Cleaning an (iTunes) Library

For the first time ever, I’m finding that I need to organize my iTunes library. For the longest time merely having a couple of play lists varying by activity, genre, mood and sheer awesomeness was sufficient. Then I began needing to set some songs, particularly musicals, to not play while shuffling. Fine. Basic stuff.

But I’m about to run up against the 16 GB limit on my iPod touch. I never imagined this happening. My imagination was limited because I thought songs were from three to five minutes each and that an iTouch could hold around 3500 of them. I’m not a big movie watcher- the videos on my iPod are primarily lectures from schools like Yale and MIT that make online courses available to the public. These get deleted as I watch them and are thus not a long term factor.

Of course, then I downloaded a collection of Karajan conducted Symphonies. That pushed the average ‘song’ length on my iPod to over ten minutes, or thereabouts. Then there are other classical pieces that are anywhere from half an hour to over an hour long. The other thing about classical music is that there is so much of it. There are currently 1800 odd ‘songs’ in my iTunes library, but my iPod can’t take much more. Certainly not another collection of over 30 CD’s.

So here’s the question: how do I systematically go about removing songs from my iPod and/or iTunes library? With so much music it is difficult to recall “You know, I never liked that Fallout Boy/Panic at the Disco song with the long irrelevant name all that much” or “Beethoven’s Second simply lacks the energy of the Fifth and the Ninth, I don’t think it makes the cut.”

To complicate things, new music is being added all the time. My most recent addition is the soundtrack for Alice in Wonderland, which I’ve already listened to several times over despite not having seen the movie yet. It has about five reprises on the main theme. Do I cut them all out of hand? Do I spend the time to carefully decide which one is the best? There’s always the “don’t cut up the album” argument. I highly recommend the album, by the way, but if you only get one song, definitely the first track, “Alice’s Theme.”

So, given that I’m sure there are others of you who have had this problem, I ask: how do you recommend I tackle this task?

Silly iTunes

When looking up Dr. Horrible on iTunes to see whether I would buy it for myself or put it on the birthday/Christmas list I realized that a number of the songs on the soundtrack were shorter than 30 seconds and being sold for $0.99. With free previews which contained the whole song.

It is possible to snag the 30 second preview of a song. I’m not sure how it works, but they show up on mp3 search engines for new songs when the full version isn’t available all the time. Why on earth would iTunes try selling those individually at all, let alone for 99 cents rather than 69 cents? On that note, while I’ve seen plenty of $1.29 songs since iTunes destandardized its pricing scheme, I have yet to see a single $0.69 song, even though they supposedly exist. If the eight second long Dr. Horrible theme song isn’t deemed to be worth less than $0.99, what could be? Donkey’s braying? Dogs barking?

There must, somewhere on iTunes, be a recording of Steve Jobs sneezing once, which is priced $0.69- the only item in the entire store at that price.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog is great, by the way, and you can watch it for free on the website. Go do so, it’s only 42 minutes long. Believe me, it’s worth it.

Debate: IP Law and DRM Pt. 2

Rebuttle

Declaring that IP law is unenforcable is absolutely absurd, and a great underestimation of the abilities of modern law enforcement. This article portrays just one method by which the UK has successfully reduced music piracy. In short, they threatened to take away internet access through the cooperation of ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

There is no reason that this methodology could not be adapted by the rest of the world. Some will say that ISPs sharing their online activities with the government is a violation of their privacy. Is it a violation of your privacy if a police officer catches you making a drug buy? Why shouldn’t there be representatives of the law patrolling the internet as well? Just so no one blames the ISPs, it’s not like they had much choice in the matter. It’s either turn over records willingly or wait for the court order, and cooperation has fewer solicitor’s and processing fees.

As for websites such as Skreemr and GTCloser, among others, simply make them illegal. Even if they remain legal (after all, they’re only search engines) tracking internet activity will allow law enforcement to know who is using those sources. As for the legality of such a ‘violation of privacy’ it is clearly not an issue in the UK, which to me suggests that it won’t be a problem in much of the world. Even in the US where this is much hue and cry over any ‘violation of privacy’ the Patriot Act lays down precedent for all kinds of ‘privacy infringements.’ Nowhere in the US Constitution is privacy promised. It is a priveledge, not a right, and by participating in illegal activities, whether it be terrorism or pirating music, you forgo that priveledge.

All the other points made by my opponent are simply statements about the way things are, not the way they have to be. International accord can and should be made so that IP law is consistent. DRM can be added to all CDs and DVDs. It’s already present on some, so this is clearly not an imposibility.

IP law is enforcable so long as law enforcement and law makers put in the necessary effort. Just like any other crime, it takes effort. Cops on the street or cops on computers. But it is perfectly possible.

