For All You Fringe Fans Out There!

Seriously! I hope I am not the only one who thinks this when she answers the phone!

Where I Get My Music From

Back in the days of yor when Napster was the thing I use to get a lot of my music from there. Then Limewire. But then life took a turn when my computer had an epic blue screen of death and I lost all of my data. Since then I have realized there were ways to recover said data, but at the time it was lost and that was it. You live you learn. In either case, I took the crash as a message from the gods of the mystical computer that they were not pleased with the buccaneer-like lifestyle I was leading. That and the fact that I have my own intellectual property I would like to protect. So I put up my eye patch, stuffed parrot, fake hook, and cutlass to never hold them again. Now my music and audiobooks are obtained through hard earned money. The good news is thanks to things like Napster the cost to have music is now very cheap to free depending on how much control you want to have. Here are the options I used.

Pandora

The internet radio Pandora was among the first of its kind and works very well. Personally I think Pandora should transfer its tech over to OTA (Over the Air) radio as well. How awesome would that be to have a radio station or 3 that is set to a specific genre and the playlist dictated by user requests with no obnoxious DJ's ruining my morning run or commute with pointless prattle?!?! But that is for a later date. I list this option first because it is the option with the least amount of control. I don't pay for the service so I do get the occasional commercial which I am fine with because it is less than a real radio station. Still, paying $36 dollars a year for Pandora One to get rid of commercials is a decent enough deal. On the flip side, the control over your music is about the same as a radio station. You can request specific songs and bands, but it is random. The good news is that at least until further notice the basic service is free and includes less commercial interruptions than traditional radio.
As a side note, I am aware that there are other internet radio options out there such as Slacker etc. I am a creature of habit and that habit started with Pandora. Until such a time as I am shown a better option, I am happy with Pandora. But that doesn't mean you should be limited to that. Check you options and try out what you are interested in. I do recommend research before committing, but that is your option.

Amazon MP3

This option is one of my favorites simply because of one reason... cross system compatibility. While the Amazon Cloud player isn't the best mp3 playing system in the world, it works and it works well. Further more, I can play my music via the "Cloud" to almost any device from an Apple to Zune (Yes, I know the Zune is dead, but its a Z people! Give me a break!). If the device doesn't support cloud based services I simply download the MP3 from the unlimited storage for purchased music that Amazon provides and load it to the device or burn it to a CD. All legal. All happy. Furthermore, since I use amazon for shopping any ways I occasionally get a bone thrown my way from Amazon in the form of MP3 credits. In this way I get my music on for a lot cheaper than say Google Play or... dum dum dummmmm, iTunes. Like the other two MP3 purchasing system Amazon offers free music as promotions, but I have noticed that Amazon tends to have more sales than the others. What? Can you say that louder? What about the Artists you ask? Oh, the royalties thing for artists. Well, here's the deal. You see I am a believer in the free market. So long as the artist are getting paid something for their work I am fine with deal shopping. The market adjusts to demand. If more people would deal shop in their music then there would be more deals for music. Furthermore, artist would have more leverage in negotiating with production companies. But this article isn't about the free market. If you're interested in that go look up Free Market on Youtube and watch. I recommend ReasonTV. Still, my point is I have no issue taking a deal offered by Amazon because I am getting the music that I like for a price I can afford that does not compromise my standards of ethics. This is the same reason I recommend shopping around for Android apps. Because if you do you can get a good deal WHILE supporting the creators of those applications. Piracy is a nice ideal, but in reality it harms the creators more than it harms anyone else. And without that creation process we would not have what we have now. So save a life, buy your music, movies, shows, and apps. Or at least use services that get money to the creators. Voting with you money is more powerful than a political vote. Pffffffffewwww! Okay, off my soap box!

The point is Amazon is my first stop for music.

Google Play

I am a user and lover of Android. Sorry iOS fans, I dumped my first love Apple because she kept making life harder. If you don't get what I mean read my article titled Why I Dropped My iPod Like a Hot Rock. So Google Play is my next stop. Mainly because I am shopping for deals. If the price is right it is mine. It helps that Google Play works on my PC's and all of my Android devices, but there is something lacking. Recently Steve Wozniak suggested that Apple extend it's iTunes service to Android so that the could maintain their slipping dominance of the digital music scene. I would like to suggest the same to Google. Why not make it so music, movies, and more are available for purchase and use on all operating systems? Amazon has the right idea. Why not have Google join in? In either case, I can still download my music and use it how I like if the service not not available on the device I am using. Sometimes the Cloud is overrated.

Physical Media

This next step is something I often jump to if I find that the physical media is cheaper than the digital. Why this is the case is often a mystery to me since the music companies pay less to produce and deliver the digital music than a CD, but what ever. Since my number one concern as a person who does not have unlimited funds is getting the best bang for my ever inflating buck then I'll get what is the best price. In this case it is important that you research your options. Often digital offers a couple songs more as and incentive to buy that. If this is of interest to you, buy digital. If it is not, get the physical media. The best part is that both Amazon and Google offer services that are free that allows you to back up you music digitally to their servers. Amazon offers a certain amount of space for free while Google offers 20,000 songs with no limit on storage size. While iOS offers iCloud (which name was stollen without permission from a small company in Arizona), it is limited only to Apple products. So I don't count it because at least with Google you can access your music on Mac or PC. On top of that, you physical media is a great back up in and of itself. Sure if can be lost, stollen, or damage, but so can your devices. Heck a unlucky surge in a server farm could ruin that for you. Life has risk, deal with it.

