According to my current iteration of my blog, this is my one-thousandth post.

I never thought I’d see the New England Patriots lose Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants. I gotta say, that was the best Super Bowl I’ve ever seen. Down-to-the-wire drama and a huge upset — perhaps the biggest in Super Bowl History. Plus, I’ll get to tells kids in twenty years that I saw the greatest team in NFL history lose the only game that matters.

I saw the game with a couple of friends from church (Aaron & Jessica) — two of the few people my own age. They have a lot of friends there age which was nice. Also, I will not complain when I’m invited to social gatherings that include even one available female my age. It’s probably the first time that’s happened since I moved here.

HDTVs rock. I want one, but then I think about starving children in Africa. But I don’t think starving children anywhere are able to consume HDTVs so I feel a little less bad about wanting one.

So FLAC files sound awesome. I decided to rip Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows to FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) to see if the sound quality is really that much better. It does sound a bit better. At some point I want to repartition my hard drives and perhaps slap a fat 1TB (Terabyte, baby, Terabyte = one thousand gigabytes) drive in my computer so I can go crazy on backing up all my albums and DVDs in the best quality possible.

The only problem with FLAC is that it’s complicated if not impossible to get iTunes to play FLAC. So what I’ve done is I’m using Winamp is the player/library for my FLAC files and storing them all on one of my other drive partitions to keep it all sorted and simple. Of course, I also created MP3 copies of the files for use w/ the iPod. With the demise of DRM though, I’m more open to considering other portable media players, but I can’t say I’ve seen anything more impressive than the iPod.

I’m considering purchasing a laptop I can load up w/ Linux. Partially to be nerdy and indie and open source, but I’ve become a lot more familiar w/ the command line over the years and it’d also be a much better machine for doing web development. Anyway, this also feeds into the desire to find alternatives to iTunes/iPod because Apple isn’t exactly friendly w/ Linux.

Of course, I’d take a Macbook if I could get one, but cost remains prohibitive. It’d cost me twice as much to get the Apple as it would for a comparatively powerful Dell w/ dual-core Athlon chips, 2GB RAM, DVD-burner, 120gb hard drive, wifi.

I’m impressed w/ how busy I’ve stayed this weekend. I spent 15 hours out on Friday, 9 hours out on Saturday, and 9 hours out today.

Social Life FTW!!!

Tags: Aaron & Jessica, FLAC, football, iPod, iTunes, laptop, Super Bowl, Winamp

DRM-Free 256kbps Led Zeppelin MP3s on Amazon. I bought IV and I’m liking it. I picked this album due to the universally adored Stairway to Heaven, but also hope to enjoy some of the other tunes.

So I don’t know about you, but Amazon MP3 is totally pwning the iTunes Store right now. The songs are cheaper and without any ridiculous copyright restrictions so it’s easy as heck to back up songs, burn them, and even use them on the iPod.

On the same topic, I like these lyrics:
“To find a queen without a king,
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings… la la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin’ to find a woman who’s never, never, never been born.”

Tags: Amazon, Apple, iTunes, mp3

If you purchase digital music at all (oh, I know some of you are pirates, don’t try to hide it from me), let me point out the newly born Amazon MP3 (beta). All of the songs are straight MP3s (no DRM) so they’ll work just fine on iPods or any MP3 player or can be burned to CD without any difficulty. The site doesn’t have as much selection as iTunes (at least not yet), but they’ve snagged content from major labels Universal and EMI. So you can enjoy artists such as Kanye West, Coldplay, and David Bowie.

You don’t listen to Bowie? Ok, that’s fair, neither do I.

Another advantage over iTunes: price. The top 100 songs are $.89/each and the top $100 albums are $8.99. In general though, song costs start at $.89 and depend on length.

via Daring Fireball:

Amazon’s single pricing is based on track length. Songs that are more than seven minutes long cost $1.94, songs more than 14 minutes cost even more. This isn’t necessarily a bad deal compared to iTunes — Apple makes many of these tracks album-only.

