I thought this was interesting. Just a few days ago, I went on a little rabbit trail about LP's and how much I like them, and then today, I open my ad-sponsored Google inbox, and this story is in the news feed. You might be interested.
29 October 2007
25 October 2007
In Rainbows
I finally managed to find somewhere to listen to Radiohead's "In Rainbows" today. I'm planning on buying it at some point when I'm not recovering from a coast-to-coast move and it's actually out on CD, but for the mean time, I was grateful to find it being streamed on iMeem. I can only assume it's legal, because it is iMeem, after all, and they're legit.
Most of you that pay attention to this sort of thing (and I know some of you don't, and that's cool too) have probably heard about Radiohead's move to release this new album. Rather than generating a lot of buzz for months and months and advertising everywhere, they've just discreetly posted to their web page every so often that the album was proceeding well, and then all of a sudden, there was an announcement on the 1st of October that the record would be released to everyone in the world simultaneously on the morning of October 10th via digital download. On top of that, the price for the record was left completely up to the individual buyer, with zero pounds and zero pence an available option. The band was releasing the record themselves -no label support- which means that they get pretty much 100% of the money paid for every copy. It's an all-around great move. Enormous amounts of PR for free, a 100% cut of album profits (which is about 85-90% higher than what they'd get from a major label), and a challenge to the notions of any particular way that things have to be done.
But you can read about all of that anywhere. There's something else about this release model that I think is so cool. Let's go back a few years to, say, the early 90's. These were almost the last years of a really great phenomenon. Each occurrence of this phenomenon started when music fans around the world (or across the nation, or wherever) found out that their favorite band or arist was going to release a new record on such and such a date. Anticipation grew, there was no end of fan speculation about what the new record would be like, and every tidbit of information spread among the fans largely by word of mouth. A few months would pass, and then, depending on the popularity of the artist, fans would line up outside the record stores to get a copy of the new recording. Everyone would go home and listen to it, absorb the details, and then get together with their friends to talk about it. There was a simultaneous experience, and everyone was able to get involved. Music of all forms has always had a strong community aspect to it, but the Day One Record Store Queue was a really special thing. I'm not going to pretend like I'm old enough to have experienced it more than a few times myself, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate it, right?
I remember my first exposure to the technology of mp3's. This was back in the days when it made any sense at all to be a member of AOL, months after the time when they limited your minutes and there was a small surcharge to access a new frontier known as the World Wide Web. In the music chats, and probably elsewhere, people started to distribute these tiny, tiny files that you could play in a brand new program called Winamp. (But unless your computer was pretty powerful, you couldn't do anything else at the same time.) I was introduced to Napster some time around the beginning of 2000 ("It will find mp3's from tons of people all at once!"), and again, I won't pretend: I used it a little. Not much, because downloading music on a dial-up connection was too tedious. But enough that I can say I saw the revolution coming. My ear was to the ground when the stirrings started to gather steam and hint that there may be a stampede on the way.
A decade later, and no one that's inclined to do otherwise has to wait until an actual release date to listen to a new album. There just isn't quite the same feeling anymore of going to the record store on the first day, going home with a brand new record, and knowing that all over the world, or at least the country, thousands of people are experiencing the same thing you are for the very first time.
With the rise of the information age, it's become harder and harder to digest a new record without encountering, to some extent, other people's advice on what you should think of it, even before you've taken the shrink wrap off. Or clicked "Buy." It's too bad. But Radiohead took a step forward (backward?) with this release. No press copies, no early streaming, no opportunities for that core fan base to rub it in everyone else's faces that they heard it first. In the small hours of the morning on October 10th, everyone got the same chance to listen for the first time, at the same time. I wish I'd been involved. I mean, it's a very good record, yes, but I can hear that now. I wish I'd been able to listen to it for the first time knowing that scores of other people were listening to it for the first time. The internet has destroyed a lot of what we formerly considered to be "community," but this was at least a step back in the same sense as looking at the moon and knowing that your friends and family look at it too, no matter where they are. And that counts for something.
I also appreciate that the band realizes that it's worth it to turn this release into something that's only available online. I like innovation as much as the next guy, but there's something wonderful about having a tangible, physical record that is just truly inimitable. It's why I collect LP's. Yes, the sound quality is better on an LP, and yes, they're inexpensive, and yes, the hunt is as good as the purchase. But the biggest reason is that I can actually hold the music. I can look at the grooves in my hand and know that if my vision was a thousand times better, I could actually kind of see the music. I can pick it up and see cover art that’s a foot across, and I can hold that too. So you can call it a cash grab on the part of the band if you want, or you can look at it as simply a piece of installation art to be spread, one living room at a time, across the whole world (and there may be something to that, but for once, it’s installation art I can get into), but I still want the discbox. Call me crazy.
