Blogged on March 5, 2008 at 10:46
I was very curious about the last Nine Inch Nails (NIN) album! I was reading about all the hype on the way they used to distribute it. I was also aware of people having major problems getting to the download (just like it happened with Radiohead’s In Rainbows). And so I waited…
Yesterday, being tired of waiting I headed on to the official website. Surprisingly it opened on the first try and everything looked rather snappy and fast. I read about the download speed issues and realized we could download the 9 free tracks off of Bit-Torrent, tracked at The Pirate Bay, and uploaded by NIN themselves. I went on to get the free tracks over at TPB.
After listening to them 2 times I was already in love!!! I was even more in love knowing that they provided lossless download options, like FLAC and Apple Lossless. But I was even more impressed with the fact that they give you immediate access to those same downloads when you buy the physical version (that ships in April)!!! So I ordered the $10 (+ $6.99 shipping) physical edition of it! 
Since September and my move to the US I haven’t bought a single physical CD. Prior to coming, and just during the first half of 2007, I bought around 40 physical CDs! With the move o the US I came to realize that those physical CDs can be a real logistical PITA: broken cases from the travelling, lots of extra weight that is expensive when flying, etc… Since I got here, I already bought over 20 CDs through the iTunes Store and boy, am I loving it! The fact that I can buy any album on my iPhone, through wireless and get Instant Satisfaction™ is delightful!! Don’t get me wrong, I still love owning the physical CDs and ripping them to MP3s (used to rip them to OGG, but my iPod/iPhone changed my mind) or even AAC+ (which I have been learning to like in terms of quality/size vs the MP3s). But even with all of this, I decided to order the physical edition. What “tipped me” over was the fact that I still had access to Instant Satisfaction™: they give you the same download options when you buy the physical edition.
From my experience with my other CDs, I don’t mess around them much after buying them! I get them, rip them, put them on my iTunes/iPod/iPhone and only resort to the physical discs if something goes wrong or I’m about to travel! I do like the feeling of owning the physical disc, but I’m quickly replacing that with the knowledge that from a mobility standpoint, digital has taken over. In terms of listening, it has taken over a long time ago… at least for me!
I’m also the kind of person who downloads music albums… a LOT! I’m glad I do, because on some cases it saved me money! And saving me money allowed me to buy albums that are REALLY worth it! As an example, I bought Coldplay’s “X&Y” shortly after it came out, but had already listened to it MANY times to the point that when I bought it I didn’t listen to it for a while! Why did I buy it then, you may ask… Because I *loved* (still do!) the album and think it was worth buying! Yes, that’s how I view music purchases: I pay when I feel it’s worth the price! If prices went down, I’d buy more, but I still buy quite a bit of music!!
Having said that, I encourage you to get this NIN album! If for nothing else, do it because they released it under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, allowing you to do “whatever” you want with the music without having to pay royalties of any sort! That’s a MAJOR step forward and takes some gut feeling to do it! HUGE kudos to NIN for taking that step forward in music. I think this one is even more revolutionary than Radiohead’s album for many reasons like immediate download when you buy the physical discs, lossless formats, Creative Commons license, etc…
Bottom line: I’m *very happy* about this and can’t wait to see more artists doing the same! ^^,
Blogged on November 26, 2007 at 11:34
BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY (BUY)
Need I say more? 
Blogged on October 11, 2007 at 23:55
This might be too good to be true, but news came out that 2 of my favorite bands of all times are about to embrace the same paradigm Radiohead did this last Wednesday, October 10th. They’re about to go label-less and release their new albums on their own!! Although that doesn’t mean they’ll use the same pricing strategy as Radiohead did, it means they help keep the major labels… “ticked”! (this a family-safe blog :p)
Interesting enough, they’re all… European (british) bands… 
I could go on and on about this issue, but I really have been thinking over this, and I don’t want to get all excited about something I don’t see happening in a broader sense… period. We all know Radiohead, Jamiroquai and Oasis have huuuge fan-bases and lots and lots (and lots!) of money, but *unfortunately* many bands rely on getting a major label contract to really start selling some music.
