MP3 Blog Aggregators Replace P2P
Now Playing: Metroplis w/ Jason Bentley - KCRW
Topic: Music

Although Marco spurred me to finally post on this subject, mp3 blogs, I first thought about a couple weeks back when Dennis launched The Fire Through on MySpace. I was trying to figure out other ways to freely publicize and share the music with the rest of the internet world, beyond just the MySpace community (which is substantial, don't get me wrong).

Then there was Jose asking me a couple weeks back, after I emailed him this hilarious remake of Baby Got Back (mp3), "how the hell do you find this stuff?" It's my job. Here's how I do it: lots and lots of reading and mp3 blog aggregators.

My music listening habits have changed a lot over the last two years, as I've shifted from discovering new music from the traditional radio to discovering music through internet radio (KCRW almost exclusively). Now my music acquiring experience has shifted from P2P to blogs, specifically mp3 blog aggregators. I've found a lot of great music from the increasingly number of blogs that I've started reading over the last year or so. More often than not, blogs will post one or two songs from a new or favorite artist to give you a taste of the music. You can link to the 30-second clips on iTunes but why not post a whole track and let your blog readers decide whether the artist's album is worth purchasing. I'm of the faith that a few tracks out there for download actually benefits artists.

But searching blogs for mp3 can be tedious (although I do enjoy it, it's like trolling the aisles of a used record store because you never know what gems you may find). Enter mp3 blog aggregators:

The Internet Archive (the granddaddy of free mp3 files, not a blog but their collection is massive)

The Hype Machine (add it to your Firefox search drop-down)

Stereogum

Elbo.ws

Odeo (geared towards podcasts but still effective for finding mp3)

Mp3 blog aggregators aren't my discovery, they are a natural outgrowth of blogs, rss feeds, and good search/cache services-- Audio RSS for Generation Lazy. What's new to me, though, is how easily I've transitioned from using P2P to using mp3 blogs for finding mp3s. The gradual transition has been an evolution and not a revolution, for two reasons:

WinMX shut its doors, so I started searching for new avenues to mps

Tons of great, thought-provoking blogs that also share similar musical tastes as mine (buttressed by services like Last.fm)

For example, one of my current favorites and often cited, Fred Wilson's VC blog. Fred posts about a lot of great subjects, from technology to VC and everything in between for those on the cutting edge of internet development. Additionally, he likes great music and he and his family do a weekly podcast, Positively 10th Street, highlighting new and old music that they're playing in heavy rotation.

Mp3 blogs and blog aggregators are more examples of apps moving online (yes, the 'ol Web 2.0 moniker), where the internet becomes the platform. Forget P2P, I can now find most of the music that I want (read- good music that most commercial FM stations would never play) from mp3 blogs.

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Speaking of good 'ol traditional radio, support WBER by voting in their 2005 Listener Countdown. As much as I'd like to, you can only pick from the list of songs that the station has played over the last year (which means you can choose your favorites unless they're on the list) so choose wisely.

Lastly, following up on the funny Slate article on the worst track of 2005, here's the Arcade Fire & Black Eyed Peas mashup called "Hump My Tunnel" that sums up all of 2005 (almost, according to Stereogum).

Currently Listening: Metroplis w/ Jason Bentley - KCRW

Posted by cph19 at 12:01 AM EST

Updated: Thursday, 15 December 2005 12:19 AM EST

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D.C. Here I Come...
Now Playing: Wyclef - Yele
Topic: Personal or Reflective

(and yes, that's my FUCC hoodie)

Young Consumers Are The First 'Technology Everywhere' Generation
Now Playing: The Fray - Over My Head (Cable Car)
Topic: Web 2.0
Thanks to the Sage RSS extension for Firefox (see the cool art that it sometimes produces), I have a growing list of sites that I frequent when there's spare time (more in abundance now before the holidays). It leads to those ah-hah moments that I love so much because they validate my late-night reading/blogging marathons.

