Every day Google sends me an update as to which blogs are talking about me. This morning I came across a review that made my day. Here’s a clip:

Ebel accomplishes something far more impressive: the songs, though catchy and great in isolation, are even more strong when listened to as a cohesive album… There are reprises, melody replications (where they makes sense), and the layout of the tracks was undoubtedly intentional.
YouMakeMedia.com

This was also posted on the album’s page in the iTunes Music Store. Very cool!

If you remember Beer & Coffee’s release, you’re probably as surprised as I am that Goodbye Planet Earth made it to the Music Store in less than a month.

Well, it’s there! And it’s only $9.99 for the whole album. Granted, if you want high-quality DRM-Free tracks, you’ll need to get it from CD Baby or MySpace, and that’s only $12.99. But if you’re dying to get your copy of the new album from iTunes, it’s there!

And please leave a review on iTunes if you’ve already heard the album! Just CLICK HERE to go straight to the iTunes Music Store.

I’m sitting in the Nashville International Airport waiting for a giant metal bird to take me home for Christmas. In the mean time, I caught this gem of a post by my friend Chris Penn. Here’s a clip:

Music industry – the lesson is not that free will always win. EASY will always win. I could rip this track for free by breaking the DRM and converting to an MP3, but that’s 10 minutes of my day I can spend doing something else (like blogging about it). That would be free, but I want easy. I value my time more than my money, because I can always make money, but my lifespan is finite and irreplaceable.
-It’s Not Easy Being Legal

The larger implications of his post are debated on his site (which I recommend you check out, it’s a good read), but that paragraph in particular really resonated. I’m the kind of guy who will look on iTunes for a track, then go steal it if it ain’t there. I don’t buy CD’s unless I’m at a live concert, and if a label is too stupid to get their music on iTunes (especially here in the US), they’ve told me that they don’t want my money.

I also try and live this philosophy- I’ve got all my selling albums on (even though Goodbye Planet Earth isn’t listed yet), on CD Baby as both a disc and MP3 download, and on MySpace. I want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy my music legitimately.

To be honest, I’m kind of glad the major labels aren’t jumping on this with both feet. It puts us independents a step ahead.

So everyone’s talking about the hypothetical [tag]iPhone[/tag]™ soon to be announced by [tag]Apple Computer[/tag]. Much has been made of the fact that the trademarks and patents are already filed, not something [tag]Apple[/tag] does just for fun. Yet nobody can figure out just what’s supposed to be so groundbreaking.

A phone? That plays music? *YAWN*

I think I’ve figured it out, though, and I owe this revelation to the [tag]SciFi Network[/tag].
(more…)