Like the fact that 90% of all music sold is infact without DRM. It’s called CDs.

And that there are three options for Apple when it comes to DRM: Continue as today (with DRM in iTunes), license FairPlay (not an option, says Jobs) or third: Get rid of the whole DRM thing:

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy.

Impressive. It will be very interesting to see if any music industry leaders react to this. Do they even put their thoughts online like this? Also interesting to see Steve Jobs doing it. It has been a rather strict Apple policy to not “blog”.

Note to Eirik: Steve is on your side.

Update: Gruber

And as always, John Gruber has an excellent analysis:

In other words, the music industry wants a magical DRM format that gives them — not Apple, not Microsoft — complete control over all digital music. And a unicorn and a rainbow.

In response to very popular demand (to the tune of 150+ requests on the Labs CS3 forum), I’m happy to say that Adobe is now making it possible for Windows customers of Photoshop CS2 to get a Mac CS3 beta serial number, and vice versa. To request a number, you can send mail to photoshopcs3beta@adobe.com & include your CS2 serial number.

We made this decision a couple weeks ago, but I didn’t want to publicize it widely until the staff was back at full strength after the holiday break. Please note that this is a manual process on our side right now, and we appreciate your patience as we handle requests.

Related: If you find that you want to switch an Adobe product license from Mac to Windows or vice versa, please contact Adobe Customer Service. They’ll walk you through the process.

Record companies – listening?

I wish more companies were thinking like this. The principle here is simple: We have a customer who bought something from us, and now he/she wants to change the carrier of the product. It’s almost no cost for Adobe. They will get good PR. And probably sell more software because people know they can change platform if they want.

Now imagine if records companies could start acting this clever? Stop acting like idiots and announce the following:

Do you have a huge stack of LPs you never play anymore? Sure you do. And you paid for those. The artists have already got their money for the making of the music. Now guess what: We are going to start being nice! As of monday 29. January 2007 you can upgrade your music. You have already paid for the art, so you only pay for the actual CD (or downloadable DRM-free file if your prefer), shipping and a small handling fee.

Go to www.musicupgrades.com, check if your LPs are covered with the new MusicUpgrades Plan, order stickers to the nearest central. We have one in most European countries and USA/Canada.

Yes, sure… Anyday now…

But an independent review is to recommend the terms are not extended, a well-placed government source has said.

Gee, let me think. So “Love me do” will be out of copyright in 2012? Out of copyright as in f-r-e-e? Hmmm. Better start selling…

Watch the screencast to have an idea of what it does. I just imported the whole iTunes library. Wicked fast and no problems.

So when I heard about Tangerine, an application that scans my iTunes library and figures out the BPM – Beats Per Minute – on all my tracks, I downloaded it immediately.

Perfect for running

I would use it like this:

• Scan all my tunes, and get BPM for all of them
• Make a test run, and figure out which pace that fits the running I’m doing
• Make playlists that starts at a certain pace, and speed things up at the end
• Or make playlists that mix paces, slow at the start, then faster, slower again etc.

Tangerine does all this. Tags my tunes with the right BPM. Make playlists. Very cool!

Except that it doesn’t work. It doesn’t find my iTunes music library. It may be because I have an Norwegian version of OS X, so the music folder is called “Musikk”. But other apps using the iTunes music library finds it, so it’s just a guess.

Tangerine is still in Beta, and others reports having the same problems as I do. Others tell that it works flawlessly. I’m really looking forward to the next version and hope that it will find my music library and start tagging it.

Do it manually (or maybe not…)

In the meantime, I’m using the bpmWidget. It works like this: Download and install (as a widget). Start a song in iTunes, and tap the widget with the beat for some seconds. Then hit the small note icon to copy that BPM value to the current song playing in iTunes. Repeat 8 000 times for all your songs. Sigh… Tangerine! Where’s that next version?!

When the internet really starts to shift the flow of money in the media industry we are up for some groundbreaking change…

I’m not sure that the flow of money needs to change before the groundbreaking change. Two things have happened the last days that gives a hint of the change to come:

Evidence #1: iTV

Apple does something very un-Apple: Talking about a product before you can actually buy it. The name will change, but it is a box that takes videos and music from your computer and plays them on your tv screen (and plays the sound on your tv or stereo). MacWorld explains:

Enter the iTV, which connects to your television and stereo and provides the remote-control-driven interface of Front Row without the keyboard-and-mouse issues of a full-fledged computer. Once it’s hooked up, the iTV connects to the network in your house and displays, right on your TV, a menu of options, all geared toward letting you play back digital content—stored on a computer in your house or somewhere out on the Internet—while sitting in your living room. That content includes movies, TV shows, and music downloaded from the iTunes store; other audio and video content you’ve loaded into iTunes; movie trailers from Apple.com; and perhaps other kinds of stuff that Apple hasn’t talked about yet.

