Pioneer is known to make digital mixers that leave us drooling and wishing for some DJ skills. First they gave us the CDJ-2000 with its beautiful LCD screen, and now they’ve given us the DJM-2000, a multitouch screen-having per-frequency-mixing beauty. More »
Popularity: unranked [?]
A Chinese artist named PixieTea both recorded this song and shot the accompanying video almost entirely on an iPhone 3GS. The surprise? It’s actually pretty decent! See for yourself: More »
Popularity: unranked [?]
pimg src=”http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/02/340x_mmw_composer3_03101.jpg” class=”left image340″ width=”340″ /Six years ago, a class=”autolink” title=”Click here to read more posts tagged #davidcope” href=”http://gizmodo.com/tag/davidcope/”David Cope/a destroyed one of the world’s most talented composers. Her name was Emmy, and she’d written thousands of musical scores that were indistinguishable from classics by Mozart. But Emmy’s younger, brighter daughter named Emily lives on./ppDavid Cope is an emeritus professor at University of California. His last piece of music composition software, Emmy (expanded from EMI, or Experiments in Musical Intelligence), was shelved six years ago in a wake of controversy. Today, his follow-up a class=”autolink” title=”Click here to read more posts tagged #emilyhowell” href=”http://gizmodo.com/tag/emilyhowell/”Emily Howell/a attempts to do what Emmy could not: Write original, modern music, rather than simply recreate the style of a bygone era./p
pMiller-Mccune’s a href=”http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507/”full story/a on Emily and Professor Cope is fascinating, not only because it includes snippets of Emily’s original compositions, but because of its insight into the future of compositionmdash;namely, that human composers will rely upon machines for tasks once deemed creative./p
pIn fact, Cope has divulged that one unnamed pop group has already signed him to help write new material. And while it’s hard to accept Man’s impending artistic obsolescence, look at the bright side. Philip Glass will be kicked to the curb in no time. [a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507/"Miller-Mccune/a]/pbr clear=”both” style=”clear: both;”/
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Popularity: 8% [?]
div class=”track”img alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/79694?ns=guardianpageName=Apple+hits+10+billion+songs+sold+-+but+what%27s+happening+to+music+sales+g%3AArticle%3A1364436ch=Technologyc3=GU.co.ukc4=Apple+%28Technology%29%2Citunes+%28Technology%29%2CMusic%2CTechnology%2CDigital+music+and+audio+%28Technology%29c6=Charles+Arthurc7=10-Feb-25c8=1364436c9=Articlec10=Blogpostc11=Technologyc13=c25=Technology+blogc30=contenth2=GU%2FTechnology%2Fblog%2FTechnology+blog” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divp class=”standfirst”The growth in iTunes tracks sold is encouraging – but if you consider what’s driving it, the picture might not be so rosy/ppSteve Jobs emwill/em be pleased. Not only did it happen on his birthday, but the 10 billionth song sold through the iTunes Music Store was by one of his musical heroes, Johnny Cash; specifically, “Guess Things Happen That Way”, which was bought by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia, who receives a $10,000 iTunes gift card./ppJobs however was not moved to comment on the sale; instead that was left to Eddy Cue, the company’s vice president of “internet services”, who said: “We’re grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone. We’re proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering.”/ppCertainly it is – but how quickly will the next 10 billion roll around? Looking at the best-selling songs indicates that they have all come from the past couple of years. /ppThere’s another question too: is the number of sales of songs keeping step with the number of iPods, given that it’s the iPod that is reckoned to be the driver of sales? br /img src=”http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/columnists/2010/2/25/1267115192885/Screen_shot_2010-02-25_at_14.46.39.png” /br /Certainly the data (a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store#Milestones”recorded on Wikipedia/a) suggests that sales keep growing. /ppBut iPod sales are growing too – and a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/sep/09/ipod-installed-based-questions”no matter what replacement period you think there is/a (as per our story of last November), you can’t see emexponential/em growth in sales of songs compared to the number of iPods out there. People who have iPods don’t seem to buy more and more and more songs in the sort of replacement that they did for CDs replacing vinyl (understandably, as CDs are digital, just like iTunes tracks, and you can rip them)./ppIn fact, they seem to track each other fairly closely – so that with sensible estimates of between 100m and 150m iPods actually in use (because although Steve Jobs a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jan/27/apple-tablet-launch-live-coverage”did say at the iPad launch that 250m iPods have been sold/a, not all of those are still working, you can be sure), you have to think that music sales are only weakly tracking iPod sales./ppThe graph above shows how the number of songs sold per day has taken off. (Note: we’ve had to interpolate for the 7bn and 9bn figures, because Apple never announced them. But given the linear shape of the graph we felt it was fair to use a linear interpolation for them, as they fit other numbers that have been provided.)/ppThen there’s more bad news: iPod sales a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/25/apple-iphone-profit-growth”fell year-on-year in the most recent Christmas quarter/a. So if it’s iPod sales driving iTunes sales, then the signs already point towards an eventual flattening. Even now, the graph seems to show straight-line growth./ppIt is surely a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/09/apple-ipod-digital-music-sales”twilight of the (dumb) iPods/a – for the iPhone and iPod Touch are still doing well, and the iPad looks like it could do well too. But they’ll never be the rocket that gets lit under the sales of downloaded music. /ppSo it’s a great day for Louie Sulcer, but for the music industry generally, this is only worth one cheer. Salvation, if it exists, will still have to be found elsewhere./pdiv class=”related” style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/apple”Apple/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/itunes”itunes/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/digital-music-and-audio”Digital music and audio/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”author”a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charlesarthur”Charles Arthur/a/divbr/div class=”terms”a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds”More Feeds/a/divp style=”clear:both” /
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Popularity: 2% [?]
