| CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast |
 Nov. 13,
2008
Ep.38 : Pandora Radio
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| cdbaby.com audio using in-site Flash button |
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The audio clips on the cdbaby.com website are now using a little [>] play button that keeps the listener on the page, without needing any extra software to listen.
Also, they are the full-quality MP3 files only, now. No more lo-fi mono MP3 files. I made this change very reluctantly, always trying to keep the dialup-modem user in mind, but since recent surveys show that 75% of internet users are on broadband, I'm imagining that most people who are actually interested in listening to music online have made the switch.
And it sounds SO much better!
For you webmaster geeks who are interested in using the same tool on your own website, here's the link: http://www.wimpyplayer.com/
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Ruined my day.
Make that week.
Make that year.
I now cannot listen on 87.5% of my computers (Linux).
Plus, there is no "play all", so I have to sit there and do *NOTHING* useful, or flip back and forth and back and forth to preview the full CD. Ugh.
Can't drag the playlist over to my MP3 player and queue up a stack full of CDs to pick out the ones I like.
Granted, I mostly used it to choose bands to play the venue instead of actually buying CDs, but I've been driving traffic (or trying to) to CDBaby for a long time with my .sig and various other means...
Anyway, it's enough to drive me away from using CDBaby to preview CDs, and I doubt I'll be the only one.
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hey Richard :
C'mon man quit crying. I'm in Linux 100% these days, and Flash 6 works fine. Flash for Firefox or Opera work great in any Linux from the last few years. Anyone who visits MySpace or YouTube needs Flash. So about 100% of people interested in music online at all have Flash. It's a safe bet.
But the "queue it up in my MP3 player" thing is exactly what was causing most people a problem. They hated having some other piece of software open just to listen to music, when all other websites seem to have the music right there directly embedded in the page.
And Richard I know your text-parsing skills, so a simple grep or preg_match of the HTML source for the page, looking for audio.cdbaby.com, will reveal the direct links to the MP3 files anyway, for those so inclined to use their own methods to listen. You could probably make a simple shell script to say ./listen $URL and that would automatically start piping the direct MP3 links from that page into your favorite MP3 player :-)
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Actually, Flash 9 for Linux is in beta -- but Flash 6 for Linux rarely, if ever, actually gives me any audio. I just get the animation, no sound :-(
There is also the fact that Flash invariably ends up crashing my browser, sooner or later...
Hopefully this is better for the majority of your buyers, but it's sure not better for me.
And I'll have to dig through some old source code to find the URLs, as Flash hides them.
Oooh, wait!
You've put back the links at the top for "play all"
Yay!!!
YOU ROCK!!!
Great for *both* kinds of users!
I shoulda known you'd come to that realization quickly. :-)
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Just for the record:
cdbaby.com now consistently and repeatedly crashes Netscape 7 under RedHat 7.
So my main desktop can't surf there.
Should I even ask what's with the "Waiting for google-analytics.com..." thing on other OSes/browsers...
:-v
I love CDBaby, but wish it was more backwards-compatible browser-OS-friendly.
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That was really funny Derek :>) You are pretty smart. You guys having it out in a battle of wits. This was very entertaining!
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| by
on Saturday February 03 2007 @ 06:42PM PST [ reply | parent ] |
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Really hate the change. I and many friends have dial up and we feel cheated by the change. No consideration given to dial ups in general. Nothing else available where I live.
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Dear anonymous:
I'm not sure what you're talking about.
All of the clips are in lo-fi dialup speeds.
If you click the song name, it plays in lo-fi dialup speeds.
If you click the arrow to the left of the song, it plays in lo-fi dialup speeds.
If you click the green button above the song list, it plays in lo-fi diaup speeds.
ONLY if you click the purple "PLAY ALL SONGS hi-fi broadband" does it play in a quality to great for dial-ups to hear.
So... what are you complaining about?
The entire CD Baby site is very dial-up modem friendly. Much more so than any other music site.
- Derek
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In the 1800s traveling minstrels walked or rode about from town to town.The people suppored them on their merit.The people wern't stuck with music factor cookie cutter Music.The same is true again now because of CD baby only now we travel in cyber space instead of on foot.The Good Old Days Are Back
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Hey Derek:
It does sounds better! And thanks for the tech tip, as I didn't know about Wimpy until now. I'm going to give it a spin on my server, as it looks like it will work well with PHP/MySQL.
