This is…interesting.
Tag: Music
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LyricRat
Just found an awesome new reference tool…LyricRat is a site that will take a snippet of lyrics that you give it, and then tell you the song, album, artist that the lyrics are from.
My favorite bit? If you tweet a lyric to @lyricrat, they will reply with the song and a link to the lyricrat site!
So very cool, and easy to use. Huge fan of services like this that provide a service in an almost completely transparent way: no sign up, no log in, no barriers.
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Wisdom from Reznor
Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails, recently said this in a Wired interview:
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t think music should be free,” Reznor says. “But the climate is such that it’s impossible for me to change that, because the record labels have established a sense of mistrust. So everything we’ve tried to do has been from the point of view of, ‘What would I want if I were a fan? How would I want to be treated?’ Now let’s work back from that. Let’s find a way for that to make sense and monetize it.”
How’s that for a customer service mantra? Try that for your library: What would you want, if you were a patron? How would you want to be treated? Work back from that, find a way for that to make sense.
In thinking about Michael Sauers recent brilliant post on cataloging Creative Commons works, I’m considering setting up an iTunes instance on our Student network in MPOW. On that system, we could load…well, that’s the crux of this post. Long time readers of this blog know my stance on copyright, and that I keep up with the latest issues, especially vis a vis digital copyright. I could, at the very least, load CC licensed music on this system. But what else?
So, I ask you, blogosphere: What can I legally load on that iTunes instance? It would be openly shared, streamable to anyone connected to our student network…but, as anyone who has used iTunes knows, not downloadable. Can I load the majority of the library music collection on that machine? Why not? If it is legal for me as a private citizen to rip my purchased music to digital form (yes, I realize that not everyone thinks this is legal, but it is the current position held by most copyright thinkers), then why would it not be legal for “me” as a library? Once ripped, can it possibly be illegal for me to use functionality that iTunes has built into it?
Is anyone out there doing this? It would mean that every student could stream any of our music collection from any computer with iTunes as long as they were connected to our network…which would, of course, be any computer in the library (or their own computer).
Once more, oh blogosphere, I ask you: what’s wrong with this idea?
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Line Graph: Top 40 Artists 2005-2008
Really amazing graph generated using Lastfm Extra Stats that analyzes my music listening habits for the last 3 years. I’ve been using Last.fm to track my iTunes and other listening, and it’s really cool to be able to drag that data out and see it in graph form.
Very, very cool little program.
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In Rainbows is LAME
Not only is Radiohead releasing their newest album at whatever price their fans are willing to pay, and not only is the digital release completely DRM free and 160kbps MP3, but it looks like it was ripped to MP3 using LAME 3.93. An exploration of the MP3’s in a text editor reveals:
They need to upgrade…LAME is up to 3.97 now.
Looking at the header and footer of the files in both a text and hex editor doesn’t show any tracking numbers or codes tying the songs to a particular download. It really does look like these are regular old MP3s.
Thanks, Radiohead, for showing the recording industry how business should be done these days.
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Sony Rolly
In case you didn’t know, Sony is a Japanese company, and Japan is the home of all things cute. Thus, the Sony Rolly.
It will be launching soon in Japan, and yes, it is a dancing MP3 player.
According to a recent press release, it will have 1gig of internal memory, but be able to play tunes via Bluetooth from your cell or laptop as well. And dance, of course. And flap its ears.
I have no idea why I would possible want one, but I do.
Here’s a FAR better video, that really shows it in use.
It looks like quite a little tech marvel: bluetooth music streaming, the video makes it look like it has an accelerometer, and given the Sony.jp page it looks like there is a motion editor for programming movement yourself. Sony has tried and tried to bust into the home robotics market with the Aibo, and they show off Asimo to people all over the world….is Rolly the next step?
And when are they going to release him in the US? Do I have to import one? 🙁
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Oh, the decisions
Oh, the humanity.
So Apple launches a completely new swath of iPods yesterday. I, like most of us, drooled over the iPhone when it was released, but now we have the choice between the iPhone (8GB, $399) or the Touch (16GB, $399). Confounding that choice is the still-mind-boggling 160GB iPod Classic. 160GB.
The Touch is clearly the technological marvel of the group…wifi, safari, touchscreen allows for infinitely variable UI upgrades…but with the classic, for the first time I could actually carry all my music in my pocket. That’s pretty nuts. But the screen on the Touch is really marvelous.
So what say you all? Touch or Classic? At some point my old 40GB 4th gen (over 3 years and still kicking) will give out, and I’ll need a replacement.
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Gorman: the Musical!
David Lee King has just unleashed upon the world a song of such touching complexity, I expect major labels to be contacting him any day.
Brilliant, and funny. However, David, where is the Garageband file so that we can all remix it??