| The Piano Storybook by Shnabubula |
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Tuesday, August 8th, 2017 18:27:46 GMT |
Earlier this year, for the first time ever, I contributed to a Kickstarter campaign. It was for The Piano Storybook by Shnabubula, one of my favorite musicians in the world.
Shnabubula is the creator of some of the best, most dazzlingly brilliant music I've ever heard in my life. If you're a fan of video game music remixes, or if you've explored my astrosorted music list, then, you're probably already a fan of Shnabubula.
To my joy, I heard about The Piano Storybook in time to be one of the 100 people who contributed at least $15 in exchange for Shnabubula composing us an improvised piano song, customized according to what image(s), stories, or other requests we sent!
It will be possible to download all the albums from Shnabubula's Bandcamp page for free, or for any amount of money you're comfortable sending.
It contains the incredibly lovely song Shnabubula improvised for me, which he titled Beneath the Shimmering Surface.
The Piano Storybook is now complete, and all the albums, and videos of all the performances, are going to be gradually released.
The first album released was The Great Flood, and you can download it from Shnabubula's Bandcamp page, or watch the performances on YouTube.
For more, see The Piano Storybook's official home page, Shnabubula's Bandcamp page, and Shnabubula's YouTube channel!
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| CATcerto |
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Monday, July 31st, 2017 13:09:03 GMT |
CATcerto. ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE.
by Mindaugas Piečaitis and Nora the Piano Cat.
You might also like to visit CATcerto.com.
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| The Mad Drummer |
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Tuesday, March 14th, 2017 23:02:45 GMT |
His website: TheMadDrummer.com
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| Links: Music generated (or partly generated) by software |
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Monday, December 19th, 2016 13:42:00 GMT |
Here's an interesting article I found today:
BachBot is a free (as in freedom), libre, open source project with a code repository on GitHub.
I tried the BachBot Challenge and got only 40% correct the first time, but 100% the second time, when I started listening more carefully for anything particularly un-Bach-like, such as off-key-sounding notes.
Two of those tracks are also on SoundCloud, which I'm assuming might have better audio quality than YouTube.
(Dec. 14, 2016 from TechnologyReview.com)
And here's an impressive example of that music on YouTube:
I was hoping there was source code available for that software, so, I googled for "bach source code deep learning". Didn't find the above project's source code, but, I found this:
Another interesting page:
(Oct. 5, 2016 from AsimovInstitute.org)
I especially enjoyed the examples from Flow-Machines.com.
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| Disappointed by Apple Music |
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Saturday, May 28th, 2016 12:40:27 GMT |
I finally got around to trying Apple Music on a Mac desktop running OS X Lion. I think I find the audio quality acceptable. But, the iTunes interface for Apple Music is dreadful and very confusing. I think the iTunes interface is actually even worse than the Beats Music web interface was.
Apple still has such a reputation for nice user interfaces that even though Apple is thoroughly deplorable in many ways, I expected much better. I was hoping Apple might have the good sense to revive MOG's excellent web interface, since Apple bought Beats Music, and Beats Music had bought and unfortunately closed down the far superior MOG. Oh, well.
So, since I can't stand Apple Music's interface, I'm not the least bit tempted to subscribe to Apple Music.
(Addition, 5/28/2016, 10:45/11:31 AM. Just wanted to add that despite the above, I still appreciate the free 3 month trial, since I definitely like the audio quality. I'm getting a bit more used to the interface, but I'm sure I'm never going to find it acceptable as it currently is, because, among other flaws, it requires too much clicking through various menus to do things that ought to take one click at most. And I'm not sure how I could listen to it in GNU/Linux without probably having to use VirtualBox or Wine.)
I think I first noticed this glitch years ago on Spotify. I can't remember whether or not it happened on the now-closed Music Unlimited (from Sony) or Beats Music. I think it played correctly on MOG, since, unless I'm mistaken, I believe MOG is where I first heard that album.
Anyway, I just thought it was sort of interesting that at least two different, competing streaming music services have the same glitch.
Even just the fact that mine would (or will) be free (as in freedom), libre, and open source will immediately make mine inherently superior. :-)
Here's an odd quirk I noticed with both Spotify and Apple Music. Currently, when you try to play the album Stars Forever by one of my favorite singers/musicians, Momus - totally different non-Momus tracks play instead. And the same mistaken tracks play on both Spotify and Apple Music.
Addition, 5/28/2016, 11:20/11:27 AM. Overall, I find Apple Music's iTunes interface so bad that it's almost inspiring me to return to my old daydream of building my own streaming music interface, since I'm sure I could build something better, and it probably wouldn't be that difficult, either.
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| Link: SoundCloud |
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Tuesday, April 19th, 2016 20:34:24 GMT |
Link |
SoundCloud is a site which has a lot of legal downloads even if you're not a premium subscriber.
I haven't used it much in a while because I can't play the music in a web browser in Lucid Puppy Linux 5.2.8 version 004, and I tend to avoid sites which I fear might crash my pitiful 1.5 GHz single core 2 GB RAM laptop - even YouTube.
But not with Pale Moon 26.2.2 (x64) and NoScript 2.9.0.2 - with those, SoundCloud gives me this message:
"It looks like you have a Flash blocker enabled. Please disable the Flash blocker to hear this track."
I get that message even if I totally disable NoScript. Which I only did as a test, since I never like to browse the web without NoScript.)
On my Roku 2XS, the Musiclouds channel often gets stuck when I first try to load it. But, if you can load the channel, I guess the audio quality is maybe somewhere around as good as YouTube - which doesn't sound quite good enough to me, but might be fine for less nitpicky people.
Warning: In the Musiclouds channel, try to avoid pressing the Up button too much, because if you press Up while you're on the first screen of Musiclouds, you'll be sent back to the Roku home screen.)
There's a premium subscription for $9.99 per month, but I haven't yet tried that. But I'd love to subscribe if I had a decent income.
If anyone knows of any sites like that, please feel free to let me know, either privately or on a forum like the Eryss.Com Forum or Non24.Com Forum.
(Addition, June 19, 2016, 8:49 PM-9:03 PM EDT: Today, using my Toughbook CF-C1 with 8 GB of RAM, I found out that SoundCloud works fine for me with Firefox 32 and NoScript 2.6.8.40 in Lighthouse 64 Puppy Linux 6.02 Beta 2.
I suspect SoundCloud might work fine in a VirtualBox. (Since Netflix did, last time I tried that, which was in 2012.) But 2 GB of RAM is not enough for comfort, and I'd probably have to connect a hard disk, which I don't feel like doing.
(Addition, 5:22 PM EDT: I finally checked my Roku for a SoundCloud streaming channel. I didn't find an official one, but there's a free (as in price) channel called Musiclouds which also has Jamendo and 8tracks.
Anyway, from what I remember, SoundCloud is a very nice site, though I think you have to be logged in to download files.