Previous Posts in Debate:

Introduction

Point 1: IP Law is Unenforceable

Free Friday: Rebirth

Sorry I missed last week, everyone. Things have been busy here in the asylum.Today I’ll show you another song I found on GarageBand via iLike. Rebirth by Spindle Cincinnatti could perhaps benefit from better recording equipment, but it’s still an awesome song. For some reason I love the lyrics without completely understanding what they mean. The line “crossed the line of dealing with my coming of age” resonates strongly with me despite the fact that if I haven’t come of age yet, I rather doubt I’m ever going to.

Also, at the gym on Thursday morning I heard a song on the loudspeakers. It sounded rather like it could be the theme to an action movie. Eventually I found a monitor which was showing the music video and started doing my lifting in front of it. The video was of cello players being slowly ambushed by a SWAT team. It was entirely instrumental, of course, but if the name of the song and artist showed on the screen it was while I was facing the other way putting away weights.

So I’m on a mission, and I want you to help me. Find the song. I don’t need the music video even. Just the song. I’ve been looking and the closest thing I’ve found was a string version of the song ‘Final Countdown’ by Europe on YouTube.

Which I have to confess is pretty awesome. I really hope the cello players have some kind of deal on bow hair though. Unless you’ve ever played a stringed instrument, you probably have no idea how much it costs to have a bow restrung. And if they do that much damage every time they rehearse too? That would add up.

If anyone finds something awesome, whether or not it’s the right piece, feel free to share it with me. 🙂

Debate: DRM, Pt. 1

Current IP Law is Unenforceable

Feel free to check out the introduction to the debate

Freedom of File Sharing side

Point 1: Enforceability

If you take a book or CD off a neighbor’s shelf, is it stealing? Yes. Of course it is. The fundamental problem with this is that your neighbor no longer has the book or the CD in question. Is it considered stealing if you read that book, or listen to the CD? Have you somehow reduced the value of either object? No. Those who would put DRM (Digital Rights Management) software on all IPF (Intellectual Property [containing] Files) seem to believe otherwise. In many cases, IPFs cannot be freely transfered between computers or devices due to DRM software.

But let’s not mince words. The problem isn’t that iTunes will only let us listen to our music on five computers and makes it difficult, if not impossible, to transfer music from one computer to another, particularly music not acquired through iTunes. The problem is that we’re expected to pay for music, music files with prohibitive DRM, when we could get the same file DRM free elsewhere. The only hitch is that this action is illegal under current law in the U.S., at least for certain methods of acquiring the file. Limewire, Frostwire, and BitTorrent are all filesharing programs which cannot be legally used to share copyrighted files such as most music, books, or movies in digital format. Other methods of acquiring files, namely MP3 search engines such as Skreemr are in a legal gray area.

So why, other than the presence of the law, should I not download MP3s and other files for free? Am I going to get caught? Probably not. Even if the feds somehow discover that I’ve downloaded a file via Limewire or BitTorrent, it’s nearly impossible to trace that file to discover whether or not the source was legal, or where I got it from. Especially with BitTorrent. It’s not as if the government can track every transaction made over the internet so that in some police office near you a little light goes off for your address whenever an illegal file is transfered to or from your computer.

Let’s assume for a moment that websites such as SkreemR are made illegal and removed from the internet in a sudden, decisive government action. Further assume that all file sharing programs are made illegal (they are currently legal, but the sharing of IPF is an illegal use), and are magically erased from all computers. I can still find files, with a little more difficulty, on the internet. Some obsessed secretary typed up the entirety of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone into a .txt file and posted it on his personal website? Cool, I’ll download it and put it on my Kindle. Not convinced? Alright, assume that someone develops an amazing web crawler which finds and deletes any illigal IPF posted on the web. What’s to stop my friends and I from e-mailing each other all the songs off of any CD’s that we buy? Absolutely nothing (say it again).

Now, this is specific to music and multimedia, but note that there is no DRM on most CDs

I've found the answer!

and DVDs sold in stores today. Thus there is no need for DRM to be cracked before distributing a file. All that needs to happen is for one person with little to no technical know now to buy a CD or DVD and upload contained the IPF to the internet. All of a sudden there’s no need for anyone else to buy a copy- it’s freely available to anyone in the world.

The totality of that availability- the fact that anyone in the world can download it- offers another complication. The laws and regulations of multiple international juristictions. Hypothetical situation. User 1 lives in Bangladesh, where IP law protects music for ten years. Ten years after the song “Hittin’ up the Hits” was registered and released in Bangladesh, User 1 uploads the file to her blog. User 2 lives in Brazil, where IP law protects music indefinitely. User 2 sees the song on the blog and downloads it. Legally, things get really complicated, really fast.

The last defense for the downloader of illegal IPF is this- strength in numbers. There are far too many people downloading them to catch them all. IP law in the Information Age is like Prohibition. It may or may not be a good idea from an idealogical standpoint, but it’s not going to work. The government should just eliminate or alter the law and stop embarrassing itself by pretending that the current law has any meaning.

Next: Rebuttle of Point 1 by Intellectual Property Protector

After that: We get into the justification and ethics.

