Tuesday, September 30, 2008

reactable: this is the new S...tuff!

Forget about Playstations Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

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Now playing: Marilyn Manson - This Is the New Shit
via FoxyTunes

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Why do we have to put up with the lame digital booklets?

Dear record companies, haven't you learned anything?
2 years ago I bought a Madonna record on iTunes, just to See the attached digital booklet that came with the download. Back then I was strongly disappointed with the lame pdf booklet and honed Madonnas staff for being uninspired and without vision.

One of the reasons I don't miss Cd's is that the art work is usually nothing more than a pamphlet with short term value, except for the lyrics of cause. It's definitely not Worth keeping the CD around for the future.

Bought on iTunes
Recently I bought TV on the Radio (with a digital booklet) to see how far they have come. And it's  nothing more than the same lame pdf scribble with a couple of photos from the cd booklet cover scanned to a pdf file. Is that really all you can come up with??


IF you want to offer me added value or some sort of rich context to the audio files. Convince iTunes (instead of fighting) to ad more text and graphics to the individual tracks. The pdf file is simply an insult to a paying costumer. And I hope I don't have to educate you on what sort of rich media content an pdf file is actually capable of (see below).

If you want me to actually buy the music from iTunes you have to give me a better offer than illegal mp3s from the net, that sometimes contains better tagging than yours.

If you need help thinking up ways to add content or simply need inspiration - feel free to contact me. I have enough ideas for the next generation.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

What do you know(?)

Since i wrote "This Blog is all about discovering the web, from an bend angle" in the title line i googled "Bend Angle" and found this; Bent Angle TV .


One of my all time favorite songs. Guess why..

History of the English Language

Hmm.. interesting. My ancestors started the whole damn thing :-)
I live right beneath the "U" in JUTES.

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. [LINK]

Friday, September 12, 2008

55GB music + Apple iTunes = Genius



Alright alright Steve. You are rocking ;-)

My first impression of the iTunes Genius Toolbar was not impressive.
First of all I like to discover music on my own through various Podcast and music blogs, and the danish iTunes store is not really that impressive and up to date, thanks to all the ridicules regional codes.

Recommendations and discovering
But I must admit that the feature where iTunes lists what albums and songs from an artist I am still missing comes in handy when you are discovering new artists, which I love and do a lot.

Annoyance, ignore, genres and stupid
But it's almost annoying when it comes to established artist who have numerous albums behind them. Albums I choose to ignore.
And when it comes to danish artist, like VETO e.g., Genius merely lists all the danish indie artist that are in the store, without taking genre into consideration... and that is, quite frankly, stupid.

Submitting smarter genres
The biggest bang is definitely the Genius smart playlists. I have already successfully let Genius create a couple of playlists from my 55 GB music collection and even though some of the suggested tracks where plain rubbish, it managed to let me rediscover artists that I have almost forgotten in the bottomless pit of my fast growing music collection.
On the bonus side it also made me delete albums that I have almost forgotten, and it made me remember why ;-)

It still needs to get a lot smarter, but I've learned that it's supposed to learn the algorithms the more you use it. And that brings me to something I've been at for a long time. Unless iTunes get smarter genre specifics, the genre parameters are never gonig to work to it's fullest.
You cannot sort or create a playlist from genre alone as long as iTunes list entire albums as one genre. One album can easily contain rock, pop, ballad, hard rock etc.

User submitted genres
Now I believe that Genius works on different user experience and will eventually learn to surpass the genre obstacle, but until then I suggest that Apple urges it's users to submit their chosen genres for the specific songs and let the masses decide.
And from now on iTunes should let every artist and record company add more specific content to their tracks - thank you.

Until then I will do my best to feed the Genius with my extensive music playlists.

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Now playing: Sigur Rós - Untitled 5
via FoxyTunes

UPDATE

I wrote this comment in an LinkedIn forum on the Genius effect.

By now I could easily see iTunes, Last FM, Pandora, MOG, MySpace e.g. start up their popular radio stations with hosts that represent their community. At this point I probably listen to as many hours of music and lifestyle podcast as I listen to music tracks.

I hope that in the near future we could be free of the hassle of owning Our own music copies. Unless we want to buy special designed packaging and booklets or want to listen to handpicked albums on our high end audio, there is no reason to download, back up and update Our music collection over and over again.
[Read the rest here]
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Now playing: Explosions In The Sky - The Only Moment We Were Alone
via FoxyTunes

Thursday, September 11, 2008

FabChannel Promotion

If you love live concerts like me, you should grab a beer, a bag of chips and make your self comfortable. Then click to www.fabchannel.com and select a live show.
Hell, you can even smoke!



You will be amazed of the quality the shows come in.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Free Music from a brilliant mind

In ol' DK we are blessed with a multi talented beathead; Troels Abrahamsen.
He comes in different forms and flavors and they are all sonically appetizing.
Whether it is as a exhilarating lead singer in the electro rock outfit Veto, as a producer or as a solo artist - it's all in good taste.

Mockin' Bird
This time it's in he's role as the electronica project Mockin' Bird.
Now he is leaving that behind by giving it all away.
And what's better than
FREE CANDY?!!

Pick your pleasure here:

supertroels.dk - digital
SuperTroels on MySpace
Veto - Rockband with crushing digits

Go get FREE CANDY HERE supertroels.dk/mb-album.zip
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Now playing: Mockin' Bird - Chew It
via FoxyTunes

Monday, September 8, 2008

Say Penis!

For you non-Danes this character won't make sense. But we think it's hilarious!

This short film is a promotion for the upcoming film The Voyage to Saturn and it is seriously taking the piss on Our local macho Guru Carl-Mar Møller and the famous Red Light district of Copenhagen; Istedgade, with all it's porn kiosks.


Visit YouTube for more of this bad craziness
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Now playing: D-A-D - Bad Craziness
via FoxyTunes

Friday, September 5, 2008

This sites is on FIRE!

Yeaahhh.. hey åhh.... This sites on FIRE!
When I listen to the track by these Kings of Leon ;-D

Sex On Fire

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Now playing: Kings of Leon - Sex On Fire
via FoxyTunes

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Alright Steve, Let's Rock!


My Wish list
- iTunes/iPod social integration a la Last FM directly into my iPod and iTunes.
- Rich MP4 content files; Lyrics, credits etc.
- iPod Touch 50GB solid state

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Now playing: Ours - Black