EchoDitto - Music

Music for the Masses - posted by Terrance Heath

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:07:17 -0700

I almost bought it. A moment of nostalgia almost made me long for "the good old days" when you had to go to a record store and rifle through the bins if you wanted to buy music. I really should have expected it, after hearing the news that iPod sales have topped 100 million.

But I think I can be forgiven a momentary lapse. After all, I had my first "dream job" working at a record store (just using the term "record store" is dating myself, for sure), and went to college in a town that was known as the "Liverpool" of its time.

Yes, I too remember Wuxtry records in Athens, Georgia.

On a recent trip to Georgia, I spent about an hour in the record shop where Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in 1979, beginning a friendship that led to the creation of R.E.M.

That's the kind of name drop that 15 or 20 years ago might have triggered a response along the lines of: "You were at Wuxtry Records in Athens?!"

Today, the more likely reaction would be: "They still have record stores somewhere?!"

… Sharing music nowadays consists of sending a download link via e-mail. Or handing over your iPod. Or, worst of all, cranking up the volume of your ringtone.
Does anyone in 2007 wrap up a hard day thinking: "Man, I'm ready to hear some Stevie Wonder 'Innervisions.' What'd I do with my cell phone?"

Assuming someone wants to actually pay for music, kids are more likely to log onto iTunes than they are to drive to an actual store. Shops like Wuxtry, mentioned at the beginning of this column, are few and far between – mostly relegated to college towns and big cities.

Downloads and cell phones are convenient, I suppose. But I can't for the life of me figure out how a guy with no money gets dates anymore.

I also remember the summer of 1987 (now I'm definitely dating myself), which I spent working at a record store that was part of a corporate chain that no longer exists anymore. That was the summer when REM's Document came out the same time as Michael Jackson's Bad.

They might even have come out on the same day. It's burned into my memory because I was working that day, and all we played in the store all day was those two albums. First Bad, then Document, then Bad again, etc., etc. Then I went off to college in Athens, where "The One I Love" was pouring out of every car, dorm, and fraternity house window.

One other thing I remember is that Wuxtry was worlds different from the corporate record store where I'd worked that summer. Wuxtry had music from local artists, as well as obscure artists I'd never have seen in my record store, because they they mostly stocked what was topping (or had topped) the charts. Everything else was special order. Wuxtry was all special order, but unless you were in Athens you couldn't shop there.

That's what I think the author of the column above is missing, when he laments the rise of online music stores like iTunes. Now everybody can shop at their own personal Wuxtry, and find artists they'd never find in their local store. The good old days weren't always good for everybody, especially if their music or taste in music strayed from the mainstream.

Like, I can read about an artist like Colin Waterson on Queerty, and immediately go to iTunes and buy the album after listening to snippets of it. I get to hear an artist I wouldn't have otherwise, and Waterson gets a listener (and a record sale) he wouldn't have otherwise. Everybody wins. Music lovers can find a lot more of what they want and independent artists can reach much larger audiences.

The very mainstream iTunes store has created a venue where even the most obscure artists can exist—and even thrive—independent of major labels. For instance, in most record stores, “you have to pay to get the placement, the listening stations, and posters, whereas with iTunes, the promotions are [staff] determined,” says Chris Jacobs of Sub Pop Records.

More importantly, 70 of the 99 cents of the download fee goes directly to the artist. With this more favorable exchange, and freed from the burdens of a major label’s enormous cash advance, the independent artists benefit most. Apple’s dominance of online retail—last year, they had more than $1 billion in annual sales—has created a check on major labels. This was evident in 2005, when Apple refused the majors’ requests to raise downloading fees. If this benevolent giant’s behavior is in any way indicative for the future of online retail, indie rock may have one less thing to be cynical about.

…And though indie bands have always built audiences without the Top 40, the advent of Web 2.0 and resulting proliferation of niche markets make traditional means of promotion look inefficient. Stereogum, which averages about 13,000 hits a week, is one of many online communities that features user-generated reviews, features, and videos of indie bands while unabashedly keeping the public up on the latest Britney headline. The Hype Machine, an aggregator of such blogs, updates hourly with dozens of new songs and their links to Amazon and iTunes. These user-generated sites not only empower listeners to decide what will be popular, but have the ability to do something a copy of Rolling Stone never could—play music. Hype Machine’s Web site puts it this way: “We do this to let people discover new artists, fall in love, buy their CDs and go to their shows.”

