Somewhere Inside the Rainbow
In the ever-evolving "battle" over the future of the music industry, many questions are being asked: Who will emerge victorious, the artist or the label? How will musicians eke out a living despite the ease of recording transfer from machine to machine across invisible networks? Is this the demise of the retail store? Will digital be the inevitable stamp of the future? What are the boundaries of organizations like the RIAA, and how much influence should they have over governmental regulations?
These are only five questions among many on the tips of industry and musician tongues. The boldest move of 2007 was certainly Radiohead's online offering of their latest album, In Rainbows, at a choose-your-own payment rate, starting at the base price of free. Numerous people took advantage and paid nothing. Still, some have speculated that the band brought in over nine million dollars – a number that is likely inflated, although vocalist Thom Yorke stated that they've made more from digital sales on this recording than from all their other releases.
The Radiohead Chronicles show us that digital sales empower artists. But they raise an even more relevant point: Why are we so concerned with the fiscal status of superstars?
This Fortune magazine feature on Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino touches on the industry's concerns. Record labels are in disarray, digging up every last publishing right in the hope of making some sense out of what they're up against. Enter Rapino, who snatches up Madonna in a move that turns his concert production company into a full-fledged record-label-cum-public-relations-agency-cum-tour-management-company. Add in the individualized convenience of online marketing, and you have a potential emperor in this brave new industry.
Look at the common thread between Radiohead's indie missive and Madonna's convenient corporatizing: brand names. Both artists are more established than most any other on the planet. Were they to release albums on eight-track and tour only in Paraguay, they would be considered groundbreaking revolutionaries. While the occasional Wilco emerges to show that viral marketing and word of mouth really do matter, major media stays focused on Brittney's pregnancies and the Black Eyed Peas turning themselves into cartoons to sell candy bars. Of course blogs are essential to promoting music, and of course the indie artist has never been as empowered as today to carve out a niche in the machine. Just like all the other 216,617,932 MySpace soon-to-be's.
What matters most in the current music scene is what has always mattered: ingenuity and creativity. The idea that music can be a lucrative commodity is part of a psychology not even a century-and-a-half old. Safe to say, music is much older. This does not mean we should overlook its evolution into economics. But it should also not dissuade us from understanding its ritualistic and mythological – not to mention emotionally necessary – component in being a human.
When an economy is in failure, it does all it can to maintain the illusion that it is still in fine shape. This is true of most anything human – we do not want to admit death. We feel that we can cheat death, like the way the Internet "saved" the American economy in the ‘90s. While this amazing piece of technology certainly breathed life into a failing system, the CPR is proving temporary. What's needed is an organ transplant, not a tire patch. That begins by recognizing our arts as socially and spiritually relevant works, and not only focusing on commercial aspects. Nothing could be more indicative of this trend than the slew of coverage by major networks on Christmas 2007 being a "disappointing" retail season, as corporations did not get as large of an increase as they expected over last year.
Like the music industry, this boils down to expectations. That chain retailers saw any increase should be a sign of success. Instead of focusing on the fact that they did not see a loss, they complain about not making enough more money than they made last year. They point toward a slumping economy, inexplicably high healthcare costs and cuts, and rampant oil prices as scapegoats. Never do these people turn the finger on themselves, realizing that some things may not be compatible with the stresses of economics. It is popular to market the Christmas season – an old agricultural motif regarding the sun reaching its lowest point, only to be reborn (resurrected) and start its annual ascent to fertilize the fields – as a time of family and friendship. That their product may not be necessary to the communal bonds of humanity is beyond their limited scope.
The record industry has made the same mistake. In their idealism that music is something that must be marketed, controlled and distributed in a very specific manner, they have misunderstood the nature of music, which is liberating, not restricting. They have confused a form for the essence. The form is their particular means of selling music; it is a template, a blueprint, and obviously not a very sturdy one, considering it has survived not quite a century. The essence, of course, is music itself, what old yogis called Nada Brahma: the science of sound. When I hit play on the beautiful "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" from In Rainbows, I don't stop to consider how much I paid for the song as compared to the number of times I have played it. I close my eyes and am engulfed by the sound, and am inspired to create in the way that I do, through metal keys punching alphabets on computer screens. This is why music, like all art, is truly viral. It makes us want to do more of it.
One year ago this month I stood over my grandfather's casket and said goodbye for the last time. The man that taught me how to search for edible mushrooms in thick forests and fed me quarters to feed slot machines during Seaside Heights winters so that I could compile fake coins to win chinzy Chinese finger tricks and rubber snakes had left the planet. His eighty-eight years of life were now memories, and I chose to hold the good ones, to learn from the mistakes, and to continue living. What we do as humans is no different than what we do when humans form companies, organizations and corporations. These "nameless" businesses are compilations of names, and if the people behind them refuse to be held accountable for their actions, then it is not they who we should blame. We need to hold them accountable by not purchasing their products, and by creating our own forms of media and promoting and marketing our own arts and culture.
As death is a natural process of life; all forms that the essence takes will go this route. This decade has proven to witness the death of a particular way of selling, marketing and distributing music. This is obviously not the same as the death of music itself. In my fourteen years of music journalism, I have never seen such a rich and prosperous year as 2007. That means that something is going very right. While a few pantry staples are not making the tens of millions of dollars they are accustomed to, tens of millions of artists are figuring out how to turn their creative forces into something sustainable. It may not make them rich enough to buy multiple homes, but it feeds them in ways previously unimagined. And the more we imagine and use the technological extensions that our imaginations create, the more we feed each other.
Image by Michael Zappa used via a Creative Commons license.
Tweet- 12-28-07
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over 200 million myspace musicians!
