Last.fm and Blip.fm and CDs and Vinyl Records

Seeing as I'm blogging in the main about the 2nd most important thing in my life I thought I commit my thoughts about Last.fm and Blip.fm to this blog.

As regular readers of this blog will know I have always been and will always be obsessed with music. From my first ever 7 inch single. (Fat Bottomed Girls/Bicycle Race - Queen, given to me by my Uncle Benny to mixing dance MP3s purchased using a Paypal account from Beatport.com on my Macbook using djay. Nearly 30 years or so of musical consumption and counting.

How I access music and the formats have changed so much over the last 30 years. Records and tapes for the first few years, CDs from the mid 80's until now and mp3s and other downloads in the past 5 years.

What I'm really excited about are free streaming sites and services like Last and Blip. I've only been on blip for the last 3 or 4 days and have found the amount of familiar and unfamiliar music on it absolutely astounding. My dj user name is jayman888, have a look at my music feed. I've even connected the Macbook to my proper hifi in my living room and the quality is pretty good.

I'm still in the early stages of using both services but so far I can see that I'd probably use blip.fm when I'm able to interact with the site constantly and I'd use last.fm when I'm working and just need a good mix of background music.

So, I've decided NOT to purchase any formats of music in 2010 and just use these sites for all my music consumption. I already have 1000's of CDs, records, tapes and mp3 taking up various amounts of space in my home, car, office, iphone and ipods. I've spent the last 30 years buying music in one form or another. This year I have decided to stop adding to the clutter...

I still listen to CD's everyday and still dig out vinyl to play on my pro-ject record deck. The quality and depth of the sound cannot be beaten. However, I'm going to have a year off adding to the shelves of CDs in my living room. My back catalogue is ample. A bit like my 'unread' paperbacks pile, but that's another story entirely...

Currently listening to Glenn Hughes – Death Of Me on blip.fm


Thanks to procphil for introducing me to blip.fm

Alexander McQueen Dies

The British fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead at his London home at the age of 40.

His death comes just days before the start of London fashion week and a month before he was to unveil his new collection at Paris fashion week.

His family asked for privacy to come to terms with the death of McQueen, also known as Lee.

His company, Alexander McQueen, issued a statement saying: "On behalf of Lee McQueen's family, Alexander McQueen today announces the tragic news that Lee McQueen, the founder and designer of the Alexander McQueen brand, has been found dead at his home. At this stage it is inappropriate to comment on this tragic news beyond saying that we are devastated and are sharing a sense of shock and grief with Lee's family.

"Lee's family has asked for privacy in order to come to terms with this terrible news and we hope the media will respect this."

Born in London in 1969 as the youngest of six children, McQueen left school at the age of 16 and was immediately offered an apprenticeship at the traditional Saville Row tailors Anderson and Shephard and then at neighbouring Gieves and Hawkes.

McQueen was a four-time winner of the British designer of the year award as well as the international designer of the year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 2003.

The Guardian 2010

I'm listening to Sasha Global Underground San Francisco 009 whilst writing this...

I

I'm still about and training for the marathon.

Evening All

It's been a while since I last posted to my blog. I'm still about but have been a little lazy since Christmas. I do want to keep this blog alive so will post every now and then.

Been training hard for the Virgin London Marathon. I've been running 13 miles easily and looking forward to an 18 miler in the next couple of days. The weather has been conspiring against me. It started to snow again today. Great!

I've been listening to a M.A.N.D.Y CD a lot lately. Also been caning the new Robbie Williams album loads. Both links will be at the bottom of this post. I can't get a link for the M.A.N.D.Y cd but it's called '12 Great Remixes from 11 Great Artists'

I've also just finished reading the Sebastian Faulks James Bond Novel- 'Devil May Care' . It didn't change my life, it was okay not great and I certainly put it down a lot and sometimes didn't turn the pages.