Free Music Downloads… If You Live in Oregon

3 free weekly MP3 downloads for Oregon residentsIf you happen to live in Oregon, and especially if you are in Multnomah County or nearby, you might want to take advantage of a great service offered by the local library system: free weekly music downloads.

With a Multnomah County library card, or a card from a library system with reciprocal privileges such as Clark or Washington Counties, you can download up to 3 free music files (unprotected MP3) per week. There are more than half a million tunes to choose from, covering everything from contemporary rock, to Broadway, to pop music oldies. It’s basically the entire Sony Music digital download catalog, encompassing more than 50 labels (Columbia, Epic, Sony Masterworks etc.).

The service is called Freegal. It’s a sweet idea, and a valuable service… wish more libraries would jump on board.

Do you know of any other library systems offering a similar service? Please comment below!

Carrie Underwood Blown Away, Music Download of the Day

Blown Away is the fourth digital download album by Carrie Underwood

Blown Away… the use of instruments like piano and cello to mimic the sounds of the winds and rain in this track is breathtaking and Carrie’s vocals are majestic. Whether this song becomes a country-pop smash as it should is immaterial, this song is a masterpiece.

The fourth digital album release by Carrie Underwood features sparkling pop-style production by Mark Bright. And of course the American Idol 4th-season winner’s powerful vocals.

Listen and Download Now

Deadmau5 The Veldt 8-Minute Edit, Music Download of the Day

Deadmau5 The Veldt 8-Minute Edit Download

Can’t stop playing this song!

The full 8-minute version of Deadmau5’s single The Veldt, featuring Chris James vocals, has finally been released on iTunes. And electronica-dance enthusiasts are loving it.

Listen and Download Now

GT Audio Works GTA2 Planar Magnetic Speakers at NY Audio Show

GT Audio Works planar magnetic loudspeakers were an affordable highlight at NY Audio ShowHigh-end audio shows like the New York Audio and AV Show earlier this month tend to favor ultra-expensive esoteric gear that most of us can only dream of owning. But I’m always more interested in the affordable audio systems that regular folks might actually consider buying.

One such practical highlight at the 2012 NY show was the room featuring the GTA2 planar magnetic speaker systems by GT Audio Works.

Greg Takesh (GT) was on hand to demo his budget-conscious ($2,795/pair show special, regular $2,995/pair) planar dynamic hybrid speaker system. He designs his loudspeakers, and produces them himself, garage-style in Stockholm, New Jersey. The GT Audio Works speakers are only available for direct sale from the maker.

The GTA2’s created quite a buzz among those attending the NY show who made their way to the 15th floor demo room and heard them…

“Quite good sound… an incredible bargain.”

“They are one of the few speakers that were playing loud without compelling me to want to leave the room… voices in particular are astounding…chorus singing will drop your jaw.”

The GTA2 incorporates a ribbon tweeter, planar magnetic full-range driver, two 8-inch mid-bass drivers, and a more conventional powered 8-inch sub-woofer. The pair on demo in New York were finished in zebrawood, which looks great, and other finishes are available to order.

These speakers are intended for a 2-channel audiophile setup, but they are also suitable as home theater main speakers. The planar magnetic design produces an open transparent sound that is comparable to what you get from much more expensive electrostatic speaker systems.

According to Takesh: “Planars project sound twice as efficiently as listening distance increases (as opposed to closed box speakers) giving the feeling the performers are right in the next room. This is great for casual listening as you go about your duties in your home. It never sounds loud… they just fill your home with music.”

How refreshing to find an enthusiast-designer-builder who not only believes that “high end audio is WAAAAAAAYYYY too expensive”… but is doing something about it!

“Speakers are like opinions…everyone has their own view on what’s right… I invite you to come to my home with your favorite CDs or stereo equipment and take your time to hear for yourself.”
– Greg Takesh

Apple Promises its iCloud will “Just Work”… for everything

iCloud Music icons“It all just works,” says Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

“All” in this case means access anywhere, anytime on any Apple-enabled device (iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, iTouch, Apple TV…) to all of your music. And all of your photos. And all of your basic application documents (Pages word-processing docs, Numbers spreadsheets).

The bold promise is that your iTunes music will simply appear on all your devices, and you won’t even have to think about it. And with Apple these days, there no reason to doubt Jobs when he claims it will just work.

It’s no surprise that Jobs announced iCloud at the Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco on June 6th. What is at least a little surprising is the scope of the announcement, the bells and whistles that will set iCloud apart from competing services offered by Amazon and Google.

One of the key capabilities of iCloud that I wasn’t expecting to see is Match technology. iCloud isn’t just for your iTunes purchased music. The Match feature will also scan your entire library of music (including tracks ripped from CDs etc) and provide you with 256 kbps AAC audio files stored in the cloud… and available on all your devices, just like the music you’ve bought.

Match is something like Amazon’s Cloud Drive, but it sounds much more usable and convenient, since it avoids the tedious process of uploading songs from your computer to the cloud, (typically much slower than downloading, with most ISPs). Better still, you get instant access to a high-quality audio file, regardless of the encoding specs of the existing file on your computer.

The music you buy from iTunes is stored in the cloud for free, and you get 5GB of paid storage space for other content (other audio tracks, files, photos, video, contacts, calendars and more), for $25 per year (half the price of rival cloud services).

Another interesting aspect of iCloud is that it will supercede the Mobile.me cloud platform. If you’re a Mobile.me user, you’ll be delighted to get way more features and capabilities from iCloud, at a much lower cost (iCloud’s $25 annual fee, vs Mobile.me’s $100-plus).

Let’s give Steve Jobs the final word: “iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it—it all just works.”

I’m loving it 🙂