andrew dodson

It’s no small secret that I’m a music lover.  I listen to a lot of music, and wide range of styles.  My digital music collection is slightly insane by most standards.  I have the 120GB iPod, and not even that can hold my entire collection.  You get my point – I own a lot of music.  Needless to say, I’ve tried a lot of the online music services that have popped up over the last few years.  Here’s my review of the ones I’ve tried, and keep in mind that I am picky when it comes to these types of services.

Pandora

Pandora is a mostly free service that tailors radio stations to your tastes – either by genre, or a particular artist.  Rating the songs with a thumbs up or thumbs down helps define your likes and dislikes and determines what songs the station plays.  I say that the service is mostly free because of two conditions:

• You are limited to listening to 40 hours of music per month.  If you hit the 40 hour threshold, you’re asked to pay $1 to listen an unlimited amount the remainder of the month, or…
• Pay $36 per year to listen unlimited with no ads.

For my money, I’ll just pay the $1 whenever I hit the 40 hour threshold.  The ads aren’t too annoying or overbearing, and I’ve only hit the 40 hour threshold once since I’ve been a Pandora user.  While I love to have control over what I listen to, Pandora is great for discovering new artists, or for rediscovering artists I haven’t listened to in a long time.  It is also great for days when you want to listen to music but don’t want to think about it too much.

Another plus is their iPhone app, which is awesome!  I am able to use the app in my car while driving and listen seamlessly to my stations, even if I’m on the Edge network.  Very impressive.

GrooveShark

My best friend swears by GrooveShark.  He loves it.  It’s a free streaming service that has a large collection of music.  You simply search for an artist or song, and – if they have it – start listening.  The key phrase there is “if they have it.”  I’m picky about these types of services.  The same reason I keep 120GB of music on my iPod is the same reason I’d use one of these services.  I want to be able to go from listening to one artist to another, one style to another, and not be hindered by the song, album or artist not being available.  This is where GrooveShark falls short for me.  Far too often for my liking, my searches came up empty, or an album was only partially available.  It might be a good service in a pinch, but I won’t use it too often.

Mog

Mog looks interesting.  They certainly aren’t modest.  They claim they’re the “best new online music service” on their site.  Their unlimited listening plan is only $5 per month.  I signed up for a free trial and gave it a spin.  Immediately, I was disappointed.  Newer albums, and even albums that have been out for at least six months, have yet to be added.  But, for the most part, they had a far greater selection than GrooveShark offers.

eMusic

eMusic offers several different subscription plans that give you different amounts of downloads each month.  I have been a subscriber for over a year now, and I have enjoyed this service.  eMusic is different from other services in that they specialize in independent artists.  You won’t find a great deal of mainstream music on eMusic.  But, in the past year, I’ve also witnessed eMusic grow.  They struck a deal to add Sony’s back catalog – albums that were released at least two years ago and older.  I have no basis for this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near future they struck a deal with the other major labels along these same lines.

I pair my eMusic subscription with Pandora.  Chances are, if I hear an obscure artist on a Pandora station that I like, eMusic will have that artist’s music.

Rhapsody

I joined Rhapsody a few months ago.  For $15 per month, I’m able to stream music from a very large selection.  While I have run across a few albums or artists here and there that are unavailable on Rhapsody, their selection, compared to the services in this post, is by far the largest.  They also offer an iPhone app, which is a plus for me.  The app does not do well while driving in a car, but works great otherwise.

Rhapsody has been an awesome service for me to “try before I buy.”  I’m able to stream albums to see if I’d actually like to spend money on the entire thing.  Even still, most of my music listening happens in my office at work.  I usually pass on buying the album and just listen to it while I’m at work.

Conclusion

For my tastes, the combination of Pandora, eMusic and Rhapsody has saved me a lot of money.  In the past, I’ve spent as much as $100-200 in month on music, only to be disappointed if the entire album wasn’t great (yes, I’d rather buy the entire album instead of just singles).  Over the last few months, I’ve spent $35 per month on these services and it’s been rare for me to buy albums through iTunes, Amazon or in stores.  I can basically listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, so I haven’t needed to purchase as many albums to put on my iPod.

Okay, so this is a day late, but I just came across this video tonight.  The Boston Red Sox hosted a Disability Awareness Day  and asked this young man to sing the National Anthem.  A little bit into it, he starts laughing.  Then, the crowd steps up and helps him get through the rest of the song.  It just goes to show – no matter how bad you have it, you can always laugh at yourself, and, there’s still a little bit of good in the world.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, America! Somehow, I’m missing out on the party. Both my girlfriend and brother are in Washington, D.C. today. Jason is with his girlfriend, and Julie is with people from her church. Had I thought about it sooner, I should’ve made plans to be there too. Instead, I’ll do some random blogging.

