currybetdotnet Music archive

When does it stop 'being' Kraftwerk?
The other day I bookmarked a story about the recent tour of the USA that Kraftwerk have just done, which culminated in their appearance at the Coachella festival. The set-list has changed slightly from when they were on their post 'Tour De France Soundtracks' world tour, but the biggest difference has been the absence of founding member Florian Schneider. There is no official word as to why he isn't on the tour. He might be ill, he might have left...

Read the full post - Published May 11, 2008 in Music

Promoting bands online in 1995 - Telwhat Mutelibtech to where?
I love stumbling across little bits of nostalgia about the way computers used to be - whether it is an old guide to getting online, or a basic instruction book for programming micro-computers. I spotted another one the other week. I was going through and ripping some CDs to iTunes - a process which I'm guessing, like the UK, may technically be illegal in Greece - when I came across a Freepost mailing slip card in Nitzer Ebb's dismal final...

Read the full post - Published March 9, 2008 in Music, Nostalgia, Web

Sony finally ready to disconnect music store
Sony have just announced the final steps towards the closure of the Sony CONNECT Music Store that I worked on when I was with Sony NetServices in Austria. They are taking a two-step approach. The whole service will cease on March 31st 2008, but before that, on March 1st, the online component - http://www.connect-europe.com - will be closed. That always, in my view, should have been the unique advantage the Sony service had. Unlike the iTunes music store, which required...

Read the full post - Published February 4, 2008 in Music, Sony

Vote Super Furry Animals!
I noticed last week that my favourite Welsh band, Super Furry Animals, were adding an interactive element into their North American tour. They are visiting the US to promote their most recent album, 'Hey Venus!', and are allowing people to vote for the songs they most want to hear included in the set-list. It reminded me of a couple of earlier attempts at doing this kind of interactive set-list. In 1986 Elvis Costello went out on tour with the 'Spectacular...

Read the full post - Published February 1, 2008 in Music, Voting, Widgets

Response to my 'DRM for vinyl' article on Idolator
My post about analogue rights management for vinyl was mentioned on the Idolator blog (via No Rock And Roll Fun's bookmark) where DENNISOBELL left an interesting comment. They suggest that my recollections of it being in the late 70s are a few years out. "I can narrow this down for the poor guy: he failed copy-protection for analog sources dates to the late 1980s -- I know, because I remember reading about it in either High Fidelity or Stereo Review...

Read the full post - Published January 5, 2008 in Music

Audiophile pressings - where the maufacturing process is more important than the music
Over the last few days I've been writing about some of the variations there were on good-old fashioned vinyl LPs, looking at physical materials like Dynaflex, obscure formats like Quadraphonic Sound, and the 1970s attempt to embed copy-protection within vinyl pressings. When I used to work in the rarities department of Reckless, there was another particularly special brand of vinyl - audiophile pressings. Audiophile pressings, during the 80s and 90s at least, were the specialist preserve of a couple of...

Read the full post - Published January 4, 2008 in Music, Nostalgia

Dynaflex - RCA's 1970s ultra-thin vinyl
Yesterday I was writing about the 1970s surround-sound solution - Quadraphonic. It never caught on, and really it was ahead of its time. It wasn't until home-cinema systems and digital surround sound became a possibility that the concept gained mainstream consumer viability. Quadraphonic records were rare though, and when I worked at Reckless we used to have a special mailing list of quad-buffs who we let know when we obtained any. Quadraphonic wasn't the only special format of vinyl LP...

Read the full post - Published January 3, 2008 in Music, Nostalgia

Quadraphonic: The forgotten surround sound of the 70s
Yesterday, when I was writing about the aborted attempt of the music industry to put some kind of copy-protection system into vinyl, I mentioned in passing an old friend of the family, who had hoped that his decoder gizmo to bypass the system would make him rich. He was also the only person I ever encountered with a Quadraphonic sound set-up. Quadraphonic is the forgotten surround sound system of the 1970s. It was never a huge commercial success, in part...

Read the full post - Published January 2, 2008 in Music, Nostalgia

Copy-protection for vinyl in the 1970s
When I was thinking about an iconography for DRM, I began to think back to the old days of recording vinyl onto my portable tape deck using a 5-pin DIN plug to connect the two machines, the advent of tape-to-tape decks, and being poised over the pause button to record tracks from John Peel sessions. It was all so simple and blissfully analogue in those days, without a hint of copy protection in place. Well, that isn't strictly true. I...

