Distributing music on USB sticks or removable flash memory is an idea various parties have tried for the last few years. The Creative Commons advocates at self-proclaimed “non-evil” indie label Magnatune sold USB sticks pre-loaded with ten albums in 2004; Barenaked Ladies had the nicely-named Barenaked on a stick. But to really make the idea (ahem) stick, you’d need some big distribution. And that’s what a new initiative backed by the major labels and massive flash memory manufacturer SanDisk promises to do.

slotMusic.org | Press Release

See also GearLog, which notes that SanDisk previously did a free promotional SD of music

Wired News asks, “but why?”, to which I’d answer – it might well be easier to load music onto a phone in parts of the world other than the US, you might more easily distribute videos, and artists looking to increase the value of their CDs could innovate on revitalizing album art.

First, let’s start with the players, as that’s basically the big news here.

Hardware: SanDisk, the folks who invented flash storage and make more of it than anyone else

Labels: A huge set of the majors - EMI Music (which includes the likes of Angel, Capitol, Blue Note, and Astrelwerks), Sony BMG, Warner Music (including Atlantic, Nonesuch, Rhino), and the world’s biggest music company, Universal Music Group

Retailers: Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and other US retailers, with Europe to follow – keeping in mind, Wal-Mart remains the biggest brick-and-mortar seller in the US

When it’s happening: Exact date TBA, but officially by the holidays

Which artists: Most likely, lots of them. An EMI representative who spoke with CDM confirmed two chart-topping examples: Coldplay’s Viva la Vida and Kate Perry’s One of the Boys.

Now, you’d be right to be skeptical of how this format will be received, but it’s certainly a big distribution play with that arrangement of labels and retailers.

The hardware in question is basically SanDisk’s tiny removable flash memory format microSD, rebranded and repackaged as slotMusic. (A representative of SanDisk tells us there are some other subtle technological differences; more on that soon.) The important thing about this is that the hardware you buy has no DRM on it at all; it’s just standard flash memory you can plug into phones and mobile devices, or, via a tiny included USB sleeve, a computer.

SanDisk’s format specifies DRM-free, 320 kpbs MP3s as the music format. Gruvi, SanDisk’s previous attempt at turning their lucrative flash memory business into a music format was a miserable failure, but by contrast, it was locked with DRM features and, excepting a big release by the Rolling Stones, lacked support from labels and retailers. (I see Gruvi has even been largely erased from SanDisk’s website.)

With all this talk of mobile music creation, it’s time to get a little scientific. Which mobile digital platforms do you actually own? Which do you want to read about on CDM? We have, of course, lots of interesting stuff happening with actual mobile computers - think UMPC, Eee, and OLPC – but then, those fit nicely with other computing platforms since that’s what they are. Other handheld game systems, PDAs, and phones require real, specific attention for musicians. And naturally, this is about making music on mobile systems, not necessarily playing Mario Kart.

We need to know what you think. Your feedback will help us direct the site. Don’t worry, we still love things that no one else does, so fear not if you’re in a more obscure category – though you will want to get your votes in.

This is also a chance to sign up for our soon-to-launch email list, which we’ll use for human-created, exclusive dispatches from team CDM in a form that makes sense for our overburdened inboxes. (It won’t duplicate anything else, and it won’t be too often, and it won’t be sold to anyone else – it’s just another way for me and the team to chat with you.)

So, here goes – you’ll need to click through to the actual site to finish the survey, or head straight to:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/61300/yvwf9

Respond now; poll closes Monday 8/18

Photo credit: Yesrobot’s Game Boy rig, captured by Alícia

Don’t toss that Windows Mobile gadget yet. In fact, you might want to keep glued to Craig’s List for a used unit, if you like the idea of road warrior music production on the cheap, sans laptop.

Amidst all the hype around the iPhone and iPod Touch, Windows Mobile devices could actually win on power apps for on-the-go music making. Maybe that’s because of the similarity to developing Windows desktop apps, maybe it’s because of fewer restrictions compared to Apple’s SDK, or maybe some combination of that and fortune. Nonetheless, during this Summer of iPhone, the makers of powerful Windows Mobile sequencer/sampler studio Griff note on their new blog that Windows Mobile just got a new music app.

Yes, you read that right: a new app for Windows Mobile.