I can imagine that more money going to artists hasn't escaped the attention of the record industry. That's probably why they're revising royalty codes in a way that would shut down sites like Pandora, where I've found tons of new music that I've ended up buying online.

Since I'm morphing into something of a "Long Tail evangelist" these days, I'll defer to Chris Anderson to explain the rest.

Traditional retail economics dictate that stores only stock the likely hits, because shelf space is expensive. But online retailers (from Amazon to iTunes) can stock virtually everything, and the number of available niche products outnumber the hits by several orders of magnitude. Those millions of niches are the Long Tail, which had been largely neglected until recently in favor of the Short Head of hits.

When consumers are offered infinite choice, the true shape of demand is revealed. And it turns out to be less hit-centric than we thought. People gravitate towards niches because they satisfy narrow interests better, and in one aspect of our life or another we all have some narrow interest (whether we think of it that way or not).

And now music fans are organizing events like Bum Rush the Charts to drive independent artists up the charts on iTunes, and labels like TuneCorner are getting the attention of the Wall Street Journal.

Things aren't what they used to be, and I'm glad of it. (And so area lot of independent artists, I think.) Don't get me wrong. I totally get the romance of a store like Wuxtry, and I'll stop by there next time I'm in Athens. But if I want to buy what they're selling between now and then, I'll probably find it online, and the artist will see more money than they would if some of it went to pay for bricks and mortar.

Juiced about Joost - posted by Jason Rosenberg

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:52:07 -0800

A few months back I heard about The Venice Project, one more video player in the ever-growing field of video players. I’m always curious to hear why this player is different than every other player, so I signed up to become a beta tester. I was eager to download the application, until I learned there is no mac version. Who are these people who put out non-mac products? Mac users are first movers and the influentials, but I digress.

A few weeks later, I got an email, under the subject line, “We’re so Joost!” The Venice Project announced that they have changed the name of their project to Joost.

Still no mac…

So I forgot about it.

Earlier this week I got another email from Joost. They have a mac application. Wait, they’ve taken it down.

Now it’s back up! I’ve finally downloaded Joost and at first glance I really like. Joost is a different kind of player from your typical flash player, save the Democracy Player or iTunes, in that you have to first download the application to get it to work. The application is 13 mgs. But unlike the traditional flash players, Joost has its own content, a lot of it!

Joost’s original channels include music from Diddy’s Channel featuring artists like Young Joc. Warner Music has a channel so do the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day. Joost has content from EchoDitto client Lime and Indycar and National Geographic.

On top of short content from these content providers, Joost features full length movies on its IndyFlix channel.

As if I can’t say enough already about Joost, it has a Widgets menu where users can instant message, read a newsticker, rate videos and chat. I guess chat is somehow different than instant message. Since Joost is full screen, they even provide users with a clock widget so they don’t lose track of time while watching all of Joost’s content.

Joost represents the future of television. No longer is there a need to worry about time restrictions, why are shows 30 and 60 minutes? There is no restriction to the type or the amount of content. Look at all these different channels. Content is easily targeted to niche demographics but at the same users have the option to discover more.

Go to Joost.com to apply to become a beta tester. Then drop me a line in the comments section to tell me what you think about the product.

Update: Viacom announced Feb. 22, that they will provide content to Joost.

Sony: A comedy of errors - posted by Justin Miller

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 08:39:22 -0800

I was surprised to learn that some of my coworkers had not heard of the Sony debacle, so I thought I'd give a quick run-down. The progression thus far:

1) Sony ships new music CDs for purchase by retail customers.
2) CDs are discovered to have DRM software (basically, copy protection) that auto-installs on your Windows PC when you play the CD, without warning.
3) Sony issues an uninstaller, which creates a security vulnerability on your Windows PC.
4) Managing to uninstall the DRM software disables your CD drive.

