Coldplay loves PBS

Sitting on the couch tonight, I’m catching the rerun of Coldplay on Austin City Limits. The first time this ran, about a year ago, I missed it, and was dismayed when iTunes offered the 45-minute concert up for sale for about $15 for a video download.

But this time, I didn’t miss it. I caught every second. I’m amazed at the raw emotion and sheer humanity of the band. Great songs, great delivery. They even welcomed Michael Stipe up on stage to do a couple of numbers, and also did a medley of “Kingdome Come” with Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire, dedicating the number to the king of country.

It’s funny, how some of the most highly revered bands are so socially conscious, and loved by so many who purely consume the music. Coldplay, U2, REM, all have become supergroups, and yet all work constantly for social causes and perform benefits around the world for the greater good.

A better way to buy music

I’ve made no secret about my lack of appreciation for iTunes 7. It’s going the wrong direction from what started as an incredibly intelligent and user-friendly audio management system. But now that I’m experiencing loss of music I PAID for, not even stole, I’m starting to look for other options.

I’ve been using iTunes for maybe 3 years, not as long as most people. But I’ve used it on two PCs and 4 Macs as I’ve moved through different primary computers for home and work. And now that I’m on the most recent, a few tunes that I’ve purchased through the iTunes store have “failed out” because I’ve authorized them on my “maximum of 5 computers.”

Never mind that a few of these computer switches have been Apple-guided migrations of my applications, files, and user identity. Never mind that I wiped clean the user files from my Powerbook G4 before I sold it to my friend. Or that I have a PC tower in my garage with a failed power supply that I can’t boot up to rescue that music from. In all of these cases, it’s more trouble than it’s worth for me to log onto those old computers and “de-authorize” them to play a 99-cent tune Kanye West tune. But as a result, I get the “no can do” from iTunes when I try to play that tune, and my easiest option is to re-purchase it from iTunes on my current Mac.

Being on the business end of this message is a terrible feeling for a user, and underscores my post about the impermanence of music.

For a while, I thought it would be a great, efficient, and environmentally responsible option to start purchasing all my music through iTunes. Immediate, digital, and bulk.

But lately, this feeling of being skunked by the Apple DRM 5-computer policy is making me feel more like buying CDs again, importing them and then storing the discs for backup later. I’ve discovered that Best Buy is now selling most new releases and a few others on its front end-caps for $9.99 and $7.99. I’m sure this pricing represents some sort of insidious corporate monopoly on music distribution (though Apple’s  doing the same thing), but for now, it’s providing me a more satisfying and secure feeling user experience as a music buyer.

Man, I miss the good old days of Napster.

Owning music is impermanent

Anil lost his iTunes data. Not the song files, just the metadata that makes iTunes such a personally gratifying joy to use. So he’s faced with basically inheriting music that might as well belong to somebody else.

That’s a crushing blow for sure. It’s crazy how comfortable the playlist gets when you’ve got that metadata built up — like a comfortable pair of boots. A new pair will never feel the same way, no matter what.

The idea of “owning our music” is a dubious one. Who really owns it anyway? A while ago, Napster started promoting the idea “own nothing – listen to everything” for its all-you-can-eat subscription plan. I can’t imagine our ownership society will go for that very quickly, but it’s a peaceful idea to be sure – to let the music go and just experience what you can, when you can.

It’s unbelievable how personal humans’ experience with music is, for just about everyone. I was talking with Jeri earlier tonight about the iPod experience and music libraries, and the way it’ so hard to share a playlist with someone else. The exact combination of styles, artists and songs in your library is as unique as a fingerprint.

You might have Alison Krauss next to AC/DC, and that’s just fine. Maybe a million other people do, too. But it’s the other 500 artists in your iTunes library that individually create the “fingerprint” of your musical taste. It’s no wonder that Amazon and iTunes find our personal selections so helpful in targeting ads to us.

I really enjoy surfing other people’s music collections when I’m on a network with other people’s shared libraries. But it never feels like the right set of music. It makes me wonder at the apparent attraction of checking out (and even purchasing) celebrity playlists. Who cares what Paris Hilton is listening to? Her taste is going to be like a set of fingerprints that don’t fit me.

All this just supports the brilliantly personal iPod + iTunes experience. They allow you to live and breathe your music in your own headphones, wherever you are.