Up to 12200 tunes on the iPod, and WinAmp idiosyncracies

I passed 12000 a couple of weeks ago, but then I had to remove a number of duplicates loaded by WinAmp. WinAmp is occasionally infuriating - it is an Open Source tool, and while it is extremely comprehensive, it is not entirely bug-free. The two main issues are:

1. WinAmp will occasionally start to consume 100% of the CPU of the server, which brings the machine almost to a halt. It can take up to 10 minutes to kill WinAmp using Task Manager because the machine is so slow.
2. Occasionally the contents of the iPod revert to the contents from a prior load session, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me.

There are now only about 60 vinyl LPs from my collection that remain unloaded to the iPod. Nearly all of them are all of the way or part-way through the restoration process.

02.5.2009 • Music • PermalinkPermalink

There is a band named Margate!

Link: http://margatemusic.com

The band is a punk/pop band from LA...not exactly my cup of tea. I wonder how they got their name?

01.22.2009 • Artists • PermalinkPermalink

The continuing ability of the music industry to shoot itself in the foot

Link: http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/12/music_industry_finds_new_ways_to_shoot_self_in_foot.php#comments

...the gift that keeps on giving...this article from Matt Yglesias explains how Warner Music is needlessly removing promotional video material from YouTube by claiming copyright violations. Some industries never cease to amaze me at their profound lack of imagination and institutionized stupidity level. The airline industry is one. The music industry is another...

12.22.2008 • Music Industry • PermalinkPermalink

Interviews with Leo Kottke

...which showcase his idiosyncratic sense of humor and non-linear thinking. Example:

On some of your more recent solo albums, you’ve re-worked older pieces. Why? Were you unsatisfied with the original versions?
The trigger is finding out you don’t have enough material to fulfill your contract. But it’s a great chance to fix or improve on something you’ve written ... or performed. Some pieces just keep morphing, “Ojo” being one example, and some sort of grow up. Peter Pan had the wrong idea, it pretty much sucks to be a child. No respect, no place, no experience, no knowledge; if you get old enough, those things start coming and you learn to be a child again.
I’ve completely exited the question.

And here is another, longer interview (complete transcript preceded by summary).

08.26.2008 • In Their Own Words • PermalinkPermalink

At last - a halfway sensible solution to the issue of music downloading

The music industry has been engaged in a progressively more stupid, vindictive and futile campaign for years to stop people from downloading music via the Internet. All it has achieved is to criminalize a small number of downloaders, and piss off millions more. Right now, frankly, I could not care if the whole of the major recorded music industry was to be vaporized tomorrow morning. Any industry that thinks that threatening to sue your customers is an acceptable business tactic deserves to go the way of the dinosaurs. This is quite apart from my humbe opinion that most of the product they produce is crap...
However, at long last, from the UK comes a proposal to charge downloaders an annual fee, which will then allow them to download music. This proposal, although it may require some tweaking, seems to me to be a sensible step forward. When it comes to downloading, the genie is out of the bottle, and it will never return to the bottle. That being the case, the music industry needs to accept that, move on, and find a business model that will still result in fair payments for the industry and (most importantly) the creative artists.

07.24.2008 • Music Industry • PermalinkPermalink