Propaganda Anonymous Very cool. Where did you get the number of myspace musicians from Derek? Just curious. In a recent interview with Frank 151 magazine Jerry Heller talks a bit about where the music industry is at today.
He spoke about how some break needs too come in the process between manufacturing and sales.
To me it seems like the hardest thing facing most up-and-coming musicians today is basically them becoming their own managers and agents. All that stuff used to appear to come in a package for kids that got signed to some sort of 'deal.' Though they usually got screwed over in small ways that add up.
What I've noticed is that 'Capitalism' promotes the idea of 'Stars' that have whole albums of 'genius.' This system promotes an alienation between performer and his/her audience, in the live aspect.
Kids buy into images and caricatures. Huge shows promote Spectacles that translate better on large screen displays in huge areanas, or at home in your living room.
Rather than include the whole room in a unique experience of actual transformation of music and ritual.
Anyway, great piece man
good one!
Artists all of sorts should feel radically empowered right now. The tools are available for anyone to disseminate their song or concept across the entire planet, instantly. So the good new meme or beat is going to find its audience. And yes, artists have to take on the job of being their own managers and packagers. But who wants to be packaged by a corporation when you can create your own persona?
I think Peter Gabriel had some really interesting ideas about how with the new technology, the music industry could become more about process and less about product. Instead of just making one finished hit, an artist could invite his or her listener on a journey - releasing a series of versions or takes of a song.
it is not just that the industry or the star system is busted, but music itself is also evolving with network culture.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
Good article.
Good article.
I've got to agree with the comment "To me it seems like the hardest thing facing most up-and-coming musicians today is basically them becoming their own managers and agents." Considering that many of us have day jobs and do not make enough money from music to survive, it's hard enough to find time to create and record new music, let alone release, distribute and promote it...
It is worth mentioning that Issa (the Canadian alternative folk/pop singer-songwriter formerly known as Jane Siberry) started doing the 'pay what you like' MP3 release thing at least a couple years ago. Her statement on "self-determined pricing" may be read here:
https://www.sheeba.ca/store/letterSDP.php
She has succeeded to an admirable degree in freeing her musical endeavors from the entrapments of commodity culture. From Wikipedia:
"Early in 2006, Siberry closed her Sheeba [record label] office, then sold and gave away nearly all of her possessions—including her home and instruments. She presently retains one traveling guitar, but none of the other instruments featured on her albums and in her concerts. In 2006, she told The Globe and Mail that she had kept a very few precious possessions, including her Miles Davis CDs, in storage.
On June 3, 2006, somewhere in northwestern Europe, Siberry changed her name to Issa. She revealed her new name to the public on June 24, 2006. She has also indicated, however, that her older music will remain available for sale under the name Jane Siberry; only her new material will be released as Issa. She indicated to The Globe and Mail that she chose the name Issa as a feminine variant of Isaiah.
On July 4, 2006, she gave a lecture at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, on the topic of "Cracking the Egg: A Look from the Inside," opening with a poetic meditation on science and life—and then opened the floor up to questions from the audience. She talked about her recent adventures in decommodifying her life, her change in name, and her new conception of herself as an artist. While she has been recording new music lately, at present she has no plans to release music conventionally on CD as she has in the past, preferring perhaps to release a song at a time through her website or to share new music in concert."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Siberry
"Let the great constellation of flickering ashes be heard..."
- Noel Scott Engel
I think music...
There is so much potential here and now, both economically and creatively.
It should be noted that groups like the Detroit based Underground Resistance and London based 4hero/Reinforced Records have been operating as their own full-fledged record label-cum-public-relations-agency-cum-tour -management (and more) for years and years. And both have influenced generations of other significant music makers (ie Carl Craig, Jeff Mills, Goldie/Metalheadz, Kode9 et al) who have influenced many other generations and built vast networks and "empires" of music makers, DJ's and dancers.
The new models of network distribution mixed with the DIY vibe of rave and DJ culture is a very potent wave to ride.
One interesting related site here is Ithinkmusic
Ithinkmusic enables a community of independent record labels, artists and retailers to create and sell a catalog of music to the public. This community can manage and display content online, network between buyers, sellers, and creators of music, as well as manage revenues from the sale of digital music files.
Ithinkmusic creates an interactive network of musicians, fans, and music stores that ties each of them together using the same application to make online record stores that sell digital content.
DIY or Die?
Dance music casualties of the digital music revolution:
Amato, the highly respected distribution company responsible for distributing the music of labels like Kompakt, 2020 Vision, Anjunabeats, Distinctive, Cr2, Buzzin’ Fly and many more of the biggest labels in dance has filed for liquidation.
Having handled both physical and digital distribution for many of the most important players in electronic music, covering all formats (including CDs, vinyl and MP3 downloads); Amato’s demise has raised fears within the music industry of knock-on effects. Many believe that it could have a disastrous effect on vinyl, in particular, as several of Amato’s labels, such as Rekids and Dubsided, only produce records.
The reasons for Amato shutting down are so far unclear, but some have speculated that it signifies that dance music record sales have become unprofitable, in both vinyl and digital formats, with file sharing software and illegal downloading allowing punters to access any music they want for free, devaluing legitimate sales.
2020 Vision head Ralph Lawson commented: “The ramifications are fairly serious. What you’re dealing with is small independent labels, a large feeding bed for dance music, getting seriously hit. Personally, I think it could have been worse, we’re able to survive, but the fall-out will be very significant.” Lawson also reckoned that the shock of Amato’s liquidation should galvanise the independent music business and force labels and music heads to find new ways of working.
“It’s breaking point,” said Ralph. “If people want independent labels to go on then people need to come to the table. It’s time for everyone to really realise what they can do as a DJ, as an artist, as a record label for the scene. Unless we do something, we’re gonna be in a world where you don’t have these superb independents giving you alternatives.”
