930 Forums
=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: HoyaSaxa03 on February 09, 2005, 07:28:00 pm
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http://users.starpower.net/kwildt1/ipodjukebox.htm (http://users.starpower.net/kwildt1/ipodjukebox.htm)
http://www.ipodjukebox.com/ (http://www.ipodjukebox.com/)
anyone been? good time?
i'm thinking about heading down there tonight if i can round up some people...
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my 12 minute playlist:
the apples in stereo - her room is a rainy garden
guided by voices - a salty salute
the shins - know your onion!
the apples in stereo - les amants
the smiths - frankly mr shankly
fountains of wayne - hey julie
the apples in stereo - morning breaks
the lemonheads - being around
i had a good time ... 2 reporters (wash post and chicago tribune) and a photographer there, seemed like they were trying to document the "ipod lifestyle"
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Forgive me, but is there a big difference between these iPod DJ nights and just burning a CD with your set and brining it to the club?
Is it that people are able to make changes mid-set? I wasn't even sure you could edit playlists in midstream, but maybe you can.
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Forgive me, but is there a big difference between these iPod DJ nights and just burning a CD with your set and brining it to the club?
Is it that people are able to make changes mid-set? I wasn't even sure you could edit playlists in midstream, but maybe you can.
i'm not sure what you're talking about, exactly ... most clubs i go to, you can't burn a CD, bring it in and have them play it ...
it's a lot like a jukebox, you just sign up on the list and they come to you when you're up, you hand them your ipod and they hook it in and play your playlist, changing the volume and stuff for softer/louder songs ...
not sure what your first question meant ...
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Er...so there is no difference, then, except clubs won't accept a set burned on CD but will accept the same set arranged on an iPod, for no apparent reason? Shrug.
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I think he meant this: what's the difference betweeen iPod night, and bringing a CD-R with 4 or 5 songs you've burned and allowing the bar to play it over their PA system?
Answer: musically, nothing is different. People will get their songs played and feel the thrill of being a DJ for 12 minutes (although you don't have to worry about mixing, crowd reaction, taking requests, etc.)
Whatever.
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Er...so there is no difference, then, except clubs won't accept a set burned on CD but will accept the same set arranged on an iPod, for no apparent reason? Shrug.
huh? the name of this night is "iPod Jukebox" ... the point of it is that you bring in your MP3 player (any MP3 player, not just iPods) and get 12 minutes of DJing ... i bet if you came in with a 12-minute CD, they'd play that too ...
this is just a once-a-month thing, it's not like st-ex does this every night or anything ... still really don't understand where you're going with this...
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Just that this phenomenon is being hyped as something new and revolutionary...and I really thought I was missing something. Like people being able to make song choices from their whole collection on the fly depending on the mood of the crowd and how their set was going over, which obviously you couldn't do with a CD. I can see the benefit of that. Anyway, thanks.
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...me either. CD fidelity quality is better than MP3...maybe "Apple" marketing has something to do with this?!! Nice concept, tho: sharing fav. music and having a few "pops" with music-loving friends.
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CD night is neither exciting nor hip.
iPod night says cutting edge.
And no, other than marketing, there is no difference.
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Originally posted by Suki:
...me either. CD fidelity quality is better than MP3...maybe "Apple" marketing has something to do with this?!! Nice concept, tho: sharing fav. music and having a few "pops" with music-loving friends.
hope you're joking about the apple marketing thing ... i think it was just people who used MP3 players (specifically ipods), and figured it would be a good idea to have a night where people bring them and play whatever they want ... started at galaxy hut, got bigger and moved to st-ex ...
it's really no different than controlling a jukebox for 12 minutes, except it doesnt cost you 2 dollars and you can play obscure apples in stereo snippets
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Originally posted by Suki:
CD fidelity quality is better than MP3...
can you honestly tell the difference in casual bar atmosphere from a 192 MP3/AAC and a lossless format like a CD?
i think the whole fidelity thing is a bit overblown by audiophiles and live tapers ...
