Kids don't like CDs: iTunes Store now #2 music retailer

All this is quite fascinating and there is a lot of interesting information in that article.  I want to call out one stat that jumped up and bit me:

It said that the number of US consumers using P2P file sharing for music plateaued at 19 percent during 2007, while legal music downloads grew.

So not only has iTunes moved ahead of all other legal retail channels but one, the trend for illegal p2p file-sharing has flattened.  Illegal downloads are still approximately double the amount of legal downloads (19% to 10%), but the rate of increase has stopped.  (whether that holds is a question I leave to next years pundits).

Like everyone always says...go read the whole thing.

You've seen this.

Did you know he has a whole set of videos up there? I like this one:

This is fascinating. Check out his views: Chocolate Rain has been viewed 15 MILLION times... That is incredible. 

The death of the music industry as a viable big business has been commented on at length out in teh intertubes, but I think Tay Zonday takes it to another level.

What is the channel (as in distribution channel to sell his product) that he is using to sell his music?  Ummm...He isn't...

How does an industry compete against free?  I mean Tay could set up shop and with just a little bit of help monetize his videos on his own.  Making himself a music pipeline of one.

If I was the record industry I'd be a bit freaked out...

p.s. check out this interview of Tay.

Over at Direct Neural Interface Brandon has put together a very good list of non-free and free applications to solve all your media needs.  He lays out some good options and has some good advice.  Go check it out.

An email exchange with a colleague gave me the idea to post this. So here goes: anything and everything you (reasonably) need related to multimedia (images, movies, audio).

Related post: techRivet's Free Media Pack 2007

Ahh the glorious thought of putting all that vinyl into digital format. Haven't we all been there at one time? No? Well I have.

I inherited a whole bunch of old Victorola records from the 1920's and 1930's and a even a few from the teens. I thought it would be a grand idea to rip them all to mp3 to preserve them digitally forever. The problem is...that's a really tedious thing to do. And it's worse with a modern album.

Tedious Process

The reason? Well, when you rip a cd to your computer, it's all nicely split up into tracks, named, categorized etc. With a vinyl album you record the whole side at once. Then you have to get some music editing software, cut the long side up into songs, save them separately, name them...nothing hard mind you, but just tedious.

So if you have grand plans of recording your entire vinyl collection to digital, well nice to know ya, cause you have a significant task in front of you. I just ripped the three or four albums I HAD to have and will now only do it once in a blue moon.

I don't care Greg, I want to do it anyways.

Well ok then, here's what I used to accomplish the task:

Audacity: It's a cool sound track editor that accomplishes everything you need to do and more. You can export to WAV format or MP3 or Ogg. Simple cut and paste capabilities for editing the track. It's easy.

Besides that all you need is a nice turntable, mine can play 78's but then I had the requirement to rip the old victorola records.

You can run everything through a standard receiver with phono inputs (do they still make those?). You don't need anything special on your computer really. I just use the standard line-in/line-out jacks for sound. I lay out how to wire it together below.

Steps for recording:

1. Place record on turntable
2. Start Audacity
3. Begin recording with Audacity (don't worry it's trivial to cut out all the lead-in white noise)
4. Play the record (you know, put that needle thingy on the record)
5. Make sure the sound levels are correct in Audacity. - if not set it correctly and go back to step 2.
6. Let album play until end of side - repeat for other side if necessary.
7. Using Audacity
   1. Save the entire Audacity project first.
   2. Determine each seperate song
   3. Cut down to single song by highlighting the rest of the recording and cutting.
   4. Save seperate song as newly titled audacity project [optional but recomended]
   5. Export to format of your choice: MP3, OGG, WAV.
8. Rinse and Repeat with next record

Done and Done.

Semantic Web

As an aside this brings up the whole issue of the semantic web. For as you notice in this process the easy part is getting the song ripped, the hard part is the tedious entry of the metadata.

This is the case for any type of content. The transfer of bits from the cd to computer or picture to computer or album to cumputer is relatively trivial. The hard part is getting the human to add in the description, the title, the tags etc.

We become the inputs to the machine. When it becomes aware are we just analogues for nerve endings?...

The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Journey, Guns 'n Roses, Metallica, U2...never again. Stadium shows? They won't be the same. Who will be able to fill a whole stadium tour once U2 hangs up its spurs?

Why?

Fragmentation.

• Myspace music: [linky]
• Bebo bands: [linky]
• Itumes: [linky]
• Napster: [linky]
• Real Rhapsody: [linky]
• Insound: [linky]
• Winamp: [linky]
• Zune: [linky]

Say no more!

Nobody has control of the means of distribution like they did in the past. I can find any amount of the songs I want in the genre I want. I don't need to be held to the short list that can be fit into a brick and mortar store (hello!...tower records is out of busniess).

To paraphrase Chris Anderson: [linky]

The Faberge egg of controlled distribution and economies of scarcity is shattered into scrambled eggs of no control of distribution and economies of abundance.

A band for all seasons and all reasons and all tastes and all flavors.

So I'm not an iPod kinda guy.  Call it a character flaw, but I always seem to seek out the alternative choice to things.  Whether it be my photo management software, my blogging software, my underwear or my music player.  I don't know what it is.  Maybe I have this underdog mentality or something.

Anyways.  My wife re-commandeered her little mp3 player that I had commandeered previously (dangit) and now if I go running with it I have to  listen to a bit too much green day and Dave Mathews for one sitting...er...running. 

So I wanted to get a new little one just for me and low and behold... [linky]

SPECIFICATIONS

All that for $40.  and no lockin to iTunes to boot.  Awesome!

As the launch of the iPhone approaches, I've been thinking a lot about the strategy behind the pricing and realizing how absolutely brilliant it is. The vast majority of people believe the device is over-priced at $499 and $599 for 4GB and 8GB models. I think they've hit the real sweet spot.

You probably don't even notice but here is a good example.

Two Gigabyte MP3 player circa 1997:

...eh...

Two Gigabyte MP3 player circa 2001:

Two Gigabyte MP3 player circa 2007:

Gadget Universe - The Ultimate Smallest MP3 Player (2GB)

Two Gigabyte MP3 Player circa 2011:

Holy Toledo!

1.5 Billion Dollars. One point Five Billllion Dollars!

Microsoft get's fined 1.5 BILLION dollars: read this at ZDNet

A federal jury in San Diego has ordered Microsoft to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over MP3 audio technology used in Windows.

In its verdict, the jury assessed damages based on each Windows PC sold since May 2003. The case could have broader implications, should Alcatel-Lucent pursue claims against other companies that use the widespread MP3 technology.

This is an interesting verdict for several reasons.

1. This is merely the end of the beginning not the beginning of the end. I expect Microsoft to appeal this decision for years.
2. I wonder if Alcatel-Lucent will use this as a precendent setting event to go after some other companies.
3. I wonder what sort of license agreement Microsoft actually has if they LOST this suit. Obviously it isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
4. Is this going to be an impetus for Microsoft to extend some support for ogg vorbis?

Again, wow!