If you’re interested in musical language, I highly recommend checking out RadioLab (from WNYC) and their podcast about it. It’s so interesting!
Chapter 3 in the Future of the Music Business
I feel that webcasting, which is what chapter three is about, is probably one of the internet’s greatest “gifts” so to speak. Where I live, I’ll be honest; the radio stations pretty much suck. It’s pretty much either rock, pop or country, though I will admit there is one station that plays other stuff, stuff I like, but my car radio kind of sucks so I can only get the pop station clear and NPR (but NPR single has to do with it being broadcast directly from my hometown). So I don’t listen to radio all that often. It’s usually cds or my iPod. Internet radio on the other hand, is amazing! In the space of a couple of clicks I can get all the music I like! It’s fantastic! Gordon makes exactly this point when he writes about how webcasting completely expands the listening base for the traditional radio station.
Gordon writes that “the labels successfully argued that, unlike analog signals, listeners could copy digital transmissions of music and make a recording of the same quality as a cd” (40). I wonder if anybody on those record labels tried it. It is extremely complicated and it takes a ton of time!
While I understand why it is important to look at these rights and what webcasters have to pay and the like, but at the same time, I find all the details a little dry and boring.
Chapter 4
Gordon writes about how many record companies did spoofing which is a term used to describe the practice of sending out fake digital copies of songs for downloads (Gordon gives the example of Modonna) (p 65). Well in the reverse it also works as a promotion tool. In spring of 2010, the acapella group, Straight No Chaser) was setting to release their first non-holiday EP. On April 1st (the day before the CD was set to drop) they “released” a digital copy, which it was a copy of the EP but it was an instrumental version. The joke was on SNC’s fan base as they are an acapella group, so no instruments of any kind anyway. Read the full April Fool’s Joke (http://www.sncmusic.com/blog/the-straight-no-chaser-album-with-a-twist-has-leaked/). But it was a great promotional tool to remind fans that the new album was coming out. I even fell for it!
The rest of chapter four looks at the different laws governing downloading (legal) and streaming music. It’s hard to believe how complicated all this process is! So many legalities, laws, and prices for playing music, even online.
Website reviews
International Computer Music Association
Looks like an interesting website… however I was searching under their resources directory and many of their links are broken. Quite sad for a very professional looking site.
International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres
Site looks awesome and would be a great resource but you have to pay L
Musipedia: Musipedia Melody Search Engine
Oh my this site looks soo interesting! I can’t way to play around with it more. I tried the searching (http://www.musipedia.org/microphone.html) and the microphone portion; the sound came out extremely quiet. I whistled a Disney song and it couldn’t find it which was surprising. I then tried it using the Keyboard and put in a well known Bach tune and when I searched, it couldn’t find it. Not sure if it works all that well. I tried a couple of other well known tunes and it couldn’t find them either. Not a very good search engine… at least for now.
Thoughts on Music Information Retrieval
Downie talks about in this article being able to tell a machine a tune and it finds what the name of the tune is and he says this system doesn't exist yet. However, Downie is wrong, sort of. There is an app for iphone and itouch that if you hold it up to a speaker while a song is playing, it will tell you the name and artist of the song. It is not perfect but it does work.
Downie writes "A given lyric fragment is sometimes not informative enough to identify and retrieve a desired melody and vice versa (Temperley, 1993)" (301). For almost any song out there there are lyrics. I have run across a couple that don't have them but probably 98% of the stuff that I listen to and have searched for is there.
I agree with Downie with that the reason Music Information retrieval is so hard is because music is changing all the time. It's a very exciting field and with that newness and excitement comes challenges. I agree with Downie when he talks about the reason a system of humming a song into a machine to get title/artist/etc is so hard because of all the different elements that go into music.
Thoughts on Music Information Retrieval
Downie talks about in this article being able to tell a machine a tune and it finds what the name of the tune is and he says this system doesn't exist yet. However, Downie is wrong, sort of. There is an app for iphone and itouch that if you hold it up to a speaker while a song is playing, it will tell you the name and artist of the song. It is not perfect but it does work.
Downie writes "A given lyric fragment is sometimes not informative enough to identify and retrieve a desired melody and vice versa (Temperley, 1993)" (301). For almost any song out there there are lyrics. I have run across a couple that don't have them but probably 98% of the stuff that I listen to and have searched for is there.
I agree with Downie with that the reason Music Information retrieval is so hard is because music is changing all the time. It's a very exciting field and with that newness and excitement comes challenges. I agree with Downie when he talks about the reason a system of humming a song into a machine to get title/artist/etc is so hard because of all the different elements that go into music.
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