Of course, I would prefer a site which runs on exclusively free (as in freedom), libre, open source software and which hosts or links to free, libre, open source music - but, I don't know if such a site exists yet. (Not that I looked really hard yet.)
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| Links: Music by Tapete |
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Tuesday, April 19th, 2016 13:59:28 GMT |
Links |
Here's some of the best mostly new (to me) music I ran into lately. It's by Tapete.
I scarcely understand any German, so I'm not sure if Tapete is a person's name or a band name. But, in any case, Tapete is superb!
Also, Tapete releases music under Creative Commons licenses - so, you can legally download it! (Which I recommend doing, since the MP3s definitely have better audio quality than YouTube.)
Drückeberger - Tapete (Official Music Video HD) Album Download
Tapete's official website is TapeteBerlin.de.
My 3 favorite Tapete songs so far:
I first ran into Tapete on Grooveshark.
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| Spotify is nice to use again; thoughts on alternatives |
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Wednesday, March 11th, 2015 08:05:11 GMT |
News |
I just tried Spotify again for the first time in a while, and their web player is no longer horrendously slow in my web browser.
So, I guess either Spotify fixed something, or maybe it's faster now because I recently totally switched to Lighthouse 64 Puppy Linux 6.02 Beta 2.
I guess Spotify might even be nice enough now for me to subscribe - but, mostly because of my bad financial circumstances, I'm not going to.
Besides, it would be so cool if I could figure out how to make my own music service using the MN Open API from MediaNet. I wonder if there's a way for me to make money from that without compromising my ideals about libre software and copyleft? Ideas are welcome at The Eryss.Com Forum.
My uncertainty about that is one of the top reasons I'm reluctant to go ahead with it. It's likely to be a lot of work and take a lot longer than I wish it would, for possibly very little reward. On the other hand, I guess there might be no harm in fooling around for a couple weeks or so trying to code up something cool. (I'm not quite ready to begin, though, because I haven't fully made myself at home with Lighthouse 64 Puppy Linux yet - that's still in progress.)
I've read that the so-called royalties most musicians get from streaming music tend to be depressingly tiny and nowhere near enough to live on. So, perhaps a music site which does a lot more to encourage purchases and tipping might really help musicians out.
I wish there was a payment service which didn't have any fees at all, whose top goal was to help people rather than to make money. But, creating something like that would probably be a lot more difficult than creating a music service, so I don't think I feel up to it. But, someone should definitely create one.
Paying musicians more per stream would also probably be good - though I wonder if it's even financially possible, given that the average price for a streaming music subscription is probably around $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming.
But, even if the price per stream were higher, I think it still would suck for musicians that musicians probably have to just blindly trust (or hope) that streaming music companies are being honest about how many times the musicians' music got streamed.
If I were a musician trying to make a living from music, I'd much rather have potential buyers and tippers sent to my own website which I control, so then I wouldn't be in the position of having to just blindly believe (or hope) that various middleman websites are being honest about my quantity of sales or streams.
But, perhaps I might end up just going back to collecting legally free MP3s (or even FLAC files - FLAC being a lossless audio format) from sites like Bandcamp or VGRemix.com.
Or maybe I'll return to collecting legally free MIDIs, a hobby I acquired back in the olden days when I had only slow dialup internet, since MIDIs were some of the only music files small enough to enable me to download a lot of decent-sounding music in a reasonable amount of time.
Maybe somehow I'll be able to figure out (or maybe someone will tell me?) how to make MIDIs sound really great in Linux. I have thousands of MIDIs already, and it would be nice to be able to listen to them again without having to use one of my old Windows computers to have decent audio quality.
Maybe what would be best would be a streaming music site which tries a lot harder than existing streaming music sites to help out musicians, perhaps by providing a lot of external links to musicians' own official websites, so people can go there and buy things and/or send tips directly to the musicians they love.
Spotify still has a free (as in price) version, and I believe the audio quality is better than YouTube's, at least.
Donations and microdonations and purchases of goods (still none available yet) and services (somewhat available, but please don't expect quick responses) are welcome.
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| Sorry for my mistaken suggestion about Music Unlimited; I accidentally canceled my subscription |
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Monday, March 9th, 2015 03:12:17 GMT |
News |
Today (Sunday, March 8th), I found out my Music Unlimited subscription unintentionally expired. I manually canceled it sometime in the few days before I was due to be charged on March 7th or 8th, and found out at 10:42 PM EDT (I might as well be exact, since my web browser history enables me to :-) ) that I'm now considered a non-subscriber, despite what this Sony FAQ page says:
I guess my mistake was, not realizing that I wouldn't be charged if I left my subscription active. Shouldn't have unsubscribed manually.
Sorry for suggesting that idea - I hope it didn't inconvenience anyone else.
I'm going to call customer support tomorrow to see if I can get my account reactivated.
(Addition, March 10, 2015, 10:39 PM: Unfortunately, customer support was unable to do anything. I was sent in circles and told to call various different numbers, and no one was able to help in the end. Oh, well. At least that will motivate me to try doing something with the MN Open API from MediaNet, sooner than I would have if I still had a music service.)
In addition to posting this news here, I've also edited my original blog post about Music Unlimited closing.If you have an active Music Unlimited subscription at the end of February 2015, you will be able to continue listening until the end of March, and you will not be charged during the month of March. Music Unlimited subscriptions will automatically expire on March 29 and will not renew again.
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| Sony's Music Unlimited is closing at the end of March 2015 |
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Thursday, January 29th, 2015 08:15:03 GMT |
News |
Today, I found out via an email from Sony that Music Unlimited is closing at the end of March.
How disappointing! I'm so tired of great services getting shut down.
But, here's one good bit of news. Quoted from http://www.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/music/:
(Addition, March 8, 2015: Actually, this was a bad idea. I did this, and I'm now considered a non-subscriber, so I'm going to have to contact customer support to see if I can reactivate my account for the rest of March.
Originally, I hadn't seen this FAQ page which says:
End of addition to this blog post, added March 8, 2015, 11:29 PM.)
Unless you want to subscribe to Playstation Music, which seems to just be Spotify streaming through your Playstation.
I'm not going to subscribe to Playstation Music because I don't have a Playstation 3 or 4, and I shouldn't get one in the near future, both for financial reasons, and to avoid distractions. And besides, I just don't like Spotify as much as Music Unlimited.
I think I'd rather try creating my own music service. Maybe I really will try, perhaps using the MN Open API from MediaNet.
As usual, I welcome donations, microdonations, and purchases of goods (none available yet as I write this) and services (which are somewhat available now, but I've been avoiding my email again lately). "Current Music Unlimited customers will be able to listen throughout March even if their subscriptions end before the month is over."
Not so good is this quote:
"Music Unlimited subscriptions will not renew after March 29."
So, if your subscription renews before March 29, then, you might want to manually cancel it in March before you possibly get charged.
If you have an active Music Unlimited subscription at the end of February 2015, you will be able to continue listening until the end of March, and you will not be charged during the month of March. Music Unlimited subscriptions will automatically expire on March 29 and will not renew again.
