David Emery OnlineTop five musical crimes perpetrated by record store customers in the 90s and 2000s
Pretty nicely sums up why I don’t like going in indie record stores. They should be some form of capitalist urban mecca to me, full of interest and discovery, but instead they’re intimidating and impenetrable.
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records have just launched a new site, and very good it is too – really love the clarity of information (that is so often missed on record label sites). While I’m at it, take a look at the new Domino Records site – the design is maybe not quite as nice, but the use of colour is lovely and I particularly like the user controlled ‘status’ at the top.
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National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers Urges Release Date Parity
“Err, hi guys. You seem to be screwing up our business model (even though consumers obviously like it) – could you stop please? Pretty please?”
I also particularly like the phrase “…we are opening the door for chaos in the marketplace”.
Visit ➔Reflection: the national on the big stage
While we’re on the topic of long-form music writing, have a read of this great piece charting the (eventual) rise of The National. It’s an interesting read, and brings up some interesting thoughts about the consumption of digital music and the subsequent consequences in the comments.
Incidentally, The National for me are the very definition of a ‘grower’ band; every album they’ve done so far on first listen has sounded slightly dull – it’s only a month (or two or three) later that I realise just how brilliant it is. For reference, that is very fucking brilliant.
Visit ➔Is The BBC The Enemy Of Hip Hop?
A very worthwhile read on the state of racial segregation on UK public radio today. The concept of 1xtra and things like the Mobo Awards has always sat uncomfortably with me (their very being is basically based on racist thinking), and it’s good to see I’m not alone in that.
Also, it’s also well worth checking out www.thequietus.com in more depth – it’s fast becoming my favourite music blog as it has a very refreshing focus on actual writing and journalism, as opposed to the up-to-the-minute news slant that most music sites take.
Visit ➔MySpace opens its garden, allows third-party data sharing
A very promising start, although it seems to be limited to ‘people’ at the moment – I’d really like to hack away at getting data from artist profiles. It’s good to see MySpace finally getting their shit together, what with this and the recent redesign – they just need to redesign profile pages next…
Visit ➔An Essential Dozen: 2008's best albums so far
I was considering posting a ‘albums of the year so far’ type post, but this pretty much covers it (bar a few exceptions, which I’m sure they’ll have in tomorrows follow up best). Not often you come across a music related list you wholly agree with…
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