Spotify: The Best On Demand Music Library I've Ever Experienced

You might have read some of the recent coverage around Spotify's potential inclusion (or lack thereof) into the iTunes store. You might also have seen the company's term sheets floated about the Web, as the music streaming startup gears up from its limited release to one that could take the globe by storm. But if you live in the US, there is a fairly good chance you haven't actually gotten to try the application, unless you cheated and used a proxy, because to date, it has been limited to European audiences. Well, despite my years-long allegiance to iTunes, and recent signup to Sirius XM satellite radio, I got my hands on a press beta for the US version of Spotify, and it is amazing.


Spotify's Promise: Legal, Free and Instant. All 100% Valid.
Using Spotify is like having hundreds of thousands of crystal-clear music tracks on demand. After downloading the application tonight, I've closed my iTunes and have been powering through Spotify, finding hundreds of tracks from all my favorite bands, including Depeche Mode, Underworld, and Daft Punk, but I was also able to dial back a few decades, uncovering Jesus Jones, INXS, and The B-52s. You name the song, I found it, including rare remixes. And cheating by looking at songs I really liked on Sirius Radio, I even found more obscure artists, including Deadmau5, Kaskade, Kaz James and Kristinia Debarge.


724 Tracks from Armin Van Buuren In Spotify


Drilling in on The B-52s In Spotify
The promise of instant access to seemingly any song on the planet is apparently here. It's jaw dropping.

Like iTunes, Spotify displays the track that is being played, its length, the album name, and artist, and clicking on any of those items displays information about the track, or the artist, including biographical history. Like iTunes, you can hit shuffle and repeat. And like iTunes, the search capability is very good. But unlike iTunes, you don't have to download the music and you don't have to pay for the music - making it more like the subscription services, including Rhapsody and Napster, that have been slaughtered by Apple's iTunes colossus.


Information Society on Display In Spotify


Jesus Jones In Spotify. (Remember them?)
Spotify's service is not "free" per se. The "free" version displays advertising between songs, and to get an ad-free experience, you would need to pay (at least in the UK) a British pound for a 24-hour day pass, or 10 British pounds for a month. I haven't seen what the US rates will be, but the version I'm using (no doubt the 'press' version) hasn't encountered an ad yet - just pure, clear, music.

If I'm Apple, and I see the Spotify application heading for me like a freight train, I would try to say the application competes with existing features of iTunes. You don't want to let a huge potential competitor in the front door. But if you look at Spotify like they did Sirius XM Radio, which was approved, it's essentially the same story, only instead of dedicated radio stations, you've got individual songs and artists by the bucketload.

I wish, similarly, that I had a "bucketload" of invites to hand out to get you into a theoretical Spotify beta, but I don't. All I have is my copy - and it's fantastic. When it lands here in the US, it's got the potential to be an amazing hit. I just hope people aren't so cheap as to not pay if presented the opportunity. I'm always willing to pay for quality, and that's exactly what we've got here.

Ignoring Rationality, I Subscribed to Sirius Radio Yesterday

Last week, I told you that the new iPhone application from Sirius Radio solved a problem I didn't have, namely gaining access to good music - which I can get from numerous sources, including my bulging iTunes library, Last.fm, Pandora, or even streaming radio sources built into iTunes itself, like those from Digitally Imported. But despite my protests, I gave in yesterday and paid up, making Sirius' foray into iPhone applications already responsible for at least one net new customer.

As I mentioned last week, I always had hoped to have streaming high quality satellite radio in my next car, but missed the boat when I bought a used 2006 model and didn't get the chance to configure it myself.

After initial struggles getting the app to work in the car, the application has worked beautifully for the remainder of the seven day free trial that came alongside the iPhone app. I have made turning on Sirius Radio (and primarily the station Area) part of the process of my turning the car on. And if you're a diehard electronic music and techno fan, I can tell you there is just no substitute for Sirius' set of stations on any network I have ever tried.


The Sirius Lineup on Pulsar
But if I were only using Sirius in the car, I still would have passed. Instead, I have also been playing my Sirius stations on my laptop, using an application called Pulsar, from Rogue Amoeba, that makes getting the music on my desktop very easy indeed. Now, I can listen to Area, and get shows from Robbie Rivera, Bennie Benasi, Paul Van Dyk, John Digweed, Carl Cox and Paul Oakenfold any time I am near the computer or the iPhone (which as you can assume is darn near all the time).


My Favorite Sirius Stations on Pulsar
And it's not just the unmatched content on the channel that had me convert. It's also the complete lack of commercials on Sirius, and of course, elimination of static. Pure satellite sound pumping through my BMW speakers on 280 is just amazing, as you can probably imagine.