Read the full post - Published January 1, 2008 in DRM, Music, Nostalgia

This year's digital Christmas number one
Today we'll find out what is the UK's Christmas Number 1 for 2007, following in such luminary footsteps as Bob The Builder's "Can We Fix It?", Mr Blobby's "Mr Blobby" and the unforgettable St Winifred's School Choir with "There's No-one Quite Like Grandma". It is the first year that sales of tracks that are only available as digital downloads will count towards the chart, as the last major chart rule-change occurred in January 2007. The biggest Christmas music story has...

Read the full post - Published December 23, 2007 in Music

I'm gonna spend my Christmas with a Dalek

Published December 21, 2007 in Doctor Who, Music

Voting for your American Idol in Greece

Published December 10, 2007 in Greece, Media, Music, Voting

Finding, sharing, and playing with that Tony Palmer BBC rejection letter

Published December 10, 2007 in BBC, Media, Music, Television

It is so hard to be a Depeche Mode completist these days

Published December 5, 2007 in Greece, Music

Sister Ray's vinyl footprint

Published October 8, 2007 in Music

Pay what you want for Radiohead's new digital album "In Rainbows"

Published October 1, 2007 in Music

The London freesheets and the web - Part 1: Music reviews

Published September 20, 2007 in Articles, Music, Newspapers

Between a Northern Rock and a hard rock place

Published September 17, 2007 in Music, Web

Sony closes the door on the European CONNECT store

Published September 5, 2007 in Music, Sony

Reckless Records RIP - Part 11: Afterburner

Published August 30, 2007 in Music

Reckless Records RIP - Part 10: Expansions

Published August 29, 2007 in Music

Reckless Records RIP - Part 9: Keep The Customer Satisfied

Published August 28, 2007 in Music

Reckless Records RIP - Part 8: Future Sound Of London

Published August 24, 2007 in Music

Reckless Records RIP - Part 7: Television Personalities

Published August 23, 2007 in CNN, Music, Television

Reckless Records RIP - Part 6: Digital Penetration

Published August 22, 2007 in Music, Web

Reckless Records RIP - Part 5: OK Computer

Published August 17, 2007 in Music

Reckless Records RIP - Part 4: Computer World

Published August 16, 2007 in Music

Reckless Records RIP - Part 3: High Fidelity

Published August 15, 2007 in Music

Reckless Records RIP - Part 2: Happiness In Magazines

Published August 14, 2007 in Music

Reckless Records RIP - Part 1: An End Has A Start

Published August 13, 2007 in Articles, Music, Popular

iTunes Miniatures playlist

Published July 31, 2007 in Apple, Music

A tour of Tour De France news sites - Prologue

Published July 23, 2007 in Cycling, Music, Tour de France

'Cancel' just doesn't seem to mean 'Cancel' for iTunes 7.2 on Windows

Published July 13, 2007 in Apple, Application design, Microsoft, Music, Usability

Musical social networking (slight return)

Published June 20, 2007 in Apple, Music, Web

Tweaking my old Glastonbury articles in response to searches

Published June 15, 2007 in BBC, Music, Search

Can We7 fare better than Sigue Sigue Sputnik in making people listen to adverts?

Published June 4, 2007 in Music

No Beatles digital downloads on Sgt. Pepper's 40th anniversary

Published June 1, 2007 in Music

How much did shingles cost in 1963?

Published May 18, 2007 in Google, Music, Search

The Rhino Hi-Fives reinvent the 'Greatest Hits EP' for the digital era

Published April 20, 2007 in Music, Sony

It was twenty years ago today...The Beatles CD reissues from 1987

Published April 17, 2007 in Music, Popular

Sony Connect music download store relaunches in Europe - part two

Published April 13, 2007 in Music, Sony, Usability

Sony Connect relaunches with improved information architecture for browsing

Published April 12, 2007 in Music, Sony, Usability

Vodafone relaunches their web music store in the UK

Published April 4, 2007 in Music, Sony

Slacker equivalent already on the market in Europe - meet Sony and Vodafone's Radio DJ

Published March 14, 2007 in Apple, Mobiles, Music, Radio, Sony

Playing with the Virgin Radio player beta

Published March 2, 2007 in Media, Music, Product review, Radio, Usability, Web

Why not be accessible Instead - trying to buy Onetwo's new album

Published February 26, 2007 in Music, Usability

Idlewild using Channel 4 footage as an incentive to pre-order digital downloads

Published February 19, 2007 in Media, Music

eMusic subscription changes = price rise

Published February 18, 2007 in Music

Buy the so-called "Complete" Depeche Mode iTunes box set? No thanks, Apple

Published February 16, 2007 in Apple, Music

Thoughts on being locked out of my iPod's content by Apple's DRM

Published February 15, 2007 in Apple, DRM, Music