moodmat

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Slashdot’s CmdrTaco, upon the introduction of the iPod, October 23, 2001
Apple’s iPod platform is a monster in the portable music space. Tens of millions have been sold, and the application that interfaces with the device, iTunes, runs on tens of millions of computers.
I have a love/hate relationship with […]

Just when I was growing weary of that old character Facebook, save for the Scrabulous application and my love of scrolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllling through vertically oriented pages, along comes this modest little app expanding on Visual Bookshelf.
Modest. Right. Album Rack is the sexy librarian that will steal your heart and every last pocket of microboredom.

Much like its […]

“Back in the ’70s the Isley Brothers weren’t singing ‘T-Neck in the motherfuckin’ house!!’” — Chris Rock

Label-consciousness. It’s not something you necessarily want in your lyrics. But it’s something consumers are still interested in. Or is it only the “headz” or music nerds that think about music this way?
I’d be surprised if there was much […]

Interesting article on the future and current trends of digital content. Apparently it is a four part series and I’ve yet to read the other three sections (though you can find links to them all in the concluding post).
Elsewhere, I have been reading a book supplemental to the idea of metadata and classification, its future […]

Sick and tired of being held captive by your local radio station’s ever suffocating playlist? Infuriated with the shrinking choices of music variety on that old “free radio” dial on your car stereo? Have you retreated into the world of your portable music device, seething in between gritted teeth and vowing under your breath that […]

Dear Apple,
You have helped make podcasting mainstream. You have made it fairly easy to subscribe and download episodes. But when it comes to organizing them and synching with one’s iPod, you remind me of Microsoft.

Give us more options, and have them open to us for each individual podcast, not for every last one we listen […]

I know it seems like I reblog just about every last feature that Last.fm rolls out. What can I say? I find their stuff extremely useful and very conducive to music exploration.
Their latest project isn’t anywhere near as sexy as recent offerings, but it’s tapping into the Last.fm community in an interesting way. Like some […]

You’d think Top 40 lists would be an anathema to us here at Moodmat.
For the most part, you’d be right.
But every now and then they’re worth a peek. Especially when they’re aggregated and served up like they are at Yes.com.
The site keeps track of hundreds of tracks on hundreds of stations, including wildly eclectic ones […]

slowmotionlandscape
Even though it feels like three or four media forms and a century away from the cassette now, I can’t escape the culture of the mixtape. Not that I want to.
The community around their exchange, or just giving them as gifts was a powerful part of my musical upbringing. Long before I ever […]