Dynamic Range Compression: Are The Loudness Wars Over? The other day I bought a copy of Nathan Fake’s rather lovely Drowning In A Sea Of Love album. Nothing unusual about that, except that I’d first bought a copy in 2006 when it came out, and then sold it again, because it was too loud as far as I was concerned. Seven years ago I was at my most militantly anti-loudness, and I culled plenty of records from my collection that I deemed to be offensive to my dynamic sensibilities, denying myself the potential pleasure of listening to plenty of really, really good music that just happened to be loud. I’m more pragmatic these days, more concerned with how things are mixed and the integrity of frequency ranges and timbres than with pure dynamic range, or lack thereof, but my tastes have definitely changed over recent years: I listen to practically zero mainstream rock or pop these days unless it’s exceptional or dynamic or both.
I emailed Bob and asked him to tell me more. Bob Katz: Everyone should turn on Sound Check in your iTunes players. Music And Piracy Infographic by =curseofthemoon on deviantART.
Streaming. YouTube Now Allows Music Partners To Sell Merchandise, Digital Downloads And Event Tickets. We already know that YouTube is seeing 3 billion videos viewed per day day, but now the online video giant is now seeing a whopping 800 million people per month visiting the site, Google revealed in its third-quarter earnings report last week. And today, YouTube is also announcing the ability to sell merchandise, tickets and more via the site. Through a feature called the Merch Store, YouTube partners will be able to sell artist merchandise, digital downloads, concert tickets and other experiences to fans and visitors.
YouTube has partnered with a number of companies to launch these stores. Topspin is helping power merchandise sales, concert tickets and experiences; SongKick will help sell tickets for concerts; and iTunes and Amazon will power transactions for music downloads. YouTube says be rolling out the Merch Store to music partners globally over the coming weeks.