But, due to my chronic financial difficulties, I'm probably going to have to do something else instead.
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| My new favorite music service - Sony's Music Unlimited |
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Tuesday, September 9th, 2014 02:31:30 GMT |
Today, I finally signed up for a 30-day free trial of Sony's Music Unlimited.
It sounds wonderful! To me, it sounds like it might be equal to or maybe even better than MOG* was.
Mind you, I don't have very fancy audio equipment, and have only $30 Radio Shack headphones (which actually sound quite good to me, perhaps for lack of any experience with anything reputedly better).
But, in any case, I'm happy to have finally found a service with such high audio quality that I find it a completely satisfactory replacement for MOG - at least, audio-wise and price-wise.
It costs the same as MOG - $4.99 per month for the Access plan (which lets you listen via their web player, or a Playstation 3 or 4), or $9.99 per month for the Premium plan with access via more devices.
(Edit, 9/28/2014, 8:49 AM: I have to correct this! Music Unlimited's web player is much nicer than I thought it was. I just couldn't see that because I had my NoScript add-on in Firefox 32 configured wrong. Oddly, it was necessary to unblock JavaScript from twitter.com to make Music Unlimited's web player work properly.
Now that I did that, I have playlist-building capabilities which are similar to MOG - with drag and drop - but even better, because you can add or remove multiple songs at once!
Addition, 9:06 AM: So now, I'm even happier to subscribe to them! And I made playlists for my Tumblrs:
Addition, 10/3/2014: Today, I noticed that in Music Unlimited's web player, there's a "High Quality Streaming" setting which appears to be off by default, and deleting your web browser cookies can accidentally turn it off. Which definitely changes the sound, because before I realized this setting had accidentally gotten turned off, I started to suspect that Music Unlimited wasn't sounding as good as it used to. Fortunately, fixing this setting fixed the audio problems.
To fix this setting, click the "Premium User" link in the upper right corner, and select "Settings" from the dropdown menu. Then, next to "High Quality Streaming", click the "On" radio button. The letters "HQ" should appear underneath the song progress bar next time you play a song.)
So, Sony's Music Unlimited is the one I'm going to subscribe to. Perhaps if I ever make enough money, I'll upgrade to Qobuz or perhaps Pono Music, but, maybe only if I can really hear a difference.
(As for Beats Music, I always had the impression it didn't sound quite as good as MOG - and others think so too, as you can read here and here).
I did like Google's interface (though not as much as MOG). But for me, nothing can make up for a seeming lack of top-notch audio quality.
The web interface is definitely nowhere near as nice as the interface of MOG, or Rdio or Google Play Music All Access. But at least it's better than Beats Music's web interface was when I tried Beats Music in June/July.
Fortunately, the top thing I care about is great audio quality, and Sony's Music Unlimited has that. This is the best audio quality I've heard from a music service since MOG.
I tried a 30-day free trial of Google Play Music All Access in July/August, but I ended up scarcely using it because I thought the audio quality sounded subtly flawed somehow, and inferior even in comparison to Beats Music.
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| Why I didn't release code using the Beats Music Developer API |
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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014 05:22:39 GMT |
Here's why I didn't release any code which uses the Beats Music Developer API, despite the fact that I did make an unreleased, incomplete, but functional Beats Music-API-using add-on for my released JavaScript music player.
Basically, I can't stomach the idea of doing free work for a $3 billion dollar company, especially one owned by Apple. Even paid work for such a company would be morally difficult for me (see Richard Stallman's page on Why you should not buy Apple products for some reasons why) - even if I remained the owner and copyright holder of my code and could release it all myself under a free, libre, open source license.
Besides that, I didn't want to possibly imperil the copyleft of my JavaScript music player by releasing a Beats-Music-API-using add-on for it.
Alas, I received the disappointing reply that that the public API is for use for non-commercial purposes, but that "If you make an application with a strong use case, we can forward you to our partnership group. They would then contact you about steps to becoming a partner."
Then, on Tuesday, July 15th, I sent this message to Beats:
* Do partners get paid directly by Beats Music, and if so, how much does Beats Music pay on average?
* Or, do partners make money in other ways?
* Do partners remain the owner and copyright holder of their own code?
* Are partners allowed to release their code under a libre/open source license such as the GNU Affero General Public License?
* How close is Beats Music to releasing a complete official web player?
* Is Beats Music willing to pay for outside developers' help with that, or a Roku app?
I love the API, and have been having a fun time playing with it these past few weeks (though I haven't finished anything releasable so far).
Thanks again for your answers!
[name omitted]
I was told my message will be forwarded to the partnership group and that they should be contacting me directly.
But, over a week later, I still haven't heard anything from the "partnership group", and haven't yet received any answers to those questions.
Which I guess is not at all surprising, because mentioning free, libre, open source copyleft licenses to a closed-source software company is probably like waving garlic and a crucifix in front of a vampire. :-)
Anyway, my guess is "partner" is probably a euphemism for "sucker", similar to how "royalties" should usually actually be called "pittances". :-)
And I'm guessing probably all the answers to my questions would have been very disappointing.
I wonder if "partners" only get paid in free pairs of Beats headphones? :-)
The API was fun to play with, and I learned a bit from doing so, but, it definitely isn't fun enough to justify subscribing to Beats Music, especially when I'm not even sure Beats Music's alleged audio problems (described in detail here and here) have ever been fixed.
And, as of July 23, 2014, Beats Music's official web player (version 1.11.1-rc3) is still extremely lame and feature-deprived, despite the fact that Beats Music bought and mostly shut down (except in Australia) the tremendously superior MOG streaming music service, which had a fantastic web player.
The only obvious new feature I noticed in the official Beats Music web player is that you can now access the "My Library" section on the web. But, other than that, it seems about the same as I remember it being back in January/February 2014.
Apple (which owns Beats Music) should be ashamed, for that and many other reasons. (Again, here's Richard Stallman's page on Why you should not buy Apple products.)
I suspect I'll probably find them both satisfactory. But, after over a year of not being able to fix MOG's few but still annoying problems because MOG didn't have an API - it was really, really nice to finally have the opportunity to use my own, totally customizable music player. I don't know yet if Sony or Google provide APIs for their music services, but I hope they do, because even if I love their official web players, I'd still much rather use my own totally customizable one, and I might even choose a service with a crappy official web player as long as it has an API.
Perhaps it's not as hard as I suspect. I gleaned from this discussion that Beats Music and MOG both stream music from a service called MediaNet, located at mndigital.com.
I most likely won't actually go the trouble of starting my entire own streaming music service, but, I've definitely been daydreaming about it, and if I had nothing better to do and didn't need money (or at least didn't need money sooner than I'd be likely to get it from starting my own streaming music service), I might really work on it. :-)
Also, on July 13th, out of curiosity (and, admittedly, temptation resulting from needing money), I asked Beats Music if people can get paid for writing software using their developer API.