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Has anyone actually seen one of these mythical iPod shuffles?
I see ads for them every day, but no stores stock them and Apple.com says there is a 3-4 week wait.
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Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Has anyone actually seen one of these mythical iPod shuffles?
I see ads for them every day, but no stores stock them and Apple.com says there is a 3-4 week wait.
The San Francisco Apple store had them for a while when they first came out. They are now sold out.
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Apple marketing works wonders. The media has portrayed these nights as a revolution made possible only by the good graces of the iPod (never mp3 players in general). They never mention that the technology to do this easily has been around for almost a decade to the average person via cd burners.
I think the concept of people playing their sets at a bar is cool, I'm just amazed at the kool-aid drinking media's lack of perspective when writing about stuff like this, in their hott trend pieces.
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Originally posted by vansmack:
CD night is neither exciting nor hip.
iPod night says cutting edge.
And no, other than marketing, there is no difference.
well there is a slight difference, you could create your playlist right before giving over the mp3 player, how many people would have their laptop with them to create a cd right there and then
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Just that this phenomenon is being hyped as something new and revolutionary...and I really thought I was missing something. Like people being able to make song choices from their whole collection on the fly depending on the mood of the crowd and how their set was going over, which obviously you couldn't do with a CD. I can see the benefit of that. Anyway, thanks.
I hear you, bellenseb. Really, it's just a glom on the incredible iPod hype to make this sound like an awesome, cutting edge night. And then coolsters can compare iPods, iPod gadgetery like iSkins, etc.
That 5-song CD night would work, but isn't as sexy sounding. ;)
I'll bet this trend got started by Apple -- they're clever like that. From what I've heard, this didn't start at Galaxy Hut -- they were doing it in places like London, San Fran and NYC first, I do believe. Galaxy Hut just brought it to DC (and I love G.H. -- no aspersions cast!).
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Originally posted by Bags:
I hear you, bellenseb. Really, it's just a glom on the incredible iPod hype to make this sound like an awesome, cutting edge night. And then coolsters can compare iPods, iPod gadgetery like iSkins, etc.
who the hell cares what the night is called? it's a cool idea to democratize the dj process and it's a fun time ... why all the criticism?
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Hey. I'm one of the people who runs the night.
If you want to DJ on the fly with your iPod that's cool with us -- as long as you stick to 12 minutes. The problem is that an iPod makes mixing really difficult, especially when it comes to details like setting levels, avoiding dead air, etc.
You're right that using CDs would technically be the same thing, though we've had people who change playlists at the last minute because either someone had already played a song they were going to play, or they wanted to play a different kind of music to fit the vibe of the room. You can't do that with a CD at home.
We don't get any money from Apple; When we were coming up with the name, we just figured everyone knew what an iPod was. Oddly enought, we didn't have anyone use anything but an iPod or Mini last night.
There were regular iPod DJ nights in NY, London and SF before iPod Jukebox, but every night is a little different. At the one in New York, for example, you play off the hosts' iPods, not your own. The D.C. version debuted at Galaxy Hut last April (it wasn't started by Galaxy Hut) and we moved it to Saint-Ex last summer.
Anyway, you're all invited to come out for the next one on March 9, whether you want to mix on the fly or just hand us an iPod with your playlist on it. If you have any questions, e-mail cricklewood.massive@gmail.com. Thanks.
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Thanks, Crickle, for all the insight. Sounds cool to me, and I don't mind that it feeds off the iPod hype (for hyper there is, no doubt). I haven't been to one yet, but a couple friends have and think it's a blast. Keeps the minions involved, and offers an interesting mix of styles and tunes.
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Am I the only person who *doesn't* have an iPod?
I guess the answer is yes!
Cheers
DJ Medusa.
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Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
it's a cool idea to democratize the dj process and it's a fun time ... why all the criticism?
I think the whole thing strikes people as kinda nerdy. It's hard to not make fun of it.
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Originally posted by TEM:
Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
it's a cool idea to democratize the dj process and it's a fun time ... why all the criticism?
