Mojo Filter vs. Yahoo! Music Unlimited, March, 2006

Aloha! Time once again for our nearly-monthly comparison between the reviews section of Mojo Magazine and the vast catalog of Yahoo! Music Unlimited. In case you haven’t seen this feature before, Mojo is my favorite music magazine, hailing from the UK, and Yahoo! Music Unlimited is Yahoo!’s super-rad $5/month all-you-can-eat subscription service. Every month since Yahoo! Music Unlimited launched nearly one year ago I’ve searched for every album reviewed in Mojo in the subscription service and posted the results as well as a playlist. The purpose of this somewhat tedious yet musically rewarding exercise is to track our catalog coverage against “important” new releases as well as make a playlist of new music to share with the world. For past comparisons and playlists, start with last month and work your way backward.

Mojo Filter, March, 2006

The following albums can be found in Yahoo! Music Unlimited. A playlist of these albums, nearly 20 hours of new music, can be found here.
Kris Kristofferson – This Old Road
Ryan Adams – 29
The Minus 5 – The Minus 5
Holly Throsby – On Night
Town and Country – Up Above
Television Personalities – My Dark Places
Devics – Push The Heart
Battles – EP C/B EP
Beth Orton – Comfort of Strangers
B.B. King and Friends – 80
Stellastarr* – Harmonies For The Haunted
Kathy Valentine – Light Years
Buddy Guy – Bring ‘Em In
Swearing At Motorists – Last Night Becomes Morning
Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not…
The Czars – Sorry I Made You Cry
Euros Childs – Chops
Kelley Stoltz – Below The Branches
Ariel Pink – Haunted Graffiti 5: House Arrest
Notorious B.I.G. – Duets: The Final Chapter
Liars – Drums Not Dead
The Village Orchestra – Et In Arcadia Ego
Dengue Fever – Escape From Dragon House
Celebration – Celebration
Giant Drag – Hearts and Unicorns
Prefuse 73 – Security Screenings

These albums, however, could not be found in Yahoo! Music Unlimited. I’ve also included the label listed in Mojo (which is the UK release, not always helpful or telling) and other services which carry the release, found via Yahoo! Audio Search:
The Kooks – Inside In/Inside Out (Virgin; Napster)
The Saw Doctors – The Cure (Shamtown; Napster)
Michael Messer – Lucky Charms (Cooking Vinyl; iTunes, Wippit)
Mogwai – Mr. Beast (Matador; iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Audio Lunchbox, Wippit)
Solveig Slettahjell – Pixiedust (Act; iTunes)
Deadstring Brothers – Starving Winter Report (Bloodshot; iTunes, Emusic)
Dawn Of The Replicants – Fangs (5L; iTunes)
Halloween, Alaska – Halloween, Alaska (East Side Digital)
Omar Rodriguez – Omar Rodriguez (Willie Anderson Recordings)
Grouper – Way Their Crept (Free Procupine Society)
Ocean – Here’s Where Nothing Grows (Important)
Pearls and Brass – Indian Tower (Drag City; iTunes)
Diane Cluck – Count Less Times (Voodoo-Eros; iTunes, Emusic)
Regina Spektor – Mary Ann Meets The Grave Diggers and Other Stories by Regina Spektor (Transgressive)
Various – I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey (Vanguard; iTunes, MusicMatch, Rhapsody)
Christy Moore – Burning Times (Sony)
Jeffrey and Jack Lewis – City and Eastern Songs (Rough Trade)
Otis Rush – All Your Love (I Miss Loving) (Delmark)
The 18th Day of May – The 18th Day of May (Hannibal)
Various – Hands Across The Water (Compass; iTunes, Emusic)
Maddy and The Girls – Under The Covers (Park)
Malinky – The Unseen Hours (Greentrax)
KTB – Bluebird (Tatinga)
Chris Brokaw – Incredible Love (Rock Action; iTunes)
The Research – Breaking Up (At Large)
Blade – Guerilla Tactics (691 Influential)
Amy Allison – Everything and Nothing Too (Spit and Polish)
The Hazey Janes – Hotel Radio (Measured; Rhapsody)
Sway – This Is My Demo (Dcypha)
DaVinChe – Dirty Canvas: The Legacy (Paperchase)
Various – B-More Club Music (Milkcrate)
Various – Kenny Dope Presents Randy Muller’s Best (Plaza)
Tiga – Sexor (Different/Pias)
Angie Reed – XYZ Frequency (Chicks On Speed)
Christina Kulukundis – Christina Kulukundis (www.christinakulukundis.com)

Math time:
Total Albums: 62
Found in Y! Music Unlimited: 26 (42%)
Not found in Y! Music Unlimited: 36 (58%)
Not found in Y! Music Unlimited, found in iTunes: 10 (28%)
Not found in Y! Music Unlimited, not found in any other online service: 20 (56%)

Nothing particularly surprising this month, pretty much par for the course. iTunes still leads, and we’re still on par with Rhapsody and Napster in terms of coverage (though Napster had a couple of surprises early in the list). Emusic had a couple of goodies this month but didn’t have as impressive a showing as last month. Note that I’m not searching for items we do have in the other services, so I’m not shining any light on any cases where we have something the other services do not. I’m giving the other services the benefit of the doubt, which may or may not be fair. I’m guessing there are a couple of cases where we have things others don’t, but I’m not certain to be honest.

We should have the Mogwai record, since we carry Matador. I think there’s a delivery problem with Matador. Apparently the MusicNet folks are looking into it.

BONUS PLAYLIST: I pulled together what I could from the “50 Greatest English Tracks Ever!” playlist in the March issue, too. Some key goodies are missing (Beatles, Small Faces, etc), but it’s still a really great and interesting playlist. Dig!
Music is the best,
ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music