When will Apple open up iTunes LP’s?

At the recent Apple’s iPod Gushfest, they announced a new feature in music purchases in the LP format.  This is supposed to be the next generation of the album format’s liner notes, photos and additional goodies you get when you pony up money for a CD.  This looked like a feature that may turn out to be cool (depending on how much they charge for this), but as a band that sells on iTunes I was very interested in how the LP was going to become available.

Details are starting to formulate, but because Apple hasn’t been very forthcoming with details (as if that’s a surprise), it’s given away to rampant speculation.  Initially the news broke that Indie (Independent) artists trying to implement the LP solution were told by iTunes reps that LP’s weren’t available to Independents.  Not only that, but to get an LP into iTunes, labels needed to pony up a $10,000 production fee.

Apple refuted the claim saying that they’re going to release open specs, and that no production fee would be charged. The fact that they’re going to release the open specs should hopefully enable content creators to create them – but we’ll see if they really become successful.  It’s surprising that iTunes doesn’t appear to have a sense of urgency about putting these specs out, considering that these have been out for over 6 weeks and only has 16 LP’s to show for it.

My guess is that unless they open LP to include a lossless audio format, there’ really isn’t going to be much incentive to get people spend the extra money and buy these instead of a CD.  I would also guess that Apple probably put these together due to pressure from the record companies and probably won’t invest their full attention towards this – not unlike the Apple TV.

New Greenfoot Gig Posters

Today I put the finishing touches on the new gig posters for our Greenfoot show coming up next week at Chipper’s Lanes.  This is our second time playing at the bowling ally, and with as much fun as we had last time, we’re really looking forward to it.  I also had a lot of fun putting together the gig poster from last time, so I used a lot of elements from the previous poster to create these new posters and made a series of them:

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Aside from the obvious changes of the text, I made some minor changes to the foot on the bowling ball, trying to make it look more realistic.  I also added a slight curve to the our URL and add the depth to it.  I then focused my attention on the images of each of us and imposing them onto the lanes.  I would be anxious to hear any thoughts or feedback that you may have.

Also if you’re in Fort Collins and are free on Thurdsay, Oct 29, come out and check us out at Chippers Lanes!

Greenfoot @ Signatures Thoughts

Last weekend Greenfoot played our first show at Signatures Night Club, a fantastic show at a great venue for musicians.  I don’t think Signatures is necessarily new, but it’s under new ownership that has definitely put a lot of time into making it a classy place.  It’s clean and laid out well.  It’s got a great “small club” atmosphere, essentially two separate rooms: 1 has the bar with the pool tables and TV’s, while the other room is tables and the stage for the band.

The atmosphere brings out a good energy throughout the whole club.  The regulars are receptive to live music and definitely give bands the benefit of the doubt.  Considering that Denver went through a snow storm that left a ton of ice, and that we were playing in weather conditions that postponed the Rockies game, we had an ok turnout.  The weather definitely kept people away, but we still really appreciated those that made the trip out and made sure they weren’t disappointed.

This was our first show back from taking the summer off, and I was surprised at just how tight we played.  We kept things laid back and loose (which I know sounds contradictory), but really felt comfortable, especially with introducing the new covers that we had.  We did some fine-tuning of our originals, introducing some songs with some noticeable changes, which came off pretty well.

The owner at Signature’s is a really stand up guy, who is really supportive of live music, rock & roll, and the musician community.  He was great to us all evening and really took a genuine interest and appreciation in our music.  We are definitely looking forward to going back in the winter, hopefully in December.  Sorry that we didn’t manage to get any pictures, but I’ll share a video of us performing 1 Night Stand (from an earlier show) – the owner’s favorite song.

Into the Weekend Thoughts

Well the week is nearly over, and while I have a bunch of random thoughts floating through my head, I’d figure I’d do a culmination of random thoughts in one big post.  So without further ado, here are my thoughts going into the weekend.

