Dorkus Malorkus

Wow.  I used to have a blue one of these.

Presenting…Mister Disc!:

In 1983, an enterprising inventor came up with Mister Disc, the “personal portable phono system.”  Considering that I, a major audio geek, had never heard of Mister Disc until 2006, I can only assume that it never caught on with the public. That’s not hard to understand. After all, who wanted to haul an armload of LPs or 45s with them wherever they went?

It was great to be able to share music w/ friends who didn’t have their own turntable.  Sound quality was shitty, but it was a pretty pimp piece of gear back in the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsIMTwVaGyw

(Thanks Peter!)

Hooooly crap.  Apple’s the #1 music retailer in the US now.
I bet Amazon’s gonna creep up that list, though — the Amazon store’s had everything I wanted, is DRM-free and is twice the bit rate of the standard iTunes songs.

Apple (i’m looking at you, Mr. Jobs) — you have to humble yourself and make kissy-face w/ the remaining labels who aren’t allowing you to sell their stuff DRM-free.  Amazon’s already at 6%, and they’re going to be catching up quickly.

Apple passes Wal-Mart, now #1 music retailer in US:
By Eric Bangeman | Published: April 02, 2008 – 10:45PM CT

Over the past few years, we have watched Apple climb the music sales chart courtesy of the iTunes. Last month we learned that Apple passed Best Buy to become the number two retailer in the the US. Now, Apple has ascended to the top of the charts, surpassing Wal-Mart for the first time ever, according to the NPD MusicWatch Survey.

The news was announced in an e-mail sent this afternoon to some Apple employees, a copy of which was seen by Ars Technica. It includes a screenshot of an Excel file showing the top ten music retailers in the US for January 2008, and Apple is at the top of the list. The iTunes Store leads the pack with 19 percent, Wal-Mart (which includes the brick-and-mortar stores as well as its online properties) is second with 15 percent, and Best Buy is third with 13 percent. Amazon is a distant fourth at 6 percent, trailed by the likes of Borders, Circuit City, and Barnes & Noble. Rhapsody is in the tenth slot with 1 percent.

Volume’s kinda low, but it’s impressive.

Reggie Watts: Out Of Control from Jakob Lodwick on Vimeo.

In what turned out to be a huge day for digital entertainment news yesterday, Sony announced that they would be dropping DRM from their music, as well.

Sony BMG Will Drop DRM:

BusinessWeek says that Sony BMG will join us here in the 21st century when they become the last of the top 4 big record companies to drop DRM.

…

Sony BMG would become the last of the top four music labels to drop DRM, following Warner Music Group (WMG), which in late December said it would sell DRM-free songs through Amazon.com’s (AMZN) digital music store. EMI and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group announced their plans for DRM-free downloads earlier in 2007.

I am, of course, happy about this, but I think some credit is due.

People have been bad-mouthing DRM for all of the obvious reasons: incompatibility, vendor lock-in, loss of freedom, stole my bike… (srsly — drm stole my bike!). What everyone seems to overlook, however, is that drm actually played a key role in the musical revolution we’ve enjoyed over the past 5 years of so.

I’ll say it: DRM WAS GOOD FOR THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND CONSUMERS.

What? Really? Yeah — lemme explain before you go nuts.

You see, without drm, there’s no WAY Apple could’ve convinced the record labels to allow their music to be sold on the iTunes Store. It was that assurance that gave the record execs the comfort level to let the experiment even happen, but it was the amazing sales numbers that opened their eyes to the fact that people actually WILL buy music online.

The battle to convince them to remove drm, however, took a while to win, but still… w/o drm, that first step could never have been taken.

Goodbye DRM: you’ve been martyred, and I thank you for it.

Joy Division running shoes – Styledash:

When you think of the über-dark, post-punk sounds of Joy Division, do you think of jogging?

Thanks to New Balance, now you can! The band’s iconic design, that’s been previously borrowed by Urban Outiftters for a trendy t-shirt design, is now featured on the sole of these new cross-trainers. Oddly, while this company is known for producing comfortable footwear, I’m not sure I’d rank them as the hippest or most fashionable crew in the sneaker market. Nevertheless, here we are.

They’re on sale in the UK now. No word on if and when they’ll be released in the US.

I’m not sure if this is awesome, or the lamest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. As Gawker notes: “Yeah, that’s how we always pictured Ian Curtis (former Joy Division lead singer) … Right up until the moment he hanged himself.”

Um.

WTF?  I mean… I love me some Joy Division, but this doesn’t make sense.

Here’s a link to the original article.  There are three pictures there, as well.

Ironically, Wilderness from Unknown Pleasures just started playing on my iPod as I’m tapping this out.

Weird.