Play me old king cole

Well that last post rambled for a bit. My writing style is very conversational so you expect SOME ramblings, but that might have been pushing it.

Let me tell you about my new toy. Its called the Squeezebox and its wonderful (http://www.slimdevices.com). Basically it plays all your digital music files that live on any computer on your network. It works wireless, or wired ethernet. If you have iTunes, it allows you to use your playlists. Even better it can be controlled by a remote, any my logitech universal remote even has it in it's system. To top it all off, I can access the music server through my laptop and arrange song orders and playlists on the fly. I can even change the Squeezebox settings over the network. Its a well polished piece of hardware.

No more putting CD's in the DVD player, or hooking up the iPod and getting up to change the song. Its even better since my iPod will soon not be able to hold my entire library as I finally get around to finally ripping the rest of my CDs.

It seems like a simple thing, but we're already finding it was well worth the $300. Its nice to have music going almost constantly. Gavin and I have been doing quite a bit of dancing. Gavin has added the 'spin' to his dance moves, which is incredibly cute. For some reason the song that has gotten him the most excited was Depeche Mode's "Pain That I'm Used Too". Maybe it's the base line.

Speaking of which, go out and buy Depeche Mode's "Playing The Angel" CD. Its some of their best work. Its got songs that are danceable, sing-a-longable, and even great creative pieces. Go ahead, I'll wait....

Good choice buying that CD, you'll really enjoy it. Continuing on.

It really adds some warmth to the house when we can have music on command. Next step is to be able to serve it up to the kitchen, dining room, and the outside patio. We can get the mustic to the kitchen and dining room simply by turning up the volume in the family room. The downside is that its way too loud for anyone sitting there. So I want to put a speaker in each of those additional areas (an outdoor speaker for the patio of course).

A couple of ways to do this, I could by 3 squeezeboxes, and 2 sets of computer speakers and 1 set of outdoor speakers and set them up in each room. And yes, the Squeezebox's can play in sync with each other. Surprisingly, this might be one of the cheaper solutions. It has some drawbacks though, if the tv is playing hockey, or football, that doesn't get served up to those areas. Also this means I have a visible Squeezebox in each area, and I have to have a remote in each area to turn the thing on and off. It DOES give me a great deal of flexibity in controlling volume and they Squeezeboxes don't HAVE to play in sync.

The other solution would be to take the monitor out of my reciever, and run it to the basement, then under the floor to an amplifier. From that I can run cables to speakers in each area. That's going to be a lot of cable and drilling, but it will allow whatever is playing in the family room to be heard everywhere. I don't know how I'll control the volume in each area though. Also, it means that if I'm watching hockey, Pam can't listen to music in the kitchen.

I could also do an official multi-source, multi-room audio system. I have NO idea what the final cost of that would be. Probably > $1000. I'm probably willing to spend around that, it will improve the value of the home, and more importaintly, it will improve our quality of life for the many years we'll be here. I WISH there was better sources of detailed information on this. It looks like I'll have to track down an audio installer and get a quote. I hate not having a good idea ahead of time though.

See! I can do a non-rambling post. Now please excuse me, its overtime hockey time between Edmonton & San Jose. God I love playoff hockey.

I know what I like, and I like what I know

I'm slowing down in posting a bit, which is strange since I've had the idea for this post for weeks. Parenthood is strange like that. Maybe I should let my wife know about this blog so she'll start nagging me to post things for her entertainment.

I'm quite capable of keeping secrets from my wife, but I don't like it. This shouldn't be confused with keeping other people's confidences/secrets. That's different. I'm talking about me concealing things from my wife when I'm not going to surprise her in an enjoyable way (parties, presents, etc).

Anyway, that wasn't the focus of this post. The focus is iTunes. Wonderful, beautiful iTunes. How I love thee.

Such a large collection to sample and explore. Its a great way to find old favorite songs, or to sample an artist. Or, if you're like me, you can get those one or two new songs that get released on a greatest hits album from an artist who's complete library you already have. That annoys me, I know why its done, but it still annoys me.

The medium its introduced has only gotten started though, and what I love is it paves the way to free artists from the oppressive yokes of their record companies. Now, to be fair, those yokes existed for good business reasons. You needed someone to publish the albums, get them on shelves, pay for the recording sessions, give you some seed money for a tour. That's a lot of cash for an uncertain return on the investment.

But the digital arena allows new artists that aren't Jessica Simpson clones to have a chance to get heard. Smaller, more agile and hungry record companies may be born. Record companies can test the waters on the digital side before putting them on store shelves. Word of mouth can help sell an artist as an e-mail link to a song is more likely to get heard then telling someone to go to the record store.

