In a previous post I proclaimed Salling Software’s Media Sync the best way to get music to your Nokia from a Mac. Turns out that verdict may have been a bit premature…

Corrupted Library?

Even though sending music to my E71 via Media Sync is but a one or two-click affair, there is an extra step required before I can actually play any of it from my handset. It looks to me like the Eseries Music Player has to load the transferred tracks into either RAM or a scratch file of some kind. And that “repairing corrupted library” message isn’t exactly encouraging, despite Media Sync going only one way — i.e. Mac to Nokia.

Thankfully for Mac users, there’s another way to get Music onto a Nokia device:

Nokia Multimedia Transfer Main Interface

Say hello to Nokia’s Multimedia Transfer utility for Macs! Like Salling’s Media Sync, this app is accessed through a drop-down window on your Mac’s title bar.

Playlists on iTunes

And unlike Media Sync Nokia’s utility puts a dedicated folder for your device in the iTunes sidebar — this can be a bit confusing at first as you can only drag playlists (and not individual tracks) into your device folder, as I discovered through trial and error.

Playlists on my E71

The good thing about this is that those same playlists get sent to your Nokia for easier navigation of whatever music you’ve transferred over, as you can see in the screen grab above.

DRM Alerts

In place of Media Sync’s vague and alarming “corrupted library” message, Nokia’s app is a bit more clear about what didn’t make it over to your handset and why. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: DRM sucks.

Nokia Music Player Manual Refresh

Sadly, you still have to manually refresh your music library — at least with the Eseries Music Player — before you can enjoy any tunes on your Nokia.

I won’t pretend for a second that this solution (or Media Sync for that matter) is anywhere near as elegant as using an Apple iPod or iPhone to take your music with you, but to paraphrase a famous saying about cameras, the best music player in the world is always the one that’s in your pocket…

I had no idea that my stuffy Eseries business handset could also be a kick-ass music player, but thanks to Salling Software’s new Media Sync, it is!

Media Sync's Drop-down Menu

Install Media Sync on your Mac (it’s also available for Windows) and you’ll find a little icon in your title bar for it — this is important, because the app doesn’t show up on the OS X dock when active for some reason…

Media Sync's Main Interface

But once you launch Media Player things get better real quick — as you can see above, each and every one of my iTunes playlists is available to be copied over to my E71. My previous issue with non-protected iTunes Plus tracks on Nokia handsets has magically disappeared; I’m not sure if it’s Media Sync or the improved music player on my phone that’s responsible for that, but no complaints here either way!

In fact, the one audio file type that Media Sync can’t handle is the protected AAC files for sale on the iTunes Music Store, so I made a Smart Playlist containing my top-rated music without DRM. DRM sucks.

Nokia Music Player

And here’s a random track (honest!) playing on my E71. I should note that album artwork is also copied over where available.

Media Sync comes in two flavours: a free download which can be upgraded anytime to a full version with “smart copying” — meaning that your entire music library doesn’t have to be wiped and replaced on your handset every time you connect it.

Given the relatively slow speeds of today’s microSD cards I’ll definitely ante up for the full version of Media Sync, but I’m going to have to get myself a stereo Bluetooth headset first. What’s that? Your iPod doesn’t support stereo Bluetooth? Well, boo-hoo for you…

In the dark days of the early 1980s before the Sony Walkman arrived on North American shores, folks were known to broadcast their musical tastes far and wide courtesy of a ridiculously-large contraption called a boombox.

These days broadcasting one’s music is done largely through one of the three major music sharing services listed below. Want to know which one’s the best? Read on!

Pandora is a music sharing service which only works in the US and A — unlike the internet, which works worldwide. So thanks for stopping by, be sure to pick up your gift bag on the way out…

iLike is currently the darling of the Facebook crowd, currently boasting almost 5.5 million active users of its Fb app. Through Facebook you can find out when your favourite artists are coming to town — which is good — and spam your friends with musical trivia quizzes — which gets annoying real fast.

Last.fm also has a presence on Facebook, albeit with a relatively paltry 45,000 active users. But these folks have an ace up their sleeve — quite a few, in fact: Unlike iLike, which works only on social networks and from within iTunes, Last.fm has embraced software platforms of all kinds, including excellent clients for Nokia Internet Tablets and S60 smartphones.

Mobbler for S60

As you can see in the screen grab above, I no longer have to fiddle with getting my iTunes music onto my Eseries handset. The plug-in for iTunes scrobbles my music to Last.fm, and Mobbler streams that same music to my phone. What could be easier?

The Winner: If it isn’t obvious by this point Last.fm gets the nod for its multi-platform support — click here for the complete and staggering list!

So my Conservatory Class’s grad show was a big success on Sunday, and we owe it all to my expert selection of pre-show music!

Of course I’m kidding, but I do take my house tunes very seriously and thought it might be worthwhile to publish a list of the tracks with their reasons for being there. Each track name links directly to the iTunes Music Store, where available… So if nothing else, you can check out some artists you may not have heard of before!

