I’ve known Erick, the lead singer for many (many) years, and one of the songs on this album is a hold over from a band we were in together years ago.  That song, “Traditional Thorn” sums up a lot of harsh feelings we were feeling towards the Christian music industry when it was written and is the direct result of the band being told they couldn’t play certain songs because they were “too loud” (this was back when the idea of Christian rock was still foreign to most church goers).   The lyrics to “Traditional Thron” have been modified a little since their conception but the overall message is still there and the song still rocks to this day.  The other song, I helped birth is “Finally Fading” while I didn’t help with the lyrics too much, I did devise the title and initial chord progression for the song allowing Erick to work with some others to bring the song to full growth.

“All That’s Left Behind” is currently available from iTunes and Amazon Mp3 store.  It is also available directly from the Beekin website.  So please check out this CD, it’s honestly one of the best things they have done.

To get an idea of what it looks like, you can view it on YouTube in HD (720 and 1080 resolutions) here.  I recommend one of my favorite tunes, The Hand That Feeds, because a lot of people recognize this song (from Rock Band if nothing else).

This is extremely cool for a number of reasons.  First and foremost is that the NIN crew gave the rough, uncut video away for free.  All it cost you was the time to download it.  This shows that Trent Reznor is still looking at changing the way bands and music fans think about music and band/fan interaction.  Reznor trusts his fans to do good by his good will and they continually show that they will.  It is also important to note that other fan-made videos and DVDs have been made from the video data supplied by NIN, this project is just a group effort by one set of fans.  This is also cool because of the fact that it is so well done.  You feel like you’re watching something professionally done by some people sitting around in a video studio cutting/editing video.  The sound is fantastic and the overall experience of watching the video is great (assuming you like Nine Inch Nails).  Finally, the fact that this video is available for free to anyone that wants to download it, just shows that if a band trusts their fans, they can do wonderful promotion for your band.  Nine Inch Nails gave their community the video, and in return got a lovely concert video that many people will download, show to their friends and say “this was cut and edited together by fans, not the band” and that is going to speak volumes to those watching it.

I’m not the largest NIN fan, I’ve said that here several times.  But what they’re doing with projects like this is important, its showing that you can do things on your own, without large record label backing you.  Also it’s showing that the idea of free in music can lead to wonderful things.  Both NIN and the people who put work into this “Gift” should be given a round of applause.

While I’m not going to debate if the people running The Pirate Bay are actually guilty of copyright infringement, I do want to look at something.  The content creators’ undying need to 1) limit and 2) prohibit the consumer’s use of their products.

Since the invention (and eventual popularity) of Napster, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) became blatantly aware of a practice that was going on at least two, maybe three years before Napster.  Granted movies weren’t being downloaded to the extent they are at this time, but music certainly was.  Napster just made it easy for the average person to download songs, hackers and computer nerds had been doing it for years by that point.

With this discovery that their content was being made available with such ease, the RIAA took action.  Their solution?  Sue the living daylights out of anyone they could.  They also added the step of prohibiting this practice by trying to make CDs harder to rip into the popular Mp3 format.  When a company (Apple) attempted to move forward with creating an online digital music store, the recording industry demanded that the tracks be heavily locked down and the number of devices and computers also be limited.  In a sense, they criminalized their customers.  They immediately assumed that customers would but the tracks purchased from digital retailers online for download by the internet large.  Problem is, most people who would legitimately buy their music online, were not looking to make it available on BitTorrent sites or other peer-to-peer networks.  in fact, those aren’t the people putting the music out there to download.  The people putting the music out on the internet to be downloaded, are the ones that are not buying the music in the first place.

It took almost 4 years for the RIAA and the record companies they represent to understand that DRM (Digital Rights Management) and criminalizing their customers was a bad idea (but they still sue the pants off of people if they can get a judge that agrees with them).  Now all the major music labels make their music available to purchase in a format that will work on most portable digital audio players and these tracks are not limited to a set number of devices or a specific piece of software.

The movie companies however, have not learned from the recording industry’s mistake.  In fact they are worse in some areas.  The iTunes movies are heavily limited in how a customer can use them.  They can only be used on a set number of computers/devices, and there is currently no way to burn them to a DVD to watch on a regular DVD player.  This is just not the iTunes movies either, the same goes for Netflix’s streaming “Watch it Now” program, and Amazon’s Video On Demand.  You can even include sites like CinemaNow or Vudu.  Even the "Digital Copy” that you can get when you buy new DVDs and Blu-Ray movies is a joke.  You are usually limited to a particular file and you can’t burn it to a DVD to view either (for instance if you bought a Blu-Ray with a Digital Copy, you can’ t burn the Digital Copy to a DVD to watch on a regular DVD player).

