Just an absorbing read, I wish I’d seen this to get it to you earlier over the weekend:
Compact discs may be more out of vogue than ever, but some albums will always sound best with lasers
The CD Case – Steven Hyden, Grantland.com (8 July 2014)
Nip over to it now and have a good read or pop it into Pocket to read next weekend.
Vinyl records store music in long grooves that a needle bumps its way through. CDs store music in light pits that convey on and off, 0 and 1 to a laser. But now Londoner Aleksander Kolkowski is taking CDs and cutting grooves into them. After he’s done his doings, you can play music off the CD – on a vinyl record player, never again a CD drive.
Not for all that long: this reborn CD doesn’t hold enough music to include a three-minute pop song.
It’s transforming a disposable media storage device made for cloned copying into a one-of-a-kind cult object. In a way, it’s very tongue in cheek. There’s a lot of fetishism about vinyl, but I see this as quite throw-away, really. I do it for free. People bring a CD and I give them one in return. On a few occasions people have asked me to go into commercial production, but that’s not really my intention.
Aleksander Kolkowski speaking to The Atlantic (30 June 2014)
Do read the full article from The Atlantic as it’s got a lot to say about his artistry, his physical technique and about the state of vinyl collection.
I play a lot of music while I work yet I’ve been a slow convert to streaming music. Perhaps it’s the millionth time of hearing every track I own that has converted me, maybe it’s just that I tried out iTunes Radio and liked it more than I expected.
But the problem is that here I am, converted , yet I can’t stay converted. I still like iTunes Radio though the increasing number of ads is discouraging me. (You can go ad-free if you subscribe to iTunes Match. But I’ve only got iTunes Radio access because I have a US iTunes account. All my music is in iTunes UK so even if I paid the subscription, I wouldn’t get iTunes Match on that. The fee is $25/year which is fine for just getting radio but knowing it should also give me this other Match feature makes it hard to pay up.)
Very often I want to listen to a particular artist , album or song, though and and iTunes Radio doesn’t guarantee any of that. You choose an artist and get, say, Suzanne Vega Radio which has her plus similar artists. (There are no similar artists to Suzanne Vega, iTunes is lying.) But it’s five to ten and pick ’em whether you get to hear any Vega and close to no chance you’ll hear the song. No chance at all that you’ll hear the album.
So faced with a lot of driving recently, I tried Spotify again. I try Spotify from time to time and can’t ever remember why I stop. Except now. Now I remember. You can get Spotify to play a list of your favourites – or a friend’s list – but at some point soon it will go off the reservation and on to music it’s sure you’ll like. It might be right but I was liking that music fine enough.
You can’t always switch or skip that stuff, either. So Spotify irritates me.
There are many other firms and options, though, and that’s what this linked article is about. There aren’t as many services for us in the UK as there are in this American article but the issues and points are interesting and well made.
I’m pondering this lot. Take a look yourself at MacObserver’s Head to Head Comparison of 14 Streaming Music Services
It’s still not available in the UK but it’s coming and what we’ll get here is a tried-and-tested version. I’ve been listening here in the UK since about December – I have both US and UK iTunes accounts so I can legally tune in – and the service has developed even in that short time.
Primarily, it’s added more ads.
You know that it’s an ad-supported service. Every few tracks, you get an ad. Interestingly, they’re usually video ads so while I often have iTunes way in the background behind a lot of other documents, there’ll be a corner visible and suddenly it’ll start moving. Very distracting.
But it’s become more distracting because at first there were so few ads that you noticed how few there were. Now you notice how many – and at times you notice how often the same ones are played. For a while there I could tell you every line of a Macy’s advert.
We can expect that the same thing will happen in the UK: it feels less that Apple has a plan for how many ads it will ramp up, more that it depends how many it gets. A few firms will try it out at first and then it’ll take off it won’t.
But now it also looks as if there will be more programmes, more actual non-music programmes. Right now it has none whatsoever. But US sources – you think that means rumour sites and it does, but – say that Apple is going to stream the World Cup over iTunes Radio.
Exit William.
I do recommend iTunes Radio but it depends on your starting choice. The way it works is that you type in the name of a song, an artist, a genre or perhaps a decade and you get a station. That station might start with the particular song, it might start with that particular artist, or it might not.
After very, very many different stations, I plucked “4 Non Blondes” out of the air because I like What’s Up. And it’s been a great find: I’m sure I must’ve heard What’s Up on it some time but generally I love everything it’s played me as well.
Sometimes I’m iTunes Radioed out and in principle I like the idea of spoken-word shows but I keep coming back. I just want to see what happens when Apple absorbed its new purchase, the Beats subscription service.
