Doug and Kirk discuss some of the things they like and dislike about the current state of audio equipment and the music industry. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes RIAA equalization - Wikipedia Cable sheathing Our next tr…

We know, it seems like we just talked about AI in photography, but the field is moving pretty fast. Google announced improvements to their generative AI models, which are both impressive and sloppy at the same time. We also look at new AI-based landscape masking tools in Lightroom, speculate on what WWDC could bring to Apple’s Photo app, and more. …

Video games are one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Doug has been a gamer for a long time, but Kirk only recently converted. We talk about how gaming is part of our leisure activity. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Sho…

It’s another photo book! We’re joined by photographer Markus Naarttijärvi and publisher Daniel Agee to talk about Markus’s new book A Surrender. When we last talked to Daniel, he was at photo service Glass, but now he’s struck out on his own to form the publishing company Good Fight, and A Surrender is the first title. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website,…

AI is everywhere. It hasn't really affected music yet, or has it? Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Perplexity Microsoft made an ad with generative AI and nobody noticed How Daydreaming Can Enhance Creativity for Fiction…

Quintin Lake traversed the Coast of Britain over several years, photographing and documenting the journey. Now, he’s turned his well-received project into a new photo book called The Perimeter. We welcome Quintin back to PhotoActive not just as a guest, but as an in-person guest with Kirk in his house in the UK. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's…

Wired editor Chris Anderson came up with the idea of "the long tail" in 2004, suggesting that older books, music, and other creative works would continue to sell in small amounts, making enough money over time for these creators to survive. He was wrong. Very wrong. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free …

The US government has begun to impose high tariffs on goods brought in from nearly every country in the world. Since most camera gear is made in Japan and China, what does this mean for the industry and, more important, for your own purchasing decisions? Since the policies are changing by the day, we decided to release this episode a week early. Ho…

Composer and pianist Timo Andres wrote extensive listening notes for the new box set of Steve Reich's Collected Works. We talk with him about this composer whose work over the past five decades has been incredibly influential. "I went everyone to listen to music in a more abstract way." Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Pa…

With the bonkers success of the Fujifilm X100VI, it seemed only a matter of time before Fuji made a compact camera based around its GFX medium format line. That’s the recently-announced GFX100RF, a new compact-ish, 100 megapixel, fixed-lens, $5,000 camera. We look at the inventions and the tradeoffs incorporated into this high-res entrant into the …

The Grateful Dead released a big box set that Kirk will not buy, leading Doug and Kirk to discuss box sets of CDs. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Enjoying The Ride, Grateful Dead Grateful Dead Complete Europe ’72 Box …

Adobe has released Photoshop for iPhone, a bonafide version of real Photoshop, not to be confused with Photoshop Express or other earlier variations. We take a look at this new app with one main question in our minds: Who is this for? A programming note: Toward the end of the episode we talk about using the Remove tool in Photoshop and Lightroom, b…

We muse on our dream home audio setups, the enshittification of streaming TV, and Doug explains how he has music in his bathroom. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Ruark 100 series Towards Zero Episode #48 – Musician Dav…

Two episodes ago Jeff expressed cynicism about iPhone add-ons that try to make the phone more like a traditional camera. And yet here we are looking at Kirk’s new Leica LUX Grip accessory...and not hating it? Learn about why this could be the camera grip for the iPhone that succeeds where others falter, and how the Leica LUX app does some very smar…

We rant about compilations in Apple's music app, and some other annoyances. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Doug's AppleScripts Take Control of Apple Media Apps Very Seldom Casual: UncertainFM Apple Music Classical (Mo…

On this week’s episode we welcome David Young, photographer and author of the new book A Brief History of Photography: From the Very Beginning to the Age of Digital. It may feel like photography is only a little more than a hundred years old, but the principles of the art, from lens design to chemistry, have been around for centuries. We had a grea…

The recent movie about Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown, has led many people to "discover" Bob Dylan's music. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Don’t look back: after decades of apathy, A Complete Unknown has turned me into…

Photographers love to accessorize their cameras, and the iPhone is no different. A case is one thing, but what about other photo-centric add-ons? Should you buy an extra-wide or telephoto lens that snaps in front of the built-in cameras? What about grips and shutter buttons that make the iPhone feel more like a traditional camera? We weigh in with …

We look at Spotify's Billions Club, and discuss how some people are trying to discover the must unplayed music. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: No Dylan but loads of Coldplay! What the songs with a billion streams on S…

The recent devastating fires in Los Angeles have created a lot of fire photography, and some of it compelling both for its content and its artistry. We talk about the challenges of photographing such extreme situations. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on Mastodon, Jeff on Bluesky Kirk McElhearn: w…

With the release of Kirk's new book, Take Control of Apple Media Apps, we discuss how Apple has normalized their media apps and, perhaps, finally made them easier to use. We also discus the use of songs in movies. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us …

We’ve been looking at various AI-related photography topics in recent episodes, such as using the Clean Up feature in the Photos app to remove unwanted items or the bigger question of “What is a photo?” Now it’s time to look broadly at what AI can offer photographers and where we think it’s going. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff o…

Streaming services - mostly, but not only, Spotify - are filling their playlists with fake music. "If everyone is a content creator, who's left to be the audience?" Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Take Control of Apple…

1984 wasn't like 1984. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Episode #235 - 1973 Episode #79 – 1977 Episode #98 - 1981 1984: The Year Pop Stardom Got Supersized Synth Britannia Our next tracks: Philip Glass: Einstein on the …

As we wrap up 2024, we’re realizing our photo libraries have grown quite a bit—in Jeff’s case, almost filling his cloud storage. So as we anticipate some holiday downtime, we’re turning our attention to strategies for cleaning up our photo libraries. Note that we’re taking the next episode off to celebrate Christmas, so our next scheduled episode i…

