RADIO HANNIBAL

Google may announce streaming music service today

The Google Developers Conference begins today at noon time here in Cleveland.  Google Glass will probably be the hot topic, but CNBC is reporting that a streaming music may be in the works as well.

According to the story, Google Inks Deal With Sony, Universal for Streaming Music Service, the new streaming music service may be announced today.  They had already come to terms with Warner Music Group and with these new signings the pieces are in place. 

As an Apple guy I'm not too happy about this.  I've been hoping for a long time now that we'd see a streaming music service from them and now Google has beaten them to the punch. 

Even if the Google streaming service is launched I'm going to stick with Spoitify for now.  For one, I have a good amount of time vested in compiling playlists.  And I'm still hoping that Apple, the once visionary company, takes off its blinders and sees that the future is streaming music and not the iTunes store.

 

 

When a message board dies

I've been on a particular music message board for nearly a decade. I've been an active member with easily over 10,000 posts.  This week the url began leading to a page that couldn't be found.  So now I'm wondering if it's been shut down forever. 

Message boards were one of the first forms of social media, long before Facebook or My Space.  These boards create a strong sense of community.  So much so that in the early days of boarding I would begin to worry about other members who'd stop posting.  Had something bad happened to them?  They'd become cyber friends. 

Something happened with the advent of modern day social media though.  For one, my social circle is much bigger than it ever was on the message board.  It's nearly impossible to account for everyones status day by day.  Has this hardened me, made me more insensitive?  Or have I finally compartmentalized cyber and real relationships, knowing that I simply cannot invest personal, heartfelt concern over thousands of people?

I love when cyber relationships turn real.  Meeting friends from Facebook in person is fun and leads quickly to real life friendship. 

The music message board was based out of Chicago with members from all over the world.  Over the years I'd met a handful of them.  One came to Cleveland on business and we coordinated a meet up at a bar.  Another time I boarded a few of them who were on a cross country baseball stadium trek.  I even rendezvoused with a member in Paris, france. 

If the message board had gone dead years ago I'd be angst-ridden.  But the board, like many I assume, has watched membership and participation decline as people concentrate their online social life to larger communities like Facebook and Twitter. 

Still, I'm wondering if my music message board has become Atlantis or Pompey.  Or maybe it just crashed and the programmers are trying to repair it.  To be honest, I'm still a bit anxious. 

 

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What's on your iPod?, Who cares?

It was one of those questions asked often, to presidents, to athletes to musicians.  What's on your iPod?  Who cares, is my response these days.  

Don't get me wrong.  I enjoy the insight into someones musical tastes.  It gives you a better understanding of the person.  But, go ahead, ask me the question.  My reponse will make me as much an enigma as Bob Dylan.  

I stock my iPod with every possible popular song of the modern age.  There's about 25,000 of them on there now. That means you'll find everything from Streisand to Glenn Miller to Arcade Fire.  It hardly paints a portrait of me except to show my love of music.  

I have another iPod which I used to stock with full albums.  Thousands of them.  So I could carry about 100,000 songs with me.  Currently I have that iPod stocked with a bunch of traditional jazz.

The truth is I hardly ever play my iPods.  The question today is what's on your smartphone, and my answer is Spotify.  I have the majority of every song ever recorded.  That's what's on my iPod.

If you want to know what I listen to follow me on Spotify.  You can see eveything I play during a day.  You can subscribe to the many playlists I create.  And now you have an accurate depiction of my tastes.  Why yes, it is nearly as eclectic as that iPod with all those pop songs.   

NPR Music could be the best source of new music

I've been a fan of NPR Music since I bought my first iPod in 2005 and subscribed to the All Songs Considered podcast.  I've listened to that weekly show ever since, but there's much more to NPR Music.

Last week The Wall Street Journal took an in depth look at how NPR Music is changing the way pepole discover music, The Improbable Rise of NPR Music.  Improbable?  Maybe so, but in today's landscape of stultifying commercial radio it's quite possibly the best place for new music to thrive today. 

