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I found a really good strategy is to go to a meta music site like All Music[allmusic.com] and put in a artist you already know you like. Then look at related artrists, influences, and who they've influenced.

I've found a lot of good stuff that I probably would have never heard of normally.

Wrong.
Here we have not salsa, not mamba, but samba.

"Do You Like Worms", by the Beach Boys

This isn't his decision, this is the decision made by the politicians that made the laws so restrictive. Paul's Boutique could never be made today, because the sampling is too extensive and it would be impossible for the record company to clear the record legally.

> Just cause the guy is black doesn't mean [...] that there will be Hip Hop

Do you even know who Mos Def is?

Connecting him with hip-hop is not being racist. That's what he did (quite well I might add) before he decided to be a mediocre actor.

Actually Guy Piccoletto of Fugazi used to pretty much do that with his band Rites of Spring. And he looked like a comp sci geek of the endomorphic variety.

Okay, so either we're talking about Syd Barrett or H.R. Giger .

Mos Def actually came from the theater community before he was a rapper.

Yeah. As we see, he was on TV long before he ever released an album.

To quote an article, "He attended a performing-arts high school in New York, where he worshipped at the altar of playwrights Edward Albee and Harold Pinter and Public Enemy and De La Soul."

I agree that the "stick a rapper in every movie" trend is getting old - imagine if that were popular during the '80s hair metal days. But Mos Def doesn't qualify. No punishing him just because his music career fared better than Nimoy's.

cos basically we want to reform it, so we can start actually buying CD's and so on again, right ?

Look... there are thousands of independant labels out there putting out music that's just as good as (and often better than) the major labels. Not only that, but there are plenty of sites where you can learn about this independent music. The All Music Guide covers quite a few non-RIAA bands with tiny distributions. If you're not sure which bands are part of the RIAA, there's the RIAA Radar, which will tell you which bands/albums send money to the RIAA. As far as distribution, Forced Exposure, In Sound, and several other outlets (including the music download services) offer tons of RIAA-free music.

Personally, I'm very taken with these labels:
IDEA Records
Beta-Lactam Ring
MEGO Records
Drag City Records

Here's my issue. The RIAA will die a slow, painful death. This is inevitable. Don't worry about it. Small labels are just as capable of recording, producing, packaging and (to a lesser extent) distributing music as the RIAA. If you, as a consumer, will do a little research, you can find a whole world of underground music -- sure it isn't on the commercial radio stations or MTV, but it will play in the same CD player that all your RIAA CDs play in. Nobody's really being locked out. It is very different in the software industry, but you all know abou that...

You know whose script was bootlegged and photocopied a zillion times? William Fucking Shatner's, that's who.

I thought we were discussing major Holywood talent?

True, for we all know his talent mainly lies in music...

Great song from a very great album but, a little bit to the side of mainstream for some. These new whipplesnappers don't make music the the old dogs used too.

Sugar Hill Gang are certainly old school, but they weren't innovators. That's not to say I don't appreciate them.

Many of them have also started to produce video. A couple of good ones that come to mind are Eclectic Method and Cartel Communique (who's site is down). Well worth a look.

That would that would be in addition to Fear of Pop that he did with Ben Folds back in 1998. Despite the reviews that you see online, I think this is a gem... and it is available on vinyl to boot.

I realize this. I also frequent AMG. It's a great site.

But with Rhapsody, I'm one click away from actually HEARING THE MUSIC, once I've found something that looks interesting.

That's what's cool about the combination of integrating the database with the actual streaming audio.

Right to the heart of the matter! For volume sales to work, people need to listen to mostly the same stuff. But the situation isn't so bleak, I think.
Personally, I use allmusic.com to find out about artists similar to those I already like. Then I go to the one record store I know of in Milwuakee that has lots of unsual electronica: Atomic Records. I also buy compilations with artists I like on them to get those odd tracks and discover the rest of the artists. Smaller labels often put out music of a similar style and make compilations with all their artists. I also buy stuff I know I want online- especially out of print stuff on ebay.
I spend, perhaps, $100/month on average on cds (none of it going to riaa member labels). But, guess what- If I hadn't discovered the diversity of indie-electronica on p2p networks I'd be clueless and completely burnt out on plastic pop.

The All Music Guide does this too! GYARG!

I get most of my music from soulseek. It's like someone got all the mp3 trading channels on IRC and put them neatly packaged in one program. I can find almost anything I want and it's mostly high quality. I usually use the chatrooms there and All music website to discover bands that I haven't heard of before.

In fact I only own about seven CDs!

Right. I watched it yesterday (and submitted it then too, almost word for word with what got posted... *grumble*), but from what I can remember, the answer is 'No.'

(Just checked, the answer is most definitely no.)