1. Sea World by The Phoenix Foundation. “Enter a magical realm where the rules of banality no longer apply…” As incredibly gay-tarded as that sounds it’s generally the idea here, to have the audience enter the theatre to the sounds of a slightly off-putting instrumental, letting them know that they’re in for something unusual. This track, by the way, is from Eagle vs. Shark, the perfect date movie which I haven’t yet found the perfect date for. I’m working on it.
2. Vulture Kisses by So So Modern. Where the first track clears the air, the insane odd-time signature chorus in this synth-punk number sends the not so subtle message to the audience that they won’t be spoon fed easy laughs, but are going to be challenged. So So Modern, like The Phoenix Foundation, is another band from New Zealand. Their CD was playing in a Wellington music store when I was there last summer and I bought it on the spot.
3. The Looks by MSTRKRFT. The subliminal message here would be something to the effect of: “How will you possibly be able to resist us when we are clearly so fucking bad-ass?” So now, with all our cards on the table, we set off down the road to build the energy for the Act One curtain call.
4. Archaeologists by Wintersleep. A driving groove, sloppy drum fills and Canadian content, all present and accounted for.
5. Bodysnatchers by Radiohead. You need at least one Radiohead track to appease all the rock snobs in the crowd, and this one got the nod.
6. Away From Here by The Enemy. Nothing wrong with a tasty little anti-establishment anthem, is there?
7. Lydia by Dog Day. A good track and my bad attempt at affirmative action. I realized at this point that the playlist was lacking in female vocalists, and this one seemed like the best fit to the mix, despite having only backing female vocals.
8. Under the Underground Water by Telefauna. How this quirky band of Montrealers manages to rock out with a drum machine is beyond me, but it works!
9. Nighthawks by Two Hours Traffic. A quick tempo and twangy guitars worked the audience into a fever pitch. Didn’t it?
10. Julianna by Bend Sister. Some retro glam-rock bravura for the penultimate track before Act One.
11. September / The Joker by Fatboy Slim. This was a last-minute choice — for me it was a defining moment of the movie Babel but on its own didn’t seem like enough of a remix to save me from dating myself. I hemmed and hawed but ended up keeping it as a schmaltzy pre-curtain tip of the hat to the time my class and I have spent together since last autumn. Awww…
12. The Wishes Pile Up by Jim Bryson. Getting out of Act One into the intermission can be tricky — you don’t want to eclipse the energy of the closing scene but you don’t want some dirgy-ass ballad to bring things down either. I don’t really get what “roots” music is, but this roots track by Jim Bryson worked perfectly.
13. My Moon My Man (Boyz Noise Remix) by Feist. Grrl power but not some recycled iPod TV ad music, oh no no no… The music snobs in the crowd will be having none of that!
14. Starlight – Young Heart Attack. On it’s own this knock-off of The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again is pure cheese. But as a lead-in a CSI: Miami parody it is the stuff of genius.
15. Someone Else’s Problem by JJ Appleton. A parting tongue-in-cheek jab at the cast. It played as the house lights came up at the end of the show. But as they were too busy getting accolades from friends and family, nobody seemed to be paying attention to the lyrics.

It’s specific enough that I couldn’t guarantee it to produce the same results anywhere else, but this very playlist got us a standing ovation at The Second City last Sunday afternoon — although I suppose a talented cast, solid material and a house packed in our favour also had something to do with it…

Pictured above is Jammie Thomas and possibly the most inept lawyer ever to set foot in a court of law.

Yesterday Thomas, a single mother of two, was presented with a $222,000 bill from RIAA by a jury who found her guilty of sharing 24 tracks on the Kazaa P2P network, specifically:

• Aerosmith – Cryin
• Bryan Adams – Somebody
• Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar on Me
• Destiny’s Child – Bills, Bills, Bills
• Gloria Estefan – Here We Are, Coming Out of the Heart, Rhythm is Gonna Get You
• Goo Goo Dolls – Iris
• Green Day – Basket Case
• Guns N Roses – Welcome to the Jungle, November Rain
• Janet Jackson – Let’s What Awhile
• Journey – Faithfully, Don’t Stop Believing
• Linkin Park – One Step Closer
• No Doubt – Bathwater, Hella Good, Different People
• Reba McEntire – One Honest Heart
• Richard Marx – Now and Forever
• Sara McLachlan – Possession, Building a Mystery
• Sheryl Crow – Run Baby Run
• Vanessa Williams – Save the Best for Last

Never mind that each of these tracks are available on the iTunes Music Store for 99¢ each; much more troubling is that this verdict was reached without the RIAA ever having to prove that any file sharing actually took place!

Consider the following, submitted to the judge from the RIAA:

JURY INSTRUCTION #15: The act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without license from the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners’ exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown.

The admissibility of this written statement was a key factor in the jury’s verdict, yet in my mind seems more than a bit incongruous with any combination of the words “fair” and “trial”.

Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the labels cartel, is quoted as saying: “This does send a message, I hope…”

You got that right, bub… The artists above can consider themselves boycotted by yours truly — most of the names on that list won’t be a problem because they already suck! Now, who’s up for a good ol’ fashioned CD burning?

When Apple announced the availability of DRM-free music at the iTunes Music Store last May, my response at the time was a resounding “meh”. I’ve been paying for restricted music on iTMS for more than two years, and if I ever needed to move my music beyond my computer or iPod I’d just burn a CD.

