Tag: Girls Aloud

bookmark_borderMusic Futures

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Prompted by some questions about Spotify on Twitter, questions which sparked a heated debate that is still raging*, I thought I’d revisit my own music purchasing and usage habits and see where I sit in the consumer spectrum.

First things first then, I do purchase music mostly, these days, through iTunes. Mostly because it’s handy and I’m a total Apple fanboy (yeah, Windows SUCK!!). That last bit is a lie, of course, as my home PC runs Windows and I’m really enjoying using Windows 7 (something else I’ll be purchasing soon).

I digress.

I spent a long time digitally converting my CDs, and as they now reside in boxes in the loft I don’t see the need to purchase anything on physical media. I have bought a couple in the past few months, mainly band specific special releases though, so they aren’t available through iTunes. I’m sure there are other ways I could purchase music but for what I listen my system works for me.

Do I miss the act of going into a music shop, flipping through the stacks? Yes I do, but not so much that I’m losing sleep over it, although it’s easy to say that since my current office is miles from anywhere, whereas working in the city centre made access to places like Fopp an always entertaining lunchtime visit.

As for listening to music, well that mostly happens either at work (when time/task allow) or at home when I’m sitting at the PC or just generally faffing about upstairs. More recently I have started taking my iPod Shuffle to the gym.

So where does Spotify fit in all this? Well it should fit perfectly, at home at least (I’ve not tried but guessing company firewall restrictions would rule it out there). I do have it, I have an account yet, for some reason, I don’t use it. To be honest I’ve only used it a couple of times, and I do like the idea of sharing playlists with others but what about all that music that I have?

I LIKE all the music I have, well most of it**, except when it’s on shuffle of course, and whilst I am open to hearing new artists I only tend to use work as a backdrop so I’m not usually actively listening. With that in mind, it largely doesn’t matter where the music comes from, but I’m far more likely to put on something I know so I don’t HAVE to listen to it.

You know what I mean, right?

Perhaps I just need to give Spotify more of a try, perhaps I’m missing something fundamental but I really don’t see it as a game changer. Yet.

But then I said that about blogging, and Twitter so hey, what do I know?

* or perhaps just one or two polite replies, poetic license, innit
** the joys of a shared library of music and Last.fm listing tracks from Louise’s iPod, for the record I did not listen to Girls Aloud AT ALL that week

bookmark_borderFriends and Codes

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Blimey, a fairly busy week or so of overly gluttonous introspection in blogland. No surprise I guess but this time round it has been fairly forthright and more vociferous than usual. I’ve linked to a few of the following before, but, pulled together they encapsulate most of what has been said. I think.

It all started with Kathy Sierra’s announcement of her withdrawal from a conference due to threats to her person. Obviously this was followed by shock and outrage and so on and on and then Tim O’Reilly drafted a Code of Conduct for bloggers (he has since posted a follow up with some more considered thoughts).

This was met with no small amount of derision but, as I said in comments in that post, I applaud him for doing it as I’m sure he was aware it was doomed to failure. But sometimes these things need done regardless. Admittedly I do agree that you’d be as well to post a “warning; may contain nuts” message on your blog. It is a nonsense of course, and the backlash was predictable (although very well designed).

Even Auntie Beeb weighed on the matter, a sure sign of the changing face of the blogosphere, although even then it should be noted that (and I wish I could find the quote from who said it first) there isn’t ONE blogosphere but many (you wouldn’t compare Beethoven’s 9th with the latest single from Girls Aloud, but they are both “music”… yikes, that was a bad example…).

The New York Times paid the issue some lip service, and it was from there that I found my way to the best round up of the Kathy Sierra saga so far.

Of course that is not to forget that recently, here in the UK, there has been a court case where some person has been found guilty of harassment (if you do go here, DO NOT google and visit the persons website, you are only then feeding her delusions).

What on earth is going on! I hear you say.

Well, every now and then, like a child growing up, the blogosphere (god, I’m actually getting used to typing that blasted word) needs to go through some pain to fully mature. Don’t you think? No I’m certainly not condoning the actions of the few that sparked a lot of this, but this is not the last time negative actions will bring focus on to blogging. With that in mind we are all responsible for how we conduct ourselves, so I guess I need to count my blessings that you lot are always civilised, and that I’ve never had to invoke my own commenting policy.

It’s a times like these that I wish I were more eloquent and could string the various threads that run through the current stream of “blog news”. Thankfully you don’t need to rely on me to do so, as mike returns to tug all those strands into a wonderfully lucid and thought provoking post. If you do nothing else after reading this, go read that.