Other online sites like Pitchfork have more of a digital magazine feel and cater to a narrow music genre.  NPR Music covers the gamut from the indie scene to classical to folk.  You won't find much in the way of current top 40 because the record companies and mainstream media hype the hell out of that already.  

If you have a smart phone or tablet you should download NPR Music's free app as well.  It will open up a whole new world of music and radio to you.

Music piracy study shows some interesting results

Billboard Magazine just published a story, Business Matters: European Study on Piracy Conflicts With Conventional Wisdom, which reveals some interesting finds in regard to music and the internet.  Though I am a bit skeptical on some of the conclusions. 

The gist of the European study is that those who steal music also end up buying digital downloads.  It says that piracy didn't lead to the downfall of the major label music business and, in fact, helped promote the music. 

That makes sense.  In the tightly-formatted, oppressively dull world of commercial radio little of the great music created gets heard.  Prospective fans of this music have to find other ways of discovering it.  That usually happens through YouTube or piracy.  Then, it appears, the new fan will buy legitimate copies of the songs, generally speaking. 

The study also contends that streaming music services like Spotify work in conjunction with piracy and that it's not a bad thing.  Well, if it's true I'm certainly an anomaly.

I'm an avid music collector with over 8,000 CDs, a couple of thousand vinyl records and countless digital files. When Spotify came to the United States in July of 2011 I stopped stealing music completely.  I rarely buy mp3s.  It makes no sense with a Spotify premium account which allows me to put songs on my mobile devices.  When I want to actually own an album so I can listen to it in a better sounding format I'm back to buying vinyl.  The only time I buy CDs is from local artists who are hawking them at their shows. 

I'm not sure I can completely get behind the findings of this study.  Either that or I'm bewildered by the habits of others.

 

Keeping track of singles for 2013

At the beginning of the year I started my Spotify playlist for albums of 2013 that I feel are at least worth a listen.  It's a great one stop source to listen to new music. 

Yesterday I created the Radio Hannibal singles of 2013 playlist.  It some ways it's even more interesting that the albums playlist.  Here you'll find a wide range of genres made by pop stars to artists you've never heard before.  There's a real sense of discovery.

Actually both lists are a great place to discover new music.  That's why I do this, to turn you on to music you may have never heard before.  The best thing to do is subscribe to the playlists so they'll show up on your own Spotify playlists.  Well, if you don't have Spotify, and better yet, a premium subscription, the best thing to do first is sign up. 

Here's a perfect reason why Spotify is so great.  I'll be going on vacation soon and I'll want to bring music along.  With a Spotify premium account I'll be able to stream the music from my iPhone on wi-fi.  But I'll be out of the country and don't want to rack up roaming data usage when I'm not on wi-fi.  So I simply create a vacation playlist, adding a large collection of albums and singles to it.  Then I sync my iPhone with Spotify and all that music is on my iPhone ready to play wherever I am, regardless if I'm online or not. 

The concept isn't that hard to grasp.  And the reality of a mind boggling music library that's virtually yours is bound to appeal to you. 

NPR's First Listen, checking out new music before it's released

Truth be told, I used to steal music on occasion.  It's too darn easy.  Even more, I'd grab those albums which hadn't been released yet.  They're called leaks.  Nowadays I couldn't be bothered.  You see, technology has made thievery rather pointless.

Streaming services offer nearly all new music the day it's released.  And for a subscription of $10 a month I can download as much as my iPhone or iPad will hold.  Sure, I can also stream millions of songs on 4G or wi-fi but having a large selection downloaded I avoid the risk of data caps imposed by AT&T or whatever provider you might have. 

So what's the point of pirating music?  I haven't seen figures as to how far music theft has dropped but I'll guarantee it's significant.  You don't hear much from the RIAA going after downloaders do you?

There's still a group of people pirating music to be sure.  These people either can't grasp how streaming music works, are obsessive collectors who need the files which they have to manage and back up constantly, or are just pathetically cheap. 