Last week, when I was first talking about possibly buying Sirius Radio, Thomas Hawk repeatedly said "music wants to be free". But I will always pay for quality - and Sirius Radio has it. I cannot wait until the next long trip when I can charge up the iPhone, hook up to the dash and hit the gas, with perfect music flowing alongside. So don't tell me it was an irrational move, one that was a waste of money, or that I had better alternatives elsewhere. Music, like art, is emotional, and I have no qualms about reversing my position.

Sirius for iPhone Solves a Problem I Don't Have

Ever since I rented an Audi in 2007 while traveling that came with satellite radio preinstalled, I have been smitten with the idea of Sirius Radio, and specifically, the station Area, a great Dance and Electronic station featuring some of my favorite DJs, including Paul van Dyk and Paul Oakenfold. As my last car started to die, I always imagined my next upgrade would include Sirius Radio, letting me get crystal-clear music no matter where I drove.

As you already know, I got my next car after all, and it didn't come with Sirius Radio. So I've been holding out for the company's iPhone application to debut. I now had this fantasy of using the line-in feature to my car, streaming satellite radio through the iPhone and essentially reproducing the experience. That I already have thousands and thousands of songs in my iTunes library was really not an issue - for the geek in me wanted it anyway.


Browsing Sirius Radio on my iPhone
Last night, following the release of the iPhone's 3.0 software, I picked up the Sirius Radio application, registered for a seven day trial, and practically ever since, I've been hooked into the station Area. No commercials and outstanding music. I've had my headphones cranked up when at home, and I even hooked up Area when I have been at the office, preferring good music to being on the phone or engaging with co-workers.

But, surprisingly, I couldn't get Sirius to connect when I was driving, as I toggled back from Edge or 3G on AT&T's network. The one place I thought I could really use Sirius radio, so far, has been a complete zero, saying it was unable to connect.


If Only I Could Pay for Just This Station...
Given I already have days and days and days of music to catch up on, which is already at my fingertips at home or at the office, with my laptop, and also given that I can play this music in the car whenever I want, Sirius' offer fits a very small niche that I would have to work very hard to justify. And while others are complaining that Sirius has not preloaded the app with shock jock Howard Stern or some of its sports coverage, I don't care for Stern, and can get all my MLB games, in audio, using the MLB application for the iPhone.

I admit I love the station Area. Part of me wants to close my eyes and hand over the credit card, paying $12 or so a month to get that station alone - and just maybe I will, if I can get it to connect to the car consistently. But realistically, the debut of Sirius radio for a platform that already has formidable competitors in Last.fm and Pandora, not to mention my own bloated music library, is a tough one. Only if I feel a nagging itch to throw away more money on my music will this happen, and if I ever get too loopy, there's always the option provided to me by Apple of updating my entire library to iTunes Plus for about $400.

So for the next 6 or so days, I will crank up Area. And when that free trial ends, something dramatic will have to have happened to get me to do more than just uninstall. (See Also: Sirius Radio Now Looks Like an Outer Space WebVan)

AT&T Has Us Approach Intersection of Doing "Right", Common Sense

For the most part, I believe people are good and try to honor the law. Most people, regardless of religion or upbringing, believe it is wrong to lie, to steal or to cheat. But sometimes, there comes a perceived imbalance that drives a mob of people to collectively break the law and flaunt the rules, until the teeming anarchy threatens to break down the system, save it for a clear thinking authority figure who steps in and offers an acceptable alternative. We saw this with the boom of Napster and again with the rise of peer to peer networks for video trading. We saw it two years ago when users gloriously jailbroke their iPhones to install much-desired apps, and we are possibly seeing it again now that it looks like many existing iPhone 3G owners, shackled to AT&T for their service, are going to be unable to perform tasks possible from other carriers.

Going back to the root of the first two examples, with Peer to Peer networks and Napster, why were people sharing files and downloading like mad? For many people, it wasn't a matter of wanting to steal from the record companies, or to defraud artists. From the many stories I read and the people I talked to in that era, the most active Napster users were also among the ones with the largest legitimate music collections, the ones who made visiting a record store or concert a regular occurrence. But there came an imbalance between the ease of acquisition and the price of acquisition of the media, as prices for individual CDs rose from the $9.99 range to $13, $15, $18 and beyond.

Napster, Kazaa and other peer to peer networks, offered an alternative that delivered music of all types quickly, depending on download speeds, and for extremely low cost (free). And instead of downloading full albums, users could find individual tracks and get those alone.

It took a realistic alternative, like iTunes, that offered low per-track pricing and easy, trusted, downloads to push people to move away from illegal options, and for the most part, they have. Similarly, options like Netflix, Amazon Unbox and iTunes again provided users with trusted inexpensive video downloads that were less costly than the rapidly-rising theater experience, with its $10+ tickets (not to mention inability to pause the film).

