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YouTubeEntries from September 1, 2007 - October 1, 2007
Asian Pop Record Covers from the '60s & '70s
I came across this delicious collection of vintage Asian albums covers from the ’60s and ’70s (including Singapore, Indonesia, honk Kong, Japan and Thailand). The covers clearly demonstrate the influence of Western design while maintaining a distinct Asian flavor. I only wish they had some samples of these albums to listen to.
Jadam Kahn
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Review: iTunes Wifi Store
I just updated my iPhone with the latest firmware that adds the wi-fi store functionality. Its not often that I require the need to purchase a song on the spot but I can imagine several instances where it can be useful. For instance when I was on vacation last week, a friend of mine played a bunch of new music that I really liked. I didn’t bring my laptop with me and really wanted to get some of those tunes for the rest of my trip. The wifi store would have been a perfect solution.
Featured Releases and Charts
You access the store via a new icon on your main menu screen. The first page you see is Featured New Releases which shows a combination of small promotional banners in addition to selected albums. You can also access What’s Hot and Genre Features as well.
There is another tab for Top 10s where you can view the top albums and songs across the iTunes service. At the bottom of each list there is a link to view 10 more items. When you tap it, the iPhone loads the next 10 items below the previous 10 so you never need to use a back button - a very nice use of “progressive disclosure”.
Finding Music
You can search for songs by typing in what you are looking for. Like iTunes, the wifi store thankfully utilizes live search so as you type you are provided with matching keywords. The more you type, the more accurate the suggestions.
Viewing an artist will display 2 albums (with a link to view all albums) and 25 songs (with a link to view 25 more songs). Albums also show ratings as well as the number of reviews though you cant access reviews at this time. To listen to a song, simply tap the song name and you will hear a 30-second sample.
Purchase and Download
To purchase a song or album, you click the price and it changes to a buy now button. This is a nice feature because it greatly reduces the chance of accidentally purchasing a song. Click the buy now button and the item animates into the download tab in the bottom left. You are then asked to enter your account password. Songs download incredibly fast over a high speed connection.
Conclusion
While the full iTunes store offers much more in terms of exploring and discovering music, the wifi store is a very elegant and impressive implementation. Now the problem is how to control my purchasing impulses when waiting in (the ever expanding) places that have wifi access.
Back From Vacation
Rocketsurgeon’s Music 2.0 Blog has been quiet the last few weeks. A combination of an insane work schedule and a week of much needed vacation has kept me from blogging on a regular basis. I’m back now and you can hopefully expect a return to more regular posts and analysis.
ITunes Adds Live Search
iTunes added a live search feature to the iTunes music store today. When you begin typing a menu appears to try and autocomplete your search keywords. The feature does seem to provide keywords for artists, albums and songs though there is no visual distinction between the keyword types. While this is a welcome addition, Yottamusic has had a similar feature now for months, and does show the distinction between keyword types.
iTunes Live Search:
Yottamusic Live Search:
iToner: Custom Ringtones For Your iPhone
Apple plans on launching their new ringtone service for the latest iTunes release sometime this week. The new service will only work with iTunes Store purchased tracks and will carry an additional cost above the standard track price. The latest upgrade also tried to disable the ability for users fto use their own tracks as ringtones. However, the newest version of iToner has adapted as quickly as the Borg to work with iTunes 7.4.1.
iToner is a simple utility that allows you to use your music collection as iPhone ringtones. Simply drag and drop music files on the iToner window and sync to your iPhone. You can also create a custom playlist within iTunes for your ringtones an use iToner to sync all content of the playlist. To assign a ringtone to a specific contact, just go to the edit contact screen on your iPhone, click “assign ringtone”, and select the ringtone you want.
Bob Dylan Message Generator
The Bob Dylan Message Generator is an innovative way of promoting the upcoming Bob Dylan Greatest Songs release in October. The site uses the classic video from “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and allows users to add their own messages to the cue cards. Unfortunately there is no way to embed your customized video into a web page but you can view the my Music 2.0 manifesto video.
MyStrands Launches Personalized Music TV
MyStrands launched a personalized streaming music video site this week. The service streams music videos from YouTube based on your favorite artists scrobbled via the MyStrands desktop application. In addition to the video stream, the service provides additional video and channel recommendations, Mystrands members who listen to the current artist and artist discography (Amazon).
A very nice feature is the ability to set the next video to a similar artist, the same artist or other artist (from your favorites). You can add videos to a favorites list and use a set of simple icons to rate or block videos. The service also keeps track of your recently played videos in case you want to go back and review them.
Unfortunately, It doesn’t seem like there is an easy way to embed your personalized player into a web page at this time, but you can directly link to your personal channel. Overall a very nice beta.
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