1,000 Albums to hear before you die compiled from The Guardian's assorted music reviewers (assisted by readers who then told them which ones they missed). You won't want to be planning to expire any time too soon with these to get through.
posted on Mar 13, 2008 - View this thread

Do you love music? Do you have at least 3 million dollars? If you answered "yes" to these questions then you may be interested in bidding on "The World's Greatest Music Collection." (single link to ebay auction)
posted on Feb 18, 2008 - View this thread

Happy birthday dear CD! Today marks 25 years since the first CD rolled off the production line. Love it, lump it or just use this occasion as an excuse to eat cake.
posted on Aug 17, 2007 - View this thread

MeFi Trainspotting Dept.: While most music consumers long ago traded up their sonically dodgy, graphically threadbare, non-bonus-enhanced early CD pressings of their favorite albums, a subculture has naturally arisen to absorb their discarded digital detritus. Witness "Target CDs", a family which encompasses certain early West German and Japanese pressings on the Warner/Elektra/Atlantic (WEA) labels. So named for their distinctive label design, Target CDs - unlike, say, MFSL Gold CDs - make no particular claim to superior fidelity or longevity; in fact, due to their notorious "flat transfer" process from whatever version of the album happened to be lying around, it seems quite the opposite. (Further evidence for the purely nostalgic and/or aesthetic value of these discs can be seen in the "hypothetical Target CDs" threads.) Even so, as within any oddball subculture of collectordom, one can now expect to lay out serious bucks for certain of these shiny little period pieces.
posted on Jun 3, 2007 - View this thread

The RIAA Says CD's Should Have Cost $33.86 in 1996 however, this news article says and shows how their math (and logic) is more than a little skewed.
posted on Feb 3, 2007 - View this thread

The 23rd Century is a sweet band that just released their new CD, "Take A Trip Though Time With...The 23rd Century", for free online in mp3 format. The album was created by metafilter user tcobretti and his cousin. You can purchase the album here to support them, or you can buy their tshirt, obviously inspired/ripped off from the John Titor insignia. There is also a cool schematic-based navigation to the site, presumably from the same great mind who brought us runoffgroove.com. [via mefi projects]
posted on Mar 17, 2006 - View this thread

Australian scientist Cameron Jones puts nanocrystals on the bottom of his CDs. And prints fractals on them. And grows bacteria, yeasts, and fungi on them. What's perhaps the most surprising about this is that when these CDs are actually played, they sound pretty cool. More details can be found here and here. [Last four links are MP3, MP3, PDF, and PDF, respectively.]
posted on Aug 1, 2005 - View this thread

George Russell, jazz's first theoretician, has released a new album to commemorate his 80th birthday. When Miles Davis remarked that he "wanted to learn all the changes," Russell responded by conceiving his Lydian Chromatic Concept. First published in 1953, the Concept resulted in the most influential album in jazz history. Today Russell turns 82.
posted on Jun 23, 2005 - View this thread

Fiona Freed. Remember the Free Fiona campaign (discussed last month here)? Well, Sony hasn't caved (yet), but the entire album has been leaked online (get it here or via torrent.) I've listened to it a few times through, and all I can say is... wow.
posted on Mar 22, 2005 - View this thread

No Xmas in U.S. this year: Santa on Fed's "No Fly" list.
Okay, that's just "News" from the website of satiric rockers Bah and the Humbugs, skewering Xmas since 1985. MP3s of the entirety of this year's CD Farhenheit 12/25 are available on the website, or you can buy the CD for $10 and all ten sheckles go to the UN World Food Programme. More tracks here, including the "Jolly Roger the Xmas Pirate" series and "Free the Reindeer. " Great stuff for that awkward holiday family get-together, where the music won't offend but the cool lyrics can keep you chuckling to yourself all night.
posted on Dec 17, 2004 - View this thread

Trade in your Ashlee Simpson CD here.. A group calling itself HOPE (Horrified Observers of Pedestrian Entertainment) are offering to trade your Ashlee Simpson CD for one by one of Elvis Costello, The Ramones, X, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Aretha Franklin, Mr. Bungle, Ray Charles, Abe Lincoln Story, Grateful Dead, Neil Hamburger, Joni Mitchell, and Brian Wilson. Next target is the film "Taxi".
posted on Nov 16, 2004 - View this thread

"We wanted to be the store that your mother didn't want you to go to." Cult band leader Dale Lawrence covers the RIAA shutdown of an Indianapolis record store, Berry's Music, for "Selling DJ mix-CDs.". Lawrence has written about mashups for a few years now. Is he also a deejay?
posted on Jul 28, 2004 - View this thread

Where did dynamic range go? Compact discs seem to keep getting more and more compressed in an effort to make them seem louder. Didn't the compact disc promise greater dynamic range than vinyl? Then, some record label exec comes along and makes the recording so hot we lose the dynamic range. People have been complaining about this for some time. Papers have been written about it with proposed solutions. Where will it end?
posted on Jul 21, 2004 - View this thread

