Thanks for all the Music January 14, 2011 5:45 PM Subscribe
Let's hear it for MetaFilter Music: 5,000+ posts and going strong. I love all of you, from the fine musicians to the devoted commenters and playlisters, to the mods who coded and managed it, to the thousands* of record label execs who've found their next pop star lurking in the shadows here. Here's to another 5,000 posts, then another 5,000, then after that we can re-evaluate. Sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone who's ever contributed, commented, made a playlist, listened to a tune, or even planned to and hasn't gotten around to it.
See within for some fun MeFi Music links, and a little bit of a primer on how to get your feet wet in our warm little musical community!
*Citation needed
Back in September, cortex honored us with the 5,000th Music post. I know, right? Seems like only yesterday that user frenetic christened the Music page with Dirtbag, or that grubi submitted the very first Music Challenge tune. And by the way, 8 more challenge entries and we'll have reached 500 - not bad!
Speaking of challenges, well, they're monthly prompts to help folks get inspired and post their music. Originally moderated by cortex, then flapjax at midnite, they're now ably handled by snsranch. Here's how you can follow them. And here are a few of the more popular ones:
- 54 Holiday tunes.
- 38 covers from The Velvet Underground & Nico.
- 29 (vastly different) covers of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.
- 27 posts inspired by the theme of "water".
- 20 covers of the #1 hit from the day you were born.
- 20 broken Christmas songs.
- 18 songs that only use two chords.
And hey, why not head over to Music Talk, where people post all sorts of music-related queries? Like for example:
- Help with building your own guitar.
- Dealing with Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS).
- Musical New Year's Resolutions. And more.
- How did you learn to play and sing at the same time?
- On time-stretching a tune.
- Have you fallen in love with any particular acoustic guitar?
- Guilty pleasures.
- How to fly internationally with an instrument.
New to music and looking for a place to start? You might try clicking any of these links:
- The random song button.
- Recommendations for MeFi Music Contacts.
- Songs that deserved more listens.
- The MeFi Music Charts, with the most-favorited and playlisted songs from various timespans.
A few massive MeFi collaborations:
- It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).
- MetaFilter Orchestra - Pandora's Music Box.
- The MetaFilter Secret Orchestra - Happy Birthday Jessamyn!
Fun Randomness:
- A massive torrent of MeFiMu tunes.
- A compendium of lyrics that MeFites posted for anyone in need of words for their melodies.
- In case you wanna collaborate with another MeFite, The wiki's got a list of folks who've volunteered their skills.
The above links are merely the tip of a very, very awesome iceberg of amazing music. We have a wonderful, kind, brilliant community here, and I am very grateful for it. If you've ever wanted to post a song, come along - this is the closest you'll ever find to an open mic online.
See within for some fun MeFi Music links, and a little bit of a primer on how to get your feet wet in our warm little musical community!
*Citation needed
Back in September, cortex honored us with the 5,000th Music post. I know, right? Seems like only yesterday that user frenetic christened the Music page with Dirtbag, or that grubi submitted the very first Music Challenge tune. And by the way, 8 more challenge entries and we'll have reached 500 - not bad!
Speaking of challenges, well, they're monthly prompts to help folks get inspired and post their music. Originally moderated by cortex, then flapjax at midnite, they're now ably handled by snsranch. Here's how you can follow them. And here are a few of the more popular ones:
- 54 Holiday tunes.
- 38 covers from The Velvet Underground & Nico.
- 29 (vastly different) covers of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.
- 27 posts inspired by the theme of "water".
- 20 covers of the #1 hit from the day you were born.
- 20 broken Christmas songs.
- 18 songs that only use two chords.
And hey, why not head over to Music Talk, where people post all sorts of music-related queries? Like for example:
- Help with building your own guitar.
- Dealing with Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS).
- Musical New Year's Resolutions. And more.
- How did you learn to play and sing at the same time?
- On time-stretching a tune.
- Have you fallen in love with any particular acoustic guitar?
- Guilty pleasures.
- How to fly internationally with an instrument.
New to music and looking for a place to start? You might try clicking any of these links:
- The random song button.
- Recommendations for MeFi Music Contacts.
- Songs that deserved more listens.
- The MeFi Music Charts, with the most-favorited and playlisted songs from various timespans.
A few massive MeFi collaborations:
- It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).
- MetaFilter Orchestra - Pandora's Music Box.
- The MetaFilter Secret Orchestra - Happy Birthday Jessamyn!
Fun Randomness:
- A massive torrent of MeFiMu tunes.
- A compendium of lyrics that MeFites posted for anyone in need of words for their melodies.
- In case you wanna collaborate with another MeFite, The wiki's got a list of folks who've volunteered their skills.
