New Media

Fleet Foxes Sun Giant MP3s @ 256k

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:07:10 -0800

Did you know: the MP3s we’re offering for sale on the site of the Fleet Foxes stunning new Sun Giant EP at 256k? It’s the first of our MP3 records that we’ve been able to make available at the higher bitrate.

Lap it up! All 256k bits are belong to you.

Nerd News

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:59:45 -0800

Hi friends. Lots going on here in the Sub Pop Records Office of Technical Staff (and everywhere else at SPHQ) in the ‘08.

First and foremost: in case you haven’t heard, Sub Pop will be turning 20 this year. In honor of ourselves, we’re getting into all sorts of hoo-ha: there’s talk of some sort of big festival this summer in Seattle and rumors of a limited run of the Sub Pop Singles Club (which will include some sort of digital component). And did I mention that we’re putting out a boatload of great records (including the newly released records from The Helio Sequence and Kelley Stoltz )?

On the technical side we’ve been working on some of the guts of subpop.com. While this work isn’t the most glamorous it should make the site a bit snappier and offer some substantial improvements to browsing our catalog.

We’re also working on upgrading the bitrates on our salable MP3s (due to popular demand). While it may take a while to get all the new encoding straightened out, don’t forget that if you buy MP3s now you’ll be able to log in later and download upgraded bitrates and/or other formats. What I’m saying is, get your MP3s here!

Also, we’re working on some screencasts with how-tos, highlights of some of our favorite site features, hijinks and whatever else we can think of that warrants the effort.

We pushed out a bunch of changes at the end of the year too; you can leave comments on records, there’s a comments feed (if you’re more interested in what people are saying about us than what we’re saying) and in a retro ‘03 maneuver we added a tag cloud to our revamped channels page.

There’s lots more stuff on the way, but I’ve typed enough for now—as always leave comments or email webmaster if you have any bright ideas for us…

Where's Sub Pop Radio?

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:28:43 -0800

You may have noticed that Sub Pop Radio has been down for the past couple of days. You may even be concerned about it’s safety. Don’t worry, it’s not going anywhere. We’re currently between broadcasting servers—until now the radio station has been running from my the iTunes on my desktop machine, which, (while I love Sub Pop Radio) proved to be unsustainable at best. But we’ve got an art-department-retired mac that we’re setting up as a separate broadcast station and we’ll be back up in the next couple days. When we do get it set up it’ll be much more reliable (since it’ll no longer be subject to my whimsical reboots) and will allow the staff to run all sorts of radio shows (since they won’t have to kick me off my workstation to do it). Stay, well, um, tuned.

What Would You Do With a Sub Pop API?

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:44:45 -0700

We’re a very small shop (in terms of software development), and we’ve been pretty busy in the past year just taking care of the basic needs of our non-technical internal users, but one thing I’d very much like to do is open up the data that we use on our site (and internally) to 3rd party applications.

We’ve got all sorts of interesting data—artist info, release info, track info (with ISRCs), photos, mp3s, tour dates, and on and on. So here’s the question that I’d like to pose: would you be be interested in building something around this data? If so, what sorts of things would you like to do and what data would you like to see exposed?

If you have ideas we’d love to hear them. Just leave them in the comments or email webmaster.

Thanks!

Please, Buy Our MP3s!

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:28:28 -0700

As you may or may not now know, we are now offering MP3 versions of albums for sale on our site. This is a good thing, and something that we here in the Office of the Technical Staff and at Sub Pop Headquarters in general are super excited about.

So what are the details? Well, let me enumerate…

As I write this, we are currently offering somewhere in between 10 and 20 full albums as zip files containing 192khz MP3s of each track on said albums. In the next few days we will be putting up the bulk of our catalog.
If you see a little iPod™-like icon in the list of available formats with “MP3s” beside it, that means the record is available in downloadable MP3 format.
You can purchase the MP3s in the same way as you purchase anything else on the site. Just click the icon and add it to your cart. The MP3s will be available for download once you’ve completed your transaction. You can freely mix digital with non-digital thingies and we’ll (happily) figure out what’s what and process your order.
Because we’re running you through our normal cart, we’ll ask you for things like your shipping address. Please take the time to fill this out correctly! We won’t come knocking at your door or send you any junk mail and if you do decide to buy physical product at a later date, it’ll be that much easier for you to check out.
Once you’ve purchased your MP3s they’ll be available for download on your user account page.
Not only that, but you can download the files you’ve purchased from your account page at any time and multiple times—if we update the download in any way (think bitrate or bonus tracks or whatever), you can just log in, go to your download page and get the new version of the file.