Oh, it gets better.

5) Despite saying they do not report personal data, Sony's DRM software reports which CDs you are listening to. Also Sony can control your computer.
6) Sony denies doing anything wrong.
7) The president of the RIAA says Sony did nothing wrong, except maybe write buggy software because of the security problem.
8) Sony is discovered to have used open source software illegally in the DRM software.
9) An estimated 500,000 networks are reported to be infected, including military and government sites.
10) Apple and Sony drop possible plans for collaboration.
11) Sony CDs are banned in the workplace.
12) The EFF and the states of Texas, New York, and California sue Sony.

This string of unfortunate incidents has set back legitimate DRM, as well as progress in the music industry, a fair pace. And the worst part is, most people haven't even heard of this yet.

Get the full scoop at www.sonysuit.com.

Live 8: Rockin' Out the Technology - posted by Michael Silberman

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 05:30:20 -0700

Regardless of what you think of this weekend's Live 8 concerts (i generally agree with Sanneh's sentiments from Sunday's NYT), Live 8 organizers and partners were smart about how they used technology to engage the majority of us who couldn't attend one of the 10 concerts.

Here's what impressed me most about this global online effort:

(1) Taking advantage of the traffic :: On the official Live8 site, you can "sign the Live8 list" for G8 leaders via SMS or online or upload your photo to be added to a wall of faces at the G8 -- no gallery yet?!. (Reminds me of the almost 2,500 photos submitted online at FightHunger.org!). Nice clear asks taking advantage of all available technology, coupled with some solid video and exclusive content.

(2) Technorati Tagging the Blog Buzz :: Technorati sponsored what may be the first global online tagging event, encouraging bloggers to tag their posts with "live8" so that they could be counted in the global online discussion, accompanied by a syndicated image. It's a clever corporate marketing effort for Technorati, the blog tracking service, and also an excellent great way to put a mirror on the buzz being generated. As of right now, there are 12,073 blog posts tagged with Live 8, and 50 bloggers were invited to go backstage.

(3) [secret?] Party Planning Guide from ONE :: Despite the lack of online promotion for these viewing parties, someone at ONE knows what they're doing when it comes to online organizing... Check out their excellent house party guide (PDF) -- includes feedback form, signup sheet, and good background material for hosts. It's impressive—bordering on dense—and happens to follow a general template that we developed for grassroots meetup organizers on the Dean campaign. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell from the One Blog if any of these Live 8 parties even took place... Here's to hoping!

(4) 2.9 million TV viewers -vs- 5 million web watchers :: AOL has a more global reach than ABC, but it's still an impressive statistic. Reuters reports, "ABC's two-hour highlights special from the Live 8 concerts drew just 2.9 million viewers Saturday, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research, far fewer than the 5 million users who logged on for AOL's free live video streaming coverage." Full story here. Associated Press television writer David Bauder was impressed by the difference in content: "AOL's coverage was so superior, it may one day serve as a historical marker in drawing people to computers instead of TV screens for big events."

Just a Minor Threat - posted by Tim Jones

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 11:31:26 -0700

Here's another example of how grassroots are using the internet to fight back.

Earlier this month, Nike stole the album cover from Ian MacKaye's 1981 punk/hardcore classic Minor Threat to promote a new line of shoes. Nike's advertisers have been courting American skater culture and subculture in general for a long time now, but ordinarily they at least ask for a celebrity's permission before using him/her as a spokesperson.

In this case, Nike apparently decided to just bypass permission-asking altogether and steamroll over copyright law. MacKaye is a notoriously hard-nosed and principled businessman, known for saying things like "no amount of money is worth losing control of our music". He's shrewdly held onto the copyright for all of his albums, and it's unlikely he would have cooperated had he been asked.

Last week, Pitchfork Media publicized the rip-off, along with a scathing statement from MacKaye's Dischord Records:

"They stole it and we're not happy about it. Nike is a giant corporation which is attempting to manipulate the alternative skate culture to create an even wider demand for their already ubiquitous brand. Nike represents just about the antithesis of what Dischord stands for and it makes me sick to my stomach to think they are using this explicit imagery to fool kids into thinking that the general ethos of this label, and Minor Threat in particular, can somehow be linked to Nike's mission. It's disgusting."