In each case, consumers, with common sense, grew tired of the restrictions placed on them from an uncaring monopolistic industry. And while the traditional entertainment and media moguls are still reeling from having to adjust to the new rules placed on them by consumers, other old world giants think they can play the game and be a gatekeeper. AT&T's woes were painfully shown by Apple yesterday, who quietly called out the carrier for being behind in practically every important way - not enabling tethering for the iPhone, being incapable of supporting MMS, and giving all of us early adopters a dramatic case of sticker shock when we considered upgrading.

The world of common sense again says that if customers want to pay for cutting edge technology and are willing to pay for your services, they will. But they don't like being forced into a less than ideal situation that makes them feel like they are paying top dollar and getting lowest rung support.

I haven't slammed AT&T much and haven't championed them either. Phone services, like electricity and water, are a utility - something that should just work in the background. The fact that we are even talking about them now means something has failed. It's a relatively quiet group of folks, so far, who feel wronged by the phone monolith's position, but if the failures continue, they will start to break the rules, because common sense says they should, and eventually, the wrong will be right.

Pet Shop Boys Trump Depeche Mode in New Music Nostalgia Week

After two months of anticipation, thanks in part to an iTunes Pass to the band's 'Sounds of the Universe' album, Depeche Mode opened up the vault, issuing the remaining tracks this week, helping fill my iTunes library. But surprisingly, only a few days later, it's not this album from this 1980s megaband that's getting all the playing time on my iPhone. Instead, it's the much quieter release from The Pet Shop Boys called 'Yes' which has me hitting Shuffle and then Repeat.

Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop Boys occupy a special place in my permanent nostalgia file, reckoning back to high school and the years just before and after, joining Information Society, New Order and others. That they continue to put out great music is something of a miracle, but being a loyal listener, I buy every new song and album they release.

Given the hype and wait for 'Sounds of the Universe', I expected something amazing. And yes, while it's good, there was no hype for the Pet Shop Boys' 'Yes', and I simply can't stop playing it over and over. It was my airplane companion as I flew from Las Vegas to San Jose this evening, and the background when we arrived home and entertained the twins, who hadn't seen me in five days.

While Depeche Mode made headlines for their iTunes creativity, gaining me access to remixes and videos weeks in advance, the biggest surprise has been a special bonus track on the 'Yes' album, which contains audio commentary from the Pet Shop Boys, explaining how they arrived at lyrics, music, and how songs stayed off the cutting room floor. It's highly entertaining, just like the producer commentary on many of today's DVDs. And the album is classic Pet Shop Boys. From "Love Etc." to "Vulnerable" and "Pandemonium", many of the tracks exceed even the best from Depeche Mode's 'Sounds of the Universe'.

Depeche Mode may have far and away the most artist plays in my Last.fm library in all-time rankings, but at least for this week, in what should have been their return to glory, they're going to take a back seat. You can find both albums on iTunes, of course.

Britney Spears Passes Obama for Most Followed Human on Twitter

This evening, around 8:25 p.m. Pacific Time, pop star Britney Spears passed President Barack Obama for the most popular Twitter account representing an individual (Both trail CNN Breaking News). While Spears joined Twitter relatively recently, only 6 months ago, to Obama's more than two years ago, the diva and those who help manage her online presence have shot to the top of the rankings, as Twitter has moved out of the geek sphere and into the mainstream. Not surprisingly, she and Obama are trailed by other "real world" celebrities like Ashton Kutcher (#4 overall), Jimmy Fallon (#6) and Shaquille O'Neal (#7).


As of 8:25 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, @britneyspears topped @barackobama.
Both Spears and Obama have more than 620,000 followers as of tonight, following Britney's passing of Barack.

Note: Previous reports from sites like WeFollow, TwitterHolic and TwitterCounter were incorrect, as Obama's following statistics were undercounted by almost 50,000, stuck at 571,885 for some reason. (See some premature notes of Spears passing Obama on Twitter Search and a tweet by someecards to that effect.)


@someecards was premature, but on target.
Earlier this week, sparked by a New York Times story, Spears' account, as well as others, were highlighted as being operated by "ghost writers" - sparking outrage from some corners of the Web who thought they were authentic. Guy Kawasaki, who admitted to letting others tweet on his behalf, said he managed all direct messages and replies, while others were able to post links. But Spears' account was never really a secret - offering some transparency to the process. In December, you can recall an interview by Jesse Stay with Lauren Kozak, her social media director, that discussed how the account operated.

As she said then:

"Yes, we do get Twitters directly from Britney. We also get Twitters directly from Britney's Entourage. We provide announcement and tour information. We also have messages which are designed to drive traffic around Britney Spears' properties when we have something cool go on."

Ghost writers or not, the account has gained significant visibility and popularity - despite only adding a tweet about once a day. Of course, in contrast, Obama has only posted an update once since his swearing in on January 20th.

