We’ve all heard of the Nielsen Ratings, which are used to measure television watching habits. Most people are familiar with Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales. But few know of Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, which tracks song plays on radio, television and the internet using a patented digital pattern recognition technology. Performing rights organization SESAC…

Ever wonder how your computer knows the song titles when you insert an audio CD? The answer is more complicated than you might think. Ideally, that information would be written onto the disc itself, but the creators of the CD format weren’t so forward-thinking. CD-Text, a later development, does just that, but few players can…

Today I added my new album to CD Baby and Amazon, which puts my music pretty much everywhere it needs to be. I’ll discuss each of them in turn. I’ve known Derek Sivers, the creator of CD Baby, for a dozen years now. I’ve always admired his outlook, creativity, and work ethic. Back when I…