Duncan
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Does this affect the music files which are on the Hostbaby sites as
well? In other words - is there no lo-fi or hi-fi choices? In oher
words - do I need to do anything to fix/update those music files
which came from the CDBaby master music files?
BTW- thanks for the changes - I know you're always thinking of
ways to make things better.
Lorrie
Healing Sounsdscapes Inspired by the Sonoran Desert
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> Does this affect the music files which are on the Hostbaby sites?
Nope.
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Derek, I am a long-time customer who is totally aggravated that you changed this music format. The "play all songs" feature was the best way to go. You could listen to the music all the way thru while attending to other matters instead of sitting there wasting time clicking on each separate track. And, yes there are still alot of folks out there with dial-up who can't fork out the bucks for broadband. Beside the fact I like indie music the play all songs option was the primary reason I shopped your site. As stated, it was a time-saver for busy people. This change will significantly curtail my sampling & the associated shoping - bad decision. And, I am far from being alone on this.
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Steven - [PLAY ALL SONGS] is still there, as always. Go look.
We just replaced the part where you had to click on each song name to hear the song with a flash button. That's all.
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cdbaby sold out long ago when they went onto mainstream and accepting all kinds of crap music... when you have garbage, garbage comes out...
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Huh?
CD Baby has always been an artists' service, here for anyone to use, since the day I started it.
What do you mean "accepting all kinds of crap music"?
- Derek
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What do you mean "accepting all kinds of crap music"?
You see? thats what I meant!! Maybe its called deafness!
If you can't tell good from bad music, Then you oughtta go to the
Doctor!!
Best Of Luck Anyways!
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For the record, CDBaby has ALWAYS had an open policy of accepting any salable CD.
So they never "sold out"
And, sure, 90% of everything is crap, but so what?
There are also great browse/search mechanisms, plus the Editors' Picks in every genre.
If you can't find something great on CDBaby, you just don't like music.
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the only crap here is pauls comments...
shame,
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I agree, There are lots of great artist around that most people never get the opportunity to hear. CDBABY helps to make dreams come true and I am lucky to have come across their website. In memory of my late Mother, Betty Dempsey who passed on two years ago. She does not have a crappy voice! Go and listen at www.cdbaby.com/bettydempsey3
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What do yu mean crap??? Would you say that to a young musician trying to live a dream? Would you say this if it were your own relative??? "Crap?"
Wow...where has the "freedom of expressing one's self gone to? Just remember, for every "crappy song....there will be one listening to it and buying it!" Geez Derek.....anyway to stop the negativity?????
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The wonderful thing about music is that one person's idea of crap is another's idea of the best art ever.
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Paul, where can I find your 'crap music'? The music that you wrote, played sung and recorded? I'll give you a careful analysis and insightful review. Be open and honest Paul, tell me where I can hear it and I'll review it honestly and sincerely. I'll send you a copy of the review and let you decide whether you would like me to publish it. I'm genuinely interested in you and your musicianship, because, clearly, you really know what you are talking about, and it would be a real pleasure to find something new, in a different class from the norm. Please let me know where I can find it, pretty please?????
George Bolam: InZaneCountry
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Hi George! If you have a chance can you review my Mother's CD? She passed on about two years ago but I want to keep her music alive. Thanks in advance I would really appreciate it.
www.cdbaby.com/bettydempsey3
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Great move! I'm all for making it sound as good as possible.
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I believe it's now easier to get the mp3 of good quality free. There is no safety for ripping them off.
The system itself is ok but why give away the whole song?
I started to use the flash system a while ago but only with a cut out of the music, not the whole music.
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Hazim, I think (View/Source)is only revealing the 2:00 minute (or less) clips of audio location.
To me full length song is okay if it's very lo-fi like at http://www.stevencravis.com and hi-fi is okay only as long as it's short clips (not the full length song.
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If you know what to do, it has always been easy to get music for free on the web. If it plays on your PC, no matter where it comes from and no matter what the format, (even streamed music), you can do it, and anyone can. No special PC skills, you just have to know a little about the very, very basics of PC's. So, don't kid yourself, the music is available for free from this and any other website to those who know how. I can do it, and I don't know any code at all.