First a Friday thought.  I woke up this morning to find on Twitter that Barak Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for doing.  Maybe he got it for closing Guantanamo – oh wait, it’s still open.  Well how about withdrawing from Iraq – oh wait, we haven’t done that either and are escalating things in Afghanistan (and don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to fight on both of these fronts).  Maybe it’s for getting the Olympi-oh wait.  Ok, politics aside – can we all agree that the Nobel Peace Prize is simply the Norwegian way of promoting their politics?  Obama joins the hallowed names of Jimmy Carter (for whining about Iraq) and Yasser Arafat (for going to a meeting).

My brother-in-law pointed me to a Time.com article about this that is pretty spot on, especially in the end:

"Compare this to Greg Mortenson, nominated for the prize by some members of Congress, who the bookies gave 20-to-1 odds of winning. Son of a missionary, a former army Medic and mountaineer, he has made it his mission to build schools for girls in places where opium dealers and tribal warlords kill people for trying. His Central Asia Institute has built more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan – a mission which has, along the way, inspired millions of people to view the protection and education of girls as a key to peace and prosperity and progress." [Time.com]

Again, so does this award have any less credibility to it? Hell, the Grammys are now more relevant.

Shifting to football: Historically people think throwback jerseys are cool, and I love the Broncos Orange uniforms (either from the late 60’s, or the ones from the 70’s to mid-90’s).  This weekend the Broncos are going to prove that Throwbacks can be ugly.  To celebrate their 50th anniversary, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the AFL, the Broncos are going to wear their "mustard & brown" striped-socks uniforms.  Frank Schwab from the Colorado Springs Gazette captured the first look on his blog.  If you notice Jabar Gaffney (#10), he twisted his striped socks to look like a barbershop pole.

BroncosUnis

To make matters worse, I think the refs are again going to be wearing their cream-sicle colored uniforms again.  I think I’m going to avoid eating anything before the game, because all of these colors are going to make me sick.

Staying on the Broncos, I have to say I’m really nervous about the amount of press coverage Denver has gotten.  I wasn’t complaining when Denver wasn’t getting any respect for their first three games, I was completely fine with them flying under the radar. I think under-rated teams thrive when they have the "nobody believes in us" attitude in the locker room.  Now a week has passed, and the next thing you know everyone is talking about the Broncos and Daniel Graham is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. This is a little too much attention for my comfort level.  The only thing we have going for us is the national media’s infatuation with Tom Brady and the Patriots, and still don’t give Denver a chance.  Let’s hope the Broncos prove them wrong again.  My guess is that we’ll win 2 of the next 4 games to be at a very healthy 6-2.

My Rockies Prediction this weekend is that at least one of the games will get postponed or canceled.  It’s going to be a cold one this weekend, and far be it that baseball players face any kind of adversity when it comes to weather.

Lastly, I’m very pumped for Greenfoot’s first show for the fall.  We ended up taking time off in the summer due to my wedding and Julien working in California for a few months.  We’re really pumped to be playing a full night of music on Saturday night.  We’ll be over at Signature’s Night Club, which is a place that is gaining some really positive reputation around Denver for being a great place for bands.  If you’re in Denver and looking for something to do on Saturday night, come check us out!

New Greenfoot Gigposter – Signatures Night Club

I know what you’re thinking (especially at 11pm on Friday night), if I was already going to break my daily blogging commitment.  Well fear not, faithful reader.  I was crafting a longer post regarding sports commentators, but I’ll make that Saturday’s post.  My wife and I left immediately after work to Copper Mountain, here for my brother-in-law’s wedding reception.

Aside from the travel and family time, here is what was keeping me from blogging this evening – a new Gig Poster for Greenfoot’s show at Signature’s Night Club next weekend:

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I decided to go with something that looked a little more simplistic, yet attempting to be eye catching.  The specs of black and white on Jake’s shirt and guitar are meant to be more abstract rather than me not coloring them in.

Yes, I realize that I’m not in the poster. Aside from my hesitance to have my face plastered across Denver, I thought that vectoring the drum set would have added too much noise to the poster.  I would definitely welcome any feedback!

Hey, if you’re in the Denver area and would like to spend an evening listening to great music, come out and check out my band on Saturday!  Get all of the details here.