As you can see, it’s all about limiting the consumer’s use of the product.  The other thing is, these companies want us to become use to this form of limitation.  If they can get us to accept these limitations, then they can find ways to continually charge us money for something we already have.  They already do this with the Digital Copy idea they’ve got going right now.  It is very easy to rip a DVD into a format that will play on whatever device you have.  However, the programs that do this are eventually shut down by the MPAA because ripping a DVD (thus breaking the encryption on the DVD) is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  Reverse engineering technology designed to protect copyrighted material is an illegal and finable (and in some cases jailable) offense.  You’ve already bought the DVD, but you didn’t buy a digital copy, so creating your own is illegal even though you have already paid for the movie.

What the content makers want is to essentially sell you a license that allows you to play the content in whatever format you bought it in.  If you want to play that purchased content another way, you’ll need to buy it again, thus giving you the appropriate license.  To explain further, if you buy a DVD, you can play that movie in a DVD player.  That’s perfectly okay.  If you however want to play that same movie on your iPod, you’ll need to buy it from iTunes or use your digital copy (which you paid for when you bought the DVD/Digital Copy package).  To take the DVD and create your own digital copy of the movie is something the movie industry considers theft.

The thing about places like the Pirate Bay, Napster, and even Kazza is that they brought the the content to the downloadable masses.  They helped people rethink how they acquired and viewed content.  And another reason sites like those are popular is they do not limit the customer to a specific set of rules when it comes to how they can use the content.  For people that are a little more knowledgeable than the average consumer, this is a big selling point.  If they can’t figure out how to use the content the way they want, they’ll just download it.  It’s easier.  If the music and movie makers want to stop the constant downloading of their content, a good idea might be to stop limiting how that content is used.  Open it up.

Now, downloading copyrighted material online, that you didn’t pay for is just flat out wrong, there is no grey area here.  So one could argue that the people behind The Pirate Bay are guilty of copyright infringement and the propagation there of.  But with how BitTorrent works as peer-to-peer network, they have a pretty strong argument on their hands.  If you would like to read more about The Pirate Bay Trial, check out this link to Torrent Freak.  It makes for some interesting reading.

Now, I’ve been listening to Vallejo since I saw them open for Pushmonkey here in Houston like 8 years ago.  This would be around the time they released the album “Beautiful Life” (which I consider their best effort to date).  I’m proud to announce that with “Thicker Than Water” Vallejo has found their muse again.  No more hard rock sounds with a little latin tinge.  The latin groove is constant through out all of “Thicker Than Water” and I couldn’t be happier.  This album really brings them back to the “Beautiful Life” sound and feel, which is good news for folks like me.  If I had one complaint about the album it is that all the songs are short.  Almost all of them clock in at around 3 minutes on average.  I understand that we live in the age of the radio single, but come one guys, give me a nice little jam that lasts a little longer than a radio single.

Overall the album is good, short, but good.  I’m glad to see the band return to the sound that made them unique.

Below is the video for the first single from the album, “Move On” so enjoy

This is the second album that Nine Inch Nails has released in 2 months (the first Ghosts costs $5 for a digital download).  Sure, you have to give them your email address which no doubt puts you on some kind of mailing list.  But for free music, I really don’t mind. 

What does any of this have to do with the title of this post? I’m glad you asked.  You see, I don’t really like Nine Inch Nails musically.  Why?  I’ve never really been the “mad at the world” type.  Stuff happens, I deal, and move on as best as possible.  I’m not saying that Trent Reznor is not talented, in fact I think quite the contrary and find him to be an incredibly talented musician.  I just don’t like his music.  And a person does not have to like everything.  Also, there are a couple of NIN songs that I do like but most of them are the singles (”Hand that Feeds” and “Head Like a Hole” for example).

Did I sign up and download this latest effort though?  You betcha.  I’ll listen to almost anything once.  And I will especially listen to anything at least once that didn’t cost me any money to hear it in the first place.  Sure, I could have probably found the album via BitTorrent sites and not had to sign up for the mailing list, but I’d rather get the free music directly from the person providing it.  So Nine Inch Nails got one more person (someone who doesn’t normally listen to their music) to download and listen to their new album.  All because it was free.

For the record, I also bought Ghosts I-IV because it was five dollars for full lossless files.  That’s a hard deal to turn down.  Also, I did it because I want to prove that distribution methods like that can work.  Also to help prove that if you offer cheap or free music, there will be people to download and promote it.  But think about these facts:

• I don’t really care too much for Nine Inch Nails musically (even though I think Mr. Reznor has talent).
• I paid $5 dollars for a NIN album because it was $5 dollars which is darn cheap for 36 tracks in complete lossless format.
• Finally, I downloaded a free album provided by Nine Inch Nails
• Nine Inch Nails made a sale off of someone not really into their music too much and got another another set of ears to listen to 2 of their albums because they offered cheap and free music.