Wizard People, Dear Reader is a bizarre re-reading (or, if you're Tim Burton, a re-imagining) of Harry Potter and the philosophers stone (or sorcerers stone for our friends across the pond). Basically you download it, burn it to CD and play it while watching the DVD. A new art form, a childish gimmick or somewhere inbetween? Everybody will have a copy soon, so get busy with the download (courtesy of the ever vigilant Talking Tina at Sissyfight.com).
posted on Jun 8, 2004 - View this thread

As Attorney General for the State of North Dakota, I am pleased to enclose payment for your claim in the settlement of the Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation.
Checks have gone out to people who "purchased prerecorded Music Products, consisting of compact discs, cassettes and vinyl albums, from one or more retailers during the period January 1, 1995, through December 22, 2000." Mine was for $13.86. I think I'll go buy an indie CD.
posted on Feb 24, 2004 - View this thread

RipDigital converts your entire CD collection to 224kbs MP3s for about a $1 per CD. Send them your CD library and they'll ship your library back, organized by artist and album with enhanced song information, as either 50 converted CDs per DVD and for $99 more on a portable hard drive. If only they offered the same service for cassettes. [via jkottke & waxpancake]
posted on Jan 11, 2004 - View this thread

Go Ahead And Leave Me, See If I Care! Was not what the late, great Jacques Brel sung. Oh no. (Scott Walker, imo, did the best cover.) And last Tuesday a 16-CD collection was launched, with all his songs - and then some, including 5 he specifically stated he never wanted released. I've heard two of the songs - they're wonderful. But the question remains, with echoes of Kafka telling his friend Max Brod to burn all his manuscripts: should the wishes of dead artists be respected? Does time - in this case 25 years since his death - make it any less problematic? Or the fact that the publication was approved by the Jacques Brel Estate, i.e., his widow? (My favourite Brel song, btw, is his wistful, sardonic tribute to his country: flat, boring Belgium: Le plat pays. It never fails to exercise the tear ducts, nope, never...)
posted on Oct 8, 2003 - View this thread

In a move sure to please independent record store owners and further alienate everyone else, music giant Universal has scrapped its to lower CD prices to a MSRP of $12.98. Just when you thought they might be getting it.
posted on Sep 24, 2003 - View this thread

Music label Universal to lower CD prices. Is this move a bit like raising a white flag? (via Curlio)
posted on Sep 4, 2003 - View this thread

Self destruct files to secure DVDs and CDs. Songs and movies will expire after a single play, unless you pay up.
posted on Jun 17, 2003 - View this thread

5inch.com manufactures beautiful silkscreen-printed CDRs, custom CDR designs, and unconventional jewel cases for those who release their own music on a small budget, or for making the essential pre-relationship mix CD. When you're done, package it and mail it out.
posted on May 2, 2003 - View this thread

Custom Mix CD - Sony Music is burning to sell 12 track Bob Dylan and Train mixes to continental US customers. [via AO]
posted on Mar 10, 2003 - View this thread

Live CDs, immediately after the concert. Many times after I've seen a great show, I've wished I could have a recording of the evening. Now, using CD Burners hooked up to the sound boards, ClearChannel is beta testing a program that would make soundboard quality concert CD's available to audience members immediately after a show ended. I'm torn; it's a great idea, but it's ClearChannel... I want to like it... but I want to hate it, too...
posted on Feb 8, 2003 - View this thread

I made my claim. Have you? This Web site was established to provide information about a proposed Settlement of lawsuits brought by Attorneys General of 43 states, Commonwealths and Territories, and by counsel for the Plaintiff Settlement Class entitled In re: Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation. You may be a member of the Settlement Group and your rights against Defendants may be affected if you are a person or entity that purchased these prerecorded Music Products from a retail store during the period of January 1, 1995 through December 22, 2000.
posted on Jan 7, 2003 - View this thread

Not 421 CD burners but "the equivalent of 421 burners". Now, most agree the RIAA is grasping at straws trying to control something they clearly can't, but this seems to be the most amusing yet. This article offers a suggestion or two concerning the possible music industry slump.
posted on Dec 15, 2002 - View this thread

Music CD Settlement website now available. You'll get between $5 and $20 back, unless more than 13MM people respond, in which case the $67MM pool goes to charity.
posted on Dec 14, 2002 - View this thread

You've been Crossed. Comedian's comedian David Cross would rather open for bands than typical comics and has had some funny roles in some unfunny movies and TV shows, but Cross has taken centre stage with his new double comedy album on Sub Pop and several biting columns in vice magazine. There is also a newly published behind-the -scenes look at his cult sketch comedy show ("Mr. Show") and Cross recently appeared at a Autism fundraiser called "Clash of the Titans" alongside his Mr. Show alumni and Janeane Garafolo, Triumph the Insult Comic dog and the Kids in the Hall (here is a related auction and show review). Even though it looks like the feature "Run Ronnie Run" has been shelved by New Line, the future is looking bright for Mr. Cross (including the possible addition of more live dates for "Hooray for America" in the spring). For a brief look inside his mind, check these out.
posted on Nov 28, 2002 - View this thread