• I absolutely love my new Flip UltraHD.  For the price, I don’t think you can find anything better in the world of video cameras.  It’s small (fits in your pocket), takes 720p HD video, records digitally (no tapes), does great in low light and is super easy to use.  My only complaints are:  the zoom isn’t the greatest, and you can only use battery power (no AC adapter).  Julie took it with her to Ireland and got some great videos.  Here’s one of my favorites, of a great street band in Dublin (note: video embedded in HD.  If it is loading slow, press pause after pressing play and let the rest of the video load before playing.):

• It’s almost the All-Star break and currently, the Reds are only three games back in the central division.  They haven’t been playing very well over the last few weeks, but fortunately, neither has the rest of the division.  It hasn’t been too out-of-the-norm for the Reds to stay in contention until around August and then fade as the season comes to a close.  Here’s to hoping they can get hot after the All-Star break and actually contend this year.
• eMusic just rolled out a huge addition to their catalog.  If you’re not a subscriber, it might be time to look into it.  They just added a bunch of big name artists, and they’re still cheaper than iTunes.

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This weekend, I’ll be away with the Josh Martin Band.  I always enjoy our road trips.  We’ll be going to Salem Baptist Church, where Josh’s good friend Mark Combs is pastor.  We’re leading worship on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, and then giving a concert on Sunday evening.

Once again, we’ll be aided by technology.  With Bert no longer with the band, and Doug not able to attend this weekend, we’ll be using guitar tracks from our studio recordings.  These are played from Ableton Live, synced with a click track.  Obviously, we’d rather have the human versions of our guitar players with us, but the tracks help fill up our sound.  It’s actually given the band a bit of new life – having the technology available enables us to accept more booking requests if one or two of the band members can’t make it.

In other JMB news, I’ve started working on the next version of our website.  I’ve got some good ideas, so I’m looking forward to getting started.  It should be ready sometime in the next month.  Maybe.  Hopefully.

Two things I’ve wanted to blog about lately has been John Calipari becoming UK’s coach and the Dave Matthews Band’s newest album – Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

On Calipari

I will admit to not being a big Calipari fan before his arrival at UK.  There was always something about him that wouldn’t let me fully like the guy.  Was it his reputation?  Probably.  However, in the short time he’s been UK’s coach, I have become a huge fan.  Not because of his mad recruiting skills, but because he is a human being.

In his short time in Lexington, he’s proven himself to be far more accessible than the previous coach.  Calipari bought a house on one of Lexington’s most traveled streets.  He jogs around campus.  He eats at local restaurants (and not just the expensive ones).  He embraces all parts of the University of Kentucky – highlighting student academic achievements on his Twitter account, as well as visiting former UK athletes and students.  He goes to church.  He tells us what books he’s reading.  All in all, he’s a regular guy that just happens to be on an extremely large stage.

Ok.  I guess bringing in one of the best recruiting classes ever doesn’t hurt my respect for the guy.

Opponents of Calipari are still riding on his negative reputation.  They say he bends the rules.  Some would say he’s broken rules and just hasn’t been caught yet.  Maybe so.  But, none of us are perfect.  I just like that he seems to be a personable, down-to-earth dude, which isn’t common for some of these mega-head coaches in college and professional sports.

On Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King

Maybe one of these days, I’ll get around to posting a full, song-by-song review of the album.  For today, I’ll stick with a general review.  I’ve been really happy with this album.  I don’t think it’s their best work, but I’m pleased with the effort.

I’m not one of those fans that hates the Everyday album, but it was different.  Not a typical DMB album, but I’ve come to enjoy it over time.  Stand Up was an album I never fully enjoyed.  Parts of it were good, but it is definitely my least favorite of their albums.  On both of these albums, the band found themselves trying to go in new directions and create new sounds.

Big Whiskey finally gets back to the “classic” Dave Matthews Band sound.  Dave playing odd riffs on the acoustic (“Spaceman”), Carter going nuts on the drums (…entire album), funky horn lines (“Shake Me Like a Monkey”) and what I think is a key element – Tim Reynolds – beefing up the band’s sound.  They’re not trying to sound “different” with this album like they did for the previous two studio efforts.  And that’s what I like most about the album.  They’ve realized what works for them and have returned to that formula.

Now, if we could only get the studio versions of “Idea of You,” “Shotgun,” “Sugar Will,” and whatever else they recorded for these sessions.  That would be nice.

Last night, I came across Last.fm, a music site dedicated to keeping track of your listening trends and recommending music to the user, based on what they listen to.  It will sync up with iTunes or any other media player to get information on your listening habits.

