translation that gives some idea of how sucessful his translation efforts were. What follows is merely the beginning…here’s the rest!

Latin English (re-translated)
mehercle!
Rebecca, ecce! tantae clunes isti sunt!

amica esse videtur istorum hominum rhythmicorum.
sed, ut scis,
quis homines huiusmodi intellegere potest?
colloquuntur equidem cum ista eo tantum, quod scortum perfectum esse videtur.
clunes, aio, maiores esse!
nec possum credere quam rotondae sint.
en! quam exstant! nonne piget te earum?
ecce mulier Aethiops!

By Hercules!
Rebecca, behold! Such large buttocks she has!

She appears to be a girlfriend of one of those rhythmic-oration people.
But, as you know
Who can understand persons of this sort?
Verily, they converse with her for this reason only, namely, that she appears to be a complete whore.
Her buttocks, I say, are rather large!
Nor am I able to believe how round they are.
Lo! How they stand forth! Do they not disgust you?
Behold the black woman!

(via Cory Doctorow)

Apple poised for big music push

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More and more, Apple is making a huge push into the music industry — and if the rumor mills are right, this week just may be their biggest foray yet.

Already having made a name for themselves over the past couple years with the one-two punch of the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, recently Apple has been exploring various exclusive promotions, such as live performances by bands at Apple Store locations that are later released exclusively through the iTMS.

Latest case in point: Thursday and Thrice, a pair of new rock acts from Island Records, are hyping an upcoming tour Wednesday (Oct. 15) with Apple in-stores on two coasts.

Thursday will take the stage at the Apple Store SoHo in New York. On the West Coast, Thrice will play at the Apple Store Third Street Promenade, located in Santa Monica, Calif. Each performance will be at 7 p.m. in their respective time zones.

The shows kick off a highly anticipated double bill — presented by Alternative Press magazine and MTV2 — which begins Oct. 17 in Pennsylvania.

The music performed at the events will be available exclusively for purchase at the iTunes Music Store.

Already, Apple Store performances can be found at the iTMS from Less Than Jake (iTMS link) and The Rising (iTMS link). I think this is a fascinating way to co-promote both the bands and Apple’s brand.

While it’s been known that Apple has a major event this Thursday that has a 90% or better chance of featuring the introduction of iTunes (and the iTMS) for Windows, according to both MacRumors and AppleInsider, there may be some nice surprises in store for Mac users, too. Possibilities include iTunes 5 (released for both Windows and Macintosh) featuring more encoding options, .wma support, and the ability to “borrow” tracks and albums from the iTMS before purchasing them; and iPod peripherals, perhaps featuring an add-on to allow recording directly to the iPod (touted as being aimed at students for recording classroom lectures).

Lots of fun toys coming down the pike, from the looks of it…

Meme 2: iTunes

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iTunes FoldersAnother meme that Kottke pointed out — iTunes usage methods.

How you organize your music can be as important to someone as what music they listen to. For me, with a personal CD collection currently somewhere around 1,200 discs, organization becomes extremely important. Luckly, iTunes has everything I need in order to keep track of what I have, find things easily, and discover music I hadn’t heard in a while (and at times, didn’t remember that I even had).

One of the godsends of iTunes is the “smart playlists” feature — I use smart playlists almost exclusively (they’re the purple-colored icons in the screenshot). Essentially, a smart playlist allows you to set certain criteria that determine what songs are in the playlist, which is then automatically updated by iTunes. For instance, I keep three smart playlists synced to my iPod at all times: “new additions”, “random unplayed”, and “random 1gb”.

  • Random 1Gb: the single most important playlist, for me. This randomly grabs one gigabyte’s worth of music that 1) I haven’t listened to in the past 2 months, 2) is rated three stars or above, and 3) isn’t in the “Christmas” genre. Whenever I listen to a song, it removes it from the playlist, and grabs another one. This syncs with my iPod, and as the iPod tracks what I listen to each day, the playlist is automatically updated at night when I get home from work, and in the morning just before I leave. The end result — roughly 20 hours of songs that I know I like, but haven’t heard in a few months.

  • Random Unplayed: this playlist grabs one gigabyte’s worth of music that I’ve never listened to. This comes in handy when I’m importing a lot of music (like now, as I re-import all 1200 CDs to AAC rather than .mp3) — as long as there’s something in this playlist, then I know that there’s songs that I haven’t listened to yet (either just to listen, or to check to ensure that the rip was completed successfully).

  • New Additions: this is, quite simply, any songs that have been added to my library within the last two weeks. Great for being able to explore a new album right after buying it.

Other smart playlists that come in handy: “recently played” (anything I’ve listened to in the past two weeks, handy for tracking down something I know I heard recently), “top 25 played” (a pesudo-best-of list), “top rated” (any songs rated four or five stars), and the various by-year playlists (listening by era can be quite interesting sometimes).

The only two “normal” playlists I have at the moment are one for Poems for Laila (from when I was making CDs for Prairie last weekend), and one for Sony’s excellent Soundtrack for a Century collection. Other than those two, it’s all smart playlists for me.

Hey Parrotheads!

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(Yes — this means you, Casey.)

Jimmy Buffet has released two of his upcoming live albums exclusively on Apple’s iTunes Music Store nearly a month before the CDs will hit store shelves. “We are happy to announce that Jimmy Buffett will be releasing ‘Live in Auburn, WA’ and ‘Live in Las Vegas,'” notes Buffet’s record company. “Both releases will be available exclusively at Apple’s iTunes Music Store beginning September 30th. The live CD’s will also be available October 28th at your favorite record store, or here online at mailboatrecords.com.”

(via MacMinute)

Love, Natalie

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A definite must-read: a letter from Natalie of the Dixie Chicks:

Dear Reader:

I am taking the time out of my very busy rock and roll life to write you this letter. As I am sure you can understand, being me is a full time job. I can’t just drop everything every three days because someone needs a quote or statement about a quote or statement we may or may not have said. It’s just draining me of time and effort I need to put toward other things. For one, I as a taxpayer have to get busy earning money to help pay off the latest \$87 billion dollar addition to the national debt! Also, I have a huge list of phone calls to return.

I’ll list a few just so you get the idea.

Message 1: Saddam Hussein called and wants to know where his weapons of mass destruction are. Listen Saddam, I already told you, I don’t know. You’re going to have to call the White House on that one.

Message 2: Country radio called and wants to know if it’s true that you’re leaving country music? This one must be a prank call. I mean, how can you leave a party now when the hosts had shown you to the door six months ago.

(via Atrios)

Out at the Vogue

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Just got back from the Vogue. I don’t often go on Friday nights, as I’m generally a bit tired at the end of the work week, and I know more of the music on Saturdays, but getting out of the house just seemed to be the thing to do tonight. Besides, the DJ told me to. :)

Had a good evening, though. Mostly just kicking back and peoplewatching, with a little bit of bouncing around every so often. Even met a pretty blonde named Kim when she sat down next to me and we started chatting — no smooth lines from me tonight, but at least I didn’t trip all over my sentences, which happens all too frequently when I’m meeting people. Turns out she’s been going to the Vogue off and on for years, and we ended up talking mostly about music and swapping band names back and forth (and I need to remember to check out Morphine and local band Faith and Decay [if I’m remembering that correctly, I can’t find anything on Google for them], on her recommendation).

Anyway, not really much other than that. Just a decent night out bouncing around for a bit. ‘Bout time for bed for me, I think….