MetaFilter posts tagged with MP3

Did you know Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?

klangklangston — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:26:42 -0800

Google Music Search

bigmusic — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:21:34 -0800

Google Music search is now live - powered by Lala and Ilike. Also provided are supplemental links to relevant Rhapsody and Pandora pages. Some are are not impressed with the search feature. Related: Lala's streaming iphone app is awaiting Apple's approval.

Bootlegs ahoy

pompomtom — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:18:22 -0800

I don't know how these people got their fairly decent recording devices into a bunch of gigs... but I can guess why. ...and I'm pretty sure I was at that Church gig...

The Social History of the MP3.

chunking express — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:03:46 -0800

The Social History of the MP3.

Summer Mix Series

CharlesV42 — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:11:49 -0800

Summer Mix Series is the soundtrack to your summer. Created by yewknee.com, this collection of user submitted mix CDs encourages submissions to have unique, specific themes, giving many of these mixes a more cohesive edge than "Bill's Favorite Tunes June 2009". Listen to summer, 48 CDs and counting! A sampling of those so far:

MALTA (Soundtrack to an Imaginary Film)
The Summer Will Break Your Heart (Anti Summer Romance)
Sweet Home Alabama (Delta Blues)
Mute (Instrumental Mix)
Kill Me Softly (Sweet Songs of Murder)
Death and Texas (songs referring to the great state)
Cover Me and I'll Cover You (Wink-wink covers collection)
The Raw Ingredients (songs that have been sampled elsewhere)
Jams of the Summer - 1989 (What it says on the tin)
Count Me In (Numbers 1-10)
Floor Fillers (Summery Funk Mix)
BBQ Summer (BBQ Food Themed disclaimer: this one was submitted by yours truly)

Many, many more, and instructions on submitting your own at summermixseries.com. Make this summer last forever.

The Beast of the Long-Neck Banjo

scruss — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:07:27 -0800

Billy Faier got tired of burning copies of his long-out-of-print albums, and is giving them away: The Art of the Five String Banjo (1957), Travelin' Man (1958), The Beast of Billy Faier (1964), Banjo (1973) and Banjoes, Birdsong and Mother Earth (1987). Faier discovered banjo in Washington Square in the late 1940s, transcribed Pete Seeger's intricate Goofing-off Suite (which you might know better as this movie theme) and gave John Sebastian his first paid recording gig. Banjo, recorded for John Fahey's Takoma Records, is on a different planet from the squeaky-clean folk recordings Faier made in the 1950s.

Joyful Noise

Miko — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:55:03 -0800

Pilgrim Productions Presents: Voices Across America, an archive of gospel music in a variety of genres, submitted for free play and download by church groups and folk and traditional groups across the country and beyond. Style, age, and quality vary greatly, but fans of noncommercial music will enjoy hunting for the gems of blues, Cajun, bluegrass, choral, shapenote, country, vintage, and mountain gospel and more.

Nebula Best Short Story Nominees 2008

Artw — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:29:41 -0800

StarshipSofa has podcasted all of the Nebula Best Short Story Nominees for 2008, following on from podcasting all but one of the 2008 BSFA short story nominees. Previous StarshipSofa.

Filling up the city skies with righteous grooves

jammy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:39:49 -0800

Four Hours of Free Funkiness Filter: Pretty Lights Derek Vincent Smith is a DJ with quite mad skills who weaves funky masterpieces of chill-hiphop-electronica. But, really, I can't say it any better than Kyle at Aurgasm (where I found this):

Organic, soulful, electronified and good-feeling vibes, freely shared by Colorado producer Derek Vincent Smith. Nearly four hours of this Pretty Lights sound is available for free on his website. It’s a vivid collage of continuity, enriched with robust beats, eloquently laced vocal samples that range from nostalgic to serene, both compelling and entertaining, with a diverse selection of instruments all aimed towards enjoyment.

A battle of perceived qualities

filthy light thief — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:42:58 -0800

Sennheiser, a family-run company with an interesting history of searching for audiophile quality, has created what it boasts as "the new standard for audiophile headphones." But will it matter in the long run, when the next generation of listeners enjoys the "sizzle sound" associated with lower bitrate MP3s? (via) CNET's Crave has a look at part of the process of assembling the $1,400 (£1,000) headphones by hand. (via) And while debating perceived qualities, do coat hangers sound as good as monster cables?

The Fun 91

roll truck roll — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:18:07 -0800

For the fourteenth year, Yo La Tengo will murder the classics tonight. (Previously: 2002 2006 2007 2008) Unlike many community radio fundraisers, WFMU's marathon is one of the most beloved times of the year among the station's followers. You have only two more days to make your pledge and secure one of these mix CDs arranged by WFMU DJs. You can download an mp3 from each premium at the WFMU blog.