Album Artist & Artist Tags

This is a topic that gets confusing to some people, but I wrote a nice article on this a while back that I feel really covers the basis for the differences between the “Album Artist” and “Artist” tags in a mp3 file.  Essentially, the artist tag is for the artist of that particular song while the “Album Artist” tag is for the overall album artist.  This works really great on multiple artists compilations.  Make sure you understand the difference between these two tags and how to utilize them correctly.  The article referenced is: Artists Versus Album Artist.

Follow Proper Title Casing

For some people this is not a big deal, personally though I hate with “A” and “The” are capitalized incorrectly in the titles.  Drives me bonkers, this is probably why my wife calls me “anal” but who knows.

Proper title casing means the first letter of the first and last word are capitalized.  All other words with a character count of 4 or more are capitalized as well.  Exceptions include pronouns.  Examples:

• Incorrect: “Shoot Me In The Smile”
• Right: “Shoot Me in the Smile”

Disc & Track Numbers

Some people will tell you to only use the Disc Number tag when the album has more than one disc.  I disagree with this approach.  Mainly because if you’re going to do it for some, why would you not do it for others.  It just doesn’t make sense.

Also, make sure you fill in both parts of the numbers so an album that has 3 discs will be “1/3″, “2/3″ and “3/3″ and likewise for track numbering as well “1/1″, 2/10″, and so on.  This makes it really easy to get an idea of how tracks and albums connect together when you are looking at them in a spreadsheet or in your music organization application.

The exception to this rule are miscellaneous tracks, things like 1 off tracks that you may have downloaded or what not.  You can strip these tracks of their track and disc numbers since they do not associate with an album.

Album Art

Everyone likes album art.  Album art really makes iTunes shine in coverflow mode.  However album art that has dimensions of less than 500 pixels detracts in a big way.  If you can not find the album art online and you own the album, scan your copy in.  You will be much happier with a minimum of 500×500 image that you made yourself than some 250×186 copy you find off of Google Images.

Some people get crazy and want to add images for the CD, the internal art, and rear artwork.  This is entirely up to you.  There are ID3 tag designations for each of these artwork types, so if you want to be completely archival, then go nuts.

Genres

I don’t feel that one should get overly specific with their genres, but getting kind of specific can help you when creating playlists (especially smart playlists in iTunes).  For example, I have Christian Rock and Christian Hard Rock genres in my collection because I want that level of granularity when making playlists.  However, the genres are not so overly specific that it’s overkill, especially since I have a lot of music under both genres.

Your Best Practices

Do you have any best practices that you follow when you organize your digital music?  If so, leave a comment or two.  I’d love to see how other people handle different things with their music collections.

Talk about a missed integration opportunity.  How cool would that be to do "live" scrobbling from your iPhone or iTouch?  Sounds like a worth while feature to me.

We know that almost half of that came from the $750,000 from the sale of 2500 ultimate limited edition packages that sold for $300 each.  But still 1.6 million dollars is not something scoff at when you consider that this was an almost completely digital distribution of DRM-Free MP3 or lossless files.  There were also purchasable CDs but they all came with a download code for immediate download of the digital files.

One part I found interesting was the fact that Reznor paid only $38 to have the album distributed via Amazon’s Mp3 Store.  That’s an awesome price to have 36 songs distributed through one of the most popular Mp3 download stores.

Now, here is what I am wondering.  What is the breakdown of downloads from the NiN.com website versus Amazon.  Also of the purchased done via NiN.com, what is the breakdown of purchases by format (Mp3, FLAC, & Apple Lossless).  That is what I would like to see.  Also, how many people just purchased a digital download versus how many people purchased an actual CD set?  Mr. Reznor, can we get those numbers please?  I’m really curious.  Either way, the fact that the man is releasing numbers rather than hiding them is to be commended.

The Skinny

This past Sunday, Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I-IV and I have to say that I think they might have done it just about every way possible.  First and foremost, there is the album’s digital download.  You can download the album from NIN.com or Amazon.com’s Mp3 Download Store.  The cost?  Five whole dollars.  If you purchase from Amazon, you’ll get DRM-Free Mp3 files encoded at 256kbps.  However, if you choose to purchase from NIN.com, you will have your choice of 320kbps Mp3 files (DRM-Free of course), FLAC files, or Apple Lossless files.  That is five dollars for lossless digital downloads, that means $5 for exact CD quality audio.  But it is not just the digital downloads for five dollars but rather the other "packages" available for purchase.  That’s what I want to focus on today.