Website : http://www.amatodistribution.co.uk
Casualties of the Digital Music Revolution
Thanks, Derek, for a thought-provoking piece. You touch on many aspects of the current music industry "transitioning" with a critical eye that many commentators sorely lack.
I'd like to address some points you raise, and surmise what your message is in the subtext:
Firstly, Radiohead's successful "pay-what-you-want" album release is indeed a landmark event, but it speaks little to the viability of unknown independents finding financial success by this model. We're talking about a very bold move by one of the most celebrated bands of their day – a groundbreaking challenge to the industry, or a self-serving publicity stunt, depending on who you ask. In fairness, it is certainly both at once.
Yes, Thom and his cohorts have made a statement about the future of music. However, they do so from the elite position of Grade-A superstars – wealthy beneficiaries of the old order of major-label budget promotions, recording, distribution, and arena tours.
And let's also be clear about what these clever blokes are really up to, anyway. In addition to the much-hyped digital release and pricey "discbox" collector's edition, In Rainbows, we later learn, is also slated for release as a good old-fashioned, tangible, UPC'd, full-frequency range compact disc -- much to the chagrin of the indie world who shelled out millions of "kudos-dollars" for the low-quality 160 kbps mp3s, thinking the band was truly out to change the world. Turns out it was a pretty cunning twist on an old game of marketing and promotion, as confirmed by the band's management.
As the digital music revolution brings the walls of the old music infrastructure crashing down, we're seeing established artists scrambling to reposition themselves in a grotesquely uber-corporate terrain. Sir Paul McCartney recnently signed as the inaugural artist to Starbucks' new label venture, Hear Music. The Smashing Pumpkins' long-awaited reunion album, the aptly-titled Zeitgeist, sums up the "spirit of the times" with several distinctly different versions of the album exclusively licensed to big box retailers Target and Best Buy, alongside the requisite iTunes offering. (The title track, in fact, can only be found as a bonus on Target's release!) And not that we should expect any less from the Material Girl, but the extent to which Artist Nation represents a soul-sucking corporate monstrosity cannot be understated.
So what remains for the starving independent artists, as the meltdown of the "Big Four" paradigm ushers in a decidedly more insidious corporate trend in mainstream music? At the moment, Rupert Murdoch's Myspace and Steve Jobs' iTunes are the only apparent options in the new paradigm of indie music. Derek, I believe I read you correctly when I detect a note of sarcasm in your nod to Myspace as an alternative promotional model – where an independent musician can host his online niche among some 200 million other band pages. How this is supposed to replace the vastly complex system of radio, print, and television promotions is hardly worth debating.
What we're seeing go down now in the music industry post-mp3 reads like a page out of the Iraq "liberation," circa 2003. A repressive, but complex and functional, system is rapidly obliterated, and its tyrannical elite uprooted. Freedom and independence for all is announced – yet no viable replacement infrastructure moves in to fill the void. Rampant looting and lawlessness ensues, and chaos, insecurity, and hardship become the condition for the common [musician]. Far more insidious regimes built upon far more virulent ideologies move quickly to take over (Starbucks, BestBuy, etc).
I have much more to say on this topic, and I plan on writing my own piece soon, but for now I'll mention that I really appreciate the direction you take at the close of this article, Derek. I see the music industry collapse as a phenomenon on par with other systems collapses on the horizon – the financial system, petroleum economy, food production, etc. It's safe to say that following a meltdown in any of these modern constructs, we can never expect things to continue on as they were.
Music will return to the people, as a gift or an emotion or an interpersonal exchange. Local scenes will flourish and global stardom will dim. Live, intimate performance will once again be the cornerstone of a musician's career, as the highly-advanced, expensive art of recording will likely decline in the new musical paradigm. (I'll touch on this more in a future piece.)
-st
re: Casualties of the Digital Music Revolution
and thx for the thought-provoking response. what i wanted to get across most with this piece was, as you realized, that the forms have changed but the essence remains the same...and in this case, that means that whoever has the most advertising and marketing power behind them is going to get the most notice. there is an equalizing force in the industry, though. i had a great talk with bob duskis, co-founder of six degrees records, where he basically stated that the internet is very democratizing. i agree. but that doesn't change the fact that the myspace homepage usually focuses on big-name hip-hop and rock acts. i love common, but does he need to be on the home page for weeks? of course, knowing who now owns the site, its not surprising that this would be the case - nor did it surprise me when they directly started using the same networking style and options as facebook. kind of said, in fact.
it is a double-edged sword. hear music is one of the hottest labels, and while they focus on uber-stars, i love that they released CeU. i had had that record from its brazilian release and was long in love with it. yes, it was to coincide with the launch of a new brazilian coffee they were pimping, but they couldn't have picked a better album to promote and distribute. one thing that is defintitely happening is the wall between art and commerce are becoming even more blurred. like everything, there will be success stories (i consider CeU one), and there will be tragedies (the black eyed peas promoting "real deal hip-hop" to sell candy comes to mind.)
and yes, i was being a bit sarcastic about myspace. i'm actually making my next column for popmatters about bands that i've found, or that have found me, via myspace that i really dig. so there's an example of how taking the powerful networking industry and a successful music publication and linking them. what the new media does is allow us to do just that, so while we are getting hit with a deluge of nonsense, the fact that we have more options than before can be equally empowering.
i look forward to your upcoming piece. the only thing i'd have to disagree with you on is when you say music "will return to the people." i don't think it ever left. its another case of forms and essence. i make my living teaching yoga and writing about music. both of these jobs didn't really exist just 40 years ago, not in the way that we experience them today. but what led me to pursue music is how much its always meant to me. beyond the facade of the media and how its presented and distributed, it will always be an intimate and important piece of the human puzzle.