My iPhone rings, I answer it. Other people, they turn it into art. This is the reason to tell you this today: a music producer named MetroGnome has released this:
He looks like he’s working an LCARS computer from Star Trek, but he also looks a bit talented. Nonetheless, I do prefer this slightly older piece by Mars Argo:
Penny Anne O’Donnell of Relaxation Direct came to one of my The Blank Screen workshops and in the Twitter nattering that’s followed since, we were in a conversation about the use of music while working. Her advice:
It depends on the music, learning style and ability to focus. Baroque and Mozart are conducive to focused attention
Right now I’m listening to Hallelujah by kd lang from Hymns of the 49th Parallel and – no, wait, now it’s Useless Desires by Patty Driffin. I have an iTunes playlist of music that I especially love. Just single tracks that have got in my head and stayed there, that I have played so often and so much on repeat that I can hear every instrument in my head. I call it Discoveries and there are current 146 songs in it, apparently the lot lasts me 9 hours 34 minutes. Very often now I will start that playlist on shuffle and get to work.
Sometimes it makes me concentrate tremendously, sometimes it doesn’t. (Like now when I’m very conscious of it all because I’ve said to you what’s on. Currently Four Leaf Clover by Abra Moore. Some years ago I discovered Lilith Fair and there is a lot, I mean a lot, of music from that in this playlist.)
When it stops me concentrating, I’ve recently turned to iTunes Radio. You can currently only get this in America but I have both a US and a UK iTunes account so I can swap to it and listen away. At first it was tremendous but lately there’s ever more ads in it and I could get those from commercial radio here. For some reason I can take spoken word, I just can’t work through an ad. I used to listen to BBC Radio 4 all day but it got strange. I’d not consciously realise I’d heard a minute of it but I’d go switch on the TV news and know every detail of every story.
I’d like to now take you through my every musical thought – I’ve started skipping just so I can tell you that next up is You, Me and the Bourgeoisie by The Submarines and then Monday Morning by Liz Lawrence and I Know I Know I Know by Tegan and Sara – but there has to be a better way. A more statistically useful way. And by chance, Lifehacker this week decided to look back into its archive for exactly this purpose:
This week, we’re reviving a particularly old post listing some of the best music and sounds for productivity, as crowdsourced by the Lifehacker commentariat of 2009.P
Does Music Really Make You More Productive? The answer falls somewhere between “Listening to Mozart makes you a genius” and “Just be quiet and work.”P
The most often cited study into the question of music’s effect on the mind involves the so-called Mozart effect, which suggests that listening to certain kinds of music—Amadeus Wolfgang’s classical works, in particular—impacts and boosts one’s spatial-temporal reasoning, or the ability to think out long-term, more abstract solutions to logical problems that arise. The Mozart effect has been overblown and over-promised, and even outright refuted as having “bupkiss” effect, but that doesn’t mean a great mind-juicing playlist can’t be created.
Check out the full article because it might be a bit inconclusive about the answer to whether you can work better with music, but it does have a lot of links out to different types you can try.
I’m now on Mississippi by Sheryl Crow, incidentally. Want my complete Discoveries playlist? You’re mad. But here it is:
Across the Universe (Fiona Apple)
Afortunada (Francisca Valenzuela)
After All (Dar Williams)
Ageing Superhero (Newton Faulkner)
Another Green World (Brian Eno)
Answer Me (Barbara Dickson)
Backstreets (Bruce Springsteen)
Because the Night (Patti Smith)
Been It (Cardigans)
The Bell & the Anchor (Catherine Feeny)
Better Love Next Time (Caryl Mack Parker)
The Big Bang Theory theme (full)
Bitch (Meredith Brooks)
Boom Boom Boom (The Iguanas)
Born to Hum (Erin McKeown)
Brand New Day (Ryan Star)
Breathe (Alex Murdoch)
Brilliant Disguise (Bruce Springsteen)
Brimful of Asha (Cornershop)
Broadcast News
Building The Barn (Maurice Jarre)
By Way Of Sorrow (Cry Cry Cry)
Change of Time (Josh Ritter)
Dance Me To the End of Love (Live) (Leonard Cohen)
Dance The Night Away (The Mavericks)
Devils & Dust (Bruce Springsteen)
Don’t Come Around Here No More (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
Don’t Let Your Feet Touch Ground (Ash Koley)
Don’t Look Back (She & Him)
Dry the Rain (from High Fidelity) (Beta Band)
Dulce (Francisca Valenzuela)
The Enterprise (Star Trek) (Jerry Goldsmith)
Everywhere I Go (Lissie)
Fall At Your Feet (Crowded House)
Fall to Pieces (Avril Lavigne)
Find The River (R.E.M.)