The Extras

There are three alternative purchase methods that really add to the overall distribution for the album.  Let me run down the list real quick:

• 2 CD Set ($10) – 2 audio CDs in a six panel digipack package with a 16 page booklet, includes immediate full download credit
• Deluxe Edition Package ($75) – Ghosts I-IV in a hardcover fabric slipcase containing: 2 audio CDs, 1 data DVD with all 36 tracks in multi-track format, and a Blu-ray disc with Ghosts I-IV in high-definition 96/24 stereo and accompanying slideshow.
• Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition Package ($300) – Sold Out – Includes all features in the deluxe release (including the free download) as well as 4LP vinyl, and two exclusive limited edition Giclée prints for USD$300. Limited to 2,500 pieces, numbered and signed by Trent Reznor.

As you can see, you have some options.  All three of the above editions offer an immediate download credit so that you can get instant access to the music.  But what is important is that there are choices.  There are choices in format if you just download the album, there are choices if you want something more then digital files.  All the basis are covered and reasonably priced for what you get.

Why I Think It’s a Big Deal

I have been following changes in the music industry for years.  I have watched as artists have tried and failed to harness the power of the internet to sell records to their fans.  I watched Prince go from having a pretty cool concept to selling DRM-infused music (though he still tries new distribution methods as well).  I have watch bands on MySpace try to get their music out there.  I have watched artists that should be in the top five lists sit playing local clubs.  Trent Reznor and his people, quite simply, did their homework.  The price is more than fair on all the various packages ($5 for lossless files is a big deal).  The other reason it is a big deal is because Nine Inch Nails has the following to show that it can work.  Enough people are going to notice this if it succeeds.  The fact that all 2500 of the $300 Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition package is sold out shows this was successful just on that alone.  And if Mr. Reznor follows suit by releasing hard numbers a month from now, it will show that such methods can be utilized successfully.

The fact that an artist who had a major label basically asked to be released, and was granted freedom is experimenting with various distribution models to sell his music is a big deal period.  With the internet there are several ways to get your product into a customer’s hand.  This helps prove that people will pay for the most expensive package when a $5 option is available.  It also shows that internet works as a method of direct distribution.

Where It Goes Wrong

The problem with this is that it’s Nine Inch Nails.  Nine Inch Nails has the following to really be successful at this.  That doesn’t mean that other artists can’t learn something from the experience.  Nine Inch Nails can get away with a five dollar price tag, but I’d gladly pay another, lesser known band seven to ten dollars for lossless files.  This method will not be as successful for lesser known indie artists but it can be successful.  Scale is important to remember in such things.  If you have a smaller following then you are not going to sell as many copies of the digital records.

Will Anyone Care?

That’s a question where the answer is a little disconcerting.  Because the answer, realistically is "probably not" because the major labels are not going to get this.  They might try to imitate it but they will do so poorly and then wonder why it didn’t work for them.  The only people that are going to care are the people like me who have been watching and waiting for this kind of direct distribution model.  We are the people that sung its praises.  But short term, no one else is going to care or "get it" and that really is just sad.

Over 6 million recorded songs.  Man, if the collection didn’t start at 3 million dollars, I’d buy it, in a heartbeat.  Well if I win that 220 million dollar lotto jackpot tonight, maybe I will.  But that’s reaching and not overly realistic.  Still 6 million songs is quite a few.

Forget cowbell, I think someone is going to need more hard drive space.

But what does this mean? Well, for one thing, a lot of retailers are moving away from stand alone efforts and focusing more on partnerships. This is due largely to Apple’s iTunes store maintaining a dominant position on the digital download market. However, with Amazon’s Mp3 store being entirely DRM-free, I expect that we will see more people move towards deals with Amazon in order to offer the consumer friendly DRM-free solution. I expect that as Amazon’s Mp3 store becomes more popular (an almost certainty with their Amazon/Pepsi Super Bowl promotion), we will see the two top music download stores become Amazon & iTunes. I think that this has a lot of companies offering digital music download solutions running scared. The thing that interests me though, is if Amazon can use this Pepsi promotion (similar to the one iTunes had a couple of years ago) to increase their popularity. Once customers know that tracks purchased from Amazon can be played on any portable media player, I think that the Amazon Mp3 store will see a dramatic increase in their customer numbers. The Pepsi partnership is a great way to do that (look at how well it did for iTunes a couple of years ago).

Some bloggers out there (TechCrunch is one of them) are suggesting that if Yahoo is in fact purchased by Microsoft, that the customers looking into Yahoo’s music services could be redirected to Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace, the Microsoft run media store for Zune users. I think that this is a possibility should the Microsoft/Yahoo deal become a real thing, but as it stands right now it is nothing more than a letter from Steve Ballmer to Yahoo’s board. Until Yahoo says yes, Yahoo shutting down their music service is nothing more than Yahoo attempting to reduce its expenses in what is looking to be a troubled time for them.

