Google All Access

Just a couple of days ago I read a music industry news letter explaining some numbers associated with the two main US music streaming services, Rdio and Spotify. The article highlighted the difficulty of getting people to move up from a free to a paid service. The service provider has to pay music royalties on all music paid, yet gets revenue from less than 10% of users who splash their cash. It's a tough business and the client churn rate is massive.

Enter Google with their music streaming service, All Access. Watching the announcement yesterday I was struck by how good the interface is (I'm not a fan of the new Spotify nor iTunes default). It's a paid service, no free option beyond a one month trial. So?

First, I believe people like try before you buy, it makes them feel comfortable. Is 30 days enough? Probably it is, given the number of your friends who will tell you how good streaming music is. If you want a longer term trial - opt for Spotify, if you like the style of the system you can then opt for the better provider. Trade up, makes sense.

Second, if I were Spotify I'd stay in bed today, for them this could be the beginning of the end.

If I were Apple I'd have been up extra early, now you have in Google and Amazon two guys who want to eat iTunes Music Store. Where's your streaming option?

International Family Sync

So here's the question - how do you make the following work?

Potential client travels extensively, homes in London and overseas, where members of his family (eight people in total) live, and of course enjoy music. He would like his music collection to be available to everyone, everywhere. They have a mix of iPods and iPhones.

Well my first thought was a cloud service such as Dropbox. That appears on your desktop pretty much as if it were a local drive, so computers in each location could be set up to reference their local version of a central Dropbox folder holding the family music. Two problems came to mind, one being the cost. Not the cost of using a CD ripping service but of buying close on 100 Gb of Dropbox space; but then if you can afford to live internationally I don't suppose the cost of a Dropbox account is a show stopper.

Second, and more significantly, is the fuss of adding more music to the library. A CD would need to be ripped then added to the Dropbox folder, then each local PC would have to reload their PC so that iTunes picks up the latest tracks. Sure you could simply "share" the central library but then the remote iPods won't be able to sync at all.

Having given this some thought the only viable solution I can see is to set up an iTunes Match account. It's around £25 pa, affordable, and you can connect up to 10 devices. Other Macs and PCs can be part of this network and changes made centrally are replicated across the network. Music can be streamed to the iPhones or loaded like an iPod in a sync process. This seems to me to be the most viable solution.

Add Album Art to AIFF Files

Are you one of those searching the internet for a method or maybe software that will embed album art into AIFF music files? If so I can suggest a workaround (in a paragraph or two).

First, why is it an issue? If you run iTunes you can search / add album art, free, if you have an iTunes store account. Dig around the iTunes menu and you'll find a way via Library to find and download album art. Then you'll see it neatly in your iTunes windows. But, suppose you don't use iTunes or you need to transfer tracks to another system. iTunes doesn't embed art into music files so you'll lose all those nice images. Ideally you'd like the little piccies stored safely along with the notes and other data.

Second, I am not ware of any software that will embed album art into AIFF files. We use three of the leading products in this field and none offers this function.

OK, patience repaid, here's the bodge method. If you rip your music CDs as Apple Lossless you'll find loads of programs that will add album art neatly into the right field. Then, use iTunes to convert from Lossless to AIFF, that will bring the cover images along with the music. Delete "source" Apple Lossless and you're done.

If you want to validate Lossless - AIFF against straight AIFF just use both methods and compare file sizes for each track from a couple of albums - will be the same. Simples.

Personalised iPhone Cases

While the number one use for scanned photos seems to be making photo albums we're always looking for innovative ways of using cherished digital images.

How about an iPhone case personalised with one (or more) of your own photos? Yes, photobox does them and not just for Apple's phones, but if you Google "personalised iPhone cover" you'll find a range of suppliers. If you only have printed photos and need digital, we can recommend a good photo scanning service.

CD Ripping & Album Artist Field

They don't always take our advice, and although I'm being paid to do it in a few minutes I have to grind my way through 100+ edits of album data for a client.

He has a substantial number of what iTunes thinks of a compilation CDs. Hotel Costes springs to mind, where a famous DJ puts together a collection of tracks; each one under its own artist attribution but the whole CD is directed by another person. How best to handle this?

My suggestion was to use the field "Album Artist" which we can add during CD ripping. This would result in the album name being what you see on the cover, each track is credited to the right artist but inside the Music file (should you ever need to look) the tracks are filed under that person's name, who can also be searched on and is listed in iTunes. No, this wasn't my clients desired strategy so instead I will need to insert the DJ's name before the name of the album in the album title field.

Had we done it my way the DJ's name would still appear in the Artist column in iTunes, and still be available to search, and the album name would remain untouched. But then the customer is always right (even when he's wrong) and I keep telling myself we are a service business so stick a smile on your face and get on with it.

iTunes Revamp - Time for a Rethink?

I don't know many people who have used iTunes longer than us, nor many who depend on it as part of their business. As I've often said, without Apple, the iPod and of course iTunes we wouldn't have a CD ripping service business.