I think the whole thing strikes people as kinda nerdy. It's hard to not make fun of it. [/b]
completely agree, its damn easy to make fun of gadgets ... but the earlier posts leaned more towards ipod-envy and scene-hating rather than geek ridicule ...
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Or lazy-journalism hating...
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Or lazy-journalism hating...
good call ... but people who aren't in the know absolutely eat stuff like this up ... most people live a pretty simple existence (commute to work, work, commute home, make dinner, watch CSI, go to sleep) and they rely on "features" like this to keep them tuned in ...
but you're right, i hate reading piece like the ones that will be written from last night ...
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Yeah, don't get me wrong, I think the concept is a really good one.
I do think that calling it iPod night might scare away people with other mp3 players who think it's iPod-only (partly why only iPods were there, although I realize it's mostly because they are the most popular). I think the recent USA Today cover story on the "iPod lifestyle" or whatever just got to me. Where they don't even acknowledge that other players exist (for "iPod nights" or anything else).
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Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Has anyone actually seen one of these mythical iPod shuffles?
I see ads for them every day, but no stores stock them and Apple.com says there is a 3-4 week wait.
I actually managed to get a 1GB iPod shuffle -- I was at the UMBC bookstore for another reason and they had them in stock.
It pretty much lives up to the hype: tiny, light, holds a LOT of music. I've put 4 hour-plus playlists on it and still have plenty of room to spare. It's perfect for the gym, it'd definitely be great for snowboarding, skiing, etc.
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Originally posted by Medusa:
Am I the only person who *doesn't* have an iPod?
I guess the answer is yes!
Cheers
DJ Medusa.
No. There are at least 2 of us.
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kosmette wears the ipod in the relationship... i have a cd/mp3 player which i'm thinking about upgrading. but probably not to another iPod. the Rio Karma has an interesting feature set plays FLAC and OGG files, but it's failure rate seems a bit high for what it costs.
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I was wanting to come down for the event, however I got hit with the feeling crappy stick and ended crashed out early.
Being the nerd I am, I'll just blog what I was going to play...
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Originally posted by The Cricklewood Massive:
Hey. I'm one of the people who runs the night.
Welcome to the forum, stick around we are a lively bunch of loons...
Do you know if Saint-ex has a wi-fi hotspot? Hookup a laptop at the club and with my reactived my Live365 broadcasting account we could stream the event on the internet.
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Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
kosmette wears the ipod in the relationship... i have a cd/mp3 player which i'm thinking about upgrading. but probably not to another iPod. the Rio Karma has an interesting feature set plays FLAC and OGG files, but it's failure rate seems a bit high for what it costs.
Just my personal experience: I bought a Karma about a year ago and it was a total lemon ... died on me after a week or so ... but it has a cool design, RCA outs on the body, and really good compatibility for lossless formats like the ones you mentioned ...
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Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
Originally posted by The Cricklewood Massive:
Hey. I'm one of the people who runs the night.
Welcome to the forum, stick around we are a lively bunch of loons...
Do you know if Saint-ex has a wi-fi hotspot? Hookup a laptop at the club and with my reactived my Live365 broadcasting account we could stream the event on the internet. [/b]
interesting idea......
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Rios do have amazing feature sets. It's a shame they have such a bad reputation for quality. Apparently they are using new Seagate drives in the 5gb Carbon that are much better suited to portables. It may be worth a shot if you're in the market for a mini player.
It looks and feels great, and has a killer feature set. It's got what all mp3 players should have: it shows up as a drive, you can drag and drop in Windows Explorer, and best of all the player will build the id3 database itself, so no software is needed at all.
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Rios do have amazing feature sets. It's a shame they have such a bad reputation for quality. Apparently they are using new Seagate drives in the 5gb Carbon that are much better suited to portables. It may be worth a shot if you're in the market for a mini player.
