5 thoughts about music · 2006-01-02 15:07

1. 100

There are a number of albums I think I’ve listened to more than 100 times. I don’t know if 100 times is significant; whether it’s a lot or a little. I suspect it’s a little for people who have bought 10 CDs, it’s quite a lot for people with several hundreds.

They tend to be albums I’ve had since I was young, wearing through tape copies, eventually replaced by CD, and then again, due to scratches or being lost, and in some cases, again another time. I know them inside out, what comes next, the lyrics, the cover.

Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime (initial compilation and then the 3 CD box set)
The KLF – The White Room
Orbital – CD/yellow
Primal Scream – Screamadelica
Spooky – Gargantuan
Massive Attack – Blue Lines
Fluke – Six Wheels On My Wagon
various – Deep Heat 5

There are also some more recent additions:
Philip Glass – Koyaanisquatsi
Wire – On Returning
The Fall – 458489 A Sides
The Beta Band – The Three EPs

Some I am unsure about, mainly as I did not own a copy for an extended period:
The Orb – Aubrey Mixes or U F Orb

Coming close, but not listened to recently, for one reason or another:
The Grid – 456
The Residents – The Commercial Album
Saint Etienne – Foxbase Alpha
Sabres of Paradise – Haunted Dancehall
Leftfield – Backlog

Recent aquisitions on their way:
Jamie Lidell – Multiply
Gorillaz – Demon Days
Tom Zé (any)

2. singularity / commodity

I can now download music quicker than I can consume it. It’s getting close to this for video, too. It’s some kind of media singularity – beyond this, music and video become a commodity, something to be purchased and consumed wholesale. Downloads are of discographies, entire series – a complete life’s work.

Can you become emotionally attached to something you listen to once or twice?

MP3s fall directly into this trap – little or no cover art, even bad metadata and title names. How can I recall a song if I can only remember a lyric, musical phrase or rhythm? Objects like the iPod Shuffle accelerate this, random music with no markings, no rememberance.

I’ve recently decided to decase my CDs into wallets, as they take up so much room. Can they have the same presence? Am I removing the thingness of the thing?

3. folklore

Invoking social scientists to fill me in: How did storytelling and the passing on of historical information through song and stories change when recorded music became possible? Is this any different to when stories could be inscribed and replicated?

4. iTMS vs. eBay

Music companies were recently trying to get Apple to allow variable pricing of tracks on the iTunes Music Store. All indications were that prices would be going up rather than down.

This is a bit weaselly when compared to how the back catalogue of normal CDs are priced. There’s a year or two after intial release discounts when the price goes up to full price, then it gets shunted to midprice, and often included in the various sales, meaning anything from 99p to £7 for an album.

It’s often the case that it’s cheaper to go to HMV to buy a back catalogue album than to buy it from iTunes.

This is amplified by eBay. Minorly popular albums go for a couple of pounds, far cheaper than iTMS. It’s often cheaper to buy an album off eBay than to download even just a couple of tracks.

Physical is cheaper than virtual, shipping costs included.

How about iTMS allowing variable pricing, but only up to a maximum of 79p/99c? Somehow I don’t think that’s quite what the music industry were asking for.

5. the iPod isn’t all that

When waiting for a plane recently, I was asked to explain how an iPod works (I’m not sure if it’s good or bad that I look the type that a random stranger would ask about iPods).

There’s a bit of a myth that the iPod is easy to use. There are some concepts that aren’t obvious. There’s some great design, mainly industrial, at the expense of interaction.

This post has more – I don’t agree with the whole thing, but there are some interactions that are baffling.

A lack of a physical on/off switch on all iPods bar the Shuffle is a major flaw. This was what baffled my random stranger, and the idea of unlabelled (long) presses to turn off and on is hard to work out.

I noticed recently that Selfridges has started a service to load CDs onto iPods (I wonder how many iPods get given as gifts that are never used?), and that Apple has introduced separate iPod Genius Bars into Apple Stores.

Despite this, it’s still the best player on the market – they’ve somehow managed to make me buy 3 of them – but there’s a real lack of UI competition.

home