Gracenote has added over 650,000 CDs to its database in the seven and a half months since I last checked. That’s quite a lot, and unfortunately it seems likely that there a significant number of duplicate records among them — cases where the same CD appears with the title or artist name written in a […]
Month: November 2005
Does music have a genome?
Alongside the Last.FM model of personalised online radio (which I covered at some length and have cited in several other posts), Pandora provides an alternative based on different technology and classifications: We take your input (artists, songs) and feedback (“I like this”, “I don’t like this”) and use the Music Genome Project™ to create stations […]
Theatre of Voices UK tour performing Stockhausen
I was just clearing out my email in-box and found an unsolicited request to plug a tour on this site. Normally such messages would be deleted straight away, but I must have noticed the polite tone and decided to stay its execution until the next clear-out. Then, on re-reading it, and in the spirit of […]
No Music Day
I found out rather late in the day (via the Soundscape UK email list) that today is No Music Day. This idea began with Bill Drummond, who apparently chose 21 November as it is the eve of St Cecilia’s Day — St Cecilia being the patron saint of music. The idea of No Music Day […]
Use case examples of Web 2.0
“This article may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to enhance clarity.” That’s the editorial foreword at the top of Wikipedia’s entry for Web 2.0, an entry which says straight off, “a consensus upon [the term’s] exact meaning has not yet been reached” (all quotes as of the time of writing, but […]
Discovering new music: rationality and randomness
Do you behave completely rationally when you buy music? These days it’s a lot easier to base your purchases on sound evidence (pun unintentional). You can Google an artist you’ve heard of, check out their reviews in the press; read about their development and discography on All Music Guide or Wikipedia; see if there are […]
The slow evolution of DAB digital radio devices
My excitement and predictions about the Bug — the digital radio that can pause, rewind, record and convert to MP3 (pictured right) — seem so far to have been overstated. Sixteen months ago, I said I’d trade my iPod for a Bug, and just over eleven months ago I recorded the prediction: “next year it […]
The spectrum of song: Jeays, Jenkins, Roberts
I have a theory that there are three men in the UK each of whom represents one of the primary colours — red, green and blue — in the spectrum of song. From blending their work in different proportions, you could make any other colour you wanted. But, even though all of them wear the […]
Event: digital film/cinema
The informal network Cass Creatives is hosting a second event on the future of filmmaking on 30th November at City University (London, less than 200m from where I’m writing!). The last time they covered this topic the presentations and discussion were fascinating — see the official report and mine. The event is free. Here are […]
More usability nightmares with DRM
Leaving aside the moral, legal or economic arguments about Digital Rights Management (DRM), how does it affect usability and the user experience? Last week a new form of DRM used by Sony BMG CDs came to light — though it has apparently been in use since March [source] — which installs a ‘rootkit’ on Windows-based […]