Dude, I never made it to this screen before!

Miko — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:19:34 -0800

The niftiest thing at Coin Op World? The mp3 files of Classic Arcade Sounds. "We recorded our video game experiences from 1982 until 1988 in a variety of locations on the east coast. Most of the recordings come from Ithaca, NY, Albany, NY and Ocean City, MD. Other locations include Lancaster, PA, Falmouth, MA, Rehoboth Beach, DE and Key West, FL. Luckily I stored all fourteen audio tapes in a safe place and rediscovered them when I moved the rest of my stuff out of my parents house in 1997. In the last several years I digitized these nostalgic recordings to preserve and share them."

Revival Revival

Miko — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:06:52 -0800

The Folkways Collection is a downloadable, 24-part podcast series that "explores the remarkable collection of music, spoken word, and sound recordings that make up Folkways Records (now at the Smithsonian as Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)."

The Best Off the Web

msalt — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:09:53 -0800

Alec Duffy won all rights to Sufjan Stevens' song "Lonely Man of Winter" in a contest (traded for the rights to his winning song). Rather than sell or blog it, he's having private listening parties with a handful of guests each Wednesday night in Brooklyn through Feb. 25th. Here's why. You can hear his winning entry, the vaguely Magnetic-Fieldsy Every Day Is Christmas, but so far, he has kept Stevens' song offline. Some people are angry about these "little asshat tea parties." The closest most of us can get are listener descriptions from Annie Scott ("lovely"), and Jessica Suarez ("gorgeous"). Sufjan said of the winning song: "It feels, at once, like a classic show tune, the perfect parlor song, a bar ballad, and a church hymn. It is unencumbered with the pejoratives and prophetic exclamations of Christmas, the most complicated of holidays."

Your favorite music blog sucks

swift — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:51:47 -0800

Your favorite music blog sucks.

Rock/Psych/Prog/Indie/Folk
ChrisGoesRock
Prog Not Frog
Like Dynamite to your Brain
YoungMossTongue
Glamorous Indie Rock'n'Roll
FANTASY
SONZEIRANANET
A L A I N F I N K I E L K R A U T R O C K
Orexis Of Death
Eclectic The Devil's Music Hefiorels eclectic music Many fantastic colors makes me feel so good ... Saque su disco URBAN ASPIRINES History of the 80s The Glorious 70s Experimental experimental etc Cagedream Misterioso Impossível Underground/Punk FACTS MYTHS & LIES of D.I.Y. MUSIC 1987-93 DOWN UNDERGROUND Blues BLUES TOWN The Blues Lounge Disco DANCE DISCO MUSIC My Favourite Sound© Meta All Music, All Blogs Progressive Rock Music Ultimate Discography PNF Blogwatch

Dead men walking

caddis — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:18:23 -0800

“You can’t roll a joint on an iPod” or how the iPod killed the music industry. First the music biz overlooked the computer CD rom when they put copy control on cd burners. Then they eliminated the single. Shortly after that "mp3" replaced "sex" as the most popular search term. Apple has become the largest music seller largely against the wishes of the music biz, but 99 cents beats free. Yesterday Apple announced they were eliminating DRM. The questions remains, who needs Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and EMI, does Apple? When is Apple just going to replace them? There were rumors a year ago that they would launch a record label with Jay-Z but that does not appear to have come to fruition.

Is it because I'm an auto-pirate?

acb — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:26:51 -0800

In the 1980s, songwriter, artist and cultural critic Momus recorded a number of albums for the legendary indie label Creation Records, combining influences as diverse as Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Pet Shop Boys-style synthpop and Balearic acid-house. These have largely languished in Sony Music's vaults over the past few years, occasionally fetching hefty prices on eBay. Now, Momus has taken the step to commit auto-piracy and release his Creation albums online, for free; over December, he will post MP3s of all six albums to his LiveJournal blog, each with freshly written liner notes. The first one, 1987's The Poison Boyfriend, is here. Momus explains his decision: "Six Momus albums -- the ones I recorded for Alan McGee's Creation label between 1987 and 1993 -- are out of print. Creation doesn't exist any more, and in theory Sony owns the rights to these albums, but isn't doing anything with them and probably never will. In the meantime, only Russian pirates are profiting, charging punters for illegal downloads. "So, during the rest of December, I've decided to release mp3s of my six Creation albums here on Click Opera, for free. Think of it as a sort of Creation Advent Calendar, with a new old Momus album every couple of days. If you're the sort of person who likes to donate to the artist when you download, do it here. But it's not really necessary; these albums paid for themselves long ago. Think of this as a Christmas present. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!"