It looks and feels great, and has a killer feature set. It's got what all mp3 players should have: it shows up as a drive, you can drag and drop in Windows Explorer, and best of all the player will build the id3 database itself, so no software is needed at all.
my house-mate has a carbon and he loves it ... but i really look at mini players as form over function ... i mean, does the smaller size really make up for an incredibly high memory/price ratio (as compared to 20 or 40+ GB machines)?
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Yeah it's a shame that the bleeding edge feature set can't be backed with reliable technology. Commnets about Tthe units dying so quickly was one of the reasons I shyed away from at least the Karma this time. It would appear that the Napster-To-Go support isn't in the offing either. Rio has a reputation for abandoning support on older products. But also have really fanatical customer base. Including reverse engineering sw which allows the Karma to connect to OS X or Linux box, via the ethernet port.
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Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
Yeah it's a shame that the bleeding edge feature set can't be backed with reliable technology. Commnets about Tthe units dying so quickly was one of the reasons I shyed away from at least the Karma this time. It would appear that the Napster-To-Go support isn't in the offing either. Rio has a reputation for abandoning support on older products. But also have really fanatical customer base. Including reverse engineering sw which allows the Karma to connect to OS X or Linux box, via the ethernet port.
Kosmo, I know you told me once but I forgot...can you either post or pm me your blog's address?
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Some people really don't have more than 5gb of music they want to carry around, and the Carbon is a stylistic wonder, IMO - much more attractive than the iPods, tiny, light, smooth sleek finish and shape.
Me, I'm waiting for decent 80gb players (or someone to teach me how to hack my RCA) so I don't have an ever-growing stack of CDs that won't fit on my 40gb.
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Some people really don't have more than 5gb of music they want to carry around, and the Carbon is a stylistic wonder, IMO - much more attractive than the iPods, tiny, light, smooth sleek finish and shape.
Me, I'm waiting for decent 80gb players (or someone to teach me how to hack my RCA) so I don't have an ever-growing stack of CDs that won't fit on my 40gb.
very true ... another way to go about it is just keep your digital library on a hard drive, you can have 100s of GBs if you have the music ... have all your songs rated, then only put top-rated songs on your MP3 player ... and if you have all the music categorized by genre, etc, you can have some really dynamic playlists with your favorite songs out of a big collection ... i don't think i'd ever want my whole music library on my MP3 player, there'd be way too much indecision when it came to what i was going to listen to....
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I do create playlists of my favorites, but I'd like everything on there for a few reasons...
1) Sometimes I like to listen to everything on shuffle, and the bigger the shuffle pool the better. If I just have my favorites on there, I'll never discover new favorites via shuffle.
2) I want to have a backup of all the music on my hard drive. Hard drives fail all the time and I don't want to spend hours and hours reripping.
3) Sometimes you just want to hear that one song or album, and who knows what it'll be.
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yeah. i actually had my mp3 player (nomad jukebox zen xtra 30gb) somehow refuse to recharge one day, and i had to scramble to back it up before the battery went dead, which almost worked. luckily the friendly creative nomad folks sent me a new one for free, but i still every now and then have a hankering to listen to some obscure song only to realize it was on my old player and didn't make it to the new one.
i, on the other hand, really hate shuffle. i mean, if you pull up a genre and shuffle it, that's fine. but something about weird war -> miles davis -> le tigre -> heavy d -> erasure -> brahms just doesn't cut it, and ends up pissing me off.
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http://www.micropop.net (http://www.micropop.net)
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That's basically the playlist (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/thecurrent/playlist.php) of the new MPR radio station...minus the Brahms. I love it, though.
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
That's basically the playlist (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/thecurrent/playlist.php) of the new MPR radio station...minus the Brahms. I love it, though.
woah. ok, so they are many great songs on that playlist, but they don't belong together at all.
perhaps i'm the only person left that thinks that sometimes i'm in the mood for slower, emoer and sometimes i like oldschool punkrock, but i never mix 'em. never.
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
I do create playlists of my favorites, but I'd like everything on there for a few reasons...