Blogstorm! Starting from EchoDitto's initial discovery of the fracas Friday afternoon on DCist, our operatives monitored hundreds of outraged and hysterical blogposts and forum comments from skaters and activists worldwide, as well as a speed-update of Nike's Wikipedia page and a Photoshop contest that's already received a couple hundred mashups of "Nike and other evil corporations ruining famous album covers," like the Wal-Mart one at the top of this post. (Because- have you heard?- Wal-Mart is the new Nike.)

Yesterday, inevitably, the story entered the mainstream media. Even though it had been brewing all weekend, Nike failed to react quickly enough to get a quote in MTV's coverage. (Note to Nike's PR firm: Use Technorati.) By the end of the day, though, they had issued a surprised and hasty apology promising to recall the flyers and proclaiming their deep respect and admiration for Dischord, though it doesn't look like it's made anyone less angry at them.

Of course, no there's been no major change here. Nike's profits are higher than ever, and- protestations of responsibility aside- they're not going to stop depending on indentured servitude any time soon. But for a few days anyway, they've given the netroots a new anthem:

Make do with what you have

take what you can get.

Pay no mind to us-

we're just a minor threat.

Hail to the Thief? - posted by Terrance Heath

Thu, 14 Apr 2005 12:29:58 -0700

It's been all over the internets that the President has an iPod. That, in and of itself, isn't really news. Neither is what's on it (a paltry 250 songs on a player that can hold 10,000).

What is news, particularly in light of the case currently under consideration by the Supreme Court, is just how those songs got on the Prez's iPod. According the article, the songs on the presidential iPod are "downloaded from others."

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist during the 2004 campaign. Among them are "Circle Back" by John Hiatt, "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care" by Joni Mitchell and "My Sharona," the 1979 song by the Knack that Joe Levy, a deputy managing editor at Rolling Stone in charge of music coverage, cheerfully branded "suggestive if not outright filthy" in an interview last week.

No one can say for sure whether there's copyright infringement afoot, or whether it's simply a matter of a bad choice of words by the reporter. (Did she mean "downloaded...from" or "downloaded...by?) At least one website has some questions about how the songs on the Bush iPod came to be there.

While the article states that Bush has a staffer load his iPod from the iTunes Music Store, it also says that he has his friend download music to it from his personal collection. The former, obviously, is not particularly radical, but the latter is exactly the kind of behavior the music industry characterizes as theft.

Again, the choice of words here leaves something to be desired. If the president had a friend import music from his personal collection into the presidential iTunes library, technically -- at least as the music industry defines it -- that's stealing, because the president is in possession of music that he didn't pay for.

So, is the president technically a music thief? After all, sharing is not allowed.

Share and Share Alike? - posted by Terrance Heath

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 16:07:04 -0700

News flash: Your mom may not be the ultimate authority on the virtues of sharing now that the Supreme Court has taken up the issue. Last week, the court heard arguments in the case of MGM v. Grokster, or the entertainment industry's latest attempt to put the file-sharing genie back into the bottle. Take your pick. We'll probably have to wait until summer for a ruling. Look for the loser in this round to take the issue to Congress next. In the meantime, there's plenty to discuss.

Talking about file sharing these days is somewhat like skipping blindfolded through a minefield. Now that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued something like 3,000 people—settling most cases for a fine and a promise not to engage in file-sharing again—one reasonably hesitates to publicly even hint that one might have engaged in the crime of (file) sharing, lest the RIAA come a-knocking. Sure, they can't catch everybody, but they might catch you. Right? So let's clarify a few things right now. Napster? Grokster? Morpheus? Kazaa? Gnutella? Nope, never used ‘em. Never even heard of ‘em until just now. OK?