div class=”track”img alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/17801?ns=guardianpageName=Apple+just+2.5m+songs+%28fewer+now%29+short+of+10+billion+downloads+from+iTu%3AArticle%3A1363873ch=Technologyc3=GU.co.ukc4=Apple+%28Technology%29%2Citunes+%28Technology%29%2CMusic%2CTechnology%2CDigital+music+and+audio+%28Technology%29c6=Charles+Arthurc7=10-Feb-24c8=1363873c9=Articlec10=Blogpostc11=Technologyc13=c25=Technology+blogc30=contenth2=GU%2FTechnology%2Fblog%2FTechnology+blog” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divp class=”standfirst”Ten billion songs sold in less than seven years: quite an achievement for something that wasn’t in the forefront of record labels’ thoughts in April 2003./ppApple is (if you trust the counter on the front of its website, which perhaps you shouldn’t, as we’ll explain) about 2.5m songs short of selling 10 billion songs through its iTunes Music Store, which was launched in April 2003./ppstrongUpdate:/strong the magic number was reached at about 10pm GMT./ppThe person who downloads that 10 billionth song can expect to be feted – as the a href=”http://www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-song-countdown/”related page explains/a, you could win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. (Conditions: have to be over 13. No purchase necessary.)/ppThe offer seems a bit… focussed compared to previous iTunes milestone giveaways: the billionth song, bought by then-16-year-old Alex Ostrovsky in February 2006, got him ten iPods, a $10,000 iTunes gift certificate emand/em a scholarship in his name at Juillard school of music. Compared to that, the 10-billion downloader is just going to get to play a sort of Supermarket Sweep. No iPods; no scholarship./ppBut it’s instructive to consider that in the almost-seven years since the iTunes Music Store opened, Apple has risen from nowhere to become the largest single music seller in the US. It’s been the subject of investigations over its pricing in Europe. It’s become an overwhelming force in music – and it doesn’t create any at all; it’s just a shopfront. And the record labels have come to fear its power, and especially its use of single pricing initially. Only the threat of withdrawal of content persuaded Apple to change that. It’s not clear whether it was Apple or the labels – or both – who wanted to go to DRM-free music: Apple because it meant less messing about, or the labels because it might break the iPod’s iron rule – but either way, customers have benefited from the latter, at least. Variable pricing? Arguable whether that’s good for customers or not./ppAnyway, here’s the rundown of the milestones, a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store#Market_share_and_milestones”shamelessly cribbed from Wikipedia/a:br /* 100 million songs sold: Summer, 2004 (by then 20-year-old Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas: he got a call from Steve Jobs congratulating him.)br /* 125 million songs sold: September 1, 2004br /* 150 million songs sold: October 14, 2004br /* 200 million songs sold: December 16, 2004 (by Ryan Alekman of Belchertown, Massachusetts: it was one of the tracks on U2’s digital box set The Complete U2.)br /* 250 million songs sold: January 24, 2005br /* 300 million songs sold: March 2, 2005br /* 400 million songs sold: May 10, 2005br /* 500 million songs sold: July 18, 2005 (by Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, USA: “Mississippi Girl” by Faith Hill.)br /* 850 million songs sold: January 10, 2006br /* 1 billion songs sold: February 23, 2006 by Alex Ostrovsky: “Speed of Sound” by Coldplay.br /* 1.5 billion songs sold: September 12, 2006br /* 2 billion songs sold: January 10, 2007br /* 2.5 billion songs sold: April 9, 2007br /* 3 billion songs sold: July 31, 2007br /* 4 billion songs sold: January 15, 2008br /* 5 billion songs sold: June 19, 2008br /* 6 billion songs sold: January 6, 2009br /* 8 billion songs sold: July 21, 2009br /* 8.6 billion songs sold: September 9, 2009/ppAnd since you’re wondering what that looks like as a time plot, it’s a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ITunes_Store_Songs_Sales.jpg”available on Wikipedia/a./ppOh yes, the counter thing. Well, it’s odd, but if you leave the page with the countdown/up on it open, and then disconnect your computer from the internet, the count continues. It