How We Create

I love the study of creation: How one figures out what they want to do, the medium they want to do it in, and then they attempt to translate what’s in their head onto a more permanent canvas than their neural network. 

When musicians talk about their processes, writing albums specifically, they’ll usually say that the first few albums have direct influences. If you talk to a musician about their early works, you may hear, “I was listening to a lot of (insert artist here) when I was writing this album.”  

In that moment of creation, I believe that the artist knows what they want to say, but they don’t necessarily know the sounds that go along with it. They use other artists that they admire as frames of reference and, in turn, the finished product ends up resembling those whom the artist admires. 

Listen a little later to the artist’s body of work and you’ll notice a change in sounds. Usually around album three or four, when the artist has gained enough confidence and positive feedback to create to that point, the sound that comes out is more them than their heroes. 

Fundamentally, this is the creation process. We hold on to those we admire until we feel secure enough to bare our skin and our heart, as well, not just our soul. 

• May 17, 2011
• 5 notes
• #Creativity
• #Music
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Why I love Rdio

I go through spurts of listening to music but I’m hoping that Rdio can break that. When I held on loosely to iTunes, I’d download a ton of music, pump it all into some Recently Added playlist, find one album that I really loved and listen to that for weeks on end without a second thought given to the rest of the music I’d just added.

That went on for a while. Then I just stopped listening to most music all together. 

Enter Rdio. Have I mentioned that I love it?

When I was firmly in the iTunes camp, the idea of a subscription service where I didn’t actually own the music didn’t seem to appealing. With a little encouragement, I decided to give Rdio a try and can firmly say now that I really don’t care whether I own these songs or not. The ability to add music to my collection from Rdio and/or scan my iTunes library and add to my collection is all I really need. 

The best part about Rdio is that there’s absolutely no friction to trying new music. I don’t have to download anything or listen to 30 second previews. Click -> Go.With listening history, some playlists, a social layer and a great user experience, I’m hooked. 

At least until Spotify hits the US.

• February 26, 2011
• 4 notes
• #Rdio
• #Music
• #Spotify
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How iTunes play count should work

All songs are not created equal. I’ve got the standard song that’s 2:33, one that I listen to start to finish every time. Then I’ve got other songs that are the same length but the ending isn’t good. So I stop listening. Or songs from bootlegs that are 8 minutes long, extending 4 minutes of applause past a 4 minute song. 

As it stands now, iTunes demands that I listen to the file all the way through to count as one play. But sometimes I don’t listen to the whole song, especially when I’m listening to live shows or bootlegs.

What this leads to is an inaccurate representation of my listening habits. It’s not a big deal but I’m curious about what I listen to. 

The way it should work is this:

I listen to 10 percent of a song. It records as a play. Or maybe we go with 50 percent counts as one play.

Either way, I doubt people are gaming their own music listening habits.

I wonder if an AppleScript could fix this.

• September 19, 2010
• 10 notes
• #Apple
• #iTunes
• #habits
• #music
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