Funk Babblings

About three years ago, Pepsi ran a promotion with the iTunes Music Store, giving away free songs via codes in bottle caps. As someone who doesn't use a player compatible with iTunes downloads, and likes being able to play all my music on whatever player I happen to have handy, the promotion didn't do much for me, so I gave away the codes.

Of course, eMusic has been around for a while, primarily serving up independent music (which you probably know I listen to quite a bit of), but they use a subscription-based model and don't let you see their catalog before starting your limited-time free trial. (So if I do the free trial and don't like the selection, I can't do another free trial later to see if the selection has improved.)

But recently the landscape has changed quite a bit. First EMI started putting their music on iTunes without the "DRM" that prevents the music from being played on players not somehow controlled by the record labels. Then Amazon introduced their MP3 store, selling plain old MP3 files (that pretty much anything will play) for about the same price as iTunes Music Store -- sometimes a dime less, occasionally a dime more. They started with indie music, and then added some major labels.

I discovered Amazon MP3s a couple months ago, and picked up a few singles I'd heard on favorite podcasts or on Pandora. I still prefer having CDs (better quality, less prone to disk crashes, sometimes more convenient), but when there's just one song I want from an album, it's nice to be able to get it right away for cheap and have it immediately part of my collection -- and without worrying about what software or hardware will play it. I'm more excited about Amazon MP3s than a CD fan should be.

Apparently even the record labels think they have a good thing there too, or they've just relented. In the past few weeks, Warner Music and Sony BMG have both signed on to sell their music there.

And now Pepsi is doing a joint promotion with Amazon MP3 that echoes their previous iTunes promotion. I might actually be able to take advantage of this one myself.


Of course, the major record labels still aren't paying the artists properly.

Every so often I look at Apple's laptops, such as the just-announced ultra-thin MacBook Air and think "hmm, those are nice, maybe I should get one of those sometime."

Then I notice (again) that there's only one "mouse" button. I use three all the time (in Linux the middle button is a quick Paste of whatever's highlighted, and also opens links in a new tab). I could even get by with two buttons. But not one. And adding an external mouse kind of misses the point of ultra-portability.

Maybe someday there'll at least be a way to retrofit another button or two in there. Until then, sadly, no Macbook for me.