Fine (Julia Fordham & Paul Reiser)
Fools Rush In (She & HIm)
Four Leaf Clover (Abra Moore)
Hallelujah (k.d. lang)
Handle With Care (Traveling Wilburys)
Handy Man (James Taylor)
He Thinks He’ll Keep Her (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
Hero (Regina Spektor)
Ho Hey (The Lumineers)
Hounds of Love (Kate Bush)
How Deep is Your Love (Sharleen Spiteri)
I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) (Stevie Wonder)
I Don’t Wanna Be The One (Patricia Conroy)
I Don’t Want A Lover (Texas)
I Know I Know I Know (Tegan And Sara)
I Turn My Camera On (Spoon)
If Anyone Falls (Stevie Nicks)
If I Can’t Have You (Sharleen Spiteri)
If You Could See (Lucy Kaplansky)
In Demand (Texas)
An Innocent Man (Billy Joel)
It’s Sonata Mozart (The Kids from Fame)
It’s Too Late (Carole King)
Jack and Diane (John Cougar Mellencamp)
Jive Talkin’ (Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately)
King Of The Mountain (Kate Bush)
Kiss Me (Sixpence None the Richer)
Let Loose the Horses (The Rescues)
Life Boat (Miranda Lee Richards)
Linger (The Cranberries)
Linus and Lucy (Vince Guaradli Trio)
Living Next Door to Alice (Smokie)
Love Is Everything (k.d. lang)
Mary’s Prayer (Danny Wilson)
Memories Of East Texas (Michelle Shocked)
The Men Below (Latin Quarter)
Michael And Hope’s New Baby (W.G. Snuffy Walden)
Mississippi (Sheryl Crow)
Monday Morning (Liz Lawrence)
Moonlighting Theme – Al Jarre (Al Jarreau)
Muredete la Lengua (Francisca Valenzuela)
My Freeze Ray (Neil Patrick Harris)
Never Coming Back (Lynn Miles)
New Soul (Yael Naim)
New Year’s Prayer (Jeff Buckley)
Ocean and a Rock (Lisa Hannigan)
One and Only (Mary Black)
One Small Day (Midge Ure)
Ordinary People (Chantal Kreviazuk)
People Have the Power (Patti Smith)
Queen of Hearts (Dave Edmunds)
Radio Radio (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
Railroad Man (Eels)
Real Gone Kid (Deacon Blue)
Rise Again (The Rankin Family)
Runaway (The Corrs)
Runaway Train (Soul Asylum)
Rush Hour (Jane Wiedlin)
Sad Eyes (Bruce Springsteen)
Sanctuary (Donna De Lory)
Self Control (Laura Branigan)
She Will Have Her Way (Neil Finn)
Shine Silently (Nils Lofgren )
Simon & Simon (extended)
Simple Song (The Shins)
Sleep (Texas)
Soak Up The Sun (Sheryl Crow)
Soda Jerk (Buffalo Tom)
Somebody That I Used to Know (Gotye)
Somebody That I Used to Know (Parody) (Key of Awesome)
Someday We’ll Be Together (Vonda Shepard)
Something New (Tanita Tikaram)
Space 1999 Year Two extended
Speaking With The Angel (Cry Cry Cry)
St Elsewhere (full theme) (Dave Grusin)
Stargate Universe
Stay (Cyndi Lauper)
Stay (Lisa Loeb)
Steppin’ Out (Joe Jackson)
Stop! (Erasure)
Summer in the City (Aztec Camera)
Sweetest Decline (Beth Orton)
Theme from Mission: Impossible (Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen)
The Thief (Lucy Kaplansky)
Thieves (She & Him)
(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long (Weird Al Yankovic)
This Woman’s Work (Kate Bush)
Trouble in the Fields (Nanci Griffith)
Truly Madly Deeply (Savage Garden)
Underneath It All (No Doubt)
Undertow (Lynn Miles)
Unravel (Lynn Miles)
Useless Desires (Patty Griffin)
The Valley Road (Bruce Hornsby)
Voodoo Child (Rogue Traders)
Walk On By (Cyndi Lauper)
“Walk on By (Live (Revamped)” (Cyndi Lauper)
Walk on By (Tony Moran mix) (Cyndi Lauper)
Wander My Friends AAC (Bear McCreary)
We Didn’t Start The Fire (Billy Joel)
What About Us (Texas)
What I Am (Edie Brickell)
What’s Up (4 Non Blondes)
Who Let In The Rain (Cyndi Lauper)
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? (She & Him)
The Worst Day Since Yesterday (Flogging Molly)
You Just May Be The One (The Monkees)
You, Me and the Bourgeoisie (The Submarines)
Zoo Gang (Paul McCartney & Wings)
Tell me you didn’t really read this far. Go make your own list. And stop looking at me like that for mine.
Lifehacker shows Jay-Z is far more interesting than I realised:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/IWAnLWZ_zqE/jay-zs-best-productivity-tricks-1475918858