Posts
Last year around this time I switched computers from a laptop to an HP desktop that I am still very happy with. One of the consequences, though, was that I had to import my entire iTunes library into the new computer, which effectively reset the play counts on all my tracks to 0.
About a month ago, I used iTunes to make a smart playlist of all the songs that had a play count of 0, to find out exactly what I hadn't listened. There were more than 2000 songs.
When I'm bored, I like to put the list on shuffle and just see what comes up. Today, it was this old chestnut from a Best of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong album that I bought about a decade ago at the Princeton Record Exchange.
Ella and Louis always remind me of a particular girl who I'm sure doesn't bother thinking of me anymore. I don't miss her either, but all these years later, "Under A Blanket Of Blue" is like a little smudge of chocolate frosting you find on your lip twenty minutes after you finish eating your birthday cake - the teensiest, teasing morsel of a happier moment.
Of all institutions, it's the Library of Congress that might pave the way for the destruction of internet radio.
A ruling by a three-person LOC subcomittee called the Copyright Royalty Board is set to raise the price of producing internet radio to a per-track price that might spell the end of services like Pandora and Last.fm, among many many others. It's a move backed by the RIAA (surprise, surprise), and it represents the exact kind of myopic thinking we've all come to expect from them. Internet radio is practically a slam dunk for bringing music consumers to the product, and I have to believe it's had an enormously positive impact on legitimate music sales - particularly online. Why the RIAA isn't doing everything in its power to promote internet radio is simply and stunningly idiotic.
For anyone who doesn't know, Pandora is a music service based on the Music Genome Project (wiki entry here), which attempts to classify music by breaking songs down into their fundamental elements and analyzing them to produce a "genetic structure." Pandora uses this information to deliver music you might like, based on bands you select.
But I'm paraphrasing a much better article by Download Squad, which includes an interview with Tim Westergren, developer of the Genome Project. Westergren explains in detail how Pandora is able to play music under a provision of the DMCA, and the repercussions of the ruling on internet radio in general.
Toward the end of the interview, Westergren starts talking about some grass roots efforts to save internet radio, including a drive to get internet radio users to call their congressional representatives. There's already an internet petition underway too.
It's not too late to do something, but the fees in the CRB's ruling are retroactive to January 1, 2006. So hurry.
.:links:.
Download Squad Interview with Tim Westergren
Pandora
Music Genome Project (wikipedia)
Please Keep Internet Radio Alive! Petition
For anyone who's ever wondered what that song was you heard in the background of a particular commercial, here's a site where they attempt to catalog as much of it as possible. The site is called adtunes.com, and it's a great place to look if those likeable 30-second snippets aren't enough for you.
I remember years ago VW had a commercial that featured "Pink Moon" by Nick Drake, and I wished at the time there was some repository of commercial songs I could search to find out what it was. Luckily for me, a co-worker happened to randomly loan me the CD a few months later. But now, there's hope that I won't have to rely on chance.
And for all those of you who thought it was just so clever of UPS to scoop the USPS and use a song by The Postal Service to advertise for their Whiteboard service, this is the site for you too. As a matter of fact, you can hear a longer excerpt of the song playing in the background on the UPS Whiteboard site. Sorry, no lyrics though.
Comments
Oh, nice. I like that idea for a website. I don't watch many commercials but every now and then something will come on with a great sounding song.
Also, check out these tracks from The Long Division if you like the Postal Service:
Neighbors: http://mog.com/fistula_spume/blog_post/150554
Honey Pot: http://mog.com/davidaarong/blog_post/151764
- David