Experiments in Musical Intelligence

Music composed by computer, made to match whatever human composer style is wanted. And it’s pretty good.

The software does musically-intelligent pattern matching. You can read an explanation and listen to various compositions.

This was written by David Cope, professor emeritus at UC Santa Cruz.

Amazon vs. iTunes Store

I just noticed that amazon.com is selling DRM-free MP3 downloads, either individually (from $0.89) or as albums (from $4.99). And their downloader helper app automatically adds them to my iTunes library!

Sweet.

I was happy when Apple announced DRM-free downloads, but the reality has been that few, if any, songs I want are available from iTunes DRM-free. :-(

But Amazon’s selection seems good. All of it is DRM-free. And prices are comparable or cheaper than iTunes’ DRM music. (iTunes’ DRM-free music costs even more.)

Try this out quick before Apple decides to “enhance” iTunes to prevent it.

Jonathan Coulton

I went to my first Jonathan Coulton concert last night.

Jonathan Coulton is a folk/pop songwriter/singer for the geek crowd with a weird twist: he’s talented. He’s like Paul Simon channeling Weird Al Yankovic, but he can control the throttle.

I heard my first Coulton song a couple years ago when a co-worker forwarded a link to Code Monkey. I loved it, but didn’t pursue it any further. Then my son started forwarding me links to more songs: Skullcrusher Mountain, Re Your Brains, and others. They were very funny, geek-friendly songs, and I loved them. So when I (finally) got an iPod, I subscribed to his Thing A Week podcast.

That’s when I discovered everything I knew was wrong.

Thing A Week is a collection of 52 songs, one a week, for a year. That concept alone is impressive. And of course, with that output rate, some songs were Not As Worthy as other songs; but surprisingly fewer than I expected.

The duds were the unfunny songs. Boring. I deleted most of them, but kept a few around that I kinda liked. I’d listen to them when I felt burned out listening to the funny songs. Then I found myself listening to those unfunny songs more. Then I found myself re-downloading the ones I deleted. Now I listen as much or more to these songs as the funny ones.

Thats why I was especially thankful at the concert. At one point, Coulton asked the audience for requests. The din was explosive. I could barely make out the titles being shouted, but those I could were the classic, funny ones. Then the room became totally silent as Coulton was trying to decide. And a lone voice said: “I’m Your Moon”. “Yes!” I said.

I’m Your Moon is a quiet love song with one lover encouraging the other who has been deeply rejected by the world. It’s one of my favorite Jo Co songs. The fact that it’s sung by Charon to it’s moon, Pluto, who was declared no longer to be a planet by the International Astronomical Union, doesn’t reduce the pathos for me.

Coulton chose that song. (“Because it’ll be a challenge,” he said. I’m not totally sure what he meant by that.)

I really enjoyed hearing Coulton’s voice and acoustic guitar, all at nicely reasonable amplification. (No earplugs needed! What’s up with all the other concerts?) On one song he shunned his guitar for his new toy, zendrum; very cool!

BTW did I mention all the songs from Thing A Week are available for free download from iTunes?

I encourage you to support Coulton by purchasing bananas, monkeys, or robots on his home page, http://www.jonathancoulton.com/.