I'm assuming you mean the light blue shirt with the three circles on it? (blue-white-red) The circles are generally considered to be a mod thing. I can't tell you too much about it though, as it's not really something I claim any knowledge of.

Then again, maybe that's K-Mart. I always get the two confused.

A black box on the right side of the application displays the current playlist and album cover.

Black box? Looks like the reviewer was listening to Metallica or Spinal Tap

A black box on the right side of the application displays the current playlist and album cover.

Black box? Looks like the reviewer was listening to Metallica or Spinal Tap

Admittedly, the choices in iTunes are limited. Even though they signed several indpendent labels, including Matador and Kill Rock Stars, though don't have the entire catalog of those labels or any rarities. Heck, they don't even have some of the new releases - try looking for Her Majesty the Decemberists.

The advantage of the P2P networks from a selection standpoint was that you had thousands of people adding tracks, not just one or two labels. On the old Napster, I remember finding tracks from B-Sides and compilations albums from the 80's along with ton's of live materials - let alone regular recordings. In that respect, I think the P2P networks will probably stay around for hardcore fans, looking for rare items. However, I don't think the RIAA is worried about people who are downloading the Reiver's cover of "Atlantic City".

If anyone stands to lose from online music stores, it's Rhino and the producers of the "That's What I Call Music" series. For the hit single buyer, the online store is a great bargain. I wonder if you can pick up "Billy Don't Be a Hero" on iTunes yet.

Not so. Sure, most of the p2p services don't allow you to "browse" music, but that's not a problem. Combined with sites such as AllMusic, I've been off on my own musical tangent since the very first days of Napster. I still have files missing the last 100 bytes, for those that remember that early bug!! ;-)

Another great source of inspiration and recommendation are the many thousands of streaming stations on Shoutcast. Simply listen to a station on a genre you like, and have a pen or an eMule search handy. Most of the time, if I hear a song I like, I've researched the band, seen listings/reviews of all their albums, and started downloading some, before the streaming track has finished!

And there is no way that traditional music sales models can compete with that. Game over.

My thoughts on eMusics demise and pending downfall; damn. It was a great idea, it was and still is the future model of distribution. Unless you can beat your competitors model (p2p), traditional companies (RIAA) don't stand a chance. However, as I've been saying for years, they know they can't stop it. Simply slowing it down will earn them billions.

You're reinvented Merzbow

• For instance, I used to go to CDNow.com for all of my music info needs - tracklisting, release dates, etc.

Why? That's what All Music Guide is for. AMG your friend.

• For instance, I used to go to CDNow.com for all of my music info needs - tracklisting, release dates, etc.

Why? That's what All Music Guide is for. AMG your friend.

For instance, I used to go to CDNow.com for all of my music info needs - tracklisting, release dates, etc.

Theft? Where?!

Oh, you mean all those zeroes and ones on my computer that coalesce to form John Farnham mp3s??

OK, I am absolutely sick and tired of hearing people complain about how there is "no good music" that has been released in the past couple of years. This is the most ludicrous statement I have ever heard. When you say "no good music has been released in the past couple of years" you really mean "the music that is marketed to me by my local ClearChannel radio station and my Viacom Cable TV music networks is not satisfying me" -- that's like saying "the era of good sports cars is over" and using only Kias as a point of reference.

So, for your information, I am going to list brilliant albums of the past ten years (even half-brilliant ones), and categorize them by genre. Please try one of these out -- you're not guaranteed to love each one, but I do. If you hate all of these, then you don't have good taste in music to begin with... :-)

Rock/Alternative/Folk/etc

Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast
a-ha - Minor Earth Major Sky
Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
Radiohead - OK Computer
Beck - Sea Change
Beck - Mutations
Clinic - Internal Wrangler
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
Elliot Smith - XO
Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Hey Mercedes - Every Night Fireworks
Brand New - Deja Entendu
At The Drive In - Relationship of Command
Hot Water Music - No Division
Sting - Brand New Day
Counting Crows - Hard Candy
Ben Folds - Rockin The Suburbs
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Thrice - Illusion of Safety
John Mayer - Room For Squares

Jazz/Blues/Classical/etc

Don Byron - A Fine Line: Arias and Lieder
Soulive - Turn It Out
Kronos Quartet - Nuevo
Clint Mansell and Kronos Quartet - Requiem for a Dream OST
Christian McBride - Vertical Vision
Pat Martino - Live at Yoshi's
Pat Metheny - Speaking of Now
Greyboy Allstars - A Town Called Earth
Tan Dun - Hero OST

Electronic/Techno/Ambient

Air - Moon Safari
DJ Shadow - The Private Press
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...
Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
Royksopp - Melody A.M.
Crystal Method - Vegas
Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
UNKLE - Psyence Fiction
Turin Brakes - The Optimist

Hip-Hop/Rap/R&B/Urban

Breakestra - Live Mix Part I & II
D'Angelo - Voodoo
Greyboy - Mastered the Art
Mos Def and Talib Kweli - Black Star
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Quannum - Solesides Greatest Bumps
The Coup - Steal This
Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030
Mr. Lif - I Phantom
RZA - Ghost Dog OST
Jurassic 5 - EP

Again, you're not guaranteed to love each and every single on these -- but it's a good start. More info on any of these: AMG: All Music Guide

The total lack of quality is in your ability to search out decent musicians.