Even if you've never heard of them, the concept is easy to understand, because file-sharing—in a sense—was happening even in the days before Napster and the rest (for those of us who remember that far back). Ever made a "mix tape" for a friend? Technically, you've broken the law. Ever made burned a CD of your favorite songs from various purchased CDs, or made a "mix CD" for a friend? Technically, you've broken the law. And if you've used the hack that allows iPod-to-iPod sharing…well, you get the idea.

The case itself took five years to wind its way to the Supreme Court, with lower courts finding in favor of the file-sharing companies, saying that the software should be compared with a VCR, in that it has enough legal uses to protect file-swapping companies. Attorneys for Grokster are citing a "Sony precedent," from a 1984 Supreme Court case involving the Sony Betamax video recorder—which, by the way, former MPPA president Jack Valenti declared would suck the life out of the movie industry.

Of course, Valenti's dire prediction didn't come true, and in 1984 the courts found that service/device providers can't be held responsible for the acts of users if there's the capability of substantial legal use, like recording a television show for later viewing. Maybe it's me, but that sounds vaguely like one of the ways people use file-sharing programs like BitTorrent every day. Users, for example, download television shows for later viewing.

Is this just a case of an industry not getting that, when it comes to technology, you can't "unring" a bell, and that maybe a new business model is in order? Fast-forward from Napster's debut to now. More than 22 million Americans own iPods or other MP3 players. Apple's iTunes music store sold 1 million songs in its first week, and has sold more than 300 million songs since its inception. We're talking legal download, folks, at about 99 cents per song. And it's not just iTunes. Napster resurfaced as an online music purveyor, and has sold over 5 million songs since its rebirth. Clearly there's money to be made by in a down-load-for-pay business structure. According to a survey from the folks at the Pew Internet & American Life project suggests that more people are using paid services like iTunes, and peer-to-peer network usage has slipped (or at least people are less willing to report it). The numbers suggest that significant numbers of people are willing to pay to download music, probably because pay services can ensure the quality and availability of content in a way that file-sharing networks just can't.

So why haven't the movie and television industries figured it out yet? The technology for downloading video files has existed for some time now. People are using BitTorrent and similar clients to download television shows to their laptops and desktops for later viewing. The success of Tivo, and the spread of digital video recorders (DRVs) shows a consumer willingness to pay for the ability to record television shows to view at their leisure. How hard would it be for, say, television studios to start making selected shows available online, for TV fans to download for a price?

It would mean a serious shift in television's business model, affecting everything from ratings to advertising, but the possibilities are worth considering. While real-time ratings for shows also available online might drop, the number of times a show is downloaded could be counted as evidence of its popularity. The industry could also get an unprecedented about of demographic information about its customers. Television fans may even be willing to "subscribe" for the right to download entire seasons of their favorite shows. Commercial free downloads might mean less revenue from advertisers, but could also be an incentive for users to pay for downloads or subscriptions to their favorite shows; alternately, advertisers could pay to place a commercial at the beginning of a video file that is otherwise commercial-free.

There's a way to do it, and there's a model that will work. Finding it just takes more imagination than it does to shut down file-sharing networks that are simply going to sprout back up the minute someone inevitably figures out a way around the latest roadblock. Rest assured, someone will. Attempts to quash technology that threatens industry control of entertainment, up to and including dragging Congress into the act, is a losing battle, and the legal means to go after illegal downloaders already exists (as RIAA has shown). Why not just find a way to make the technology, and those who want to use it, pay?

Check out the related podcast for more!

Pod Softly @ Microsoft - posted by Terrance Heath

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 06:25:12 -0800

This is good for a laugh. The popularity of iPods is no secret. (I see them everywhere, now that I have one.) But get this, iPods are so popular on the Microsoft corporate campus that company executives have started writing memos about them.

Microsoft's leafy corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, is beginning to look like the streets of New York, London and just about everywhere else: Wherever you go, white headphones dangle from peoples' ears.

To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."

The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source.

So popular is the iPod, executives are increasingly sending out memos frowning on its use.

Kinda funny. It looks like no one has tipped off Microsoft employees that it's considered tres gauche to use the earphones that come with the iPod. I must admit, however, that I've been guilty of that very thing, since my favorite earbuds died on me and I haven't had time to shop for a replacement.