So the videos don’t have to be stored on your computer. They can be streams from websites. And this is where your head is supposed to go “bing!!!”. This means that you’ll have thousands, maybe millions of channels available from day one. In no time there will be channels for every single interest, hobby, subject or event imaginable. The adult industry will of course be running ahead of all the others, but then you’ll have video streams with knitting, kittens, collecting stones, hybrid cars, wool socks and klingon language classes. And as always when the revolution comes: The ones who starts first will get the best seats. So which traditional tv-companies will get this first? And deliver their quality content via the web? Formatted for this kind of “television”? And compete? I’m not sure if they will understand it at all in the beginning. They’ll just notice that their younger audience is disappearing.

(TV by Horrortaxi)

There are reports that Apple and Google already are negotiating about putting Google Video on the iTV from day one. Which means that when you turn on the iTV in your living room, you’ll have everything on Google Video available on your tv-screen with a remote. Think about it.

Now think if everything on YouTube were in there too. And every video all your friends puts on their sites. Ok, some of them make really lame videos, but who cares: It’s your friends and you’ll be watching it for fun. And calling them, chatting with them online while watching it. Who needs tv?

Evidence #2: The Yahoo! Current Network

Today Yahoo! launched the The Yahoo! Current Network, four broadband video channels, called Buzz, Action, Driver and Traveler. It works like this: People (like you) submit videos you’ve made to Current, according to their guidelines. They put them up on their site, and viewers on the web vote. The ones who win are aired on tv (in the US) and on the braodband channels on Yahoo! If your video is aired, you get paid. Which of course will raise the quality bar a lot. Read more about how it works at the Current TV FAQ.

I call it a BIG HINT when a huge company like Yahoo! starts projects like this – and pay people to submit quality content.

I don’t think a happy amateur in Iceland will make something like Sopranos or LOST in his bedroom. But if YouTube already uses 5% of the bandwidth on the net, imagine what will happen when you can watch all these videos on your TV, relaxing in the sofa.

But it’s only crap?

Thomas Hawk has this comment in the above mentioned TechCrunch article:

People will not want to watch low quality non HDTV at $10-$15 a movie on their new $300 iDongle when you can get a Netflix subscription for the price of less than two movie downloads a month.

Nor will people want to watch low res crappy Google Video content on their new $4,000 plasma (on the video iPod, laptop, handheld device, PC, etc. yes. Just not on their plasmas).

Even with Google Video on the iDongle, it will still flop.

I think you’re wrong Thomas. At first you will be right, then you will be totally wrong. Who will watch low-quality videos of old men telling about their lives without even looking into the camera? Or young men dancing at student shows and famous locations? Millions. And millions. And every day new ones will find it. And everyday new content is uploaded.

In a few years quality will have improved a lot: Faster lines, bigger disks, better compression. I also think one of the reasons YouTube became so popular is because of the low quality: Everyone can watch the videos on their crap PCs. People will love watching the same stuff on their TVs. Play HD-quality games one second, watching pixelated crappy homemade videos the next.

Or download it in better quality from Internet Archive (left sidebar).

The opening music is the beautiful Symphony No. 8 in B minor by Franz Schubert. Listen to it alone here.

So these are taken by Kai who has a much better cameraphone. There are five pictures in all.

It was a great concert. Ever since Harald Are Lund at NRK played a track from New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) on my crappy radio back in 1980 or something, I have loved Simple Minds. I play all their records on my iPod, but must admit that New Gold Dream still is my favourite (and the one giving the name to this site).

We came early, and without trying hard at all, we ended up at the front row. Which was brilliant. Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill singing and playing a meter away.

After the concert we were standing outside, talking. Then a friend of mine, let’s just call him Gunnar, wants to have a beer. It’s sunday, it’s almost 23:00 at night, and all of us are going to work at 7:00 next morning. For some strange reason Gunnar wins the discussion, and we cross the street heading for the pub. Next thing that happens is that Jim Kerr, Mel Gaynor and Charlie Burchill comes out, passes the spot where Gunnar wanted the bear, and heads for the band bus.