Wildly enough, MeTeoR is basically a pocket-able miniature DAW, boasting:

• 12 tracks of audio with stereo mixdown
• Audio waveform editing with cut, copy, paste, and processing (fade, normalize, reverse, etc.)
• Various effects (delay, chorus, reverb, phaser, filters, pitch shift, noise gate, graphic EQ, and more), with routable aux sends
• Metronome with live recording
• A mixer with full automation envelopes for each tracks (for the mixer lanes and effects)

The whole thing is basically reminiscent of an old version of Cakewalk for Windows, only running in your pocket. I could see it as fairly useful for doing some quick processing or pre-processing on a big project – load those extra files on the subway and keep working on that project, even if you’re up against a deadline.

Not only that, but because the system requirements are fairly flexible and used Windows Mobile devices are fairly worthless, you could easily rescue someone’s unused PDA and press it into service as a music device. They’ll thank you. The environment will thank you.

US$29.95, but unlike Apple’s iTunes store, you can download a demo version. (Imagine that.)

All of this is on paper (erm, pixels); no promises, as I haven’t used it yet. I have to brush off my Dell PDA and give this a try. I know there’s a charger here somewhere…

MeTeoR @ 4pockets.com [Demo download and purchase links, detailed features]

Despite my complaints, you will find some useful music apps in the iTunes App Store – you can at least get some fine tuners. (Andy Ihnatko was excited on Twitter that one of them helps him tune his ukulele, thanks to four string support!) We do expect more hefty music tools in the coming months, and via the jailbroken platform.

But some of the real stars on the iPhone – or whatever your favorite smart mobile device may be – have to do with simply storing ideas and keeping your life together. That means one of the best downloads so far for the iPhone is Evernote. As Graham English writes in comments on CDM:

The app I’m most excited about for music is Evernote. You can record voice notes, text notes, and it even recognizes the text in iPhone pictures. So next time you write a killer hook on a bar napkin, snap a picture and sync it. Cool.

I’m a huge user of Evernote on my desktops and, via its web browser, on my Blackberry. The iPhone app looks especially great, though; I’m jealous.

Evernote for iPhone

My friend Francis Preve has written a whole set of useful tips for DJs that apply to any gigging musician / artist (which he’s been refining since the first iPod, in fact):

Top 10 iPhone tricks for DJs [Beatportal]

Some highlights:

• Keeping email templates for gig announcements on your device so you can send them quickly. (Recognize this scenario? “Hey, what’s new?” “I’m playing Friday.” “Oh, really?”)
• Mapping: Some providers require you to enable mapping capabilities on your device. Do it. Both the “real” GPS (via a dedicated radio) and the assisted GPS can be lifesavers if you travel at all. (The iPhone 2.0 update adds this feature, in the assisted form.)
• Rescue tracks: The iPhone is a capable music player, so it can, um, save you when your laptop dies or someone steals your hard drive. It even has video out capability, for you Create Digital Motion readers.

And the fact is, you can easily apply these ideas to whatever phone / smart device is your favorite. These could also put you over the top as far as cameras with phones – not because you’ll necessarily be taking attractive photos (dedicated cameras are a must for that) but because they can aid visual memory. (Airport parking spot? Check!)

I especially like Fran’s idea of logging creative time. Invoicing aside, I find that it’s so often a fight to get time to yourself that I really like the idea of keeping track of that time, whether it’s in the studio or just sitting in the park thinking about a new song. It could help give you some positive reinforcement for setting aside some working time or even badly-needed quiet time.

Going back to my first Palm (the PalmPilot Professional, no less), I’ve always found even simple mobile devices can help reduce stress, particularly on the road. And that to me is priceless.

Other ideas that boost your productivity, in terms of gigging, travel, and creativity? Let us know.

Previously:

iPod Touch/iPhone for Music Round-up (which, surprisingly, isn’t all that outdated by the App Store launch – we expect bigger announcements in the coming weeks)

Northwest Reef from Umcorps on Vimeo.

Aside from being toy-like mini-computers, could mobile devices take on a musical usefulness all their own?

At the Electronic Music Foundation’s 10th Anniversary Symposium in 2004, Morton Subotnik and fellow panelists imagined an iPod that, instead of playing canned music from your music library, would actually generate music for you on the spot. Believe it or not, commercial demand aside, that might soon be reality.

