The French Parliament has backed a bill to force digital music services to open up their proprietary formats and to make them interoperable. If it gets signed into law, Apple, Sony, MSN and the like will either have to make their systems open or shut down their stores. Who wants to make book on whether they’ll stay open?
I’ve bought an occassional iTunes file, but for the most part, I stay away from the service — I don’t like having to launch a specific application just to listen to a single file. (And no, I don’t own an iPod.) I also don’t like how you can browse stores of other countries but not buy anything from them. Such a missed opportunity to leverage a global market.
Slightly more than three years since the break-up of Number Girl, all four members have now released albums with their respective projects.
Mukai Shuutoku had a head-start with ZAZEN BOYS. Nakao Kentaro sat in with Spiral Chord before getting serious with SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS. Tabuchi Hisako formed toddle in between guitar duties with bloodthirsty butchers. And Ahito Inzawa formed Vola & the Oriental Machine after splitting from ZAZEN BOYS.
It’s been a long time since I shopped over at CD Japan, having migrated to Amazon Japan for slightly cheaper shipping.
Since then, CD Japan has expanded its shipping options, to include Global Priority Mail. I ordered Vola & the Oriental Machine’s Waiting for My Food mini-album to see how long it takes to arrive. Verdict: three weeks. Amazon usually takes only one.
But CD Japan’s cheapest shipping option is noticeably (but not really significantly) cheaper than Amazon’s, so it’s a good alternative to keep in mind if instant gratification isn’t a must.
That said, when the fuck is YesAsia going to list the new album by Hatakeyama Miyuki (titled Reflection) for pre-order? YesAsia’s shipping is reasonably quick and cheap, but it does me no good if the item I want isn’t even listed in the damn catalog.
I’d heard of Audioscrobbler and Last.fm years ago, and I passed on it. In my mind, Musicwhore.org is supposed to fill the purpose of letting people know what I’m listening to, thank you very much.
And of course, I get to wank like all the rock critics I read.
I didn’t really want to reveal what I was listening to before I had a chance to write about it.
I’m over that now because I’m not writing as frequently as I used to. It’s tough to let the world what you’re listening to when you don’t have time to tell anyone.
When the Sony Music web site listed "I Know What Boys Like" as a track on ACO’s now-released mask EP, I was in denial that it was a cover of the venerable hit by the Waitresses.
Well, it is a cover of the Waitresses. A very glitchy cover.
The Waitresses fan in me ought to be mortally offended someone would dare cover this song, but I got a kick out of the snippet I heard of ACO’s version. She’s got the deadpan down, and the glitchy reworking pays homage to the irreverant nature of the song.
Listening to the rest of the clips, it sounds like ACO is back to writing melodies, but she hasn’t totally abandoned the Sigur Rós ambitions of irony. I can’t wait for my YesAsia order to arrive!
The bane of SXSW is conflicting schedules. It’s great that Klezmatics, eX-Girl and a bevy of traditional Japanese shamisen players are headed for the festival. It sucks they’re all scheduled on the same night.
If you’re heading to Austin to check out bands from Japan, it might help to check out the following table — I can tell you now, you’re going to have to prioritize on Friday and Saturday.
Supercar split up in early 2005, and a year later, each member is off doing his or her own thing.
Singer/guitarist Nakamura Koji started up a new project, Ill, says Bounce.com. No details are available about this new project, but last year, Nakamura’s other post-Supercar project, Nyantora, released a third album, Yoru wo Wasurenai/97-03.
A few days ago, bassist Furukawa Miki launched her own official site. Nothing on there yet about any new projects, but both Furukawa’s and Nakamura’s sites are hosted by Yamaha Corporation — presumably their new label.
Ishitari Junji and Tazawa Kodai each have weblogs now. Kodai released a second album with aM back in Oct. 2005.
It’s somewhat interesting to see the post-group dynamics at play — Nakamura links to Furukawa’s site, and Ishitari and Tazawa both use the same blogging site. Of course, eplus.co.jp may be some sort of MySpace-style blog farm, so I’m probably reading way more into it.
… and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Core of Soul will break up after its March 24 performance in Osaka, reports Bounce.com. The band recently released its fourth album, One Love, One Day, One Life. On Feb. 22, a DVD and best album will be released.
I included Core of Soul in the original artist directory, but I didn’t really disguise how bad I thought they were. I gave the band’s debut album a good review but not after trashing their songwriting.
I’m a snob that way.
I went on vacation in New York City in April 2005, and I visited Kinokuniya for some CD shopping. Core of Soul’s third album, 3, was on the cutout table selling for less than $10. Even Kinokuniya couldn’t get rid of them fast enough.
Record bosses are now having to look beyond piracy to explain the latest decline in revenues, which have fallen about 20 percent globally since 1999.
“Piracy in all its forms has been the major factor in this reversal but not the only factor,” said Eric Nicoli, chairman of EMI Group PLC, the world’s No. 3 record company.
You think? Maybe perhaps the labels are putting out shit product and consumers are getting smarter about it?
Some analysts see other reasons for the industry’s current woes. “Executives have focused so much of their attention on piracy that they’ve diverted their efforts from developing new talent,” said Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media, a U.S. market research firm.
I don’t download very much, nor do I purchase files online. What I hear doesn’t give me much incentive to do either.