Oh, and for a sweet taste of irony… have you seen the new Apple nano advertisement? You know, this one:

iPod nano featuring Feist - 1234

The irony is that this song is the #1 (album version) and #4 (single) most purchased song on Amazon MP3, it costs 10 cents less than on iTunes, and there’s no copy restrictions.

Tags: Amazon, iTunes, mp3

In the past few weeks a few digital music stores have been released which operate on Windows. In this post, I will briefly analyze, compare features, and give my initial impressions of MusicMatch’s Downloads, which is now part of their Jukebox digital audio software, and the new Apple iTunes for Windows (it was originally a Macintosh product).

Basic Product Overview

MusicMatch Jukebox

Song Price: $0.99
Album Price: Varies, but usually $9.99
Tracks Available: 200,000 songs (and rising)

Apple iTunes

Song Price: $0.99
Album Price: Varies, but usually $9.99
Tracks Available: 400,000 songs, 5,000 audiobooks (and rising)

Song Availability Analysis

Most popular artists have their works available on both download services. Clearly iTunes has a greater selection starting out with 400,000 tracks compared to MusicMatch’s 200,000. I have difficulty on both searching for many of the artists I enjoy including common names such as Relient K, Lifehouse, Nickel Creek, and the list goes on for many more bands and artists.

Some artists such as Linkin Park have signed exclusive deals with one download service so they aren’t available on others. In the case of Linkin Park, they’re available exclusively on MusicMatch.

Purchasing Songs

1. Open an Account

Give them personal information including name, address, email, etc. You must give them credit card information to open the account. This is how they charge you for the music. It is automatically billed when you purchase songs.

2. Find the Song

To find the song, you can search for a specific artist, album, or track using a search bar that’s part of the application. You can also view recommendations based on favorite artists, genre, or featured music.

3. Buy the Song

Once you find the song you want, you’re able to click “buy song” and then you will be asked for confirmation. iTunes has an option that allows you to use a Shopping Cart - this allows you to browse, select songs, and purchase them all at once. I think this feature is also somewhat affective in tempering impulse buys as you have to think about it for a second time. Once you’ve purchased the songs, they’ll be downloaded for you and stored in the default download location and added to the current playlist (unless you change these options in the application preferences).

Listening to Music

Both applications have typical media player features such as playlists, media libraries (to keep track of all songs on your computer). They can each play lots of different types of media.

Each application uses a different *audio format* for the music downloaded. MusicMatch uses Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio format at 160kbps, whereas iTunes uses a format called AAC(Advanced Audio Encording) (based on the MPEG-4 standard) at 128kbps and stores the file with a .m4p extension. Each format uses DRM(Digital Rights Management) to ensure the file cannot be easily pirated over the internet.

There are technical differences in the formats used to encode the audio, but on a simple listen by an average user (I don’t think I qualify as an audiophile, though I like music a lot), the music is CD-quality.

Burning/Other Listening Devices

This is one of the most limiting features of MusicMatch Jukebox Basic. You’re only allowed to burn five playlists to CD for free. After that, you have to buy an upgraded version of the software which comes with a circa $30 price tag.

iTunes allows CD burning of any tracks purchased without limit.

Portable digital music devices are usable with each service. iTunes is entirely compatible with Apple’s iPod. Devices that support WMA are also available, but there’s no clear leader in the race for domination of that market so I don’t know who to point you towards.

Other Considerations

• If you burn the song to CD, you can rip it in any audio format using the appropriate audio-ripping applications
• Songs purchased in one application may not be able to play in others. Neither of these audio formats were able to play in Winamp, a popular player for Windows. AAC files can be played in iTunes and QuickTime. Windows Media Audio can be played in MusicMatch, the Windows Media Player, and other applications that support the format.
• Each media player includes many other features which you can find out about by using the application yourself or reading the product documentation on the official websites.

Songs I Tested

On MusicMatch: Project 86 - Hollow Again
On iTunes: MxPx - Well Adjusted

Tags: iTunes