We saw Intermorphic’s fascinating generative music engine noatikl at the end of last year. It’s the “spritual successor” to the Koan generative system used by Brian Eno in 1996. Read up and see the videos here:

noatikl: New Generative Music Engine, So You Can Rock Out Like Eno

They’ve got various videos showing off what the results can be like, including the one at top, which combines noatikl and Apple’s Logic 8 synths. If you’re interested in learning more, Intermorphic has a page with some background on generative music with comments from pioneer Eno:

generative music @ Intermorphic

Enter iPhone, Mobile

Here’s where this all goes mobile. Wonderful mobile music site Palm Sounds notes that Mixtikl will allow on-the-go music production for a variety of platforms. You’ll be able to work on your Mac and Windows PC VST/AU host, but you’ll also be able to support:

• Windows Mobile 5, 6
• iPhone, iPod Touch
• Symbian Series 60 V2/3 smartphone
• Antix Game Player

The basic idea is a music tool that blends generative music tools and playback with access more traditional loops and patterns.

The iPhone and iPod Touch have big, pretty screens, plenty of space for touch control, and fit in your pocket for lots of other useful things (like, you know, calls or music or whatever these things were invented for).

So, why not put them to use in performance? Just this week, Create Digital Motion has picked up two new solutions for doing just that, free:

MIDI Control with iPhone and iPod Touch: i3L MIDI Bridge

Mrmr : iPhone + 10.5 + Quartz Composer = Wireless VJ Nirvana

Mrmr’s support of OSC is geared for VJ apps, but something similar could be applied to OSC-supporting music tools like Max/MSP, Traktor, Reaktor, and others. And i3L’s support of MIDI, of course, will work with anything. I could see it cuing up scenes in Ableton Live or changing instrument patches, etc.

No iPhone? No problem. One quick note: if you don’t have the cash for a new iPod or iPhone, there are always alternatives. Jason Kramer’s Bluetooth MIDI solution works just fine with that free phone you got with your plan — maybe even one you recently retired. Much as we love all this flashy new stuff, there’s nothing quite like giving your toxic technological leftovers a new lease on life!

Control Music Software with a Bluetooth Cell Phone / PDA (Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic Pro)
LiveController [Jason R. Kramer]

Way back at the Apple iPhone introduction, I said I thought people would want to use the phone as a musical instrument. Well, here you go: meet BeatPhone, a clever code hack from a chilled-out Spanish mobile musician. Feature set:

• 9 one-shot pads
• 6 loop-pads
• Samples in “any” format : WAV, AIFF, …
• Output at 44.1kHz, 16-bits
• Up to 256 samples polyphony

BeatPhone Project Page [I-lusio]
Via: BeatPhone [appSafari.com]

The project will be open, and more cool features are planned:

• Strudder pads (stop previous playback and start again)
• Metronome, BPM detection on “tap”
• Loop stretching
• Record samples and live mixes
• Landscape sequencer
• Tactile effect box

Updated: There appears to be unrelated project called MPC500, which at least has a pretty, iPhone-style interface. Of course, it function as an MPC about as much as those cardboard cutouts of the iPhone do a real phone. But more music apps are promised. (Thanks, Steve! Now, when will people start doing more multi-touch?)

Interesting, though of course none of this is new on mobile devices; Palm and Windows Mobile phones have a broad variety of music applications, with mobile Linux and Java I expect on their way — and those makers actually let you install applications. That’s not to take away from BeatPhone’s general coolness.

Being on the go is a terrible reason to have to give up your music creation tools. Syntrax is a popular solution, with a sequencer, a synth, and a sample editor in one software package for Windows Mobile (PocketPC) devices and Symbian smartphones from Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola. Now, this popular package is free.

I just discovered the other day that Syntrax one of the PocketPC/Smartphone sequencers has now been released as free. It only has a monophonic synth, but its quite customizable, and you can do pretty long and reasonable quality compositions on it… Moreover it’s free.. and a lot of people have pda’s/smartphones sitting round…

Indeed. And not only does this work nicely on your new fancy smartphone, it’s a great way to resurrect a retired model (ahem, broken contract), especially as that’s an opportunity to remove any nasty software installed by your carrier.

Could be quite useful as a sketchpad, or even for throwing in some extra tracks as a set.