may be that it’s somehow magically connecting with the iTunes Store. Or it may just be a guess at what the real number is. Digging around in the source code of the page doesn’t point to any obvious calls to the iTunes Store – but we’ll see./ppGood luck if you’re entering the competition – you don’t even need to buy anything. Only 25 entries per day allowed, mind. Get clicking. And just try to forget about the scholarship at Juillard./pdiv class=”related” style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/apple”Apple/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/itunes”itunes/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/digital-music-and-audio”Digital music and audio/a/li/ul/divdiv class=”author”a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charlesarthur”Charles Arthur/a/divbr/div class=”terms”a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds”More Feeds/a/divp style=”clear:both” /
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Popularity: 1% [?]
Philips has been on somewhat of a roll with new releases overseas, and the outfit’s new SoundSphere might just be the most intriguing yet. Generally speaking, home stereos don’t do much for us, but the minty fresh MCi900 and MCD900 definitely add a fresh touch on an age-old concept. Both systems are equipped with a pair of speakers, 100 watts of amplification and “free floating” tweeters that are outside of the enclosure. The shells themselves are molded from a single piece of aluminum, and there’s also an integrated CD player and USB socket on the both of ‘em. The former gets a Streamium logo and a 160GB hard drive, support for internet radio and wireless streaming with networked PCs or Macs. There’s no mention of a price just yet, and potentially more disheartening, no indication that we unimportant Americans will ever see it on our soil.
Gallery: Philips SoundSphere
Continue reading Philips breathes new life into home stereos with SoundSphere
Philips breathes new life into home stereos with SoundSphere originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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There is nothing about this old Dead Kennedys cassette single I don’t love. [SB1 via HypeMachine]
Popularity: 2% [?]
The Achilles’ Heel of the latest and greatest Nehalem-based Mac Pros seemed to be their trouble handling audio processing—even playing a song in iTunes reportedly caused overheating and sacked performance. Mac Pro Audio Update 1.0 offers sweet relief.
According to MacWorld, the new update, which rolled out last week, seems to help the matter both in terms of cooling temperatures and reclaiming processing power.
In a series of tests, they determined that installing the update resulted in a significantly quicker Aperture import and Compressor encoding with the machine simultaneously running iTunes—19% and 16% improvements, respectively. After the update, the Mac Pro’s CPU was also running 30 degrees cooler and sucking less power from the CPU and power supply.
The update is currently only for Snow Leopard machines, so Leopard users, who have also reported the problem, will have to wait a bit longer to get things sorted. [MacWorld]
Popularity: unranked [?]
In what may be a precursor to the hippie/robot showdown we’ve always hoped for, musician Patrick Flanagan has founded Jazari, a three-piece robotic drum circle with some impressive grooves. If that’s not fun enough, it’s all controlled by two Wiimotes.
Last week we looked at Marv, a robotic vibraphone that banged out an impressive rendition of “Flight of the Bumblebee.” This week’s robotunes come courtesy of an ensemble.
Flanagan wields two Wiimotes to control the rhythm, volume, and pitch of the three different drums. The D-pad determines which part of the drum is struck (and thus the sound it makes) while turning the Wiimote side to side controls the tempo of the notes and pointing it up and down controls their volume. Other buttons allow Flanagan to record loops on the fly and manipulate those patterns live.
Flanagan’s software even allows the other drums to analyze the grooves he’s creating and improvise their own patterns, though he doesn’t spend too much time talking about this capability. I think, as frontmen often do, he likes the control. [PopSci]
Popularity: unranked [?]
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