• Music

  • Aug23

    No Comments

    You don’t own music anymore, you only have access to it

    Posted in: Music, Technology

    Times they are a’changin’, that’s for sure.  GQ just had a great article about The Cloud and what it’s going to do to the way you listen to your music. Think of the old days of buying LPs, cassette tapes, CDs and, yes, even the days of iTunes receipts. In the ‘old days’ you bought your music and stored it. The Cloud is going to change the way music is listened to – forever. That’s my belief anyway. Granted, there will be those who will never give up their vinyl copy of Thriller or their first CD (I won’t admit what mine was). The Cloud is a game-changer.

    Take the options:

    • Google Music Beta: Allows you to upload 20,000 songs for free and stream them on a web browser. However, it’s an invite-only service now and they could start to charge in the future. Here you have to upload your songs. Keep reading.
    • Amazon’s Cloud Player: Just like Google Music Beta but it costs more money and it’s a bit uglier according to GQ. So they passed.
    • Apple iCloud: Being a MacHead, this is one I am anxious to check out. Everyone is using iTunes these days. But they BUY their songs, download them and share them wirelessly through devices. But this service will be $25 per year and and will allow you to quite a collection on the iCloud. But keep reading.

    The Cloud is a Game ChangerWhat’s scary is the game-changer. Imagine instead of spending $1.29 on a song – you spend $5-$10 per month for a subscription service and have access to 15 MILLION songs!? What’s the point of owning songs anymore? You have millions of songs at your disposal for the price of 5 songs. It’s genius. But the only thing standing in the way is higher mobile speeds. But it’s all coming. And quickly.  Case in point: Spotify and Rdio.

    • Spotify: This site has 15 million songs in their library. Is that a lot? Perhaps not, but it sounds like a lot. But they don’t have it all. Yet. No Beatles like iTunes. No random DJs you love. But imagine the ease of just pulling up a device and picking any song. Done. It’s coming. The only thing I can see sucking is the speeds of the internet. It’s been the downfall of the same technology that is blowing by at a ridiculous rate. When will be able to pull out our phones and have 100 MBPS? Someday. Someday soon.
    • Rdio: I just learned about this. So I’ll have some more info soon.

    Let me paraphrase Jon Wilde of GQ because it’s spot(ify) on:

    You don’t own music anymore, you only have access it. We’ve amassed all these records, tapes, cds, mp3s, etc. We don’t need to buy any more! You live your life socially now anyway – Facebook, Twitter, online banking, you name it.

    Streaming is the real deal. Get ready, party people.

     

  • Oct24

    2 Comments

    The xx: a musical gem of a discovery

    Posted in: Music

    X marks the spotI’m usually the last to learn about great music. I’ll be the guy who asks my friends if they’ve heard the great track from some band only to learn that the song came out two years ago. On top of my failure to find good tracks, I have a pretty quirky musical taste. It wouldn’t completely be inaccurate for me to mix in some electronic, followed by a dose of hip hop, backed up by some wonderful, delicious 80s on my iPod. There’s really no rhyme or reason to what I listen too, literally.

    So I was happy to have stumbled upon a band called The xx or the “The ex ex” – or as they’re referred to. I really don’t know a thing about them except that they’re from London and they they lay down some rythmic, creepy vocals over some electrified guitar, bass and beat boxes. I won’t get flowery explaining it, so I’ll leave it to Boston.com for a partial review:

    Melodies are just barely insinuated through repetition, and the prevailing mode is one of sparse deconstruction of post-punk contrivances. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it adds up to an extremely efficient aural aphrodisiac for the disaffected 20-somethings for whom The xx’s peculiar brand of monotony resonates. The winking, minimal “Basic Space’’ is one good example of flirtation-through-indifference that seems to be the band’s go-to move; the more you ignore the audience the closer they get, you might say.

    Haha. “aural aphrodisiac for the disaffected 20-somethings”…hell, I’m in my 30s and this stuff sounds good to me.

    The song “Intro” is a good start – albeit there are no vocals. It’s reminiscent to the Chicago Bulls opening theme music they had back in the day:

    So I’m happy to have scooped (what I believe) to be some pretty solid tracks from a band no one has really heard of yet. That is, until I get reminded on Facebook that they’ve been on the scene for 12 years and this is their 6th album – and they were cool when Smashmouth hit the scene.

    Sheesh. Enjoy.

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