I say “unfortunately” because this is result of our generation’s way of consumption: we wait to be presented with something we’re told to like, it turns into a hype, it’s shown everywhere from commercial products to TV shows and… the hype dies out, and we wait for the next one!
Of course I’m not talking about myself. I’m very much into post-rock (that term alone is unknown to many!) and listen to amazing bands like God is an Astronaut, Sigur Rós, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, 65daysofstatic, etc… and buy their albums, and try going to concerts when possible. But I’m part of a minority of music lovers, that uses amazing tools like Last.FM (I’d vote on them for best social/music website EVER!), to find artist unknown to the general public. But let’s face it: we’re not the ones filling stadiums and buying band-branded school gear, etc…
I’ll stop here! First, I’m loving this new paradigm of true music communication. After all, music is an art-form and for it to fulfill it’s main purpose is to be heard by as many people as possible, whether they buy it, rent it or borough it, but have the music speak to them. Second, that’s what I love about post-rock… and Radiohead!
The links on the bands names are for their Wikipedia page… It can help getting a background and some cool info on them. But I can’t stress this enough: Visit their websites and listen to some music samples… Heck, buy their albums!! Most of them, if not all, can be found on the iTunes Store. On a side note, God is an Astronaut sells their albums for $8, DRM-Free and in 320kbps… And yes, they’re one of my favorite bands, and they’ll be in Portugal next week for 3 concerts!!!!!!!!!!!!!
via Telegraph.co.uk
Blogged on September 24, 2007 at 23:19
I couldn’t agree more with the self-titled “unsuccessful writer” Jeff Harrell, when he rambles on the true reason behind Apple’s decision of not allowing custom ringtones on their new & shiny iPhones. Of course, they kind of backed on that decision by allowing those debatable “double paid” ringtones through iTunes Music Store (not on every music though…).
Make sure to read his full post, but basically he says:
Apple is, far beyond anything else, a brand. It’s not a computer company; it’s not a consumer electronics company. It’s a brand. And everything Apple does serves that brand, which is by far the company’s most valuable asset.
Apple, therefore, has a strong vested interest in making sure that people who see other people using iPhones aren’t immediately annoyed by them. So there would be no ringtones that are creepy-as-hell covers of bad 80s synth-pop jingles as interpreted by computer-simulated frog sounds.
Oh my… I think he got it right on spot!
Blogged on August 15, 2007 at 01:59
Gostava de conhecer mais pessoal que jogue um destes jogos! No caso do WoW, já tive conta durante algum tempo, e tenho agora mais 10 dias para experimentar a expansão “Burning Crusade”. No caso do LOTRO, comprei a “Collector’s Edition”, que numa edição de 5,000 unidades eu tenho a # 222… E com isso tenho uma conta vitalícia.
Na minha rápida análise, gosto bastante mais da banda sonora do WoW. Por incrível que pareça, é muito mais “Lord of the Rings”-style (ou seja, mais ao estilo de Howard Shore, compositor da banda sonora original da triologia!) e com isso proporciona muito melhor ambiente! E parece-me mais intuitivo a nível de jogo, em termos de RPG.
Já no que respeita a gráficos, o LOTRO é bastante mais avançado. E com bastante, digo bastante mesmo. Enquanto que no WoW consigo jogar com tudo ao máximo, no LOTRO nem perto disso consigo jogar. O mundo idêntico ao de Tolkien, com os nomes e localizações como nos filmes, foi o que me “vendeu” o jogo. É espectacular realizar Quests ao lado de Gandalf ou Elrond… priceless! Em termos de gameplay, quem já jogou WoW vai sentir-se familiarizado com o interface: é idêntico. Até os atalhos do teclado default são idênticos. Isso é bom, porque o WoW já marcou o genéro, e sair muito disso seria bastante perigoso.