The end result we will get into in a few minutes, but the outcome of the result has Mr. Reznor stating that there should be an ISP music tax on consumer high speed internet connections. Something that I feel has little benefit to the artist because that would require the labels to push for it and the end result would be similar to the artist’s cut of iTunes sales, which is basically nothing. However, from a consumer standpoint, it would give you the right download all the music you wanted without fear of being sued.

Lets take a look at some of the numbers released via the NIN.com website.

The NiggyTardust Experiment

The album, “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust” was released online and had 154,449 total downloads with 18.3 percent of people choosing to pay for the album. That means, 28,322 people (18.3% of 154,449) paid five dollars for a digital album, the grand total of money in sales is $141,610.  That amount is based on the muliplying 28322 by 5.  So lets look at some numbers.  Unfortunately I have to guess on some of this because I do not know and if Mr. Reznor or Mr. Williams would like to give me correct numbers, I would be more than happy to release updates on the amounts spent and total (possible) profits.

Now, if I remember correctly, Trent Reznor has a studio in his home, so studio time for the album probably cost fairly close to nothing.  However, in case they did pay for actual studio time, we account for that later.  Now, since Reznor co-produced the album we can assume he charged Saul a fee, lets say that fee was around $15,000.  Now they had to pay for hosting and bandwidth for all 154,449 people to download the album (those that paid and those that didn’t) which came out to around 15.5 terabytes (assuming my math is right). After some checking, I figured out that the going rate for that kind of bandwidth is somewhere around $100/month. Considering the sight has probably been up for 2-3 months, that’s $300. We can even say that, the $300 is just for bandwidth and that it’s another one hundred (100) dollars a month for just hosting the site and files. That still means only 600 dollars total in host fees. So far, Trent Reznor and Saul Williams have made in excess of 100,000 dollars. Lets say that after all the costs they come out with $100,000 even (this way we account for any unknowns because the producer and hosting only cost a total of around $16,000). I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d be happy with having that much money go directly into my pocket for one album.

The Mixed Bag

Trent Reznor, put work into a product and only a small percentage of people paid for the work. However, if you release a free version of a product, guess which one is going to get more downloads, here’s a hint, it is not the one that costs money. I can understand why he’s upset at the small number of paying customers, but come on, are you really going to get angry with people who took the cheap path that you made available to them?

Realistically this is the case with software as well, and that should help give people an idea of how things work when it comes to digital, online distribution. What I mean is this. Several companies offer free and pay versions of their software. The idea is that if you use the software enough you’ll get the pay version. This means that you have a lot of people using the free version and only a few people buying the pay version. I know that I don’t pay for every piece of software that has a free and a pay version, I usually try to make do with the free version if I can. Now, I have purchased software that I use quite frequently and love.

I think that digital music being released directly through the artist should be looked at the same way. If you offer both a free and pay version, of course more people are going to grab the free version and just “make do” that is the way of the internet.

Conclusion

I think that it is great that Trent Reznor is opening the books on the NiggyTardust experiment. However, I think that he should try again with his next album and only offer a pay version (maybe with two price points, one for 320kbps Mp3 files and another for FLAC). I bet that he will see people more than willing to pay for the music. But that is only a theory.

I would like to personally say “Thank you” to Sony and Amazon.  To Amazon for having their Mp3 Download store and allowing the records labels to easily sell tracks through it.  Secondly to Sony for not holding out any longer with going DRM-Free.  Sure you’re the last one, but better late than never, right?  Right?

This is good news for DRM (Digital Rights Management) haters out there.  Now lets move on to the movie industry and get them to stop throwing DRM all over their digital downloads.  One industry down, one to go.

Sounds great except for one major problem.  It completely misses the point of digital downloads.  Digital music downloads are about instant gratification.  For instance, it’s 2:30am and I just have to hear “that song, by that guy, who came out last year” so I go onto Amazon or iTunes and purchase the track.  It’s 2:30 in the morning, most brick and mortar stores are closed.  This means, I’d have to wait till the morning, goto the store buy the card and then come home and take even more steps before I can download the track.  By then, I have slept and whatever jonesing I had for the song is gone, and in result they lost the sale.

Granted the above example is probably the minority situation but it shows how all the unnecessary steps prove that the people behind Sony/BMG completely missed the point of digital downloads.  That little thing called convenience.  I purchased the Juno soundtrack from Amazon at 10:30pm a couple of nights ago.  I love the soundtrack to the movie and my wife and I wanted it.  Instant gratification, that’s the point of digital downloads.  Digital downloads without DRM are even better (I downloaded from Amazon even though the record was on iTunes because the Amazon version was higher quality and DRM-Free).

