On October 10th, 2007 Radiohead released their newest album In Rainbows in a very unusual way.  You could log into their website and either order a big box set or you could name your price for drm-free MP3 files.  And yes $0.00 was an acceptable price.  This story has been covered over and over in the popular tech media outlets, though I would like to take a quick analysis of this play by Radiohead.

In the comments of Digg and Slashdot you see a lot of people shouting that this is the day the RIAA will finally learn that their doings are evil.  I have different feelings.  I do think it is a good thing, but it is a move that only a major band could make a get noticed.

A while ago I remember listening to TWiT (This Week in Tech) and Leo mentioning that a band by the name of Steadman (www.steadmanband.com) got frustrated with being dropped form labels and was going to give MP3s of all of its music away for free.  You can still go to their website and get those files.  Outside of TWiT I don't think anybody heard this and the only reason I remember this is that one of my friends worked for the music industry at that time and hooked me up with their album.

The point is that this band, Steadman, got no press when they did this out side of the niche podcast TWiT.  When a band like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, or Barenaked Ladies makes the decision to release free music, that news will make some bigger waves throughout media.

All of that negativity aside, I do think that when big-ticket bands make industry-changing moves like this it is a good thing.  It is only a start.  We need more bands to get on this trend first though.  Bands that sell out clubs and bands that sell out arenas.

The RIAA most likely isn't happy with Radiohead for giving away their music.  It reflect poorly on their current practices and *hopefully* will make people start to question that $15.00 price tag for an album. 

I recently picked up a new TV for my bedroom.  I ended up with a very nice Sharp 720p 32" LCD.  However, now that I have the new screen, I wanted to upgrade the sound system in my bedroom.

First off, to help understand my bedroom we should go over a few things about this area.  I have a roommate, so it is important to me that my bedroom has all of my creature comforts that I might want somewhere else in the apartment.  This way, if I want to just chill in my room and no annoy people, I have that ability.  That being said, I currently have a six foot couch in my room facing my TV, so think of it like a very small studio apartment.

After I setup my TV, I realized that I much preferred the look of video games on the LCD screen versus the DLP.  However, that is a different store, the result of which means my XBOX 360 and PS3 are now in my bedroom.  When I play video games, I very much enjoy having good audio to go with them, so upgrading my sound beyond the standard built in speakers was a must.

I shopped around for a few different options.  I have an older Dolby Digital 5.1 Sony Receiver, however it is starting to show its age (the remote kind of works).  It was really a coin flip if I was going to use it or replace it.  If i replaced it, I would upgrade the 6.1 Dolby Digital/DTS Yamaha Receiver in the living room.  The options for that got costly quick, so I factored that out.  Now I was down to shopping for Speakers or a Home Theater in a Box (HTIB).

I shopped a few HTIB's in the $300.00 price range.  I wasn't really impressed with what I was seeing outside of an Onkyo setup sold at Circuit City.  My only concern with the Onkyo setup was that it was that the Receiver was only 90% real, in my opinion.  And that really didn't upgrade anything in my opinion.

I moved onto shopping for speaker packages to use with my old Receiver.  While I was impressed with a few packages from Yamaha and JBL, I really didn't want to run wire all over my room.  And when looking at just two bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer the cost started to creep up to levels I didn't want to pay (again, I would upgrade the sub in my living room).

Then I found some Sony Floorstanding speakers at Best Buy.  I picked them up for about $135.00 and was expecting to be unimpressed and return them.  However, now that I have them setup and mostly tuned, I have to say that I am very impressed.  While I have heard better speakers, I can honestly say that I don't miss the surround sound in my small room and that the bass, mids, and highs are sound good.  The fact that they were such a value makes them even better in my opinion.

In closing, I am starting to realize that Surround Sound is a little overrated.  This does not mean that I am swearing off my love of Dolby Digital and DTS, however I am learning its place in my home.  To truly enjoy Surround Sound you need room for the sound to spread out and truly build up the surround effect.  If you have a small room, I would suggest picking up two nice speakers that can accurately reproduce the mid-tones in music.  From that starting point you can start to add more speakers for Surround Sound as you rooms get bigger.