Como disse, tenho conta vitalícia no LOTRO pelo que vou tentar jogá-lo mais… Mas gostava de saber se mais alguém tem uma paixãozinha por estes fabulosos jogos, que para mim retiram qualquer interesse a mundos virtuais como Second Life e afins… Se bem que, infelizmente, é difícil arranjar tempo para eles… :/
Blogged on August 11, 2007 at 17:40
Bem… Já passaram dias de mais desde o meu último post. Tal facto deve-se a ter sido uma semana um tanto ou quanto… estranha. Apesar de ter estado online 90% do meu dia enquanto acordado (nop, ainda não consigo estar online durante o sono… - os outros 10% são as refeições :p), ter lido os meus feeds todos (consegui “limpar” o meu Reader :)), ter lido e respondido a emails, ter lido artigos de interesse e de relevância para leitores do meu blog, etc… acabei por ter tanto que não fiz muito.
Estou neste momento a acabar um design para um site dum clan (daqueles que jogam jogos de computador online, e ficam num programita a falar uns com os outros, discutindo tácticas e ajudando-se mutuamente com o objectivo de eliminar a equipa concorrente… sim esses mesmo!) que mo pediu… Não vou lucrar, mas como é algo que até me deu algum prazer e como estava numa crise de criatividade, acabei por aceitar o desafio. Originalmente só queriam personalizar um template existente, mas acabei por refazer tudo. Com isso, deparo-me com as frustrações típicas de pessoal “esquisito” como eu: o raio do CMS não gera código direito, cospe tabelas para tudo e mais alguma coisa e é tudo menos “standard compliant”. Um gajo sofre… Mas pronto, vou acabar isto entre hoje e amanhã e não se fala mais nisso. E quando estiver pronto partilho para conhecimento geral e crítica… constructiva, visto não ser a minha área de design… hmmm… nem tenho formação nenhuma de design! :p (NOTA: Já agora, quem tiver interesse em desenvolver um CMS específicamente para gaming websites entre em contacto comigo que eu estou a fim duma aventura do género, mas não tenho conhecimentos suficientes por minha conta… :)).
“In other news”, estou a desenvolver o branding para a minha igreja. O logotipo e branding actual também tinha sido desenvolvido por mim mas já está dated e a precisar dum belo dum restyling. Ainda estou em “early sketches” e quando tiver mais dados, partilho. (Estou a pensar usar Wordpress para gerir todo o futuro website… Não sei se mais alguém já o fez, a nível corporate mas acho que o WP é capaz de dar conta do recado, com a utilização de alguns plugins sempre q necessário…)
Quanto ao mais estou a tentar esboçar um outro post com links que tenho lido recentemente em vários temas, e que me parecem relevantes. (all-geek-related-stuff)
Outras novidades de alguma relevância a nível pessoal seguir-se-ão muito brevemente. Stay tuned!
PS: Descobri uma banda que me deixou completamente fascinado. Trata-se dos Euphoria, um duo canadiano que envolve a sonoridade acústica, nomeadamente de guitarras, com efeitos e ritmos electrónicos… Muito na onda dum Lounge/Chillout. Podem ouvir uns previews do melhor álbum deles aqui, dar uma olhada no myspace, ou passar pelo Last.FM e procurar por artistas similares. Boas audições!
PS2: Não resisti ontem à noite e comprei mesmo o álbum no dancetracksdigital.com. O problema foi que tentei fazer o download delas com o DownThemAll! do Firefox. Resultado: não consegui e ainda fiz expirar os links que têm protecção contra cópias por IPs diferentes (os links são disponibilizados durante um dia, mas apenas para 1 IP… Se o IP mudar, têm de se requerer novos links…). Depois de alguns mails, recebi a resposta há minutos e reactivaram-me os links. Eu tinha procurado e não havia nenhuma indicação contra “Download Managers” de terceiros apesar de eles terem um deles. Já os avisei, e espero que tomem medidas. Foi a minha primeira vez no site, e situações destas não costumam deixar boa impressão… De resto, o que me fez comprar lá foi ser o mesmo preço que na iTunes Store ($9.99 o álbum… em € fica ainda um bocado menos) e ser DRM-Free e MP3 a 320kbps. =D
Hey! I‘m Levi Figueira, an ‘82 portuguese tech enthusiast a.k.a geek! My interests range from design, photography, multimedia, production and music to linux, networking and development! *Personal tastes are subject to change without prior notice* :p Enjoy! =)
