Red Dwarf. Radio Show. iTunes. And… CD! News Posted by John Hoare on 1st June 2008, 01:36 Hello. I’m John Hoare. You may remember me from such websites as Ganymede & Titan, Noise To Signal, or, erm, asylum.acornarcade.com. Sorry for the lack of updates round here – more of which in a bit (quite literally) – but first we have to get updated on at least the big piece of news at the moment. Which is, as you are all fully aware of by now, the release of The Red Dwarf Radio Show on iTunes – available RIGHT NOW. What you probably don’t know (unless you read our headline, you sneaky good-for-nothing bastards) is that Amazon are now listing a CD release, for September 2008! Now, we all know that release dates can slip, and indeed maybe they’re just flat-out wrong, but still – if you want the release on CD, then it looks like you might get your wish. (Let’s not forget that the Radio Shows are also going to be available on the Red Dwarf Mobile Service as well. I said, don’t forget. Don’t. Look, I know it’s easy…) Back to the iTunes release for now, then. There’s a debate in our forum as to the merits or not of iTunes, and that conversation is probably best kept there. (It’s perhaps worth pointing out though that if your worry is to do with iTunes itself, or just the fact that you really want to own a nice CD you can put on your shelf, then that’s a topic for discussion – but if you’re simply worried about buying files with DRM, then worry no more, as the files are free from any of that kind of nonsense.) But what about the other aspects of the release? Something that’s gone pretty much untalked about is the actual cover art – and maybe that’s because, as an iTunes release (currently, at any rate), everyone’s aware that it’s going to end up rendered stupidly small anyway. But for what it’s worth, I think they’re great – evoking the Just The Shows covers in their beautiful minimalism, and yet at the same time being really striking. The title text really is gorgeously rendered. Perhaps the only criticism is the headphones image – it’s obviously meant to represent the fact it’s an audiobook, but I’m not sure it works quite right. Perhaps a microphone would have worked better, to tie in with it being the Radio Shows? But that’s nitpicking. Let’s hope the same art is used for the CDs themselves – I can’t imagine it won’t, as it’s too lovely. As for the release itself – the history of all the Dwarf audiobooks can get rather messy, and it’s worth a good article of its own one day. Suffice to say that both Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life exist in three different forms – all three of which were released on audio cassette in the 90s. Firstly, the unabridged versions, secondly, the abridged versions, and thirdly, what’s released here – The Red Dwarf Radio Show; the abridged versions of the books, but with some changes and added sound effects. This was commissioned and broadcast by the BBC World Service, but also released on cassette – which Laughing Stock’s Mike O’Brien misses out in his otherwise-excellent history of the audiobooks. It’s interesting to note also that the two Radio Show cassette releases are still available on Amazon – so maybe they’re not quite “languished in audio stasis”, although it’s perhaps worth a bet that there aren’t many copies left! Although, in an odd sense, perhaps they’ve been languishing regardless. In this day and age, it’s odd that until now, the only copies available were on audio cassette – it’s the equivalent of the TV shows only being available on VHS. It’ll be lovely to own them in such nice quality. Let’s hope, if these releases are a success, that we also get the unabridged versions re-released as well – that’s what I’d really love to own. And a release of the normal abridged versions? Or is that the point where it just becomes obsessive and scary?
Personally I’d love to see an unabridged release make it onto iTunes. $9.99 for half of an abridged audiobook is a bit steep to me (although I paid it anyway, because I am Made Of Disposable Income).
Never saw these CD’s available before. Maybe they came out at a time when Dwarf wasn’t so relevant or current to a lot of people. Nicely both volumes have been acquired for me for my imminent fiftieth birthday next month. Long time since I have heard the cassettes or even owned a player of cassettes. Are these harder to get than the bodysnatcher DVDs? I can see one resale link for one of them that’s just above original onsale price, but the other one seems to be scarce at stupid inflated ebay chancing their arm prices. I dont remember listening to these books as “episodes” so looking forward to a relisten.
