So I guess one of the big news stories lately is Apple bought Lala. But the bigger news story to me is that Lala legally sells songs for $0.10! Wow, good to know what people think music is worth.
Went through the Christmas comp & I had to mess with four songs for volume adjustments for mastering. It’s hard to do comps sometimes because people have songs that are very much about vast dynamics, but you need to squash away some of that dynamic or they sound dumb next to the other songs. Also when your squeezing things & increasing the volume sometimes you realize that certain things get towards ear or speaker damaging levels. Hoping to have that all set by the end of the week. Christmas is coming fast. I’d hoped to have this out by Thanksgiving, but that’s how things get sometimes.
Started working on the artwork for Sarah June’s album today. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it lately, but I hate Illustrator. Why did Adobe do away with Pagemaker? Because it was simple & easy to use without any special frills that non-professionals would need? People say if I get the newest versions of Illustrator or In Design they are as good as Pagemaker was for doing layouts. Nice to know it takes ten years to get something as good as something from ten years ago.
Sent out follow-up emails for Aarktica & Vlor.
Got a call from the folks I’m using to manufacture the Carta disc that they need to charge California sales tax for any discs shipped into that state. I don’t really understand that when I’m the purchaser & don’t live there. Plus it’s pretty clear that anyone buying 1000 CDs is buying them for re-sale & so they aren’t elligible for taxation. Really I think the feds should think about taking a tax on interstate commerce (I know this should require a change in the Constitution, but so should federal income tax) just to encourage more people to buy locally. If I can save significant money I’ll send my money to Seattle to buy a book, but if I can’t then I’ll buy it from a mom & pop shop & it’s in everyone’s interest to keep the dollars they spend as close to home as possible.