1) Sometimes I like to listen to everything on shuffle, and the bigger the shuffle pool the better. If I just have my favorites on there, I'll never discover new favorites via shuffle.
2) I want to have a backup of all the music on my hard drive. Hard drives fail all the time and I don't want to spend hours and hours reripping.
3) Sometimes you just want to hear that one song or album, and who knows what it'll be.
i agree with all of the above, but when I went through the process of rating every song I have, I found that for many albums I would only want to listen to maybe half of the songs again (sometimes less), so I rated them 4 stars, and the mediocre ones 3 stars, and the rare gem 5 stars (2 stars go to rap "skits" and musical segues, 1 stars go to repeat songs I have from compilations and albums) ...
that way you can just put your 4 and 5 star songs on your mp3 player (which ends up being a lot of tunes) and do a huge shuffle of tons and tons of songs, and you know you actually want to hear everything that comes up ... if you rate something lower than the 4, you just realize that you don't want to hear it again, unless you're listening to the whole album ...
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well i'm certainly not going to try to carry around my entire collection on an mp3. and i really don't want to dj an entire set with an mp3 player, partly because i like being able to flip quickly a stack of cds verses scrolling around on an database. choosing songs is partly based on seeing the cd artwork, etc since the exact song title i might be thinking of isn't right there. it's also good to be able to preview a song...
what i'm looking for in an mp3 right now, is something i can easily transfer new music to for audition purposes without having to burn a cdrw. including new cd purchases, mp3s from blogs, band sites, internet archive. the flac feature is of interest since thats the preferred way to distribute a live show. for instance a recent colin meloy show i downloaded would be great to load on an mp3 player without having to convert the files. it's something i would listen to once maybe twice and trash, why go to the hassle of conversion.
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Speaking of Colin Meloy, the Morrissey tour CD is going for as much as $100 on ebay... !
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Speaking of Colin Meloy, the Morrissey tour CD is going for as much as $100 on ebay... !
Apparently he has written a book also.
33 1/3 - Let it Be (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0826416330/qid=1108142301/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/104-8285088-6421525?v=glance&s=books)
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Speaking of Colin Meloy, the Morrissey tour CD is going for as much as $100 on ebay... !
jeeeeeesus ... i have an original copy sitting right here ... hmmmmmmmmmmm
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Originally posted by bellenseb:
Or lazy-journalism hating...
Daily Candy LA (http://www.dailycandy.com/article.jsp?ArticleId=22562&city=2)
Hollywood and Vain
Sometimes those nights at Spaceland leave you feeling a little solipsistic. Sure, you love indie rock as much as the cast of The O.C., but occasionally you tire of staring at your Converse and mulling over your latest relationship crash-and-burn.
You have an unexplainable yen for something more ... obvious. More ... empty. More ... Robert Downey, Jr.?
If that's the case, get yourself to the China Club Pro Jam at the new Vine Street Lounge. Every Monday night L.A.'s best (and most behind-the-scenes) studio musicians play â?? usually with a secret celeb performer. We can't tell you who's coming up, but let's put it this way: Our town's cutest ne'er-do-well played last week.
The vibe is Jessica Simpson meets Barbarella: contemporary banquettes with white tufted vinyl, reserve-bottle service, and an enormous bed in the VIP lounge. (Jeez, what could they have in mind?) If you get hungry, pop next door to the Hollywood and Vine Restaurant, where they make a great cheeseburger and fries.
The biggest draw? With all the overblown egos in the room, your own self-involvement won't even make it through the door.
Vine Street Lounge, 1708 Vine Street, at Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
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Originally posted by Frosty The Swami:
Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Has anyone actually seen one of these mythical iPod shuffles?
I see ads for them every day, but no stores stock them and Apple.com says there is a 3-4 week wait.
I actually managed to get a 1GB iPod shuffle -- I was at the UMBC bookstore for another reason and they had them in stock.
