Task #13

On the sound snaps website I was able to find a sound clip of a "wren twittering and whistling." It was also a vintage recording I'm told. I think these sounds would make our library website incredibly obnoxious.


I'd already looked at jamendo during our original CC page so I skipped down to artistserver. It was lack luster. Despite being open to all types of music, it is still predominately electronica (something I have great difficulty getting into) and was just a being smattering of blandness.

Next I looked at Last Fm's page of free downloads, something I had not noticed on the earlier task. This is nice for looking into artists that you may not know and have a word of mouth I heard about them a while back interest in.

I'd actually heard about amie street a while back but had not looked at the site. The idea of being free until you're popular is interesting, but there's something kind about that that strikes me in a weird way. Anyway, it was very nice if you're into the whole downloading music thing.

Now, I've never understood the appeal of this. I really like album art. Of course, I do have a large collection of burned CD's that are lacking said art, but on the whole, if it's a band or album I really like, then I buy the CD. And why have just one song by an artist? What, you're too busy to listen to more of their catalogue? I mean, why would you shop on itunes when a lot of artists still offer vinyl versions of their albums (and often with codes for free digital downloads so you can have it on CD as well)? You get awesome artwork that is huge and you can actually see details in it and it invites pretty, shiny packaging. In fact, did you know that most of Funkadelic's early releases are now being reissued on vinyl? It's true. And it's not downloadable either. But it's better than that. Also, don't you love going into record stores and browsing shelves? And how fun is it to just grab things willy nilly random and slip on the headphones and go through a stack of CDs being surprised both with disgust and amour at what you didn't know was there. And, if you're outgoing enough, you can get into great conversations with people around you about what they just grabbed or what's in your pile and it's music nerd mania.

I don't know, I guess this is just more of my deep seeded hatred for what I see as superfluous technology.

Oh, and on a related note; guitar playing mock instrument video games are a horrid idea. Go learn a real instrument, hosers.