Dr Venter says he will be able to provide an individual's genome on a CD in about a week for $712,000 (£400,000) from later this year with the ultimate goal to sequence someone's entire genome in 24 hours for $1,000 (£562).
posted on Sep 23, 2002 - View this thread

Stomping on the little guy. Popular weblogger Davezilla has been handed a cease and desist from Toho Co., Ltd, owner of the Godzilla trademark. The text of the C&D implies that they own the rights to any word ending in the letters "zilla". [more inside]
posted on Aug 13, 2002 - View this thread

Music industry makes first mature move in years!
Universal and Sony will respond to piracy by selling CDs at $9.99 - and singles at .99. How easy was that? (Link requires free registration but well worth it, IMO)
posted on Jun 12, 2002 - View this thread

Good news for Mac-owning, Celine Dione fans

"The process is pretty easy: I took a bit of electrical tape and applied it to the edge of the CD, the 'shiny side', - just a half inch of the stuff - and aligned it with the very edge 'data track session ring' visible on these copy protected CDs. Took the tape out to the outside of the CD and put it in my CD Rom."
posted on May 14, 2002 - View this thread

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!! A bit of a repeat, but absolutely justified
posted on Jan 18, 2002 - View this thread

Copy-Protected CDs: The List! Buying CDs as gifts this holiday season? If the people on your gift-giving list have MP3 players or listen to their CDs on their computers, you'll want to have this list handy, as these CDs have intentional "copy-protection" defects that may render them unplayable on computers, certain car stereos, and some other high-end audio equipment.
posted on Nov 30, 2001 - View this thread

This site will burn anything you can point them to on the web onto a CD. Won't that violate a TON of shareware/freeware licenses? Will they do warez sites?
Link via FilePile.
posted on Jul 5, 2001 - View this thread

Music CDs sales are down, coinciding with Napster's decline. Personally, I haven't bought a new CD in months because I no longer have a source for finding new music (what I used Napster for mainly). I suppose word of mouth and listening to online streams may help, but nothing compared to finding songs you liked on Napster, and searching others' files with similar tastes and finding new gems. Do you think the RIAA will notice this and change, or is control of distribution more important to them?
posted on Jun 20, 2001 - View this thread

Charley Pride's Copy-protected CD hacked -- or is it? Apparently, the people involved in trying to keep the CD off Napster failed to realize they are dealing with the World Wide Web.
posted on May 16, 2001 - View this thread

Lost or broken CD case? Ripped a disc and now it's just floating around on your desk? Freewheeling College students to the rescue! You give 'em the lowdown and you get a formatted paper CD case as a .pdf file. Input your own song titles or run an album search through their DB. They even archive mixes for you to share with others.
posted on May 11, 2001 - View this thread

Napster proof CDs? (Salon link, so shoot me) A new scheme for copy-protected CDs that uses errors and false data to confuse your CD-ROM drive. (more inside)
posted on Mar 28, 2001 - View this thread

CD Sales down by 39%? And guess who's to blame. (Also linked in the article is the interesting stopnapster.com site.)
posted on Feb 26, 2001 - View this thread

The Beatles are back and now online! Check out their new site for their new compliation CD 1
P.S: The site layout was made on Mac with BBEdit 5.0
posted on Nov 13, 2000 - View this thread

Sony to introduce new CD format. No, it's not DVD-Music. It's a new double-capacity CD format that Sony says "will be able to prevent illegal copying." I'm assuming the new format will require all-new hardware to read and to write. So my question is, what's the point? Won't another music format just increase consumer confusion and make them more reluctant to buy? Why come out with a 1.3GB format just as recordable DVDs, with much larger capacities, are becoming practical? Do they really expect people to buy all new hardware to support what is obviously a dead-end format?
posted on Jul 5, 2000 - View this thread

Microsoft fires the final bullet into it's head. As of April 1st, OEMs may no longer ship a CD-ROM containing a full-installable copy of Windows with the machines they build. They can ship a "recovery CD", or just a "recovery partition". So, what did you get for your $90?

You got to rent Windows until you upgraded your machine.
posted on Jun 8, 2000 - View this thread

Make CD Covers for your napster grabs Good quality scans of CD covers suitable for printing. Cool.
posted on May 28, 2000 - View this thread

Although this story doesn't sound like much, the FTC coming down on Time Warner, the effects could be great. Time Warner has agreed to ban their minimum pricing on featured new CDs, admitting that for the last seven years, these compact discs have been artificially overpriced. Do you think making CDs cheaper for the first time in years had anything to do with all the attention mp3s have been getting from consumers?
posted on May 10, 2000 - View this thread

CD Sales Are Up The music industry's fears about piracy are being proven ridiculous again and again. Next target: film.
posted on Apr 24, 2000 - View this thread

Yes!!! Delphi has answered my wishes, and released a CD player for the car that can decode MP3s burned onto CDRs. Over 10 hours of CD quality music on a single disk, without the need for a pesky changer. I'm buying the first one that comes off the line. Here's their press release about it.
posted on Jan 12, 2000 - View this thread