By now everyone knows that iTunes stores your personal information into the DRM free version of their downloads. This little tool will strip your private data from each file. It’s a bit awkward to use, as it only offers a per song interface, but if you’re diligent about stripping each song as soon as you buy it it won’t take too much time.
The RIAA seems hell bent on preventing people from finding new music the old fashioned way - by sharing it with friends. I wouldn’t listen to music at all if I had been restricted to what the radio programming manager decided should be the handful of songs in rotation in any given week. My entire life I’ve never been a fan of what’s on the radio. I love punk, goth, alternative (real alternative, not the current umbrella category) and other off the wall choices. Would I have found the music I love in public consumption? Hell, no. I had to turn to my friends for that. They’d make me mixed tapes, and I’d go buy the albums if I liked the songs. I’d say what the RIAA considers illegal music sharing in analog form is what got me to the point where I own (as in paid for, you RIAA fucktards) over 400 cassettes, 800 CDs, nearly 800 records (it was 1000 - I weeded) and tons of iTunes and eMusic mp3s (over 1000 so far and still going). Tally that up, you narrow minded corporate drones - I may be one person, but that is a LOT of money spent on music over the years.
Anyway, RIAA rant aside, we are still left with the problem of how to share the music that we legally own. Playing a song for your friends, no matter where they are, is definitely fair use in my book. Not only that, it is fair use that leads to sales - it’s how we discover new talent. There are a few things you can do to find new music. You can listen to internet radio, assuming the RIAA doesn’t destroy that also in their quest to homogenize the planet and control the airwaves. Internet radio is full of stations that play truly alternative, cutting edge music. Streaming one of the stations, even the ones you see on iTunes radio, is a great way to find something new to love.
You can try programs like SimplifyMedia. My friend Cyndy and I tried this last night, and she wrote a review of it in her Web 2.0 series on Profy. She liked it better than I did. I give it points for catering to the voyeur in me - snooping around someone else’s iTunes and judging them for bonding with them over their taste in music is always fun. Plus you get to see the guilty pleasure songs they never allow to pop up on their iPod and tease them about it (she got to see my Johnny Cash hiding in my playlist, I got to see her show tunes). SimplifyMedia has a couple of major drawback though. First, you can not see the music you bought using iTunes. That is a huge blow against this software for me as I’m a big believer in fair use once I’ve paid for something. Second, while the program doesn’t take up much room on your hard drive, or use much bandwidth, using it really blows up your RAM consumption. I have 1.25 GB in my MacBook, and I found I had to close programs to keep the stream going - not cool.
You can share music the old fashioned way, by burning your friend a CD or emailing them a song. That works for real life friends, but what about interweb fwenz? That puts them completely out of the picture. You can push your luck by using an old fashioned service like Napster used to be, but I wouldn’t recommend that. It puts you at risk for RIAA attention, of course, but also for viruses hidden in files - it just isn’t smart in either case. I believe you should be able to share music that way if you want, again because it drives sales, but this is one case where the risks outweigh the reward. I’d stick to email or CD “mix tapes” instead.
My current favorite way to share music is Mog. This new social network allows you to create a profile and place widgets on both the Mog profile and your web site (you can see my “currently playing” widget in the lower right sidebar). You then make friends, similar to Myspace, Friendster, FaceBook and others but with a much less obnoxious interface. what I love about it that you can blog your music on your Mog profile and upload songs, alum art and videos to support your review of the artist. Then you can embed the player in your blog or web page, giving you another way to point to your review and expose your favorite music to the masses. I’ve done this a couple of times, and know for a fact it resulted in sales - the people who bought the songs would not have heard of them otherwise. It’s easy, they do all of the work for you, and it doesn’t require any software to be installed on your computer. Both Mog and SimplifyMedia work on Macs without a hitch.
However you do it, don’t stop sharing your music tastes with the world just because the greedy people at the RIAA want more of your money (and believe me, it is the RIAA who get the money they sue for, not the artists). I tallied up the total spent on music from my list above and using average costs of cassettes, CDs and records at the tie of purchase, plus iTunes songs, I figured I have spent an average of $26,170 in music since the age of twelve. that’s more than my car costs, people, and yet the RIAA is still being greedy. Shame on them. If you have a favorite way to share music with friends, let me know in the comments. Shoot, if you like the kind of music I do, go ahead and recommend music to me in the comments - I’m always looking for a new earworm.
If you just want to add me to your Mog friends, click here for my Mog profile.
