Some industry people were wondering if the gamble would pay off.  Apparently, it has.  It is rumored that Radiohead sold somewhere around 1.2 million albums in the first day alone, speculation is that they probably made $10 million in the single day.  The best part? Its all theirs, no cut for labels, no cut for stores.

Soon after Radiohead’s announcement, Trent Renzor of Nine Inch Nails fame followed suit.  He’s going to offer his next album online in digital form.  This comes not long after his giving permission to fans to steal his music.  He is/was annoyed that the labels & stores are ripping off his fans by charging more for his albums than for most anyone else’s knowing his fans will pay it.

I have no doubt that if he does indeed go the digital route, that he too will reap the rewards of going label free (apparently he has already dropped his label).  I wonder how many others will deem to follow suite?  How many other smaller bands may band together to offer their music on "private" labels, amounting to hosted sites that take care of the distribution and payment processes.

My buddy John asked a good question:  "What will this mean for the Record Stores?"

Well, frankly.  Times are changing.  Music Store chains are feeling the pinch.  Those who see what is coming and adapt will survive in at least a fashion.

Personally, I see these stores turning into more of a media boutique, offering their patrons access to media lounges and offering terminals that allow users to brows music, listen to new artists or artists similar to what they have on their devices, the terminals would scan an attached media player, see what that user likes and suggest similar artist or even highlight local artists & shows/events.  The user could then download new songs (paying for them, unless they are promotional or paid for my the user watching a brief ad or two).  These stores could also offer traditional media (CDs, DVDs, Records, etc) as well as specialized or collector box sets, (similar to Radiohead’s offering on their site).

Stores that adapt in this or similar ways will survive, those that don’t will frankly perish as many have already. 

Locally, our Sam’s closed down last year blaming Music Piracy (which I believe was a bullshit accusation).  There has been news of others shutting down or down sizing as well.

I don’t believe it will happen overnight, but it will happen in the next few years.  People don’t want to buy CDs anymore, especially since they only use the cd as a method of getting the music on their MP3 player.  many more are buying their music from online stores such as iTunes or Amazon. 

This leads to another beautiful change, one that both Radiohead & NIN are embracing: DRM free media.  Those in know are realizing that DRM only slows pirates down, it doesn’t stop them.  DRM only annoys your paying user.  You have no right to tell me that the music I PAID FOR can’t be played on my MP3 player, and my home computer/media center.  I should be able to listen to it where ever and whenever I want. 

The recent changes we are seeing in the online marketplace shows that end users want DRM free music and are willing to pay for it.  Apple recently (today I believe) reduced their DRM tracks in price to be equal to DRM music.  Amazon I think has been DRM free from the go, and others as well.  Give me a choice & I’ll get DRM free or crack the DRM with tools like fairPlay4WM.

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Features:

• Cell Phone (obviously)
• MP3 Player (mp3, aac, aac+, wma, etc…)
• Video Player (mp4)
• PDA (Organizer, date book, contacts, etc)
• Trainer (pedometer, running assistant, graphs, etc)
• Games (java based)
• Bright, "hi-res" screen (240×320)
• Misc features (shake to change, matrix-style keypad, calculator, Bluetooth, email, sms, mms, etc, etc, etc…)
• USB/Bluetooth Synchronization!!!
• Expandable memory (M2 - Memory Stick Micro)

It’s small, light and stylish.  It slides open (instead of flippingopeN0 I like that because it is harder to accidentally sit on it when it is open and snap it in half.  as well, with the large screen, the hidden keyboard keeps it small.

The battery seems to be pretty good, I used it a lot the other day (listening to music, playing with apps, putting in phonebook entries, etc) and the battery barely noticed it.  According to reviews on the web, you can expect about 4-6 hours of actual use (not standby) before a charge.  The official site says 9hr talk & 370hr standby.  But those number are always optimistic to an extreme.  As long as I don’t have to charge it every night when I’m not using it…

The MP3 player is great.  As good as or better than my Samsung in audio quality.  The controls aren’t as good, but then again this isn’t a dedicated music player.  It has a programmable EQ, and come with 4 presets, including "Mega Bass ", which really pumps the bass up (I don’t use it…).  It also features stereo widening and visualizations, playlist compatibility, etc.  It is actually more functional than my Samsung yp-t9, in that it supports aac and aac+ as well as wma and mp3.  It does not support ogg to my knowledge, but only Linux geeks use that anyway.