As Twitter grows, you can see the growth in the pair's audiences. Refreshing either's page will show a few dozen followers joining each minute, though Britney is increasing hers at a more dramatic rate.

The Spears and Obama teams operate differently when it comes to Twitter, not just in terms of frequency of their updates, but in how they follow back. Obama's account follows more than half a million, with 60,000 or so not being followed, for whatever reason. Spears' account, in comparison, follows fewer than 80,000. Of course, it doesn't exactly seem possible that either user, or their handlers, is really paying attention to the updates from fans - as the numbers are astronomical, and they probably have other priorities.

It's not clear if Britney can maintain the top spot for long. Kutcher joined Twitter in January, and his account is rapidly gaining, showing more than 583,000 followers as of 7:30 Pacific time this evening. At the current pace, it may be he, and not Britney, who tops the followers chart.


Ashton is Looking to Pass Britney Soon
Oh... and for the record, I don't follow any of these accounts, so my own data did not contribute.

Early Adoption Can Stem to Music As Well

This photo, unearthed from the archives in 1978, shows me rocking out to the tunes, bottle in hand, just like many other more aged musicians. But while some of these musicians used the bottle as a gateway to more recreational drugs, I never quite made that step. Instead, I continue to focus... on the music.

Anybody who follows my Last.fm activity, either through the site, or through my FriendFeed stream, knows I have an "early adopter" approach to music as well. I can hardly stand most contemporary pop, dabble only a tad in R&B, but have been a huge fan of electronic/trance music and techno practically since my first encountering of these unique sounds. Graduating from Depeche Mode, the Cure and REM in junior high school, I added on Information Society and the Smiths in high school before going head-long into beats from Underworld, Chemical Brothers, Orbital, the Crystal Method, and all matter of electronic DJs, including Paul Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, DJ Tiesto, and many others.

Yesterday, my partner in crime, Mike Fruchter, alerted me to an unexpected source for more down-tempo tunes, which I've had playing ever since, and plan to start again when I'm done. Adam Singer, of The Future Buzz, happens to be an excellent musician in his own right. I knew he was already a great blogger, but to do both at the same time? Outstanding.

If you share my musical interests, or just want to listen in, go check out www.adamsinger.org for a preview, where you can download his full albums in Zip form, which expand to MP3 and a perfect addition to your iTunes library. I particularly recommend "Lifeforce", "Drifting" and his remix of Depeche Mode's "I Feel You".

Rock on.

DRM = Doesn't Really Matter

If one of the biggest items to be delivered at tomorrow's MacWorld Expo is the elimination of DRM from songs on the iTunes store, as is rumored, then we are on the brink of the biggest snoozefests in technology event history. Forget that Mr. Steve Jobs potentially is suffering hot flashes, and is instead being replaced by Cupertino's wild-haired Pillsbury Doughboy, Phil Schiller. This Macworld has got to be the lowest-anticipated in terms of new product debuts that I can ever remember. And when it comes down to it, despite all the online horror and tongue-lashings, I'd venture a bet that the supposed evils of DRM that Apple has wrought on its users haven't really effected but a small percentage. I don't love DRM, but I live with DRM, and it doesn't really matter.

When Apple introduced iTunes and marketed it with the "Rip. Mix. Burn." campaign several years ago, music labels were furious, thinking the Mac-maker was embracing piracy, a second back to back blow to the maligned monopolists following Napster's runaway success. When Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, and later the iTunes Store in 2003, it had to bend over backwards to gain the cooperation of the labels, restricting who could play what songs when on what computers or iPods, and how many times they could burn playlists to CDs, all in the name of preserving profits.

Over time, some of the DRM rules were relaxed, and the advent of iTunes Plus meant you could some songs from iTunes without rights management, for an additional fee of 30 cents a song. The additional 30 cents, in theory, meant you could do whatever you wanted with the file, just like you can with any hard copy you own, be it cassettes, CDs, etc.

Although I've been an iPod user practically since the first day they were announced, and followed the Apple upgrade path through to my current 16 GB iPhone, and I now own almost 6,000 songs on iTunes, a significant percentage of which were purchased from the iTunes Store, I almost never encounter any issues with DRM. I've upgraded my laptop a few times, moving my data from one computer to the next and authorizing the new machine. I've synchronized new iPods and the iPhone and always been able to play them. My music plays on my Apple TV, and can be streamed from my wife's computer on our same network.

That my music is slathered over with Apple's proprietary DRM is not a big deal, period. I would practically have to go out of my way to find a way that having "suffered" through DRM for the better part of eight years with Apple has negatively affected my music experience. I do know that I certainly am better off than those who chose subscriptions with music companies that have disappeared and gone out of business. I'm better off with my digital music here than in stacks of CDs around the house. In fact, I gave all my CDs away to a co-worker when the babies were born as part of cleaning house!