Thanks for your replies! Some more questions:
So, despite my financial difficulties tempting me to flirt with the idea - I'm almost certainly not going to do anything for Beats Music or which involves their API.
So, I'm soon going to move on to trying out Sony's Music Unlimited and Google Play Music All Access. (One at a time, of course.)
Anyway, if I ever do go the trouble to create a really complete player for streaming music, I'm likely to explore how to start my entire own streaming music service.
As usual, donations and microdonations and purchases of goods (still none available yet) and services are welcome.
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| Trying Beats Music again for 30 days, and writing a barebones JavaScript music player - funding welcome! |
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Tuesday, July 1st, 2014 03:57:27 GMT |
I decided not to accept the free 60 day trial of Beats Music* given to MOG* users. I refused it because apparently putting in credit or debit card info was required to get the free 60 days, and I'm still trying to mostly boycott credit cards (even though I occasionally make exceptions, like I did for MOG, since MOG didn't accept PayPal), and also, the billing errors I read about on the Beats Music support forums made me even more wary of giving Beats credit/debit card info.
If not for those billing errors I heard about, I probably would have done it, since it wouldn't have given a credit card company nor Apple* (which owns Beats Music) money if I canceled before my free 60 days ran out.
But, I didn't want to deal with the stress of knowing a potentially glitchy system has my debit card info. I don't even trust not-so-glitchy systems with my debit card info, because in my opinion, credit/debit cards seem to have really inadequate defenses against identity theft, etc. I believe credit card companies could and should do a lot more to protect their customers from identity theft, fraud, etc., and it's despicable for credit card companies not to.
But alas, after I got a Target gift card for Beats Music on eBay and used it with Beats, Beats customer support told me I still had to put in credit card info. Oh, well.
So, from the gift card I bought, I got 30 days of Beats Music, which I started late on June 26th.
But, I've actually been enjoying my Beats Music trial, because I've been playing with the Beats Music Developer API.
In just a few days, I already managed to put together a very basic, barebones JavaScript music player which I already like much more than Beats Music's official web player. Though I definitely can't take all that much credit for it - I stand on the shoulders of giants. For example, the actual sound-playing part wasn't even built by me at all, but is instead handled by the JavaScript library SoundManager 2.
It's not ready for release yet, though. I need to figure out what kind of copyleft license(s) I can put on it, and also try to keep the web player code as separate as possible from code related to specific music streaming services.
I'd like to make it so it's easy to switch to using a different streaming music service. Spotify and Rdio both have APIs too:
However, if any of these streaming music services' APIs' legal terms are too obnoxious or grabby, then, I might have to release my player distinctly separate from any code associated with those music services.
At the very least, I will probably be able to release a simple free, libre, open source JavaScript music player that will play MP3 files, and could be modified to work with other things, like streaming music services.
I hope I'll get it releasable soon, and also hope that my and my family's financial issues won't pull me away from finishing it. Donations or microdonations or purchases of goods (none available yet) or services are very welcome!
And if Beats Music, Spotify, Rdio, or some other company like that might perhaps like to hire me or buy some of my work, please note that I am extremely stubborn about wanting to write only free (as in freedom), libre, open source software. So, while I'm not against getting paid, I'm generally against selling exclusive rights to any of my work.
I also already like my barebones player more than Spotify and Rdio's players. Spotify's web player used to work OK for me, but sometime in the past few months, became horrendously, intolerably slow in my usual web browser. Meanwhile, Rdio's web player is very, very slick, and I actually like it a lot - but, I love having total control over my player's interface, and being able to totally do without needless user interface special effects like things fading in and out instead of appearing instantly. It's also nice not having to load album art, etc.
I wish I knew if my web player's audio quality is better than Beats Music's official web player (which is reputed by various users on both the MOG support forum and Beats support forum to have audio problems, especially in comparison to MOG). I think my web player might be a bit better, but I'm not totally sure, and haven't done any formal testing. My web player definitely doesn't sound worse to me - either the same or better. But I could be wrong.
Another thing which was educational (
Like the beatsmusic-node-rtmp script, cashmusic.js uses the SoundManager 2 JavaScript library, which, if I'm not mistaken, can play audio via Flash or HTML5. SoundManager 2 is also free/libre/open source, under the BSD license.
I thought since both cashmusic.js and beatsmusic-node-rtmp use SoundManager 2, that might mean cashmusic.js could be useable with Beats Music, but, I can't figure out know how to make cashmusic.js play Beats Music's RTMP streams, and don't know if there's an easy way to do it or not.
If so, how?
Thanks!
It received -3 votes, no answers, and 5 people put my post "on hold" for the questions supposedly being too broad. I edited it a bit, but in the end, I decided the answers (and waiting around for StackOverflow to remove the "on hold" status from my post) no longer really interested me, and I also dislike the idea that on StackOverflow, people could potentially edit my question posts and make it look like I wrote things I didn't write, so I just deleted it.
I managed to do this thanks to cashmusic.js itself, and also thanks to various educational posts and snippets of code I found by searching the web - which actually probably usually came from StackOverflow, which is still a useful resource despite its often rather overzealous and misguided moderation policies, and its total uselessness when I asked my questions above, the first questions I ever posted there.
(Edit, 7/21/2014, 5:52 PM EDT: I released a basic player here: Astroblahhh Basic MP3 Player Version 1, in JavaScript.)
If you liked this post or found it useful, or would like to make it easier and less stressful for me to complete and/or release my barebones JavaScript music player, donations or microdonations or purchases of goods (none available yet) or services would be much appreciated!
Ideally, I'd like to somehow make at least $2400 a month, which is apparently around what my 4-person family needs to cover our expenses each month. Probably if I were living on my own in a small apartment, I could get by on far less than that, like maybe less than $800 per month. But, I don't actually want to move out - I'd rather just be able to afford to move out, and have a massive amount of savings built up, so we don't have to live in fear anymore.
If any rich person or people, or large multitudes of people sending smaller donations or microdonations, would like to rescue me and my family from having to worry about money all the time, that would be awesome. Thanks!
I made some effort to try to get the 60-day Beats Music trial without a credit/debit card, but, alas, that didn't work out. After some contact with Beats customer support earlier this month, I got the mistaken impression that if I bought a gift card for Beats Music from Target, putting in credit card info wouldn't be necessary.
It turns out the Beats Music web player is still about as bad and feature-deprived as I remember it being in January/February 2014.
Anyway, in some ways, I actually already like my barebones player even more than MOG*'s web player, because my barebones player is faster, modifiable, and doesn't have MOG's #1 most irritating glitch, where everything would freeze up and the page would become unuseable for maybe 30-60 seconds. That glitch used to happen to me pretty consistently, maybe several times per hour.
One disadvantage of my web player is that it doesn't run in Firefox 3.6.13 (a really old version of Firefox I still frequently use in Lucid Puppy Linux 5.2.8 version 004), so I have to use it in Chromium 18.0.996.0 (Developer Build 116133. Also, I'm not sure there's way to make it run from a file:/// address in your web browser, so, I've had to run it on a web server, even though it's just a client-side JavaScript with no server-side code.