It's not hard with movies. You go to your cineplex and there's, what, 5 new movies per month? 8?

There are dozens if not hundreds of CD releases each month -- it's much harded to keep up with. Now, in those, I know that there are absolutely brilliant albums. I know because I've listened to them, and I still listen to them.

My suggestion? Spend some time reading AMG -- ask your hip friends what they are listening to. And stop listening to radio which is apparently what you are judging all music by.

Ok, so this sounds a lot like a troll, but...

I don't see that this is terribly impressive. I mean, he's done a fair bit of research, wrote several papers, and uses big words like "nanoscale chemical filter" and "Boolean string re-arrangements," but in the end, all he seems to have done is pour chemicals on CDs and make them skip. I could do the same with a brillo pad. Why is that impressive? He makes a lot of noise about computing, but is any usefull computing actually going on? What are the practical applications of this "technology"?

Taking a look at the media samples, it doesn't strike me that he's stumbled on a cool new artistic technique at all (it should be mentioned that the artist Oval has been scratching up CDs in the name of art with much better results for years). This is the same thing anyone has gotten when they accidently scratched up a CD or DVD. There's no art to it, and frankly it sounds terrible.

I can understand why this would be important if his techniques yielded predictable, useful results, such as achieve a specific, desired audio or visual effect. But basically all that he gets in a broken file. The same could be done by randomly flipping an arbitrary number of bits inside a mp3. Nothing usefull is being computed or done at all. So why is this important, or even relevant?

Some cool bands I've discovered this way:

• Doves
• At The Drive-In & The Mars Volta
• The Hives
• The White Stripes (now making it big)
• Ladytron
• Feeder
• Guided By Voices
• Powderfinger
• Regurgitator
• Badly Drawn Boy
• Idlewild
• Killing Heidi
• Screaming Trees
• Stereophonics
• Terrorvision
• The Flaming Lips
• Touch & Go
• Wilco
• Ween
• Yo La Tengo

Note that most of these aren't that new - but they were new to me.

I don't know what the hell's happened to alternative radio over the past decade, but it pretty much all sucks.

Another example is III Sides to Every Story by Extreme. There is a song on the cassette version that is not on the CD version. Unfortunately, even the Extreme best of CD doesn't include that song, so, AFAIK, you can't get that particular song on CD.

Christ, Armageddon? That song came out in 1987, get with the times...

You need to stop eating aluminum-colored apples, man. It's impairing your judgment.

I'd also highly reccommend Townhall. They got a sloppy/tight groove kinda sound... and Allmusic likes 'em too.

Hell they were doing this in the 1950's. The late 50's were an enormous music drought, with manufactured "rock and roll" replacing the gutsier and more threatening sound of the early 1950's. For example, there was this fellow named Fabian..

You've got a good point there. Downloading music is a lot harder than the RIAA makes it out to be because you have to deal with users who log out, mislabled songs, and some songs are hard to get. Then again, with radio, you still have the DJ problem. Let's say you like the Coldplay song they play on the radio and you want to hear a few more tracks from their most recent album. The DJ will probably play the radio songs (Politik, Clocks) for you, but they're not going to play just any track off of the album.

My point is that the RIAA and record labels should be exploiting this opportunity.

I think everyone on /. agrees with you. The RIAA's distribution strategy worked fine in the past, but there is new technology out there just waiting to be legally exploited.

I'm not saying that there's no good music coming out of America these days, but there's not much good metal in the mainstream. However, for good underground/indie metal, check out Ferret Records. Not only are they non-RIAA (I buy many of my CDs from them), but they've got great bands like Remembering Never, Every Time I Die, Martyr AD, Terror, and From Autumn To Ashes. If you're a metal fan, or a hardcore kid(like me, but if you're a hxc kid you probably already know about ferret) you won't be disappointed.

I'm not saying that there's no good music coming out of America these days, but there's not much good metal in the mainstream. However, for good underground/indie metal, check out Ferret Records. Not only are they non-RIAA (I buy many of my CDs from them), but they've got great bands like Remembering Never, Every Time I Die, Martyr AD, Terror, and From Autumn To Ashes. If you're a metal fan, or a hardcore kid(like me, but if you're a hxc kid you probably already know about ferret) you won't be disappointed.