For eight years, I've wondered if the fact I didn't care about DRM was because I am a hopeless Apple fanboy. Maybe I've fallen under the spell of believing Apple should make the rules for how I use what is ostensibly my music and media. But seriously, the drama of DRM and its limits has been so overhyped I don't even know where to start. If you want to buy your music somewhere else, go for it. There are alternatives. But there's a reason iTunes, iPod and iPhone have been such a success. It's because of what they let you do, not what they don't let you do. It's the best combo on the market, and I don't care one bit about the DRM wars which just might be coming to an end as we know it tomorrow. I never have.

AOL Radio Lulls Kids to Sleep... With Metallica?

It's really getting to the point where I believe my iPhone can do anything. You've already heard me say I sleep next to it, and that it should practically run unopposed in the smartphone market. But what you don't understand is that it is rapidly finding new roles and new ways to get intertwined with my life. The newest role is helping to put the twins to sleep, thanks to the AOL Radio application, and that app's Lullabies radio station - which shockingly extends beyond the Brahms Lullaby, offering music even I found fun to hear, from new mixes of U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" to a cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters."

It's true I already have gigabytes and gigabytes of my own music on my iPhone. But, truth be told, my music is usually for getting energetic, with beats from Underworld and Paul Van Dyk or DJ Tiesto, instead of calming music aimed to lull people to rest. That's where AOL Radio steps in.


AOL Radio Features a Lullabies Channel
The application features many genres, from Blues and Country to Dance/Electronic and Metal. But if you choose the Kids genre, there are six channels, including one called "Lullabies", featuring "Soothing sounds for your baby and you." Trust me, I was quite skeptical of this channel, expecting to mock it - but the channel manages to deliver songs that are not only calming to both Matthew and Sarah, but also good enough to keep us entertained.


From Mozart... to Metallica Covers!
Tonight, following one Beach Boys cover and Adagio from Mozart, I heard the familiar strains of "Nothing Else Matters" stream from the iPhone, reminding me of unsuccessful junior high school crushes and long-ago settled debates over who was the best hard rock band... Metallica or Whitesnake. And guess what? The cover song was good enough I would have played it again, if given the option. (Listen to it here.)

AOL Radio does a lot more than play lullabies. It's actually also a good application for playing local music and other songs from just about any type of music you like. And it's free on iTunes. Find it here.

Is There a Long Tail to My iTunes Library? The Stats Tell All.

Having long ago passed the point where I could realistically listen to all my music on my iTunes library in a matter of days or weeks, I set up a number of smart playlists that help me to rediscover old music, sorted by the most recent time I played the song. (See: iTunes: Old Music Is New Again from March of 2006) By solely listening to this constantly re-generating playlist, I find myself avoiding repeated songs, and am constantly finding great music that's fallen by the wayside.

But as this playist has continued to expand, and I can't keep up, despite avoiding new purchases, for the most part, we now can further break down the list to see if there is a long tail to iTunes. Am I getting to every song, and what percentage of my songs have been listened to over specific time periods? Also, given I only have a finite amount of time, how many of the songs have been listened to only once?

Let's find out.

First: As of Midnight PDT on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008:
There are 5,773 items, representing 23.7 days and 35.42 GB.


My iTunes Library, Songs Sorted by Last Played
Of these nearly 6,000 songs, I've managed to get to over 1,000 of them in the last three months, and an additional 500 or so in the prior three months (with no overlaps). But that means more than 4,000 songs have not been touched in the last six months, representing more than two and a half weeks of solid music.

While I've tried to get to every song with some regularity, there's still almost a day's worth of music that hasn't been listened to in more than 10 months.


My iTunes Library, Songs Sorted by Play Count
Additionally, of the almost 6,000 songs in my iTunes library, about 1,000 songs have been listened to greater than 12 times each since iTunes started counting. This compares with about 3,200 songs that have been listened to between 5 and 12 times apiece, and more than 1,500 that have been listened to between 1 and 4 times.


Using a small utility called iTunes Timer, the accumulative play totals for the songs in my library suggest that I've listened to iTunes for more than 195 days and 2 hours. Surely, if I stay connected to the laptop or my iPhone with some good regularity, I can power through those songs I haven't heard in more than six months, or listen to those tracks that haven't gotten enough airplay. But realistically, I shouldn't be letting the statistics drive my listening habits. It's common for people to find their favorite songs and play them a whole lot more than those that don't quite strike their fancy. But with iTunes, and the power of Smart Playlists, I can actually dive in and find out. And to watch me try and catch up, check out my Last.fm page.

What do your iTunes stats show?

The Real Genius in iTunes 8? Apple Will Make More Money.

