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even caramel sundaes, pt 2

post from A.M. 180 on 03 November 2009 02:05:00 PM. © A.M. 180

Javelin
Andean Ocean Tape
via dollarbinsofthefuture.com

My computer says this mix runs 30 minutes, but it feels like a very long 30 minutes. It will not relieve post-summer blues, but it can make your sadness more meaningful.

****

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http://rockitforme.blogspot.com/2009/11/even-caramel-sundaes-pt-2.html

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FRANKMUSIK: 3 Little Words (King Cannibal Remix)

post from HardCandyMusic.com - pop, electronic + indie music. on 03 November 2009 01:57:34 PM. © HardCandyMusic.com - pop, electronic + indie music.

Hard hitting industrial masher King Cannibal has been pretty busy. He's just been signed to the magnificent Ninja Tune imprint, remixed the Prodigy (listen here) and now we have his yet to be released (until today) take on FRANKMUSIK's bubbly ode to not being able to say 'i love you' - 3 LITTLE WORDS. Listen closely - it strays just far enough from the original and there are many hidden FX woven in that you must repeat it over and over to fully appreciate the groove. - Matt

DOWNLOAD MP3
3 Little Words (King Cannibal Remix)

If you wanna check out more on King Cannibal, his full length debut Let The Night Roar is available now.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HardCandyMusic/~3/bYaWZsLhuOs/frankmusik-3-little-
words-king-cannibal.html

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Rant – Congratulations, Apple:
“Syncing” Music Now Means “Using iTunes”

post from Create Digital Music on 03 November 2009 01:57:00 PM. © Create Digital Music

Photo (CC) Tim Douglas.

Critics frequently attach the phrase “lock-in” to Apple’s iTunes Store – iTunes – iPod/iPhone combination. But, in the post-DRM age, what does that mean, exactly?

First, you have to recall that while for many of us the manual drag-and-drop music management is appealing, it isn’t so for many average consumers. They want sync. That means that music will be stored in iTunes and synced to Apple devices and nothing else. Apple is serious about locking you to their store and their devices, enough so that they frequently update their software with special keys that prevent the use of devices. iTunes is “free,” but Apple determines which mobile devices you can use and which you can’t. And Apple has gone after anyone who dares give you the ability to use your own music software or own devices, including efforts (ironically) to make their iPhone and iPod work with Linux and open source players.

These efforts don’t protect the music or prevent privacy – they protect users of Apple’s software and mobile devices from using anything but Apple’s tools. Yet Apple has used the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to take legal action over anyone who dares to even talk about how to use legally-purchased music and hardware:

OdioWorks v Apple

Perhaps suspecting their case was too thin to defend, Apple eventually backed off that particular claim — after, says the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “7 months of censorship and a lawsuit.”

Apple Withdraws Threats Against Wiki Site

But the software and hardware locks are unchanged. And Apple has won, in my view, an even more important battle: they have a monopoly over mindshare.

Here’s an example from a recent review by Gizmodo of the Android 2.0 mobile operating system from Google, as implemented on the Verizon-distributed Motorola Droid. They have some fair points about Android’s maturity and strong and weak points. But note what they say about music sync:

The only way to get your music and videos on the phone is to manually drag and drop the files. There is no syncing, no easy way to get your music library onto your phone. How are normal people supposed to figure this out? Verizon reps actually joked about how putting music on the Droid is sure to make for a lovely Saturday afternoon. What. The. Shit.

In fact, this is technically accurate, to my knowledge, only if you’re using iTunes. That incompatibility is engineered specifically by Apple. It’s a “feature”: other vendors could make other devices sync with iTunes, but Apple engineers regular updates to prevent them from doing so. In fact, while Apple was conceding defeat in its efforts to censor the Web over its iTunes lock, it was simultaneously busy blocking the Palm Pre from working with iTunes. This should be especially sad to long-time Mac watchers, who saw a Mac community railing against Microsoft’s effective office software and operating system monopolies in the 90s. Those Mac historians should also recall the early development of iTunes and shareware predecessor SoundJam, both of which worked with a variety of hardware. Now, some members of the same Mac community cheer market share numbers and anti-competitive practices by Apple.

But, engineering aside, it’s really the mindshare battle that’s most impressive. Gizmodo, in saying the Android “doesn’t sync,” really means that it “doesn’t sync with iTunes.” And given iTunes’ massive market share, Gizmodo is not alone – I’ve seen similar complaints from other press outlets and, anecdotally, many, many users.

In fact, Android sync is supported by a variety of applications. In my tests, it works with the open-source players Songbird (Mac, Windows, Linux), Banshee (Mac, Linux), Rhythmbox (Linux), Winamp (Windows), Media Monkey (Windows), and yes, even Microsoft’s own Windows Media Player. Microsoft may restrict the use of its Zune media player, but ironically its music playback software is far more open than Apple’s.