Sony, listen to your customers.  If you want to utilize this method (which someone on TechCrunch shows how it is a good move for you guys), at least make the stuff available through Amazon.com’s Mp3 Store.  That way you satisfy both ends.  It can’t be that hard to do, it’s all digital files anyway.

Sony/BMG records was the final hold out for DRM-Free music after Warner announced in late December that they would be selling tracks on Amazon (I personally used that announcement to purchase the Juno movie soundtrack).   With this, the four largest record companies are now DRM-Free and Amazon has successfully grown its product base considerably in the last 2-3 months of it’s Mp3 Store’s opening.  This is partially due to the record labels wanting to get out from under Apple and it’s “restrictive pricing structures” (the record executives’ words, not mine, see my comments on this further down).  However, I am all for the “whatever works” model of getting rid of DRM.  If it means Apple is going to have to wait in line to get DRM free tracks, then so be it.

Now, as for iTunes’ “restrictive pricing structure” that the labels are complaining about, does anyone else find it funny that they are making a similar complaint to the consumers mantra against DRM?  “It’s too restrictive” or “We can’t do what we want with the product we own” and it seems rather funny to me.  I find it incredibly odd that the second they couldn’t do what they wanted, they found a way to get what they wanted (albeit to the customers advantage, in this case the removal of DRM).  I guess this is typical human reasoning, “It’s okay when I do it to you, but the second you do it to me, I’m taking my ball and going home.”

Either way, the removal of DRM on music files is huge step forward and I can’t wait for the movie studios to catch on.  Pity they came into the game a little late so they are a little behind on the reasoning  road, but the fact that the top 4 record companies got rid of DRM, should send a huge message.  Here’s hoping, right?

Once the RockBoxUtil worked its magic I had a RockBox enabled Sansa.  My first impressions?  Get a better default theme.  Seriously.  Get something with some pizazz.  I understand that a user can customize to their hearts content and make it look like however they want (including like an iPod), but the default theme is hideous.  In fact it’s not even really a “theme” at all.  It is just black text on a mostly white background.  Get something with a little more flash for that initial theme guys.

Once you get the look set up to your liking including theme, fonts, and icons.  You instantly have something that is better than the default Sansa interface (which, while it is alright, it is lacking).  The only thing I can not figure out is the proper size to make my “cover.bmp” files so I can have the album art on the screen.  Apparently you need some resizing patches that are not included by default to get RockBox to resize the artwork on the fly.  But this is a do-it-yourself install kind of thing and definitely not supported by Sandisk in anyway, so you take your good with the bad.

Overall?  I like it and have zero desire to return to the original Sansa firmware.  I will only load it to charge and sync the device.  Other than that I will be using RockBox exclusively.

Way to go guys.

“Some people find it hard to understand my man Jay-Z’s decision not to let iTunes break up his American Gangster album and sell it as single tracks. They say he’s fighting the future and losing out on sales from fans who only want to download singles. But I say it was a stand somebody had to take in the music industry. Jay is speaking for all of us.”

I agree with Jay-Z’s decision to sell an album as he would like. It is his work of art, his artistic output, his product and he can decide how it is or is not sold. That is his right as a musician and artist. No argument there. In fact other artists have not allowed their music to be sold on iTunes. Also, other Jay-Z albums are still available on iTunes, just not his concept album. The idea of a concept album is that all the tracks work together to tell some kind of story. Pink Floyd’s The Wall or The Who’s Tommy come to mind. Imagine some of the songs from those albums being played out of context. It just doesn’t work. So I am completely okay with Jay-Z not wanting to sell American Gangster on iTunes.

Then Jermaine starts grasping at straws with comments like:

“If anything, WE made iTunes. It’s like how we spent $300,000 to $500,000 each on our videos and MTV and BET went ahead and built an entire video television industry off of our backs. We can’t let that happen again. These businesses exist solely because of our music. So if we as artists, producers and label executives stand up, those guys at Apple can either cooperate, or have nothing for people to buy and download on their iPods.”

