It has been acknowledged that I am music services' bitch
It's all Jona Lewie's fault, really. He had a huge hit in Britain during the early 80s with a Christmas song called Stop the Cavalry. I suddenly had to have it, and hence, another music service. (YSI 3.74 mb .mp3)
So, I was going to email the link to my mom, and on a whim, decided to look for another song: Chalkdust by the RJ Wagsmith Band, which poked fun at John McEnroe's tantrums at Wimbledon the year Bjorn Borg beat him in the finals. (YSI 3.93 mb .mp3)
What I didn't find, but managed to obtain last year from an lj friend is Cliff Richard's Little Town of Bethlehem. (The British version of the song is entirely different from the American version.) Richard had a hit with this in the early 80s, and it's still as pretty as I remembered it. (YSI 4.61 mb .mp3)
Online Music Services: My Addiction
Don't get me wrong - 99 cents to replace the one song for which I paid ten bucks to buy the cassette tape is a bargain. What annoys me is the clunky, buggy software that tries to be a library, player and online store all at once. Each service forces you to download its version of what is essentially WinMP, and in order to mix music from various services, you have to copy it to cd and then copy it back to your computer (rebooting as needed when the crappy software crashes).
Since I'm running out of space on my hard drive (I have an external drive with tons of space, but it's too slow for downloading and most software wants to be on your Windows drive), I've contained myself to two services. I refuse to use iTunes because of the Apple connection. I started with MusicMatch and although it's horribly buggy and I hate the constant pimping of their Pro version, I've found it to be the fastest and easiest way to rip cds and record new ones, and I like the library setup. I added Sony because it seems to be adding music to its downloads more frequently and I've been able to get a few things I couldn't get at MusicMatch.
eMusic is a bit different - the software is limited to a download manager that doesn't take up much space. The store is accessed through your browser, which allows you to open multiple windows, something you can't do with Sony Connect and MusicMatch. It specialises in more eclectic stuff - it doesn't have U2, but it does have Loreena McKennitt. It also offers downloads without the idiotic protection that any two-year-old can bypass with the 'copy to cd and back' routine, so adding it to my library in MusicMatch is easy. The downside is the subscription format - you get 30 downloads for $9.99 a month, which means that you pay $9.99 whether you download one or 30 songs. It's a great way to try a lot of stuff I might not ordinarily buy, but I'm not sure how much I'll download on an ongoing basis. I snagged 20 songs last night, but most of these had been on my 'want' list for a long time. On the other hand, I always feel a bit guilty when I download one song - I'm sure my credit card company loves all those 99 cent transactions.
And having just listened to NSync's 'O Holy Night' for the first time in a year, I wish a thousand lice-infested camels upon Cameron 'Yoko' Diaz. I say that with all due holiday spirit, of course.
So, I was going to email the link to my mom, and on a whim, decided to look for another song: Chalkdust by the RJ Wagsmith Band, which poked fun at John McEnroe's tantrums at Wimbledon the year Bjorn Borg beat him in the finals. (YSI 3.93 mb .mp3)
What I didn't find, but managed to obtain last year from an lj friend is Cliff Richard's Little Town of Bethlehem. (The British version of the song is entirely different from the American version.) Richard had a hit with this in the early 80s, and it's still as pretty as I remembered it. (YSI 4.61 mb .mp3)
Online Music Services: My Addiction
Don't get me wrong - 99 cents to replace the one song for which I paid ten bucks to buy the cassette tape is a bargain. What annoys me is the clunky, buggy software that tries to be a library, player and online store all at once. Each service forces you to download its version of what is essentially WinMP, and in order to mix music from various services, you have to copy it to cd and then copy it back to your computer (rebooting as needed when the crappy software crashes).
Since I'm running out of space on my hard drive (I have an external drive with tons of space, but it's too slow for downloading and most software wants to be on your Windows drive), I've contained myself to two services. I refuse to use iTunes because of the Apple connection. I started with MusicMatch and although it's horribly buggy and I hate the constant pimping of their Pro version, I've found it to be the fastest and easiest way to rip cds and record new ones, and I like the library setup. I added Sony because it seems to be adding music to its downloads more frequently and I've been able to get a few things I couldn't get at MusicMatch.
eMusic is a bit different - the software is limited to a download manager that doesn't take up much space. The store is accessed through your browser, which allows you to open multiple windows, something you can't do with Sony Connect and MusicMatch. It specialises in more eclectic stuff - it doesn't have U2, but it does have Loreena McKennitt. It also offers downloads without the idiotic protection that any two-year-old can bypass with the 'copy to cd and back' routine, so adding it to my library in MusicMatch is easy. The downside is the subscription format - you get 30 downloads for $9.99 a month, which means that you pay $9.99 whether you download one or 30 songs. It's a great way to try a lot of stuff I might not ordinarily buy, but I'm not sure how much I'll download on an ongoing basis. I snagged 20 songs last night, but most of these had been on my 'want' list for a long time. On the other hand, I always feel a bit guilty when I download one song - I'm sure my credit card company loves all those 99 cent transactions.
And having just listened to NSync's 'O Holy Night' for the first time in a year, I wish a thousand lice-infested camels upon Cameron 'Yoko' Diaz. I say that with all due holiday spirit, of course.