Articles by Mark Zip

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Music Industry, Radio June 12, 2011

RIP Darryl Pandy

Darryl Pandy sang the vocals on one of the first “proper” house record most of us ever bought or heard. It was Farley jackmaster Funk’s “Love Can’t Turn Around”. It was the commercial hit version of the earlier JM Silk track “I Can’t Turn Around” (which itself was a version of an Isaac Hayes track). Sure it was an important track because it was one of the very first house tracks to bust out of the Chicago scene and become an international hit, but for me it was important for a couple of more personal reasons. It was the first…

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Music Industry, Music Technology May 10, 2011

Updated: Google Music Beta – Request your invite

My last post was about the Amazon Cloud Player. Now Google has done the same thing. I am waiting for my invite. The About Google Music page has links so you can request your invite too. (US only for the moment) The video below gives a quick tour. Features include a playlist maker. It will be interesting to see if Google can match the clever algorithms used by Pandora, iTunes and the rest. Early reports suggest that the service lets you store 20,000 songs. I cannot tell if that is a space cap or merely a “number of tracks” cap….

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Music Technology May 7, 2011

Happy in the cloud – A few weeks with the Amazon Cloud Player

Engadget has a good round up of the various online streaming and cloud music options:  Streaming music breakdown: how Google Music and iCloud will affect today’s options. I signed up for the Amazon Cloud Music service the first day and I’ve been really pleased so far. 5 gigs free to start and then after I bought one mp3 album on amazon they automatically added it to the cloud and expanded my free cloud to 25 gig (mp3 items you buy on amazon can be automatically stored on the cloud player and do not count towards your space quota). I then…

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IP, Music Industry April 13, 2011

The best report ever on media piracy (now with video)

Joe Karaganis, program director at the Social Science Research Council and vice president at the American Assembly discusses their report “Media Piracy in Emerging Economies.” And another good write up about it here http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/29/the-best-report-ever-on-media-piracy/

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remixes, WTF? April 11, 2011

The Record Books – Music as Literature

“Well loved albums > Well thumbed tomes”. A fun and fascinating set on Flickr. Famous records imagined as book covers by a pretty good graphic designer. Apparently, they will soon be available as a set of postcards. The Record Books – a set on Flickr.

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remixes, video April 5, 2011

Rusko new “single” shows two sides of one artist

Rusko’s new “single” arrived digitally today. While he has been in LA for almost two years now, some prominent members of the dubstep scene have been throwing no so well disguised darts at him, accusing him of foisting “brostep” on us. With this single’s A-side “Everyday”, he continues the move towards the summer festival and the girls which he began with Hold On. It’s almost clinical how this one makes you put your hands in the air and feel the sun on your neck. The single version included above is almost so basic that you can imagine it being used…

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Music Industry, remixes March 24, 2011

“The 30 Greatest Hip-Hop Demos”

Chairman Mao over at complex.com does a fine job of ferreting out some real gems. Some are rough as hell, as you’d expect, others are smoother. The thrill of discovery persists in all of ’em. Most of the demos have more than one track, so there’s the opportunity for some extended listening. There’s also the opportunity to marvel at the amount of talent which did not survive past the first few recordings… The 30 Greatest Hip-Hop Demos  | Complex.com.

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video March 23, 2011

Imma Homo – Rainbow Noise

Rainbow Noise Entertainment is a lesbian owned record label specializing in LGBTQ music artist with an independent name and mainstream appeal; But it doesn’t stop there… We are also committed to representing LGBTQ dancers, models, comedians, and entertainers with something to be proud of.

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Music Technology, OT? February 12, 2011

OT – The White House Asks: Whats Blocking Innovation in America? – Answer: IP Laws

Groklaw is a very useful, very dense site covering the intersections of law and technology. PJ’s work has been invaluable in advancing understanding of the complexities of the ways in which law, and IP law in particular, influence the world we live in, the culture we consume and the technology we use to do it. From the article: The White House is asking us to give them ideas on what is blocking innovation in America. I thought I’d give them an honest answer. Here it is: Current intellectual property laws are blocking innovation. President Obama just set a goal of wireless access…

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Live Shows February 6, 2011

Robyn at Radio City Music Hall – Feb 5 2011

Robyn at Radio City Music Hall – Feb 05 2011 The crowd was absolutely fabulous. There were light-up swizzle sticks in the overpriced drinks. As Will said, the Gentlemen’s Lounge was probably the gayest place in town this night. When I came out of the stall I wanted to scream “enough with the skinny jeans, boys!” And at least one of them seemed to appreciate the prospect of a bit of upstate rustic rough. I was flattered, but I think he was pretty far gone already. Robyn had two drummers and two keys and nothing else. They were definitely voice…

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Music Technology, OT?, WTF? January 31, 2011

NYC Subways making music – mta.me

Conductor: www.mta.me from Alexander Chen on Vimeo. Impossibly cool! NYC Subway trains API describes art on screen and has a fun musical surprise too. Speeds up over time and is different each time you launch. Run it in multiple tabs for even more fun. Requires scripting, flash, HTML 5 and sound. MTA.ME.

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Music Industry, remixes January 29, 2011

The Streets – Cyberspace and Reds Mixtape

Cyberspace and Reds (Deluxe Edition) by The Streets Mike Skinner / The Streets has been on a tear recently. After a year of silence there’s been lots of activity on his blog, leading up to the release of the final Streets album, Computers & Blues. His site includes really interesting videos and other commentary. He’s also recently released a free mixtape – “Cyberspace and Reds”. It was originally released via the iTunes only app “Mike Scanner”, but in a very sensible concession to the majority of his fans who are, as he says, “not subjects of Steve Jobs”, he has…

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PoOPlists, PoOPlists 2010 January 25, 2011

Mark Zip Poop ’10

 Buy New or Used via amazon Robyn – “Body Talk” [Konichiwa/Cherrytree ] The three shortish CDs/longish EPs which go to make up this release were by far my most loved and listened to items over the year. The combination of dance and pop is nothing new, of course, but the addition of Robyn’s nasty attitude is what makes the difference here. After all, the first track on Body Talk Part 1 was “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do”, and while it is actually the second track on the full length CD, moved down the running order to make room…