Check this article out:
Crank it! iTunes sells sounds of silence -- for real

I don't know what to say.


Edit: Mods please change But->Buy in the thread name. Sorry.

That's absolutely brilliant. I wonder if anyone around here will be able to abx it (against the original) though.





news.com are having a field day with this. as they should

Nah i think But is just as good

If I re-encode the silent AAC files to OGG will I loose any quality?

I think a better question to ask about these tracks is: Is it all digital silence? or is it low volume random noise? or maybe low volume predictable noise?

Maybe that's why these tracks are counted as a part of album art. That there was actually some composition to obtain a particular sort of "silence". A silence which cannot be achieved so easily and requires imagination and artistry ... That's what all this and this made me think.

Some noise artists have offered recordings of near inaudible noise-music/improv.... which make it noise music and not silence...
(This was as far as I know also the intension of Cage with his "4'33"; that you listen to randomly occuring enviromnental noise in the consert hall as music. Speaking of... an old classic here: http://charon.sfsu.edu/disaster/cage.html)
I don't remember any titles now and have to search backcatalogue of "The Wire" issues to find any ... but there was one review where the reviewer was unable to hear any sounds over his loudspeakers, but claimed that on headphones with amp cranked up to max he could hear something like "a petridish of sounds" deep down there (the cover of this record claimed that there was actually instruments as cello, guitar and synth played on this record, but against the "Louder Is Better" approach they took the opposite approach..... Which again remind me of Calvin & Hobbes when Calvins idea of youthful rebellion in an age when everything is done is to play supermarked muzak "really really low".)

EDIT:
The example mentioned of which I would have to search out the title (can't find it at the moment) was regarding the whole of the CD (inaudible or near inaudible volume level) and not just a single track....

Hmmm, that does seem rather silly. But if it's a track on the physical album, so why shouldn't they offer it as a track for download? It's not like you can't preview the track (I can't call it a song) before you buy it.

I wonder what the sales statistics are like for those files. I wonder if any of them have been purchased separately from the albums they're from.

Someone should conduct an ABX listening test, based on these tracks, maybe WMA @ 64 kbit just for once will be CD-quality and transperant.

They could offer lossless compression, too ... the achieved compression rate would be better than any lossy CBR codec would do ...

I think this is a rather moot point. So what if you can buy a silent track? If you're inclined to do so, you're most likely purchasing the entire album, including the silent tracks, for $9.99. If you just want certain songs, you can buy those individually. If you're stupid enough to buy a track titled "Silent" (when you can listen to a preview of them and hear that they actually are silent) by itself, then you deserve to pay $0.99 for it.

On Humans Remains' cd "Using Sickness As A Hero", the last track is titled "Beyond Human Perception." Silence.

However, I noticed a click everytime I started it, so I ripped it, time strecthed it, and shifted the pitch really low, and voila, a pulsing waveform. it was a simple tone, but it pulsed regularly, not enough for me to notice.


Oddly enough, my lossy compression actualy encoded it and kept the info, even though humans can't hear it...

There was a broadcast of John Cage's 4:33 of silence on BBC Radio 3 last month.

It caused quite a stir - much more press coverage than any other concent on Radio 3!

Discussion about it on alt.radio.digital (some sensible messages within the usual arguing)


Cheers,
David.

Slighly off topic but the same kind of idea

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...9&category=1469

And its had 2 bids

Ooo ooo - I'm tempted! Must Resist!

Still, at least there's something that's cheaper in the UK than the USA.

eBay USA: Nothing $14.50
eBay UK: Nothing £0.06 (and counting!)

Cheers,
David.

No, still there's "nothing".

I was never aware of this silent craze. "Beyond human perception" track has some sort of a point, but pure digital silence?

I suppose this is the solution of the Zen question: "What's the sound of one clapping hand?....", so consider $.99 as cheap!

Do they have a copyright on the silence?

... and how much royalities can I expect to pay if I do a cover of the song?

uhhmm... can digital silence be copyrighted anyway? If yes, I would suggest GPL, so anyone using it would be forced to releace music under GPL too

Not likely. Copyright extends only to "original works of authorship". Silence probably is not original (even though the specific ambiance of a recording may be).

What are they going to do with Ministry's Dark Side of the Spoon? 59 silent tracks for sale?

...and how to play all these mp3 - silent tracks gapless....?