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July 30, 2005
widget update on CDM
Update: Peter "if it ain't a silly middle name I don't want to know about it" Kirn over the rather fancy CDM has put the call out, and has dug up some rather nice Dashboard based audio widgets, some of which actually look useful! CDM Widget Roundup 1 and the followup CDM Widget Roundup 2 - the readers respond!
Posted by funnelbc at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2005
payola sucks
I'd never heard of the term payola before, but I did however have an inkling from a very young age of how corrupt the music industry is. My father runs a community radio station, and as a result he happened to know a bit about the music industry in general, and I distinctly remember him telling me how some music shops in Australia are ones that ARIA uses for polling to work out what singles & albums are selling well each week. Now apparently it was an open secret which stores were which, and these store managers could reliably expect gifts of household whitegoods, free stock and a bunch of other bribes from the record companies so that their product would be upfront and selling well. It's not uncommon (or at least it wasn't at the time - ~1996) for record companies to give a shop a bunch of singles and then buy them back from the shop - hence boosting "sales" figures and paying off the record shop. My perception of the record industry as this shadowy "other" body behind the scenes in the music industry was formed at around that point in time.
It's no suprise to me to find out that this sort of thing logically extends to radio stations, where the big record companies are paying DJs to play tracks to increase sales. I think I've become slightly more cynical than when I first starting hearing about these things, but I do feel it's somewhat ironic that the record industry as a whole gets up on it's high horse about "stealing music" but I feel that them stealing airtime from deserving artists is just as, if not more reprehensible.
the digital music weblog via CDM Related: Billboard: Spitzer Evidence To Be Handed Over To FCC
Posted by funnelbc at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
assorted technical tomfoolery
I have a rather fabulous post written up, but it currently won't let me post anything with fancy dang html code in it. I'm not sure what is going on but I will do some much need general technical junk this evening. If weirdness happens, I blame the internet.
Update: Please accept my apologies guys, apparently there's some stuff going on with my host, who pretty much haven't skipped a beat in the last ~4 years I've been using them, so I think that's fair cop! Will update when it's fixed.
Update 2: ..and we're up again!
Posted by funnelbc at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2005
numark iDJ mixer debuts
The Numark iDJ Mixer has been officially announced - As mentioned earlier here. It'll be on the market in Q3 this year, and will retail for $399USD - pretty reasonable all things considered. Although, a copy of Final Scratch and Traktor looks better for my Simoleons (once you've forked out for 2 ipods plus the mixer).
At any rate... check out the details on Harmony Central.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
assorted konfabulatory audio sillyness
Konfabulator make a Mac/PC cross platform compatible host system for widgets. Widgets are little programs that sit on your desktop, they can be newsfeeds, weather updates, little quote generators, basically anything. A lot of the more popular Konfabulator plug-ins have shown up as Dashboard widgets for the Mac.
They've just been bought by Yahoo and now you can download the full version of Konfabulator for free. Why I think this actually of any interest is that you can get your hands on some little music making widgets and while they're only a momentary distraction, I was thinking of the potential of having really basic music tools at your disposal on the desktop of your machine. I'd love to see some more widgets that feature this kind of stuff where you can noodle out baby compositions and dump to Midi, or you could just record your system bus or whatever. At any rate. Konfabulator. It's now free. You might enjoy some of the musical widgets and have a bit of a laugh. You can customise the widgets also, and so it strikes me that we might be seeing more of these as Yahoo starts to expose it to a lot more users.
Here's the ones I've found so far if you come across any others let us know! Stonewave, Drumpad, MilliTron, VolBoard And Konfabulator.com for the program.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
pith records = nice
I had Will from Pith Records get in contact with me about something else, but being the nosy internet parker I am, I followed his email address to check out the website for Pith Records.
It's really really encouraging to see sites like this - I've been doing things a bit the wrong way around at the moment, and it's good to get a headcheck. Pith Records do a bunch of things, they've got a bunch of articles, forums, and they happen also to be resellers for Blackspot sneakers. Heaps of respect for what they're doing and the message they're getting out there. Check it if you get a sec.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
hey what's going on?
Hey kids. I thought I would just pop up a quick note to say that I've been dying to write more for the site, but have had several other comittments that I have to sort out first. I've got an awful lot on my plate at the moment, but I will endevour to get back into the swing of things as soon as possible.
There is lots of exciting stuff going on for me right now, and I've been taking on things left right and centre and not doing enough of these projects/clients justice. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say.
Oh - one other thing. If you are in Melbourne and available on Wednesday night this week (the 27th) basefield is holding an exhibition at the Chapel Off Chapel Galleries. The show is called The Commons and the proceeds for the night are going to charity, and that's a pretty fabulous thing. I'll be there, and so will a bunch of other great folks. Come along! basefield.com
Thanks :)
Posted by funnelbc at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2005
wood ipod cover
Obviously the cold hard inhuman feel of white plastic wasn't the go for a modder who (at least on flckr) goes by the nick of ZapWizard. He's very carefully and meticulously crafted a wooden cover for his 4G ipod. That's right. Wood. Apparently the touchwheel still works (it's underneath the wood) as "Touch-wheels need an air-less dielectric to sense your[sic] touching the surface".
Which sounds fairly uber weenie to me, but I think it's looks rather funky, and I would proudly pull that out of my pants. *shifts in seat uncomfortably* Err. That didn't go quite right. Anyway. not to worry.
It's a rather remarkable homage to the wood panelled audio systems from the 70's. I would like to think that the iPod was only filled with Boney M and the BeeGees & Sesame Disco. But then I think that about all iPods.
Posted by funnelbc at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2005
pretend paper launch party tonight (melbourne)
Just a reminder folks that the Pretend Paper Launch Party is on tonight! If you're in Melbourne head along and enjoy the vertible smorgasboard of fun promised by the Pretend Paper crew.
Posted by funnelbc at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)