----
Derek Beres
http://www.globalbeatfusion.com
Corporacratic for the People
Yeah, I rushed that last paragraph -- probably could've phrased it better. I think you get my gist, though.
As for the "merging of art and commerce" that is rapidly mobilizing to supplant the destabilized music industry, this is a rather bitter irony, is it not? "Selling out" to hawk a tawdry consumer product or rep a global corporation is now almost a prerequisite to releasing an album with any degree of marketing assistance. McCartney (and Joni Mitchell, and CeU) is now branded with the Starbucks seal, as transparently a human billboard as a NASCAR driver. How could this possibly be seen as an improvement for musicians, aligning themselves with the world's most ubiquitous (and globally destructive) corporate logos in order to create, distribute, and perform their art? It is naive to imagine that creative vision and free expression in music will fare better under an arrangement ordained by Starbucks, News Corp, Clear Channel and Wal-Mart. To all those applauding the demise of the compact disc/record label paradigm, it's important to recognize that this represents an infrastructure that supports untold thousands of independents as well as the evil majors – and what is immediately arriving in its place bears consequences far uglier and more soulless.
I'm not saying that what is going down with digital music technology isn't inevitable and shouldn't be embraced -- it's technology doing what technology does: shake things up, innovate, revolutionize... But I am a little tired of hearing how hands-down wonderful it is that file-based digital music has killed record labels and CDs. At the same time, it has destroyed the viability of making a living recording music as an independent artist; or selling quality music as an independent label; or as witnessed in Amato's fall (discussed in my reply above) distributing that music. The double-edged sword is swinging wide and cutting deep.
-st
re: Seaside Heights
Well, the stone pony was a regular stomping ground for me in the early to mid '90s, and when the asbury park convention center re-opened i went there a few times. there was also a club in long branch who's name eludes me, but was there often (had a man-made stream you could swim in in the back?). as for red bank, there was a great little second floor coffeehouse i used to frequent, i think it had an irish name (damn memory!). but no, i have not seen paperback radio - i have lived in jersey city for almost a decade now, so rarely make it back to that area...
----
Derek Beres
http://www.globalbeatfusion.com
Revolution in Distribution
I agree with your points, and with the responses of ST and the rest of the posters as well. The hackneyed phraseology of "new frontiers" and "brave new" anythings, while still appropriate, are basically non sequiters now. We know the old paradigm is unraveling faster than an old wool sweater in a closet full of moths. The real question now is how to address the key element of the old paradigm that has yet to be adequately replaced in any new one... publicity.
We all watched in the 90's as technology brought recording studios into the bedrooms of pre-teens. Bands didn't need to rent or own million dollar studios anymore. Over the last 10 years, print-on-demand, digital downloads, and iPods have liberated the distribution wing of the industry... but production & distribution are only 2 of the 4 pillars of any artistic business model. The central main pillar will always be creativity, and that can't be manufactured or significantly overhauled... it is essentially the same force of muses that it was 5,000 years ago... but the pillar of publicity remains in limbo.
Making, recording, and distributing have all become cake. But despite MySpace et al, unknown bands can't viral market themselves into public consciousness. People won't DL your magnum opus (even for free) if they don't know it exists and never heard of you. Thus, in spite of the much heralded death of the music labels, they still hold the keys to the gate. This is why Starbucks could jump into the business and land McCartney, Joni Mitchell and the rest... they have captive audiences and guaranteed effective advertising. Anyone who has been involved in the music business knows that promotion is the entire game. Whether we're talking about a club, a concert, a festival, a cd, or a band... it is all about promotion. Flyers, posters, free entry before 11:00pm, "Ladies Night," music videos, payola... you name it, promotion rules the day. A well promoted piece of steaming shyte will sell infinitely better than an unpromoted gem.
Music will truly come into its own when an unknown band can sell its debut album on its website ala Radiohead and Saul Williams... without having first been developed and promoted by the major labels. When some mechanism evolves for the cream of the vast flood of home-made jams to achieve global notoriety without the PR department or a full time publicist... then the central pillar of creativity will stand on its own.
This applies equally to film, book publishing, fine art, and all artistic businesses. Film is simply 5 or 10 years behind the music industry due to the higher production costs... and larger file sizes.
Happy New Years y'all...
JahSun
Brave New World!?
Great and thought provoking piece, as usual, Derek as well as are the comments from ST Frequency and the rest of you. Technology is a double edge sword. On one hand for about 10K(or less) you could have at your disposal a full fledge recording and music distribution machine that rivals anything you could get at a decent recording studio. What wonderful tools are available for a artist at their disposal. On the other hand more access means more crap to wade through to find the gems. Everyone with a recording set up thinks they are a great producer or engineer or worst a great musician. Pleeze gimme a break. Craft is craft and crap is crap.
I have been around long enough to hear talk about the "death" of this industry in terms of the creative and economic since the late '70's. Now there has always been the supestars who capture the imagination of their people , be it tribe,village, country or now planet. If Mozart knew how to play the game as well as say, Wagner, would he have been"more successful" commercially? And there are those who make a living on the par of a plumber. electrician and other crafts person.It was and always is about the publicity any way. Don't forget the public, the kids, whatever will always move from being hoodwinked to discovering true talent. Yo! the street is always the street no matter if it the corner club or the cyber world. People will find the gems and the revolution will continue.
BUT I do agree with the tone set by ST Frequency , about the collapse of systems and consolidation of power. That concerns me in that over the years I do see the media landscape move from trying to break open creative boundaries to the dumbing down of culture. Please go watch the movies "Network" as well as "Good Night and Good Luck" and see how low the bar has dropped. Stupid culture equals stupid minds equals controlling the people via their stupid minds.