Take the juxtaposition of two Industry Analyst Reporter News' headlines and mix in a post from the mighty fine Mediaeater and you have another interesting point/counter-point:

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"Reducing piracy 10 points worldwide could create 2.4 million jobs, $400 billion in growth" (link)
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"Young Consumers Are The First 'Technology Everywhere' Generation" (link)
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"MySpace's millions changing the face of music" (link)

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I have a hard time believing the Business Software Alliance's estimates on piracy but add the second article and the estimated cost savings from reducing piracy doesn't matter because it equals the third article.

Currently Playing: The Fray - Over My Head (Cable Car)

Starting Another Stage in Your Life
Now Playing: This American Life - via WXXI
Topic: Personal or Reflective
I read FastCompany, among three different snowboard magazines, during my latest decompression session Friday night at Barnes & Noble. I wrote down the code for accessing the magazine's web-only content. I never buy magazines, I just browse and take notes while sitting at the Starbucks cafe in BN.

Came cross this article online about "an IT analyst [who] pursues a different calling after the tsunami hits his native Sri Lanka." Although my circumstances are different, I could identify with starting a new stage in one's life and trying to find a way to give back to others.

"Before the tsunami, I was set on applying to U.S. MBA programs. I still am -- but now I expect my focus in business will be on trying to help people."

Point / Counter-Point from Schwartz & Carr
Now Playing: Al Green - Let's Stay Together
Topic: Web 2.0
Catching up on newsreader feeds and read Jonathan Schwartz's recent posts, including a podcast from the Web2.0 panel w/ him, Tim O'Reilly, and Mitchell Baker. He recently published an article on corporate blogging for the October 2005 issue of HBR.

Point:
"For executives, having a blog is not going to be a matter of choice, any more than using e-mail is today. If you're not part of the conversation, others will speak on your behalf -- and I'm not talking about your employees...
Then find your voice. Be honest and open. Be respectful of your audiences. Don't treat blogging like advertising-it's not. Use humor. Link to those who interest and influence you...
Trust me, your market and your employees are clamoring for executive engagement and insight. They will value and remember your candor. And you'll be surprised by how much you learn from them." (HBR article).

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Nicholas Carr, of "IT Doesn't Matter" fame/infamy (depending on your prospective) had this post on Microsoft's recent decision to share the advertising revenue from its search engine with users (straight from Bill Gates' mouth). Here's Carr's response to Sun's recent strategy moves:

Counter-Point:
" But if Sun is to succeed, it needs to get its act together - to adopt a single, coherent market positioning and stick to it with relentless, unwavering discipline. Blogging is not a strategy. (12/10/05 post)

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The first sledding session of the season, jibbing a plastic drainage pipe with the Scoot-n-Ski on top of Cobbs Hill.

HUGE: Del.icio.us Joins Yahoo!
Now Playing: Sia - Breathe Me (Mylo remix)
Topic: Web 2.0
The RSS feeds on my Google home page are lit up like a Christmas tree over this one:

Del.icio.us Joins Yahoo!

This is HUGE, can't wait to see what the blogsphere does with this (see Technorati for the blog chatter). Reddit, Mediaeater, and Blogspotting are posting the story.

And of course Fred posted on this given his early investment in Del.icio.us.

Can Smart Aggregators Save Mainstream Media
Now Playing: Frou Frou - Let Go
Topic: Web 2.0
Finally, a follow-up to last week's post on the future of the MSM.

I finally sent feedback and comments to WAMC's The Media Project, a great radio show that examines the mainstream media (MSM). Stumbled upon the show driving back from a Nantucket wedding two years ago and have been a faithful internet listener ever since. Never having written them before, I was pleasantly surprised to hear back from Alan Chartock, the professor and head of WAMC.

The Media Project always has a discussion on the current state of the MSM, including the newspaper industry, which has been losing readers and struggling financially for the last 5-7 years, conservatively. A lot of that comes from the rise of the internet and the ability to filter what you want to receive as your news. It's the long-touted rip, mix, burn culture coming to fruition, especially since RSS feeds and news readers are starting to become so popular. What does all of this mean for the newspaper industry, which has traditionally been a physical good requiring substantial production and distribution costs (covered by an advertiser-dependent revenue model)?