Blogger DJ's tonight - posted by Michael Silberman

Sat, 08 Jan 2005 17:47:56 -0800

I just scanned the Upcoming.org DC feed on my blog before heading out tonight see if I was about to miss something BIG. Sure enough, I almost did.

Four area music-critic bloggers from bluestate are aiming for a new level of transparency tonight when they see if they can do any better on the decks than the artists they critique. They'll even tell you what they want to play.

Or maybe they're just looking to have a good time. Either way, it's free admission and you have one hour to turn off your computer and get to the Black Cat and watch real live bloggers (bloggers are people too) spin some tunes.
<--break!-->

Like an iPod for the TIVO for your iPod - posted by Tim Jones

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 09:10:06 -0800

This week's "looks like a spaceship" award goes to the "iRoamer". ILoveRadio says:

In a couple of weeks, Australian company Torian will unveil launch its "iRoamer" radio technology. Their InFusion Radio will use this technology -- it tunes into Internet radio stations using the same kind of wireless Internet as in people's homes and offices.
"People can now take their favourite radio stations with them wherever they go," a company official said. "Whether they are sitting in a café in Paris, or dining out in New York, the Infusion brings their home town radio with them."

The picture looks like it came from ~~1979~~ 1982 and is the size of a city block. Maybe it doubles as a DDR-interface or BopIt.

How does it work? We don't know. I don't think cellular coverage is solid enough to reliably stream live high-quality audio, so hopefully the iRoamer uses some new unfathomed mobile-net-access technology. I guess we won't find out until it is unveil launched.

If it is cheap (<$50) and small (like altoids-sized) and actually works, it could RULE THE WORLD.

Assimilated? - posted by Terrance Heath

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 11:19:49 -0800

Okay, okay. Don't everyone go getting all excited, but...I did it. I went there (for the first time, ever) and got one of those.

I haven't touched it or done anything with it yet. I haven't even opened it up. I'll explore it when I get home this evening. I'll probably use it primarily with the PC.

Like I said, I only took a little, tiny sip of the Kool-Aid. Nothing to get all excited about.

Media Revolution! One buzzword at a time. - posted by Tim Jones

Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:03:24 -0800

I've been trying to make Podcasting work. It is a mixed bag.

First off: For all the starry-eyed "TIVO for your iPod" buzz, "podcasting" is nothing new. MP3 blogs have been around for years, and sharing music on your webpage is as old as broadband. "Podcasting" is just a silly new buzzword for some simple RSS/Applescript automation tricks.

For podcasting to be useful to me, music hardware and podcast-aggregator software needs to be built way smarter. I've only used iPodder, but here's what it needs to do differently:

Learn to treat ordinary MP3 blog feeds as podcast feeds. Just search the body of my RSS feed for links to MP3s, then download them. Don't wait for every good MP3 blog on the net to install their own platform-specific podcasting-plugin. It won't happen.

Better yet, let me point iPodder at a static HTML page and have it alert me when new links to MP3s appear there! Because some of my favorite mp3blogs still dont even have RSS feeds-- they ain't gonna start podcasting.
Allow me to filter and change ID3 tags. "ID3 tags" are an MP3's meta-data. They're what tell iTunes an MP3's Artist, Album, Track Number, and so forth. Here's how it would help with podcasting:

Right now, iPodder throws a couple of gigantic hour-long (60MB!) MP3s into my iTunes every morning-- but there's no simple way for me to find them and delete them back out of iTunes. That means I'm losing disk space to MP3s that I don't want to keep and have no simple way to find and delete!

