Digital Music

Talk about jazz that really cooks: Thirty years of Canadian concerts are being offered free online by a Toronto radio station that made it possible by baking the original analogue tape reels.

The Canadian Jazz Archive at jazzarchive.ca features all of JAZZ-FM91's Sound Of Jazz concert series since they began in 1976, with performances in streaming ...

Guitarist Frank Vignola has never downloaded an MP3, but that isn't stopping him from launching a new online store featuring unique albums with some of his favorite players.

VMdownloads.com by Venture Music, launched with an initial collection of eleven albums and more scheduled for release soon, features a number of just-recorded projects by Vignola, Bucky Pizzarelli, ...

The odds of a randomly generated audio file matching a standard-quality MP3 of “So What" are roughly one in 326 trillion.

By coincidence, a $2,000 Dell PC can now generate that many numbers in two hours and 43 minutes.

Those numbers, argued in extreme technical detail, are the basis of a March 30 legal ruling that ...

Some might argue that, like teen drinking or sex education, the only responsible option for this Russian site offering albums for pennies on the dollar is declaring it unacceptable.

But, much like those issues, I believe it's inaccurate and irresponsible to ignore it, since the temptation will be too great for many to resist. If they're ...

I have traveled into tomorrow. It looks a like lot today, with decorative rhinestones.

No radical leaps in the digital music world appear to be coming soon if the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is any indication. Increasing numbers of companies hoping to cash in on the iPod's success are offering their varieties of ...

So this is the future: After breaking a leg using a high-tech snowboarding parka to switch between an iPod and cell phone in mid-air, gear geeks can recover in a lounge chair equipped with full-blown Surround Sound circuitry.

Priceless.

Actually there is a price, probably a rather steep one, for those hoping to indulge in the ...

So far the greatest discovery from a sneak preview into expensive future technology is free and long outdated stuff.

Going through endless press releases and agendas for the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas reveals lots of hype about surround-sound MP3s, walkman-like satellite radios and other advances designed to let people listen to virtually anything ...

This is the year I became a believer.

I've been downloading music for years, mostly a few novelty or sample tracks here and there. But 2004 is the first year where my purchases of online music clearly exceeded traditional CDs.

And the amount of free and legal music may have surpassed both.

As someone who works ...

Sometimes it's a great thing getting a reminder of one's ignorance.

Stumbling upon these user-created collections of free music downloads, usually compiled from different sites and grouped into virtual “albums," exposes an entirely new genre of site foreign to me despite years of scouring the Net for files. Maybe it's just associating the “mix" thing with ...

Those dreading malls in December, perhaps so much so that shopping remains unfinished Christmas morning, the Internet offers the sweet sound of salvation.

Holiday music, both free and commercial, is one of the easiest to find from multitudes of online sources, offering a chance to relax rather than shop the day after Thanksgiving or obtain a ...

With campaign season in full swing, sacrificing an evening with the Washington Post becoming wise in the ways of our nation's capital seems reasonable. And it reveals a clear path in these times of a sharply divided electorate:

Pledge allegiance to those following a Duke.

That would be candidate Ellington in this case, as music fans ...

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For 99 cents you can download a one-hour live performance by trumpet star Wynton Marsalis and his septet. Or a few seconds of him suggesting audience members use the restroom first.

The same spare change buys more than 30 minutes of Miles Davis, or a ...

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There is no ideal online music store and it's less likely all the time there ever will be. But properly used they can provide some of the greatest moments any music fan experiences.

At their best it's hard to top the immediate gratification of getting ...

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Here's a strange thought: Free music downloads available legally are better than what the masses are stealing.

Either allows jazz fans to collect a diverse library large enough to listen to indefinitely, especially since more is constantly put online. Those going the legal route can't ...