Tuesday, March 20, 2007
We still exist
A new post, contributed to the My Cassettes Flickr group, makes a bold claim. Its more true than you would imagine, although the downturn in worldwide sales was covered by the bbc coming up on two years ago now.
"Cassette albums have declined quite significantly since their peak in 1989 when they were selling 83 million units in the UK," Matt Phillips of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) told BBC World Service's The Music Biz programme.
"Last year we saw that there were about 900,000 units sold. It's clear to see that cassette sales are dwindling fast." .
link
Cassette tapes still exist in the hearts and minds of the generation that came of age with them however, and a new generation is discovering a new fascination with them as well. In addition to being important objects that can be used to reminisce on past times, I hope they will be able to inform the design of new digital music libraries. We'll just have to see abou that.
"Cassette albums have declined quite significantly since their peak in 1989 when they were selling 83 million units in the UK," Matt Phillips of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) told BBC World Service's The Music Biz programme.
"Last year we saw that there were about 900,000 units sold. It's clear to see that cassette sales are dwindling fast." .
link
Cassette tapes still exist in the hearts and minds of the generation that came of age with them however, and a new generation is discovering a new fascination with them as well. In addition to being important objects that can be used to reminisce on past times, I hope they will be able to inform the design of new digital music libraries. We'll just have to see abou that.
Friday, March 16, 2007
mix tapes
Aaahh the mix. Still a powerful medium no matter what format you are using, except perhaps the Internet. I dont know, there are a lot of sites out there trying to give people ways to make' the mix', an interesting networked experience. These are some that come close.
The mixtape collective. Ultimately doomed because there is no actual music on the site, although many music geeks assemble to create, rate and compete for top mix accolades. At least the have cover art.
finetune. This is neat because you can place mix widgets on your blog or website, (I should put one on this blog in fact) but I have found the library a tad limited, and you have to choose 45 songs to create a playlist! Why so many I wonder?
Tiny Mix Tapes. This is a bit more compelling. Submit your idea for a mix via a theme, title or general thought, and see if yours get selected for mix creation by the mixtape robots. Again, no music.
outof5 themed mixes. 10 Songs chosen by 10 individual's. No archives. I haven't found out too much about this one, except that they have weekly mixes you can download as zip files. There is music, but I cant figure out if I can contribute or not.
Last but not least, is this nifty flash animation that looks great and plays music, not to mention is quite funny.
Wouldn't it be cool, if it was a little easier to put something like this together for people? (not to mention have it downloadable to your MP3 player or phone.)
The mixtape collective. Ultimately doomed because there is no actual music on the site, although many music geeks assemble to create, rate and compete for top mix accolades. At least the have cover art.
finetune. This is neat because you can place mix widgets on your blog or website, (I should put one on this blog in fact) but I have found the library a tad limited, and you have to choose 45 songs to create a playlist! Why so many I wonder?
Tiny Mix Tapes. This is a bit more compelling. Submit your idea for a mix via a theme, title or general thought, and see if yours get selected for mix creation by the mixtape robots. Again, no music.
outof5 themed mixes. 10 Songs chosen by 10 individual's. No archives. I haven't found out too much about this one, except that they have weekly mixes you can download as zip files. There is music, but I cant figure out if I can contribute or not.
Last but not least, is this nifty flash animation that looks great and plays music, not to mention is quite funny.
Wouldn't it be cool, if it was a little easier to put something like this together for people? (not to mention have it downloadable to your MP3 player or phone.)
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