The video player is fine, but I never used the video player on my yp-t9, but that was mostly due to having to use Samsung’s proprietary format.  The w580i uses standard mp4 (apparently, h264 is a little sluggish, hopefully it will be fixed in an update).  Speaking of updates, the phone can update its firmware over USB from the web.

Overall, I’ve been using it about a week now, and I’ve been pretty happy with it.  The default earphones that come with it are great, they are the in ear type and come with 3 different ear-size inserts.  The only irritating thing is that the connection to the phone is a proprietary connection (surprise) but the cord has a standard earphone jack on it, it just converts any pair of earphones to a hands-free headset.

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Trent gives us permission to steal his music

Not sure if that effectively put his music in the "public domain", I’m no lawyer.  Not even sure if he legally has the right to do so (I think he does… I’m somewhat sure he owns the copyright on all his music).

Watch the video…

Well, So be it.  I’d rather that I could send money directly to him, than just outright steal it.  I think he posted somewhere that he will be selling his music on his own site in the future (probably will still sell CDs as well), but that he will offer it DRM free and in multiple formats/bit rates.  If he does do that, he’ll be my hero (well, more so, he already is a hero of mine.  I love his music.)

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That’s talent.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo7Sng5Jeb0]

2 years my old doc had me one it to battle IBS & stress… HA!.. it was hell coming off of…

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I already have a favorite for this year, Delana, I usually call her Africa, cause I can’t remember her damn name or how to spell it, and she’s from there originally. She’s a bit hardcore, but I like that, and her voice is very rough and smokey. She did a rendition of Nirvana’s “Lithium” last week & Cash’s “Ring of Fire” this week.

Last week, the songs they were given to choose from where pretty good.. this week, however… the kinda sucked for the most part. They complain to some of the contestants that the song choice was bad and not really what the band was looking for but they are the ones who originally chose the songs the contestants pick from! (There are the same number of songs to choose from as there are contestants, so someone gets stuck with a shitty song…)

Anyway, songs I’d like to see on the show are:

* Orestes stes - A Perfect Circle
* Tiny Dancer - Elton John (but in a Dave Grohl flavor)
* Knife Party - Deftones
* 4th of July - Soundgarden
* Glory Box - Portishead

* Stupid - Sarah McLachlan (would be fun to see someone try and make it rock)

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The Go Find can only really be described as NuSynthPop, putting the band in the same pile as “electronic/pop” with other bands like Royksopp does not seem fair, it’s a different sound entirely. The band is essentially Dieter Sermeus and his laptop. Ok, don’t get stupid on me, trust me, he makes a laptop sound good. His music is very interesting and quite original, even if his voice seems a little familiar. For instance, in the song “City Dreamer”, Dieter’s voice sounds very much like Billy Corgan’s, but “a little less nasal” as Mer put it. The music itself is obviously synth-heavy, but in that great early 80’s way, before bands started doing really weird shit. He uses synth as instruments, not as effects.

I suggest you give them a listen, though the album “Miami”, may be hard to come by, MetroSexualMatt had to order his in. Glad he did though. Here’s some links, the MorrMusic links contain music & video so you can listen and judge for yourself.

- The Go Find’s site: http://www.thegofind.com/
- Video for “Over the Edge”: http://www.morrmusic.com/thegofind.html (my fav song)
- MorrMusic’s Site (label): http://www.morrmusic.com/ (contains music)
- A good review @ RainyDawgRadio: http://www.rainydawg.org/musicreviews.php?reviewID=76
- Another review and links to listen to MP3s: http://www.stereogum.com/archives/000922.html

Buy the Album @
- Amazon.com ($13.99 USD)
- Amazon.ca ($15.46 CAD)
- Amazon.co.uk (£7.77 GBP) - notice that it’s a U.S. import! It’s fuking european in origin!

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