Jonathan Coulton

Well now I feel bad I didn’t say nicer things about EMI yesterday – Gizmodo says that according to an EMI spokesperson, “The iTunes premium price and AAC 256 kbps format are Apple’s Marketing decision.” I suppose that might mean that EMI would have been into offering full quality files without an increase in price, but Apple made them do it this way. Maybe. I still think it’s kind of an irritating way to do things – taking away the right to play your music on any device, and then charging you money to get it back – but maybe the blame doesn’t lie with EMI.

I used to work for EMI you know, back when I was first a grownup here in NYC. I’m still pretty sure I can blame them for how much that job sucked.

Len, the excellent illustrator behind Visual Thing a Week and the JoCo Coloring Book, has been doing a really great project called Monster By Mail. Send him a descriptive word and he will draw a monster based on it, send the original to you on a postcard, and post a video of him doing the drawing. The guy is expecting his 80th child or whatever, so he could certainly use your $$$, in exchange for which you will receive an awesome monster IN THE MAIL.

Since it’s First of May Month (April), I’ve made the karaoke version of First of May free to download all month at the top of the main page on my site. Please don’t sing it in front of children, I already catch enough flack for the swearing.

Looks like EMI’s made a deal with iTunes to sell higher quality, DRM-free songs for $1.29, and possibly offer $.30 song upgrades. (Someone on Twitter just told me they’re going to be 256 AAC files, but I haven’t confirmed that anywhere else. But Twitter can’t be wrong, right?)

It’s nice to see a label taking a step like this, and it makes me hopeful that maybe people are starting to see the folly of DRM. But I have to say: $1.29? For something that’s not even full quality? Now is not the time to be raising prices for digital downloads you dummies. But you know, good for them I guess – it’s kind of like watching a baby eat with a spoon for the first time – even though they’re doing it totally wrong and making a terrible mess of things, it’s cute to watch them trying.

Also, it sure would be nice if iTunes would sell DRM-free music on behalf of me and the countless other independent musicians who figured this out a while ago.

Had another one of those stretches where I see the emails come in, think of lots of things to blog, and don’t do anything about either one. But you should know that Baltimore was a small but fun crowd (and the 8×10 has a fantastic green room situation), the Cutting Room in NYC featured some really stupendous, uke-drenched versions of a couple tunes (thank you Kristen), and last night I performed with Hodgman at dear old Yale in the dining hall where I used to eat broccoli-cheese strata.
I’ve got a quiet April in terms of playing – nothing at all scheduled this month in fact. Hoping to get a little writing done if you want to know the truth. But I’m back in May with the Northampton show on the 2nd and Johnny D’s in Boston on the 3rd – they should both be really big exciting crowds if past performances are any indication. Now: to my email!