Gizmodo: tunes

First Recording of Computer Music Found. Verdict: Catchy, But You Can't Dance to It

Kit Eaton — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:21:00 EDT

A recent dig around in the BBC's archives has resulted in an unexpected find: recordings made in 1951 of a Ferranti Mark 1 computer playing tunes. Predating what was thought previously to be the first (on a Bell Labs IBM mainframe in 1957) the tapes were made during a recording of Children's Hour in Manchester University. The Ferranti was the first commercially available general purpose computer, and can be heard beeping through God Save the King, Baa Baa Black Sheep and In the Mood... slowly, and a bit scratchily since the recordings are 57 years old. Interestingly, the software was written by a chap called Christopher Strachey, a friend of Alan Turing. Click on to the BBC link to hear this bit of History in action, and marvel how far we've come since. [BBC via The Inquirer]

iAno iPhone App Gives Your iPhone C-Minor Key

Haroon Malik — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:30:00 EST

Between iAno - the newly released iPhone app that turns your cellphone into a piano - and the earlier released PocketGuitar, which does much of the same but with a guitar, it is only a matter of time before we see the first iPhone band. That will be awesomely groundbreaking, and what we ask is that you send us the video. We'll post it, we promise*. Back to the present, iAno installs on Jailbroken iPhones and offers a fully functioning multitouch piano, as you can see in the great video above. A four-octave keyboard is represented in iAno, and the arrow keys at the top are used to navigate around. The software was put together by a developer going by the name of Mr Aardvark, and he managed to pack in polyphonic sound that allow five key presses to be heard simultaneously. Sweet.

Mr Aardvark also plans on updating iAno with a complete 88-key keyboard, switchable sample sets, recording and playback, as well as support for loading .MID tracks. Well, what are you waiting for? Get composing.

*If it isn't a steaming turdfest, and it involves a great tune selection, e.g. Bohemian Rhapsody. This isn't legal advice—I'm not even an attorney. [Technabob]

Amazon MP3 Service Going Global; Epic iTunes Battle on the Horizon

Haroon Malik — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:15:00 EST

Amazon's digital music catalogue is all set to go global, and although a launch date has not yet been settled, it shall hit sometime this year. Given Amazon MP3 offers DRM-free tracks, which are generally cheaper than iTunes limited, equivalent offerings, we cannot help but think an epic battle between the big As is all set to take off.

Amazon MP3 has the only digital music catalogue that offers DRM-free tunes from all four major labels, with around 3.3 million tracks in the library, they are packing some weight. If that fact doesn't have Apple quaking in their boots, the competitive pricing should. We couldn't care less how Amazon and Apple get down and dirty, but as they are bound to be set for a fight, teeth gnashing and all, it can only mean good things for customers. DRM-free music will have a bigger global presence, and that should solidify its worth in the consumer market. Also, the ensuing price war is not going to be too bad either. After all, iTunes surely cannot keep their offerings priced above the competition, whilst simultaneously offering DRM gimped and comparatively expensive ($1.29), DRM-free tracks. It's about to get interesting—watch this space. [Amazon]

Amazon Non-DRM MP3 Store now in Public Beta, Easy to Use

AddyDugdale — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:37:47 EDT

Amazon's MP3 store is now in public beta, so you can all have a fiddle around with the DRM-free service &mdash like I just did. First observations:

There are two million tunes available, from 180,000 artists, including tracks from EMI and Universal. Over half of the songs are priced at 89 cents, including the Top 100 tracks, and they're at 256 kbps resolution. Once you've installed the Amazon MP3 downloader you can pick off the tracks you want.

Good news: there's loads of Bowie, Stones, Daft Punk, Kanye. And the even better news is that the only Britney, Pussycat Dolls and Avril Lavigne you can find are karaoke versions, which means they'll be better than the originals. The bad news is that, despite a lot of big names, there's also a lot of filler: a gazillion different Willy Nelson compilations, both clean and dirty versions of Kanye and Fiddy, and hordes of unknowns, all which must eat into Amazon's two million tracks. [Amazon Earworm]

Press release:

Amazon.com Launches Public BETA of Amazon MP3, A Digital Music Store Offering Customers Earth's Biggest Selection of A La Carte DRM-Free MP3 Music Downloads

Amazon MP3 offers over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists and over 20,000 labels, including EMI Music and Universal Music Group

SEATTLE—September 25, 2007—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today launched a public beta of "Amazon MP3," a new digital music download store with Earth's biggest selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads. Amazon MP3 has over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists represented by over 20,000 major and independent labels. Amazon MP3 complements Amazon.com's existing selection of over 1 million CDs to now offer customers more selection of physical and digital music than any other retailer.

"Amazon MP3 is an all-MP3, DRM-free catalog of a la carte music from major labels and independent labels, playable on any device, in high-quality audio, at low prices," said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music. "This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta, and today we're excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta. We look forward to receiving feedback from our customers and using their input to refine the service."

Every song and album on Amazon MP3 is available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. This means that Amazon MP3 customers are free to enjoy their music downloads using any hardware device, including PCs, Macs , iPods , Zunes , Zens , iPhones , RAZRs , and BlackBerrys ; organize their music using any music management application such as iTunes or Windows Media Player ; and burn songs to CDs.

Most songs are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents, with more than 1 million of the 2 million songs priced at 89 cents. The top 100 best-selling songs are 89 cents, unless marked otherwise. Most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. The top 100 best-selling albums are $8.99 or less, unless marked otherwise.

Every song on Amazon MP3 is encoded at 256 kilobits per second, which gives customers high audio quality at a manageable file size.

Buying and downloading MP3s from Amazon MP3 is easy. Customers can purchase downloads using Amazon 1-Click shopping, and with the Amazon MP3 Downloader, seamlessly add their MP3s to their iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries.

Amazon MP3 has over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists spanning every genre of music, including 50 Cent, Alison Krauss, Amy Winehouse, Ani DiFranco, Arcade Fire, Beastie Boys, Coldplay, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ella Fitzgerald, Feist, John Coltrane, KT Tunstall, Keith Urban, Koko Taylor, Lily Allen, Madeleine Peyroux, Maroon 5, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Morrissey, Nelly, Nickel Creek, Nirvana, Norah Jones, Paul McCartney, Philip Glass, Pink Floyd, Pixies, Radiohead, Ray Charles, Rod Stewart, Spoon, Stevie Wonder, The Chemical Brothers, The Decemberists, and The Rolling Stones.

"Well done Amazon for making so much music available to so many people," said KT Tunstall. "It's good to know, in the words of The King, you're taking care of business!"

Leading independent labels offering their catalog of music for the first time as DRM-free MP3s include Alligator Records, HighTone Records, Madacy Entertainment, Sanctuary Records, Rounder Records, Righteous Babe Records, Sugar Hill Records, and Trojan Records.