The internet severally reduces the costs of production and distribution but a newspaper (besides its online edition) has always been viewed as a single, discreet commodity that derives its full value from the whole of the content, not from its disparate pieces. Fred Wilson has suggested (as have others) that the future of media involves these four criteria:

microchunk it

freeing it

syndicate it

monetize it

* I added remixing to my email to Alan, Lydia, and Rex.

Rex liked the perspective but had a great counterpoint which deserves attention: while microchunks and remixing may work for electronic content, what about the publicly-traded companies that demand shareholder returns while the idea of microchunks dictates that web information remain free? Newspapers' revenue streams are circulation and advertising (the former pays for the newsroom) and a paper can't sustain a big staff and strong reporting (which creates the valuable content) without the circulation revenue.

It seems like a catch-22: how do newspapers maintain the creation of valuable content while trying to embrace the trends of New Media that dictate freeing (microchunking and remixing) that very content that makes a newspaper valuable (great reporters and strong reporting)?

Rex has undoubtedly been, and will continue, grappling with this formidable challenge. I'm not sure that I have a great answer but let's try: Smart Aggregators. Wait just a sec before you say, oh here we go, more Web2.0 mumbo jumbo. The economic or business concept of an aggregator has been well established, and not just within the pre- and post-Dot Com Eras. Following the microchink concept, Umair at Bubblegeneration discusses the idea of a smart aggregator in his mediaeconomics presentations (PPT file):

Aggregation-- ‘Rebundling of content from fragmented platforms & formats, re-purposing, & delivery across new platforms & standards’ (Slide 53)

Smart Aggregators don't just rebundle content from diverse platforms/standards, they rebundle content, information about that content (e.g. tags) and about the network, application, device, etc. (Slide 55)

Can newspaper act as smart aggregators more efficiently than web-based tools? When it comes to local and regional news, they probably stand a chance. But ask the NY Times how it approaches the power or reach of Google News or other news aggregators for national or world news and the papers may have a different answer.

Aggregations add value to exchange process rather than to the goods themselves. (Digital Capital, pg. 50)

Are newspapers valuable because of the content that they amass, consolidate, and distribute (exchange) or from the news reporting and news stories that they create? Certainly, it's the former but I agree w/ Rex that newspapers' value comes from strong reporting and good journalists (content creators). Is the Huffington Post, which was chided at its inception but has become quite popular and seemingly successful since starting in May, a quasi-newspaper or just an aggregator, adding value by bringing together different authors onto a common space where their combined voices are stronger than if they stood alone on their sites/blogs?

The real costs of producing a newspaper article is sunk into the first copy; the marginal costs of printing and distribution greatly influence the paper's price. (Digital Capital, pg. 77). The internet changes the rules for information goods because their marginal distribution costs tend toward zero (Information Rules).


Food for thought-but I'm tired now, so post some comments if you have answer to the newspaper's catch-22 when it comes to microchunking and remixing.

Just so you thought I wasn't being too serious, thanks to Mike for telling about the hilarious Secular Central clip from the Daily Show. I can hear Alan saying it now, "Bill O'Reilly, him I do not like."

Posted by cph19 at 12:43 AM EST

Updated: Friday, 9 December 2005 1:07 AM EST

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Rodney Mullen is Still a God
Now Playing: Coldplay - Speed of Sound
Topic: Personal or Reflective
Thanks to Justin for this amazing video clip: Rodney Mullen is Still a God

Every snowboarder wishes that they were a good skateboarder; every great skateboarder wishes that they were as good as Rodney Mullen.

Last.fm + Flickr = ?
Now Playing: Foo Fighters - Everlong (KROQ acoustic)
Topic: Web 2.0

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www.flickr.com This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from cherbert. Make your own badge here.

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?

