MP3 Players & Digital Audio

iTunes Marches On To 1 Billion -- And You Can Win

February 23, 2006

I’m sure Apple in its wildest dreams never imagined that iTunes would be the runaway hit that it is.� As the iTunes Music Store� heads toward download number 1 billion, Apple has 1 billion reasons to celebrate.� And to mark the way, music fans who download every 100,000th song will receive a prize package featuring a black 4GB iPod nano and a $100 iTunes Music Card.

But that’s not all.� If you feel lucky (you do feel lucky, don’t you?), then the music fan who downloads the 1 billionth song from the iTunes Music Store will receive a 20-inch iMac, not one iPod, but 10 60GB iPods as well as� a $10,000 iTunes Music Card to jumpstart your digital music collection. In addition, Apple will create a full-ride scholarship in your name to a world-renowned music school.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Cellfan.com Makes It Easy to Get Personal

February 15, 2006

Skins, skins, skins – can you ever have enough of them?� Cellfan.com is an online treasure trove – with vinyl skins featuring leading brands for more than 500 consumer electronic devices.� Cellfan.com makes it easy way to personalize you favorite devices with vinyl skins, including mobile phones, iPods, PDAs and gaming devices.

Mobile device owners can choose a skin reflecting sports leagues or players (NBA, Wayne Gretzky), college logos, Greek letters, movie or music brands (Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley), comic characters or fashion style. The skin itself is made from a professional-grade vinyl, which is printed via a proprietary process that ensures detailed and premium images. The skin is then coated with a glossy finish and custom cut, which creates a perfect fit for each device.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Grammys Go More Political; Sales Go Up?

February 10, 2006

Is it just me or did the Grammy Awards the other night reveal that once again music is becoming more overtly political (a ‘60s/’70s reprise)?� Yes, of course, everyone loves a good beat and a clever hook, but live performances by Jay-Z & Linkin Park and Bruce Springsteen had political messages right out front for everyone to hear. (And how about that Grammy for the JZ/LP “best rap/sung collaboration”? Reminds me of the classic Run-D.M.C./Aerosmith “Walk This Way” just from a collision of two musical genres into something good.)

On the other hand, surprised by Bono’s comment on How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (talk about an in-the-news political theme) that the U2 album title had nothing to do with politics, unless you reduce it right down to the most elemental political form – the relationship between two individuals.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

eMusic Makes It Free (For 30 Days)

February 7, 2006

Everybody loves free music downloads (remember Napster?) and now eMusic is offering a 30-day free trial with up to 100 downloads from its 1 million song catalog.

I checked out the jazz section; good to see Rahsaan Roland Kirk represented, but no such luck with Weather Report and (Mahavishnu) John McLaughlin -- acoustic or electric. (Does anybody remember?

Still, solid selection of djembe music for the inner drummer in all of us ...

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Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Swiss Army Meets the MP3 Generation: Make Sense?

February 7, 2006

Funny story on yesterday's Tech Confidential about how Swiss Army knifes are kluging on MP3 players to create strange tried-and-try analog/quick obsolescence digital combinations. Does anybody buy these things? Would you?

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

iFilm's Got SuperBowl Ads for the iPod & Download

February 6, 2006

If you missed any of yesterday's ads during the Super Bowl, or if you just love watching ads over and over again, iFilm.com has a selection ads from the big game available for iPod download or viewing on its web site. Site also includes ads deemed "too sexy" to be broadcast. It seems the ads are becoming more interesting than the shows ...

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Do Record Sales Reports Reflect Reality?

January 30, 2006

Still can’t get over end-of-year reports about how the recording industry is hurting.� Album sales reports from the recording industry portray a gloom and doom scenario, with� the headline� – “Album sales hit nine-year low in 2005.” How about this info: “U.S. music album sales last year slid to their lowest level since 1996, squelching any hopes that the recording industry's long downward spiral may have bottomed out.”� Remember the words "album sales" (as in CD).

Hello!� Let's make the numbers say what they want ... How about Nielsen SoundScan reports that overall music sales, which include albums, singles, music videos and digital tracks, jumped 22.7% to more than 1 billion units last year.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Weekday Update: More 'SNL' on Video iPod

January 18, 2006

Thinking more about Saturday Night Live on the video iPod from yesterday -- too bad you can't get a transcript of each skit. Oh wait! Yes, you can!

The site Saturday Night Live Transcripts goes back to the very first skit on the very first show -- "Wolverines" -- with Michael O'Donaghue and John Belushi (10/11/75).

Lots of fun to read all about it! (But can't believe it's 30 years ago ...)

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Gabcast audio blogger service

January 18, 2006

Gabcast is an interesting new service that lets you instantly create podcasts for your blog with integration with your blogging software. While, this in itself is nothing new, AudioBlog has been doing it successfully for awhile, the neat thing about Gabcast is that it supports calling their service both via the PSTN and VoIP. Yep, that's right, just launch your favorite SIP softphone and dial the SIP address: 422@sip.gabcast.com. They also support Pulver's FWD service (dialing FWD #702681). But most "geek of all", they even support calling via an Asterisk IAX trunk line!

Posted in Asterisk, MP3 Players & Digital Audio, MovableType, VoIP

Now for Something Really Useful: 'SNL' for iPod

January 17, 2006

How much can we write about the iPod!� Lots, because there is simply so much news about Apple's little wonder. Under the "Now Here Is Something Really Useful" category comes news that Apple will sell a limited number of old Saturday Night Live skits through iTunes for $1.99 each. The skits can be viewed on video iPods or PCs.

Couple of funny skits in this limited collection, but let's� bring out the really classic classics� -- Dan Aykroyd's "Bass-o-Matic," "Two Wild and Crazy Guys" with Steve Martin and� "Samurai Deli" with John Belushi (all skit names are approximations, but you know which ones I mean!).

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

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