It pretty much lives up to the hype: tiny, light, holds a LOT of music. I've put 4 hour-plus playlists on it and still have plenty of room to spare. It's perfect for the gym, it'd definitely be great for snowboarding, skiing, etc. [/b]
I bought one for a friend of mine... received it in the mail last week. Yep, it is pretty damn cool.. gonna have to get one myself. The regular iPod just doesn't cut it if you want to use it for running with. Not having the screen is a bit annoying first, but if you know all the music you're putting on it anyway, you stop caring.
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Originally posted by My Cat Can DJ:
I bought one for a friend of mine... received it in the mail last week. Yep, it is pretty damn cool.. gonna have to get one myself. The regular iPod just doesn't cut it if you want to use it for running with. Not having the screen is a bit annoying first, but if you know all the music you're putting on it anyway, you stop caring.
how does the shuffle / random software work? if i ask it to load songs from a playlist that is larger than the capacity of the ipod, does it pick them randomly? that would be kind of fun, just load up your shuffle with a new genre (or decade) every day and let it pick
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Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
Originally posted by My Cat Can DJ:
I bought one for a friend of mine... received it in the mail last week. Yep, it is pretty damn cool.. gonna have to get one myself. The regular iPod just doesn't cut it if you want to use it for running with. Not having the screen is a bit annoying first, but if you know all the music you're putting on it anyway, you stop caring.
how does the shuffle / random software work? if i ask it to load songs from a playlist that is larger than the capacity of the ipod, does it pick them randomly? that would be kind of fun, just load up your shuffle with a new genre (or decade) every day and let it pick [/b]
Sadly, I don't think so... it uses iTunes just like any old iPod. If you tried to load too big a playlist, it probably just wouldn't. I'll try it tonight to be sure.
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Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
Originally posted by My Cat Can DJ:
I bought one for a friend of mine... received it in the mail last week. Yep, it is pretty damn cool.. gonna have to get one myself. The regular iPod just doesn't cut it if you want to use it for running with. Not having the screen is a bit annoying first, but if you know all the music you're putting on it anyway, you stop caring.
how does the shuffle / random software work? if i ask it to load songs from a playlist that is larger than the capacity of the ipod, does it pick them randomly? that would be kind of fun, just load up your shuffle with a new genre (or decade) every day and let it pick [/b]
just got an iPod Shuffle as a v-day gift...it's really nifty. yes...you can just load randomly from all of the songs on your iTunes. we have a few thousand on our computer so i just plugged the little guy into one of the USB ports and hit the autofill button. you can also handpick the tunes/podcasts/files you want to save. if you have a regular iPod, you'll notice that it takes a bit longer to transfer since it's not a firewire connection but, other than that, i'm definitely in love.
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warning: this article was as cheesy and as filled with paranthetical explanations for the suburbanites / baby boomers as i expected ... it's like "young people voyeurism", but some people who are completely out of touch really get off on this stuff, which probably explains why its on A1
washingtonpost.com
Downloaded and Ready to Rock
iPod Nights Turn Amateurs Into Digital DJs at D.C. Club
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 25, 2005; Page A01
The DJ who calls himself P.Vo is very pleased with himself. Two dozen or so clubgoers at Gate 54, the basement lounge at Cafe Saint-Ex in Northwest Washington, are stumped. They're wondering what P.Vo is playing.
Is that Nine Inch Nails and the Bee Gees? "Closer" on top of "Staying Alive"?
P.Vo, taking a sip of rum and Coke, asks: "Where else can you hear this?"
It's 9:20 p.m. on a recent Wednesday. P.Vo, known by day as Paul Vodra, is the first of 21 DJs -- ahead of Seeking Irony and Weird Curves -- who will play at this city's version of an iPod DJ party. On this night, the most popular MP3 player, the iPod, serves as the lounge's source of music, roughly three songs at a time. No turntables. No vinyl. Bring an iPod. Be the DJ. Please sign your DJ name on the white board in the front.