Unfulfilled Promises
Now Playing: Postal Service - Clark Gable
Topic: Globalization
I promise, a follow-up to last week's post on the future of MSM: how microchunking and remixing is the future of media. Rex Smith emailed me back with positive feedback and good counter-point that I started addressing but will finish tomorrow. I also have some nuggets from my pre-Thanksgiving decompression session at Barnes & Noble that I'd like to mention: Briefly, they include:

China's influence on the humanitarian crisis/genocide occurring in Darfur, Sudan (via The Economist, try BugMeNot.com for access)
      #1) "Chinese opposition made it difficult last year to take up Sudan's Darfur crisis at the UN Security Council. Similarly, China is not keen to allow the council to take up the issue of Iran's nuclear activities."
      #2) "To make a point about human rights in China, he met the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader-in-exile, at the White House on November 9th—but without press photographers, in apparent deference to Chinese sensitivities."

the Flickr-ization of Yahoo

the future of music sharing is mp3 blog aggregators (forget P2P)

notes on what the Semantic Web really means

Currently Playing: The Avalanches - Since I Left You

Posted by cph19 at 11:37 PM EST

Updated: Wednesday, 7 December 2005 9:50 PM EST

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Good News
Now Playing: My Morning Jacket - Wordless Chorus
Topic: Personal or Reflective
Good news today...and an ad banner from Last.fm page that made me chuckle:

I'm loving the new single, "Wordless Chorus," from My Morning Jacket, what a great sound. And there's this:

( the NYT covers Shaun White )

Resisting the Pull of MySpace
Now Playing: The Flaming Lips - Mr. Ambulance Driver
Topic: Web 2.0
I resisted MySpace for a long time; I remembered something about it from my Hawai'i trip last March when Mike's friends took me surfing and kept talking about this MySpace thing. It made me feel old and out of touch, not knowing anything about an internet trend, which is supposedly my expertise. Then it came up again within the last few months and I decided even if I wasn't into the social networking bug (LinkedIn is different, that's business networking) I needed to understand the subject. Begrudgingly, I got sucked into MySpace, but I keep a healthy distance.

It's hitting the mainstream now and here is Wired's a great article from November 2005 on the MySpace phenomena. Now here's Business Week's stab at the topic:

Currently Listening: The Flaming Lips - Mr. Ambulance Driver (iTunes link)

Correlating Amazon and Your Local Library
Now Playing: KCRW
Topic: Web 2.0
Thanks to Reddit's post on Greasemokey extensions, there's a solution to a question I posed a couple months back. I was a little slow to this and found that Jon Udell had already solved the Amazon-Public Library correlation challenge: how to link Amazon's search results through their API to your local public library.

I don't have the Rochester Public Library's LIBRA system working yet but RIT's works well. Drag this bookmarklet, RIT Libraries, to your link toolbar in Firefox or IE (screenshot here).

Here's the bookmarklet text (what the hell is a bookmarklet?): javascript:var%20re=/([\/-]|is[bs]n=)(\d{7,9}[\dX])/i;if(re.test(location.href)==true){var%20isbn=RegExp.$2;void(win=window.open('http://albert.rit.edu'+'/search/i='+isbn,'LibraryLookup','scrollbars=1,resizable=1,location=1,width=575,height=500'))}

Do your regular Amazon search for a book and when you're found it, click on the bookmarklet in your browser and will automatically query the RIT Library (in a new browser window). It's as easy as that so spread the word.

Kenya Photos
Now Playing: Plej - Lay of the Land (vocal version)
From Bert and Meg's recent Kenya trip:

Currently Listening: Plej - Lay of the Land (vocal version); My Morning Jacket - Wordless Chorus

Funny Shirts as Christmas Gifts
Topic: Personal or Reflective

Thanks Snowboarder Magazine, where I first read/heard about this phenomena a couple years ago.

The Grey Album --> Q-Unit Greatest Hits
Now Playing: Q-Unit - Bohemian Wanksta
Topic: Personal or Reflective
As part of my mp3 blog search engines, Steroegum had this awesome post

(mp3s here)

UPDATE 12/7/05: Couldn't (forgot to) publish the post until today. But knowing that I scooped BoingBoing by a couple of days feels good.