Apparently "nostalgia concerts," where bands play full albums, have become common; not everyone likes this idea. Rolling Stone made a list of the "best" 74 albums of 1974. And we discuss movie soundtracks, with specific reference to Hans Zimmer's music for Interstellar. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-f…

Our recent discussions of AI and the Photos Clean Up tool have brought us full circle to the bigger question: What is a photo? Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on Mastodon Kirk McElhearn: website, Kirk's photos, Kirk on Instagram, Kirk on Glass, Kirk on Mastodon Sponsor: Nitro from Gentlemen Coders…

We talk about selling records with the unique Burning Shed, the British online record store that offers a curated selected of progressive rock, new wave, ambient, and electronic music. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: B…

Aimless pedestrians wandering in the background of your photo? Trash on the ground in the foreground? Apple can help. In this episode we're looking at Clean Up, the new Apple Intelligence tool in the Photos app that uses generative AI to remove areas of a photo. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on …

With the passing of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, we talk about the bass players we would take to a desert island. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Phil Lesh obituary Our next tracks: Grateful Dead: Fallout from the …

In our quest to better understand the often-confusing changes and additions to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro photo situation, we’ve decided to tackle the photo file formats. HEIF, ProRAW, JPEG-XL... there are a lot of options to choose from. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on Mastodon Kirk McElh…

We discuss desert island discs as a thought experiment, though we didn't agree on the ground rules. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Episode #130 - Desert Island Discs, Part 1 Episode #133 - Desert Island Discs, Part 2 …

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro introduce a new twist on an existing feature, and the result is... confusion and complexity. Photographic Styles can be very powerful, but it really requires you to dig into the details. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff on Glass, Jeff on Mastodon Kirk McElhearn: website, Kirk's pho…

Music is a product. We discuss how music is sold and promoted. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: On the State of the (Book)World, with Lauren Groff and Neel Mukherjee MUBI BFI Player Nightsleeper - iPlayer Our next track…

Now that Kirk and Jeff have received their iPhone 16 Pros, it’s time to take them into the world and see how the new photographic features work. Is the Camera Control all it’s cracked up to be? Does a 48 megapixel ultra-wide camera make much difference? We talk about our first hands-on experiences with Apple’s new pocket cameras—sorry, mobile phone…

Kirk attended a unique concert recently, and Doug and Kirk discuss how concerts could be more interesting. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Episode #178 - Lieder and Opera Singer Ian Bostridge Winterreise review - agony…

It’s that time again: new iPhones! By which we mean, of course, new Apple Cameras That Also Do Other Stuff. Kirk and Jeff are both upgrading their phones this year, largely due to the new Camera Control button but also the 48 MP (megapixel) ultra-wide camera and the new 48 MP Fusion camera that reads data fast enough to remove the shutter lag when …

People are more likely to have good audio for their TV, to watch movies and films, than for music these days. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Panasonic Streaming 4K Blu Ray Player DP-UB820-K Our next tracks: 2001: A Sp…

Don't buy hi-fi audio equipment that needs firmware updates. (This means you, Sonos.) Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Cambridge Audio EVO ONE Sonos, still trying to fix its broken app, lays off 100 employees Episode #1…

Is your photo library spread out among different drives and apps? We’re not talking about maybe having a couple of Lightroom Classic catalogs—it’s not uncommon now for a photographer to have Lightroom libraries, Capture One libraries, Apple Photos libraries, even old iPhoto and Aperture libraries collected over the years. In this episode we welcome…

It's tough to make money in the music business. So artists sell merch. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Shakedown Street (Grateful Dead parking lot market) Live Nation announces it will drop merch cuts and pay $1,500 st…

Many cameras now feature IBIS: in-body image stabilization. But do you really need a stabilized body? Can you use just a stabilized lens? And for that matter, is image stabilization just a crutch for lazy photographers? Also in this episode, we ponder perfect photo destinations. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's photos, Jeff on Instagram, Jeff o…

It's the summer of Apple beta software. We chat a bit about the Music app, new operating systems, and how Apple's AI could affect Apple Music. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: macOS Sequoia Preview Moom Soulver How to I…

Touting Panasonic’s new LUMIX S9 camera, a representative was quoted saying that Micro Four Thirds sensors are more difficult to understand than full-frame sensors, especially for people with “low camera literacy.” That piqued our interest, because many photographers assume that a full-frame sensor is just inherently better. But is that true? And i…

"Don’t confuse consumption with reach." Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Reach, Bob Lefsetz Glastonbury on the BBC iPlayer Glastonbury 2024 line-up Our next tracks: Robert Fripp: Washington Square Church CD, download Ro…

If you're wondering whether film photography is really experiencing a resurgence in popularity, the announcement of the Pentax 17 is your answer. It's a brand-new film-only camera with some interesting design choices. Also in this episode, we talk about social media alternatives to Instagram for photographers. Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website, Jeff's p…

No one gets up in the morning and says, “I want to be in a classic rock band.” Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: The most popular, obscure, Democratic, Republican and hated music in America Queen Catalog to Be Acquired b…

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is where we learn about what’s coming in the company’s many operating systems, and this year was focused on machine learning features and AI - Apple Intelligence. That turns out to have a lot of significance on photography, such as in searching your photo library and making edits in the Photos app. We l…

Something always goes wrong. "The grass may look great, but it's not real grass." Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Episode #278: Gear Acquisition Syndrome Our next tracks: Charles Ives: Concord Sonata, by Donna Coleman)…

Doug and Kirk discuss one of Brian Eno's best early albums, Another Green World. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! ‌Show notes: Another Green World Another Green World (Wikipedia) Oblique Strategies Episode #164 - Sid Smith on the Li…