Thanks, Gunnar. I promised to remind you about everytime we talk about music, concerts or drinking for the rest of my life, so consider this a start. Who knows, maybe even nice people like Jim and Charlie wouldn’t have stopped for a chat with five fans outside a venue in the cold February night in Oslo… Or maybe they would have.

Where’s my iPod?

Andy Rosen posts awesome photos from his rock photographer era in London, 1976-1984. The above shot of Simon Le Bon is one of the over 60 great photos so far. Other include Siouxsie and the Banshees, Clash, Boy George, Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode and Malcolm Maclaren.

Overtime I will post the entire collection online. There is a mass of stuff. I’ve already discovered a fogotten 10 rolls of the Clash playing to 50 people and Billy Idol at Bob Geldofs 21st birthday bash both in swimming trunks. I also have a very rare collection of the characters at the Blitz Club, a very creative scene that followed punk, which was led by Steve Strange.

On his blog “Andy Rosen Punks”, he posts stories for some of the photos.

Available from may 2005. I wonder how long the batteries run? Or is it rechargeable? And how much rain does it stand? And wouldn’t it be cool to have it in other colors? How about a silver and black one…?

So if you’re careful
You won’t get hurt
But if your careful all the time
Then what’s it worth?

Replace “get hurt” with “lose the game” or “get tired” or “get a ‘no’” or “feel stupid”.

(Image by elle-enne, from their concert in Milano, 19th February 2006).

About half way through the concert Martin Gore and David Gahan managed to wake up the audience. Or rather, managed to communicate. As the band’s biggest hits came, people starting jumping, singing and participating. After two extra sets, Depeche Mode ended the concert with a poetic goodnight song. During the two hours, we heard all their biggest hits, and Oslo Spektrum was hot and singing the last 30 minutes of the concert.

Cold to warm

As I said, the visuals were great. Lots of realtime processing of live cameras, with overlays, distortion, graphics and video clips. One of the best shows I have seen.

If I were to give it a score, 2 on the dice the first half, 5 in the second half. 5 for the visuals. Overall: A strong 4 (of 6).

Did you see this concert or any other Depeche Mode concerts on this tour? What do you think?

BTW, here’s the Wikipedia entry on Depeche Mode.

Update: Reviews

Norwegian newspapers rate the concert as top class. Aftenposten writes “The triumph continues” and says the concert was full of both sex and spirituality. Aftenposten gives it 6 of 6.

Dagbladet gives the concert 5 of 6: “It’s close to impossible to miss with the songs of Depeche Mode, and a lead singer like Dave Gahan”. Dagbladet thinks the concert was lifted up on a higher level after “I feel you”, which is exactly the same feeling I had.

Side2 gives the concert 5 of 6 on the dice. Side2 thinks Martin Gore lacks some of the intensity Dave Gahan has, and that the concert was a “best of” with lots of climaxes.

Depeche Mode played these tracks in Oslo:

• A pain that i’m used to
• John the revelator
• Question of time
• Policy of truth
• Precious
• Walking in my shoes
• Suffer well
• Damaged people
• Home
• I want it all
• Sinner in me
• I feel you
• Behind the wheel
• World in my eyes
• Personal jesus
• Enjoy the silence
• Question of lust
• Just can’t get enough
• Everything counts
• Never let me down
• Goodnight lovers

Picture yourself driving in a rickety old Lincoln four-door convertible, one that looks suspiciously like the one in which JFK was assassinated, but to avoid criticism, you lie and say that it was made several years after his death. The air is cold on your face and you wonder why you’re even driving a convertible on such a cold night. The car is an orchestra of noises; there’s a rhythmic ping noise coming from behind the dash, a repetitive clicking in the passenger side paneling and thick fuzz spewing from the speakers.

You’re driving down a long highway and you see a dirt road to the right that leads to an old refinery, lit up like a tiny city. You’re compelled by the thousands of dotted lights and the smell of oil, so you veer off the road and the Lincoln bumps its way to the factory. Then it starts raining. By now you’re driving through the factory, and just after the rain starts, there’s a huge explosion on the other side of the factory and a loud alarm goes off right around you.

Throughout all of this, your little brother is, for some reason, sitting in the backseat playing the original Mario Brothers on Nintendo and beating Bowser.

Read it here. The concert in Oslo is February 28, 2006.

