So yesterday iTunes dropped all DRM from their music. This is good. In addition, they added a variable pricing scheme where some of the really popular tracks would be $1.29, but never fear (says Apple), this will be offset by many tracks which will be $0.69. This is bad. The majority of tracks should remain $0.99. I read this news with little interest since there was nothing in that news to sway me from Amazon back to iTunes.

Until this morning. Today I came across an article claiming that Amazon and Wal-Mart have followed suit and will charge a premium on their more popular tracks as well. Amazon will be charging $1.29 for premium tracks while Wal-Mart will be charging $1.24. I was a bit distraught. If Amazon prices their music the same as iTunes then they lose whatever advantage they may have over them. I’m certainly not using Amazon for the elegant user interface.

So, I did a little research. I looked at the top 20 selling tracks on iTunes and compared them to the prices on Amazon. Here are the top 20 most popular tracks on iTunes and the prices on both iTMS and Amazon:

Amazon has indeed increased their prices. But they are not anywhere near the changes that Apple has made. In fact it looks like the difference in price between Amazon and Apple has just gotten that much wider. Amazon beats or matches Apple’s prices on all but one track. While I can’t say I’m happy with the price increase, Amazon’s average price has only jumped a few pennies a track on average. While Apple’s prices have jumped almost $0.20 per track in this sample. I looked at a larger sample comparing Apple and Amazon’s top 100 tracks and found that in Apple’s case they are charging $1.29 for 41 tracks and $0.99 for the other 59. This brings the average down to around $1.11. An increase of around twelve cents per track on average. Amazon’s top 100 tracks had the following breakdown: 8 tracks at $1.29, 87 tracks at $0.99, 1 track at $0.89, 6 tracks at $0.79 and 2 free tracks for an average of $1.02 per track.

Now it may be, since Amazon has only recently adopted this price increase, that all of the changes have not yet taken affect in which case I may need to reconsider. But as things stand now, Amazon is in little danger of losing me as a music customer. I’ll be watching with interest though.

I remember a long time ago (turns out this was in 2000), ABC was running a promotion for their shows which had a song running in the background that I liked and, thanks to Google, I found out the song was called Yellow by some band named Coldplay (yeah I know, I like Coldplay, therefore I must be gay). Turns out that Coldplay has done pretty well for themselves since.

Another time she was watching, I dunno The OC or something, and I first heard Keane. I think the track was Bedshaped. And, of course Hide And Seek by Imogen Heap (when’s she going to come out with something new!?). There were several other artists on the OC and its clones, I can’t be sure which I first heard there. Maybe Snow Patrol? Guster? Muse? Gomez? In any case I don’t really watch these shows, but I don’t mind listening for the occasional music discovery.

Last night my wife was watching Gossip Girl and I heard a melody that I really liked. Susie didn’t know who it was and the only artist mentioned at the end of the show was Franz Ferdinand. I knew it wasn’t them, so I did some searching this morning and found out that the name of the band is Greycoats and the name of the track was Watchman, What Is Left Of The Night.

It turns out that “Watchman, What Is Left Of The Night” is from Greycoats first release Setting Fire to the Great Unknown which just came out a couple months ago, and after previewing a few of the tracks on Amazon I decided to go ahead and buy the whole CD. So far I’m really enjoying it. Maybe this will turn out to be Greycoats big break too… Not this post, the Gossip Girl thing. If you like any of the bands I mentioned above, you might want to give it a listen.

After I finished my little ditty. I showed Alex how to use GarageBand. She and Aaron proceeded to make this 30 second masterpiece. It’s called Stay Out of the Basement! And features vocal by Aaron (my 5 year old) pitch shifted down many octaves. Try not to be too frightened.

How many total songs?
1061 songs, equal to 3.7 days or 5.03 GB.

Sort by song title – first and last?
First: “…On The Radio (Remember The Days)” by Nelly Furtado
Last: “Zak And Sara” by Ben Folds

Sort by time – shortest and longest?
Shortest: “Losers” (0:09) by Moxy Früvous
Longest: “Do You Feel Like We Do” (13:54) by Peter Frampton

Sort by Album – first and last?
First: “8 Mile” by Eminem
Last: “You Will Go To The Moon” by Moxy Früvous

Sort by Artist – first and last?
First: 3 Doors Down
Last: Yes

Top five played songs?
“Protection” – Ben Folds
“Mad World” – Gary Jules
“Jesus On the Radio (Daddy On the Phone)” – Guster
“Hide and Seek” – Imogen Heap
“Have You Got It In You?” – Imogen Heap

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 2
Death: 1
Love: 68
You: 149
Home: 5
Boy: 17
Girl: 11

Back in June I was scrolling through the top 100 songs on iTunes Music Store and stumbled across a tune called Hide and Seek by someone named Imogen Heap. Never heard of her (if only I watched The O.C.)… oh but what a great voice. Awesome song. $0.99 and many listens later I was trying to find out more about Ms. Heap. What I found was that her new CD, Speak For Yourself, was going to be out “real soon now”.

For a while, I regularly checked iTMS anxiously awaiting a CD full of tracks like Hide and Seek. As summer came and went I pretty much gave up on Imogen. She is after all doing this all independently (she had to mortgage her flat in London to finance everything I understand). Maybe she’s having to burn CD’s by hand I dunno.

This morning Hide and Seek happened to start playing in iTunes and I figured I’d see if that CD ever got released. Well, it did on Tuesday. And it was worth the wait. I’m not real good at reviewing, so just pretend I wrote this:

The U.S. debut solo album by Frou Frou vocalist Imogen Heap is a captivating record that fuses innovative electronic soundscapes with a strong female voice. If “Goodnight and Go” — a lilting, pulsating, and hit-ready concoction — and the alluring, synthesized pop of “Hide and Seek” are the most direct, experimental numbers like the ethereal “Have You Got It in You?” plus the rhythm-fueled “Headlock” and “Loose Ends” suggest Heap has written and produced the finest electro/alt CD of 2005. By the time the eclectic, innovative “Closing In” arrives late in the cycle of Speak for Yourself, there’s little denying it.