In fact, a new record company is trying something new. Instead of albums, do micro-releases of 3 songs. This allows a great deal of flexibility for artists & record companies alike. Less investment in recording sessions, and the greater ability to meet publishing schedules. It also means artists might produce more. Currently after an album, its usually 2-3 years before you see another album. Contrast that to 3o years ago where artists might come up with albums every year or so. Artists were constantly giving their fans new music, and tried a lot of different things. Some things worked, some things didn't. But it allowed the band to grow. Now the 2nd album has so much effort focused on it (and way too much engineering and tweeking) that artists usually play it safe. Which is why the idea of the softmore slump for artists persists. On the first album, it was new a fresh, the 2nd album is usually a rehash of the 1st, or whatever is popular at the time. If the artist makes it to the 3rd album, they usually begin to relax and let the creative juices flow.

The artists that buck that trend tend to be my favorites.

So what's wrong with this new world order? The title of this post. The ability to cherry pick songs could mean the death of the album. And I don't believe albums should die. First of all, the song that gets me into an album is almost never the song that keeps me there. Its usually the non-singles that shows the meat of the artist, and they usually grow to be my favorite songs. Now that's not to say that I never love the songs that become singles, but if I only bought the singles, my musical life would be much emptier.

Secondly, intentional or not, an album usually ties songs together in a unique way that makes the sum greater than the individual parts. Songs usually just sound better when played within the scope of their album.

Thirdly, if you know what you like, and you like what you know, when will you know anything new if you don't get a chance to experiment? Albums give us that chance, and gives artists a chance to put out something unexpected. "Drop in the Ocean" on Michelle Branch's debut, "All these thing's that I've done" on the Killer's debut, and "The one you have not seen" on Sophie B. Hawkins's 3rd album are great examples.

My drum teacher was a large voice in trying to break people out of liking what they knew. He belonged to a group called the New Music Circle which presented a lot of different stuff. Some cool, some very very very strange. I credit him for really opening my mind up to new horizions. I always thought my musical tastes were varied, but you never see the rut you're in. I don't think I would have given Patty Griffin a chance without that.

God that would have sucked.

I've aquired quite a taste for a well make mistake.

Everyone loves to hate the record companies, and honestly, they make it really damn easy. They short change their artists in their early carrier, they put secret rootkits on our computer, they sue kids who can't fight back, the list goes on.

My loathing comes from a slightly different source. I understand why they short change their artists. Developing new talent is expensive, and risky, and quite frankly, doesn't pay off a lot. Suing those people that were just serving up copies of music, I get that, they needed to send a message. Mission accomplished. But some of the strong arming they did on kids that just downloaded...that was probably pushing it. I'm a firm believer against piracy. If you believe a CD is too expensive, or overpriced, don't buy it. It does NOT give you a right to steal it, no matter how evil the record companies are.

Sorry, I'm digressing from the focus I want to get too, but I've heard all the whining about why its ok to make illegal copies of CDs. Its annoys me, you're just justifying something you know is wrong. Its not a ideolgical fight, its a purchase. Deal.

Anyway, back to business. Now, I can understand stupidity and ignorance. Not everyone is the brightest, and not everyone has all the info. Its not their fault, so I don't get down on those people. God knows I've had enough stupid moments in my life. But WILLFUL stupidity. Well that I just can't stand.

And that's where the record companies are going. The world is changing, and they just can't handle it. One exec stated that people would just have to buy a seperate CD player instead of playing the music on their computer. Another stated that you should pay again if you put the music on your iPod. I bought the right to listen to the music, how I listen to it is my business.

And for god's sake, stop treating your customers like they're criminals. How is THAT supposed to help? The grand success of iTunes has shown that people want to own their music. They are willing to pay to have a legal copy instead of stealing. So what is your problem? All you're doing is driving away customers. Boards should fire their executives, and hire some people who know what the music consumer wants. If you're not going to let them play their music on their iPod after they buy the CD, they're not going to buy it. Or worse, they'll steal it.

You got to realize, as much as the digital age has come, people still LIKE buying CDs. It feels more real, and gives a nice fuzzy feeling. That and they sound better too (for now). So let them buy CDs! You get money, they get music. Put extras on the CD: videos, interviews, and such. Copy protect the hell out of THAT. That's stuff that people don't need to casually copy to other devices, and it gives them that feeling of exclusivity. People like extras.

Its amazing that iTunes exists with the current attitudes over there. Steve Jobs must be one hell of a salesman. Of course, they already want to tinker with it. Instead of 99 cents per song, they want make new hits more expensive, and discount colder songs. Now I've seen a lot of consumers rant against this idea saying its stupid. That's not true, its a great idea, its just not a great idea RIGHT NOW.

The digital download is a hot growing market. Emphasis on growing. There's a lot of market penetration to do. What brings in new consumers? The fact that everything costs the same. 99 cents. It makes sense to a consumer. It gives the consumer a warm fuzzy feeling. Let it go a couple of years. Once iTunes is a household word, then change the pricing model.

And for god's sake, don't equivilate what people pay for a ringtone on their cell phone with what they'll pay for a song on iTunes. They're two different things. People only have a limited number of ring tones. So they'll pay a little bit more since they won't be paying again for a long time.

You'll notice I haven't mentioned the terrible music being put out, and the way artists are dealt with. That will come in a later post. For now, start making good business decisions instead of decisions based on decades past. As big as you are, you will fall if you don't keep up.