Of course I am preaching to the converted here, but I am reframing this topic in the light of controlling the hearts and minds of "The People" by making us into "Sheeple." And that is the dark side of this technology. MP3s suck compare to full bandwith CDs. CDs suck compare to full analog. From a musician and sound geek point of view I could write about the lose of sonic quality. But what concerns me more is how desensitizing the digital world is, and how it could consciously or unconsciously be used to remove us from reality. Why? because digital is not real. It is reality transformed into binary numbers that do not at this point even come close to analogs direct vibration of energy of lets, say a voice. It flattens the depth of direct transmission of life force and over the last, quarter of the century, has been a way to further remove us from nature. Virtual Reality indeed give me the real deal!
But I will end this on the positive tip, because I am still smiling from the full blown ecstatic and no holds bared bacchanalian New Years I had attending Gogol Bordello's show in NYC. They are a blast of fresh air and a much need B12 shot into the sorry ass state of Punk and Rock. They are not the pre-packed commodity that mega-companies create to sell music as another commodity. They are real, and sweaty and erotically dangerous because they are keeping one foot on the pulse of emerging global consciousness/myth and one foot deeply rooted in tradition and culture. So as Derek's most excellent book Global Beat Fusion writes about , let us all be in the forefront of this potential beautiful marriage of past and present..as we dance into the future.
Yes!
Incisive commentary, here -- thanks!
I agree wholeheartedly about the digital vs analog, virtual vs actual dichotomy -- very eloquently put. It is a shame how far the quantity over quality plague has been allowed to corrupt our enjoyment of music (and sound) over the decades. One of my greater laments in this vein is the very recent abandonment of vinyl by DJ culture for digitalism – the last bastion of a classic art form, finally giving in to the forces of modernization. This is truly a profound loss.
And three huge cheers to Gogol Bordello -- they are one of my absolute favorite live acts. Yet, there's another rub. Live performance is now the only lucrative game in town. To those studio geniuses who do their finest work behind a 32-channel console, and couldn't conceivably "perform" their compositions live, the new paradigm of music is not forgiving.
As digital music proliferates completely, an entire generation of kids is being raised with the consciousness of recorded music as valueless, something that should only be distributed free of charge – a tragic circumstance for dedicated studio composers. To all those bands and producers over the past 50 years who have done their best work in studios, not on-stage -- like the Beatles in their finest years, for instance -- this is no longer a sustainable arrangement. They will have to figure out how to be a marketable and lucrative "live" act, to shoulder the costs of months in a state-of-the-art recording studio making that perfect new album. (And in addition, they are now supposed to play the myriad roles of distributor, promotions director, tour agent, etc...)
And of course, it was typically the record labels who were paying for that studio time in the past -- in the new DIY-only paradigm, those costs will have to be borne solely by the musicians. With the level of technology and expertise in the best recording studios, there does come an attendant cost of operations... and with all the other sacrifices musicians are forced to make in order to "make it," it follows logically that the worthlessness of recorded music means that in the next few years, many struggling, starving artists will opt for home studios, novice engineers and budget recordings. I suppose this makes more sense when their music will only get compressed down to mp3 quality in the end.
It doesn't add up for people to spend all this time and money perfecting and slaving for half a year over the perfect studio recording, only to have it down-compressed and traded freely -- no real expectations for compensation at the end of the road -- unless you get on a tour bus and figure out some way to make 40-plus studio overdubs work with a five-piece band. Bands these days are making considerably more money off of T-shirts, mass-produced for pennies by children in Laos, than for albums recorded in million-dollar studios by renowned engineers in Los Angeles.
This is the new paradigm -- not just the death of the "majors," and the loss of a functional infrastructure for independent labels, but of the high-quality recorded music we've made the soundtracks of our lives all these years. Yes, people will still make music, and home studios will rise again, but it's the cost of making a living recording music – when the recordings have no monetary value – that will change things in ways we have yet to imagine.
-st
on the other hand
1st off, I agree that Gogol Bordello is a hoot. Seen them a few times live, and never regretted it... the best show being a small local funky club in the Swiss alps. (the club is filled with kitschy dolls and action figures... life sized velosaraptors and mangled baby dolls)
But... I have to throw 2 more cents into this discussion. I've been DJing for 20 years... sometimes full time, sometimes as a moonlighting thing, but I've done over 1,000 gigs. I was, am, and will always be a vinyl fanatic. I once lived in a mansion with 4 other DJs and a full-on DJ booth in our living room... we had about 80,000 records between us. All the walls were covered with floor to ceiling homemade record shelves... I used to pride myself on DJing from 45s as a matter of principle. Collecting rare Jamaican singles that were only pressed 200 times was quite a connoisseur hobby. And yet...
I get irked everytime I here people act like vinyl was so great and modern digital music stinks. 180g virgin vinyl and up is a joy to listen to... on a great record player with a good needle, clean contacts, good speaker wire, and audiophile speakers... for the first 10 spins or so. Vinyl deteriorates. It gets scratched... dust, dirt, smudges and gunk can create a noise bed that swallows the quiet dynamics and tosses the signal to noise ratio to shit. You have to take care of your records. You have to replace expensive diamond tipped needles. You have to lovingly brush them before spinning them. And most annoyingly... (for a DJ anyway) you have to carry all that heavy shit around.
I was slow to adopt the CDJs, I waited until you could scratch and effect turntablism with decent results. In recent years, I berated all the "laptop DJ's" and their tendency to open a playlist, click play, and sit around drinking and yapping. This was blasphemy! A DJ must work. Cueing, cutting, crossfading, and even dubbing it up live with tape echoes and rack mounted flangers.
