Scratchskunk

7digital

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:14:52 -0700

I already use Emusic, Amazon MP3, and iTunes Plus. While I need another music store like I need a second face, I found one in 7digital.

This Gift

Gone Ain't Gone

I heard about Glasgow band Sons & Daughters on this episode of Sound Opinions, and their album This Gift sounded totally awesome... but didn't appear to be out yet over here. It's on Amazon now, but when I looked, I couldn't find it in any of the other music stores I use. When I searched the web for mp3 downloads to buy, though, I found it on some store called 7digital.

Then the other day, in anticipation of his new album, I decided to buy Tim Fite's first album Gone Ain't Gone... but I could only find it on regular iTunes. I had almost decided to just buy and unlock the iTunes version, but first I searched the web for it, and lo and behold, it's on 7digital! Songs you get there are DRM-free in your choice of MP3, AAC, or WMA (or all three), so I wouldn't even have to unlock them.

I presume 7digital had those albums DRM-free because they're a UK site with UK distribution license. They were fine selling to me when I didn't tell them where I live and paid with Paypal, though. However that is the major downside: 7digital prices albums at a reasonable £8, which Paypal converts to a steep-feeling $15. But hey, they're DRM-free! It can be worth it!

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The Man is watching OHNOES

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:42:51 -0700

Somebody posted a link to Stereogum Presents... Enjoyed: A Tribute to Björk's Post yesterday, and having asked about that Raconteurs album, I poked around for anything they had on it. (I also found a video from the other album I was thinking of buying, the new Presidents of the United States.) I thought it was amusing when the most I found was an article about Web Sheriff, a service music labels apparently retain to issue warnings on their behalves to mp3 blogs hosting unauthorized mp3s. Apparently over the holiday, in advance of the Raconteurs album, Web Sheriff posted some comments “thanking” people for not posting mp3s (or “pirate links”), and announcing you can see a “good quality, non-pirated, preview clip” on the band's web site.

Ha ha, some watchdog service posting creepy comments to people who aren't me. About some album I then mentioned.

Oh. Wait.

PROTIP: Your extralegal enforcement agent is the opposite of marketing. You probably shouldn't use the one for the other.

(P.S. The album is pretty good, but in no way groundbreaking. I started it a few times yesterday while I was working, and the first song I would notice was the last.)

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Consolers of the Lonely?

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:48:00 -0700

Speaking of new albums, is the new Raconteurs any good? Vu at W♥M seems to think so.

Consolers Of The Lonely

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How to get me to buy your album

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:30:22 -0700

Easy method

Release a great melodic widely-styled hip-hop album that everyone absolutely loves.
Release a new album that's more consistent but still totally awesome.
Get mentioned on one of my favorite "stuff" blogs.
Don't have your album on Emusic. (Being on a major helps.)
Have your album available on Amazon MP3 Downloads.

The Odd Couple

Gnarls Barkley

Hard method

Release a totally awesome rock album several years ago.
Be mentioned often enough over the course of a couple years by people I consider hip that I'm naturally wary of you.
Have one of my favorite "stuff" blogs say your album is "one of the top 5 albums to come out since Nirvana's Nevermind," which I don't actually read because of (2).
Have one of your songs be included in a musical sequence in a movie I really liked, which I remember now because it's out on DVD soon.
Have a song in the hottest hit music video game around, which I start playing.
Be on the mp3 CD my friend's wife left in the car when he drove me someplace.
Don't make your album available on Emusic. (Being on a major helps.)
Be available on a coworker's iTunes share.
When I'm almost done listening to your album for the twelfth time in two days, have my coworker leave for the day.
Have your album available on Amazon MP3 Downloads.

Hot Fuss

Killers

Anti-method

Release an epic hip-hop album I like enough to even get the remix album (albeit on Emusic).
Release a new album in which you reportedly take "a giant leap forward in song craft, incorporating elements such as pop, reggaeton, and R&B."
Don't make it available on Emusic.
Don't make it available on Amazon MP3 Downloads.
When I look to write this post, even after Amazon started claiming to be selling the CD, have delayed the release of the album by a month.

Everywhere at Once

Lyrics Born

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Dubstep

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:02:51 -0800

Untrue

I was getting around to reading this New Yorker article about one's “Beddian year” that Jason Kottke linked to, and I clicked through to the front page, and then to a post (article?) of Sasha Frere-Jones', Grime Doesn't Pay:

It’s a shame, since the music is thriving in England; both grime and an instrumental offshoot called dubstep have been having a strong year.

And I must say Burial's Untrue (amazon mp3) is a pretty awesome album, worthy of the recent top-billing on Emusic's front door that got me to try and buy it.

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For some value of “sell”

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:01:23 -0800

I have eight of Emusic's 2007 best sellers. Is that good?

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Rock and pop music are over (?)

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:51:28 -0800

Quote:

Manning a market stall this summer, trying to flog old CDs I no longer had any use for, I found that it wasn't just me; nobody had any use for them. There was interest in the DVDs and computer games, but not in the music CDs. And especially not from anyone under 30. ...
Look at this artistically, too. There's been a brain drain. No longer will the most talented creative brains of their generation be headhunted by popular music, as might have been the case thirty years ago. My nephew -- who's remarkably similar to a 90s-born me -- wants to make computer games, not pop records.

Click opera - What's over?

http://imomus.livejournal.com/327479....

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Emusic for July/August

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:00:41 -0700

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Feed Store

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:01:24 -0700

iTunes has widgets...

but even cooler for some of us is they offer the same data in plain feed form. It's where the widget gets its data, but they give you the url and let you subscribe directly. Maybe there's some cool thing you could do with it with Pipes etc. (I read about the widgets on Infinite Loop.)

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The Else and a Quick Decision

nobody@vox.com(markpasc) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:29:24 -0700

Sad. I didn't realize the Emusic refresh date creeps up like it does, so I went to spend all my downloads (I had around 70 left) at the last minute a day or two too late. So I already got a head start on this month, but all I downloaded last month were The Else and Grand National's A Drink and a Quick Decision (not available from Amazon?)

TMBG - The Else

View site

Grand National - A Drink And A Quick Decision

View site

I'm not terribly pleased with The Else. It has some good songs, but it doesn't cohere as an album the way The Spine does (and I wouldn't hold up The Spine as an example of a coherent album, but it works well enough). It shows better than much else of their recent work my problem with the same: it's excellently crafted, but I don't feel the same personality out of it that used to be there. The songs on The Else that I like, such as The Cap'm and Shadow Government, are full of personality, and the Venue Songs are brimming with it. It may very well be that The Else plus the bonus CD makes one good album, but I don't want to roll my own album again.

Or maybe I just don't like their gloomy songs.

While I'm talking about music, I got a head start on this month thanks to Chicago Public Radio's Sound Opinions and their 2007 retrospective-so-far episode. I grabbed the new LCD Soundsystem album Sound of Silver (which is only $7 on iTunes Plus, part of the Next Big Thing promotion), as well as Tim Fite's free album Over the Counter Culture. I also got the named El-P, Apples in Stereo, and Besnard Lakes releases, which were not only recommended by the Sound Opinions guys but had been in my save-for-later list for too long already. But I'll have to mention them again next month epdate anyway.

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