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Music and more!

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DISCLAIMER: This is my personal blog. The blatherings here aren't (necessarily) the views of the current company I work for, companies I've previously blessed with my presence, my loving parents, the Illuminati, or anyone other than me, me, me!

Beauty in A cappella

When you think of a cappella, do you think of just cheesy barbershop? Think again. Give a listen to Una Aura Amorosa, sung by the Swingle Singers. If you don't agree that there is beauty here, you need your head examined

.

The Swingle Singers actually have quite a varied (and often amusing) repetoire. The song referenced above is from their 2CD combo: Bach Hits Back ~ A cappella Amadeus.

[Kindly link to this blog entry rather than the sound file directly; due to copyright and other issues, I may decide to change or remove the song at any time]

- Blathered by Adam on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 at 15:25 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment
- Commented on by no one yet. Bummer. Check out the full entry page to leave a comment or trackback!

Poetry slam falls flat / And that is that.

My friend recently invited me to accompany her to a poetry slam, and gave a compelling set of reasons to attend:
- It's free.
- It's cultural.
- It's something different.
- It's free.

Since she's unemployed and I'm, well, self-employed (which is about as secure), the free part's important.

But in the end, we got barely more than we paid for.

Read the full entry...

- Blathered by Adam on Sunday, February 22, 2004 at 23:43 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment
- Commented on by one person so far. Visit the full entry page and join in!

Questioning desires and assumptions about music

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted, and no, I won't apologize. I've been busy... not (just) picking my nose, but picking things to write about.

Additionally, dear reader, I've been spending much of the last few weeks delving even deeper into online music services, evaluating my own music habits and interests, and planning a rather major undertaking of a site about online music services. Yes, you heard it here first

.

Much of this has come about during the seemingly mundane process of ripping my 350+ CDs to digital files on my computer. Allow me to explain...

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- Blathered by Adam on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at 14:27 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment • Geekery • Marketing and advertising
- Commented on by 3 folks so far. Visit the full entry page and join in!

The evolution of Music: From Thing… to Experience

[ On the Napster message boards, a fellow community member posted a note about the concept of music ownership and -- knowing I have strong feelings about this issue -- invited me to reply. Below is my response. - Adam]

I think the concept of ownership in the Digital Age is both fascinating and frustrating. The real problem facing the RIAA, artists, and consumers isn't copying; that's just a symptom. Instead, what concerns me is the public's current inability to recognize art as EXPERIENCES, not THINGS.

What this means is that, in an optimum world (economically and artistically), music is *NOT* viewed or treated as couches or jelly beans or flashlights or cars.

While physical objects (especially, well, cars), may occasionally elicit strong emotions, they are in and of themselves valuable and functional in their presence. Music (as, I'd suggest, any other form of art as well), is contrastingly interesting / useful / in-mind even when not present.

CDs, as a physical manifestation, evoke and symbolize the traits of art, but (with, again, few exceptions) are not art themselves.

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- Blathered by Adam on Tuesday, November 18, 2003 at 14:48 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment
- Commented on by one person so far. Visit the full entry page and join in!

A comprehensive review of the new Napster 2.0 service - Part THREE of three

[ This is the final and third part of my Napster 2.0 music service review. If you haven't read the other parts, I encourage you to start at part one of my Napster review -- Adam ]

In this final section of my Napster review, I'll be covering these remaining topics:
- Radio
- Music info
- Non-music offerings
- Overall user interface
- Pricing and value

If you're not already a Napster user, I encourage you to download and try out the software for free as you read along here

Read the full entry...

- Blathered by Adam on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 18:02 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment • Geekery
- Commented on by one person so far. Visit the full entry page and join in!

A comprehensive review of the new Napster 2.0 service - Part TWO

[ This is the second part of my Napster review. You may read the first part here. ]

This part of my Napster review will cover the following topics:
- The Now Playing functionality
- Library and playlist functionality
- Community features

You can try out Napster for yourself and follow along here if you like

Read the full entry...

- Blathered by Adam on Sunday, November 2, 2003 at 22:35 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment • Geekery
- Commented on by no one yet. Bummer. Check out the full entry page to leave a comment or trackback!

Comprehensive review of the new Napster 2.0 service—PART ONE

[ Napster is free to download, and they offer a free trial on their premium service ]

I've now had a chance to play with the new Napster 2.0 service for quite a few hours, and I thought I'd share with you my detailed thoughts on the service.

If you're not already familiar with the basics of the new (legal) Napster, I encourage you to skim my earlier intro-to-Napster-2.0 entry, or even read the surprisingly informative Napster info page.

I can tell you now, however, that you absolutely, positively...

Read the full entry...

- Blathered by Adam on Friday, October 24, 2003 at 19:17 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment • Geekery
- Commented on by 5 folks so far. Visit the full entry page and join in!

iTunes—a review of the music service and music player

After checking out the following music services -- Rhapsody, MusicNow, PressPlay, MusicMatch and Napster 2.0 -- I have now spent some time playing with iTunes.

As with MusicMatch ("MM"), iTunes must be looked at from the perspective of a player and a service.

The iTunes Player
Let's get the player out of the way first. It dramatically pales in comparison to other players out there, including WinAmp, MM, and even Windows Media Player. It substitutes simplicity for flexibility and power, and that's not even good for non-power users, IMHO.

NOTE: I've tempered my negative opinion of the player a bit. See the addendum at the end of this review for details.

Read the full entry...

- Blathered by Adam on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 at 14:13 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment • Geekery
- Commented on by 5 folks so far. Visit the full entry page and join in!

Napster’s (sort of) back—and it’s not half-bad

As a former paying subscriber of Roxio's PressPlay (which has transitioned into Napster), I've been invited to beta test the new Napster 2.0. To my knowledge, there are no prohibitions on me talking about it at all to others, so here goes a few thoughts of mine

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- Blathered by Adam on Thursday, October 9, 2003 at 2:58 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment • Geekery
- Commented on by one person so far. Visit the full entry page and join in!

A music solution to make everyone happy

I touched upon this idea briefly in my earlier note about Musicmatch's new download service, but I'd like to go into more detail about what I see as the solution towards universal Music Happiness.

Without further ado, here is Adam's (hypothetical) Online Music Service, or "AOMS" for short.

Read the full entry...

- Blathered by Adam on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 at 1:01 Permalink
- Filed under Arts and entertainment • Geekery • Society
- Commented on by no one yet. Bummer. Check out the full entry page to leave a comment or trackback!

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