The above links are merely the tip of a very, very awesome iceberg of amazing music. We have a wonderful, kind, brilliant community here, and I am very grateful for it. If you've ever wanted to post a song, come along - this is the closest you'll ever find to an open mic online.
This post has punched me in the dick.
posted by chaff at 6:26 PM on January 14, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by chaff at 6:26 PM on January 14, 2011 [3 favorites]
We all move to Detroit and start a bar/music venue / monastery.
posted by The Whelk at 6:52 PM on January 14, 2011
posted by The Whelk at 6:52 PM on January 14, 2011
I tried to upload a song of mine a time or two and never managed to do it. Can some helpful soul tell me what the crap I did wrong?
(I have my songs on disc. When I upload them to the computer they show up on my Itunes.Is there something else I should be doing?)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:47 PM on January 14, 2011
(I have my songs on disc. When I upload them to the computer they show up on my Itunes.Is there something else I should be doing?)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 7:47 PM on January 14, 2011
Without knowing a lot more about what problems you are having St A, your question is unanswerable. maybe head over to Music Talk for some one-on-one advice?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:23 PM on January 14, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:23 PM on January 14, 2011
My iTunes was originally set to import songs from a disc into AAC format or something, and I had to use "Convert to mp3" in the Advanced menu.
posted by Hoopo at 8:48 PM on January 14, 2011
posted by Hoopo at 8:48 PM on January 14, 2011
Excellent. Thanks for putting this together, ORthey! I was just listening to your amazing version of the flyball's lament today for the first time in a while. Both your version and the The Great Big Mulp's version are MuFi classics.
posted by umbú at 9:09 PM on January 14, 2011
posted by umbú at 9:09 PM on January 14, 2011
Well, my lack of technical expertise probably prevents me from knowing exactly what i need to ask....but Hoopo gives me a direction to go in at least. Maybe later when I have more time to mess with it I will head over there and give it a try.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 9:11 PM on January 14, 2011
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 9:11 PM on January 14, 2011
Thanks for this excellent post, ORthey!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:59 PM on January 14, 2011
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:59 PM on January 14, 2011
Well, my lack of technical expertise probably prevents me from knowing exactly what i need to ask...
*puts on helpdesk hat*
Make sure iTunes is set to import your discs as MP3s, not Apple lossless or AAC, which is the standard setting.
Go to the iTunes menu, select "preferences", go to "importing" and set it to import using "MP3 Encoder" and set it to high quality.
Now reinsert your discs. You might have to go to "file -> import" to manually import them if they're already in your library.
Remember to put your importing settings back to lossless or whatever it was before when you're done if you want to keep importing music just to your iTunes library.
posted by loquacious at 1:01 AM on January 15, 2011 [2 favorites]
*puts on helpdesk hat*
Make sure iTunes is set to import your discs as MP3s, not Apple lossless or AAC, which is the standard setting.
Go to the iTunes menu, select "preferences", go to "importing" and set it to import using "MP3 Encoder" and set it to high quality.
Now reinsert your discs. You might have to go to "file -> import" to manually import them if they're already in your library.
Remember to put your importing settings back to lossless or whatever it was before when you're done if you want to keep importing music just to your iTunes library.
posted by loquacious at 1:01 AM on January 15, 2011 [2 favorites]
Now reinsert your discs. You might have to go to "file -> import" to manually import them if they're already in your library.
That was all good advice up until that point quoted above. Because you can save yourself the extra step of reimporting something. If your file is already in your iTunes library, but is an an AAC or AIFF or whatever, you can create an MP3 version. Once you've changed your import settings to "MP3" (as directed by loquacious above), select a song. Then go to "Advanced" on your iTunes menu bar. Below that you'll get "Create MP3 Version". Click on that and voila! You now have two copies of the file: the original and an MP3, which you can upload to MeFi Music, send to Brian Epstein, or your grandmother.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:15 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
That was all good advice up until that point quoted above. Because you can save yourself the extra step of reimporting something. If your file is already in your iTunes library, but is an an AAC or AIFF or whatever, you can create an MP3 version. Once you've changed your import settings to "MP3" (as directed by loquacious above), select a song. Then go to "Advanced" on your iTunes menu bar. Below that you'll get "Create MP3 Version". Click on that and voila! You now have two copies of the file: the original and an MP3, which you can upload to MeFi Music, send to Brian Epstein, or your grandmother.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:15 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
Wow. I had never really looked at metafilter music until this post. (Probably because I have 1% enthusiasm and 1% curiosity for music.) Well fuck you, BBC! I listened to all the top playlisted and top favourited songs and now I am a happy camper.
