Hey Apple: 5 Computers per iTunes Account Not Enough!

Hey Apple! I've bought tons of DRM-protected music on your iTunes store. We are a family of four and I pay for everybody's favorite tunes. You think in this modern mobile era, that we might have a few extra devices around on which we'd like to enjoy our music?!!

Here's where I think Apple is missing the boat by not having a subscription music service. I'm consuming more and more of my music using streaming services like Pandora and Rhapsody and the online player for Sirius. Why? Because all my iTunes are on my one iMac and I'm out of authorizations on iTunes. (I even have one used up that I can't identify and I have to wait a few more months to use my start over nuclear option again). I'm finding I like Rhapsody more and more, because I can log into the site and stream music to a PC or Mac or even my Linux-loving eee PC! That way, I don't have to worry about being able to enjoy tunes with whatever device I happen to grab.

Apple is now the 800 lb guerilla of the music world, but they need to rethink this whole 5 computer limit and their refusal to go with streaming subscription music. Come on Apple! Make my day!

Simplify Media: So close to being a good thing

I was ready for this to be a home run.  Simplify Media loads on your computer and on your iPhone/iPod Touch.  On the computer, the application serves up media files stored on that computer, such as your iTunes library.  On the iPhone/iPod, the client application surfs your music collection and streams music from your computer to the device.  Cool!  You can apparently share your music with multiple friends too, but I didn't try that.  I misread the FAQ. At first, I thought I could stream music purchased on iTunes to my iPhone.  I looked more closely when I couldn't seem to find that new Third Day album on my iPhone since I forgot to sync before I left the office.  It wasn't there.  I re-read the FAQ again and thought I should be able to.  Then, it hit me.  Simplify will stream iTunes songs to other "computers" logged in to the host computer (so long as the client computer is authorized by iTunes to play that song), but it won't stream DRM-protected tunes to your iPhone.  Bummer!  

Simplify Media is still a great download if you unprotect all your music, but I wanted so much for it to work with my iTunes music.  I'm a really lazy syncer.  

For more info on Simplify Media, click here

It's getting better all the time...

John Lennon joins Paul McCartney in the iTunes library. Bring on The Beatles!!!!!

Artists Try Making us Listen to Albums

Today, the Wall Street Journal has an article about older artists performing entire albums worth of material in track order at their concerts. Cheap Trick even went so far as to reproduce Robin Zander's exact comments between songs that was captured on the "At Budokan" album, a Cheap Trick classic. Part of the idea is to counter the iPod effect of purchasing individual tracks and shuffle playing them.

I love music, as you can probably tell from the few posts on this blog, and I don't get out to see my favorite artists live as much as I would like. Most recently, I went to see The Fray in concert in Dallas. While I enjoyed the concert, it was probably the first time in a long time that I went to a concert by a band who only had one album's worth of recognized material. My comment at the time, which is relevant here, is that what I enjoyed about a concert was seeing a talented artist take risks, play different material, cover other people's songs -- in other words, give me something I can't get by just listening to their album. Since the Beatles won't be reuniting to play "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" and I abhor the BeeGees, I don't see that there's an album that I want to see recreated on stage.

Reading further about the AC/DC deal with Verizon, it appears that they will only be offering entire albums, not individual tracks. They too seem "hung up" on preserving the 12-14 track album format.

To all this I say, "get over it!". Music, at its best, is all about experimentation, defying conventions, breaking the rules, and covering new ground. Forcing us to remain captive to the album format, which was a contrived creation to get us to buy albums in most cases to begin with, is counter to what good music is all about. If you want us to listen to extended passages that's one thing, but forcing me to buy or listen to the filler that you (or your producer) came up with in the studio so you could produce an entire CD, is what we as listeners are rejecting. It's time to come up with the next big thing, not rest on the past. My 2 cents. YMMV.



Link to Article

Yep! Looks like the Zep is flying...

I knew I saw this somewhere. Gizmodo reports that at least some of the Led Zepplin catalogue is coming to iTunes on November 12. Yay!

Link to Article

Old Music Comes to New Medium

The Wall Street Journal reports that AC/DC is finally making its 17-album catalog available in a digital music format but is signing with Verizon rather than digital music juggernaut (I always wanted to use that word) iTunes. The bulk of the catalog won't be available for direct download to phones over the air, says the WSJ, but must be first downloaded to a computer. Each album costs $11.99 to download. Clearly, the record labels are trying to use what influence they still have while they still can. I think I read that Led Zepplin is coming to iTunes. Bring on The Beatles!!!!