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INXS rocked Chicago!

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INXS

As an early anniversary gift, I bought my wife and I tickets to see INXS at the Rosemont Theatre in Rosemont, IL. I’ve always been a huge INXS fan, and when Rockstar: INXS was on TV last summer we watched religiously.

Early on, I really wanted JD Fortune to win. I thought he had the right mix of ability and danger to make him a good frontman. As the weeks went on, contestants were dropped one by one, until JD was finally left the winner. I said at the time that he was the perfect new leader for INXS.

Then the album came out, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was really good throughout and I thought JD really added something of his own. He wasn’t just a Michael Hutchense clone. The album is really good in my opinion, and actually ranks up there as one of their best.

Anyway, with the contest done, we really wanted to see them perform live, and we were NOT disappointed. The concert was amazing. Any doubt that we may have had about JD vanished. He was charismatic, vocally spot-on, and a real entertainer. In fact the band let him do what he was supposed to do, lead. The rest of the guys hardly said anything the whole night, they just played the hell outta their instruments. They really seemed to be having fun too. Smiles were abundant, and they really haven’t missed a beat.

As for a setlist, I was hoping to find one online, but failed. They played so many songs that I know I would miss some if I tried to name them all, but they did play seven songs off the new album and most of all the old faves. I don’t remember hearing Beautiful Girl or Listen Like Thieves though, so that was disappointing. And they did a version of Original Sin and a version of Taste It that I just didn’t like. They were around the same time in the middle of the show, and they did all the member introductions and solos around those songs, so I think they suffered for it.

Other than those two misses, everything was rock solid. They started with Suicide Blonde and jumped right into Devil’s Party and they continued mixing in the new with the old favorites.

If you are a fan, and you have a chance to see them live, do so. JD and the guys will make you a believer again!

Did Apple screw up with iTunes?

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I know that your overwhelming answer will be no to this, but I was thinking about it today. By releasing iTunes for Windows, Apple just gave me one less reason to ever buy a Mac. I’m a hard core PC guy, so I’ll never “switch” per se, but for a long time I’ve considered buying an Apple computer to augment my computing at home. I do like the elegance of the machines, but I REALLY wanted something that would work perfectly with an iPod.

Now I know that you could use an iPod with a PC before, but by all accounts it wasn’t nearly the seamless experience it is with iTunes. So for awhile, I had kind of lusted after a Mac, mainly for the purpose of digital music, as well as buying music digitally through the iTunes music store.

Now if you’ve been reading the meanderings, you know that I have pretty much despised all of the attempts the music industry has made at selling music online. Most of the time it is far too restrictive. Out of all of them, I always thought that iTunes was the best. It has the least restrictions with the most quality. Because of this, I’ve really wanted a Mac. Once again, now I don’t need one. Apple came to me!

So do you think this has happened to anyone else out there? Do you think iTunes being released might keep people away? Also, for those Mac faithful out there, “Why should I get one?” What are the additional reasons I should pick up a Mac. Convince me folks…

New Levels of Music Industry Idiocy

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Okay, I know I’ve been ranting about copy protection and the music industry and the like, but the story here is just insane. In a nutshell, there is a company that creates CD copy protection called SunnComm. They’ve been contracted to put this copy protection software on audio CDs.  Well they did and released it with much fanfare.  Well, a Princeton student figured out that you can disable the protection simply by disabling Auto-Run on Windows.  So, if you simply hold down the shift key while inserting the CD, no copy protection is installed.

So first off, the company are a bunch of idiots for designing a scheme that is so incredibly broken.  Secondly, they are now going to SUE the student that figured this out.  They are invoking the DCMA.  They are suing the kid because he was smart enough to hold down SHIFT and tell people about it. The company should be ashamed.

This just goes to show how technology will never put this genie back in the bottle, and how evil the companies trying to stuff it in there are…

Still draconian…

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I was really hoping that the new Napster would maybe lean a little more to the LESS restrictive side of things, but it sure doesn’t seem like that’s the case. Check this out:

A “Purchased Track” is a Track that you may (1) save to your hard drive and play back at any time, (2) burn to a CD and/or (3) transfer to a compatible portable device. Any security technology that is provided with a Purchased Track is an inseparable part of it. If you have Purchased Tracks, it is your responsibility not to lose, destroy or damage them. Napster shall have no liability to you in the event of any such loss, destruction, or damage.

You may burn each Purchased Track to a CD up to five times as part of any particular playlist of songs. A “playlist” is a discrete group of Purchased Tracks that are arranged together in a particular order. Once you have burned a Purchased Track to a CD, you agree not to copy, distribute, or transfer the track from that CD to any other media or device.

Dammit. When I purchase a music track, I want it to be MINE. I want it to be easy to play it in my car, or on my computer, or on an iPod or similar device.  Why can you only burn a track 5 times?  Why make that limitation.  Maybe I want to make several mix CD’s and there is a song I’d like on all of them. When I hit 5 it should just die stop allowing me to burn it? I don’t get the music industry AT ALL.

And since it’s legal to record music off of the radio you don’t own, AND it’s legal to copy a CD or make a mix CD for a friend, then why all of a sudden is it illegal in the digital world? I know that due to the internet you can share with millions of “friends” at once, but I really don’t believe this is hurting the industry.

Last year the record industry released fewer titles (less music to sell) and had raised prices, all while in a recession. BUT, according to them, their numbers are down solely due to illegal music sharing. I don’t buy it. And I won’t buy their on-line services…

Music and the Internet

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Well, tomorrow Napster will be re-launched as a pay service. Arguably, Napster is the most well known brand name of P2P services that have come out since the advent of the MP3. When Napster was first out, I used it quite a bit. It was an exciting new way to obtain music. Now before some of you call me an outright thief, I want to explain myself.

First of all, I am a huge music fan and collector. I own over 2000 CD’s, 500 tapes, 200 vinyl records and about 50 mini-discs. On average I spend about $100 a month on music. What I used services like Napster for were to download rarities, live cuts or simply digital versions of many of the old music I already owned. I also used it to sample music from albums before I decided to buy. To me, the digital revolution of music was a godsend.

As evidenced by the money I spend on music, I don’t have a problem paying for downloads. The problem I have with the music industry are the draconian controls they are trying to place on online music services.  Most of these paid services severely limit your ability to use a simple MP3.  Through some sorts of digital rights management, these companies are only allowing you to have the song on a couple of devices or machines, and some even limit your ability to burn the music to a CD.  This is absolutely insane to me.

If I buy a music file, I want to be able to use it on any device or machine I have.  I want an unrestricted MP3.  I mean, the companies doing this are idiots anyway. For example, I can always record the ANALOG stream of music and save it as an unrestricted file. I can get around their controls so easily that it is laughable. So WHY put them in place in the first place? If the industry would just concentrate efforts on producing better product and adding value-add to CD’s, they would do so much better than limiting music downloads and suing their customers.

I could go way more in-depth, but I’ll hold off for now. What do you think? Are you on the “all P2P users are thieves” camp or the “screw the RIAA” camp?  I’m interested to know what my Domino geek peers think about this…