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Funny, but how does the iTunes Music Store get nominated for 3 Webby Awards when it just became a Web site for the first time 4 days ago?
iTMS-4-ALL: Turns the iTunes Music Store into a normal HTML file structure. (See also: Notes from the script developer)
Music Magic Found in the Shuffle: Random shuffle has become one of the key components of new listening habits ushered in by digital music. Michael Bull noted that most listeners use random shuffle in particular settings, or in certain moods. Sometimes, he said, people can’t decide what to listen to: a problem easily solved by random shuffle.
While people often create playlists for specific activities (walking, driving, commuting, workouts, etc.), they also enjoy giving control to the machine, which can surprise and delight with unexpected selections of tracks, Bull said. The player will sometimes throw up combinations the user would never have dreamed of.
One user interviewed by Bull, for example, said the iPod “colors” one’s surroundings, and random shuffle can significantly change one’s perceptions of a familiar place. Bull said the random selection of tracks allows the user to create unique personal narratives, like a private movie soundtrack, or to use the shuffle feature to bring up surprising memories.
Professor James Kellaris: “Personally, and I believe I speak for many old farts here, I appreciate listening to music, be it an opera or a pop album, in the sequence in which the artist decided to present it.”
Last night a mix tape saved my life: The cassette is 40 years old. And it’s still going strong. James Paul looks back at the little plastic gadget that first let us make our own compilations, record from the radio and take tunes with us wherever we went.
Pop tunes reborn as marketing: Anyone near a television in recent weeks has been humming Happy Together, the Turtles’ 1967 pop classic. A version of the song has been soaking the airwaves via a commercial for Applebee’s, a midprice restaurant chain based in Kansas. But it’s not about love anymore. It’s about surf and turf.
“Imagine steak and shrimp, or shrimp and steak / Imagine both of these on just one plate.”
You think, either this is a joke or the work of the devil. Then you think that whoever sold out Happy Together to Applebee’s must be strangled. Or, if not strangled, at least asked a series of really annoying questions.
Poshlost on playlists and mix tapes: “Time and time again people bemoan (or perhaps celebrate) technology breaking down old systems of editing and gatekeeping, but ultimately I think we all acknowledge the continued need of something to provide a filter. A mix-tape is a filter that usually has a carefully constructed purpose, and the more and more unmanageable our playlists get, the more we’ll appreciate mixes, maybe even appreciate them in a way we never thought of before.”
Gimme a decaf vanilla latte – and a CD to go: “We’re trying to get people to have the discovery of music be a part of their life again. But you kind of have to find a part of their routine that you can tie it to.”
What will the music of the future sound like? Will the way that people access music have an effect on the content of that music?
Industry change eyed at music conference: Don VanCleave, president of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, on the relevance of local record stores: “All that content is out there but nobody’s telling people what to listen to, what’s next, what to buy, what to download. You can have millions of choices, but without some kind of a filter it’s very tough to get turned onto anything new.”