02 October 2007
Getting Started at Microsoft
Looks like it's been about ten days, and I have to tell you, quite a bit has happened in the last week and a half. Where to start?
We've moved to Redmond, for one thing. It smells like evergreens.
We'd made a couple of trips over before to look at things and interview and all, but now we actually live here. We're living in a place called Reflections at Marymoor, and that's Marymoor Park they're talking about. We went through the park today to have a look at it and see what all the fuss is about. It's really great! There's a Subway and a bagel shop inside the park (!), as well as a dozen baseball fields, a cricket field, soccer fields galore, a model airplane field, and an amphitheater, but one thing that I thought was awesome was the big, big public garden. You can rent a 10' x 40' plot for 45 dollars per year and plant anything you want. There are lots of nice flowers, and some people grow vegibbles that they harvest every so often. It's really neat.
Our apartment is a nice blend of amenities, location, and low rent. We're really happy with it. It's very new and clean, and the people that run the place are very friendly. It's apartment living, so that means taking the trash bags across the courtyard to the trash room and getting a key for a little mailbox, but it also means activity. People around, doing things, going here and there. There's also a nice fitness room, a big hot tub, a pool that's heated all year long, and a movie theater that we can use for TV shows or movies or games or whatever. It has free popcorn, too. I'll have pictures soon, but Kirsten and I agreed that we should be allowed to finish unpacking and putting pictures up and everything first, so you'll have to wait just a little longer (And besides, it's just an apartment, seriously.)
Right across the street is a wide gravel jogging/biking trail that goes about a quarter mile and ends up in a shopping center with a Whole Foods Market and a Chipotle, so that's just fantastic. Whole Foods sells the little leftover chunks of their fancy cheeses, too. They're the bits that are left when they're done cutting the nice looking wedges and stuff, and they're the perfect way to sample the freaky-looking and freaky-smelling cheeses without having to buy a large amount. They call it the Petites Fromages Programme. We've decided to try a new cheese at regular intervals and keep notes on the good ones. My brother Scott did something similar a few years ago, and I'm sure he is a much wiser and better rounded person for it, just the way we will be. The first two were Cotswold and Cahill Porter (rated 8 out of 10 and 6 out of 10, respectively), and we'll get another the next time we're over there at the cheese counter.
So we're learning our way around and getting to appreciate the things that are close by. For me, though, the biggest change, obviously, is my new job! I've only been at it for two days, but it's been pretty cool so far.
I had an orientation yesterday morning and then went on over to my office building. My manager had me do the ID card paperwork early, so my key card was ready when I got to work the first day. Most people do the paperwork on the first day and get their ID card, MS e-mail address, etc. a few days later. I had to go over to Building 8 to get my ID, though. My office, the Millennium D building, is a few miles away from the main campus of Microsoft, so the receptionist picked up the phone, punched a number, requested a shuttle pickup, and then told me to watch for shuttle #104 in three to five minutes. Sure enough, about five minutes later, a white Prius
When I got back, I got the grand tour from Richard, the other tech writer, who's more knowledgeable than me by every measure, and probably nicer. He and I will be working together, and he's a really cool guy, so it will be a nice working environment. We get along nicely. After the tour, I read a bunch of documents through most of the afternoon to get up to speed with all of the technical stuff I have to deal with, did a network install of Windows and Office on the laptop they gave me, came home, and was asleep by 8:15. I think it was a combination of getting up at working man time, narrowly missing catching a cold the last couple of days, and trying to wrap my head around difficult concepts for a lot of the day. I got up once to dispatch a stowaway spider for Kirsten (It was living in Silverdale and had heard Redmond was nice. It wanted piece of the action as well.) and then went back to sleep until 7 this morning. I felt very rested this morning!
Today was finishing setting up my computer with all of the network stuff and then reading more information on the programs I'll be using and the concepts and technologies I'll be working with. I also had kimchi and rice in the cafeteria, and it was really really tasty. I owe my Korean students big time for turning me on to the goodness.
I guess that's about it. We really like it here, the job is nice, and the office is cool. I get to swipe a card to get through secured doors, drink all the tea or juice or whatever I want to for free, grab a shower when I jog or bike to work, and spend a little of my work time playing video games. Not a bad situation. I know this was kind of a just-the-facts post from the title on down, but I'll have some pictures and hopefully some good stories for you soon.
Stay tuned.
Kent
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