tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210781592011-12-14T18:58:19.286-08:00Music, Technology, Copy<i>left</i>Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.comBlogger171100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1143094485704951462006-03-22T22:14:00.000-08:002006-03-22T22:17:20.876-08:00

Indieish : Music Selections from the Creative Commons � Day 82 : Steven Dunston - CaliforniaI've been following Indieish for a few weeks now. It's a blog about music released under the Creative Commons license, and frequently features artists from Jamendo.They also have a cool feature called CC:365, which features a new Creative Commons song every day of the year.Well, today seems like as good a

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1142627636608982602006-03-17T12:33:00.000-08:002006-03-17T12:33:56.636-08:00

DRM Sucks ... Battery Life of MP3 Players - GizmodoThose of us who hate DRM out of principle have a new, very practical reason: It's a power vampire. CNET conducted tests which show that protected WMA files, like the music you would download from Napster or Rhapsody, eat up as much as 25% more of your battery life when compared to unrestricted music files.Apple fans get off a bit easer. iPods

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1142453957751806192006-03-15T11:44:00.000-08:002006-03-15T12:19:17.753-08:00

Earlier I mentioned that while the Origami may not directly replace an iPod, a PSP, or a smartphone/PDA like a Treo, it might force us to reconsider the way we use those devices.Well, I've done some reconsidering, and I'm going to talk about it. But first I'm going to talk about my car...For years I drove a Ford Focus hatchback. Good gas mileage, good for parallel parking, etc. And then one day I

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1142281389363009562006-03-13T12:23:00.000-08:002006-03-13T12:23:47.936-08:00

Practical Blogging has a short, but interesting take on the Analog Hole legislation I have complained about a couple of times. But I might have missed the worst part of it! HR 4569 includes a secret technology that you can find out about only if you pay $10,000 and sign a Non-disclosure agreement!VEIL is the watermark technology that would be embedded in broadcasts. But how does it work? What

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1142018901457107792006-03-10T11:08:00.000-08:002006-03-10T12:05:32.073-08:00

So now we know. The Origami is really a UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC). Which is why they called it Origami. How do you say UMPC? You-Mippick? Uhm-Pik? Oomps? I suppose you have to say all four letters separately. The usual suspects like Engadget and Gizmodo seem unimpressed, a bit deflated after all the hype. But I am actually intrigued by this mini computer -- mostly by what it's not. It's not a laptop

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1141153309858949132006-02-28T10:51:00.000-08:002006-03-10T12:05:50.006-08:00

Today everyone is abuzz about the new iPod Hi-fi. But perhaps the more interesting part of Steve Jobs' product announcement was the new Intel-powered Mac Mini, which now has the power to live up to its obvious promise as an entertainment server.The premium Mini ($799) now comes with a dual core processor, and with DVI output, and a Superdrive, it could conceivably act as a DVR and media hub.

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1139543294531143732006-02-09T18:56:00.000-08:002006-03-10T12:06:42.456-08:00

The tech elite, like Slashdot and Ars Technica have dutifully covered the first flight of Songbird. Briefly, Songbird is an open source alternative to iTunes and the iTunes Music Store. Songbird is a combination of a web browser and a music jukebox -- think of it as a lo-fi iTunes with the entire internet acting as the Music Store. Songbird comes with links to stores like mp3Tunes and eMusic, as

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1139512705779822292006-02-09T11:04:00.000-08:002006-03-10T12:07:03.006-08:00

Let me start out by saying that I've never had anything other than positive experiences with entertainment industry lawyers -- even inviting some to my wedding. But a recurring them at the Grammys last night was the relief from the artists that lawyers had figured out a way to allow art to be created.The pinnacle of this was the Linkin Park/Jay-Z award, where the band thanked the team of lawyers

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1139196551188734142006-02-05T19:27:00.000-08:002006-02-07T23:08:42.776-08:00

To Get Home Before Night Comes now available on Jamendo! This is not really a new album, but a collection of seven songs I recorded in 2003 and hadn't yet released. I wrote about 50 songs from 2001 to 2003, and recorded about half of them, but I didn't feel that enough of them held together as a single album. These seven songs, do, I think, and I'm thrilled to finally release them into the ether.

