In it what is in it

Music of the planets

I like SolarBeat by WhiteVinylDesign -- a virtual music box of the planets. Each time an orbit is completed, a note is struck. The planets, of course, do not have circular orbits -- but it is in keeping with the spirit of Kepler's, "...the movements of the heavens are nothing except a certain everlasting polyphony".

Johannes Kepler established that the planets move elliptically around the sun, and that they accelerate as they approach the sun. Seminal scientific stuff that prepared the way for Newton, but his deeper belief, seen in his statement above, was that of a connection between music and the movement of the planets. 

Lala -- the next big thing in music? [Update: Poof! It's gone!]

[Update: If you visit Lala now, you are greeted with the message, "Lala is shutting down. The Lala service will be shut down on May 31st, 2010".  What happened? There are two speculations: 1) Apple bought Lala to shut it down, wiping out potential competition.  2) In June, Apple is going to announce iTunes Live, which will be a reincarnation of Lala branded for Apple. I favor the second explanation  -- and June is not far away. Below you see my original post from March 27, 2010, toting Lala's merits.]

If you haven't yet heard about Lala, the new place to get your music on the web, you will. TechCrunch says, "Lala may have just built the next revolution in digital music". cnet calls it, "the first indispensable online music service since Pandora". Apple bought them in December 2009.

Lala offers 8 million songs (and counting) any of which you can listen to for free by streaming to a web browser. But that's to listen just once. If you want perpetual access to a favorite, you pay just 10 cents for it. The music is streamed without ads and raises the question: why download songs, rather than just hear them when you want? You can make playlists, and since there is no download, there is no hard disk limit as to how many songs 'belong' to you. This browser-centric model works brilliantly for PCs and laptops today using Adobe Flash. Streaming is being worked on for smart phones and is expected soon for iPhones. For today's portable non-web devices like the iPod or Zune, or iPhones, you can still download the MP3 for 89 cents. Visit Lala to learn more.

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Microsoft's Songsmith for the singer in you

Something cool from... Microsoft? Yes, while we have all been busy praising Apple and Google for innovation, here comes a creative new tool from Microsoft. "Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer’s voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC’s microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you." It's a great concept; one that is appealing all the way from children to would-be musicians who want to experiment -- and you and me who are somewhere in between on the spectrum between the shower and American Idol.