And as for missing out on the thrill of leaks, hearing an album before the rest of the world?  First of all there's so much new music coming out on Spotify I'm plenty content.  And if I feel the need for a fix like that there's NPR's First Listen, where they have about half a dozen albums at any given time available to stream before the official release date.  The solo debut from Jim James of My Morning Jacket is up there now.

 

 

Cleveland Museum of Art's iPad app as gorgeous as its remodel

Although I've only had the Cleveland Museum of Art's iPad app, ARTLENS, for under 24 hours it's already one of my favorites. And I haven't even really used it yet.  No one can until next week when the app is officially rolled out at the museum. 

Here's the story from The Plain Dealer's Steven Litt, Cleveland Museum of Art leads American art museums with its new Apple iPad mobile app and Gallery One education center.  The headline tells it all.  The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is on the cutting edge these days.  From the stunning atrium to this new app, all eyes are on us.

I was talking to a customer over the weekend and we were talking about University Circle, as he works at the Cleveland Clinic.  He'd confessed to having never been to the CMA.  If you're like him you need to change that soon. If you haven't been to the CMA in years you need to go soon.  It's an entirely different experience. And the final additions won't be open until the end of this year. 

Now the ARTLENS iPad app will make that experience all the more rewarding.  It's a bit like those self-guided tour systems that have been around for years, changing with the technology of the day.  Personal audio tour devices have been used by the CMA for the past few years during special exhibitions.  And who remembers the key shaped like an elephant used to play audio out of boxes at the Cleveland Zoo?  Technology has come a long way and makes the iPad tour guide an interactive delight.

There are numberous ARTLENS tours that have been designed for visitors, most lasting between 30 to 45 minutes.  Since the museum is free, yes free, you don't have to feel obligated to see everything in one day.  Choose a couple of the tours, stop for something to eat at the new cafe and come back another time to check out more. 

The tours focus on different genres and themes, ensuring a much different experience than you've had at any museum.  No more starting at the beginning and trying to follow your way to the end, which is especially difficult in art museums with its many rooms that create a sort of maze. 

 

 

 

 

New iTunes is much faster

The new iTunes became available this morning in anticipation of the the new ios 6 mobile operating system and the iPhone 5.  I just downloaded it and I'm pleasantly stunned.

First of all the download took a mere seconds instead of the typical minutes.  It didn't even ask me to reboot to finish the install. 

I opened the new iTunes and, man, is it fast.  It used to be that clicking from, say, apps to the store was sluggish but now you can move from one area of the program to another quite quickly. 

iTunes has been griped about for years due to it's bloated size and tortoise-like speed.  It looks like Apple finally got around to turning it into the hare.

My friends are finally catching on to Spotify

It's one thing to explain Spotify but nothing beats a demonstration.  I guess it's hard to wrap your head around the concept of having access to the world's largest record collection, but see it first hand and you're sold. 

I spent the weekend with some old friends at a cottage in the Luarel Highlands of Pennsylvania.  Much of the time was spent on the deck overlooking the green hills while eating, drinking, carrying on and listening to music. 

I brought along my guitar practice amp so I could plug my iPad into it.  We had wi-fi so my connection to Spotify was great.  I spent the weekend taking requests.  What album would you like to hear?  That's a difficult question to answer when the choice is so vast. 

After playing numerous albums, both old and new, my friends began seeing the light.  They'd walk over to the iPad and check out the great Spotify interface and ask me some questions.  In the end a number of them were all talking about how they planned to sign up for Spotify as soon as they got home Sunday evening. 

Spotify wasn't the only app I promoted.  There were two of us left awake on the deck around 1am.  The half moon had set and the stars blossomed in the sky.  It turns out my friend was a bit of an astronomy buff.  He began pointing out some of the winter constellations on the horizon, explaining how in a few months they'd be overhead.  

I pulled out my iPhone and opened up the Star Walk app.  I held it up to the sky and it showed us exactly what were looking at, giving name to everything we saw.  He was amazed, taking my iPhone and moving it across the sky.  So now he had two apps to buy when he got home.  

Sometimes my friends make fun of my tech geek tendencies.  That's ok.  In the end I'm glad I'm able to enrich their lives.