Tag Archives: Apple

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Play Christmas songs with Weezer on your iPhone

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Christmas With Weezer

As if Weezer fans need to get any nerdier.

Weezer and the programmers of popular iPhone application Tap Tap Revenge have teamed up to create “Christmas With Weezer” featuring six Christmas classics recorded exclusively for the game (“Oh Come All Ye Faithful”, “First Noel”, “Hark The Herald Angel Sings”, “O Holy Night”, “Silent Night”, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”) and two bonus tracks (“Pork And Beans”, “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”). Players “tap and shake their devices to the tunes of the music” in the iPhone equivalent of Guitar Hero/Rock Band.

“Christmas with Weezer” will be available for $4.99 in “a couple of days.” More Weezer news at Karl’s Corner.

Full press release after the jump…

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Links, MP3s

Beatles on iTunes: We Can (Not) Work It Out

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Billboard reports that Beatles iTunes Negotiations have stalled. Quoting Paul McCartney, it appears as though the problem is between the Beatles and their label, EMI—not between them and Steve Jobs.

Paul: “We are very for it, we’ve been pushing it. But there are a couple of sticking points, I understand. So the last word I got back was that it had stalled, the whole process. They [EMI] want something we’re not prepared to give them. Hey, sounds like the music business. It’s between EMI and the Beatles. What else is new.”

EMI: “We have been working very hard to secure an agreement with Apple Corps to make The Beatles’ legendary recording catalog available to fans in digital form. Unfortunately the various parties involved have so far been unable to reach agreement, but we really hope that everyone can make progress soon.”

It’s important (and annoying) when reading this stuff to distinguish between Apple Corps (Beatles) and Apple Inc (computers, iPods, etc.).

Regardless, who cares if this stuff is ever sold via iTunes? I just want the albums properly remastered and reissued on some kind of lossless media.

MP3: The Fireman – “Nothing Too Much Just out of Sight” from Electric Arguments. (courtesy of Spinner.)

Articles

Apple Genius? Not So Much

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Albert Einstein - Think DifferentWas a time when my friends and I made mixes for each other. It was as much a creative outlet where we, like film directors or music supervisors, created moods and told stories through the song selection and pacing of a finely tuned mix tape (or CD, as the technology evolved). We strove to outdo each other and slip in the most obscure, but fitting, references we could find and thread a common theme or musical palette. It was fun, and it was time consuming.

Last month Apple released a new version of its ubiquitous digital media player iTunes and with it is a feature they’ve dubbed Genius that they claim “creates the perfect playlist.” By combing through your iTunes library and analyzing your listening habits and those of others in their vast universe of iTunes users, Apple aspires to be your new mix disk friend.

So, how does it rate? Well…

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Links

Apple Said to Consider Subscription Model

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The latest buzz out of Cupertino is that Apple may be considering a subscription-based model for next-gen iPods and iPhones. Similar to Nokia’s deal with Universal Music Group, Apple would apply a one-time surcharge to the purchase price of their digital music devices, which would give users access to the entire iTunes store. The deal seems to be stuck on what that surcharge should actually be with a range between $20 (as Steve Jobs wants it) to $80 (closer to the Nokia deal and reportedly pushed by the labels).

If true, this is quite a turn around for Jobs who in the past has said that subscription models a failures.

“Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested in it,” said Jobs in May, according to Rolling Stone.

I would be surprised to NOT see this go through as it ensures users stick with Apple products, lest they lose all those tunes on they iPhones.

What do you think? Do you prefer the 99 cent download or a moderately priced subscription?

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iTunes is #2!

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It was only last June that Apple’s iTunes moved into the Top Three music retailers in the country. Well, now according to Reuters, it’s number two:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s iTunes digital media store edged out Best Buy Co and Target Corp to become the second-largest U.S. music retailer, behind Wal-Mart Stores, according to data released on Tuesday from tracking firm NPD Group.

Back in June, we commented that at least one of the Top Three was primarily a music store. Since then, iTunes has begun selling a lot more TV shows and movies. Remember how it used to be called the iTunes Music Store? Now it’s just the iTunes Store. Will music get less and less “shelf space” on the iTunes home page as sales of movies and TV shows become more profitable? We’ll see.

