First of May Month (April)
Since it’s First of May Month (April), I’ve made the karaoke version of First of May free to download all month at the top of the main page on my site. Please don’t sing it in front of children, I already catch enough flack for the swearing.
EMI Loses DRM, Gains $.30
Looks like EMI’s made a deal with iTunes to sell higher quality, DRM-free songs for $1.29, and possibly offer $.30 song upgrades. (Someone on Twitter just told me they’re going to be 256 AAC files, but I haven’t confirmed that anywhere else. But Twitter can’t be wrong, right?)
It’s nice to see a label taking a step like this, and it makes me hopeful that maybe people are starting to see the folly of DRM. But I have to say: $1.29? For something that’s not even full quality? Now is not the time to be raising prices for digital downloads you dummies. But you know, good for them I guess – it’s kind of like watching a baby eat with a spoon for the first time – even though they’re doing it totally wrong and making a terrible mess of things, it’s cute to watch them trying.
Also, it sure would be nice if iTunes would sell DRM-free music on behalf of me and the countless other independent musicians who figured this out a while ago.
Lost Weekend
Had another one of those stretches where I see the emails come in, think of lots of things to blog, and don’t do anything about either one. But you should know that Baltimore was a small but fun crowd (and the 8×10 has a fantastic green room situation), the Cutting Room in NYC featured some really stupendous, uke-drenched versions of a couple tunes (thank you Kristen), and last night I performed with Hodgman at dear old Yale in the dining hall where I used to eat broccoli-cheese strata.
I’ve got a quiet April in terms of playing – nothing at all scheduled this month in fact. Hoping to get a little writing done if you want to know the truth. But I’m back in May with the Northampton show on the 2nd and Johnny D’s in Boston on the 3rd – they should both be really big exciting crowds if past performances are any indication. Now: to my email!
User Content Feed
Kerrin’s set up an RSS feed for user content – anything that gets submitted and approved gets added to this feed. You can now stay completely up to date with what my minions are doing. I’ve added a link in the sidebar (along with the feed for the blog and Thing a Week) and boy does it look ugly over there. I want to burn that sidebar to the ground. Someday I will fix it, but now I have to go to Baltimore.
And speaking of staying up to date, I’ve taken the plunge and created a Twitter account. I can’t say that I completely get it – who am I talking to? Is it a blog or what? Does anyone out there really want to know when I’m having a sandwich? What is “the internet?” But not doing it makes me feel like an old person who’s given up because he doesn’t understand something, so for a while at least I’m going to keep spouting nonsense into the void and getting pointless messages from strangers. I complain, but I actually find it strangely compelling. For today, expect to see some entries like “Driving to Baltimore,” and later, “Still driving to Baltimore.”
Showtime tonight is 7 PM, not 7:30 as it says on my calendar…
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