iTunes Users

19 Tuesday Sep 2006

Posted by in Music, Technology

≈ Leave a comment

The BBC and Digital Music News (and I’m sure others as well) have articles about the results of some research by Jupiter Research.  The research shows how little iTunes use gets, compared to the number of iPods incirculation and the alternative sources of music to load onto them. The report indicates that people draw the bulk of their music on their iPods from CDs that they own and to an extent P2P file sharing.

The most interesting point that the BeeB highlights is the fact that people who tend to have these devices also tend to purchase more CDs.  So, despite the integration of iTunes and iPods – people at the end of the date like to have something real that they can touch and feel.

Scissor Sisters Live – Red Square

17 Sunday Sep 2006

Posted by in General

≈ Leave a comment

.flickr-photo { }
.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

DSC00015

DSC00015,
originally uploaded by Phil & Catherine Wilkins.

We have been fortunate enough to have won a pair of tickets to see the Scissor Sisters as part of their Red Square concert in Trafalgar Square, London. I got to try my Sony Ericsson K800i phone camera in anger for the first time, and this is one of the results (a complete set is on our Flickr site http://photos.mp3monster.org)

Guerrilla Art

15 Friday Sep 2006

Posted by in General

≈ Leave a comment

The Guerrilla Artists Banksy is getting a lot of press at the moment, with another article on the BeeB news site.  I found it rather amusing that in the BBC article some of the people interviewed couldn’t get their head around some of his simple messages.

If you’d like to see more interesting work, then check out his website here.

Free Really Legal Downloads – SpiralFrog

07 Thursday Sep 2006

Posted by in General, Music

≈ Leave a comment

Following on from an earlier blog entry (here) about SpiralFrog providing legal, freedownloads – EMI have now made an agreement to license their music to the service, that puts the catalogues of two of the largest players into the service. In addition to this, EMI have approved the use of lyrics as well on the site. If my recollection is correct about nine months ago EMI was one of the players that spent time trying to shutdown lyric search engines.

The Motoring Darwin Awards?

07 Thursday Sep 2006

Posted by in General

≈ Leave a comment

There seems to be a rising number of cases of people trying to do something (illegal) about speed cameras. The cases that I’ve seen have actually resulted in the individual(s) end up being hurt or prosecuted for more serious crimes and receiving greater punchishment as a result. So I’d like to suggest a new form of Darwin award for motorists where nominees end up beig prosecuted for more serious crimes as a result of trying to avoid speeding charges.

Here are my first nominees:

Feel free to post links to more nominees in the blog comments 🙂

Mercury Music Prize 2006 Announced

06 Wednesday Sep 2006

Posted by in Music

≈ Leave a comment

This year’s Mercury Music Prize has been awarded to the Arctic Monkeys – not my choice, but there you go.  Anyway more information can be found at the Award’s website here.

CV

06 Wednesday Sep 2006

Posted by in Website

≈ 1 Comment

Well I’ve finally found a little more time to add a bit more to the rest of the website.  So now the CV page is up.  I only need to update the CV – shouldn’t take more than another couple of months 🙂

Paris Hilton Prank

04 Monday Sep 2006

Posted by in General

≈ Leave a comment

The BBC have an amusing article on their news site.  It appears that somone has tampered copies of her album replacing the artwork and CD with their own take on her work.  More here.

Will Podcasts replace Streamcasts?

01 Friday Sep 2006

Posted by in Technology

≈ Leave a comment

Over the last 18 months or so podcasting has taken off in a big way, so much so your non-IT-literate Joe in the street will have heard of podcasts and will have a vague idea as to they are.  At the same time the talk of live feed streaming seems to be mentioned less and less. While I can’t see major radio stations like those at the BBC experiencing a large decline in demand for live streamed feeds, but I am curious to know if the small independent solutions that use shoutcast etc are seeing a drop off in usage, or is the convenience and continuous nature of these feeds the one thing that keeps them attractive over podcasts?

If the streaming casts are unaffected by the rise of the podcast, then there is an opportunity for podcast radio?  Essentially DJs put their shows together in the same manner as a podcast and then someone streams it out using shoutcast or the alike.  In the world of buzzwords should we rename online radio stations to streaming podcasts?

Has Dylan become a Judas now?

01 Friday Sep 2006

Posted by in Music

≈ Leave a comment

Bob Dylan was famously accused of becoming a Judas at his 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall gig for going electric.  A criticism that deeply offended him at the time.  Dylan may have been faithful to what he believes is true for his music, but appears to have really sold out now – you can find on the Apple site a video clip of him performing as part of an advert (go here).  Yet, in the next breath he is slating technology big time to Wired magazine (article here). 

Why sell out now, with Dylan a cultural icon, and certainly not having problem selling albums?