So let me get this straight? The musicians made iTunes what is? Well to some degree that’s true. They allow their songs to be sold in the iTunes Store. From that point, the above statement is true. However, you did not turn iTunes into the largest retailer of digital music, Apple did that with the idea of an eco-system based around the iPod. They also worked with artists to come up with custom playlists, offer special in studio performances, and find new ways to market a product that was failing in every way possible else where. And yes, MTV & BET made entire businesses based on the music industry’s product. However, it eventually came to a point where the music industry needed those guys to sell records. If you did not have a video on MTV, your music did not exist to a large chunk of the population. However, the idea that people would stop buying/using iPods without an iTunes store is where you begin to prove your ignorance Mr. Dupri. There were iPods without the iTunes Store and there have been countless studies that prove the amount of iTunes Store purchased music on iPods is incredibly low. I myself only have a small amount of iTunes purchased music on my iPod and I have 40 gigs of music on my iPod. The reason iPods are popular is because grandmothers can use and understand them. They are simple to use, easy to navigate, and very good at doing what they were designed to do. You will be shocked to discover that iPods will continue to prosper without the iTunes Store.

“These days people just assume that you need a number one single to have a number one album. But look at what’s really happening. Soulja Boy sold almost 4 million singles and only 300,000 albums! We let the consumer have too much of what they want, too soon, and we hurt ourselves. Back in the day when people were excited about a record coming out we’d put out a single to get the ball going and if we sold a lot of singles that was an indication we’d sell a lot of albums. But we’d cut the single off a few weeks before the album came out to get people to wait and let the excitement build. When I put out Kris Kross we did that. We sold two million singles, then we stopped. Eventually we sold eight million albums!”

I am willing to bet that the other songs on Soulja Boy’s album sucked and that is why his albums sales faltered. A good album gets bought, period. Want proof? People are still buying Michael Jackson’s Thriller even after all the stuff in the news. People still buy Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Why? Because it is a good album, and it is a double album so it cost more by default. People still make good albums. Anberlin’s Cities is a good album, hence the reason I own a copy, and so do several of my friends and we like listening to the album on our Mp3 players. I own over 600 compact discs and I buy more every year. But I am more selective in what I buy now. I am older, I have a family, a house payment, a step-daughter who needs school clothes. So I am not going to just run out and purchase a 12 dollar album when it only has 3 good songs on it. I will go online to Amazon’s Mp3 store and buy the 3 songs I like. If an album is good, I will buy it. If the album is not good, I am just going to buy the tracks I like. You want to continue to push people into buying sub-par products and then complain when they go elsewhere, that’s like banging your head into the wall and then complaining about a headache. I remember when you could not walk into someone’s house without seeing a Sony stereo. Back in the eighties and early nineties they had the best stereo products, but as their quality started to waiver so did their stereo sales. If you release an inferior product, people will purchase something else. It works with stereos and with albums. If you want people to purchase albums, release albums where all the songs are at the very least good, not mediocre/filler. Also, I owned Kriss Kross’ first album. Aside from the singles that got played on the radio, it was all sub-par. It is the record industry’s fault that album sales stink. It has nothing to do with the ability to download just the singles.

“Every record is in some way a concept album. The whole always strives to be better than its parts. I dedicate a whole chapter in my book to this process. Every thing I produce is a product of me spending time with the artist and getting to know where his or her head is at. Usher’s Confessions album was all about where he was at that point in his life. Same with Mariah’s Emancipation of Mimi.”

Umm, no. Every record is not in some way a concept album. A concept album is something that tells a story from beginning to end. I’ll give you that a album is a representation of where an artist is in their life and what they want to say at that moment, heck look at Bruce Springsteen he’s done it more than just about anyone else. However, that does not mean that Devils & Dust is a concept album. It is a fluid album where the songs work well together but they do not tell a story like American Gangster, The Wall, or even Dulcinea. Most good albums have a consistent flow to them. The songs work well where they are placed and with the songs that precede and follow. Take an album like Cities by Anberlin or Heavier Things by John Mayer, also Pushmonkey’s self-titled album on Arista. These albums flow well. They have an overall consistent sound and all the songs are good, no filler to be found. I also own all three of them (Pushmonkey has been purchased multiple times as gifts for others). Any good album is cohesive, it is held together by the songs on it.

“I’m not saying that music can’t ever be sold as singles. Not every album is equal and consumers are always going to try to cherry pick the songs they like. But that doesn’t mean the people who investing their time, money and sweat into a record shouldn’t have the right to decide how it’s gonna be sold, whether that’s in single units or as a whole.”

Agreed. An artist should have every right to decide how their craft is sold. I would never argue otherwise. Anyone that is upset with Jay-Z for pulling his record off of iTunes because he wants it sold as a whole album does not respect the artist. Period.