At times, it seems like the mainstream press hasn't yet figured out how to preview Apple events. That Apple periodically updates its iPods or iPhones or computers and software is really no surprise. The home runs are typically saved for MacWorld San Francisco, with big announcements sprinkled in at the company's WorldWide Developers' Conference (WWDC) and the occasional one-off event. But even when the company makes largely expected announcements, some go into severe hype in advance, and severe lows following. And like the illegal drug users who share the same spike and eventual crash, they're usually left looking for more. But behind the acid trip rainbow iPod Nanos and and upgraded iPod Touch, there was an element of real genius - as iTunes was upgraded with a new tool making it even easier to spend even more money on the popular online music store.


An iTunes Genius playlist, based on ATB's "Do You Love Me"

One of the major new features of iTunes 8 is called "Genius", which will leverage your own iTunes listening history, as well as that of other iTunes users, and try to create a playlist of songs similar to that which you are listening to. Like "Party Shuffle", it will get some mixes right, and some wrong, but it's following along the path of Pandora and Last.fm to use a crowd's information to provide recommendations and guess what other songs or artists you would like.

(See also: ReadWriteWeb: iTunes 8: The Genius in the Box and Mark Evans: Is Apple’s Genius Good or Evil?)

The breakthrough for Genius isn't so much that you can rediscover old music that you've neglected, although for some that is no doubt true. The real value is in the Genius sidebar, which is plastered with "Buy" buttons linking to the iTunes Music Store. In a time when so many Web services are hoping ad clicks will provide them with a way to the promised land, the simplicity of how Apple rolls out new services that enable a larger revenue stream is impressive.

For me, Apple iTunes long ago became my default source for new music. Even if I found a song on the radio or through Last.fm or another source, the first step is to head to iTunes to get it and download it. If iTunes doesn't have the song or album, it might as well no longer exist. I won't be heading to another service to find the song, but I may buy something else instead. That Apple has now made a mainline to my credit card every single time I fire up iTunes is a great way for me to continue making regular donations to my favorite for-profit Cupertino-based charity.

Of course, given I already have 4,342 songs totaling 18.3 days worth of music which hasn't been listened to in the last six months, according to my "Neglected" playlist, maybe I should be satisfied with what I have. Now that would be true genius.

Hitting Last.fm's 'Love' Button Is Getting Me Back In Tune

I'm an unrepentant music-ophile. Through a combination of CD purchases and burns and iTunes downloads, my music library is a swollen 35 Gigabytes, featuring almost 6,000 songs, which would take more than three weeks to listen to straight through. As a result, it's no surprise there are a ton of great tunes that I haven't gotten to in a while, as I'm not constantly listening, as unfortunate as that is. But recently, I've been using Last.fm a lot more frequently, letting me broadcast my playlist to friends who follow me, and letting them know what I'm listening to, making it a more social, and fun, experience.


A Pet Shop Boys discussion from Thursday on FriendFeed
I have been a longtime Last.fm user, having first sent my data to the service back in 2005. Prior to that, I was also a happy user of MusicMobs, starting in 2004, which merged into Last.fm in November of last year. Both sites collectively offered a great way for me to catalog my listening history, find out which artists and songs I hit up most frequently, and discover new, similar, artists.


Another discussion on FriendFeed re: DJ Tiesto
But as fun as statistics are, it's just a new form of navel gazing, and I never really delved into finding "friends" and seeing who my "neighbors" were on the site. But now that Last.fm is integrated into the various lifestreaming applications out there, like MyBlogLog, and especially FriendFeed, I'm having a good time going through artists I've neglected, and hitting the "Love" button on Last.fm's desktop application, which tells people which songs I'm particularly enjoying.

What I've found is that you never know just who might share the same interests. For some reason, I've had people say they're surprised I listen to such electronic music and techno as DJ Tiesto, Underworld, Depeche Mode, Paul Van Dyk and Armin Van Buuren. I've also taken people back a decade or two by listening to classics from the Pet Shop Boys, and Information Society.


Last.fm tells me my top artists
Through Last.fm, I've found that Jeremiah Owyang is a Tiesto fan, that Steven Hodson has fantastic musical tastes, introducing me to Mind In a Box, which led me to Edge of Dawn, and that Kevin Fox likes Pet Shop Boys. Although I have to admit that in the last few months, I haven't had the laptop pumping out iTunes as much as it used to, largely due to not wanting to unnecessarily wake up the twins, sharing my tastes via Last.fm is getting me back into the music in a big way.

You can find me on Last.fm here:
http://www.last.fm/user/louismg

You can see my "Loved" tracks on FriendFeed here:
http://friendfeed.com/louisgray?service=lastfm

iPod Touch As An Apple TV Remote? Cooler Than I Thought.

When Apple's iTunes application store opened up last week, I, at first, skipped over the free Remote application that offered the option to manage iTunes or the Apple TV from your iPhone or iPod Touch. It just seemed stupid at worst, or a proof of concept at best. Why would I want to duplicate the Apple Remote's capabilities with a much more functional device, I thought? But after checking the application out the last few days, I can attest to the fact I've been pleasantly surprised, and am now taking my iPod Touch with me around the house, acting as a DJ on the move.