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1138308548006870772006-01-26T11:39:00.000-08:002006-03-13T12:28:07.316-08:00

As you may have guessed from the image in the right column, my current mp3 player is a Rio Karma. Though it is squat and plastic on the outside, inside it is full of geeky goodness, and I was heartbroken when Rio went belly-up, aborting the nearly ready Rio Cubic and other nifty devices, like the Avalon.Yes, the new iPods are slim and sexy, but they are also deeply flawed. Here is what I am

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1138151474346603032006-01-24T16:44:00.000-08:002006-01-24T17:11:14.526-08:00

Previously, I talked about John Conyers' media giant protection act, HR 4569, and the chilling effect it would have on the quaint notion of a public domain of ideas. Conyers has defended himself, saying he's doing it for the artists.Well, Mr. Conyers, I'm a musician. Here's what you can do for me:1. End the concept of "work for hire" with regard to artistic creations.2. End the "blanket royalties

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1137987617896454462006-01-22T19:13:00.000-08:002006-01-22T19:49:25.833-08:00

If John Conyers (D, MI-14) has his way, your camcorder, mp3 player and laptop may soon be spying on you, and overriding your ability to make your own viewing, listening, and archiving choices. Conyers has sponsored bill HR 4569 (pdf) that would require Analog-Digital converters to contain spy chips -- preventing consumers from using the devices to record copyrighted material. As Wendy M. Grossman

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1137794901450853822006-01-20T13:57:00.000-08:002006-01-20T14:10:34.900-08:00

Though I haven't quite finished my current songwriting project, Hymns About Her, I am already working on my next project, to be called Font. This is to be a concept album, with each song inspired by a font that evokes an visual image or story, either with its name, or with its typographical style. So far I have three songs in the works:Lucida Sans TypewriterNew CourierCentury GothicWhat do you

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1137647733519109742006-01-18T20:37:00.000-08:002006-01-20T11:19:09.233-08:00

Michael Robertson has a new/old idea that just may be the ideal way to collect and listen to random mp3s you can find floating around the web (see Get Music Blogs on sidebar for examples).Robertson is not one to worry about biting off more than he can chew. In the 90s he fired a warning shot across the bow of the music industry with mp3.com, then sold it to Vivendi at the height of the site's

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1137567259095739272006-01-17T22:42:00.000-08:002006-01-20T11:20:22.110-08:00

I made a bold promise that I would finish an album in 2005, and I very nearly did. In other words, I totally failed to release an album in 2005.I do have 14 songs recorded, and I'm proud of all of them. For a couple of weeks, I thought I might be finished. Most of them were a joy to record. One, however, was quite a painful process, and considering that the album title inspired its lyrics, I

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1137477217472351712006-01-16T21:11:00.000-08:002006-01-20T11:23:34.686-08:00

Jamendo is a new spin on self publishing, and it has all the pieces in place to create a successful community of artists and audience.First, the negatives: Jamendo is based in Luxembourg, and while they now have English translations for most of their web pages, most of the reviews and artists are in French.There are only 5oo albums as I write thisThe site is new and still has some obvious growing

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21078159.post-1137473899980972832006-01-16T20:37:00.000-08:002006-01-16T20:58:19.990-08:00

I am a musician and a fan of music. So this blog, ultimately, will be about the interaction between artists and their audiences. I am also a bit of a geek and a politics junkie, so I will stray from time to time into technology and politics, and how they affect the relationship between the artist.Right now there is a terrific tug of war taking place in the music industry, and there are at least

Ear Thishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11100597418999583034noreply@blogger.com0