George Bolam: InZaneCountry
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Derek...thanks very much - it is really apreciated by me & many others I have directed to your site.
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great idea - how about changing the colour scheme - when you look at the site from best buy it's all white and with the headers it looks much better (in my opinion - tastes like music vary greatly) - just an idea...
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| by
on Saturday December 23 2006 @ 07:40AM PST [ reply | parent ] |
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I just got broadband about 8 months ago but I know people like my son in Bethlehem PA where broadband is not available. I think that some means of providing for these folks should be considered. It's not their fault that they can't get broadband.
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You're right. 10% of cdbaby.com users are still on dialup modems, and that's why every page has a green [PLAY ALL] (lo-fi) button above the song list, so people on dial-up modems can listen just fine.
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Hey! Your right! How come that didn't seem to work last time I tried it?
Oh well, glad to see it is there for those who need it.
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Hmmm,
I've never understood why all else-one has to turn anything Derek does into a moral dilemma...
Then again,
Imagine helping a homeless person for 6 years straight on X-MAS Eve. On the 7th year; you cannot find him/her when suddenly, several days later, you see them elsewhere. They approach you outraged, screaming, insisting you didn’t help them out that year. Whether it was a dinner, clothing, doesn't matter.
Derek is a tech-term more than the man behind CD Baby these days. So, if you think about it, his need to expand is probably more prominent than someone's ill-regard for his choices.
I believe cdbaby.org hinders the creative process behind all things independently created. That term is a moniker in itself. Rhetoric, Crying-Wolf and shame for things that require none is all you see. The extermination of this forum or the removal of all things irrelevant (defined as, starting from scratch) is probably a better solution for all things CD Baby.
A great tool however, a debatable consumer-base.
Akin to terrorists is where most are on this forum.
Akin to nothing is where they must remain.
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I'm a graduate, but I don't understand a word of that last post. English please, or don't bother. Note to your Diary: 'Language is for communicating thoughts to others, so there's no point in constructing elaborate or even beautiful sentences that are unintelligible'.
George Bolam
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Holy cow! A whole lotta grumps around here!
Derek, thank you for your hard work. I've had my stuff on CD Baby for several years and you're constantly making it clear that you are out to help the independent artist.
Thank you thank you thank you and Happy New Year.
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Oh my god what did you do? After posting that last message, I went to my CD page and listened to my preview tracks. They sound amazing! They're on fire!
Can you share with us what method you use to encode these mp3s, or is it secret?
I usually use dbPoweramp with the LAME encoder on alt-preset-standard, but whatever you folks did sounds better!
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Same as you : lame encoder (except on Linux command-line, not using dbPoweramp), but I think for the 2-minute clips we use 128k setting instead of the alt-preset standard. (Though we use alt-preset standard for the clips that we distribute out to the digital music services.)
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Oh. Well then. I guess I'll just keep doin' what I'm doin'.
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Hi !
I only want to say you thank you Derek, thank you very much, you work hard to put cdbaby.com as high as possible, and we, well, I think most of artists here, are very gratefull tu you (sorry for my bad english, I am spanish and sure I am making mistakes :)
And... very glad to know you work on linux, my "real" work (8 hours every day), is as a linux programmer, I have been working on linux since... I don't remember exactly, possible 8 or 9 years. We make bussines software for accounting... So, I am very happy to know you use linux also.
Best regards from Spain,
Estanis
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/Estanis
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Nice work, Derek.
I've been using the Wimpy player for a while. Super light and clean and simple to install. I recommend it to anyone who wants to embed audio on their web page.
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Unbelievable negative comments! I have had nothing but opportunities since becoming a CD Baby member. Derek, thank you for continuing to better CD Baby for both the artist and consumer. Keeping up with technology is not an easy task and can be very expensive. Your work makes my work easier. Trust me, I need all the help I can get!
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Unbelievable.
First, great job, Derek.
Second, shame on the people who use your service to insult you.
Hey Angry People: If you don't like CDBaby, walk away... what's
keeping you here? Make constructive suggestions or get lost.
oops. now I'm angry. better go
:)
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well said - cd baby is a record shop not a record label - they do an immense amount for artists
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