Never saw these CD’s available before. Maybe they came out at a time when Dwarf wasn’t so relevant or current to a lot of people. Nicely both volumes have been acquired for me for my imminent fiftieth birthday next month. Long time since I have heard the cassettes or even owned a player of cassettes. Are these harder to get than the bodysnatcher DVDs? I can see one resale link for one of them that’s just above original onsale price, but the other one seems to be scarce at stupid inflated ebay chancing their arm prices. I dont remember listening to these books as “episodes” so looking forward to a relisten.
I recently put six C14 batteries into a Sony CD/radio/cassette player and put it on my passenger seat to listen to the radio show cassettes on a car journey. Keep trying to find excuses to go on long trips.
I recently dug up my mp3 player from high school and got it set up with a new, non-broken microSD card. I forgot how much I missed these things.
My latest phone doesn’t have a headphone jack and I’m experiencing all the confusion and rage everybody else experienced several years ago, right now. Just yesterday I wanted to listen to something I’d recorded on my phone so I could translate it to music software on my laptop, so I went to plug my cans into my phone and said “oh for fuck sake” out loud for I think the ninth time. Bluetooth is such a shit, slow tehcnology that loves to not work properly. Having to un-sync from my laptop to syn to my phone to un-sync from that and sync back to my laptop is insane. We knew exactly how good we had it but for some fucking reason decided to abandon all sense and get rid of possibly my favourite hole of all time.
for some fucking reason decided to abandon all sense and get rid of possibly my favourite hole of all time.
I just bought a new phone and I ended buying something from 2021 because every newer model in the line lacked an aux port, and often even a microSD card slot. What the hell do people even use phones for these days?
TikTok, mainly. And racism. And talking really loudly on public transport. And blasting TikToks really loudly on public transport (which is a direct consequence of the loss of the aux cord, I say based on no evidence and simply because I’d feel vindicated to blame it on that)
Maybe because I am a socially anxious wreck but I would implode into a neutron star of embarrassment if I were loudly blaring stupid internet bullshit off my phone in public.
Sometimes I’ve had my phone at like 30% volume to watch something on YouTube when I’m the only person in the carriage and I still feel like I just shouldn’t be doing it.
I struggled with finding a tablet with a headphone jack, let alone a phone. That and an SD card slot are dealbreakers for me – I daren’t even think about what the situation will be when I eventually have to replace them.
Tech companies are out to get creatives who haven’t embraced streaming, aren’t they? I’d say about a third of the music I like isn’t on any streaming services, so having an SD card with my collection on is something I was planning on doing once my fucking iPhone contract is up. Good to hear that’ll be difficult now.
Tech companies are out to get creatives who haven’t embraced streaming, aren’t they? I’d say about a third of the music I like isn’t on any streaming services, so having an SD card with my collection on is something I was planning on doing once my fucking iPhone contract is up. Good to hear that’ll be difficult now. Apple Music subscription includes the old iTunes Match service where (via iTunes) all your music is synced via the cloud. So any music you own and have ripped from other sources are just uploaded and made available to all your devices. I manage a lot of my music that way, and use Apple Music to complement it with everything else.
Phones with extendable storage are basically extinct, but phones with a large amount of base storage are still a thing.
Apple Music subscription includes the old iTunes Match service where (via iTunes) all your music is synced via the cloud. So any music you own and have ripped from other sources are just uploaded and made available to all your devices. I manage a lot of my music that way, and use Apple Music to complement it with everything else. Oh, that’s interesting. I can’t really afford a separate subscription (my partner has a Spotify family plan which I leech off) but I might have to look into it. Phones with extendable storage are basically extinct, but phones with a large amount of base storage are still a thing. My music collection is currently around 500GB. Not sure how much of that is not on Spotify. I mean, you can usually find unsanctioned uploads on YouTube. Quite a lot of stuff I like isn’t on there; it’s also useless for this kind of thing on phones without paying.
I mean, you can usually find unsanctioned uploads on YouTube. I like having my music in slightly better quality than a middling mp3.
