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The Swiss duo Yello is still at it after all these years. Still one of my favourites…

Their latest album titled Touch is available now. Some great tracks in true Yello style!

Check out the official website for some samples.

It’s taken them quite some time, but Nokia has finally launched a localized version of its online music store. That’s stolen the march on Apple, whose iTunes Store is still not available in our territory and it requires a bit of deft manipulation and a white lie or two to access their US-based online store.

To get cracking with the Nokia online store, the Nokia Music application has to be downloaded and installed. Running a Mac or Linux? Then you’re out of luck. Even Windows users will require at least XP with SP2 to be able to run Nokia Music. In keeping with the style of the Nokia desktop software, the application looks good and is easy to use and operate. It requests to associate music files and offers to import your existing media for easy transfer to your device.

It’s very much iTunes-like. I redeemed my ZAR 200 voucher graciously donated by Nokia and had a look around…

Of course, a good question to ask is what devices you can use to play back your music purchases. Since this is the Nokia Music store, you should expect nothing less than support for Nokia mobile phones. Even so, the list of compatible devices is rather limited – my E90 is not shown as being supported, for example. A list of compatible devices can be found here. That’s where compatibility ends – the application warns that no other devices enjoy support, so don’t buy credits if you own an iPod or any other MP3 player.

Sadly, tracks are not free of DRM. At a time when MP3 files sans DRM can be purchased through Amazon and when even Apple has capitulated and is offering audio files without protection technology, Nokia is lagging behind. Even worse, it’s Microsoft DRM technology which one should be wary of in any case: their Play-for-Sure technology limited users to a tiny subset of supported devices and even then didn’t play for sure. DRM makes it difficult to transfer tracks to another device, required registration and is a bit of a headache. Of course, the tried and tested method of burning tracks to a CD and then importing them again can always be used and this should be considered a part of your backup strategy if you intend investing money in purchasing music tracks from the Nokia Music Store.

The price of music tracks is not exactly something to write home about: ZAR 10 per track or ZAR 100 for an entire album. Though the price for an entire album is probably cheaper than a physical CD, you’ll be missing out on a physical piece of media that you can rip and play on any device as well as having a backup of the music you purchased. ZAR 100 for a downloaded album is just too expensive, in my opinion. Make a track cost ZAR 5 or less and you have a deal – that should bring the album cost down to ZAR 50 and is far more reasonable. The music giants still seem intent on making more cash than they deserve…customers will vote with their money (or their torrent downloads).

The Nokia music store launched earlier today and you can download the desktop application from here.

Die Blou Hond in Linden is a great venue that offers local music and a dinner at a reasonable price. Last night, we finally got to see Arno Carstens live. Live as in 1m away from our table, and what a performance it was.

Arno had help from Albert Frost, himself a very accomplished guitarist and together they played a number of Springbok Nude Girls and Carstens‘ solo songs. I have never seen two guys play their guitars as furiously as these two, and with so much enthusiasm.

Do yourself a favour and check out the upcoming shows at Die Blou Hond. It’s a unique experience.

Tonight, Goldfish plays at The Venue in Melrose Arch. Tickets cost ZAR 150 and should be available at the door, though I suggest you phone to verify that.

Great musicians who provide some excellent entertainment and make world-class music! See you there!

Having spent the last few days in Cape Town, we’ve been exposed to some great South African music talent. First up, the fantastic duo under the name of Goldfish. Both their current and older album are really enjoyable. This falls under the label Electronica, so you’ll know whether or not to give it a listen based on that categorization.

The warm-up act at the Goldfish concert on Friday night at Spier was a small outfit with the name jacSharp.

This is Pop, but similarly listenable.

Support South African music: there is some great music out there you may not yet have heard!

…might be to listen to the title track of the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

Written by Jack White and performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys, this is a first for any Bond movie theme song: it’s a duet. Also, the track is available online for your listening pleasure. Not as a download, but for streaming. It’s not a bad tune and certainly conveys something Bond…

The album by Maroon 5 titled It won’t be soon before long has some catchy tunes on it. Not being one to pay to much attention to lyrics, the words to Won’t go home without you caught my attention nonetheless:

At least their website disclaimer The lyrics could be characterized as “nonsense” is spot on! Or maybe Adam and company sleep with dogs or horses…

Stumbling onto this album is a great example of the long tail principle!

Give these guys a try…just remember: at high volume, in a residential area

13 may be lucky for some…Mercedes-Benz’s Mixed Tape series has made it to its thirteenth edition. Providing a new set of free, downloadable music every two months, the Mixed Tape series is very popular and a lot of its content has been migrated to Apple’s iTunes music store.

The artists are generally unknown, but you’ll be surprised at the variety of tunes you’ll encounter. Give it a listen!

With all the talk concerning DRM and piracy, it’s natural not to expect music free of charge. Sure, there are sources offering free music, but these are of dubious legitimacy. We’re not talking iTunes here either, but this is legit!

Copyright lapses on all types of media. Project Gutenberg provides the texts of various printed works over which copyright has elapsed. Similarly, musical works are not copyrighted for all eternity. It takes 50 years, so you may not want to hold your breath waiting for The Snow Patrol‘s latest album…for my older readers, and for those interested in some history there’s already some music available. J.D over at foldedspace has an article and some links up. There, you’ll find Twenty mp3s of Great Songs from 1901-1920. Get them now, then wait for the year 2013, during which albums and songs by the Beatles, Elvis and Cliff Richard will be available without restriction of copyright.