The beatsmusic-node-rtmp script someone linked to from this StackOverflow page (in reply to a perfectly good enough question which didn't deserve to be closed by StackOverflow's overzealous moderators) was quite educational and useful, and I probably wouldn't have figured things out so quickly without it. Thanks to the author(s) of that!
even though I haven't actually used code from it so far (Edit, July 1, 2014, 3:41 AM: I forgot, I did use and modify a couple snippets), and haven't yet been able to figure out how to make it work with Beats Music) was cashmusic.js, which is free, libre, open source JavaScript software from a non-profit organization called CASH Music*. Thanks to them too!
One thing that wasn't so helpful was StackOverflow*'s reaction to this simple post of mine, formerly here:
Can cashmusic.js - http://cashmusic.github.io/cashmusic.js/ - be used to play Beats Music music streams?
Happily, I surprisingly quickly figured out how to make make my own versions of everything that I thought I was most likely going to have to use cashmusic.js (or something similar) for - a song progress bar, song duration, and real-time updating of what time you're at in the song.
Anyway - as usual, for financial reasons, I can't really afford to put that much time into my barebones music player (or anything else that interests me if it doesn't seem likely to make money somehow), so, I'm hoping I'll be able to make something releaseable in the next few days. I apologize in advance if it turns out I can't achieve that.
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| Beats Electronics to be acquired by Apple - MOG closing May 31st - and thoughts on other music services |
|
Friday, May 30th, 2014 16:30:48 GMT |
News |
(Note, 6/1/2014, 1:09 PM: I've updated and corrected this post a little.)
Some simultaneously good (maybe) and bad news - Beats Electronics*, owner of the Beats Music* streaming music service, is going to be acquired by Apple* for $3 billion dollars, which I've read will be Apple's largest purchase ever.
Here's a page from Apple.com announcing the news:
Perhaps Apple will have the wisdom to bring back the many wonderful features of the much better streaming music service MOG, which, according to the MOG article in Wikipedia, Beats acquired around July 2012 for a mere $14 million - far less, in my opinion, than the makers of MOG deserve.
Judging by posts to the Beats Music support forum, many of MOG's best features are still mostly missing from Beats Music, despite Beats Music having launched last January.
And, on the same Beats support forum page, there's a post by a different Beats/MOG customer who compared waveforms of MOG and Beats audio of the same song, and thought they looked significantly different from each other. A small quote (see this page for the entire original post):
But will Apple actually do any of the above good things, or will they try to coast along on marketing hype without putting so much effort into creating and providing truly top quality products and services? I don't know, but I guess we'll see. If I ever am truly impressed by what Apple and Beats Music achieve, I'll let you all know someday.
In my opinion, Puppy* mauls Lion, in quite a lot of important ways which you can get an idea of by reading this thing I wrote: What is free, libre, open source software?
Thank goodness it's possible to run Puppy Linux on Mac hardware! I've successfully run Puppy via a live CD or DVD on both a MacBook from 2009, and a Mac Pro desktop computer from Feb. 2008. (I tried Lucid Puppy Linux 5.2.8, probably version 004, on the MacBook, and Lighthouse 64 Puppy Linux - not sure what version - on the Mac Pro.) That makes Macs in general far more useful and enjoyable for me to use. :-)
For example, why did Apple get rid of something as fun and awesome as HyperCard*?! Also, I've seen many comments which claim that all MacOSes after Snow Leopard have been inferior. (Which reminds me of what many people, including me, think of all Windows* versions beyond Windows XP.)
In any case, I guess time will tell if Apple fixes Beats Music up to the point of being as good as or better than MOG, or if they'll mess Beats Music up even more than it already was.
I'm guessing they'll most likely improve Beats Music, at least to some extent (hopefully at least equal to or better than MOG) - but, who knows? We'll see.
See Richard Stallman's page Why you should not buy Apple computer products for more details.
Or even this, by me (which I already linked to above): What is free, libre, open source software?
Currently, the music services I find most interesting and appealing are Qobuz* and WiMP*. Apparently, they provide top-quality lossless audio!
Both are too expensive for me at the moment, and I haven't even tried them yet. But, despite the fact that those services are based in Europe, Americans posting to this page in the MOG support forum reported success subscribing to them.
Music Unlimited has an Access plan for $4.99 per month - the same price as MOG's basic plan - with 320 kbps quality and a web player, and access via a Playstation 3* or Playstation 4*.
So, if I somehow manage to get a Playstation 3 or 4 (not likely in the near future given my and my family's endless financial problems), I'll be able to use that instead of my Roku to play music through my old stereo that I've had since 1995 (and which, happily, still mostly works fine).
I'm hoping Music Unlimited's audio quality will be at least as good as MOG's. Unfortunately, I don't know, because you can't just assume based on bitrate alone that every 320 kbps stream is just as good as any other. More details here.
Google Play Music is $9.99 per month, and I've read both good and a few bad things about it, many of which you can read in the previous link.
(Addition, 6/1/2014, 10:56 AM. True, the web browser I usually use with Spotify is a bit obscure - Chromium 18.0.996.0 (Developer Build 116133 Linux) in Lucid Puppy Linux 5.2.8 version 004 - but, Spotify used to work much, much better for me before in the exact same web browser - same version and everything.)
At this point, Spotify's web player is actually even worse for me than Beats Music's web player was when I last tried it several months ago. At least Beats Music's web player was much faster for me than Spotify's is now.
Another notable thing about Spotify is that they now allow unlimited free streaming with quite noticeably inferior audio quality, though I think it's better than the audio in many YouTube* videos. It doesn't sound good enough for me to be happy to do without a higher-quality service, but, I appreciate the fact that it exists.
Thank you so much for taking the time to get in touch.
Our streaming quality is up to 320 Kbps at the moment. But I would recommend you to contact Roku support, because we've been working 192 kbps with them but it's possible that they are planning to increase it.
Feel free to get back in touch if there's anything else we can help you with.
Kind regards,"
[name omitted]
So, I'm unsure if Spotify's Roku audio quality is as good as I'd like, but, maybe that's resolved after all these months?)
I tried Rdio back in March. Very slick interface, which Rdio is often praised for (and rightly so, in my opinion) - but, I still preferred MOG's interface. Also, I wasn't satisfied with Rdio's audio quality - which, as of March, hadn't yet been upgraded. Perhaps the audio quality is better now. I should try Rdio again sometime.
(Addition, 6/1/2014, 11:57 AM: Rdio's Unlimited plan is $9.99 per month, and they also have a free option, according to this page.
And, Rdio has a Roku app and Chromecast*, among other things, according to this page.
Edit, 6/1/2014, 1:06 PM. They have a 50% student discount on the Unlimited plan, and 50% off the Unlimited plan if you want web-only access, and some family plan discounts - all explained on this page. If you only have a 2-person family, it will cost $17.99 - but it's more than that if you have more people. So, Beats Music's $14.99 family plan "For up to 5 people and 10 devices" (according to this page) actually might cost significantly less than Rdio for many families.)
