Flutterby™! : put another nickel in

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put another nickel in

2004-12-20 18:59:16.16294+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

Okay, I admit it, we've been listening to Christmas music. And, yes, half of me agrees with Columbine that Christmas music is a dark horror, I think that much of that hatred of the genre stems from it really being specific instances of a genre we wouldn't listen to much anyway, repeated eternally: I bet if we heard any other Bing Crosby[Wiki] tune eight times a day we'd be just as ready to disembowel people with whatever sharp object we had at hand.

But Banu Gibson[Wiki] singing Zat You, Santa Claus?[Wiki] once or thrice a year works just fine for me. I can even do with a Santa Baby[Wiki] or two if it's not the baby-talk Marilyn Monroe[Wiki] version, and I'll sit through Handel[Wiki]'s Messiah[Wiki]. Especially the chamber music sized arrangement.

But the upshot of all of this is that while for the past few years the audio system has been primarily used by Charlene for massage music, I'm having to deal with the mass of CDs. So I finally moved cables around enough that the (fanless, only moving part is the muffled hard drive) house server now sits on top of the amplifier and CD player, running MPD as well as serving us up our files. And I've picked back up on the process of digitizing audio, trying to remember to slap in a new CD occasionally.

So this brought up the usual questions, with disk space so cheap why am I bothering to compress stuff? But as I go through the collection some of my old questions about copyright and such come up. For instance, I've got a couple of CDs of Dylan[Wiki]'s that need to be returned to him if I ever hear from him again, do I digitize them and listen to them and remember to delete them when I give 'em back? And I know I'm going to loan a Capitol Steps album to a friend, how do I interest them in the music while being careful about maintaining the licensing issues of playing only what I have physical media for? And, if I did digitize these things as uncompressed and set up a reasonable backup and media migration strategy, should I even bother to hold on to the physical media except for licensing issues?

Yes, these sound like ridiculous things that I shouldn't be worried about. But I do take intellectual property seriously, and I think there are going to be opportunities in examining these paths.

[ related topics: Music Dan's Life Invention and Design Sports Pop Culture Copyright/Trademark ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2004-12-20 21:50:30.565874+00 by: markd

I'll sit through Handel's Messiah.

I'm pretty active in the local (orchestral / band) music scene wherever I end up living. I've played chunks of the Messiah so many times, I get hives thinking about playing it again. Ranging from "Hallelujah Chorus" at least once a year (one time we had an elderly conductor take it in 3. It's written in 4. d'oh), to doing a Messiah Sing along (twice in one day), to doing the *entire* freaking thing in a marathon.

Don't even get me started on Slave Drive Sleigh Ride.

#Comment Re: made: 2004-12-20 22:32:54.44+00 by: meuon

I've recently enjoyed some Christmas Music.. even played some for the Engineers Club Christmas Party. (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's Rock!) but I avoid it for the most part.

The issue with you loaning out CD's, while you have a Rip'd copy is that you have a singularly high set of personal ethics. I walk a softer line, but still, I have purchased 100x more music recently (last 3-5 years) than in my whole life because of exposure to things I have had 'shared' with me. Why? Because I want a real copy (normal CD) and I want to support the artist. I think it's the way of the future. Now if I could just get MindDawn to work. Of if they could change things to not require their special browser to re-listen to stuff.