Internet Music -- A Myriad of Links and Information & Mashups!!!

Back in the day, Napster was it; the greatest thing since Compact Discs. Software you could download for P2P filesharing. Sharing music via Napster was something like swapping cassettes (mix tapes—see Hi-Fidelity or better yet, read the book by Nick Hornby.) but without the cassettes, the work of compiling, and without having to leave the house. You could just rip the music to your hard drive and open the files for everyone to browse. You could also find an old song you had on vinyl or a crappy cassette someone had somehow converted to mp3 format. You could find awesome rare or live stuff you couldn’t find anywhere else.

You can read the History of Napster here.

See how the old Napster worked here.

Then Metallica (please Metallica People, don't sue me for posting a picture of you on the blog) joined with the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) and threatened to sue people and ultimately did.

Look here to see what the RIAA is saying about their Anti-Piracy campaigns.

The allure of Napster and “free” music got a little scary for some people. Others continued to use Napster and other services that immediately sprang up. Downloading (both illegal and legal) is still a big thing. The Music Industry is scared. It is hard to make much money at 99 cents a song. And, just as technology keeps evolving to enable users to share files, music, movies, software, etc., the Music Industry keeps looking for ways to detect, identify and prosecute those who share files illegally. Look at this article about students facing large fines or prosecution. How about that kind of transcript following you after graduation!

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/napster4.htm

Napster went mainstream and legal after creator Shawn Fanning got sued. Time did an interesting story about Fanning and you can read it here.

Napster buy stock.

You can even get a Free Trial of the New (and RIAA Friendly) Napster Here.

Some other options of online music include the online version of Sirius Radio. For a Free trial, click here.

Another great one that uses the Windows Media Player is Urge. You can download the software and get a free trial here. Prices range from the industry typical 99 cent s a song to a $15/month "Access all Areas" pass. Get your URGE questions answered here.


P2P filesharing is here to stay. Gnutella, Morpheus, Kazaa, and Scour. These are three of the most popular services that are being used by most downloaders (illegal and other wise) today. The software is evidently legal, the material available may or may not be protected under copyright. Click here for a description of the way things are now with these services.


But all that is really rather boring to me.

Mashups!!!

I think a much more interesting phenomenon is that of the Mashups. Mashups are cool.

Mashups are awesome!

So let's change topics for a minute...and talk about the latest album from The Beatles: Love.

This fine album was released on November 21st, 2006. Original Beatles producer George Martin and his son Giles worked together to rework some classic Beatles, to revive or revitalize them for an elaborate Cirque Du Soleil stage show in Las Vegas. Giles was a little reluctant to work on the project and even suggested the powers at the record label and Cirque Du Soleil use Danger Mouse instead.

The Beatles album is a wonderfully produced example of the power of the mashup and software that can enable this sort of creativity (see mashup software below). The only danger of enjoying the versions of songs is that the old records sound timid or boring (yet still perfect).

The sort of genesis to this project was a bootleg release of a mashup of the Beatles White album with Jay-Z's The Black album. A DJ and producer, Dangermouse, had taken the music from the White Album and combined it with the vocals from Jay-Z's Black Album. Dangermouse released his mashup called the Grey Album.

From Wikipedia:

This article is about the music producer. For the British cartoon series, see DangerMouse.

Brian Joseph Burton, better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American artist and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he remixed The Beatles (more commonly known as The White Album) and rapper Jay-Z's The Black Album to create The Grey Album.

He has also produced St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley and the third Gorillaz album, 2005's Demon Days. These productions earned him a Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year. In addition, he worked with rapper MF DOOM as DANGERDOOM, and released one album, The Mouse and the Mask.

From Wikipedia:

Mashup (or mash it up) is a Jamaican Creole term meaning to destroy. In the context of reggae or ska music, it can take on a positive connotation and mean an exceptional performance or event. The term has also been used in hip-hop, especially in cities such as New York that have a high Jamaican population.

In popular culture, Mashup usually means:

• Mashup (music), a musical genre of songs that consist entirely of parts of other songs
• Mashup (web application hybrid), a website or web application that combines content from more than one source
• Mashup (video), a video that is edited from more than one source to appear as one
• Mashup, in parts of the UK also means a brew, or a pot of tea (colloq. Yorkshire)

Here is a link to the video mashup of Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and Oasis's "Wonderwall." There are a few other artists and songs in the mix including Travis, Eminem and Aerosmith. The song is called "Boulevard of Broken Songs." The best mashups have clever titles and often even clever artwork. Look here for cool artwork.

You can find the audio here.

Some of my favorite links for exceptional Mashups follow:

Bobby Martini -- look for Lullaby In Your Eyes.
Party Ben -- Green Day and other cool stuff that's neat to have.
A r t y F u f k i n -- In Australia...great mashups and a good set of links.

Don't forget to check out this San Francisco band who performs their Mashups live:
Smash Up Derby -- great stuff.