I get music at the buffet. Where do you get yours?

Let's take it back a few years.  I'm a major audiophile.  Back when I bought CDs I had a LOT of them.  I'm sure other people had more, but I had more than my share.  I'm the guy that bought the biggest case possible and kept it next to me in my car.  When file sharing came into play I took advantage of it and used Kazaa to find a LOT of good, new music I wouldn't have found otherwise.  An audiophile's dream!  I bought lots of blank CDs and got a car stereo that played them in "data mode" so I could fit several hundred songs on a single disc...AWESOME, right?  


But it was illegal - CRAP!  Here I was, a guy who worked IN the music business downloading music in a manner that was robbing artists and writers of royalties they should be earning.  Time for a change.  An aside - As bad as file sharing was, lots of good bands probably gained exposure through it.  I found Thrice and Thursday and many others from file sharing.  So while bands and performers are making less on royalties, they probably stand a better chance of being found now - and most of them are using the internet to their advantage.  Record companies aren't serving much purpose now aside from being an outlet for distribution.  Many bands now are recording and distributing themselves (since stores aren't as necessary) and are selling less units but making far more per unit than they would otherwise.  I guess this is a discussion for another time.  


I eventually went to work for Dell and my first MP3 player was a Dell DJ.  It was clunky and clumsy, but it did everything it needed to do - AND, I was able to use the MusicMatch subscription service from Yahoo with it.  So now I could get virtually all the music I wanted and just had to pay a small monthly fee.  And life was good.  Now, while I had my (very uncool) Dell DJ everyone else was getting iPods and they were EVERYWHERE (and still are).  But I still felt like I had found a better way.  With an iPod you have to either buy songs or albums on iTunes, upload them from a CD you bought or download them illegally.  There is no subscription service.  So while an iPod user pays $10 and gets 10 songs I pay $10 and get hundreds or thousands or however many songs I want.  #winning.  


I was fine with having the uncool device because it satisfied my need to carry all my music with me everywhere.  I eventually moved on to an 80GB Zune and could really carry a ton of music around.  Here's what's golden about it.  With the Zune Pass I pay $15/month for unlimited music...and I can load that music onto THREE Zune players - WHAT!?!?!?!  Crazy good deal.  Both of my kids have Zunes and we all have all the music we want for $15/month.  AND for that $15 I can take 10 songs/month and convert them to be DRM free so I can load them on another kind of device or burn to a CD, etc - WHAT!?!?!?!  Another crazy good part of the deal!  

Now I have a Windows Phone which integrates Zune into its OS, which is super slick and I'll be writing more about it soon.  I still use the Zune Pass and my phone is pretty full of music.  Unfortunately the capacity is only 16GB, so I can hold about 1000 songs along with everything else that's on the phone.  


The Zune app does everything other apps do, which makes me wonder why more people aren't on board.  I have a "Pandora" like feature called Smart DJ, and I can use it on computers and on the phone when I'm out.  I can download a song straight into the phone when I'm out using the Zune Pass.  Also, the new Bing search has a "Shazam" like feature that will listen to a song, identify it, then give me the option to download it with my Zune Pass - goodbye Shazam.  


It's tough being a Zune guy in an iPod world, but I'm happy with it because I feel like I'm getting everything and more that an iPod person can get and paying WAY less for it.  I have the feeling that because Microsoft hasn't done good enough a job promoting and educating about their product, people are siding with other platforms because they don't know about the alternatives.  Same thing with Windows Phone, which I'll touch on later.


So what am I even trying to accomplish here?  Do I want people to convert?  If it would make them enjoy their music experience more - yeah.  


Because Microsoft has done such a bad job promoting they've abandoned the Zune hardware product, which is unfortunate because it really does work well.  Thankfully they've thrown all the focus on Zune into Windows Phone which is beginning to take off world-wide, mostly outside the U.S. right now.  And it's VERY rare that I'll look for something in the Zune marketplace and not be able to find it.  They're doing a good job of keeping catalogs up to date, even with very obscure and new artists on very small record labels.  


I guess I just want people to know there's another alternative to the products and song store that everyone seems to be using.  Bummer it's too late for the hardware part of the product.  Hopefully they can get it right with Windows Phone because it's keeping this audiophile's appetite satisfied.

Random Start: A Place in This World by Taylor Swift @taylorswift13

This song made it into Random Start because I've downloaded (legally) all the Taylor Swift music I can find for my 8 year old daughter Cason, who is a huge fan.  We all know Taylor Swift is EVERYWHERE, and she's polarizing.  People seem to love her or hate her.  Here's why we should respect her.


She just wrapped the tour to support Speak Now, a record full of hits that she wrote entirely on her own, which in itself is amazing.  Look up some country songs online to find writing credits.  It's very rare that performers write their own songs in the country world.  More rare for that performer to be just 21.  I looked at the writing credits for her debut album and most were co-written by Liz Rose, but she wrote two of its biggest hits on her own - Our Song and Should've Said No.  Respect.

Random Start: Times Like These by Dan Fogelberg

This song found its way into Random Start by being on the soundtrack for Urban Cowboy, one of my wife's favorite movies.  There are several good songs in the soundtrack.  And if you don't know the story of Bud, Sissy, Wes and Pam you should check it out.  

Random Start: Micah by Russian Circles

I found this band via Riley Breckenridge of Thrice in one of his Random Starts.  They're an instrumental (kind of) metal band.  Long songs, lots of movements within, complex rhythms.  It's good stuff and something that I've made an effort to like, but isn't really catching on with me.  I'll have to consider it background music for now.  It's the kind of thing you can really pay attention to, and dig for intricacies - or just have in the background as you're working.

Random Start: No One Is To Blame by Howard Jones

Wow - thanks for nothing Random Start.  I'm pretty sure this came from downloading a premade "80s" playlist from the Zune Marketplace.  Deleting this track now - and my apologies.

Random Start: Chemical Straightjacket by Living Sacrifice @livingsac

This is a band I love - on the all time favorites list.  I first discovered them in the early 90s and have kept up with them through the years.  They started with a straightforward thrash record, then went very heavy/sludgy with undecipherable vocals.  This song is from that era.  The band broke up for awhile then came back in 1997 with Reborn, a metal/hardcore hybrid that set the tone for their sound going forward.  All of their records after Reborn are pure metal gold.  They're not a full time band anymore, but are still doing some shows and putting out records.  I LOVE watching them play live.  Their songs have difficult rhythms and I love seeing them pull it off live - and the drummer (Lance Garvin) is a BEAST behind the kit.  


I had the pleasure of booking concerts for Living Sacrifice back in my Davdon days.  Bruce Fitzhugh (vocal/guitar) has moved to Nashville and I see him around from time to time.  These are some of the nicest guys you'll ever meet playing some of the heaviest music you'll ever hear. If you like metal and don't know Living Sacrifice check them out.

Random Start: All A Dream by Bun B

Hoping this works and I don't have to switch services again.  In my opinion, Bun B is one of the better MCs in hip hop today.  He's out of Houston which has produced a LOT of good stuff and has had one of the hotter scenes in the last few years.  Bottom line - I dig the dude's voice.  He's guested on a lot of music that I have and tracks he's on are always some of my favorites.

Back in Business, I think

I ran into a "space" issue with Wordpress, so I'm trying out Blogger.com.  It's a Google owned site and most of the content I post is from other Google sites, so hoping this works.  Testing, testing, 123.