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Archive for November, 2006

It makes such a refreshing change when a company a) has a personality and b) feels able to express that personality in their communications with their customers.

I recently ordered the new Thomas Dolby CD and DVD from CDbaby.com and just received this fantastic email to let me know they had shipped.

Subject : CD Baby loves David
Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, November 26th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year”.  We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

I’d never heard of or used CDbaby.com before this but just a simple email like this will make me return again.

I’m reading The Cluetrain Manifesto at the moment and CDbaby.com clearly get that markets are conversations.

The ‘new’ Beatles album Love was released today. Of course, it’s not really a new album but a collection of classic Beatles songs that form the soundtrack for the new Cirque de Soleil show in Las Vegas of the same name.

Disappointed? Don’t be… this is no ordinary compilation album.

This is the Beatles as you have never heard them before…

Re-mixed

Mashed-up

De-constructed

Re-constructed

This is Beatles 2.0

Love is the Beatles brought into the 21st century by no lesser people than Beatles producer George Martin and his son Giles.

From the track listing Love would seem to contain 26 songs but over 130 songs were used to create the Martin’s ‘soundscape’; a bass line from here, drums from there… Every single sound on the album is from the Beatles back catalogue apart from a new string arrangement for While My Guitar Gently Weeps by George Martin.

Love features an acoustic demo of While My Guitar Gently Weeps played by George Harrison. At the request of George Martin’s widow a string arrangement was scored by George Martin and it works perfectly creating a beautiful track allowing the wonderful lyrics to flow and breathe.

The Beatles were truly innovative and experimental in the studio and that freedom and creativity has been honoured and brought right up to date on Love. One of the most unusual but clever combinations, or mash-up if you will, is the combination of the lyrics of Within Without You from Sgt. Peppers with the marvellous drums of Tomorrow Never Knows from Revolver. Added to the layers are sitars and tabla from a track I can’t put my finger on right now. It works so well it seems as if it’s always been that way.

I grew up with the music of the Beatles and know it fairly well; I agree with Billy Connolly that you are born knowing the words to all Beatles songs. However, if you really know The Beatles this album is gonna be huge fun as audio iSpy… iSpy with my little ear the guitar solo from Taxman.

6 Music had an ‘exclusive’ documentary about the creation of Love tonight. The one thing that struck me was the difference between George and Giles Martin. Giles spoke in terms of ‘great riffs’ whereas George talked in emotional terms like ‘ominous’ and ‘dark’. It seemed to me that George Martin was the heart of this project whereas Giles was the head and Pro-Tools expert..

The Vegas show itself sounds fantastic; taking place in a purpose built indoor circus arena with over 6,300 speakers… with three in each seat. There is a special edition of Love with a Dolby 5.1 surround version which brings a little of the Vegas show to your lounge it seems.

Love is a great album; it’s fun, creative and sounds marvellous even in good old fashioned stereo.

Definitely one to add to your letter to Father Christmas.

I met up with a friend last night for quick drink after a meeting in London. The drink was sadly too quick but very pleasant nonetheless.

However, the real event of the evening was catching a bus to the station… This probably sounds silly, but I realised that in all the time I commuted to London I never ever caught a London bus so it was a voyage into the unknown for me.

It was one of those new bendy buses that sadly replaced the classic double decker but it was jolly good and covered by my rail ticket which was a surprise…