“Only” $1,015…

Amazing collection of cassette pictures. From about 30-10 b.i. (before iPod).

If you’re new to Last.fm, it works like this: You download a plugin for your music player software. There are a number of plugins found here. Install the proper plugin for your OS and player. Some of the plugins also works with mp3-players like the iPod. So when you sync your iPod, it sends the tracks played to the plugin.

Register with Last.fm and create a free account.

Next time you play a song, the plugin will send the artist and track name to Last.fm. Now the whole world can see what you’re playing. Scary for some, cool for some! My Last.fm status page is here.

When you have registered (or if you already are a Last.fm user), head over to the brilliantdays.com group, and join. When 15 people have joined, you can see the collective music taste of the members at the group page.

When you try your best but you don’t succeed

When you get what you want but not what you need

When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep

Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face

When you lose something you can’t replace

When you love someone but it goes to waste

Could it be worse?

Only a day left.

1) It’s too small. People are now buying 32″ and 42″ and even 50″ flatscreen TVs. 20″ isn’t enough. I would like Apple to stick together the 30″ display with the iMac. If you just took an iMac without the screen, you could glue it on the back of the 30″!

2) The harddisk is too small. With the OS and a full Final Cut Studio install, almost 60 GB is used. When I first digitized all the CDs, I used AAC. But if I should use the Mac as the station for playing music at stereo at home, I would redigitize most CDs as pure 44100 KHz AIFF. That would take lots of space. Add videos, audiobooks, podcast (many with video), and 250 GB would be gone in days.

What Apple really should consider is making a home edition of the Xserve with an Xserve Raid. Install it in a closet somewhere you can’t hear it, put cables around the house. And let all music and video stay on the Xserve instead of the individual computers. Make a version of iTunes that just hooks up to the Xserve Home, and puts all media there.

3) Look at the picture of the iMac with the new Front Row software again. Four “buttons”: Music, Videos, DVD and Photos. What’s missing? TV. Why on earth isn’t there a TV tuner inside?? Unbelievable. If Apple want people to put their Macs in the living room they have to make the screen bigger and put a TV-tuner inside. I want to record my own TV-shows. I want to pause live TV. I want to use an EPG to program which programs I want to record.

Also: Make an easy way to make plugins for Front Row. I want to be able to see my RSS feeds in there as well. The weather. The webcam for the roads on the way to work. The babycall from the kids room. Just add two more buttons, TV and Yours. And make an easy way for people to hook all kinds of things up to the software under Yours. Many of the widgets people have made for Tiger would be very nice to use (in a different form) on a big TV-screen with a remote. I would even consider reading mail in there, if the interface was good enough.

I wish other stars could do the same. Here are just a few I would easily give 100$ (for a good cause) if they called me: Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Kate Bush or Bono of U2.

So if you are Jim, Chris, Kate or Bono, use my contact form, and I will mail you my phone number and receipt. I figured if I don’t try, they never will call. And it’s for a good cause.

If you want to help people other places in the world, please consider making a donation to Care. Click on the logo which takes you to the Care homepage, then choose your country.

Coldplay – Centre Bell, Montréal, 03.08.2005 – 07

Originally uploaded to Flickr fusaka.

Coldplay is playing here in Oslo at October 31. Tickets are in house, and concert added to Upcoming. Add yourself if you’re going!

Number two: Success in the 80s
Both had tremendous success in the 80s. Duran Duran released their first single “Planet earth” in 1981, and made their last performance for years at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, July 13, 1985. They sold over 70 millons records and had a 18 Billboard hot 100 hits in the US.

Their biggest hits were:

• Girls on film
• Hungry like the wolf
• Save a prayer
• Rio
• Is there something I should know?
• Union of the snake
• New moon on monday
• The reflex
• A view to a kill

The first Star Wars movie is the most successful movie at the cinamas worldwide from the 70s and the 80s. It has made whopping $800,000,000! George Lucas made the smartest move so far in the movie history by getting the rights for merchandise. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB): “George Lucas insisted that he have merchandising rights to the film. Studio executives, seeing little if any profit from such merchandise, gave him the rights for free. Star Wars related merchandise has since generated many millions of dollars in sales, allowing Lucas to make movies completely independent of the studio system he decried. Merchandising rights are now a major part of any film contract.”