Why I Don't Use iTunes

It's bloatware! I use to use it all the time until I realized that it took more system resources and time to work with iTunes than with any other system out there. If you like it good for you, but for me the need of special software to load, burn, transfer, or purchase music died many many years ago. Give me the freedom of simple, basic interfaces. This is kind of sad considering that Apple was known for this "innovation". 

Conclusion

So there you have it. This is where I get my music from. It is rather nice. I enjoy it. I save money. I get the tunes I crave and in the case of services like Pandora I get the music exploration I want as well. Thoughts? Comments? Share them below.

Why I Dropped My iPod Like a Hot Rock

I remember all my iPods. I loved them. I've had a 2nd, 4th and 5th gen iPod classic as well as several iPod nano/minis. In all cases I loved them more than I hated them. The actual hardware was well designed and beautiful. The UI was annoying at times, but functional. I listened to music, podcasts, and audiobooks. But when I realized that greener pastures were availible I dropped that iPod like a lava hot rock. The reason for this warp speed drop is simply summed up into one word... iTunes!
What initially started as an awesome program that acted as a jukebox, music store, and sync interface has ballooned into the biggest joke of the retail/tech world. It is bloatware in the cyber-flesh. The fact that so many Apple products require iTunes in order to sync, reset, and so forth is a testiment to how one company can be so full of itself that it fails to see when it's star innovation is now crapware. And iTunes was innovation in its time. It was a unifying idea that caught on, but that time as past. Now is the time of the cloud, the app, the web browser. I think of my current setup for music, audiobooks, and podcasts, and I shudder at the thought of having to re-install iTunes if I were to move back to an Apple product. The mere removal of that program alleviated such a large load off of my laptop & desktop's system. Compairing syncing, uploading files to my smart devices, backing up info, and much more anything more than basic "click & drag" like function is just way too much. So dear iPod, I didn't abandon you because of anything you yourself did. No, I abandoned you because you medlesome parent iTunes just kept getting between us. Know I have found another in Android. As I once listened to you, I know listen to her more because I do not have interuptions like that of you parent iTunes. Can't you see this is for the best? I hope we can still be friends!

What the Hell Google?!?!

To start with, I want to say that the Google I/O event was awesome and I really wish I could have been there. Watching it on YouTube is just not the same. I am super excited about the Nexus 7, Jelly Bean and even Project Glass. The updates for Google+ and all the other stuff was awesome as well, BUT...

The Nexus Q

What the hell is this thing?!?! It looks cool. It sounds cool, but in reality it is either a little ahead of its time or a lot behind on understanding human psychology! If you haven't heard, this little device hooks up to you speakers and TV and lets you play things from your Google Play and Cloud accounts. In theory  this sounds nice. Not so sure about the practice. Let me break it down for you.

Android Only

You can use your Android device to control this thing. That's it! Hey, I love Android, but there are other devices out there. While I dislike Apple greatly for their big bully behavior towards Android OEMs, they still make a great product, and the lack of support of iOS devices means you are leaving people out in the cold. The reason I love Google is because they don't play the Apple game. Seems to me like this is an attempt to do that. 

Music Ques

Using your Android device you can control and create music ques with you Google Play music. It sounded like you could also port your existing music into the Google Cloud so you could use that music too (up to 20,000 at no cost). All of this is nice, but they added the ability for anyone who has and Android device to control the music. Now there is a nice side to this in that I could share my music with friends without them having to buy said music while protecting the copyright of the band, but they forgot about human nature. Maybe its because I was enjoying Malcom in the Middle reruns when I found out about the Nexus Q, or perhaps its because I great up with 6 siblings, but I' fairly certain that giving all users equal access to the device and allow them all the ability to interrupt the current song is a disaster waiting to happen. 

Limited Ecosystem

The Google Play store is awesome, but there are so many countries where it or psrts of it are not available. Now this may be because of the studios, or governments, or heaven knows what else, but it is limited. Also, the fact that you have to have a Google Play compatible device is a big limiter. Netflix has the right idea. Make it compatible with all devices and there won't be any issue of limits. But why would I cough up $9.99 for a digital copy of a movie when I can buy the DVD or Blue-ray and make a backup copy? Now, if Google Play were offering an All You Can Eat option like Amazon Prime or even Netflix, that is a different story. But this device is currently limited to Google Play. I can get more out of my Logitech Revue than out of this thing because at least the Revue works with Pandora, Netflix and Amazon Prime.

The Final WTF: The PRICE

This device is $299! Sure its running a dual core processor. Sure it's cutting edge, never been done before, blah blah blah blah blah. BUT $299!!! Considering all the options we the people have in the electronics market I say save your money. Buy an amp and hook in a Nexus 7 tablet. You'll likely have just as good and experience and save $100. Either that or wait until the price drops or more functionality is added because at this point, its nice, but not I NEED IT nice.

There is Hope

The Nexus Q runs Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. It was designed on the open source mobile OS that is taking the world by storm. In the Keynote for Google I/O 2012 the presenter encouraged hacking it! That is awesome. Perhaps this little device could bloom into something we do NEED. But at this point I'm thinking you should invest in Pocket TV or a Google TV box if you want to enjoy the Google Ecosystem without the premium.