Why 192khz? Well, when we were working this stuff out it seemed like a pretty great compromise between downloadability and fidelity, but if we’re faced with an overwhelming demand for higher bitrate files, we’ll certainly do what we can to accommodate. And we’ll be sure to make any updates available to those who’ve already purchased from us!

We’re excited for you to try this out, so get at it! We’re also ready to reward (read: bribe) you, our loyal subpop.com customers for choosing our digital experience, so keep on the lookout for bonus downloads, album previews and anything else that we can think of to keep you on the line.

Have fun, and buy some stuff!

Return of the New Media Blog

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:25:17 -0700

No, we’ve neither been ejected into space (where everyone knows the wifi reception is horrible) nor have we had our typing keyboards consumed by the resident collie. We’ve just been really bad at posting for the past few months. But we’re here, and finally ready to get back to doing what we’re not-quite-so-good at: keeping the New Media blog up-to-date!

Lots of things have been going this summer, not the least of which was our introduction of salable MP3 downloads. But I’m getting ahead of myself—we’ll get into details in subsequent posts. For now, we’re just glad to see you.

Ready now for the future, Your Sub Pop Technical Staff.

CRB Ruling / SaveNetRadio.org

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Fri, 04 May 2007 17:43:11 -0700

While we here in Sub Pop’s New Media deptarment are certainly in favor of artists getting paid their due royalties, back room deals that threaten DIY media—like the CRB’s recent ruling on royalty rates for streaming radio—just piss us off. Which is why I encourage you, fair reader, to check out SaveNetRadio.org and to lobby your congress-people to legislate for streaming royalty rates that small net broadcasters can afford.

Internet radio has leveled the playing field for a lot of smaller artists and has allowed folks with good tastes and non-commercial goals (such as our friends at KEXP) to break bands. Keep the dream alive! Support our innernits!

SXSW Interactive: Part 1

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 01:43:07 -0700

I’ve spent several hours sifting through my notes, photos, and pickled memories of this years’ conference, trying to distill them into a few (somewhat) coherent posts and I’m beginning to realize that I’m a bit overwhelmed. For those of us involved in both the music and interactive side of things (which, at this point, should be everyone involved with music, but that’s another rant ) south by southwest is nothing if not really, really long. I arrived in Austin on a Thursday night and didn’t get home ‘til late the following Friday. And there were still 2 days of music left that I skipped out on.

Since I spent so much time there this year (and since my note taking got less and less diligent as the week wore on), I’m just going to post a mish-mash of semi-chronological, semi-thematic notes. I hope that they make some sense to someone, somewhere.

A few short observations from the first few days of Interactive:

Interactive keeps growing and growing—while it wasn’t too big this year, it was definitely straining a bit under its size. Wifi in the convention center was a challenge and some of the talks were in strange, faraway corners of the convention center.
The conference still manages to attract really smart and fun people, in any case. The pleasure of getting to meet so many of them definitely outweighed any and all of the hassles.
I didn’t really have any trouble getting in to Las Manitas, so maybe all those people weren’t quite as smart as I thought. (My delicious vegetarian tamal is featured above…)
Speaking of delicious: SXSW ripped off the This Delicious cover in their marketing materials!
Maybe I just got lucky with the talks that I chose (or I’m old?) but the business track seemed better to me than the technical talks this year.
Under the pretense “automating admissions and preventing counterfeiting” they had RFID chips in the wristbands and badges this year. Creepy.
Bruce Sterling’s rant was great.

More later.

Sub Pop Twitter

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 20:02:04 -0700

The darling of this year’s SXSW Interactive festival was undeniably Twitter—a service that’s so simple it almost seems inane. That is, until it locks its crack like claws around your thumbs and compulses them into astronomical text message bills.

All Twitter basically does is allow you to broadcast short messages about what you’re doing via SMS, IM, or web that go out to your friends (either via web or text messages). Since we here at Sub Pop always want you to know what we’re up to, we’ve started Twittering!

To follow Sub Pop through our various misadventures (mostly just announcements, last minute tour dates, and in-jokes but who knows it could get juicy…) just text “follow subpop” to 40404 from your cell phone and complete the signup process. We’ll look forward to saying things. Or twitting them. Or whatever.

Stupid Tour Date Tricks

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:11:57 -0800

Did you know that the tour dates on the Sub Pop site are posted in the hCalendar format? hCalendar is a microformat that uses XHTML to represent events in web pages. Since this format is understood by all sorts of software that can automagically process events on pages you visit, it can help can make your life easier.

Here’s a simple example for Firefox and Google Calendar users:

First, make sure you have Greasemonkey installed. (Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension which allows you to write Javascript to manipulate pages you visit. Read more here ).