Mostly, I had no idea Cortex was so awesome.
posted by lollusc at 3:08 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
Mostly, I had no idea Cortex was so awesome.
posted by lollusc at 3:08 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
MeFi music is a treasure. You people have gotten me through some great times and also some really lousy ones. A few of these songs are and always will be my absolute favorites. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:25 AM on January 15, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by iamkimiam at 3:25 AM on January 15, 2011 [3 favorites]
My husband was listening in the background while I was playing through all the top favourites in Music, and suddenly asked why there were no women. I have been randomly clicking on stuff now trying to find music by women and am struggling. Is there really such a big gender imbalance over there as it seems, or am I imagining it? Can someone point me to some popular female contributors on Mefi Music?
posted by lollusc at 3:47 AM on January 15, 2011
posted by lollusc at 3:47 AM on January 15, 2011
Miko contributed exactly one tune to MeFiMu, the wonderful Women Drinking Whiskey, and you can count me among the ones who'd sure like to see her post more!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:56 AM on January 15, 2011
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:56 AM on January 15, 2011
Otherwise, clocking in with three contributions, there's Pallas Athena.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:59 AM on January 15, 2011
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:59 AM on January 15, 2011
And with a big 18 posts, there's MaiaMadness.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:02 AM on January 15, 2011
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:02 AM on January 15, 2011
And though she's been inactive on the site in recent times, jazz chanteuse Miss Lynnster contributed 16 songs, back in the day.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:04 AM on January 15, 2011
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:04 AM on January 15, 2011
These are some of my favorite women-led tracks.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:08 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by iamkimiam at 4:08 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
And she of the lovely voice LN posted 9 songs, which were mostly (if not all) a cappella.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:08 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:08 AM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
I love the Music page. It's chock-full of all kinds of goodness and it's a snark-free zone, too.
posted by idest at 5:31 AM on January 15, 2011
posted by idest at 5:31 AM on January 15, 2011
I'm an idiot, I've never wandered over. But thanks to this post, I'm still an idiot but now totally turned on to Metafilter Music. I'm going to have to quit my job soon, there's so much MeFi to do.
posted by thinkpiece at 6:26 AM on January 15, 2011
posted by thinkpiece at 6:26 AM on January 15, 2011
I'm really hoping the podcast that was mentioned recently gets off the ground. This thread is a great resource but I know I'd listen more if there was a (music) podcast.
posted by immlass at 2:08 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by immlass at 2:08 PM on January 15, 2011
I just posted a torrent covering December (together with October & November).
The monthly collection torrents are pretty quiet. Would reminders somewhere help?
Oh, and I've been poring over Music, starting from the beginning. I could make a playlist / podcast of my favorites. I've been wondering whether to just do that & post it in Projects.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:53 PM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
The monthly collection torrents are pretty quiet. Would reminders somewhere help?
Oh, and I've been poring over Music, starting from the beginning. I could make a playlist / podcast of my favorites. I've been wondering whether to just do that & post it in Projects.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:53 PM on January 15, 2011 [1 favorite]
What a great post ORthey and I totally agree with you!
posted by snsranch at 3:56 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by snsranch at 3:56 PM on January 15, 2011
Thanks for the tips. Those tracks with female vocalists are great!
posted by lollusc at 4:51 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by lollusc at 4:51 PM on January 15, 2011
RE: female Music contributors. lovermont, sadly, only posted the one awesome song. But I keep coming back to it, hoping to see more from her.
posted by gemmy at 11:10 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by gemmy at 11:10 PM on January 15, 2011
Pronoiac: "Would reminders somewhere help?"
If it's not already available somewhere (I don't know, can't find it), a howto would help. Also, thanks for compiling it and yes, I would be interested in a list of your favorites, but what about this idea: A way for MeFites to easily browse other MeFite's playlists? Does that exist?
In other words, I want a list of usernames (maybe my contacts) with their playlists that I can listen to. That way I can go, "Oh, hey user X is pretty cool, I like their style...oooh, they have a playlist, I want to hear that." But I don't want to hunt down user X and their playlist, hoping they have one (because that's both weird and inefficient).
(Similar to all this, I've noticed that there's this one playlist - tunesbythelake - that is very similar to mine and I just love it...but I don't have any clue whose playlist it is (haven't paid attention) and I only notice it when I am on a track page of a track I like and I see that this person has added it to their tunesbythelake playlist already. Then I smile.
It would be nice to encourage more experiences like this, as well as to easily discover my contact's favorited music, without explicitly rifling through their pages. Something like the "Users near you" feature, but for music.)
posted by iamkimiam at 5:30 AM on January 16, 2011
If it's not already available somewhere (I don't know, can't find it), a howto would help. Also, thanks for compiling it and yes, I would be interested in a list of your favorites, but what about this idea: A way for MeFites to easily browse other MeFite's playlists? Does that exist?