P.Vo downloaded the Nine Inch Nails and Bee Gees song -- a mashup, two songs mixed into one -- from a peer-to-peer software program called SoulSeek. He's blasting it from his iPod, which is hooked up to six speakers: two in the front, near the bar; two in the middle, where clubgoers are dancing; the remaining two in the back, in front of a poster for the film "La Dolce Vita." Here, amid the industrial look of the lounge -- with Christmas lights for an added touch -- Vodra, a 29-year-old software programmer from Arlington, transforms into P.Vo, an iPod impresario who mixes Missy Elliott with George Michael to come up with a song he calls "Get Your Faith On."
The iPod Jukebox night, held at Cafe Saint-Ex every second Wednesday of the month, attracts mostly white-collar types in their twenties and thirties who heard about it from a friend of a friend, or read about it in a link to a blog. It's perhaps the most public manifestation of how the iPod -- with 8.2 million units sold in 2004, more than 5 million during the holiday season alone -- has gone mainstream, spawning an entire iPod culture that goes far beyond wearing those distinctive white earphones.
There are professional "iPod loaders" who will fill your iPod with music; "iPod jacking" sessions where owners swap iPods to check out one another's playlists; "podcasts" where you, as a wine connoisseur, for example, can upload a 17-minute rumination on the glories of a 1953 Chateau Petrus so other wine connoisseurs can download it to their iPods; and sites such as iPodlounge.com, not at all affiliated with Apple Computer, to keep you updated on what's new in the iPod universe.
If your iPod allows you to keep your whole CD collection in your jacket pocket, then the iPod DJ night allows you to show off your music, karaoke-style.
"In the next year, more and more clubs are going to have a night like this," says Kathryn Wildt, 28, taking a breather from her evening's responsibilities. The Bollywood version of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" -- titled "Don't Stop 'Til You Get to Bollywood" -- plays in the background.
Wildt, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, co-founded iPod Jukebox in April 2004 and keeps it moving along, one DJ at a time. (Fritz Hahn, who covers nightlife for washingtonpost.com, is the other founder.) Wildt bought her iPod "a year and five months ago," she says, and calls it "Gayle." ("I just thought it looked like a Gayle. My computer doesn't have a name, but for some reason this one has a name." She's not the only one in the lounge to give her iPod a name. Holly Tegeler, 24, calls her iPod Karl, with a K. "I knew he was a boy," says Tegeler, a Web developer. "I don't know why, I just know he is.")
Cafe Saint-Ex doesn't host the only iPod DJ night -- add the Hi Hat Lounge & Garage on the East Side of Milwaukee, APT in New York City's meatpacking district and Tonic Room in Chicago's Lincoln Park area, among others, to the growing list.
You can catch this kind of party across the Atlantic, too. Charlie Gower, an event promoter, has so far helped organize more than 25 iPod DJ nights in London since July 2003. Over there they're called "noWax" (meaning "no vinyl") nights.
"It's a democratic thing, really," Gower, via phone from London, says of noWax nights. The 28-year-old co-founded noWax.co.uk and works as a recruiter for Sense Worldwide, a research company. "What's true in every case of the iPod DJ party or noWax night -- different clubs do it different ways -- is that everybody who comes to the club loves to play to the crowd," continues Gower, who checked out the iPod DJ night at New York's APT last year. "Just like what Andy Warhol said, they love their 15 minutes of fame."
Or, more specifically, 12 minutes of fame, which is what you're given at iPod Jukebox. It's currently so busy that no repeats, meaning DJs going for a second showcase, are allowed.
Natalya Minkovsky (aka Seeking Irony) and Melissa Gilmore (aka Weird Curves) are iPod Jukebox regulars. They've been coming since October, usually staying until 12:30 a.m. "We've got 9-to-5 jobs," they say. "We can't stay until last call." Minkovsky, a 25-year-old marketing writer, got her iPod as a birthday present. (Tonya, her mom, knitted her an iPod cozy.) Gilmore, a 29-year-old grants manager, got her iPod in April 2004. It's 10:45 p.m. and they're waiting for their turns, drinking greyhounds (vodka and grapefruit juice).
