#mp3 blogs

[mandatoryrollercoaster]

Missing

Missing - Everything but the Girl (Todd Terry Remix)

[thejacketpocket]

Concert Review: Stars

I wrote about a recent Stars concert for the Portland Press Herald. I don't know why I was surprised by the fact that the show was really good, but it was, and in the process of preparing for this piece I came to like their new album, No One Is Lost, quite a bit.

The indie pop of the early-mid 2000s is fairly fascinating to me now, and I tried to get at that a little bit in this piece. I think the trend to these big, communal bands with cheerful and anthemic (if very "safe") songs was a direct result of MP3 blogs dictating the discussion of the time, and maybe a celebration of all these music geeks finding a common place to congregate. There are other factors too—a move away from rock and into "poptimism," I suppose—but also a post-9/11 hangover, where we needed to be together, be happy, and feel safe.

I liked a bunch of these bands at the time, and then got really turned off by this whole sound as the decade progressed. As we're about at the 10-year anniversary of some of this stuff, I'm starting to appreciate the appeal again.

[sonictruths]

Spotify Launches Embeddable Music Player Widget | Evolver.fm

Spotify continued its quest to become the operating system of music on the internet with today’s launch of an embeddable music player that puts legal tunes on websites and blogs, for free, while compensating copyright holders.

Wherever these buttons are used — and there’s a long list of launch partners below — people with Spotify installed will be able to play a track, album, or playlist wherever they find it. A play progress meter appears on the web page as the Spotify desktop or mobile app plays the music in the background.

(via evolver.fm)

This could be very useful!

As a Spotify fan and someone who spends a lot of time hunting out YouTube videos to embed as makeshift audio players in articles I welcome the new option. But I'm not sure it solves the issue of embedded players (like YouTube) being prone to breaking - and it assumes the reader has Spotify. So an interesting development - but hardly a panacea.

[futureoflistening]

At first, MP3 bloggers were seen by the industry as freeloading pariahs, but eventually even the major labels came to embrace this segment of the online music community. Seeking a promotional fast track, the PR flaks hit the blogosphere hard, cultivating relationships with known tastemakers. Eventually, the pursuit of musical passion became a business concern, or at worse, a hassle.

[sonictruths]

Spotify Launches Embeddable Music Player Widget | Evolver.fm

Spotify continued its quest to become the operating system of music on the internet with today’s launch of an embeddable music player that puts legal tunes on websites and blogs, for free, while compensating copyright holders.

Wherever these buttons are used — and there’s a long list of launch partners below — people with Spotify installed will be able to play a track, album, or playlist wherever they find it. A play progress meter appears on the web page as the Spotify desktop or mobile app plays the music in the background.

(via evolver.fm)

This could be very useful!

As a Spotify fan and someone who spends a lot of time hunting out YouTube videos to embed as makeshift audio players in articles I welcome the new option. But I'm not sure it solves the issue of embedded players (like YouTube) being prone to breaking - and it assumes the reader has Spotify. So an interesting development - but hardly a panacea.