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Technorati Tags: Music Sharing, RIAA, Fair Use, Mix Tape, Music, Online Music Downloads, Streaming Radio, Mog, iTunes, iPod
Well, I upgraded to iTunes 7.3 and can safely say no ring tones are evident as speculated earlier. What’s more, other sites are now saying that once the ring tone feature is active in later versions, you will a) only be able to make ring tones out of songs purchased from iTunes and b) will get charged an extra 99 cents a song on top of the original cost of the song to make a 30 second ring tone. If that is true, that’s a multi-level rip off that really pisses me off.
First of all, that first 99 cents a song should cover all fair use of the song. Including making a damn ring tone if we want to. Second, what about my other music services and my CDs? eMusic is a favorite of mine for songs, and I have hundreds of CDs. You mean to tell me that if this rumor pans out I can’t use any of that music to make ring tones for the iPhone, which will only be compatible with iTunes? What a crock. That would make me a really unhappy Apple customer.
It seems that so far Apple is missing a big boat with the iPhone not being able to use a full song from the iPod/iTunes library on it as a ring tone, not to mention the choice of AT&T as the carrier. If the grapevine speaks the truth they can chalk up another strike against them on this, which is too bad. I was hoping they’d be innovative and lead the way on songs as ring tones and other features.
Tags: iPhone, Ring Tone, RingTone, iPhone Ringtones, eMusic, AT&T, Cingular, ringtones, ringtunes
This rumor gets a resounding “Hallelujah!” from me. Up until now I have happily been using a program called Xingtone to create my ring tones for my phone, but to have ring tone support right in iTunes would be wonderful.
As it is, as good as Xingtone is as a program, it only works with one phone number, and you have to jump through a few hoops with songs you buy in iTunes to get them to work. Songs bought on other sites, like eMusic, work fine, though.
I hope that iTunes Ringtone creator includes some of the features offered by Xingtone: equalizer, custom cut, fades, sequencing and other effects. You can even record a voice over the music usung Xingtone. If iTunes can do half as much, it will still be good, but if it can do it all that would be even better.
Tags: xingtone, itunes 7.3, itunes with ringtones, ringtones, custom ringtones, emusic
[posted with ecto]
in 1988, Apple released this video, simulating what they thought the computing world would be like in 2010. With 2010 fast approaching, how accurate do you think they were?
[tags]apple, future computer, future of computing, nostradamus, mac, steve jobs, commercial, apple 1988, apple 2010, knowledge navigator[/tags]
From the folks at CNET:
In New York City, you can go to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in midtown 24 hours a day, seven days a week and browse the Web from the Macs on display. But due to a new Apple regulation, you can no longer access MySpace.com.
ThinkSecret first broke the rumor that Apple was blocking MySpace from it’s stores, and Apple’s representatives have now confirmed it, saying:
“Nearly 2 million people visit Apple stores every week,” the statement read. “We want to provide everyone a chance to test-drive a Mac, so we are no longer offering access to MySpace in our stores.” According to an Apple representative, the News Corp.-owned MySpace is the only site that has been blocked.
The reason for the ban? With Macs in Apple stores hooked up to broadband and available for users to test drive, MySpace users were coming in and hogging all of the machine time. This was keeping other potential Mac buyers from being able to hop on a Mac and see what it could do.
An employee from one of the Apple Stores had this to say:
“MySpace is a big issue for the Apple stores because people come in, Photobooth themselves (using Macs’ built-in webcams), then stick their picture up on their MySpace account and loiter at machines for hours,” the source said in an e-mail. “It is especially troublesome at the flagships and high-volume stores, and for a while there was no official word on how to deal with it.”
The impetus for the ban were flagship stores, like the one on Fifth Avenue in New York, that are open longer hours and have a high traffic volume (New York’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store is open 24 hours, 7 days a week). The upcoming release of the iPhone is expected to increase traffic even more, and Apple wants to be prepared.
[tags]Apple, Apple Store, Genius Bar, MySpace, Safari, iPhone, iMac, MacBook, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, New York’s Fifth Avenue[/tags]
Online data backup services for Macs have been scarce these last few years (ok, ever), but Mozy heard the call and came to the rescue (I realize .Mac and iDisk do this. for those of us with boucoups information for clients, an advanced internet use capability and a serious iTunes addiction, .Mac and iDisk don’t offer enough security or space). (more…)
Amazon announced today that it was finally opening its long-rumored DRM free music store. You an look for it to open later this year. With a full catalog of DRM free music and 12000 choices so far, is this a threat to iTunes? Not really. Apple continues to be at the forefront of the DRM free fight with the remaining three record labels (EMI being the only major label who has already signed on with both Amazon and Apple). Steve Jobs continues to use his heavy hitting industry clout to bend the last hold outs to his will, er, make them sign a DRM free agreement for his customers. (more…)
