Songbird
Dec
5
That Time Of Year
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Sorry folks it is just that time of year…Where you wake up and all of a sudden it is the new year! Currently I am working on a paper that is due tomorrow evening and well that is taking up a lot of my time because I have procrastinated as usual. So check back tomorrow night when this paper is done and out of my life. Cheers!
Nov
21
Thanksgiving
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Hey everyone just wanted you to know that I am a little busy getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner at my mom’s house and I have also been preoccupied playing Rock Band but later on this evening I will have a new Rock Band post for you so check back later. Right now I am gearing up to have an all day bake fest: I am making 2 cheese cakes and 1 pumpkin pie. Yummy! :)
Nov
2
The Buzz
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Paste Magazine has decided to follow suit by starting a “pay what you want” campaign for a subscription, the min limit is a $1.00. I have to say this is well worth it, I already have a subscription to Paste thanks to Tara but I am planning on renewing so that I can take advantage of this awesome deal. Check it
In other news one of my favorite online mags Stylus Magazine closes it’s doors and I am terribly depressed as I was a big fan. R.I.P.
I will be back later on today with a new music post so check back soon. Till then everyone have a lovely Friday.
Oct
29
It’s All About Vinyl
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Vinyl has been reborn so to speak and it is a beautiful thing. Check out this article at Wired:
Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin
By Eliot Van Buskirk
As counterintuitive as it may seem in this age of iPods and digital downloads, vinyl — the favorite physical format of indie music collectors and audiophiles — is poised to re-enter the mainstream, or at least become a major tributary.
Talk to almost anyone in the music business’ vital indie and DJ scenes and you’ll encounter a uniformly optimistic picture of the vinyl market.
“I’m hearing from labels and distributors that vinyl is way up,” said Ian Connelly, client relations manager of independent distributor alliance IODA, in an e-mail interview. “And not just the boutique, limited-edition colored vinyl that Jesu/Isis-style fans are hot for right now.”
Pressing plants are ramping up production, but where is the demand coming from? Why do so many people still love vinyl, even though its bulky, analog nature is anathema to everything music is supposed to be these days? Records, the vinyl evangelists will tell you, provide more of a connection between fans and artists. And many of today’s music fans buy 180-gram vinyl LPs for home listening and MP3s for their portable devices.
“For many of us, and certainly for many of our artists, the vinyl is the true version of the release,” said Matador’s Patrick Amory. “The size and presence of the artwork, the division into sides, the better sound quality, above all the involvement and work the listener has to put in, all make it the format of choice for people who really care about music.”
Because these music fans also listen using portable players and computers, Matador and other labels include coupons in record packaging that can be used to download MP3 versions of the songs. Amory called the coupon program “hugely popular.”
Portability is no longer any reason to stick with CDs, and neither is audio quality. Although vinyl purists are ripe for parody, they’re right about one thing: Records can sound better than CDs.
Although CDs have a wider dynamic range, mastering houses are often encouraged to compress the audio on CDs to make it as loud as possible: It’s the so-called loudness war. Since the audio on vinyl can’t be compressed to such extremes, records generally offer a more nuanced sound.
Another reason for vinyl’s sonic superiority is that no matter how high a sampling rate is, it can never contain all of the data present in an analog groove, Nyquist’s theorem to the contrary.
“The digital world will never get there,” said Chris Ashworth, owner of United Record Pressing, the country’s largest record pressing plant.
Golden-eared audiophiles have long testified to vinyl’s warmer, richer sound. And now demand for vinyl is on the rise. Pressing plants that were already at capacity are staying there, while others are cranking out more records than they did last year in order to keep pace with demand.
Don MacInnis, owner of Record Technology in Camarillo, California, predicts production will be up 25 percent over last year by the end of 2007. And he’s not talking about small runs of dance music for DJs, but the whole gamut of music: “new albums, reissues, majors and indies … jazz, blues, classical, pop and a lot of (classic) rock.”
Turntables are hot again as well. Insound, an online music retailer that recently began selling USB turntables alongside vinyl, can’t keep them in stock, according to the company’s director, Patrick McNamara.
And on Oct. 17, Amazon.com launched a vinyl-only section stocked with a growing collection of titles and several models of record players.
Big labels still aren’t buying the vinyl comeback, but it wouldn’t be the first time the industry failed to identify a new trend in the music biz.
“Our numbers, at least, don’t really point to a resurgence,” said Jonathan Lamy, the Recording Industry Association of America’s director of communications. Likewise, Nielsen SoundScan, which registered a slight increase in vinyl sales last year, nonetheless showed a 43 percent decrease between 2000 and 2006.
But when it comes to vinyl, these organizations don’t really know what they’re talking about. The RIAA’s numbers are misleading because its member labels are only now beginning to react to the growing demand for vinyl. As for SoundScan, its numbers don’t include many of the small indie and dance shops where records are sold. More importantly, neither organization tracks used records sold at stores or on eBay — arguably the central clearinghouse for vinyl worldwide.
Vinyl’s popularity has been underreported before.
“The Consumer Electronics Association said that only 100,000 turntables were sold in 2004. Numark alone sold more than that to pro DJs that year,” said Chris Roman, product manager for Numark.
And the vinyl-MP3 tag team might just hasten the long-predicted death of the CD.
San Francisco indie band The Society of Rockets, for example, plans to release its next album strictly on vinyl and as MP3 files.
“Having just gone through the process of mastering our new album for digital and for vinyl, I can say it is completely amazing how different they really sound,” said lead singer and guitarist Joshua Babcock in an e-mail interview. “The way the vinyl is so much better and warmer and more interesting to listen to is a wonder.”
– – –
Eliot Van Buskirk has covered digital music since 1998, after seeing the world’s first MP3 player sitting on a colleague’s desk. He plays bass and rides a bicycle.
Oct
15
The Aches and Stuffies
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I am sick with some sort of evil sickness that has warped any energy I originally had from my body. I will be away for another day or so until I start feeling better. When I do start feeling better and when I start making some sense I will post all the goodness I have lined up…Like the Beirut show review, Radiohead praise and misc. new music. Night, night even though it is barely 8:00 am.
Sep
14
New Posts Coming
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Sorry guys got to make a living plus I am taking two classes at night, unfortunately the blog has been terribly neglected because of this. But I have decided to use my weekend to put a bunch of posts together for the week and that way I won’t neglect my blog during the week. Good idea? I think so…Anyways new music later on this evening…Stay tuned.
Sep
6
So Sorry
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I must apologize for the lack of updates here, but I have been so busy my head is still spinning. But later this evening I will have a brand new post for my fine feathered friends.
Aug
15
A Little Break
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Sorry folks I have taken a little vacation from the blog but I will be back tomorrow night with some new music. Appreciate your patience and support! We all need a little break every once in awhile, this was mine. ;-)
Jun
27
Technical Stop
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I don’t know what the hell is happening, Dreamhost is having issues so I can’t get to my FTP or my domain at all. I have no idea where or how to find my API Key and yes I have read the instructions in the WP documentation in regards to this yet it is still not working out the way it should.
Sigh…So please be patient while all this gets worked out.
Disclaimer
Music found on this blog is for sampling only. If you like what you hear then support the artist. Buy their music, attend a show and spread the word. If you own the rights to any of the music featured here and you would like me to remove it contact me and I will remove the link immediately.
Click the
tag to listen, right click the song title to save. If you find that an mp3 is not playing chances are it has expired.
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Rachel - Music, FilmAggregator Love