P.S. Either my computer or WordPress exploded and stopped this from being published on time. I only just noticed. Sorry about that.

Piracy

Here’s a nice (and amusing) comic on preventing piracy.

Tada.

More on the debate soon.

Free Friday: Something Better

Sorry that this is late (hey, it’s still Friday in my timezone, whatever WordPress thinks). Unfortunately this is going to be a tad rushed. I have something better to do- namely sleep- right now. I have a 5K tomorrow and a half-marathon (my first) the next day. Bad planning? Yes. Is that going to stop me? No. This will go down as one of my numerous ‘stupid running stunts.’

In any case, here’s a song which has been on my running playlist ever since I discovered it. It’s called ‘Something Better’ and the artist is “true story.” Modern rock, and fast paced enough for me to run to.

Download ‘Something Better.’

Free Friday: One Less Reason

We all like free stuff, right? Here are some One Less Reason MP3’s off of Garage Band. One Less Reason is a real gem among unsigned bands. In 2003 they were signed with Universal Records but then broke off due to a conflict of interests- but not before rocking the airwaves with their hit single Favorite Color. Now, as much as I’d love to give you all that MP3, the band is not currently offering it for free, and I will respect that choice. In any case, I’m sure most of you can find it yourselves, by one method or another.

Snow Angels by One Less Reason

Worthless (Dead and Breathing) by One Less Reason

Both these songs were inspired by the tragic death of the songwriter’s best friend. Details can be found on their Garage Band page.

I view One Less Reason as possibly the best hard rock band on GB, and while I won’t claim to like all of the songs this band has turned out, another good one you might want to look into is ‘Really Bad Analogy.’

Hopefully this ‘Free Friday’ thing will become a weekly event. I’m working on digging up e-books, mp3s, and anything else both free and legal that I can find. If you have anything to suggest, feel free to comment or contact me by other means.

Music Industry Severs Own Right Hand

Last year the music industry caused federal panel to double the per-song royalties charged to internet radio stations, and it’s going to drive them out of business.

This is a very short sighted decision on their part, the classic example of eating the goose that lays the golden egg. Internet radio stations such as Pandora (and more recent mimics such as Meemix) allow users to name a song or artist and then play songs with similar characteristics. The user can then rate songs so that the ‘good’ ones are played more often and the ‘bad’ ones never heard again on that station. Theoretically you can create the perfect radio station, playing only music that you like, and not pay a cent for the privilege. And it works well. It works so well that I’ve gotten really picky with some of my stations, eliminating songs that I have on my iPod playlists just because they aren’t as good as some of the other options. The best thing is that Pandora (which I, personally, like better than the other similar stations) pays no attention what so ever to the popularity of an artist. If it thinks you’ll like it, you’ll hear it. Thus listeners all over the world are introduced to new songs and artists.

Why does the music industry find this threatening? Pandora is particularly transparent about preventing abuse of its services; as soon as you create a station you’ll see a button with the question ‘Why isn’t this playing my song?’ The short version of the answer is: to prevent abuse. Thus these services cannot be used to select a song and play it over and over. Pandora won’t even allow you to skip more than a set number of songs per hour due to licensing agreements. So you can’t just ‘fast forward’ to the song you wanted to hear. Furthermore, just like conventional radio, Pandora in no way replaces owning a song. I have yet to meet someone who says ‘I love this song, but I’m not going to download it because I might be able to hear it on the radio occasionally.’ Instead, Pandora introduces new songs and artists to a select group of people- those most likely to purchase their material.

“The greatest threat to artists is not piracy, but obscurity.” And Pandora is free advertising for lesser known artists, sending listeners straight to either iTunes or Amazon to buy tracks they like. It would make more sense for the music industry to pay Pandora than the other way around. And, in fact, that’s what I would suggest if Pandora wasn’t perfectly happy to do it for free.

How to most people find out about music they like? Not being numerous enough by half to qualify as ‘most people’ I can only speculate, but the answer would likely be a combination of the media (MTV, radio, etc.) and word of mouth. The problem with this method is that the media tends to push a limited number of artists. This isn’t their fault- they have a very broad audience and therefore broadcast those with potential for mass appeal. While they can compartmentalize to some extent down to smaller audiences based on genre and location, this by no means covers the same breadth as Pandora. Instead of going to a ‘rock’ station you go to a ‘sounds like 3 Doors Down’ station and are exposed to music you would never otherwise encounter. Wild fan of 3 Doors Down that you are, you can appreciate music similar to them which your compadres who prefer Nine Inch Nails would never understand.

What does this direction to new artists cause? Increased revenue for the music industry. Sure, exorbitant royalties and fees might bring in more money for the short term, but when the people paying those fees go out of business, they stop paying. Whereas a continuation of internet radio means continued income for the music industry for the foreseeable future. It’s the smart long-term decision. And it makes your market happy. Why isn’t it that simple?