I was always quick to build collections of new media forms, though. I had CDs from the first months they were available. I had tens of thousands of mp3s before the original napster even went online. But spinning from these things? No way.
Now, I have grown more tolerant... and realistic. A DJ spins tunes for drunken human mating rituals. Less than 1% of your audience is really paying attention to what you do. Your job is to become invisible, in the sense that people only look to you when something isn't working. If someone bumps your turntables, if the CD starts skipping, if you play a wack track... everyone turns to look. Other than that, you are a fly on the wall.
Bruised egos aside. DJing is not an audiophile experience, nor is it a "look at me I'm performing" thing. Unless you are a true turntable artist along the lines of Qbert... you're just providing a soundtrack to the main event... the never ending quest to get laid.
So, why should DJ's have to cart huge cases of vinyl through airports and train stations? If reducing the size of your packs by spinning CD's, CD mixes, and even (yes) laptops allows you to bring more tunes and thus be more responsive to the vibe in the room... why the hell not? No one will notice the sound quality difference anyway. They'll all be half deaf after your first 5 songs, regardless.
Furthermore, lossless formats like FLAC, APE, OFR, SHN, or even Apple and Windows lossless codecs allow you to preserve perfect CD quality in the "off the hard drive" setting. Such formats have been good enough for the demanding taper/ dead bootleg/ ROIO crowds for about a decade already. In addition, there is no law that says an mp3 has to be encoded at 128 kbps. Most people have moved up to 160, 192, 256 and 320 anyhow... and I dare you to show me the whiner who could tell 320 kbps from CD with greater than 66% accuracy. Most people (even with AKG headphones in a silent room) couldn't tell an m4a from a 45.
Does analog rule? Damn straight. But can you really hear the difference between a guitar recorded on a tube amplifier and mixed on a Neve console with tube preamps played on 2" tape or played in ProTools? If you can, congratulations... you are literally one in a million. (and you probably haven't been to very many live shows in your life)
A well mixed track sounds better as an mp3 than a shitty mixed track sounds on 250g vinyl. Trust me. If you wanna complain about fidelity but you're listening to 125g Lps of the Sex Pistols... you're jerking off.
As hard drives get bigger and cheaper, low quality mp3s will completely disappear. New SACD quality surround sound codecs will become the norm... and this discussion will be moot.
Anyway... there you go. My additional 2c. (actually looks more like 5c or a dime at this point...)
=)
Archaic revival-ism
True enough in the pros/cons sense of DJing digitally. I am more lamenting the recent widespread closings of vinyl pressing operations as wax finally submits to being an anachronism. It's the end of an era, long kept alive through nostalgia and the archaic revival of DJ culture.
DJing to me has always been a performance art -- and this is coming from a dancer. My favorite jocks (Roger Sanchez, Erick Morillo, Danny Tenaglia) are not invisible "human jukeboxes" but energetic, powerful performers, and their marathon 10-hour shows are participatory shamanic experiences. (And yes, most of these cats play off CDJs now.) The best gigs are devoid of a mating ritual/meat-market vibe, but more like bona-fide tribal communion. You don't get that at "da club" on a typical Saturday in Atlanta. But sometimes, in some dingy warehouse in Detroit, or on a tropical terrace in Ibiza – this is how it goes down.
-st
I fully agree
The death of small vinyl labels and an entire culture of wax fanatics is a sad thing. But the people who made up that scene are not gone. They will simply channel that energy into new mediums.
As for the cooler parties, they are dope. And yet, there are magical moments in nearly every gig. People don't have to change their behavior to reach the sublime, IMO. We can subjectively elevate our attention and awareness to perceive the perfection which already exists... even in "da club."
The fact that people are looking to hook up is not necessarily a bad thing either. I find that scenes where people pretend to not be out for sex, are dishonest somehow. Put 500 people in a room, and 98% of them will think about sex at some point over the course of an evening. Put those same people in hyperspace, though, and they might put their libidos on hold for a while. ;-)
But I do know the scenes you speak of. Ibiza has its transcendental soirees for sure... although that island is one huge meat market. Whether you were in Goa at its prime, London at its peak, or dancing in the crater of Haleakala... you wind up touching the same spark. There is a shamanistic aspect to any gathering. Music only intensifies that.
Respect.
The Beat Goes On...
That is it , divine union from dancing. But even with my creative brethren there is a misunderstanding and judgement of such experiences and they do not see the divine dance that is trying to play itself out in the club world. The natural order of man will always play itself out. You cannot regulate "vices" but be of service to the divine and help guide the energy. That is probably the highest form of magic a artist could do.
The problem as I see it is how the rational mind wants to control the primal forces of existence. This is the basic situation that has existed since at least the ancient times when Dionysian rituals were outlawed (so to speak). Because the ego will always crumble in the face of divine ecstatic madness. As a great shaman told me a while back "Yes bring down the divine Fuck for the world HA HA HA".
What does this have to do with bit rates and wave forms, dj's and online distribution? Everything!
Because I am talking about the battle of consciousness between the ego mind and the body. Between the Light and the Dark, The Patriarchal and the Matriarchal, Man and Woman,nature,and civilization. The Sacred and the Profane. Between the Virtual and the Real. Digital and Analog. Can You Dig It?
