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This is one ringtone I’ve never heard in the U.S., possibly because its target to an HIV awareness program in India. The ringtone is an a cappella number that repeats the word ‘condom’ in a style reminiscent of one of those big Bollywood dance numbers. If you’re going to annoy people with a custom ringtone, it might as well be silly nonsense. ;) It’s an MP3, but with a little effort you could probably put it on your iPhone too. The whole HIV awareness campaign can be found at condomcondom.org
When I was in China this summer, I was slightly shocked to find so many people still using Limewire as a means of downloading music. Not shocked that people want to get free stuff, but shocked because I’ve seen so many problems with files downloaded from Limewire containing viruses or being just plain garbage.
I’m still happily using subscription services for my day to day music consumption and buying tracks the old fashioned way – purchasing the CD. I’ve been an URGE subscriber since shortly after launch. I like the new Zune subscription service. In both cases, I like being able to sample tons of new music, knowing I’ll lose interest fairly quickly. For the stuff I do like, I can buy the CD, rip it using Exact Audio Copy and feel confident that I’ve got a quality version of the songs I want to keep completely free of DRM. These files work on my iPod, my Zune, and will likely work on any device that supports MP3 into the future (if they cease working, I’ll simply re-rip to a new format).
With the launch of the AmazonMP3 store, I’m strongly considering changing my habits, at least for some music. I’ll still use subscription services – I like to sample new music. But I might switch from buying CDs to buying downloads. The audio quality of the AmazonMP3 store is comparable to what I can get from Exact Audio Copy. There’s no DRM. Often the complete album is cheaper than buying music on a shiny disk. And I don’t have to invest my own time in paying attention to ripping files.
I won’t buy tracks from iTunes or any of the other stores because I don’t want DRM on tracks I plan to keep. And I don’t understand why Apple (or record labels) thinks I should pay more for getting files without copy protection. The AmazonMP3 model makes sense.
So how do you get your music? Do you pay for it? Do you rent it? Do you buy it with or without DRM? Are you buying disks or downloads? Inquiring minds want to know…
Or yet another reason to take Wikipedia and MySpace with several pounds of salt. Apparently rumors of the founder of Minor Threat, Fugazi and Dischord records are greatly exaggerated, the Baltimore Sun had no problem phoning him at home to check on his health. Rumors are flying all over the Internet, in part because people keep re-posting the news of MacKaye’s death to Wikipedia.
I once met Ian MacKaye when Fugazi played at my bar back in 1998. I have a photo somewhere that deserves to be scanned and posted to Flickr. He was impressed that he was playing in a club not run by some old geezer who didn’t care about music (I was 25 at the time). I was amused by the fact that his band travels with it’s own electric dryer.
Malaysian pop star Guang Liang, who is ridiculously popular throughout China, seems to have a huge following among piano enthusiasts for his megahit Tong Hua (which translates to Fairy Tale). You can find Guang Liang sheet music at many of the DIY sheet music sites like TabNabber.com
For an idea of what all the hype is about, you can see the music video as presented by YouTube here:
Coupled with the tragic music video and the more marketable name Michael Wong, Guang Liang is quite possibly the Malaysian equivalent to Justin Timberlake. I’m guessing there’s crossover potential here, although currently, the official Michael Wong site is available only in traditional and simplified Chinese.
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