On a side note, the new pre_shrunk album is ok but didn't blow me away, or even push me slightly over... it starts out with the excellent 'Fragile' and 'War of Averages' but doesn't really pick me up from there. Some of it sounds like it would rock live though. Maybe the pre_shrunk project should be a live DVD.
The re-release of pre_shrunk's 'Digital Sunrise' is a good little package though. Now split over two CDs, they've added some outtake tracks and remixes and created a 'sunrise' CD and a 'sunset' CD. 'sunrise' consisting mainly of the dance/mellow tracks and 'sunset' the heavier tracks. It's good.
I bought Robbie Williams' latest CD. So sue me. I like his pop stylingz. Just noticed it's the first CD in Australia to have EMI CD copy-protection. Played fine in the car though (it's not that great by the way, I should have bought an older album). Will try it on the computer one day. I have no doubt Exact Audio Copy will have no trouble ripping it.
Speaking of which I've been sniffing around MP3 CD players again. The features have improoved greatly but they still cost $300+. A little too much. I'm thinking it's most likely going to be an in-car job if I go for it. That's after a new guitar, new computer, paying for studio time, holiday up the coast to Adelaide at Xmas and saving for a holiday to London end of next year. So never.
And what's this... a group of Microsoft researchers pretty much saying that we'll never win with file-swapping tech and thus should provide digital music online cheaply and easily, unprotected by DRM or any other tech. In otherwords, compete with Kaaza head on. As I've said before, give me highbandwidth connection to a song and i'd pay 50 cents for it to get it the day it comes out... but they're still the point. A lot of people use Kaaza etc. to share stuff you can't get and the studios don't want you to have! Early demo song leaks, tv-shows that arn't on DVD yet etc.