Wireless Hobo

Stay Away From DRM Music [Edited]

Apple threatened to shutdown iTunes over royalty issues.  Wal-Mart is shutting down its DRM servers.  The music will still play, until you need to move…

Digital rights management isn’t rights management for you.  It allows the music publishers to treat you like a criminal because you might steal their music and sell it online, give it away to your friends, or setup an international music piracy business.  Yeah.  Right.

My advice.  Stop supporting stores that sell music with DRM.  Although iTunes has started providing significant portions of its catalog as DRM free, I simply do not want to LOOK for it before I make the decision to buy it.

• eMusic is recommended by several tech podcasts that I watch.
• Amazon’s music service is my personal favorite:
  • NO DRM
  • $0.89 tracks with most albums under $9
  • 5 for $5 Fridays (excellent albums for $5)
  • Variable bit rate aiming for 256 kilobits per second (that’s high quality)
  • Helper application that moves your files into iTunes on Mac, Linux, and Windows
  • Songs play everywhere (did I mention NO DRM)

If you want to find folks that seem even more passionate about not wasting their hard earned money on hampered music, see DefectiveByDesign.  Folks, just say no.

[Edit:  I have a third "service" that I think is worth mentioning.  Buy CD's.  When you rip them into your computer, they will not have DRM and you have a built-in backup in the original CD.]

Tags: drm, mp3, music

Corralling Media: Overview

You may or may not know that I am really into media center stuff as a hobby.  I just hate putting a DVD or CD in the drive.  I want it all on demand.  Additionally, I hate paying big bucks for it.  I love Front Row on the Macs for simplicity and think Media Center on Vista Home Premium is current best of breed in Home Theater PC software.  I love watching Netflix through Media Center.

A new application, Plex at http://plexapp.com, has captured my heart at the moment.  The more I work with it, the more I just love its features and most importantly, it’s aesthetics.  I did have this

Dell server at the core of my home theater at one point, but have since swapped it for a Mac Mini.  (The Dell is going to do much more important work for webslingerz.)  I have now switched back from Vista to Mac OS running this new Plex.  Wow.

I am currently building a low budget, small footprint, and low power media system.  I have put together the Apple Extreme Wireless Router, Mac Mini, Sony Soundbar, Drobo, XBox 360, Playstation 3, and Toshiba HD-DVD all controlled by the Logitech Harmony remote.

I am still deciding between Windows Media Center, Plex, and Front Row.  Each clearly have their strong points and each have significant weaknesses.  The screenshot on the right is Plex showing the list of movies I have stored on my network hard drive.  I prefer to rip my DVD’s to disk and then store them safely away.  Every movie I have, I own!  Music, is the same way.  Either I bought it through iTunes, Amazon, or CD and stored it digitally on the Drobo.

I am going to publish this tonight, just to get me jump started as this is going to be quite a long series, I believe.  I will go through and add links into this article over the next couple days.  Good night.

Service Essentials: Pandora

Browsing through the top 25 free iPhone applications tonight, I saw this application called Pandora.  Knowing that curiosity killed the cat, I opened Pandora’s box.  Before I get started, Pandora is not just an iPhone application.

One of the obstacles to getting Michelle to adopt an iPod is her affection for the radio.  Just put something on and let it rip.  Pandora seems to cater to her and others like her.  Pandora just streams music to you.

Ok, not quite.  I am the type of person that really doesn’t care much for the radio.  I prefer to make my own radio.  The iPod single-handedly force me to develop a love of a lot of different kinds of music.  (Yes, I still love Christina Aguilera, Alex.  Yes,  you did embarrass me enough that I changed my ringer to an old telephone.  Yes, you were right, it was a bit lame.)  Back to Pandora.

After creating an account, I created a new radio station called Creedence Clearwater Revival, and renamed it to Gulf Shores Classics.  Pandora now creates a radio station based on music that is similar to CCR’s music and style!  After CCR, it queued up Simple Man by Skynrd, Stuck in the Middle with You by Stealers Wheel, and Taking It Easy by the Eagles!  In the reggae/hip-hop channel it went from Lauryn Hill to Eryka Badu, to John Legend, to Bob Marley.

Now the cool part, in my opinion, is going in and editing stations by seeding songs that you like or artists into the channel, helping Pandora customize your radio stations to YOUR ears’ desires.  Now that it is on the iPhone (and other mobile phones), well, that is just one of the coolest things I have seen heard.  Also, if you click on an artist you are directed to a page that will allow you to buy the music on iTunes, Amazon CD, or Amazon MP3.  Very, very convenient — and perhaps bad for my bank account.  (I promise to be good, M.  Really.  My fingers aren’t crossed or anything.)

Check the right most sidebar.  I have posted my channels.  Hope you like them as much I do.  If you do, please comment on this article.  Thanks.

Tags: amazon, customize, Internet Service, itunes, mp3, music, pandora, radio, streaming