Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Brad Sucks... doesn't suck! (neither does Magnatune)
I've talked a bit in the past about Magnatune, an online music label with nice features (free 128bit mp3s and radio stations, with a $5-18 sliding scale for higher quality audio files that gives half of the amount you choose directly to the artist in question).
I hadn't gotten around to buying anything at the time (the selection was still growing), but I finally made the plunge. I listened to the album I Don't know What I'm Doing from a Canadian one-man band calling himself Brad Sucks and just loved it! I'm no good at describing music, but it ranges from rock to other stuff, and I really like how the album itself flows together.
I found that he also has his own site where you could order a CD directly from him, but decided against that route. It sounds like he is burning, labeling, and shipping these himself. Why make him go through all that trouble just for a label on the CD? And at $5 including shipping, he surely isn't making a lot of $ that way.
Of course he says himself that that isn't his intention, but that just kicks in the reverse psychology even more. :) So, in the end I paid $8 to Magnatune, supporting both a concept I really like and an artist that does good work. $4 by itself isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it is $4 he didn't have before, and surely this stuff can add up after a while.
Yesterday I d/led a 400mb zip of the wave files, along with some ogg vorbis files, burning an audio/data cd. For some reason, the first two tracks got flipped when I burned, so I'll probably re-do it today (and add some vbr mp3s as I have enough room).
I feel doubly good in that this is music that isn't stolen and where I know exactly how much the artist got, and frankly I've been kind of out of music as of late. I think listening to all this indy music has been good for me...
BTW, I haven't had a chance to listen to all of this yet, but Outside The Inbox is a great concept for an album. It is all songs inspired by the subject lines of spam e-mails! Each one is by a different artist, but I know Look And Feel Years Younger is great, as it is on Brad's other album.
Some other interesting artists on Magnatune that I've listened to so far are Tim Rayborn (amazing eastern rythms), Beth Quist (new age with a four-octave voice), Atomic Opera (rock stuff), Claire Fitch (ambient cello), Skitzo (heavy metal), and Shiva in Exile (indian electronic stuff).
I hadn't gotten around to buying anything at the time (the selection was still growing), but I finally made the plunge. I listened to the album I Don't know What I'm Doing from a Canadian one-man band calling himself Brad Sucks and just loved it! I'm no good at describing music, but it ranges from rock to other stuff, and I really like how the album itself flows together.
I found that he also has his own site where you could order a CD directly from him, but decided against that route. It sounds like he is burning, labeling, and shipping these himself. Why make him go through all that trouble just for a label on the CD? And at $5 including shipping, he surely isn't making a lot of $ that way.
Of course he says himself that that isn't his intention, but that just kicks in the reverse psychology even more. :) So, in the end I paid $8 to Magnatune, supporting both a concept I really like and an artist that does good work. $4 by itself isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it is $4 he didn't have before, and surely this stuff can add up after a while.
Yesterday I d/led a 400mb zip of the wave files, along with some ogg vorbis files, burning an audio/data cd. For some reason, the first two tracks got flipped when I burned, so I'll probably re-do it today (and add some vbr mp3s as I have enough room).
I feel doubly good in that this is music that isn't stolen and where I know exactly how much the artist got, and frankly I've been kind of out of music as of late. I think listening to all this indy music has been good for me...
BTW, I haven't had a chance to listen to all of this yet, but Outside The Inbox is a great concept for an album. It is all songs inspired by the subject lines of spam e-mails! Each one is by a different artist, but I know Look And Feel Years Younger is great, as it is on Brad's other album.
Some other interesting artists on Magnatune that I've listened to so far are Tim Rayborn (amazing eastern rythms), Beth Quist (new age with a four-octave voice), Atomic Opera (rock stuff), Claire Fitch (ambient cello), Skitzo (heavy metal), and Shiva in Exile (indian electronic stuff).