Install one of several scripts that parse hCalendar and send it to Google Calendar. I used this one because the icon it uses isn’t too intrusive.

Go to any page on the Sub Pop site that lists tour dates. Notice anything different? You should see an icon (if you used the above script it’s an alarm clock) next to the tour date.

Now the fun part: click the icon! This should take you to a Google Calendar page that allows you to add the event to your calendar.

Cool, right? If you don’t use Google Calendar, all is not lost. There is all sorts of software available that allows you to import hCalendar events other formats. Check it out here.

As always, be careful when installing foreign software on your machine…

Make your stuff into a ringtone

andrews@subpop.com (andrew sullivan) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:47:55 -0800

These folks make it really easy to take your own music or whatever recording you want really and turn it into your new ringtone. It’s super easy to share and really easy to do as well, although their website is ugly I still like.

Follow me, this link, for myxertones.

SXSW Interactive

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:03:39 -0800

I’ll be in Austin next week representing Sub Pop at SXSW Interactive. If you’re a clever designer, a rubyist or are simply passionate about music (and are planning on actually being at the festival)—let’s talk! Just leave a comment or email me at webmaster.

PS - Anyone know if there is a schedule online iCal or vCal format? I’m not really interested in adding my the events one-by-one. Am I just missing an obvious link somewhere? It wouldn’t be the first time.

Industry Curmudgeon Throws Hellfire at "Marketers"

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:51:08 -0800

This blistering invective came by way of Bad Stuart to the staff email list. It seems that this fellow’s rants are probably not news to a lot of folks, but I’m not very industry, so they’re news to me. Month after month of music-biz-insider-piss-kicking—I don’t know who these dudes are, but love it! (Although his obsession with Nickelback is at least a little bit frightening.)

P.S. He’s right—the kids do love classic rock! (See Zeppelin. and Sabbath.) And while we’re bringing rock to the people, I’d negligent not to mention mother-effing TAD and SLEEP!

P.P.S. He called us Long Tail! (scroll down until you get to The Shins at #8…) I can’t tell whether or not that’s supposed to be a diss, but it’s oh-so rad.

I’m going to try to upgrade my piss and vinegar quotient by only reading Lefstez and Stevey’s Drunken Rants for the next month or so. Wish me luck…

Album Covers (in chalk)

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:03:36 -0800

This is rad—from the Signal vs. Noise blog by the fine folks at 37Signals.

The Pyromania cover is extra sweet.

Walking to Work Shuffle

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:02:25 -0800

One of the benefits of living within walking distance of work is, well, walking to work. And, having just rediscovered my iPod (after a year or two of neglect), few things compliment a half hour walk better than a shuffle. Here’s mine from today:

Amon Duul – Mama Duul Und Ihre Sauerkrautband Spielt Auf
Valerio Longoria – El Canoero (from the Arhoolie box set)
Brian Eno – Kurt’s Rejoinder
Sonic Youth – My Friend Goo
Aretha Franklin – Do Right Woman / Do Right Man
Six Finger Satellite – It Takes One to Know One
Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue (live)
Television Personalities – Glittering Prizes
T. Rex – The Soul of My Suit
Tiny Vipers – Bottomless Nancy
Jennifer Gentle – Wondermarsh

Holy Mahooly

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:15:04 -0800

In case you didn’t notice, we launched! The new website! It’s been a very busy few weeks for me and I’m ready to relax by the fire with a few fancy drinks.

Extra special thanks to: Stuart, James, Andrew, Chris, Dusty, Jeff, Jonathan, Megan, the rest of the Sub Pop staff and countless interns. w00t!

Internet Music Roundup

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:50:34 -0800

Here’s what’s new:

Hide your TiVo! A new bill has been introduced which may make some of the features you’ve grown to love illegal.
Netflix is introducing a service that allows you to watch a fixed monthly allotment of film via stream (read: over the internet). The catch: IE/Win only. Boo.
Chinese online music service!
Global digital music sales double to almost $2bn in 2006.
AOL dumps MusicNow in favor of Napster for it’s music subscription service.

I’m a little nervous about the Feinstein/Graham bill—it seems like there could be a better fair use balance struck with regards to recording broadcast media (especially considering that legitimate digital sales doubled in 2006). With last year’s sales numbers it’s becoming increasingly clear: if you make your digital content dead easy to buy and leverage your catalog properly, people actually do buy the stuff.

Photo Booth

deanh@subpop.com (Harry Dean Hudson) — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 14:17:14 -0800

I just got a new MacBook and Photo Booth is officially the best software ever. But for reals.