However, I'm probably going to wait until Beats Music hopefully improves. If/when people on the Beats Music support forums start seeming happier in general, I might try it then.
(Addition, 6/1/2014, 10:49 AM. According to this Beats Knowledge Base page: "This offer can only be redeemed up to June 30th.")
As of May 30, 2014, I'm not actually selling any goods yet, but, maybe that will change sometime soon.
This might be good news for Beats Music customers, insofar as Apple probably has the resources and ability to make Beats Music into a great, top-notch service - which Beats Music most definitely is not yet, judging by all the unhappy customers at the Beats Music support forum.
Apple should be capable of fixing Beats Music's alleged audio quality problems - problems which a very knowledgeable-seeming MOG customer described in some MOG support forum posts and some Beats support forum posts.
"I also noticed the adjusted waveforms did not match each other too closely, so there's more different than just the volume."
Another potential benefit of Apple acquiring Beats Music is the fact that, if Apple wants to, Apple would definitely be capable of providing top-quality, lossless audio - higher than 320 kbps quality, and even better than MOG.
Even though I'm not a fan of Apple, even I have to admit that sometimes Apple does a reasonably good job at designing things and making them pleasant and easy enough to use - though I'm still far more satisfied with my customized Lucid Puppy Linux 5.2.8 version 004 than with Mac OS X Lion.
Judging by my experiences with Apple products (when I'm not running Linux, also known as GNU/Linux*, on them), and also judging by many comments I've read in various places around the web - in my opinion, Apple definitely isn't as great as their hyped-up reputation, and many people think Apple has messed many things up that were apparently much better before.
Sadly - even if Apple someday manages to make Beats Music equal to or better than MOG, there might very likely still be reasons - both ethical and practical reasons - not to buy Apple products.
Also, I will be surprised if Beats Music ever ends up with Roku* or Chromecast* capabilities now, because Apple has a competing product, the AppleTV*. But, who knows?
In any case, since MOG is closing tomorrow (May 31st), I'm going to have to find a new music service to use. (Or, I can save $5 to $10 a month by doing without one for a while.)
Other than those two, the alternatives I'm most interested are Sony's Music Unlimited, and Google Play Music All Access, neither of which I've tried yet.
Spotify*'s Premium service is also $9.99 per month (or half that if you're a student), and at least has a Roku app. But, lately, Spotify's web player has gotten unbearably slow and awful in my web browsers. It used to work better, but now it's terrible for me.
(Addition, 6/1/2014, 10:46 AM. I forgot to mention this before. When I contacted Spotify support on January 23rd, 2014 asking about their Roku audio quality, I got this very polite and informative reply:
"Hello there,
Rdio* is finally upgrading to 320 kbps audio quality, according to their blog:
I will probably try Beats Music again at some point because a Beats Music mail I got on May 2nd said all Moggers can get 2 free months, and "This offer is available for ALL Moggers. Even if you already tried Beats Music."
If you liked this post or found it useful, donations or purchases of goods or services would be much appreciated!
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| MOG streaming music service's April 15th shutdown is delayed! And other good news |
|
Tuesday, April 1st, 2014 04:16:34 GMT |
News |
Here's some news related to MOG*, my current favorite streaming music service. The MOG Q&A section of Beats Music's support site was recently updated with some great news!
This page says:
And also says:
So, happily, MOG users will at least get to keep MOG for longer than we thought.
An article about that from CNET.com:
But, I'm probably going to wait instead, and perhaps play with Rdio's API or Spotify's API for a while, if I can without subscribing.
Actually, I'm probably not even going to play with any music service API - I'm too preoccupied with other things. But if I do, of course I'd like to design my music software in such a way that I could easily use it with whatever service I prefer.
And, like all of my other software (except all I haven't released yet), I would make it libre and open source.
But, I think releasing an API and postponing MOG's shutdown were some really smart moves, so that gives me hope. :-)
"The initial April 15 date we set for shutting down the MOG service has been extended for the time being to give us time to add and complete the features we think will ensure the smoothest, easiest transition from MOG to Beats Music as possible."
"We will still offer all MOG subscribers a one-month free trial of Beats Music once we establish an end-date for MOG."
The next best Beats Music*-related news I heard of lately is - Beats Music released an API for developers.
Here's a link to the Beats Music developer site:
I've felt a little tempted to subscribe to Beats Music early - even while Beats Music is still half-baked and scarcely able to compete with MOG or various other services - just so as to be able to play around with the Beats Music API, and perhaps build my own Roku app to replace the MOG Roku app no one will be able to use anymore whenever MOG is finally shut down.
Those two pieces of news - MOG's shutdown being postponed; and the Beats API - both greatly increase my optimism that Beats Music might someday become the best streaming music service available - even though they definitely have a lot of work to do to get there.
One last thing. A couple weeks ago, I finally found out that MOG has a a Playlists section, which features not only MOG users' public playlists, but also a lot of playlists built by famous musicians.
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| MOG streaming music service is closing April 15th, 2014; and I hope Beats Music improves |
|
Wednesday, January 29th, 2014 06:31:12 GMT |
News |
(Edit, April 1, 2014, 12:19 AM: Here's an update: MOG streaming music service's April 15th shutdown is delayed! And other good news)
And contrary to what I hoped and almost expected - Beats Music so far doesn't even come close to being as good as MOG. There are so many glitches and missing features, which is especially shocking because I thought probably the main point of Beats even buying MOG was probably to base Beats' new systems on MOG's existing, fantastic, stable systems.
But, Beats is currently so glitchy and lacking in MOG features, I'm guessing Beats started over from scratch instead. And perhaps Beats rushed to an extremely premature launch because the Super Bowl* is next Sunday (Feb. 2nd). (There's actually an entire Wikipedia article about Super Bowl advertising.)
(Edit, Jan. 29, 2014, 5:30 PM EST: Also, the Grammy Awards* happened on Jan. 26, 2014.)
Currently, my most likely alternative choice is Spotify*, because Spotify's web player is useable enough (though not as nice as MOG's), and their audio quality is apparently 320 kbps for Premium users, same as MOG. (And actually same as Beats too - so at least Beats doesn't have a problem with audio quality.)
Also, Spotify, like MOG, and unlike Beats, has a Roku* app. (Despite my preference for free, libre, open source everything - I still enjoy the Roku, and mostly use it for MOG* and Netflix*.)
By the way, if you're interested in a Beats Music Roku* app, perhaps posting about it or voting for it at Beats Music's support forum would help? http://support.beatsmusic.com/hc/communities/public/questions/200434850-Roku-App
But, even though it's not really a perfectly comfortable price for me, it's still pretty good. If I were rich, I'd be happy paying a lot more than that.
