Posts Tagged ‘mp3’
Get This Deal Before Somebody Notices
It’s Cyber Monday! Deals deals deals! (Conspicuous consumption, OK, not great, but it’s better than “Black Friday All Week!” which is impossible because it can’t even be FRIDAY all week.) This deal has been out there for awhile but we thought today was a good day to tell you about it.
Here’s the deal. It’s a little sneaky.
Amazon has this thing called “AutoRip”. You buy a CD, and can then immediately download an MP3 version of the album. Cool stuff. Very handy. Saves you from ripping the thing yourself.
But I don’t want CDs, you say. I’m a purely digital guy/gal/haven’t yet made up my mind.
Ah, sayeth I. Ye of little faith. Would we steer you wrong?
What would you say if I told you you could have the CD AND the MP3 version of the album for less than the price of the MP3 version alone?
Jimi would say, “That’s cool.”
Yes, ladies, gentlemen, and those who have yet to make up their minds. (That’s a line from Kinky Boots, a great Broadway show. Go see it. Buy the soundtrack. Just be.) Amazon is indeed selling many of your favorite CDs for less than the price of their digital versions, while giving you a digital copy for free.
Free!
Here is the current pricing of Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix
Such a deal!
See that?
Poke around Amazon’s music store and see what you find. I recently bought a bunch of James Taylor CDs, and I think all but one of them included a free MP3 download for less than the cost of buying the MP3 download alone.
If you don’t want the CD, you can, give it to someone else or use it as a coaster. You’re saving money even if you never crack open the plastic. I look at it this way — I get the high quality audio of a CD and the immediacy and convenience of MP3 for less than the cost of the MP3 alone. Did I mention that? I think I did.
Enjoy. Here’s a link to that Hendrix album to get you started.
Amazon.com: Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Hendrix: MP3 Downloads.
Nina Simone Makes Me Feel Better
At the moment I’m cranky about something. I opened iTunes and planned to listen to something appropriate to my bad mood. When I saw The Best of Nina Simone, I clicked it, and realized that listening to Nina Simone makes me feel better.
Why? In the past it would have been Black Flag or something similarly loud. Now that I’m old(er) that’s not where I go. Between work and kids, I can’t afford to get my anger out my increasing the volume and releasing the emotion. I need to calm down.
Nina Simone for some reason does that. It also puts things in perspective. How? Listening to Mississippi Goddam is a good reminder that people have had, and still do have, more serious problems than the nonsense that I’m irritated by at the moment. She also has one of those genuinely unique voices and a musical style that cuts through bullshit like a hot knife through a cliché. It’s sort of punk rock without the punk rock. There’s attitude, but not the same kind of attitude. Her piano playing isn’t perfect, but that’s not important. When she sings “Oh Yeah” in Sinnerman, it’s eerie.
The Best of Nina Simone may not be the best Nina Simone album/collection of digital files; that’s just a caveat in case anyone who reads this is, in fact, a more informed fan that I am. If so, please enlighten me. I’ll probably buy that album/collection of digital files as well. The only reason I have this to listen to is because it was on sale at Amazon for $5, and I’m enough of a cheapskate that the word “sale” motivates me.
Going even further back, if I recall correctly, Nina Simone had just died and I asked my mother about her. She said I should listen to her music, specifically Mississippi Goddam. This was way back in the bad old days of file sharing, so I downloaded some random stuff and put it on a CD. The quality ranged from acceptable to crappy but it was good enough that I got the idea that this was good stuff. A few years after that, I got the album/collection of digital files on sale, and here we are.
Two things:
– my intro to Nina Simone came in part from my mother, even though I was fully gone from living under her roof at the time.
– the other day my son told me that he liked music videos more than listening to music, because it was “better.” I was surprised to hear that, and asked, “what about when you just want to listen to something?” He agreed. I don’t think that was a fully formed opinion (my opinions change constantly and I’m almost -ahem- 40), but I felt the need to nip it in the bud somewhat. Heck, he’s not even growing up with MTV. Something to think about.
The Best of Nina Simone at Amazon (no longer on sale, but still worth buying)