But now, thanks to my spiffy new Nokia, I can use an entire song as my ringtone so it won’t sound like every other Nokia out there. You all know what I’m talking about.

There’s just one problem: The supposedly unrestricted iTunes Plus tracks won’t play on my phone.

It’s actually not a copy-protection issue but instead yet another example of Apple not adhering to standard file formats. And it apparently comes down to a mere five lines of code within the actual file!

And here they are:

Atom stsd @ 450 of size: 32871, ends @ 33321
Atom mp4a @ 466 of size: 32855, ends @ 33321
Atom esds @ 502 of size: 51, ends @ 553
Atom pinf @ 553 of size: 32768, ends @ 33321 ~
Atom stts @ 33321 of size: 24, ends @ 33345

And in case you were wondering, “~” represents an unknown value. Yeah, I picked up immediately on that too…

So at this point my options would be to either:

1. Hack into the file somehow and rewrite the offending lines of code.
2. Burn a CD of the single track then rip it back to my computer as an MP3.
3. Give up.

Thankfully Joshua King has a solution that trumps all these. He’s written a handy little Java app that copies the track with the proper code in place. Because it’s Java the same version will run on both Mac and PC, and there’s also a version you can use directly on your handset. Oh, and did I mention that it’s absolutely free?

Now playing iTunes Plus tracks on your Nokia couldn’t be easier — unless, of course, Apple had gotten the file format right in the first place…

Eagle vs. Shark on iTMS

You should already know that I’m a huge fan of the upcoming Kiwi Komedy Eagle vs. Shark, and that the soundtrack for it is pretty awesome as well. What you may not know is that the OST is now available for purchase on the iTunes Music Store — just click on the graphic above or right here if you’ve got iTunes installed on the ‘puter you’re using to read this.

I was a bit bummed that my only option was to purchase the entire album and not individual tracks, which has been my practice ever since the iTMS was launched in Canada, so I set out to do something I haven’t done in more than two years… Go CD shopping!

And what a difference two years has made.

At the first shop I visited, the HMV in the Yonge Eglinton Centre, I was hard-pressed to find any music at all — almost all available shelf space was occupied by either DVDs or video games. And when I finally found the meagre soundtrack section I already knew I’d wasted my time.

At the downtown HMV Superstore the selection was a little better, but since my last visit the soundtracks had been banished to the third floor, with classical and jazz. And big surprise, there was no Eagle vs. Shark OST there, either…

Now amongst Torontonians there’s been a lot of hubbub about the closing of Sam The Record Man a couple of doors up. I too have fond memories of lining up for their Boxing Day sale, but don’t be duped into thinking that piracy is to blame — it’s the record cartels with their rootkits and filler material who are responsible for the sad state of affairs in offline music retail.

I’m hoping that this “album-only” business doesn’t become the norm for iTMS. Like any modern soundtrack, Eagle vs. Shark has its share of filler material… But at least I didn’t have to struggle with any damn shrink-wrap!

Okay, please pay attention otherwise this will get confusing real quick…

What we’re talking about here is not the Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise Hollywood movie War of the Worlds, but THE War of the Worlds, a ’70s-vintage musical recording by Jeff Wayne — and no, not Jeff Lynne of ELO fame, but Jeff Wayne.

If you still haven’t a clue of what the hell I’m talking about you’ll just have to trust me on this… The War of the Worlds was one of those “concept albums” released in the midst of the disco era. It spawned a couple of minor hits in its day, though what I liked about it (being all of 12 at the time) were the drawrings that came in the enclosed booklet.

Anyway, now it’s apparently a full-on geezer cash-grab live arena tour and DVD. Here’s the promo for it:

The show and disc are both limited to the UK at the moment and thank god for that — when the highlight of your concert is a cameo by one of the Moody Blues, you know you’re in for a snooze-fest.

As I get older I find myself more and more overly-sensitive to anything that can be construed as nostalgia, but after watching — actually, fast-forwarding through — The War of the Worlds DVD I can say with confidence that there’s no danger of that here. It hasn’t aged well at all.

Come to think of it, it was probably pretty lame when it first came out…

So I wrapped up my birthday with a ticket to the Regional Air Guitar Finals at Lee’s Palace last night — it was either that or the Micetro show, and you all know how I feel about Micetro.

Pictured above is fellow Second City employee Paul Kingston, who was sadly robbed of the chance to move up by another contestant who goes by the moniker “Glen Airy Glen Rocks”. You see it the event in all its semi-retarded glory on my Flickr page…

Even if you weren’t brought up on Axel F. like I was, how could you not like MSTRKRFT, the Canadian dance duo who’s very name is a cheeky reference to Canada’s famous department store brand?

I’ve been listening to them all weekend; you can do the same by checking out their New Music Canada page, or listen directly to my current fave below. It’s a remix of “Monster Hospital” by the band Metric — which is a fine track on its own, but unfortunately a pretty awful video.

As for the remix, the fun(k) starts at exactly 57 seconds in — after that, just try to stop yourself from clapping along to that drum machine!