I think that you, Mr. Jermaine Dupri, need to take a long hard look at where you stand in the scheme of your changing industry. The music industry has been in trouble for a long time and this is why several artists have broken off from the major label system and continue to be successful. Prince still sells millions of records when he releases one and you know what, he does get to do it on his terms. But even he understands the changes that have come with the digital age. Maybe you should try and have a sit down with that man and let him talk some sense into you. You and your mindset are what is wrong with the music industry. Forcing people into buying sub-par products. Release quality, consistently and people will go back to wanting to buy whole albums. Not every song has to be a single but every song needs to be good. Your industry needs to nurture new artists, not drop them the second they don’t make the sales figures you need them to. Your industry needs to embrace new technology instead of fighting it. Your industry needs to work to make the customer happy, because they are who buy your product. Your industry needs to have the mindset of quality over quantity. Your industry needs to quite frankly, get a clue.

The song I want to focus on, is the opening track titled, “Revolve” because I feel that it is one of the best openers the band has ever used. Sure, “Rail” for the Eighth Wonder album is an awesome opener with how it comes in and builds and plays out through out. But “Revolve” starts out with the nice palm muted chunks that really bring you right into the song, grabbing your attention almost immediately and refusing to let go for the entire three minutes and forty-seven seconds of the song.

The song content focuses on sin, and the power it can have in one’s life. This is established early on in the song with the closing line of the first verse “Has the light gone dim, in light of this sin…” so you know right away he is focusing on the issue of sin and how it can bring you down and not even realize it until it is too late. The chorus though, “I’m pushing this out and pulling You in” while obvious is quite simply awesome but when it is followed up later with “I’m throwing this out and hoping in” it totally ties the whole song together. Yes, sin can get you down, and it can drag you through the mud for its own enjoyment but there is hope all you need to do is see that hope.

Overall, it is a great song, it opens the album extremely well, and it shows that the guys in Poor Old Lu did not lose anything in their time apart but instead grew from it and brought it all back to the table to show us something new but familiar because that “Lu sound” is definitely there in the song as well as the album.

Next week, we begin looking at Aaron Sprinkle’s (Poor Old Lu’s guitarist) solo work.

You know where the lyrics are…

Revolve
by Poor Old Lu
From the Album: The Waiting Room

It promises much
It promises you’ll never be cold
The words are such
As to turn you until you are sold
And walk in this rut
And run in the ground where we know
Have the lights gone dim
In the light of this sin?
Am I breathing right?
Am I breathing right?

I’m pushing this out and pulling You in
I’ve been living in doubt and walking on pins
I’m throwing this out and hoping in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’m sick of the drought and walking on

The current is strong
To move me and push me aside
And where I belong
Is it lost in the move of the tide
And when I am wrong
And when I am drowning inside
Has the sea rushed in
In the weight of this sin?
Am I breathing right?
Am I breathing right?

I’m pushing this out and pulling You in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’ve been living in doubt and walking on pins
I’m throwing this out and hoping in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’m sick of the drought and walking on

Pick up your feet and pick up your head
(I’m as tired as I can be)
Lift up your voice and sing till the end
(Lord, I need Your strength in me)

I’m pushing this out and pulling You in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’ve been living in doubt and walking on pins
I’m throwing this out and hoping in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’m sick of the drought and walking on

You might be asking yourself, why was this such a big deal?  Why did every gadget website I read last week mentioned this little tidbit of news?  Well, there is a reason for it.  You see Apple does not do this with its iPod products.  Nope, in fact, Apple’s stance is simple, if you want to latest features then you need to purchase the latest device.  Sure, Apple ports some of the newer model features into the older iPod generations.  But if you are sitting one and half generations behind, you will find yourself completely out of luck and needing to upgrade.  The fact that Microsoft listened to this one complaint that runs rampant on iPod forums, is extremely important.  In fact it is almost key to their marketing of their device.  If people know that they can always have the latest features regardless of generation (limited by hardware of course), that is something that will make people want to buy their product.  The reason is because people like to have longevity out of their three hundred dollar devices.  People are going to pick a product that they know they can get the best longevity out of.

However, because Apple and iPods are so synonymous  with portable music, it is going to take a while for the concept of buying a non-iPod for portable media.  However, if the new Zune interface can be as intuitive and easy to navigate as the iPod’s then there will be little issue in selling folks on getting a Zune.  Especially since Apple has taken a sharp turn in how they are dealing with the customers of their iPod product line (including the iPhone).  Apple is making it difficult for people to use the device the way they want to use it, at the same time they have been releasing products without proper quality controls in place.  This is going to cost Apple dearly if the Zunes can prove themselves to be viable counter products.

I have already considered buying one of the new flash based Zunes to carry in my laptop bag rather than carrying my iPod with me everywhere and just leave it in the car hooked up to the Alpine.  Mainly because I think that Microsoft has a really decent second generation product on their hands.  I will hold off on buying a flash based player until the new Zunes are released and I can play with one in order to make the best purchasing decision.  Microsoft has definitely caught my attention, and I will be watching these new Zunes carefully.