Syntrax at finished.nl

And yes, this fits squarely in the category of things you can’t do with an iPhone. (What is it about technological progress that often leaves you with less?) Many of you are big fans of the not-free but well worth the $16-27 Chocopoolp Software for Palm/Treo, including the legendary Bhajis Loops. I do wonder what will happen to them when Palm OS goes away, in favor of Linux; maybe a mobile Linux port?

But certainly, if you have a Symbian, Windows, or Palm phone, you have lots of mobile music options. (Blackberry, iPhone, cheap phones … not so much, unless someone knows of a Blackberry sequencer.)

All rational arguments for development on mobile phones aside, some phone owners are driven by the irrational, purely personal need to tap into their phones and do stuff. Our friend Sebastian Tomczak reports back on a first experiment with the mobile version of Processing, the Java-based “coding for artists” tool.

Simple Live Synth for Phone

This is nothing fancy, but that’s the point: simple is the best way to get started. It’s the sound version of “Hello, World.” In programming, I find, even simpler than I think is necessary is often the best place to start. Erm, especially if you’re me and screw things up really quickly.

Mobile Processing is an example of what the future could look like if we could program phones with standard Java libraries. After all, your phone is a computer — often a pretty expensive computer, considering. And then, when you upgrade, it becomes useless without service. Recycling phones into something useful is only natural. And because they’re simple computers, there’s an opportunity to return to the days when programming was actually considered a killer app — for “end users.”

And yes, this does fit in the category of “things you can’t do with Ajax on iPhone and can do with zillions of other, cheaper phones.” I’m glad to be over the “what might actually impact iPhone sales” category and into the “completely useless phone applications that appeal only to insanely geeky musicians” area again. Phew! Much better.

Non-Processing/Java geeks can stop reading here, but I should elaborate a bit.

Apple made a controversial announcement at the World Wide Developers’ Conference, which went something like this: “We’ve got a new, innovative way of giving you developer access to our phone: we’re not.” (I’m paraphrasing; see the full quote below.) In less than 24 hours, this has devolved into an online debate between defensive “traditional” developers and Web developers, Apple critics and apologists. Many have tried to turn it into a debate over what whether or not web apps are applications. That’s silly. Of course web applications are apps. Here’s the real problem in a nutshell:

1. Apple is ignoring what makes non-Web apps valuable. That’s their choice — it’s their phone — and we could forgive them and maybe even agree with them, except –

2. They’re then trying to distort reality around them so that things they’re saying that happen to be wrong wind up being right. Lots of companies do that, but this being Apple, some people are actually listening, and I hope they’ll stop.

I’m going to say this the long way around, because I type fast and think in sprawling, high-word-count ways. Our friends at Rogue Amoeba, one of our favorite audio developers for the Mac (notice how multimedia keeps coming up), put this more succinctly:

Web Apps Are Not Applications

We know that making SDKs is not easy, and so it boggles the mind that you were able to create a complete iPhone SDK so quickly! So much access, provided so seamlessly - it is really quite amazing.

With this new SDK, we can create something neither of us could possibly have done alone, and make the iPhone platform the mobile platform to develop for.

Anxiously awaiting his copy of the iPhone SDK,
Sarcastic Developer

Web apps are wonderful. I spend huge amounts of time in them. But as musicians, you know why web apps alone aren’t enough. Hardware access and multimedia capabilities are vitally important for some (but not all) tasks. Take them away, and your expensive computers become instantly less useful. This matters to some more than others, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. In fact, try this experiment: take your Mac. Remove all audio and MIDI device support, allowing only iPhone and the OS to make sound. Now you can’t even record a voice memo or phone call — no mic input. Next, reinstall your browser, removing Java and Flash. (Good: I can read Penny Arcade and CDM — well, most of CDM. Bad: I can’t watch Homestar Runner. Or YouTube. Or use embedded Flickr apps. Or use entire websites. Uh-oh.)

A phone is not a Mac, and that’s a good thing. But to assume these two things equate just doesn’t make sense. Design is about compromises, and that’s a good thing. But now design is about making compromises, then changing the reality around you so that they’re not compromises any more?

Here’s a short list of other things an iPhone web app can’t do that (with the notable exception of multi-touch) the vast majority of phones can — yes, including that crappy low-end Nokia you got free with service. Really. Look up the developer site for your phone, and check it out.