(And actually, I would love to donate gigantic amounts of money directly to my favorite musicians, especially any who aren't already rich and really need the money. And also, of course, to tons of other people besides musicians, who also improve the world but often are insufficiently rewarded for it. And of course, to the desperately poor - who should be first in line for help. Darn, I wish I could afford to just give away tons of money directly to people... and I wish rich people would do that sort of thing a lot more often. It would make such a huge difference in the world.
Which brings me around yet again to the topic of microdonations - where a great many tiny donations from tons of people could add up to huge amounts of money, even if absolutely none of the people donating are rich themselves. Maybe that would be a good way to alleviate poverty without having to depend on any help from rich people? But I digress...)
I don't know if Spotify has any privacy-impacting annoyances or not, but, might as well be cautious.
But as long as the Beats systems continue to be as glitchy and bereft of the best MOG features as they currently are, I think most people (including me) will continue to prefer other, better services, such as Spotify*. Especially if Beats keeps trying to charge $9.99 per month - twice as much as MOG's Basic plan, $4.99 per month - for a service that is overall inferior to MOG.
And overall inferior to Spotify, and inferior in many ways (though better in some ways) compared to probably just about any other streaming music service you could name. Except, again, I should point out that at least Beats has 320 kbps audio too, same as MOG* and Spotify*, and better than Pandora* (maximum 192 kbps) and probably Rdio* (Rdio's quality level isn't on their FAQ page currently, but people complain about it.)
It's not Beats' audio quality I object to, it's mainly Beats' lack of features which MOG, Spotify, and other services have - really basic stuff like a full-featured, easily-controlled web player which starts playing songs quickly and which can do everything the mobile app can do and more, a play queue, much better capabilities for building playlists, the ability to easily start a radio of random songs by a particular musician or of a particular genre, etc. And plenty of other problems people have been pointing out at the Beats Music support forum.
Fortunately for Beats - thanks to owning MOG*, Beats could so easily get on the right track! And I really hope they do, soon.
If you want to vote or comment on my post, you can do so here: http://support.beatsmusic.com/hc/communities/public/questions/200073899-Bring-Beats-up-to-the-quality-of-MOG-or-at-least-Spotify-and-here-s-how
Hi. I already posted most of this message to the Beats support page, but, I thought it would be good to email it too, since it contains some time-sensitive ideas on improving Beats in time for the Super Bowl.
I don't need a long reply, but, it would definitely be nice to know if Beats will at least someday be made as functional and elegant as MOG.
And if you read the support forum, you'll see I'm far from alone. Even people who sound like they've never used MOG keep mentioning how Beats is glitchy and lacks functionality compared to other streaming services.
But since you own MOG, which works great - having an under-functional service is all a completely avoidable problem for Beats! You could just reuse MOG and add Beats features onto it.
This message is going to be rather blunt and harsh (sorry about that). But, I hope it's helpful.
I finally tried Beats, for both the mobile and the web.
I never used MOG's mobile app, so I can't compare the Beats mobile app to MOG. (But my guess is, the MOG mobile apps are probably much better, judging by how much better the MOG web interface is than the Beats web interface.)
The Beats mobile app (on an iPhone) is at least better than the Beats web interface, and songs start playing quite quickly in the mobile app.
The Beats mobile app's graphics are nice, but I find the interface rather messy and confusing. I haven't tried the Spotify mobile app lately, but if I recall correctly, the Spotify mobile app was better since it was easier to find things in.
I like the idea of curated playlists, and The Sentence thing is amusing, but those features aren't enough to make Beats seem better than Spotify, or especially MOG.
Beats is currently too lacking in basic, core features that other music streaming services already do much better.
The Beats web interface is slow to start songs, it's hard and slow to skip around to different points in the same song, and I can't find a radio feature. I can't find My Library. I can't create playlists.
Unless Beats is made as nice and useable as MOG, or unless the old MOG interfaces are kept available, it is extremely unlikely that I will subscribe to Beats.
Not only is Spotify's web interface better than Beats (though not as slick as MOG's), Spotify has a Roku app, unlike Beats. (But MOG, which Beats bought, has a Roku app, so, I don't see why Beats couldn't easily have a Roku app as well.)
And I am very ticked off at Beats for buying out my favorite streaming music service, MOG, and planning to shut it down, with no guarantees that you're going to create an equal or superior product to MOG.
And since Beats Music actually bought MOG, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn't have started Beats off right with a system capable of everything MOG can do, and more.
Marketing can only carry you so far if you don't have a good product/service.
But fortunately for Beats Music, when you bought MOG, you bought an absolutely fantastic product/service - possibly even the best streaming music service currently in existence. (Unless there's something better out there that I haven't tried yet.)
So, thanks to the brilliant move of buying MOG, Beats Music should be entirely capable of providing a truly fantastic service, instead of an overhyped, overpriced, under-developed mess that was launched far too soon.
But I think MOG, being promoted as enthusiastically as Beats, could have easily beaten Spotify - even at $9.99 per month, without the $4.99 MOG Basic plan being offered. (But continuing the $4.99 Basic plan would probably make your victory against Spotify even more certain.)
If you reuse MOG's already very complete, elegant, stable systems, however, there will be far less for your programmers to rush to finish before the Super Bowl.
*************** You already have a product/service that is better than Spotify - MOG! ***************
And my guess is, there's probably not enough time before the Super Bowl to get the existing Beats system up to the standard of MOG, or even up to the standard of Spotify - unless you reuse MOG.
But, I believe that above, I've given you the best advice I can think of to make Beats a success.
Best wishes and good luck with everything, and I hope I won't have to join Spotify in the end.
Good day Apollia,
Beats Music want to thank you for your great suggestions for our Music App. I will forward these suggestions to our Development Support Team, and maybe you will some of your suggestions implemented into the Beats Music App soon.
Thanks for your recommendations, and continued support.
Thank you...Beats Music Support
And, if you're interested in a Beats Music Roku* app, here's this other post you can vote or comment on: http://support.beatsmusic.com/hc/communities/public/questions/200434850-Roku-App
If Beats Music* ever improves enough for me to become a customer, I will gladly post about it!
My favorite streaming music website, MOG*, is being shut down April 15th, 2014 because MOG was bought by Beats Electronics* in 2012 (says Wikipedia), and Beats Music* just opened on Jan. 21, 2014.
Anyway, you might want to try a free trial of MOG while it's still available. I don't yet know of a better streaming music service anywhere, especially at the price of $4.99 per month. (Not that it's 100% perfect, but, what is?)
Spotify's Premium option is $9.99 per month, twice as much as MOG's $4.99 per month Basic plan with no mobile access.
Whatever streaming music service I join, I probably will sign up with a user name totally different than Apollia, and an email address I don't normally use, just to dodge many possible privacy issues.
I do think Beats Music has some chance of eventual success, but only if they play their cards much better than they have so far. Using MOG-based systems, I believe Beats could become the leader in the streaming music industry. (Actually, I think MOG probably could have done that on its own if it had been marketed better.)
Here's my email to Beats Music*, which also contains what I posted to their support forum.
