New iTunes recommendation web service ‘i like b-sides’

Ben, otherwise known as "smash" (for various reasons), recently kicked – yet another – personal project out the door. The iTunes music recommendation service ilikebsides uses your local iTunes library XML file and generates mix-tapes of up to 16 songs. So how does it work?

[...] by contrasting the songs you’ve rated and/or played-back against your remaining library, then checking sales-data for each artist and determining ratios of "quality-vs.-quantity" on both-sides… mathematically, using a proprietary formula. But past this point, it’s not so simple…. We also factor songs that you do already own, but don’t listen-to. (…for those who love collecting complete albums or discographies!) In addition, we subtract most of the more popular songs, and then move the songs that you already own elsewhere… for later comparison to retain the integrity of your library.

Although the process of manually uploading a zipped archive of your libraries XML file may seem a little archaic, the results are quite interesting and for the most part, refreshing. Check out a demo mix-tape for an idea of the type of results you can expect to see.

The mix-tapes utilize Amazon web services to stream audio / video. Hear something worth purchasing, each track includes a link to the purchase page for download via Amazon MP3 Downloads.

A worthy iTunes Store alternative

Not to knock the iTunes Music Store, but Amazon MP3 Downloads is worth checking out for DRM-free downloads. Take for example the latest from Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak. Download the album from iTMS for $10 or grab it from Amazon MP3 Downloads for $9. Ok, maybe not the best example of big savings, but every dollar counts right?

The real winner in my eyes for choosing Amazon over iTMS is the Amazon MP3 Twitter account which announces special pricing and deals.

Updates I would like to see

• Saved library file uploads and registered user accounts for future visits
• Embeddable mix-tapes to share playlists on a personal site
• Easier method for updating your music library XML file when new songs are added (iTunes plugin?)

Did you check out ilikebsides? If so, what did you think? Are you purchasing songs from the iTunes Music Store, or have you moved to Amazon MP3?

The Android Market business and program policies also include an item that says users can return any application for a full refund within 24 hours of the time of purchase. In the absence of a trial version of applications, this offer will let users return an application that might not deliver exactly what they expected.

A 24 hour window for Android users to act on buyers remorse by returning applications which fail to meet expectations if a trial version is unavailable. I see two great one-ups over Apple’s execution of the app store here: 1) trial versions of software, and 2) 24 hour period for refunds. Common consumer right(s).

Despite enjoying the iPhone 99% of the time, the final 1% when I receive a bank statement – which reminds me of app store purchases screaming FAIL – is not so great. I’ve learned to offset bad apps by skipping the morning coffee run and drinking drip instead.

The choices for finding worthwhile apps relies heavily on feedback from others:

• Trust reviews within the App Store. Until recently, app reviews were open to anyone. Apple smartened up and now requires that customers purchase / download before reviewing. I may be wrong, but the overall weighted ratings for apps may still be calculated based on prior reviews from potential non-users.
• Trust reviews on blogs. With the increasing number of fluff apps making their way into the App Store, it is hard to keep tabs on applications with real value. Generally, if an app is good enough for an honorable mention or review on high traffic blog it must be worthwhile. Right?

Feedback and reviews from others are great, but actual hands on time before making an assessment of whether or not that .99 cent tip calculator to the $999 joke of an app I Am Rich (removed) is worth keeping gives the consumer real control.

When I first started reading stories similar to Trism raking in $250,000 in a little over 2 months, I began to wonder what percentage of these hefty take homes should have been refund credits had the model been in place.

One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure… Or so the Cliche goes. I have bought a lot of apps. A couple keepers, a few mehs, and a couple pages worth of garbage. Some remain on the phone just because I feel guilty. $140. The total racks up quickly. A lucrative business model for both Apple and developers.

What are your thoughts on the App Store? How much have you dropped? And of the total dropped, what percentage would you have gladly accepted a refund for?

Yes, I am aware of the fact that most of the high profile App Store releases offer "lite" versions. To those developers, thank you!

DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.

Great. So Apple now offers DRM-free tracks from EMI as well as an option to upgrade existing DRM locked songs to their DRM-free variant for $1.29 or $0.30 respectively. Want to find out which songs are offered as DRM-free purchases? Open the iTunes Music Store and navigate through iTunes Plus. Here you may find some of the songs you are looking for. You may also come to realize that songs you may want to download DRM-free are not available.

So what options do you have if the song you wish to purchase is not available? While you can always ask uncle Bittorrent, possible run-ins with your ISP and the law may not sound all too enticing. The safest – and legal – route would be to purchase the songs through the iTunes Music Store. Personally, the rule that would allow an individual to authorize a track for playback on up to 5 machines is something I find acceptable for a digital medium which I purchased. Furthermore, I hate the fact that if I am signed out of the iTunes Music Store, I need to continue to keep a machine authorized or enter my Apple ID & password in order to listen to a song.

Remove DRM protection using iTunes + CD-R/W

Probably the most widely accepted method for stripping purchased songs of DRM protection is burning tracks to a CD-R/W then re-importing back into the iTunes library. A method guaranteed to free you of DRM madness.