Banshee automatically syncs my Android on Ubuntu Linux. And yes, even normal people, or “human beings” as the Ubuntu folks like to say, can use this. I find myself cursing at iTunes, and have even found this easier.

By “sync,” incidentally, I mean automatically – it’s no harder to use these applications with Google Android than Apple’s iTunes and iPhone/iPod. I personally find most of them more flexible and intuitive than iTunes. And I can show someone in a couple of minutes how to manage their device via the file system, too – even “normal people.” (I definitely don’t count as “normal,” so no argument there. But presumably “normal people” can learn to use the Mac Finder, right? Apple certainly argues they can – then locks users out of that tool when they connect an Apple mobile player.)

This is not a pro-Android argument, despite the screenshot. Any music player or phone that supports normal disk mounting will work the same way.

Why should all of this matter to musicians? The reasons monopolies are a concern in the first place has to do with pricing, and media monopolies add to that control of culture and speech. Even if your music isn’t distributed through iTunes, pricing and consumption patterns, and even the kinds of music people listen to and where they discover it are now being deeply impacted by Apple. Apple, in turn, by convincing users that there are no other options and engineering interoperability out of their products protect that control, just as digital music is growing by leaps and bounds. (For statistical evidence of the resulting trends, see today’s other story, linked below.)

I spoke to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann in April about the paper-thin (literally) arguments from Apple, when Apple was trying to prevent websites from talking about the database lock between iTunes and mobile devices:

All Apple has told us about this is in the letter they sent to us in December, as posted on the website as an exhibit to our complaint. Apple simply cites the fact that the iTunesDB page authors said that the obfuscation mechanisms used to create the iTunesDB has “may reside” in the FairPlay DRM code.
…The important thing here is that the iTunesDB pages were simply discussions about what might need to be done to reverse engineer the iTunesDB hashing. There was nothing to indicate that the efforts had succeeded. So even if understanding the iTunesDB hashing mechanism somehow magically unlocked all of FairPlay (which would seem to be far fetched), nothing on the pages suggests that the authors were anywhere near that goal.

Note that at the time, the EFF did not claim Apple lacked the right to make these kind of locks. The EFF told CDM at the time, “They have every right to do – to try to block it. Apple can certainly try to block it. What they can’t do is use inapplicable federal law to use legal threats to get them to stop.” And Apple backed off those claims.

The issue is whether you should invest in a product that limits your freedoms to use it. And the issue for musicians is whether this kind of a behavior from a company with an effective monopoly is limiting the potential power of digital music listeners in the future.

This is not to say that there aren’t reasons to choose to use an Apple device or its iTunes software. As reader “low resolution sunset” says in comments on the previous story:

This is pure conjecture: but I tend to think that slick interface design, trust, and loyalty for the Apple brand identity is what’s winning them the dominant market share of downloads.

Indeed. So, why not rely on that design, trust, and natural loyalty? Why force loyalty through engineering? And even given these qualities, isn’t there a danger when one company becomes so dominant that people don’t so much as consider alternatives? What’s to keep Apple competitive on good design if they have no competitors?

I certainly can’t answer those questions. And in the meantime, I’m looking to other alternatives, alternatives that have made me quite happy.

Grizzly Bear Announce UK 2010 Dates

post from Live4ever - The Brit Rock Daily on 03 November 2009 01:48:19 PM. © Live4ever - The Brit Rock Daily

Top Indie chart rockers Grizzly Bear announced that they will return to the UK next March after having a hugely successful show at the Barbican on Halloween Saturday.The Brooklyn based US quartet[...]

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http://www.live4ever.uk.com/2009/11/grizzly-bear-announce-uk-2010-dates/

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HELLFIRE SET TIMES ANNOUNCED!!!

post from Altsounds on 03 November 2009 01:47:15 PM. © Altsounds

We are proud to announce the set times for this weekends Hellfire Festival. *SATURDAY* *MAIN STAGE* *SAXON* *22:10:00* *23:30:00*[...]

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http://hangout.altsounds.com/showthread.php?t=112387&goto=newpost

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Rihanna To Give Her Story, 50 Cent's Album
Leaked, Jay-Z Has A New Beef, More

post from Starpulse Entertainment News - Music News on 03 November 2009 01:34:46 PM. © Starpulse Entertainment News - Music News

Weekly Music News: Rihanna will discuss the Chris Brown incident on Good Morning America & 20/20. Since Chris Brown gave us a Larry King interview full of "wows" and "that's crazy"[...] Read more!

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http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/11/03/rihanna_to_give_her_story_50_c
ent_s_albu

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New Them Crooked Vultures - "Mind Eraser, No
Chaser"

post from Stereogum on 03 November 2009 01:31:00 PM. © Stereogum

It's about time someone had some pun with Thelonius Monk. "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" isn't the first studio single we've heard from rock-demigod triptych Them Crooked Vultures' self-titled debut -- that'd be "New Fang" -- and it isn't the only instance of their titular wordplay (see also: "Interlude With Ludes," "Caligulove"). But it's the first of what will likely be a slew we're heard that takes advantage of the fact that Josh Homme isn't the only dude herein with the ability to carry a melody. The latest Led Stone Age Fighters single's here for a listen:

Continue reading New Them Crooked Vultures - "Mind Eraser, No Chaser"...