I'm not saying that there's no good music coming out of America these days, but there's not much good metal in the mainstream. However, for good underground/indie metal, check out Ferret Records. Not only are they non-RIAA (I buy many of my CDs from them), but they've got great bands like Remembering Never, Every Time I Die, Martyr AD, Terror, and From Autumn To Ashes. If you're a metal fan, or a hardcore kid(like me, but if you're a hxc kid you probably already know about ferret) you won't be disappointed.

Those quotes remind me of Allmusic.com's review of Miles Davis' 1969 album, Bitches Brew . Here is a highlight:

"A three-note bass vamp centers the entire thing as three different modes entwine one another, seeking a groove to bolt onto. It never finds it, but becomes its own nocturnal beast, offering ethereal dark tones and textures to slide the album out the door on."

This is one of the best reasons!! With internet streaming radio, you usually get the track title and artist. A quick trip to AllMusic, then you can see if you are interested in getting more tracks.

A large percentage of the music I listen to came to me this way.

there's a (crappy) techno "artist" that uses the name BT. his real name is Brian Transeau. it's quite ironic that he's pursuing legal threats against p2p file sharing, since p2p sorta made him famous.

here's an allmusic link: BT

AllConsuming.Net makes great use of the amazon APIs, along with those provided by google, and various blog interfaces.
...its sort of like an All Music Guide for books.

A website developed by Media X, Inc. (A really poorly managed company, publicly traded company controlled by one Rainer Poertner, a completely cluless bastard) for Creative Labs called MuVo (a name later used for their portable music devices) had features that would allow you to see who reviewed an item, how they voted on it, and how they voted on other music, so you could see if their tastes were compatible with yours.

Unfortunately Creative thought they were getting to use Media X's license for the all-music guide (allmusic.com) content, which the site depended on. This is because they are stupid. So when they didn't get it, for some reason they decided to flush the half million dollars spent on the site design, and repurpose the quarter million dollars worth of Compaq servers (which, BTW, were pieces of crap and not worth half that - two of them had bad backplanes when they arrived, and they arrived over a month late) instead of paying for a license and putting up the site.

Anyway, that site design would have been easily extensible to support features like message bases, any object could be rated so messages in the bases could be rated and then sorted by rating, et cetera. Reviewers could be rated also. It was pretty slick, it could have become the future of music distribution as I describe it, and they flushed it. Sigh.

Mr. Lif's I Phantom and Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves : Both concept albums (the latter being an opera), which can be sampled as single songs, but can't be enjoyed as a full album. I Phantom has recurring characters and storylines throughout and the final two songs are about the apocalypse which ultimately destroys everyone that was described earlier in the album.

Beck's Sea Change is Beck's break-up album, and the album moves through different views and feelings he has until the final song, where he realizes what he did and how he got to where he is ("I never thought I'd live / Till the ugly truth / Showed me what it did").

Air's City Reading is a group of three westerns read by their author, Alessandro Baricco, over backing music by Air. Again, no single song really does it justice.

Then there's just tons of albums that are very good where every song is amazing, but these are all concept albums where it doesn't make sense to have only one song. Bottom line: You don't need to make a concept album. Make an album with good songs and no filler and we will buy the entire album.

Mr. Lif's I Phantom and Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves : Both concept albums (the latter being an opera), which can be sampled as single songs, but can't be enjoyed as a full album. I Phantom has recurring characters and storylines throughout and the final two songs are about the apocalypse which ultimately destroys everyone that was described earlier in the album.

Beck's Sea Change is Beck's break-up album, and the album moves through different views and feelings he has until the final song, where he realizes what he did and how he got to where he is ("I never thought I'd live / Till the ugly truth / Showed me what it did").

Air's City Reading is a group of three westerns read by their author, Alessandro Baricco, over backing music by Air. Again, no single song really does it justice.

Then there's just tons of albums that are very good where every song is amazing, but these are all concept albums where it doesn't make sense to have only one song. Bottom line: You don't need to make a concept album. Make an album with good songs and no filler and we will buy the entire album.

Mr. Lif's I Phantom and Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves : Both concept albums (the latter being an opera), which can be sampled as single songs, but can't be enjoyed as a full album. I Phantom has recurring characters and storylines throughout and the final two songs are about the apocalypse which ultimately destroys everyone that was described earlier in the album.

Beck's Sea Change is Beck's break-up album, and the album moves through different views and feelings he has until the final song, where he realizes what he did and how he got to where he is ("I never thought I'd live / Till the ugly truth / Showed me what it did").

Air's City Reading is a group of three westerns read by their author, Alessandro Baricco, over backing music by Air. Again, no single song really does it justice.

Then there's just tons of albums that are very good where every song is amazing, but these are all concept albums where it doesn't make sense to have only one song. Bottom line: You don't need to make a concept album. Make an album with good songs and no filler and we will buy the entire album.