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Links, Shorties

Jermaine Dupri proves the industry is doomed

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R&B producer Jermaine Dupri is pissed that Apple allows customers to purchase songs individually from its iTunes music store:

Soulja Boy sold almost 4 million singles and only 300,000 albums! We let the consumer have too much of what they want, too soon, and we hurt ourselves. Back in the day when people were excited about a record coming out we’d put out a single to get the ball going and if we sold a lot of singles that was an indication we’d sell a lot of albums. But we’d cut the single off a few weeks before the album came out to get people to wait and let the excitement build. When I put out Kris Kross we did that. We sold two million singles, then we stopped. Eventually we sold eight million albums!

Did consumers complain? Maybe so. But at what point does any business care when a consumer complains about the money? Why do people not care how we – the people who make music – eat? If they just want the single, they gotta get the album. That was how life was. Today we should at least have that option.

I love the fact that he uses Kris Kross as his example. That album is exactly the reason why people don’t value albums. One great single and a bunch of mediocre filler. (Actually, Totally Krossed Out had three good songs: “Jump,” “Warm It Up,” and “Lil Boys in Da Hood,” but the rest was pointless.)

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Articles

Don’t Be a Frigtard: Read This Book

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Options: The Secret Life of Steve JobsoPtion$: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs by Fake Steve Jobs (Da Capo Press; $22.95)

Although we haven’t done any GloNo demographic research that would prove this statement, I am fairly confident that it would be statistically true in an overwhelming manner that the computer you are reading this on has a version of iTunes on it. What’s more, I’ll go out on a limb about the thickness of a trunk and further proclaim that you own at least one iPod.

I daresay that the concentration of Mac users is probably nearly as high among GloNo readers—or would-be GloNo readers, if only they knew about the site—as among any defined group not in the employ of Apple.

All of this is not to demonstrate my nascent Kreskin-like abilities, but to say that you’d have a particular appreciation for oPtion$, the novel by Fake Steve Jobs. The book is the natural outcome of the blog “The Secret Life of Steve Jobs.” Natural in that Fake Steve Jobs is the Real Daniel Lyons, an editor at Forbes, and guys who work for publications aimed at prosperous, influential and wealthy readers know that while there is little (or no) money in blogging, there is money in book publishing. Natural like the hand of Adam Smith.

This is easily the funniest book in ages—and I am not counting ages in the life cycles of iPods. Jobs has been on the scene since 1984, when the original Macintosh was released. He was punked by John Sculley in 1985—that didn’t take long, did it—but made his way back to the top of the company in 1998. The iMac, iPod and iTunes have all cemented his place in public consciousness. And Fake Steve Jobs is nothing but aware of his significance: “my wealth is deserved. Name one person from the past hundred years who has made a bigger contribution to the world than I have. See what I mean?” But the life of El Jobso isn’t as easy as plenty of frigtards would like to think. “Of course the bad part of being such a mega-rich mega-famous mega-creative genius is that you spend your life walking around with a target on your back. Sure, most people are just appropriately worshipful and grateful for what I do. But there are always a few jerks who want to knock you down a peg.”

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Shorties

Your Trilby Hat: A GLONO Mix

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Your Trilby Hat: A GLONO MixThe weather’s about to turn cooler and that means it’s time to break out your dopest gear and get ready to layer that shit. Yes, this fall will be dominated by button down collars, sweater vests, skinny jeans, and, of course, trilby hats. The indie kids on the coasts have likely moved on already but that doesn’t mean you slobs in the Midwest can’t run out and buy a sharp cut, thin-lapeled suit and don thy finest Urban Outfitter lid.

Want to really make the scene? Make sure your in-ear headphones are cranking GLONO’s Your Trilby Hat mix. When that dopey girl who answers the phone in the office glances at your iPod window and sees the likes of this mix on your Nano, she’ll know who she’s taking home after the holiday party this year.

Yes, get a sample of my questionable taste with a killer mix of soul, dub, rocksteady, and rock and roll. Nearly 40 songs that will rev up your autumn and dress up your dropsy and snide. The Melodians, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, The Clovers, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Etta James, Amy Winehouse (yep, fuck you), Booker T and the MGs…this is it.

Complete playlist after the jump.

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