Posts about Music

MOG vs Thumbplay

toby ho — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:58:18 -0500

I just learned about these two new-ish online streaming music services. This post will be a comparison of the two, in much the style of my old e-music vs rhapsody post.

First a word about my experience with Rhapsody. The verdict is: I tried it for a few months, and then cancelled. Ultimately not being about to play on my iPod(the iPod Classic, that is - actually this was before it was branded Classic), was the deal breaker.

The landscape has changed, on-demand streaming is the new model - it's just a matter of time. Why streaming? Well, downloading music and managing your own music library introduces several problems:

the overhand of managing the library
the overhead of syncing the music to and between different devices(mobile devices, home media center)
finite disk space - although harddrives are pretty cheap nowadays, the space on mobile phones are still very limited, this makes syncing even more problematic because now you need to decide on what subset of your library you want to put on your phone

On-demand streaming services promise to deliver huge music collections to you anywhere you go for a flat monthly subscription fee. You are always just a search and click away from listening to music you've never heard before - music discovery is going to blossom like never before.

Pricing

Anyways, enough philosophizing. What is the bottom line? Both of the services cost $9.99 a month with unlimited streaming and downloading. MOG also has a $4.99 PC-only plan.

Selection

I made a list of several lesser known artists whom I love, and used them as the benchmark for testing the breath of the two services' music library. Here are the results:

The table tallies the number of albums that were listed under each artist on each of the music services. The result in terms of total albums was a tie: 86 to 86. However, MOG faired better in the number of artists with at least one album: 16 to 13.

iPhone App

Thumbplay's iPhone app is more polished, but MOG's was just released a couple of days ago, and they are actively working on it.

Intangibles

The race is tight so far, but how does each service stand out and how do they differ? Short answer: MOG is focus on the web experience while Thumbplay is more focused on the desktop experience. MOG has a web-based UI, and social features such as sharable playlists, and blog posts. Thumbplay has a native UI, which should integrate better with the Apple Remote, but seems to lag behind in social features. I personally like the social features in MOG, and am thinking about doing a music listening blog within it.

Sound

I did a side-by-side comparison of "Let's Do It Again" by The Brand New Heavies on both services. To my ears, MOG has the better sound quality - both the bass and tremble sound crisper than Thumbplay with my Bose headphones.

Streaming Limit

Both services do not seem to limit the number of computers or devices you use with it, however, both of them allow you to stream to only one of them at a time.

Verdict

As of now, MOG is my favorite. However, it's still early days. There are big players waiting to get into the game(Apple, Spotify), and it's anyone's game.

Bach Minute - Lapband

toby ho — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:32:06 -0500

Lapband, I have been abandoning you! I am sorry. But I am excited about this week's release because I've actually been practicing for it. This is a beginner Bach piece I hear all the time around my house. Enjoy.

Minuet - J.S.Bach

Electric - Lapband

toby ho — Fri, 21 May 2010 00:20:53 -0500

Ok, another week of broken promises. I am trying to make it up now(on the other hand, I got a lot of tennis in this week). Anyway, I did this kind of in a rush, but here is a electric piano track + a bass track. I did it in reverse this time, so the electric first, and then added the bass line, that's why the bass line sounds more improvised, I guess.

Electric(Click to Play)

Piano with Chords - Lapband

toby ho — Sat, 08 May 2010 23:10:52 -0500

This week's LapBand, still going with the theme of improvised piano and bass, this time we chords comping in the background like a real jazz piano solo(well, sorta):

Piano With Chords

Bass And Piano - Lapband

toby ho — Mon, 03 May 2010 00:12:52 -0500

Okay, I was going to do the BOL remix for this week, but it is not going well. So for this week, I just whipped up a quick bass and piano improv duet.

Bass And Piano (Click to Listen)

High On Crackers - Lapband

toby ho — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:07:29 -0500

This week's lapband is called: High on Crackers, enjoy:

Click to play!

One From Mama Cass - LabBand

toby ho — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:10:26 -0500

This week's lapband is way late! I am sorry, mostly to myself. Anyway, remember how I said I was partial to the 60s music from Lost? This one is from Mama Cass:

Ain't No Body Else Like You(Click to Play)

The main thing that was hard about this one was the guitar line, you can hear me trip up ;)

Bass Solo - LabBand

toby ho — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:25:41 -0500

Third week in a row! This one actually is getting out a bit later than usual, but still...

This is a bass solo. Basically I am practicing playing like a bass would play.

Bass Solo (Click to Listen)

LabBand Once A Week - The IE6 Song

toby ho — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:33:06 -0500

I had IE6 on my mind. So this week's LapBand is an ode to IE6. Everything is MIDI aside from the vocals. Enjoy =)

Click to Listen

LapBand - Once A Week

toby ho — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:42:02 -0500

I've decided to release one song a week, following the examples of Jonathan Coulton and Giles Bowkett. I am going to call it LapBand - Once A Week, because these songs will be produced solely with my laptop.

I come from a Jazz background, so the first installment is just me improvising on top of a prerecorded bass rift from the Garageband library.

Vamp On C (Click to Play)

60s Music from Lost

toby ho — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:32:55 -0600

My latest obsession: 60's music from Lost. In particular, Desmond's song from the very beginning of the first episode of Season 2: Make Your Own Kind of Music by Cass Elliot; and Juliet's intro on the first episode of the 3rd season: Downtown by Petula Clark. I found these songs by Googling the lyrics. Never heard of these folks before. I bought Cass Elliot's Mama's Big Ones and Petula Clark's Downtown, and have been listening for a few weeks, and am enjoying them. My favorite song is Cass Elliot's Ain't Nobody Else Like You. Cass is a big woman who has a sweet and somewhat childish voice which I like, I also like the music style which has some "hip" brass accompaniment. Petula Clark's voice somewhat resembles Julie Andrews, Don't Sleep In The Subway and I Couldn't Live Without Your Love on the album are quite catchy.

The Music Chair Podcast

toby ho — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:03:28 -0500

I am proud to announce the first episode of my podcast: The Music Chair. I am now a podcaster! I have done two interviews so far. But, one of them is till not out due to technical issues. I am excited about this project, because I love the music, the personalities, and also I realized this will help improve my speaking skills tremedously. Please go and subscribe using iTunes, and give my suggestions and feedback.