Minkovsky likes to play indie pop. Gilmore, too. "But it's electronica tonight," says Gilmore. "I think it's great that individuals represent themselves for 12 minutes," she continues. "I picked my playlist before I left. Something silly. One night I played a song about cheese."
Why?
"Because I'm addicted to cheese." (The song, Gilmore says later, is "Addicted to Cheese" by the Evaporators.)
Michael Benson, the owner of Cafe Saint-Ex, has an iPod with close to 7,000 songs in it. "If you're a big music fan, you're limited to satellite radio and the Internet to find out what's new out there, what's cutting-edge music," says Benson, 38. The playlists from previous Jukebox nights are nothing like the top 100 Billboard singles or the top 100 downloads on iTunes.
"In a night like tonight, someone could be playing something and someone could come in and say, 'Hey, where'd you get that from?' There's an incredible diversity, from twang country to trip-hop" -- psychedelic hip-hop -- "and one of the things you notice about iPod night is a lot of people take notes of the music that's being played."
Jeff Wotowiec, standing at the other end of the bar, is taking notes.
Wotowiec is visibly nervous -- he isn't sure if his type of music would fit in. "So far, it's all been dance music," says the 26-year-old graphic designer from Arlington. He wants to play "some country," "some movie quotes" -- dialogue from "Tommy Boy" or "So I Married an Axe Murderer." But, he asks, "what if no one likes it?"
Sure, there's an intimate feel to the lounge, a friendly, down-to-earth vibe. Still, there's always someone like Paul Straka who sneers upon hearing "Pieces of Me," not Ashlee Simpson's, but the cut from the local go-go band Rare Essence.
"Listen to this awful, awful music," says the 28-year-old computer programmer from Manhattan who's in town visiting friends. Just because it's iPod night doesn't mean the music is going to be any good, he says.
Wotowiec decides tonight is not the night for his iPod debut. So a few hours after arriving at the lounge, fresh from evening Mass, Wotowiec makes two vows: to come back next month, and to come back with "better stuff."
"Next time, I'm gonna come back with more edgy stuff: You know, one hard-core country song, one hard-core metal song, one really, really, really dark techno song. Maybe a movie clip. Next time, when I come back, I'll be prepared, I'll be myself."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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wow that article is cringeworthy, edgy is such a great adjective
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Hey all you would-be iPod DJs. Don't forget to pay your royalties
Songwriters, publishers and songwriter-artists hope that the clubs and would-be DJs featured in the Feb. 25 front-page article "Downloaded and Ready to Rock" are obtaining the requisite permissions for the clubs' use of copyrighted songs.
Downloading a song onto a handheld device for personal enjoyment poses one set of copyright issues. Is the peer-to-peer site SoulSeek obtaining permissions to distribute music? The stakes get higher when the downloads are combined into "new" songs and played in public.
Putting parts of a Nine Inch Nails song into a Bee Gees song is called sampling. Any established band that has sampled from another band's work can tell you about the permissions needed. Any radio station, television station or sports arena can tell you about the rights that must be obtained from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, and BMI when playing or "performing" someone else's music for profit in a public place.
I hope amateur DJs, clubs and music fans are listening, on the off chance that they're not getting their sampling permissions and performing rights licenses or paying the fees to obtain the downloaded music in the first place.
MONICA CORTON
Vice President, Creative Affairs and Licensing
Next Decade Entertainment Inc.
New York
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2700-2005Mar2.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2700-2005Mar2.html)
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I was waiting for that.....
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ASCAP and BMI licenses are blanket requirements for any venue that plays music, whether from a regular DJ, iPod or FM radio. Cafe Saint-Ex confirms that it has paid both.
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By the way, we look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday.
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Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
Hey all you would-be iPod DJs. Don't forget to pay your royalties
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2700-2005Mar2.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2700-2005Mar2.html)
to quote bill simmons, i think i just puked a bit in my mouth.
i need a beer, that letter was just disgusting.