I was directed to the site after checking out Feltron’s 2008 Annual Report.  This guy keeps track of everything he does in a year’s time.  And I mean everything (check out the report).  It’s pretty fascinating how much data he collects on himself.  In his music section, I noticed he used Last.fm to keep track of everything.

I’ve always thought it’d be cool to know how much music I listen to, which artists I listen to the most, which albums, which songs – all of that.  Until now, all I could rely on was iTunes’ play count for each track.  The Feltron report has inspired me to keep track of what I do each day, what foods I eat, movies I watch, places I go and more.  I caught an interview with him a few weeks ago (via Boagworld) and he just takes 5-10 minutes each day to jot down what he’s done.  I doubt I’ll get anywhere near as ellaborate as him by making a fancy report, but it might make for a fun blog post at the end of the year.

Merry Christmas everyone! I’m heading to Maysville this afternoon for Christmas with my mom’s family. I’ll be back home tonight, then Christmas at home with mom, dad and Jason tomorrow. Friday and Saturday, I’ll be in Ashland with Julie’s family. Should be a good few days of rest and enjoying family and friends.

Here’s a few random blogging items:

• I’ve added a new plugin to the blog that lets you share posts on different social networks.  Not that my posts are all that important, but just in case you want to share them, now you have the option.
• The New York Yankees are evidence of the problem with professional sports.  In the past few weeks, they have dumped $452 million into three players.  This is on top of their new $1.6 billion stadium.
• I picked up Rush’s Snakes and Arrows DVD last night.  It’s the first Rush DVD I’ve purchased, and so far, I really like it!  Neil Peart is an amazing drummer.  I was lucky to see them in Columbus several years ago.  I also found Alex Lifeson’s Barbie doll groupies pretty humorous.

Finally, let’s not forget:

Luke 1:68-79 Listen

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Okay.  I’ve decided to blog again.  Yes, wishy-washy.  Just like I said I’d be.  The thing is, I really do have a lot to blog about, and the last couple of weeks has revealed this to me.

Wordpress 2.7

Wordpress just released version 2.7, which is one reason to blog.  Wordpress is one of my favorite things in this world, and it really shows how big of a geek I can be.  I was actually anticipating the release of 2.7.  I’ve used Wordpress for the past four years and don’t plan on using anything different anytime soon.  I’m sure there’s other blogging and content management solutions out there, but I’ve just fallen in love with Wordpress.

New in 2.7 is what you (the faithful blog reader) can’t see.  As I type this, I see a whole new look in the dashboard (i.e., control panel or “back end”) of Wordpress.  It’s been completely redesigned and it’s great.  As mentioned, the new version and the new look of the dashboard is inspiration enough to blog.

A Girl

For the first time in the history of this blog, I’m going to post about a specific girl.  Her name is Julie and she’s pretty awesome.  For those of you that keep up with me on Facebook, this is old news, but it’s new to the blog.

We’ve been dating for a couple of months now, and I’m pretty happy.  As my mom pointed out in a comment a couple of posts ago, she could likely be a reason for posts being scarce as of late.  She has occupied a lot of my free time lately, but if I had to choose between time with her or blogging, it’s a pretty safe bet I’ll pick time with her!  Both of our sets of parents met last night for the first time, and it went very well.  It’s been interesting that all of the “next steps” of the relationship have gone well, without either of us being nervous (meeting parents, meeting family members, meeting each other’s friends).  It’s been a good sign – it’s just felt “normal” in a very good way.  Prayers are appreciated!

Behold the Lamb of God

For the second year in a row, I was a part of performing Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God at The Point.  We were fortunate to have the same crew as last year, with the addition of a couple of string players (who added immensely to the performance).  I am so blessed to have been gifted with the ability to bang on drums for the glory of God.  I am so blessed to be connected with so many amazing musicians that want to glorify God through their talents.  I’m not sure how many (if any) of the bunch will see this, but I just want to thank them for letting me be a part of it all.  It was beautiful.  And a special thanks to the Tomkins family for helping with sound and MediaShout.

My Blog’s Birthday

I started this blog on December 27th, 2004.  This week, it will turn four years old.  I can’t say I thought I’d still be blogging in four years when I started.  Blogs may be dying out, but deep down, I do enjoy getting on here and typing out my thoughts for the world (or, a few people) to see from time to time.  A lot of blogs have a central theme or purpose.  I like that mine is a mix of personal thoughts, sports, music, occasional humor, and most importantly – God.  I hope to continue to blog more about all of these topics more in 2009.  All of this to say, this blog isn’t going anywhere.  I’d miss it too much.

Merry Christmas!