iPodder could, for instance, tag each MP3's comments field with the word "podcast" and maybe even the name and URL of the blog it was downloaded from. Then, presto, I could find all my podcast MP3s with a simple keyword search, and sort my MP3s by which blog they originally came from. iPodder tries to handle this right now using playlists, but keywords are better than folders.
Give MP3s a history. An added bonus of ID3-filtering is that an MP3's comments field could turn into an annotated history of its travels. Once we get BlogTorrent working right, bandwidth and hosting won't be an issue, because we'll be trading small pointers-to-MP3s instead of the giant MP3s themselves. The result is that MP3s will start slinging from feed to feed as fast as any other meme. I want to be able to look at an MP3's history-- where did it start, and whose blogs has it passed through to get to me? Then receiving and rebroadcasting an MP3 will be like participating in a ForwardTrack petition- I'll get to check out the web of community surrounding your music as I listen to it.
iPods should connect to the internet. Yup. You want to bet that the first live-audio iPods handle will be some DRM'd massmedia-managed satellite radio type thing? And that everyday humans wont be able to broadcast over it until some uClinux-weilding geek squad hacks the system? Because you would lose that bet.

This is all small beans though, in the scope of podcasting's ultimate goal-- opening up the media landscape to everyday humans without zillions of dollars or esoteric tech knol.

ILoveRadio.org sums it all up well:

Yes, podcasting is off to a great start. But we need to keep focused on advancing the technology as a platform, not just a cool way to make little radio shows for our friends. We're at a dangerous moment here -- if we choose to keep pushing the envelope, this could be a huge Internet development. Or tomorrow's "flash mob." It's up to us to pick which.

Bonus links: An MP3 Blog Aggregator and Woebot's indispensible best MP3 blogs roundup. Find me podcast feeds this good and I'll start to believe the hype.

Mixdown - posted by Tim Jones

Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:03:44 -0800

Rogue Amoeba has just released an upgrade for NiceCast. I will be tinkering with it obsessively over the next few weeks as we prepare to launch EchoDitto Radio.

Rogue Amoeba is an awesome OSX-focused audio software company that has done worlds to open up OSX's audio architecture to hobbyists and innovators. Also they have a great blog. I am a fan.

We used their AudioHijack on the Dean campaign to mix down all kinds of debates and television ads into MP3 for the Media Miners. Their freebies- LineIn and SoundSource- are totally indispensible for any OSX-based DSP-hobbyist or internet-radio broadcaster.

The world needs more software like this: small and simple components that do their job well and play well with others, leaving more power in the hands of the end-user, rather than insisting on pulling everything together into one mega-powerful killer-app. The Democratic Party could learn a thing or two from these guys.

Becoming a Pod Person? - posted by Terrance Heath

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:30:51 -0800

I've been sitting here at work enjoying several of my coworker's music collections via shared music on iTunes. I coworker asked me where my collection was, but alas, my MP3 player does not interface with the iBook. I tried, and it just didn't work.

I've written about this before, but our office is totally a Mac environment, for the most part. When I started working there, I was one of a handful still using Windows machines. I toted my laptop to and from work. Then came the day I had to make the switch to working on an iBook.

I've also written about my purchase of a Creative Nomad Zen, and my experiences with it. Lately, I've been thinkinking about getting a new MP3 player, and—I have to be honest—I've been thinking about getting an iPod. Maybe people have been slipping me the "Mac Kool-Aid" at work, but there it is. I'm thinking about getting an iPod.

Herein lies the problem. If I get an iPod (and that's still something of a big "if") I have to make a choice. Do I use it with my PC or with the iBook I use for work? As far as I know I can't use it with both.

There's just one more wrinkle. A certain percentage of iPod users who are not Mac users end up switching to Mac.

The research found that 6 percent of iPod users have made the switch. An additional 7 percent said they are planning to dump their old PC for an Apple machine, according to the survey.

Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray senior research analyst, said the iPod halo effect will make a difference to Apple for a while to come.

And according to some sources, the percentage is even higher.

Earlier this week Munster almost doubled his estimates for Apple's stock based on a survey that found 13 per cent of iPod users who were formerly PC users had purchased a Mac (6 per cent) or are planning to buy a Mac within 12 months (7 per cent).

Combine that with the reality that our new office space is dangerously close to a Mac Store, and you can see there's cause for serious concern here. I'm beginning to think there's some sort of conspiracy afoot.

If I get an iPod, will I find myself standing, with eyes-glazed over, at a Mac Store counter, shelling out dough for a new Mac of my own? And if I do, what will happen to my collection of computer games?