OK, this happens to me all the time. I’m walking through a store (today it happened to be Best Buy) and suddenly I realize I’m nodding my head to the music playing over the store speakers. I try to catch a few words of the chorus, but thanks to the general noise of the store I barely manage a few snippets. I end up walking away slightly annoyed because I know I’ll never be able to figure out what song that was and track it down.

This has happened many times before and it happened again today. The song was being played in Best Buy, it was some hard rock song with female lead vocals (no, it wasn’t Evanescence). I caught something in the lyrics about ‘capturing my heart’ or something to do with ‘my heart’. I know, not too specific, but what can you do?

Anybody know any solutions to my musical dilemma?

UPDATE: (July 19, 2004) It was “Followed the Waves” by Auf der Maur. The line was “my heart lies to you.” I found it after reading about Melissa Auf der Maur’s debut album in Paste magazine. The fact that she played bass for Hole and Smashing Pumpkins made me think she just might be the artist I’d heard in Best Buy. Bingo.

So here’s an iTunes question: Say I buy a song on iTunes and then later buy the actual CD. When I rip that CD into iTunes, I now have two versions of said song, both legally acquired.

What can I do with the extra song? If I had an extra copy of a CD, I could simply sell it. But it’s not so simple with an extra digital file. It seems like I read a news story of someone trying to auction an iTunes song on eBay, but I never heard the fallout. I would guess something in the iTunes user agreement (who reads those things anyway?) would prohibit me from selling the song, but does it prohibit me from giving it away? (gee, maybe I should read those things)

It seems perfectly legit to me to resell the digital file just like I’d resell anything tangible in my home. As long as I don’t keep a copy of that digital file I’m selling (the copy from the CD would be a “different” file and I could certainly keep that one — afterall, I purchased it).

Amazing. The American Idol reject has his own album. An iTunes exclusive.

What’s really amazing is that Fox set this guy up as a complete loser to grab ratings. For some reason we like to watch people be humiliated, and the teaser commercial of William Hung seeing and Simon ripping into him was as bad as it can get. Only in America could you turn that around to commercial success. Right now it’s the #2 selling album on iTunes.

You’ve heard me go on and on about iTunes before, but I’m curious to know how it can further turn the music industry upside down.

Today Relevant magazine pointed out that Switchfoot’s song “Meant to Live” was up to #23 on the iTunes Top 100 Songs chart. Last I checked it was up to #22. Switchfoot’s recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno certainly helped, as well as the fact that their latest album, The Beautiful Letdown (Amazon.com), has gone platinum.

But what’s really curious is the place of Christian music on iTunes. While Switchfoot is scoring high on the top songs list, the best they can manage on the inspirational charts is #35 with “Learning to Breathe” from the 2000 album of the same name. That’s because The Beautiful Letdown is classified as “rock” while their other albums are classified as “inspirational.”

The other oddity is that new music is not king. The Billboard charts usually tell us the best-selling albums, but it’s rare that an older album would make it on the charts. Yet iTunes top album charts lists albums like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits from 1993 at #51, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon from 1973 at #56, and U2’s Joshua Tree from 1987 at #93.

The iTunes format is encouraging people to explore older music, enabling old albums to compete and beat brand new albums. The backlist is king. What are the record companies complaining about?

Though it’s interesting to note that individual songs are another story. The oldest song in the top 100 is from 1997 (the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony”) and 96 of the top 100 songs are from 2002 or sooner.

The ability to buy individual songs or complete albums is the most unique feature of iTunes, and it’s interesting to see what that does. The only repeat on the lists of top 10 songs and albums is Maroon 5 with “This Love” and Songs About Jane.

The other unique factor is that iTunes is an incredibly cheap delivery system. I wonder how long it will be before record companies take advantage of this and start releasing review copies of albums through iTunes. I have to imagine that the distribution cost of iTunes would be cheaper than writing off a full album package or even burning extra minimally packaged review copies as many record companies do, not to mention the postage involved. It seems like the music would be better protected as well.

The music industry is changing before our eyes.

OK, iTunes is fun (we

With the switch to a Mac you had to guess it was only a matter of time before the rant about iTunes and the musical revolution. While I’m still setting everything up on the new computer (hey, when you spend all day on your computer, it takes a while to get everything in order), my iTunes library has been in heavy rotation.

A few days ago we began ripping every CD in the house, and I think we might be done, save for a few random CDs here and there. The grand total is 5,360 songs. That’s 13.7 days worth of music taking up 18.53 GB (It’s a good thing I went for the 160 GB harddrive over the 80 GB). Let’s take a look at the top 5:

221 songs: U2
146: Five Iron Frenzy
133: MxPx
128: Petra
97: Delirious

Of course how many songs I own by a particular group isn’t much of an indicator. Five Iron probably nabbed the second spot thanks to the 33-track Cheeses of Nazareth album. And MxPx is up there thanks to a number of review copies and best of’s (I even have another MxPx album that I couldn’t rip thanks to copy protection to keep reviewers from leaking the album). And of course Petra is up there because I bought every album I could in junior high. What was I thinking?

My list of most played tracks means nothing so far (Simpsons quotes take the top 5), and with 5,000 tracks, I imagine it will take a while before that list does mean something.

The first track I “bought” with iTunes (thank you, Pepsi) was Green Day’s rendition of “I Fought the Law” used in the iTunes Super Bowl commercial. The original was one of my favorite songs on one of my dad’s oldies tapes. My second iTunes “purchase” was the JXL Radio edit of Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation.” from the Elvis: 30 #1 Hits album. I’m a little behind the game on that one, but I really like the dance mix. And my third iTunes “purchase” was Johnny Cash’s “The Devil’s Right Hand” from the posthumously-released Unearthed boxed set. I love the simple electric guitar in that song.

“I Fought the Law,” Elvis, and Johnny Cash. I think my dad would be proud.

And thus begins the music revolution. All I need now is an iPod. Then my 5,000+ songs would fit in my pocket rather than the drawers and shelves and boxes they currently take up. And while that’s a ridiculous amount of music (almost two weeks worth!), it allows me to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want. I’m freed from the tyranny of media (to some extent). I no longer have to deal with the limitations of CDs — listening to someone else’s track list, or only being able to fit 76 minutes.

iTunes is a new experience, but it’s liberating already. I’ve rediscovered music I own but haven’t listened to in a while. And chances are I’ll listen to it more in the future since I won’t have to dig the CD out of storage. I’m discovering new music and those gems buried in albums of duds. I’ve rediscovered a vast collection of indie music I forgot I had.

Music at my fingertips. What a concept. The music industry is being turned on its head, and it’s great. The album is dead, and I say so long. It was never an artistic vehicle in the first place, it was a profit vehicle. Now I’m in control of my music — giving the customer choice. What a concept.

In case you haven’t heard, Sixpence None the Richer is calling it quits. The announcement was made in the latest issue of CCM Magazine (but don’t look for details online — yet). No real big reasons were given, though I can think of a few (namely facing a major legal battle to release practically every record they ever recorded). Leigh Nash plans to be a new mom and Matt Slocum has some travel plans.

It’s a bit sad to see such a good band go. Sixpence definitely made some mainstream waves. I remember a rare moment on Late Night with David Letterman where he interviewed Leigh Nash and she explained where the band name came from, citing C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. A nice moment for network TV.

I’ve never been a huge Sixpence fan, mainly passing over their chart-busting self-titled release, but I’ve really taken to their last album, Divine Discontent. My favorite song without a doubt is “Paralyzed.”

Oh well. Farewell Sixpence.