More Hot Friday Linkage
Here’s a roundup of the poor abandoned news items this week that didn’t quite make it into posts of their own:
- Rhapsody starts selling DRM free MP3s. However the classical selection is rather limited, and their unfortunate $10/album pricing plan means that the usually cheap Naxos CDs are about 50% more expensive when purchased from them. I’ll stick with the eMusic/DG combo for now, thanks.
- In Seattle, a karaoke singer was attacked after selecting “Yellow” by Coldplay as his song of choice. The accoster — thoughtfully described by an eyewitness as “a little hippie girl” — seems to have decided that the most effective way to halt the rendition of this particular tune was a combination of verbal abuse and physical beating. Favorite comment on the story from reddit: “Charges should be dropped immediately. This was clearly self defense.”
- Geneticists pinpoint specific DNA sequences which are connected with the ability to perform certain musical tasks such as keeping a beat or identifying pitch. They found that these sequences are also involved in determining whether an individual is dyslexic, hinting that our music and language centers are closely related.
- Researchers uncover the secrets of what makes a Stradivarius sound so good. Again. No, it’s for real this time.
