By Steve Chase
Someone at work told me about the music service Pandora a year ago, but I hadn’t bothered to check it out until I recently loaded the Pandora App on my iPhone and turned it on during a long drive. There are many music “services” on the Internet, some of them available on [...]

By Steve Chase
A few weeks ago, I grabbed all of my CDs and boxed them up. Stacked and racked in our family room, hundreds of the darned things had sat idle since I ripped them into my iTunes database. a few years back. I bought only two CDs last year—nationwide CD sales are down by [...]

By Steve Chase
With the “E” revolution roll-ing forward at full speed, its im-pact on music is more evidentall of the time. Small bands that would have never been able to build a fan base when the record companies controlled their destiny are now the in-novators who will keep good music reaching our ears. Nichemarkets have [...]

by Steve Chase
I’m no weatherman, but I think we’re in for some real winter weather this year. With cold temps, a snowy countryside, and the prospect of a little skiing comes the chance to sit back in the evening in front of the fire with a warm drink and enjoy some holiday music. Here are [...]

By Steve Chase
Don’t bother asking me for advice on the stock market. Having a relatively long daily commute, I listen to Sirius satellite radio (www.sirius.com), a media format that I believed would grow steadily in the future. I was convinced, and bought some Sirius stock, only to watch it drop precipitously to about five cents [...]

In college I was privileged to take a jazz history taught by the late great alto saxophonist Jackie McLean (www.music-city.org/Jackie-McLean/discography/). Growing up in the 1930’s Jackie learned to play with the help of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, and was a sideman with many of the greats including Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Freddie Hubbard [...]

By Steve Chase
Remember the original Sony Walkman? It was a device that changed not only music, but us—for good or bad, depending on how you view it. The Walkman allowed you to take your music with you, and listen privately. For runners and skiers that was good. But the Walkman, and its many successors over [...]

 By Steve Chase
The explosion of new media has really changed how we listen to music, just as it has made us all closer participants in the genres that we like to listen to. Twenty years ago you had to work to find information about new artists or to hear the music you liked. Less popular [...]