The Star Wars movies are:

• “Star Wars: A new hope” (episode 4) IMDB | Starwars.com | Amazon US
• “The empire strikes back” (episode 5) IMDB | Starwars.com | Amazon US
• “Return of the Jedi” (episode 6) IMDB | Starwars.com | Amazon US
• “The Phantom menance” (episode 1) IMDB | Starwars.com | Amazon US
• “Attack of the clones” (episode 2) IMDB | Starwars.com | Amazon US
• “Revenge of the Sith” (episode 3) IMDB | Starwars.com

Number three: Gained weight
Both have gained weight. Lead singer Simon Le Bon is not the slim, sexy guy he was in the 80s. Of course he isn’t. The man is almost 48, but tries hard to still be 25. He calles himself “the sexiest singer in the world” when presenting the band members at the end of the concert. Not. But he has a charm and an appeal that still is there, even though in a more “Harry” way. He tried two spins on stage, and didn’t try number three, as he was close to falling on the second.

The first Star Wars movie were made with small models and layers of celluloid. In the battle scenes you see a couple of space ships at the time, or maybe 15-20 if they’re far away. The whole movie has “only” about 200 FX shots. And there’s even a potato and shoe used as asteroids. The movie costed about $18,000,000 to make.

In “Revenge of the Sith” (episode 3) you see like 2 000 space ships outside Akakin and Padme’s penthouse everytime you see a window (which is about all the time). And in the battle scenes there are literally thousands of elements whoosing around, making your head spin almost as nice as Simon Le Bon does. The movie has about 2 200 FX shots and costed $115,000,000 to make.

Number four: The 80s were the best
Both have a history of albums/movies ranging from the 70s to this day. But most fans and critics would rate the albums made in the 80s highest, and the two Star Wars from the 80s highest. On the IMDB top 250 list, the first two Star Wars movies are rated 8.7 out of 10, at 8th and 10th place. “Return of the Jedi” is number 127 with 8.1 out of 10. Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are not on the list.

The new Duran Duran album Astronaut has got some nice reviews, but nothing similiar to the reviews and sales of the golden 80s.

Number five: Both feature a wookiee
Chewbacca and Andy Taylor. Say no more.

R.E.M. is playing here in Oslo tonight.

I feel like the man on the moon.

In short:

• If you find an mp3 file with its own URL, tag it with Del.icio.us, with a tag that is clearly your own.
• Then you take the RSS feed for that tag, and burn that as a Feedburner feed.
• Subscribe to that feed in your Podcasting software of choice, and your tagged MP3s will find their way to your player.

Brilliant thinking, Fred!

The Feedburner forums has more details on the technical bits of so-called “One-click-subscription”.

Listen: iTunes / Amazon.

On page 10 you’ll find the best songs of the last 10 years. In the last 5 years of rock and pop music history, only three songs were found worthy to be on the top 500:

• Eminem “Stan”
• Eminem “Lose yourself”
• Outkast “Hey Ya!”

Three songs. Great songs, OK. But three? Old. Old. Old. Only 21 songs from 1990 up to 2005. That’s 4.2 percent of the music in a period that covers 26.3 percent of the years (15 years from 1990 to 2005, in the period from 1948 to 2005).

There are seven Beach boys songs, 25 Beatles songs, six Chuck Berry songs but only four David Bowie songs. None from the excellent Let’s dance. And where’s “Life on mars?” and “Starman”???

There are four The Drifters songs, and 12 Dylans songs. There’s just one Eurythmics song, but four Everly Brothers. Come on!

Old.

There are five Buddy Holly songs, but only two by Michael Jackson. Ok, he doesn’t behave like most people, but surely has made more than two songs worthy of the top 500. And none by George Michael who has made cool songs for ages. There are only two R.E.M. songs, but five by Little Richard.

There is one song from the 80s in the top 50, and the “freshest” ones in top 50 are Nirvana’s “Smells slike teen spirit” from 1991, and U2′s “One” from the same year. There are no songs from the 90s or this century in the next 50 songs, and ditto in the next 50.

Old.

Eminem (and Dido’s) “Stan” is best song of this century, at place no. 290.

Nothing wrong with most of the songs on the list. The top 50 are mostly excellent songs. It’s just that it sounds like a museum of rock.

Related: And why isn’t this song in?

Norwegian web site Faro reports that iTunes music store is coming to Norway the 28th of April. They claim several reliable sources confirms this, and that record companies has been informed. Good news! As normal, Apple doesn’t want to comment. Hope the rumours are true this time…