I do have a digital based recording set up, and I am most grateful for my tools. But it does sadden me that much music is just wall paper. That most Dj's and so called musicians do not know that they are part of a lineage where the Drum was considered a vehicle to shift reality towards the God/Goddess. In fact the originators of much of what is played in clubs like for example Goa Gil would study the BPMs of shamans drums and create music to bring down the Gods. I do like the cost and efficiency of the digital and project studio world. But what happens to a society when we cannot tell the difference between real sound waves and digital waves. What happens to a society where multi-generations only eat fake food. Or live vicariously through the electronic world. I do agree with ST and lament the quality lose of music/producing/engineering training. Where is the crafts people who dedicate decades on their craft before they would ever think of themselves a artist. Well in a society that only values the bottom line and closed minded people quality means nothing.
What we need now is a divine marriage of duality. Not pseudo ones like at most bling bling table bars, or faked angst filled Rock concerts, or way stale gansta crap. We need REAL drunken mating rituals. The ones where you leave spent,exhausted, drenched in sweat and your blood rushing in your body as a orgasm for the Gods/Goddess. We need Dionysis to return as the creative erotic ecstatic force of music and dance. The kind of events that are Globesonic parties (full disclosure Globesonic has been a part of Body Temple that I created to merge the dj world,ritual theatre and shamanic practices. The Body Temple drummers played at the pier gigs with Derek ). WE need more than ever the kind of experiences that Gogol Bordello represent, which are thinly disguised Bacchanalian Rituals of highest order!!!
Drunken Rituals
A DJ spins tunes for drunken human mating rituals.
Brilliant summation. Love it. I have not DJ'd nearly as long (six years now), but have done over 300 dates, and I will agree that most of the time this is the case. Fortunately a few sacred spaces still exist - our GlobeSonic parties at the pier on the Upper West Side in the summers, for one. No alcohol, only drugs people bring in, and tons and tons of dancing. Nublu is usually a music-oriented spot, where I held residency for 2.5 years and still DJ at, but yes, other nights there can be Bacchanal. Overall, that is the case, though it doesn't necessarily mean its a bad thing. Totally depends on the situation and vibe.
I am someone that only has ever spun CDs. I got into DJing becuase, as a journalist, I had so much damn music that writing about it does not compare to experiencing it. I have nothing against vinyl, owned it when I was young, just wasn't my mode of transportation. But yet, analog will always rule. The best sounding music made, to my heart, is still the stuff that poured out of Studio One and the Black Ark. Nothing will touch that.
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Derek Beres
http://www.globalbeatfusion.com
My roots are in the rave
My roots are in the rave scene of the late 90s, and the experience of DJ culture in those days was antithetical to drunkenness or sleazy pickup lines. When the brilliant spark of the "rave" eventually burned itself away, I was very reluctant to make the shift into Clubland to find my bliss on the dance floor. 9 times out of 10, you'll get the meat-market vibe. But if you know where to go, and when (e.g., Miami during Winter Music Conference, as opposed to the other 51 weeks of the year), you can be almost guaranteed an uplifting communal experience, where DJ and crowd are locked tight in a rhythmic ritual until dawn.
I'll let you know when the next one happens :)
-st
Back in the day...
My days also started in the mid-'90s, with Junior Vasquez at Twilo on Saturday nights. I don't particularly care for any of the music that he's produced in the '00s, but when he'd drop in for two hours of tribal and deep house at 5 am, that was a temple.
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Derek Beres
http://www.globalbeatfusion.com
dance in my mind
Some great bits and pieces in there. Yes, if the music is good, it goes beyond the format.
analog vs. digital
Electrical Audio
I'm glad you stated your points about digital and analog...and particularly agree with you that the SACD format will step up to where it should be...atleast in the home and car stereo markets...and mp3s will wither in the dust, except for systems like i-pods, but even there, hopefully resolution will improve...
I have an analog studio (digital hybrid too) where I live in upstate NY, and pretty much spend most of my days basking in a universe of great mics, preamps, analog synths, tape, a real board with transformers...I worship the craft that I am engaged in and it is my constant goal to give people a recording that is as close to the physical reality of the music and sounds that constitute it...as physical and as tangible as possible...while still being an "illusion", of course, as well as (usually) larger than real life. The sounds get into my Chi...constantly...they live in my muscles and nerves and sometimes drive me nuts...but usually nourish me, body and soul...
I think one major wavelength (pun intended) that runs through the process of acheiving this is to both understand as well as sustain (again, pun intended...I hope it's a pun) every effort possible to translate all music and sound through electrical/electromagnetic mediums. Sound is a physical phenomenon, one of the most physical actually....and capable of congealing subtle matter into a greater physicalization....as well as an electrical and electromagnetic phenomenon, as it operates in time and space...moving through and pushing air...moving through all sorts of physical mass...pushing against temperature...as well as, interestingly enough, creating its own "analogues" in our nervous system and meridian system...and in so many other "energy systems" (such as mass culture, a highway full of cars, an aerobics class, etc.)...It is really interesting that the physical phenomenon of music spawns so many other energetic processes, like the gravity and radiance of a sun, which both congeals matter as well as feeds and transforms it....Nada Brahma...the universe IS made by sound...indeed...othewise, we'd all be totally undifferentiated and a gaseous nebula of probable particles...And even this understanding of sound is probably just some of our ancients best shot at interpreting the electromagnetic phenomenon really at work in bending and forming space/time = matter.
I guess what I'm saying is that I believe the physical phenomenon, and NOT the informational phenomenon...not the "simulacrum" of music that is contained and offered in digital form, which is, to me, an informational phenomenon, a storage and conveyance medium, atleast until it passes through some D/A converters, ought to be both expressed (say, by a horn), transduced (by a mic, etc), recorded (hmmmm....tape is the best, but....), and then outwardly transduced again - in the process of mixing with other music, and/or in the process of listening to that recording, in a way which continues to explore and evolve the physicality of what this stuff is and how it communicates and functions within our bodies, and souls....I mean, EVERYTHING MAKES SOUND....it's really just a question of amplifying it (and/or amplifying it's harmonics...) in order to make that sound "audible"...or felt...and therefore to help carry it on its course of cosmic induction and creation...