Yeah and I'm in love too

robotot — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:07:07 -0800

CLLCT - The Collective Family An online community of indipendent musicians who have made their music free to download. No, it's not myspace. (disclaimer: I have a profile there too, but nothing that I haven’t also posted on mefi.music. Apart from that I have nothing else to do with running or maintaining the site.) Originally the 001collective, cllct is a community (or a collective if you will) of musicians dedicated to giving away their music for free on the internet. I randomly found the original 001 site while looking for online communities to post my own home recordings to. Not long after I signed up, the site changed to its current format under the new name cllct. There is some phenomenal music to be found there, from the cuteness overload of Shelby Sifers, to the mature stylings of Generous Alzir, and even the off-kilter experiments of the Secret Owl Society (who is also the man behind the entire site). Some other favourites of mine include: 21 love songs – a tribute to Magnetic Fields Fire in the Mountains – James Eric Pinecones – The Uggamuggas Macondo – Fox Paws I hope you enjoy the music!

What does it all mean?

2or3whiskeysodas — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:26:37 -0800

What does it all mean? In many ways, today's remix culture kicked off in earnest one weekend in 1983 when two ad men (one a recording engineer) spent a weekend in a studio crafting the first pop record made up entirely of samples in the hopes of winning a $100 remix contest. Although the record became a club hit, there was no way for it to be released commercially as there was no way to clear the 60+ samples within. Nonetheless, two followup records, Lesson 2 (James Brown Mix) and Lesson 3 (History of Hip Hop) were created. Both survived as bootlegs, with Lesson 3 never going out of print despite never being officially released. Until now. Emboldened by Girl Talk's success (and lack of litigation), Illegal Art has released a 2-CD retrospective of Steinski's work. It's amazing how fresh the early stuff sounds today. Bonus material: DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist & Steinski recreating The Lessons live: Part 1, Part 2 Steinski talks about the origins of The Lessons Download all three of The Lessons at waxy's blog Steinski on NPR's Sound Check Tangential bonus bonus material: Z-Trip's excellent Party for Change mix, which owes an obvious debt to Steinski's It's Up to You

Polka Power Digitized for Your Protection

WCityMike — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:07:09 -0800

Something to make the inner geek that is inside your inner geek do the boogie-woogie: "Weird Al" Yankovic announces that thanks to digital distribution, he will begin releasing songs as he records them, while the parodied song is still fresh in the public's mind, instead of waiting for an album release every three to four years. The first one will come out on October 7. iTunes will have first dibs on the new singles for the first 14 days, after which they'll go to other online music retailers. (via /.)

"No, Miss Vega. Consider the Black Box theory!"

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:04:09 -0800

"So, that’s my long and winding history of a little postcard from the Upper West Side of Manhattan!" Suzanne Vega writes about writing the hit song Tom's Diner, coping with its numerous remixes, and its part in the birth of the MP3 music compression format.

National Anthems of the World

Effigy2000 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:38:57 -0800

Have you ever wondered what the national anthem of Bolivia, Nepal or The Republic of Seychelles sounded like? Well wonder no more because NationalAnthems.info has got you covered! It claims to have the national anthem for every country in the world in MIDI format, along with downloadable lyrics and sheet music so you can sing and play along. But if the MIDI format isn't doing it for you, there's also other sites that you can visit that have downloadable MP3s of pretty much every national anthem this planet and its inhabitants have to offer, such as this one or this one, which is notable in that the anthems featured there were performed by the US Navy Band. And finally, for your further reading and listening pleasure, check out this forum which contains background information on and even more links to downloadable national anthems.

make your own

nickyskye — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:06:31 -0800

Postcard.fm Send audio postcards to your friends. Free. Upload any photo of yours or image off the web and any MP3 you choose in a single upload process, then enter your email address and that of the person to whom you wish to send the mix. Done— it’s simple. p.s. postcard does not sell, spam, or share the email addresses of senders or recipients. via

The most moving Super Mario-inspired song.

PM — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:54:16 -0800

Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is in Another Castle. John Darnielle (of the Mountain Goats) and Kaki King perform a song, sung from the point of view of Toad from the Super Mario Brothers video game franchise.

A lifetime of lost playlists

feelinglistless — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:17:19 -0800

A lifetime of lost playlists Martin Belam offers a personal history of music formats and describing how he made playlists with each of them. I'd love for his conclusion to become a reality.