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

Aw yeah! It’s that time of the month again. You know, the one where I look up every album in Mojo Magazine’s reviews section in Yahoo! Music Unlimited, make a playlist (this month’s is good!), and talk about how Yahoo! Music Unlimited’s catalog compares to the albums Mojo saw fit to include this month as well as how iTunes, eMusic, Napster, Rhapsody and others fared on the same searches. Not familiar with this monthly ymusicblog feature? Check last month’s review and follow the thread backwards for more than a year’s worth of playlists and statistical catalog fun!

Mojo Filter, April, 2006

The following albums ARE in the Yahoo! Music Unlimited catalog and are contained in this playlist of more than 650 songs, 45 hours of music:

The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
Candi Staton - His Hands
David Gilmour - On An Island
Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
Gary Numan - Jagged
Van Morrison - Pay The Devil
Seth Lakeman - Freedom Fields
Broken Family Band - Balls
Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing And A Curse
Tina Dico - In The Red
Grizzly Bear - Horn Of Plenty
Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
Joan Baez - Bowery Songs
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
Howe Gelb - ‘Sno Angel… Like You
Arizona Amp And Alternator - Arizona Amp And Alternator
Various - Brokeback Mountain OST
Rocky Votolato - Makers
Pink Mountaintops - Axis of Evol
Readymade FC - Babilonia
Mudhoney - Under A Billion Suns
The Like - Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?
Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid - The Exchange Sessions, Vol. 1
My Latest Novel - Wolves
Stanton Warriors - The Lost Files
Hundred Reasons - Kill Your Own
Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice - Gipsy Freedom
George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars - How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent?
Roots Manuva - Alternatively Deep
Stereolab - Fab Four Suture
Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun
Nightmares on Wax - In A Space Outta Sound
Anthony Hamilton - Ain’t Nobody Worryin’
Ursula Rucker - Ma’at Mama
The Little Willies - The Little Willies
Donald Fagan - Morph The Cat
Hans Fjellestad - Kobe Live House
Stephin Merritt - Showtunes
Andrew McCormack - Telescope
Chick Corea - The Ultimate Adventure
Jimmy Cobb - Honors Series
Bob Dorough - Small Day Tomorrow
Elvis Costello - My Flame Burns Blue
Dolly Parton - Those Were The Days
Horse Stories - Everyone’s A Photographer
Sol Seppy - The Bells of 1 2
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
Burning Spear - Our Music
Peggy Honeywell - Faint Humms
Placebo - Meds
The Concretes - In Colour

These albums were NOT found in Yahoo! Music Unlimited, and in parens you’ll find the label releasing the album as well as other services which carry the title according to Yahoo! Audio Search:

Buzzcocks - Flat-Pack Philosophy (Cooking Vinyl; iTunes, Napster, eMusic)
Jody Wildgoose - Afterlife (Sketchbook)
Mystery Jets - Making Dens (679; Napster, Wippit)
Archie Bronson Outfit - Derdang Derdang (Domino)
Mohair - Small Talk (Ear Candy)
Willard Grant Conspiracy - Let It Roll (Loose)
The Durutti Column - Keep Breathing (Fullfill; iTunes, Rhapsody)
Johnny Dowd - Cruel Words (Munich) *
Wanda Jackson - I Remeber Elvis (Cleopatra; Napster, PassAlong)
Marley’s Ghost - Spooked (Sage Arts; iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, AudioLunchbox, eMusic)
Radar Brothers - The Fallen Leaf Pages (Merge; iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic)
Heligoland - Pitcher, Flask, and Foxie Moxie (Independent; iTunes)
Spires That In The Sunset Rise - Four Winds The Walker (Secret Eye)
Ufomammut - Lucifer Songs (Rocket)
Guitar Wolf - Golden Black, The Best of… (Must Destroy)
Paul Duncan - Be Careful What You Call Home (Hometapes; iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, AudioLunchbox)
Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae (Capitol; Napster)
Roachford - Word of Mouth (Peppermint Jam; iTunes)
Tony Allen - Lagos No Shaking (Honest Jons) *
Nicole Willis and The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin’ Up (Timmion) *
C-Mone - The Butterfly Effect (Son)
Life - Realities of Life (Zebra Traffic)
A-Alikes - Kill The Middleman (Guerilla Nation)
Janis Ian - Folk Is The New Black (Cooking Vinyl; iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody)
New Cool Collective - Trippin’ (Dox)
Graham Coxon - Love Travels At Illegal Speeds (EMI; Napster)
The Hollies - Staying Power (EMI)
Hilken Mancini and Chris Colburn - Hilken Mancini and Chris Colburn (Kimchee; AudioLunchbox)
Morning Runner - Wilderness Is Paradise Now (Parlophone)
Suzi Quatro - Back To The Drive (Emi/Liberty)

Aight, lets do some math:
Total albums: 82
We have: 52 (63%)
We don’t have: 30 (37%)

Wow! This is our best score yet! If you’re new to this exercise you’re probably thinking, “What are you so excited about, 60% is a D, fool,” but if you’ve been following this for a year you know this is a huge number. Mojo is a UK magazine often featuring music that isn’t available in the US, period, so when testing against a US digital subscription/download service the curve is set relatively low. Note that adding in the other services you don’t fare much better, and there are definitely labels that we carry that the other services do not.
I’d like to send a shout out to my man John Jones at MusicNet — impressive coverage on the indies, sir. Great job overall. If you’re looking for where this exercise points to room for improvement, Cooking Vinyl, Hometapes, and Sage Arts seem to be the ones that other services have that we do not this month.

Music is the best,
ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music