As the screenshots included in this post show, the Remote application on the iPod Touch or iPhone does more than just meet the same capabilities offered by Apple's miniscule white remote. Benefitting from the wide touchscreen, I can browse thousands of songs, albums and artists quickly, and see a mirror image of what's playing on my Apple TV, letting me change the song with a single tap of my finger, anywhere in range of the Airport wireless network that both my device and the Apple TV share.


In contrast, the white remote has always been painstakingly slow to browse large libraries, practically forcing an indent into my thumb as I held the down key just to pass the letter "M". Given my library has almost 6,000 songs on it, and 23.6 days worth of music, that can be a frequent problem.

Once the Remote application is synched up with your Apple TV, using it is very simple. Choose "Playlists", "Albums", "Artists", or search for a song or any band. Unlike the white remote, you can actually type on your iPod Touch or iPhone, making this very quick.


Now, instead of relying on my iTunes on the laptop, and just turning up the sound to full blast, or resigning myself to not listening to my music as I move around the house, I can leverage the sound system on my TV set, and play DJ from room to room. I can even go to the "More" tab and select what the Apple TV was always intended to do - play movies and TV shows. But overnight, this little would-be useless application has become a must-have. I'm not leaving my iPod Touch laying around any more.

My iPod Touch is Rarely Used for Music

Almost three months ago, we welcomed the iPod Touch to our family.

At the time, I was looking forward to taking videos with me on trips, for surfing the Web via WiFi, and for listening to scads of music. After all, Steve Jobs once said the iPhone, and ergo the iPod Touch, had the best iPod experience ever created. But it's been interesting to see that while my first iPod was all about music, the iPod Touch hardly ever gets used for that purpose.

So what am I doing with my iPod Touch? The overwhelming majority of activity is to browse the Web via WiFi, whether just away from the laptop, or at a friend's home with WiFi. Given the iPod synchronizes its bookmarks with my Safari Web browser, and with the addition of widgets for e-Mail, stocks and weather, just about anything I need is a few "touches" away. And the iPod Touch, to be honest, is the best device I can think of for taking the Web into places where a laptop wouldn't make sense. Ever take a PowerBook into the men's room at work? Didn't think so. But an iPod Touch fits right in your pocket...

As expected, I have used the iPod Touch for viewing movies and TV shows, especially on plane flights. Before my flight to Boston last month, and for this shorter trip to Phoenix, I made sure to rent one or two films before taking off. While Apple hasn't gained the fullest of movie libraries for rent yet, I've found a number of titles worth watching, especially when my alternative is craning my neck to see whatever United or US Airways has on tap. (My latest iPod Touch movie? Punch Drunk Love... and you can skip it.)

With Web access and TV or film, the need to play music is fading. While on my laptop, I almost always have iTunes going, but for my iPod Touch, iTunes is almost a forgotten app.

Recent Apple advances have made iTunes music even less important since I first got my iPod Touch. I've added custom icons to my home screen for Facebook, louisgray.com, FriendFeed and Twitter, and each offers me one-click access to where I'm most frequently engaged and communicating. I'd have added buttons for TechMeme and SiteMeter as well, but so far, I've chosen appearance over functionality, as neither site has a good custom icon. (Here's a great "how to" from Webomatica.)

Gaining the new widgets now puts .Mac and GMail in my pocket, with send and receive functionality. It's not quite able to replace the Blackberry yet, but I've grown quite adept at touch typing on it, more so than I had originally expected. Adding movie rentals to iTunes also made going to P2P networks for films much less inviting.

I'm near my laptop at home and work so often it's a rare time that I need to use my iPod Touch for music. I'm glad it's there if I ever need to tap into it, but over time, it's becoming less and less. Now it's a lot less about finding the right playlist, and a lot more about finding the best open wireless hotspot. That's more than I would have expected when Apple first debuted their original iPod years ago.

MusicMobs Disappears Into the Ether

Today, Om Malik reported the music tracking and playlist service, MusicMobs, had shut down, and the founder, deciding the best policy was to join the competition, rather than continue to do battle, has now become part of Last.FM. Now, the two services have become one, and in an instant, the dedicated artist, song, and genre pages I'd generated over the last few years were obliterated.

You can see some of my prior mentions of MusicMobs here, here and here.

Now, instead of a site full of charts, album covers and trends showing which artists and songs were the most popular, we've got a note saying the site's moved, and a single link to download my user playlist. Had that been the focus of why I used MusicMobs, that'd have been okay, but I would have preferred it if I could have been given the option to say... download my own generated pages as HTML and host them elsewhere. Maybe I could even utilize the software from MusicMobs or Last.fm and simply point them to the new page, continuing to synchronize my stats.