• Create an iTunes playlist containing your purchased songs.
• Insert a blank CD-R or a CD-RW.
• Burn the playlist to disk.
• Re-import the songs after a successful burn.
• Deleting the original purchased tracks.

At one point, DRM Dumpster was a free solution which automated the process of locating purchased tracks burning them to disk and re-importing without any user intervention. Currently the software is provided as-is for $25. No thank you. I would much rather do the above steps myself or, make use of Apple’s own iMovie HD to do the same. Albeit at a slower rate BUT without the need for an actual CD-R or CD-RW.

Remove iTunes Music Store DRM with Apple software in Leopard

The current iteration of iMovie released with the iLife ‘08 software bundle is iMovie 7.1. However, in order to remove DRM protection, you will need iMovie HD – previously bundled with iLife ‘06. For those – like me – who received iLife ‘08 bundled with Mac OS X Leopard, iMovie HD is a separate application download. Once downloaded and installed, start iMovie HD and ‘Create a New Project’ titled "DRM-free". Save the project to your Desktop.

In the iMovie window, select the ‘Media’ tab located between ‘Themes’ and ‘Editing’. You will notice that the top right portion of the interface now offers a media browser. Select the ‘Audio’ tab and locate the playlist which contains purchased music, or search by artist / title.

Select the DRM-laden song and drag the file from the media browser into the iMovie timeline where it says "Drag audio here to build your project."

In order to export the song, iMovie requires that a visual image be associated with the audio track – iMovie thinks that it is going to be exporting a movie. Simply drag a blank image (or any other image) to the track above the previously imported audio file. Once iMovie has processed the image, select the ‘Share…’ sub menu item from found inside ‘Share’ in iMovie’s menu bar.

Ensure that ‘Expert Settings’ is selected in the "Compress movie for:" drop-down menu. Selecting ‘Expert Settings’ mode will provide the options to export the file as an audio file. Select the ‘Share’ button.

In the Save as… dialogue, select "Sound to AIFF" in the Export drop-down menu, Choose an appropriate directory for iMovie to export to, title the file, and select ‘Save’. Depending on your machine configuration, iMovie will compress and export the movie project as an audio file in 15-40 seconds.

Locate the exported AIFF audio file and drag to your iTunes Library. Right-click on the file and select "Convert Selection to AAC". Once completed, ‘Get Info’ on the new file, edit meta data, add album art, and trash the originally purchased and AIFF audio files from your iTunes library.

DRM-free iTunes Music Store purchases without wasting resources

The above steps may be far more tedious than simply burning to disk and re-importing. However, the process can be further simplified by creating an Automator action to replay the steps above. I think the upside of not having to waste actual media (CD-R or CD-RW) in order to burn and re-import songs is well worth the tedious process.

Side banter and miscellaneous notes

* If anyone is a paying subscriber, please feel free to comment with your thoughts on whether or not Sirius is a service worth paying for. I am currently making use of a 3 month limited trial in my Volkswagen R32 which only offers a few genre presets.

iMovie export of DRM protected files inspired by Seidai Software’s FairGame [which did not operate correctly under Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard].

Get the Best Software for your Computer

Looking for the best types of software for your Mac? There’s all kinds of free software available on the net if you know where to look. From essentials like free CD burning software to the more obscure astrology software there is sure to be the program for you!

Those that use the same video habits of allowing iTunes to manage libraries are undoubtedly familiar of the fact that iTunes – in regards to video content added outside of the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) – lacks Album Art (Cover) which results in iTunes displaying the opening studio credit. I don’t know, maybe everyone else enjoys seeing the Miramax’s, Paramount’s, and Fox’s, but I don’t.

In preparation for the arrival of the Apple TV, as well as my continued streaming content hanits via iTunes to computers throughout the house, I make it a regular habit to convert DVD’s into smaller, more manageable, MP4 files. Additionally, rather than manually managing my audio & video library, I trust in iTunes’ ability to break down the content directory by artist and album. In the case of video content, movies & TV shows. In iTunes I trust.

So how do you choose what frame of a movie or television show is shown as the Album Art for a file? Simple. The next time you’re watching a movie, take note of any familiar scenes which [as a whole] are reminiscent of the entire film. Once you’ve identified a frame, quickly pause the movie, right-click or CTRL+click on the video window, and select "Set Poster Frame". The new Poster Frame will then become your Album Art for the currently opened film making it oh so much easier to browse through video collections without having to actually read through titles.

An honorable virtual pat on the back for iTunes. The simple audio & video player has managed to provide just the right amount of control and organization to keep my library running smoothly without sucking every resource out of my machine. I now know that if I am ever bedridden for 15 straight days, I’ll have enough video content to keep me entertained from start to end.

Is video file conversion to MP4 for you? Maybe not. You don’t have to convert video files in order to play them through iTunes or Front Row. If you check out Breathe new life into OS X Front Row, you’ll find a number of tips helping manage your own library without having to convert files.

A shout-out to readers, what video files are making their way into your iTunes? My current television favorites include LOST, Prison Break, 24, and Dirt. If you don’t use iTunes, what video manager are you using for entertainment?

Related services or software used in relation to the above post: Amazon, Netflix, Mediafork, MacTheRipper, iTunes, VisualHub, and Disk Utility.