Because it's so clear what's at stake...that our evolution as beings really stands to be conducted by music and sound, I can't, for the life of me, understand why transducer technologies - things such as mics, amplifiers and speakers...or skin sensors, nerve sensors, and devices that directly effect the etheric body - haven't really evolved very much since the glory days of the 70's....certainly not really by any essential stretch....There hasn't been anything offered on an eclectic level, and certainly not on a mass level, to transduce the electrical/physical phenomenon of music back out into space in a way which deepens both the physicality and the ENERGETICS of what the music is as well as how we may experience it....Can't we look deeper into our brains? Can't we make some leaps and tie some threads together so that something gets squeezed out that REALLY takes sound technology to another level...not necessarily the storing or serving up of it, but the physical expression and all that it radiates...Do you know of any technologies that do so? Any arrays, grids, multi-point crossover systems, speakers, amps, etc...that have really explored the potentials we know are operating? I don't think every listener needs to have a $100,000 mastering grade studio in their home...but I do think that something exists out there, something in mathmatical or geometric theory....something in electromagnetic conduction (again...SCALAR WAVES just keep singing to me...there's just something about all this EM energy flowing through time that feels like it could be made to communicate...it's all just frequency) that would point the way theoretically towards new invention...Any geniuses out there in the mist, maybe some kid in Iowa??
cool concepts
I like where you are going with this. There is certainly some room to expedite the energetic processes going on here.
I have some experience with playing music on equipment capable of generating waves both above and below the human threshold of hearing. On the lower end (sub 20 hz or so) the sound begins to break up into pulses, but the effect on the body is pronounced. On the higher end, there seems to be some intense outer chakra sympathetic activity going on. It is easy enough to enhance harmonics above 20,000 hz and reproduce them. Most engineers just filter everything from 16,000 on up and then compress the shit out of the entire waveforms. Tubes also do this to some degree...
I recently had the pleasure of listening to music on underwater speakers in a huge swimming pool. The effect was very different than soundwaves in air. Certain frequencies were boosted and others were reduced, and I have no idea how our paddling around affected anything.
A final thought might be to check out Patrick Flannagan's Neurophone. It actually conveys sound through the body directly, and is said to allow some deaf people to hear. People also use it to play audiobooks, NLP, and self-hypnosis type messages while they sleep. Apparently, the mind doesn't shut out this form of sound the way it does with our auditory nerves when we go into deep sleep. As it is, only sudden and abrupt sound differences register while we sleep... anything constant and consistent is ignored.
If you come up with something, let me know. ;-)
(BTW... Why Iowa? Because they voted Ms. Clinton 3rd?)
...and the band played on
ST Frequency: One of my greater laments in this vein is the very recent abandonment of vinyl by DJ culture for digitalism – the last bastion of a classic art form, finally giving in to the forces of modernization. This is truly a profound loss.
ahh... it's just how it goes, regeneration. Detroit techno artists abandoned "real instruments" in favor of computers and sequencers. People who played "real instruments" thought they were"cheating", thought it was a fad and so on... yet, it has transformed the world, the world of sound and the sound of the world.
DJ Premier talks about Serato, MP3 mixers and his new vinyl-only record label:
"...But now, everybody’s on it and when I see somebody on Serato I’m looking for some skills. Put some skill into it. I still cut and do routines. I’m still a little rusty on it because I’m used to pulling records and it’s still weird to me but I’m getting better at it. That’s the thing, my aim is to be a master at it. Like DJ AM that guy’s a master at that thing. I’m seeing him hitting buttons, spinning, but he’s still working the turntables like a DJ. So you know I’m bored of just seeing a guy play a record and just sit there. So I interact and do all of that and I do routines that I used to do with my vinyl and I do them on Serato. It doesn’t take any talent to have one of those things because anybody can just push the button and let the record go. Me? I just don’t feel like I am giving you your money’s worth if I just do that so I want to be a master. I saw Jazzy Jeff cut it up on there, Ca$h Money, who were incredible DJs to begin with and still do what they did, that’s when I was convinced and I was like: “Ok, I’ve just got to master it and then I’m going to do the same thing.” And I’m getting better at it. Y’all will see tonight"
i still think the "gems" are
Music for the Moment
I'm not sure if anyone reading this is a fan of the psychedelic trance movement, but anyone in that scene understands the spiritual impact of a great DJ set. One of the most inspiring characteristics about many of the dj's performing in this arena choose often not to have their music recorded live as they believe the sounds composed at a specific time on a specific dancefloor are unique and should never be replicated.
These artists usually make enough money to allow them to travel and perform. They usually board with a member of the psychedelic trance tribe who invited them to perform, assist in setting up the venue for the event and walk amongst the audience when not performing, interacting with the crowd on an intimate and modest level. Many DJ's would not make mention of the fact they are a performer unless someone actually asks.
These artists compose some of the most mind-blowing music I've ever heard, yet they carry their art with a restrained sense of ego. I can only describe this behavior as an absolute promotion of music as a trancendental form of expression. A true artist should always hold their talents as a medium for enlightenment and never as a key for personal empowerment.
To anyone who's never experienced a genuine psychedelic trance gathering, I highly recommend looking in your area for a tribe. They are spread out all over the country, but you have to look in the right places to find these events.
For those in the Southeast check out my affiliate at: http://www.atlantapsytrance.net. or http://www.touchsamadhi.com (Asheville).
P.S.: ATLPSY is hosting it's first event of the year on 2.9.08. Please visit the site for more information and details.