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http://stereogum.com/archives/mp3/new_them_crooked_vultures__mind_eraser_no_chase
r_099041.html

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Digital Sales Up, But is Apple Monopoly the Price
NPD, Mint Data, Editorial Analysis

post from Create Digital Music on 03 November 2009 01:25:00 PM. © Create Digital Music

Data and images courtesy Mint.com.

Mint.com, the online financial management tool, has put its numbers together with market researchers NPD Group to analyze music spending. The results: when it comes to consuming recorded music, digital music continues to rise. At the same time, so does Apple’s grip on the music consumption market, a combination that includes proprietary control of a music store, a music player, and the leading mobile device.

The NPD data should look familiar. Digital music is growing, and clearly it’s at the root of the record industry’s loss of revenue as consumers shift from physical to digital media. Also, Apple’s iTunes remains the lion’s share of the market – enough so that they effectively control distribution, pricing, and consumption patterns, the very definition of monopoly by most measures. (That’s even before you get to Apple’s effective monopoly over the computer player and mobile device, though my suspicion is that an all-out attack on the portable device could start to chisel away at all three.)

Even in the NPD data, though, there’s an interesting indicator: note that the “Other” category is roughly the same size as Apple’s main competitors. That suggests that there’s a plurality minority. And oddly enough, it’s right in the middle of this mysterious “Other” category that a lot of unknown music artists make their dollars, selling direct to listeners or going through niche sites. Artists I’ve talked to in the electronic genre have almost universally said they make nothing on Apple, while they do very well on a site like electronic-specific Beatport. And unlike physical media, it’s not a big deal for someone who loves electronic music to drop their favorite tunes manually from the Beatport store into iTunes and an iPhone.

Dig into the Mint.com numbers, and you see just how different stores can be. Per-transaction spending differs by an enormous margin. Brick-and-mortar retailers sell a lot more per transaction. True, this could include accessories like headphones at stores like Sam Goody, but it’s also interesting to note the gap between stores like eMusic, Rhapsody, and CD Baby, and the smaller per-transaction buy at iTunes.

While Apple buyers aren’t spending as much per visit, they’re visiting more often, and Apple’s move to variable has made a big difference. Buyers have gone from purchasing an average of 2-2.5 transactions to well over 3, coinciding with the introduction of variable pricing.

If you’re not a fan of monopolies, there’s just not much to be done to spin this data. As digital consumption has grown by an order of magnitude, nothing has happened – thus far – to change Apple’s dominant share of the market. And as you can see in pricing statistics, within the Apple ecosystem, Apple has been enormously effective in controlling the pricing of the product and spending habits of the consumers.

On the other hand, looking at the inverse situation, a lot of the most interesting activity is happening outside either the former brick-and-mortar or new digital iTunes economies. We don’t have data on a lot of these niche stores (Dancetracks, Beatport, Bleep, and so on), which grow in number and variety. We don’t have data on direct-to-consumer sales by artists. And we don’t have much data on legal free music consumption, music released as Creative Commons or pay-what-you-will. Just criticizing Apple for their popularity could miss out on what’s happening in these alternative channels.

Many of these channels have no obligation to share their statistics, but to any who are interested, I’d love to talk to you. (And I think CD Baby winds up being the most interesting stat here.)

This is also an excellent illustration of what online analytics can do with financial data. It certainly won’t ease anyone who prefers that this data remain private, but fans of analytics might also see potential for collective learning experiences from shared data. Data like this had long been privileged only to banks and credit cards; a service like Mint allows users to share such data with one another.

So, how are you spending on music?

And would you find it useful – or disturbing – to have that kind of data shared anonymously with other consumers?

Read The Full Article:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/11/03/digital-sales-up-but-is-apple-monopoly-t
he-price-npd-mint-data-editorial-analysis/

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The Lowdown: Ryan Waste from Municipal Waste

Trash Metal/Hardcore Punk band *Municipal Waste* has been crawling out from the underground in recent years and now with their 4th studio album, Massive Aggressive, they are demanding the attention of the mainstream. I spoke with Municipal Waste[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://hangout.altsounds.com/showthread.php?t=112386&goto=newpost

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New Cold Cave - "Theme From Tomorrowland"

The reissued Love Comes Close is officially out today. You might've already familiarized yourself with the album proper, but Matador's bundling the excellent collection with three B-Sides otherwise found on the hardworking Philly/NYC BTW's "Death Comes Close" 12". For instance, the pulsing love story, "Theme From Tomorrowland."

Continue reading New Cold Cave - "Theme From Tomorrowland"...

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http://stereogum.com/archives/mp3/new_cold_cave__theme_from_tomorrowland_099021.h
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