But it looks like it wasn't meant to be. For the want of a single developer, an entire site was lost. While I still like Last.fm, I hate seeing others I like just go away without warning. Word to the wise would be to go backup your user files at services not named Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! or Apple. On second thought, back those up too. You never know.

Faithless Bombs Video: Amazing Music, Piercing Message

One exposure to music from Faithless, led by lead singer Maxi Jazz, will make you sure you've never heard any sound quite like it. I first fell in awe of Faithless' unique vocals in the epic "Insomnia", and gained immeasurable respect for his work with the Iraq War-themed "Mass Destruction", released in 2004. But even that didn't prepare me for the raw message and real emotion shown in his video titled "Bombs" from his latest album, "To All New Arrivals", which hit the iTunes Music Store in early November. While the album hit stores about a year ago, starting in Europe, I only found it today, and ... Wow.

While I highly encourage you to purchase the album (and two accompanying videos) from iTunes, below is the "Bombs" video, courtesy of YouTube. It's very impressive to see an artist I really already like taking such a strong political stance, regardless the consequences.

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Ps_MBXEdA



If you found this music strong or the message moving, pass it along. I'm dismayed it took me so long to find!

Leopard iTunes Best Served With Jelly

If you have your hands on Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 (a.k.a. Leopard), head over to your iTunes Visualizer, select "Jelly" and turn on Visualizer. Your screen will fill with some amazing visuals, much like those sampled above. Though it's been a long time since Apple highlighted the iTunes Visualizer in their marketing, it's a lot of fun to see the company's whimsical side.

Jelly is best experienced with Trance, Techno, Electronica or Drum 'N' Bass.

300 More Inexpensive iTunes Trance Tracks

Offers like this are excellent reasons why we've moved away from physical CD purchases. Rather than purchasing and storing 24 individual CD cases, or taking the time to import each of the 24 CDs individually, the iTunes Music Store makes it drop dead simple to add 300 new tracks to my music library, with just a few clicks. And if that weren't enough, the cost for me to purchase these 300 tunes comes in even lower than 3 "real world" CDs. I guess that explains why, after this most-recent iTunes binge, I'm up to 5,431 songs, comprising 22.3 days and more than 31 gigabytes of music.

Thank goodness I've got my 200 gigabyte hard drive humming away.

If you're into artists like Jan Vayne, M.I.K.E., Vincent de Moor, and Elevation, or think you might be, a great way to start filling up your iTunes library with hundreds of new trance tunes, is to start at the following links:

Trance Top 100 | Top 100, Vol. 2 | Top 100, Vol 3

Good music. Cheap music. Easy to get music. Nice combo.

Prior Posts On this Topic:

7 Hours of iTunes Music: Just $9.99
iTunes Offers Up Massive Song Sets
100 More iTunes Trance Songs for Less than $20
100 iTunes Trance Songs for Less than $20

Underworld Releases First New Album in Five Years

This morning, while making a comment on Steven Hodson's WinExtra blog, a little note caught my eye: Listening to: Underworld - Oblivion with Bells - Crocodile. His blog software will imprint the song he's listening to, but for me, an avowed Underworld afficionado, to not know of this song, was outlandish. I demanded to know where he got it. His answer: iTunes. Duh. Stupid me.

On October 16th, Underworld released a new album, Oblivion With Bells, into the iTunes Music Store, and I had gone an entire 48 hours without knowing. After seeing the world-renowned group in concert twice, and owning virtually all their previous albums, this was a virtual call to arms.

I don't really need to tell you what I did next - I downloaded it. And I'm listening now. The songs are back into the classic Underworld sound - electronically altered vocals, catchy rhythms, and haunting intermixing of sounds, loops and unique lyrics.

After 2002's A Hundred Days Off, which had a pair of excellent songs, and more pedestrian tracks, I can only hope this one is as engaging as the epic Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Underworld and Beucoup Fish, which led my musical library through college and shortly thereafter.

More on Underworld: Underworld Live

Information Society Brings New Music to Old Band

Information Society was one of those bands I fell in love with in junior high and high school - with the unmistakable deep, European voices mixed in with electronic, synthesized beats. The band hit the big time with "Think", "Pure Energy" and "Peace & Love Inc.", but in a flash, disappeared into "Where are they Now?" oblivion.

Today, iTunes sent me an alert that they're back - and I'm all set to cram their new album into my iPod for the drive to Sacramento.

Their new album, appropriately titled "Synthesizer", was released September 4th, and if iTunes' 30-second song samples are any indication, should be a lot of fun, as I both enjoy the new tunes and reminisce of just where I was and who I was when Information Society's first songs were new.

Related Posts on this Topic:

iTunes Offers Something New, Something Old, Something Blue
New Pet Shop Boys Album is Fundamental
iTunes is My Only Source for New Music