Category: Music

All matters musical

iTunes artist bug

Here’s an odd iTunes bug. Sometimes when you import a CD, the tracks get copied to your iTunes Library and onto your iPod/iPhone when you sync it. Oddly, the albums are not accessible through the ‘Artists’ list in either iTunes itself or on an iPod.

The problem results when iTunes inappropriately labels tracks as ‘part of a compilation’.

To fix it, open iTunes and select the problematic tracks. Right click on them and select ‘Get info’. From the window that comes up, choose the ‘Info’ tab. There, select the checkbox beside ‘Part of a compilation’ and select ‘No’ from the dropdown menu.

You must then re-synchronize your iPod/iPhone.

This bug is present in iTunes 9.1.1 and possibly other versions.

Johnny Appleseed and our present predicament

The first version of the song ‘Johnny Appleseed‘ I learned was the secularized version, in which Appleseed thanks ‘the Earth’ for giving him the things he needs: “the sun, and the rain, and the appleseed.” He concludes that “the Earth is good to [him].”

Later, I learned that this is a stripped-down version of a Christian song about ‘the Lord’ being good to Appleseed. I can understand why this song wasn’t sung at the province-run Outdoor School I briefly visited, but I have to say in retrospect that it makes more sense. It is at least internally coherent to thank a conscious, benevolent entity for giving you things you need. By contrast, it makes very little sense to thank ‘the Earth’ for anything. The Earth is a 5.97 x 10^24 kg ball of iron that has existed for about 4.54 billion years. For most of its history, it would not have been at all hospitable to Appleseed, or any other human.

Indeed, for most of its remaining history, Earth is likely to be terribly hostile to human beings. The carbon cycle may cease, when erosion overcomes volcanoes, killing everything. The sun may become a red giant, burning away the oceans and atmosphere. Much sooner than either of those, human beings may kick off a runaway greenhouse effect, killing ourselves and maybe even all life.

That is the rub. In this day and age, we shouldn’t be thanking the uncaring Earth for bounty. We should be thanking other human beings for not quite killing us yet, often despite their best efforts to destabilize the climate, kill off species, and poison the air and water. The dangerous implication of the thin-soup version of Johnny Appleseed is that the planet itself somehow determines whether or not any particular person gets the things they need. This is demonstrably less and less true.

In conclusion, it is increasingly pointless to thank or condemn any abstract entity for what happens to people. To an ever-greater extent, what happens to people depends on what those people and other people decide to do. As a result, libertarianism is dead, and we really need to learn how to live together.

Music economics

Fire escape ladder

According to data featured on Boing Boing, record labels are dying at the same time as musicians are doing better than ever on account of live performances. To a large extent, this must represent the impact of technology on the industry, particularly the internet and file sharing.

Morally and aesthetically, it is difficult to know how to feel about this. In recent decades, recorded studio music has been the major product of the music industry. More and more, that is now being acquired either free or with low margins for producers. Live music has the virtue of being irreplaceable, but the shift in that direction raises questions about where the moral and aesthetic value of music lies.

Personally, I think music studios have alienated the general public to the point that they deserve whatever financial misfortune they encounter. When it comes to musicians, the situation seems more complex. Is it right to keep rewarding someone (and often their heirs) for a song recorded at some point in time, or is it preferable to reward individual performances? Pragmatically, the options available are constrained. That said, there is a case to be made that music that produces a steady stream of enjoyment should produce a stream of revenue for the people who made it.

What do others think?

Andrea on the Vinyl Cafe

My talented friend Andrea Simms-Karp will be on the CBC’s Vinyl Cafe with Stuat Maclean in the next few days:

  • Saturday September 12th – 9am – CBC Radio 2
  • Sunday September 13th – noon – CBC Radio 1
  • Tuesday September 15th – 11pm – CBC Radio 1

I was present at the taping, and I know that the segment will be great fun. Please consider tuning in.

[Update: 1:50pm] The dates above, which were initially wrong, have been corrected.

[Update: 11 September 2009] The Sunday showtime has been corrected.

[Update: 12 September 2009] An mp3 of the show is now available online: VC: September 12th, 2009 “Centennial Mug” with Andrea Simms-Karp.

Photo show opening party

Astronaut Love Triangle introduction

Last night’s photo show launch was well attended and great fun. My thanks again to the ever-talented Andrea Simms-Karp as well as the highly comic and deservedly infamous Astronaut Love Triangle (with introductory note above). Their repertoire included songs about cyberstalking, the side effects of the modern pharmacological rainbow, and the tenacity of the large American automobile, in the face of environmental concerns. At least one audience member seemed to be merrily recording video, so the performance has the potential to end up online somewhere.

Thanks again to everyone who attended and participated.

My photos will be on the walls at Raw Sugar (692 Somerset) for the duration of the month, with the 12×16″ prints going for $60 and the 12×18″ prints going for $70.

As of last night, we also have a winner for the print-for-comments contest. He will be receiving a copy of this image of the ceiling of Exeter College Chapel, should he so desire.

[Update: 6 September 2009] Zoom has also written about the vernissage. The Astronaut Love Triangle blog also gives it a mention.

[Update: 7 September 2009] The Elgin Street Muse also wrote about the opening.

[Update: 11 September 2009] The opening was also covered on tales from a grouch.

[Update: 23 September 2009] Until the end of the show, all the prints are on sale for $50.

[Update: 1 October 2009] Some videos of the Astronaut Love Triangle performance are now online: Avatar Love and Side Effects. They can also be seen directly on Vimeo: AL, SE.

Problems with revocable media

Dock and boats

One of the biggest problems with the way information is now distributed is the increasing limitations on how you can use it. With physical media like books and CDs, you had quite a few rights and a lot of security. You could lend the media to friends, use it in any number of ways, and be confident that it would still work decades later. There is much less confidence to be found with new media like music and movies with DRM, games that require a connection to the server to work, mobile phone applications, Kindle books, etc. Companies have shown a disappointing willingness to cripple functionality, or even eliminate it outright, for instance with Amazon deleting books off Kindles. Steven Metalitz, a lawyer representing the RIAA, has stated explicitly that people buying digital media should not expect it to work indefinitely: “We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works.” Of course, the same people argue that they should be able to maintain their copyrights forever.

The solution to this, I think, is to make it legal for people to break whatever forms of copy protection companies put on their products, as long as the purpose for which they are being broken is fair use. It also wouldn’t hurt to clarify the ownership of such materials in favour of users. A Kindle book should be like a physical book – property of the person that bought it, and not subject to arbitrary modification or revocation by the seller.

Of course, politicians are under more effective pressure from media companies than from ordinary consumers. Perhaps a strong Canadian Pirate Party, asserting the rights of content users over content owners, would be a good thing. Of course, stronger support from mainstream parties that actually hold power would be of much more practical use.