My Best Advice for Beats
I'm really upset about your plans to shut MOG down, and it has been spoiling my excitement about Beats.
The message I posted to the support forum begins below. Originally posted to:
BRING BEATS UP TO THE QUALITY OF MOG OR AT LEAST SPOTIFY - AND HERE'S HOW
The Beats web interface (version 1.0.6) is horrible compared to MOG's web interface. It's also horrible compared to Spotify's web interface. Spotify's web interface is actually decently useable and fast, even if it's not as slick as MOG's.
For $9.99 a month, Spotify currently seems like a far better product than Beats. (But I still would choose MOG over Spotify for $9.99 per month.)
Compared to MOG, Beats seems really incomplete, and it probably shouldn't have even been launched until it was at least as good as MOG.
I think Beats's current service doesn't have a prayer of winning against Spotify, or of keeping most MOG customers.
I think the only reason MOG wasn't more popular than Spotify was because of lack of marketing.
In your shoes, I would just rebrand the existing MOG systems as Beats, give them a slight graphical makeover, and carefully add the coolest new Beats features onto them - as long as it doesn't slow down or break the existing very slick and elegant MOG interfaces.
Perhaps it would even be possible to get that done before Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 2nd)?
Over time, I'd also implement a lot of the good ideas suggested here and at the MOG feedback site: http://feedback.mog.com/forums/50607-feature-suggestions
You might or might not have hired excellent programmers, but even fantastic programmers generally can't do their best and most polished work if they're too rushed - such as if you were trying to get Beats launched in time for the Super Bowl.
Anyway, I hope this helps, and sorry again for being rather blunt and harsh.
And here was the quick reply (sent 30 minutes after my email, which I sent at 12:29 PM EST on Jan. 28, 2014):
(Beats Music Support)
Jan 28 09:59
Beats Music Listener Support
Again - if you want to vote or comment on my post to the Beats Music Support forum, you can do so here: http://support.beatsmusic.com/hc/communities/public/questions/200073899-Bring-Beats-up-to-the-quality-of-MOG-or-at-least-Spotify-and-here-s-how
As a current MOG* customer, I have a 1 month free trial of Beats Music to look forward to, starting March 15th, according to this support page.
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| All or Nothing At All |
|
Sunday, September 4th, 2011 11:39:24 GMT |
Video |
I love finding little-known gems on YouTube. :-)
This video currently has only 1,135 views:
ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL - BIG BAND 31
It's the most entertaining rendition of All or Nothing At All I've ever seen or heard.
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| Susan Boyle's "Cry Me A River" |
|
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 20:11:39 GMT |
Probably everyone has heard of Susan Boyle by now. The video of her on Britain's Got Talent is everywhere.
What fewer people might have heard of, yet, is a song she sung for a CD done for charity, released in 1999. It's a slow-paced jazz/blues tune called "Cry Me a River". You can hear it (and read about it) at The Daily Record: Exclusive: Susan Boyle's first ever song release revealed - listen to it here.
It's also available on YouTube: Susan Boyle - Cry Me A River - 1999 Recording (From The Scottish Daily Record Newspaper)
Heartbreakingly beautiful. It's astounding that the world took this long to discover her.
Here's the Wikipedia article on the song Cry Me A River. Also, here's a page with some lyrics.
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| Lemon Demon |
|
Friday, April 10th, 2009 01:10:11 GMT |
Astrosorted Music List Update |
Here's another Astrosorted Music List update. Below are links to 16 fabulous legally free songs. All but one are by the band Lemon Demon; the one that isn't is by Trapezoid, the former band of Lemon Demon's Neil Cicierega.
Lemon Demon has albums and songs for sale for very reasonable prices at CDFreedom.com. You can even pay for them via PayPal.
Lemon Demon also has a Store page with other merchandise.
In no particular order:
Warning: The noise from about 3:56 onward is annoying.
Warning: The first 4 seconds are kind of loud and annoying.
Warning: A bit shrill and/or loud sometimes.
Comment: The hilarious video this song is based on can be watched on YouTube: Ben Bernanke There's also a music video version, but you should download the MP3 for the best audio quality.
Length: 4:06 File Size: 4.93 MB Vocals Grating
Lemon Demon
Length: 3:45 File Size: 4.52 MB Vocals Grating
Lemon Demon
Length: 1:03 File Size: 1.02 MB Vocals
Lemon Demon
Length: 4:14 File Size: 5.09 MB Vocals
Lemon Demon
Length: 0:29 File Size: 0.48 MB Vocals
Lemon Demon
Length: 2:35 File Size: 2.49 MB Vocals Volume Grating
Trapezoid
Length: 2:29 File Size: 3.00 MB Vocals
Lemon Demon
Length:0:45 File Size: 0.73 MB Vocals
Lemon Demon
Length: 3:33 File Size: 5.12 MB Vocals Profanity Grating
Lemon Demon
Length: 4:05 File Size: 4.90 MB Vocals Grating
Lemon Demon
Length: 1:00 File Size: 0.97 MB Vocals Grating
Lemon Demon
Length: 5:21 File Size: 5.14 MB Vocals Volume Grating
Lemon Demon
Length: 4:27 File Size: 5.35 MB Vocals Profanity
Lemon Demon
Length: 2:06 File Size: 2.53 MB Vocals
Lemon Demon
Length: 4:37 File Size: 5.55 MB Vocals
Lemon Demon
Length: 0:55 File Size: 0.89 MB Vocals Grating
Lemon Demon
| 15 New Songs |
|
Monday, March 30th, 2009 11:25:40 GMT |
Astrosorted Music List Update |
Here's another Astrosorted Music List update.
Below are links to 15 exquisite, legally free songs by numerous brilliantly talented musicians.
Comment: After you follow the song's link, click the floppy disk icon to download.
Warning: The part around 1:07-1:08 is a bit loud.
Web Download
Length: 3:05 File Size: 4.46 MB Vocals
Robert Calvert & The Maximum Effect
Length: 5:47 File Size: 5.62 MB
Shnabubula
Length: 20:04 File Size: 48.17 MB
Xerxes
Length: 2:09 File Size: 2.07 MB Vocals
Da Buzz, Hale-Bopp
Length: 2:24 File Size: 2.30 MB Vocals
BezoOcRemix
Length: 2:58 File Size: 3.58 MB
The Pancake Chef
Length: 3:23 File Size: 4.87 MB
po!
Length: 1:55 File Size: 2.77 MB
McVaffe
Length: 1:20 File Size: 1.93 MB
JAXX
Length: 3:43 File Size: 3.58 MB
Gux
Length: 4:36 File Size: 4.42 MB
Neskvartetten
Length: 6:10 File Size: 5.92 MB
Neskvartetten
Length: 4:30 File Size: 4.33 MB
Neskvartetten
Length: 4:14 File Size: 5.10 MB Volume Grating
lasombraVGMix X
Length: 0:49 File Size: 1.97 MB
texx sound