Over the years I've helped people on iTunes and staunchly defended it against people in love with the latest gee-whiz music player, ripper, music management system or whatever. However even the most ardent Apple fan can't help but notice a sure and rising tide of negative comments about iTunes. Someone derided iTunes a day or two ago by referring to the latest version as a vain attempt to apply lipstick to a pig. That's a phrase that's been rattling round my head all week as I've been using the latest incarnation of iTunes. Hmmmm .....

I still want to try to defend iTunes but the latest tweaks have done nothing to help Apple's cause. Take a simple stat, how many tracks are there in your library? In the past a simple number at the bottom of the screen told you, but not now, it has simply been removed. That little number helped us enormously, particularly in a diagnostic situations, but now its gone. We miss it, why did Apple delete it?

For some reason iTunes reverts to the display which shows all your album covers, not the more detailed album / track / genre display. We don't find this very helpful but there's no way to override Apple's reference. Would that have been hard? Surely not.

Well I could go on - and I'll skip the massive size of the iTunes program - but I'm hoping Apple have recognised the tide has turned against them and us. I'm hoping a completely new iTunes is in the works. Soon, please.

CD Ripping - What 2013 Holds

Welcome to the New Year, and it's hard to believe another year of CD ripping lies ahead. Born of a period of childhood fads there have been times when I've thought people would lose interest in mobile music, or maybe streaming services such as Spotify would render us all pointless; but no, we are still here and looking forward to processing more CDs.

We are resolved to do better. First, we have taken steps to significantly improve throughput. During our first few years order sizes were around 200 - 250 CDs, we could handle this best by working around 9-17 using what has become six PCs. However when we got larger orders, 500+, it was a challenge to get this voulume of music converted in seven days. Over the last couple of years CD collections of over 1,000 discs have become common. We'd like to get those out in a week but it's hard to do that using the previous process of distributed systems. About six months ago we invested in a Nimbie CD ripper. This enables us to load up around 100 CDs and leave those to be ripped in a batch. Add a few evenings of unattended operation and throughput has gone up. For this reason we have another robotic CD ripping system on its way to us and we are hopeful that big collections next year will be ripped as quickly as smaller collections.

Second, we've taken steps to improve the quality of our Data Grooming service. These are very much 'under the hood' but we hope our clients like the results, even though it is a bit frustrating that clients don't normally appreciate just how much better their metadata is than it might have been.

Third, we're gaining more experience at delivering even higher quality music. When we started iTunes Music Store supplied music at 128 Kbps but we opted for twice that level with 256 Kbps AAC files. Today more clients are looking for lossless music which means returning files on DVDs has become unrealistic. So we've been down the USB thumbdrive route into USB connected external drives and into NAS drives. Additionally we're able to supply music on hard drives which can be installed inside a tower style system or in a bay of your NAS unit.

Taking these enhancements we're confident that 2013 will be our biggest and best year yet, and if you become one of our clients, we look forward to meeting you.

USB 3 - Wow

Sonos CD ripping has become a big part of our workload, with the size of CD collections getting bigger. This week we completed a 2,000+ CD project, in Apple Lossless for someone who is installing a Sonos system as part of a major home refit. This created a 750 Gb library which was placed on a new drive.

This had to be moved onto another USB drive. When we do this I always think back to the first time I tried to load around 40 Gb onto a drive, only to find the USB port on the Dell PC was USB 1.0. It took hours, and hours, and hours. When the computer started the copy process it calculated the task would take over 25 hours. Unfortunately I couldn't dedicate that chunk of time on the PC I was using so the task had to be put on hold.

Then this morning we received a USB 3 card, a technical straw to grasp. A few minutes later the card was installed, late this afternoon I started the copy job again. This time the predicted time was down to just over 5 hours. A massive five fold improvement in elapsed times. Wow.

Nexus 7 - How not to sell

This afternoon we went to PC World to buy my wife's Christmas present - a new tablet computer, the Google Nexus 7.

We looked around the bench with the tablet computers but didn't see one, so we asked a salesman. He said he'd get one of his colleagues, who owned a Nexus, to demonstrate. A young lad was summoned, smart, keen, big smile. We're off to a good start.

He switched on the Nexus. We hadn't noticed it because it was set for the screen to go dark. It looked dead - as in not working. But it did come to life. Mr Enthusiasm says, "It's a great device, it's got virtually everything you'd need".

"Except a camera". Wife looks disappointed, and puzzled.

"Will it do Skype?" she says. "Yes" he replies. How? With the camera on the front. So why did you say it didn't have a camera. Because it doesn't have a rear facing camera, to take photos. You can't take photos with this camera? No, it's a webcam.

At this point it's beginning to go badly.

"Will it do email?" Yes, he says both Gmail and you can add another account; or you can access it via a web interface.

