Soft launch

I feel like I've been a real legitimate contributor to the business model that is software for sale ever since I officially purchased Ableton Live 6.0 earlier this year. I heard great things about Ableton, didn't like the fact that the demo version was so limiting so I found a cracked version. Upon using this I realized that my recording life was forever altered based on the fact that the program was so perfect for what I was doing. Well, as I've talked about before, one day my Ableton files were locked as I had been caught with my cracked copy. No authorities knocking on my door or anything, just a sense that I had tried to scam the system and that I was caught. Not a fun feeling.

So, I purchased Ableton with money I didn't really have. I don't regret it. It's one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Ableton has now launched a new version with upgrades and new features. I don't feel that I need it yet, but I am interested in some of the extra instrument packages that they've also launched, their drum machines package to be exact. Well, you first have to upgrade to the new Ableton version before you can use these new add-on packs. So it goes. I'm happy to be an Ableton user, feel good about putting up the money for a legit version of it, but now I'm just realizing the obvious, that if I want to stay up-to-date on all of the reasons I love their products I'm going to have to keep shaking the money tree and hoping a little extra comes down from time to time.

Purchases of the sort are on hold for now. Budgeting. But smaller upgrades are also tempting me. Leopard is out and prowling around my screen as I watch the guided tour on Apple's site. Yeah, it looks amazing. I want to have the best new OS out there, but is being able to stack up icons in my dock and searching for files faster really worth the 170-odd dollars? I will wait on this as well. What we've learned here by me writing is: I am not an early adopter. This is only scattered tech talk, sorry.

What I did buy though this weekend were 2 albums. One physical cd and one iTunes Plus download. I seriously don't think I've purchased 2 albums in a 2-day span for over 3 years. Now that I have a job I actually feel bad about downloading everything I want for free. When I was broke I felt like I deserved that music, those programs, etc...

I felt good about buying the new Rigas cd directly from him after this show at Landet Friday night. Here's my money. Right into your pocket. I plan on enjoying this cd. Thank you for putting it out.

Last night I downloaded the new hollAnd album via iTunes Plus. Non-DRM, 256kbps, finally Apple is moving in the right direction with iTunes. I will never spend money again on DRM music. But I love Apple and hope that more and more Plus albums show up.

Basically, I dropped out of the purchasing of software/music scene for a long time. I had financial excuses. I jumped back into the game and don't feel like I'm being ripped off. I will still DL music on peer to peers, but probably less now. I won't DL cracked versions of programs like Ableton ever again because I can't risk having it one day not work.

I love the idea of paying what you want for music. Radiohead of course has done that. I think I'll try to release something with a PayPal donation button next to the download link just to see what happens; give the consumer a choice. Make them think about it for a minute. Could be fun?

That concludes my Sunday morning random entry. I hope your weekend is/was an enjoyable one. Let's catch up next week.