Eccentric Flower talk:201012/Buying Music

Shmuel:

"But the ship has sailed on DRM for music, as long as you don't lock into the horrific iTunes regime..."

iTunes dropped DRM for music more than a year ago.

-- 04:29, 20 December 2010 (GMT)

Iain:

The ArchAndroid, Janelle Monáe This is the perfect example of the sort of thing where you'd want to sample every track, because this album is all over the map.

Actually, you liking that one doesn't entirely surprise me. I meant to write a combined review of The Audition, Metropolis: The Chase Suite EP and The Archandroid, but I never got around to it. (You can't buy The Audition now; I'm not sure you ever could.)

Any road, Archandroid doesn't stand alone; it's parts two and three of what is planned as a four part suite, with "Metropolis: The Chase Suite" as part 1. And then the idea is that she and the record company will then turn Metropolis into a film/video musical; The videos "Many Moons" from Metropolis and "Tightrope" from Archandroid are meant to be actual scenes from the planned musical. I do love her music, but I think without having seen one of the videos where she says, "OK, this is what we're trying to do here," both Metropolis and Archandroid would just be baffling. (Especially when you realize that the action of "Many Moons" is one of the first things that happens in the story.)

My favorite song of hers so far comes from Metropolis, "Sincerely, Jane" -- which I think is not part of the concept. (The last three songs seem not to be. All of Archandroid takes place after "Cybertronic Purgatory", sequentially speaking.)

-- 08:03, 20 December 2010 (GMT)

Columbina:

Shmuel: I did actually know that, and (honest!) that wasn't the kind of DRM I meant in that case. There's more than one kind and I didn't differentiate because I'm not fond of any of them. In Apple's case, the DRM isn't physical encoding, but a closed system. They greatly discourage you getting apps and music from anywhere but their online store, and in the case of something like the iPhone/iPad, the hurdles to doing it some other way are fairly high, as I understand it. In effect their "DRM" is the channel - they want to be the sole, controlled source for the things you put on your device, and they do it for anti-piracy protection as much as for trade protectionism.

As I say, I'm on the fence. In general I am not in favor of that kind of protectionism. On the other hand, I've seen what happens when the people making the content figure, "Why bother when someone else is just going to steal it and repost it without crediting me?" (And that's when there's not even any cash involved!)

-- 14:22, 20 December 2010 (GMT)

Shmuel:

Ah. I share your concerns about the iPhone and iPad; if I do end up getting such a device -- which seemed a lot more likely before I suddenly decided to move again -- I'm looking for something Android-based for precisely that reason.

But for buying music, I'm sticking with iTunes over Amazon at this point, because this year, at least, Amazon is much higher up on the Evil Meter. (And at least on the PC side, iTunes can import pretty much anything... though I actually use it only for buying music, ripping CDs, and getting podcasts; I prefer Winamp for organizing and playing music.) Though I'll take Bandcamp or other means over either of them.

-- 16:11, 20 December 2010 (GMT)

Settsimaksimin:

i would second the recommendation that you get Janelle Monáe's first album, and make sure you get the extra tracks. i hope that she does complete the suite and get to do the full film.

not music, but did you check out the new audio recording of the Starstruck play? i'm still digesting it.

-- 19:55, 20 December 2010 (GMT)

Nonelvis:

In regards to getting music you acquired somewhere other than the Apple Store into an iPhone or iPad, there aren't any hurdles at all, unless you consider using iTunes to sync your iPhone or iPad a hurdle. I rip things I own and buy music from sources other than iTunes all the time -- I just need to make sure everything ends up in my iTunes library if I want to sync things with my various devices.

There are ways to get around this if you use an iPhone and Linux (an officially unsupported combination), but I don't know how to do this and don't know whether it requires jailbreaking.

-- 20:59, 20 December 2010 (GMT)

Iain:

In regards to getting music you acquired somewhere other than the Apple Store into an iPhone or iPad, there aren't any hurdles at all, unless you consider using iTunes to sync your iPhone or iPad a hurdle.

Actually, on Windows at least, you can use Winamp or Media Monkey to sync your music on an iPod. I don't think it works for an iPhone, and it can't work for an iPad, but I think it works for all iPods. Winamp seems to be allowed, if not approved -- my guess is that this has to do with Winamp being indirectly related to Time Warner (which owns/is owned by AOL which owns what's left of Netscape which owns/owned Winamp). Winamp seems to be able to keep up with various versions fairly well; it seems to take Media Monkey much longer, so I'm guessing that they're not officially supported. (And working with both iTunes and Media Monkey will completely screw up your library.)

-- 08:51, 21 December 2010 (GMT)

Bwinton:

Another plus of iTunes over Amazon, for me at least, is that I can actually give Apple money, and receive music in return. Amazon flat out refuses to sell me MP3s.

But yeah, Apple isn't going in a direction I particularly like these days, and it's started me wondering what my next phone and/or computer will end up being…

-- 04:03, 26 December 2010 (GMT)

Columbina:

Amazon won't sell you MP3s? Is this some kind of Canadian thing?

-- 04:13, 26 December 2010 (GMT)

Ysabel:

I love you a little for listing Brain Salad Surgery as a whole-album experience, because it's one of the very, very few albums I've ever listened to that I really felt like needed to be a whole-album experience.

-- 21:25, 10 January 2011 (GMT)