"Dropbox?" Yes, you can download that via Play. And we're off into an explanation of Play being actually work. Play is searched, but up comes a nag notice, the unit wants to upgrade from 4.1 to 4.2. Dropbox cannot be found, Play doesn't respond. Why is this happening? So the poor lad tries to explain that 4.2 is better than 4.1 but they haven't upgraded in the store. My wife is deeply suspicious? Just upgrade the damn thing and let us get on with it. Or maybe the new one is worse than the old one, suspicions are aroused.

Sensing himself to be on a loser he makes his excuses and leaves. We find the web browser and try to log into www.podserve.co.uk. First, the screen is being presented in portrait mode with relatively small keys. Salesman bobs back to say its supposed to be used that way. Wife not happy, so he lifts it out of the mount snd turns it landscape, gives it to my wife, scoots off.

"It weighs a ton". Which it does, because its stuck to some stupid anti theft device. We realise in real life it will be lighter, but how much. My wife would like a case that holds the unit, landscape, at 45 degrees. Lad is whistled up - do you have a case that will do that? No, just wallet style cases. He's firmly sent away, this is bad. I know my wife, the sale is lost.

We try to browse the web. Nexus will not browse the web. Enter a URL and it just sits there. Unless its nagging you to upgrade to 4.2. In a few seconds my wife, who had gone in to buy a Nexus, has decided its too heavy, the keyboard doesn't want to work portrait, it doesn't have a decent case, it won't surf the web. Where's the exit?

So, Mr PC World, if you're reading this; Mr Google too; here's what you need to do.

Upgrade the damn thing to 4.2. Remove that stupid shackle or at least have one available to try (under supervision). If you're going to sell web browsing tablets have an instore internet connection that supports the devices you have in store. One about the power of my home BT connection should do it. And offer a range of cases, including one that will hold the unit at a decent angle.

Buffalo Link Station Duo

I'm looking at a Buffalo Link Station Duo 4.0 Tb dual drive with RAID, web access, built-in media server and "enhanced performance". We've become good friends, we've spent a lot of time together, a lot of time. Too much time. Let me tell you the whole story before I return this glorious red box back to its owner, our client.

We ripped over 800 CDs, almost exclusively classical. The drive is to provide a home for the music and serve music to a new Sonos music system. Nothing too challenging there, except that the unit arrived several days into the ripping. We've worked with Buffalo drives before and they're very good, as is this unit, even after the week we've had. We rip using recent Windows and Apple systems, all of which support long file names; and with classical music track names can be very long (and in Italian though that doesn't matter in this instance). Pop songs tend to be snappy (She Loves You - The Beatles) while operatic tracks are long and folder names incorporate performer, conductor and orchestra. No problem for NTFS and HFS drives.

We've been asked to rip into both FLAC and MP3, so believe me, we have a lot of data to transfer. The MP3s were just over 100 Gb, the FLAC files much bigger.

So when the ripping part was completed I hooked up the Buffalo to our network and installed the driver software that comes with the unit. After a couple of glitches (I'll put that down to me) the Buffalo popped up on my Mac's finder window. I copied the MP3s from the locally connected drive onto the Shared folder on the Buffalo. Wait a while, off it goes. I went to bed - yes, it's that long a job so I generally schedule this kind of thing over night. At 19:00 it was going OK.

Next morning, disaster. Whole list of file errors and the NAS had gone offline. I put this down to the router in the office losing its internet connection, and thus its IP address pool, which caused the Mac to stop seeing the Buffalo.

Tried again that night. Next morning, same failure. Decided I should delete the files that had been copied across. That in itself takes a while, but its bearable. Decided to try again that night, instead connecting the local USB drive into a Vista machine rather than the Mac. As I closed up the office files were flying over the network like magic. Next morning, the file transfer was still running, so it wasn't until nearly lunchtime that I saw there were errors in the transfer.

That night I thought I'd clear down the errant MP3s and then try with the FLAC files, from the Windows box. All looked OK so shut up shop. I slept with my fingers crossed.

Opened office next morning, there was an error message. This time I was given a hint that the file name was unsupported, along with a mighty list of the files that had not copied over. OK, mass delete, head scratch time. I looked in the supplied PDF and saw nothing to suggest that a drag & drop copy shouldn't work, but I found another site (not an official Buffalo page I think) which suggested this particular box runs a version of Unix which cannot support long file names. The explanation of the issue certainly fitted my problem.

So, Mr Buffalo, what do you do with 12,000+ files - all with very long names - and it's a four day Jubilee bank Holiday weekend? You can't edit those names down to 12, 20 or however many characters. Instead, I had a brainwave.

Thankfully we work from source files (AIFF) in circumstances where clients require alternative file formats. So I loaded all the original files (held on three USB drives attached to our Pogoplug) and from there, imported them into iTunes. I used iTunes to convert from AIFF into MP3, but pointed the output files at a folder on the Buffalo Link Station Duo. Writing the files under the Link station operating system produced files the drive was happy with. Did the same (or similar, for FLAC - we don't use iTunes for that as it doesn't handle FLAC) and that worked too.

Trouble is each conversion run took in excess of 28 hours, which is why this box is going back to the client very, very late.