According to my last.fm charts, these are my most listened to artists and songs from 2008.

Top 20 Artists 2008

1. Nuuro
2. Radiohead
3. Nightwish
4. Fall Out Boy
5. Coheed & Cambria
6. The Weakerthans
7. Sufjan Stevens
8. Good Charlotte
9. Yellowcard
10. Metric
11. Gnarls Barkley
12. The Juliana Theory
13. Matchbox Twenty
14. Anberlin
15. 宇多田ヒカル
16. Starflyer 59
17. Acid House King
18. Thom Yorke
19. New Found Glory
20. The Rolling Stones

Top 10 9 Songs 2008

1. Nightwish – Amaranth
2. 宇多田ヒカル – Beautiful World
3. 宇多田ヒカル – Kiss & Cry
4. 宇多田ヒカル – HEART STATION
5. 宇多田ヒカル – Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)
6. Driving East – Beat It
7. Nightwish – Cadence of Her Last Breath
8. Nightwish – The Poet And The Pendulum
9. 宇多田ヒカル – Stay Gold

The obvious trend this year is my fascination with foreign artists. The top four artists this year consist of Nuuro (Venezuelan electronica), Radiohead (British alternative-rock), Nightwish (Finnish orchestra-metal), and 宇多田ヒカル/”Utada Hikaru” (Japanese pop).

Towards the end of the year I acquired a lot of music through good deals on Amazon MP3 via a partnership with AbsolutePunk.net to provide “Cheap Music” from recommended bands.

Through the deals, I got good prices and picked up albums from City & Colour, Lydia, The Graduate, Anberlin, and Fall Out Boy.

I started of 2009 by picking up Astronautalis – “Pomegranate,” and albums from Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, and Snow Patrol.

My eMusic subscription kicked back in after Christmas and I grabbed albums from Brave Saint Saturn, Nightwish, and Pinback.

What do I expect for 2009?
I’m diving back into the pop-punk/indie scene music through AbsolutePunk’s recommendations and getting exposure to a lot of music I wouldn’t otherwise have time to track down myself. I expect that to continue.

I’m also buying a lot more digital music as stores are realizing they can sell more for cheaper prices. With my 120gb iPod, I can hold A LOT of music without taking up any extra space on my bedroom shelves. I still prefer to have the case, but if the price is $3.99 on sale vs. $9.99 or $14.99, digital will win my heart.

Categories: Music
Tags: Amazon MP3, eMusic, mp3

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.”

Categories: Music
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.

Categories: Music, Tech, The Sphere
Tags: Amazon, iTunes, mp3

Updated 3:44PM (Updates look like this)

The situation with classes: This is the afore prophesied “semester of doom”. 18 credits, remember? The only problem is I can’t take one of the classes ’cause I don’t meet the prerequisites. This presents a problem ’cause I want to graduate, but I can’t find another senior-level class that fills an IS (integrative studies?) requirement and counts towards my major. I found a class that works, fortunately. I’ll have to do a substitution form, but it’ll work out.

This situation with textbooks: Japanese is no problem – same textbook as last semester. The class I can’t take isn’t a problem ’cause I can’t take it and therefore won’t need the books.

I’ve had two of my four classes today (tues/thurs classes) and bought the books. About $250. For these two classes the reading will average 8 or 9 10 to 12 chapters a week for at least three weeks. I’ve never done all the reading for classes in the past, but these are senior-level classes. Can I just “get by” like other semesters? I’d like to do the work and learn. Anyway, I have two more classes today and probably another five or six books to buy.

I can’t complain though, Jake’s got it worse than I do. Props to the Jake for attempting such a harrowing semester. In the vast wisdom of Despair.com, I suggest we both Get to Work.

The situation with your mom: There is none.

The situation with the music: Check out Clumsy Lovers for some folkish type goodness. Sphere of Hip Hop (and their mp3 site) is a great place to pick up Christian hip-hop/rap music. I’d suggest trying out some L.A. Symphony, Listener, KJ-52, John Reuben, and Mars Ill.

Categories: Life, Music
Tags: college, mp3