In keeping with the music theme, read Slate's great diatribe againist the Black Eyed Peas newest single, "My Hump." I first heard the BEP's freshman album in 1998, a Mack Dawg or Standard Films snowboard video used a few tracks. But ever since, the BEPs have gone extremely mainstream:

" "My Humps" is a moment that reminds us that categories such as "good" and "bad" still matter. Relativism be damned! There are bad songs that offend our sensibilities but can still be enjoyed, and then there are the songs that are just really bad?transcendentally bad, objectively bad."

And I'm so out of it when it comes to pop culture (the no TV thing) that I was amazed to see tons of Broken Social Scene albums at BestBuy (I went for CD-Rs, I know a rip but I need them stat). Here I was thinking that BSS was still this cool, underground music secret that the rest of the world hadn't discovered. Be damned, I still like them.

Why I Love the Internet
Now Playing: Feist - Inside and Out
Topic: Personal or Reflective
Just when I think that things are going wrong, I receive some confirmation that I'm doing the right things. Yes, I spend a lot of time reading, writing, researching on the internet but I love it. Here's why:

HBS's Working Knowledge acknowledging the Web2.0 topic (albeit a little late but remember their audience, business leaders, not the first adopters who have been talking/blogging about the subject for awhile now)

As Jonathan Schwartz has predicted that all CEOs will eventually blog just as naturally as they presently use email, HBS's Working Knowledge asks, "Does Your Company Belong in the Blogosphere?"- does Scoble agree

How musicians have harnessed the internet (nothing profound but it's from the MSM)

The 10th anniversary show of This American Life, which included a powerful story on the former editor of Wired, Kevin Kelly

Being able to play mp3s files directly on your blog- no plug-ins necessary (thanks del.icio.us)

Sent some comments/feedback on this WaPo experiment to The Media Project and they liked it (more on this later in the week)

Currently Playing: Feist - Inside and Out (iTunes link)

Posted by cph19 at 10:35 PM EST

Updated: Monday, 28 November 2005 10:37 PM EST

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The Fire Through
Now Playing: The Fire Through - A Slight Numb
Topic: Music
I don't get a lot of traffic here but if I can spread the word about a buddy's new band, I'm more than happy to help.

"Rochester, NY based band looking to form something solid and truthful. Currently in the process of recording with a total of 8 original tracks layed down, The Fire Through is Evan Wormwood (drums/bass/singer) and Dennis Gaebel (Lead/Rhytm Guitar/Singer)."

Give a listen to their two tracks, "A Slight Numb" and "Funktion Sober" via The Fire Through on MySpace.

Great Radio
Now Playing: Hidden Kitchens - NPR via WXXI
Topic: Personal or Reflective
What a great way to end Thanksgiving, relaxing and listening to Hidden Kitchens, a NPR series exploring hidden kitchens across the country.

I'm no epicure at this point in my life and don't get into cooking either. My Dad read that the sign of a person who loves to cook is someone that looks forward to cooking even when they're not hungry. He and brother do love to cook, and though I enjoy eating, a love of cooking hasn't rubbed off. But there's more to cooking than just slaving away in the kitchen. As the amazing Hidden Kitchens stories portray, "its food and fellowship."

In addition to Hidden Kitchens, Jay Allison produces the great radio series, "This I Believe." I heard Penn Jillette's essay on Monday morning while driving to work and it reminded me of this series. Check out the list of contributors, it's an eclectic and inspirational group of people, from Bill Gates to John McCain to Dave Brubeck to Brian Greene.

Eloquence in Simplicity
Now Playing: Engadget Podcast - 11/22/05
Topic: Personal or Reflective
I couldn't have said it better myself.

Old news but here's why my apartment has been so cold (and why my mail is now in danger). In chronological and incresing magnitude of eloquent BS (left-->right), from my otherwise excellent landlord: