Music and Art

My Own Radio Station!

Submitted by Ross Kendall on Thu, 07/06/2007 - 4:58pm

If you haven't heard of it - Last.fm is a social-networking website for music lovers. It keeps track of music you listen to and suggests other music you might like, and links you to other people with similar listening habits.

One neat feature is that it creates a personalised internet radio station, using tracks that you have listened to. I must say, I think my radio station rocks!

Have a listen and let me know what you think...

EMI and Apple Launch DRM-Free Music

Submitted by Ross Kendall on Mon, 02/04/2007 - 3:52pm

Well since EMI announced a press conference featuring Steve Jobs a day or so ago there have been plenty of people quick to speculate what it would all be about. Some were guessing that there would be an announcement about the availability of the Beatles music on iTunes, while quite a few guessed correctly.

I just found out from the BBC News article about it, but you can see the official press release here.

So it seems that Steve Jobs is coming good on his statement of support for DRM-free music, however my bet is that he knew this was coming and wanted to maximise on the PR opportunity.

I think having better quality and unrestricted tracks is a great result, and may even start purchasing a few tracks on iTunes!

On Thoughts on Music

Submitted by Ross Kendall on Tue, 20/02/2007 - 11:48am

This is my brief response to Steve Jobs' (of Apple) Thoughts on Music.

Dear Steve,

You say that the “big four” music companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music, and that the reason iTunes uses DRM is because they force you too.

If you really do support the sale of DRM-free music, please support it in deed as well as in word. There is the remaining 30% of the world's music that could potentially be sold DRM-free - emusic.com manages to find plenty.

Please start selling some music DRM-free.

In the mean time, I will continue to show my support by only purchasing DRM-free music (yes, I have an iPod, and NO iTunes music).

Thanks,
Ross

What I'm Listening To...

Submitted by Ross Kendall on Wed, 11/10/2006 - 1:35pm

Although I've known about it for quite some time, it was only last week that I decided to join up on last.fm. Last.fm is a neat social website that lets you share your listening habits with the rest of the world, find people with similar taste, and discover music that you might like - including unsigned artists.

Check out what I'm listening to here: last.fm/user/rkendall.

There is already a Drupal group there as well, with a few familiar faces and names, and lots of other groups, if you are into a certain 'thing'.

Above is an automatically generated chart of recent tracks that I have listened to. Last.fm has a few handy tools like this. Now it makes me think I should have included a sidebar when I redesigned the website.

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