In other words, I want a list of usernames (maybe my contacts) with their playlists that I can listen to. That way I can go, "Oh, hey user X is pretty cool, I like their style...oooh, they have a playlist, I want to hear that." But I don't want to hunt down user X and their playlist, hoping they have one (because that's both weird and inefficient).
(Similar to all this, I've noticed that there's this one playlist - tunesbythelake - that is very similar to mine and I just love it...but I don't have any clue whose playlist it is (haven't paid attention) and I only notice it when I am on a track page of a track I like and I see that this person has added it to their tunesbythelake playlist already. Then I smile.
It would be nice to encourage more experiences like this, as well as to easily discover my contact's favorited music, without explicitly rifling through their pages. Something like the "Users near you" feature, but for music.)
posted by iamkimiam at 5:30 AM on January 16, 2011
Great post, ORthey. The reason I initially joined metafilter.
posted by Corduroy at 5:05 PM on January 16, 2011
posted by Corduroy at 5:05 PM on January 16, 2011
Note to self: get back onto Mefi Music and reprazent the laydeez
posted by greenish at 7:54 AM on January 17, 2011
posted by greenish at 7:54 AM on January 17, 2011
All tha ladies in tha house say POST!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 PM on January 17, 2011
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 PM on January 17, 2011
iamkimiam: If it's not already available somewhere (I don't know, can't find it), a howto would help.
The short version is, get Transmission, open the torrent files I posted, & then wait - these can take some time.
There's more, about port forwarding, & polite upload & download speeds, but I think you can get by without them for the Music torrents.
(Wait. What are the odds that not_on_display has a faster connection than iamkimiam's university?)
I've thought about using Dropbox for the monthlies.
Also, thanks for compiling it and yes, I would be interested in a list of your favorites, but what about this idea: A way for MeFites to easily browse other MeFite's playlists?
After posting this, I realized I haven't really shared much of my taste in music here, & I should do something about that.
I've considered how to find music, & here's what I've thought of:
I'd like, for each playlist, a tag cloud, for the songs listed. And if certain years, months, challenges, or posters were better represented, highlighting those is good.
Also, given a playlist, it would be great to find similar playlists, going by songs in common.
It would be nice to encourage more experiences like this, as well as to easily discover my contact's favorited music, without explicitly rifling through their pages. Something like the "Users near you" feature, but for music.)
There are charts on Music, for the most playlisted & most favorited among your contacts.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:59 PM on January 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
The short version is, get Transmission, open the torrent files I posted, & then wait - these can take some time.
There's more, about port forwarding, & polite upload & download speeds, but I think you can get by without them for the Music torrents.
(Wait. What are the odds that not_on_display has a faster connection than iamkimiam's university?)
I've thought about using Dropbox for the monthlies.
Also, thanks for compiling it and yes, I would be interested in a list of your favorites, but what about this idea: A way for MeFites to easily browse other MeFite's playlists?
After posting this, I realized I haven't really shared much of my taste in music here, & I should do something about that.
I've considered how to find music, & here's what I've thought of:
I'd like, for each playlist, a tag cloud, for the songs listed. And if certain years, months, challenges, or posters were better represented, highlighting those is good.
Also, given a playlist, it would be great to find similar playlists, going by songs in common.
It would be nice to encourage more experiences like this, as well as to easily discover my contact's favorited music, without explicitly rifling through their pages. Something like the "Users near you" feature, but for music.)
There are charts on Music, for the most playlisted & most favorited among your contacts.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:59 PM on January 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
My band Red On Strike has a female singer, so you might want to check that out if you like some hard rock and roll. First song on that list is me teaching the band a cover song, but the rest should be pure Red.
posted by InfidelZombie at 12:38 PM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by InfidelZombie at 12:38 PM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
Speaking of port forwarding, uh, mine quietly broke, & I just fixed it. If you were having problems downloading, try again.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:07 AM on January 19, 2011
posted by Pronoiac at 1:07 AM on January 19, 2011
Ok, I just set up a song-a-day playlist / podcast for songs I like. I was going to post it to Projects, to have a route for feedback, but:
* Even internal links to Metafilter are filtered out of playlist descriptions, so I can't link to it from the playlist page.
* Should I wait until there's more to show before posting to Projects?
posted by Pronoiac at 12:41 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
* Even internal links to Metafilter are filtered out of playlist descriptions, so I can't link to it from the playlist page.
* Should I wait until there's more to show before posting to Projects?
posted by Pronoiac at 12:41 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
Okay, my song-a-day podcast has a different home, & it's a project now.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:17 AM on February 13, 2011
posted by Pronoiac at 11:17 AM on February 13, 2011
A playlist of songs with singing women. I'll probably re-order it by artist later.
posted by Pronoiac at 8:32 AM on February 14, 2011
posted by Pronoiac at 8:32 AM on February 14, 2011
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posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:24 PM on January 14, 2011