From Defective by Design:
Join us today in calling on Warner Music to drop their opposition to DRM free digital sales and make their catalog available through online music stores free of Digital Restrictions.
The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on May 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help! H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act was introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL ) to save the Internet radio industry. Please call your congressperson to ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 2060 by clicking (here).
Internet radio stations, like 525 Power Tracks, have been big Sinch supporters for a long time. They’ve turned countless new fans on to our music over the years. A lot of these stations are small operations, done simply for the love of sharing music with other people. Some of the bigger ones sell advertising and probably make a small profit, but these new licensing fees will put almost all of them out of business. They will simply be unable to afford the cost anymore and will have to shut down, once again leaving only the big corporations to control yet another media outlet.
According to the CEO of Gracenote, the people behind the CDDB, the music industry is “about to cave in the next six months” on the issue of DRM. With Apple and EMI taking the first step in this direction I think it’s only a matter of time before everyone follows suit.
I for one would definitely buy more music online if I knew I was getting high-quality, unprotected files. I’ve bought a few iTunes tracks over the years, but the DRM really turns me off. And I imagine Apple’s DRM is one of the least intrusive to the music buying experience. I can’t imagine how bad some of the other companies are.
A lot of people in the industry are afraid that no DRM will just lead to more piracy, but I really don’t think that’s the case. Almost every piece of music currently available on CD is available without DRM (with the exception of the few failed experiments with DRM on CDs). And some of the DRM formats are fairly easy to crack. Whatever piracy is supposedly gonna happen is already happening. And it’s not going to go away. But if you can make it easier for people to buy the music, I think a lot more people would be willing to pay, myself included.
This is some great advice from Dick Dale, the “King of Surf Guitar,” that I wish we would have taken 7 years ago.
From WIRED:
The album cover — once a crucial part of any band’s identity — has been dying a slow death for decades. For the most part, music fans put up with the shrinkage of album art from expansive vinyl records to hand-size plastic jewel cases. But with the music experience moving almost exclusively online, album art has suffered another compression — this time all the way down to thumbnail images. (Worse still — they’re missing from most of the music files we’ve all ripped and downloaded.)
But music label designers are working to raise the album cover back up to an art form. They’re experimenting with new tools and hatching plans to reinvent album art for the digital age, all while weathering the tectonic shifts that ultimately rule the music industry.
Ever since I bought my first mp3 player back in the beginning of 2002, I’ve wondered what the future holds for the idea of the album cover. As I ripped all of my CDs over the course of a few days and put the cases back on the shelf, I realized that I probably wouldn’t be looking them any more. At the time it didn’t seem like a big deal, since I had already read every last word in each set of liner notes. And if I ever wanted to take another look they would all still be there.
But then came the iTunes Music Store. And eMusic. And a bunch of other online stores that I’ve never used. Not to mention the illegal downloading. Pretty soon I had quite a few albums for which I only had a small thumbnail image of the album cover, if that. I have some albums that I don’t even know what the cover looks like because I’ve never seen it. After the way that I grew up analyzing every last inch of every record I ever owned, it’s a sad thing to realize it may never be the same.
Sure, I can still buy CDs if I want the full experience. But being in a band myself, the real sad part is knowing that most of the kids out there today aren’t having that same experience with the full package of an album. Should we even spend the time and money on cool packaging if the majority of the people who buy it are gonna look at it once (or not at all)?
For the last few years I’ve been trying to come up with an idea for the future of album art. Pretty soon, I would imagine that CDs will be completely dead. Everything will be digital files that you’ll be able to transfer wirelessly between your iPod, laptop, car stereo, PS4, TiVo Series 5, Refrigerator 2.0 and eventually even your toilet. You can’t beat that kind of convenience, but where does the album artwork fit in?
Well, it seems that more and more of these devices are bringing advances in listening options… but they’re also featuring bigger and brighter screens, and in the case of (most of) the next-gen consoles, HD-quality video. I think somewhere in there lies the future of the album cover.
Imagine that when you download the new Sinch album, that it also comes with not only an album cover, but an interactive video experience. Instead of a still image for the cover, you could have a 30 second (or longer) animation or video. Instead of squinting to read the lyrics in 6pt Helvetica, you follow along with big animated text/video sequences on your HDTV. With the rate that technology has been advancing, the possibilities will become endless.
The hard part for now is convincing the people running the media and electronics companies that this is where things are heading and that they need to get on board now. Come up with some standards that can work across all devices, whether you have a 2″ iPod screen or an 60″ plasma TV. If Apple releases a new iPod that shows not only album thumbnails, but allows you to provide Flash Lite content (which can contain videos, vector animations and interactivity) for a particular album, I’ll be the first one in line. Get some working hardware out there and let the artists and labels see what is possible.
There’s not gonna be a huge market for this kind of stuff right off the bat. But if artists can start getting some really compelling and even groundbreaking ideas out there, I think the idea will eventually sell itself.
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The Consumerist recently held a poll to find out what their readers thought was the worst company of 2007. The winner? The RIAA. They edged out Halliburton by only a few percentage points, which just goes to show you how serious people are taking this whole music downloading thing.
What this means is that the people who responded to this poll actually think that all of the major labels are the worst company in America. The RIAA exists mainly to speak for the labels and to be a sort of buffer between them and the rest of the world.
And to make that point clear The Consumerist posted a helpful guide called The Faces of the RIAA.
Just got done reading yet another great post on the Lefsetz Letter:
Some might say the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
I say thank god. It’s time a new generation dominates, one with different values, one that is not beholden to the blow ‘em up on TV paradigm embraced by those running the major labels today. These new players are about the music, and the culture. Elements way off the radar of those making quarterly reports.
Give people something to believe in and they’ll give you all their money. Hell, isn’t that what religion is about? Think about your act as a religion. Gain adherents. They’ll spread the word. And guard your core principles very closely. The more honest and trustworthy you are, the more people will flock to you. And the slower the build, the longer the career.
Obviously, I like these kind of posts because they describe a possible future for independent artists that circumvents the whole label system. It’s basically the future we’ve been hoping for since we started this band over 12 years ago.
If I worked for a label, I’d probably say this guy is full of shit and that the labels will always be in control. You hear what you want to hear, I guess. But I really think we’re getting closer and closer to a world where you can much more easily make a living as an independent artist, and do it totally on your own terms.
According to recent research, gifted teenagers often listen to “heavy metal” music to help deal with the stress of being talented. Sounds a little ridiculous as first, but I think there’s some truth to it.
Researchers found that, far from being a sign of delinquency and poor academic ability, many adolescent “metalheads” are extremely bright and often use the music to help them deal with the stresses and strains of being gifted social outsiders.
Read the full article »
I grew up listening to a lot of metal. I don’t think I consciously chose metal because I felt talented, but somehow frustrated, and needed something to help me cope. But it was some of the only music I found that was challenging on some level (to me at least) and also allowed a sort of release from every day stresses in the form of aggression and anger. Again, I didn’t consciously think of it that way, but looking back, that’s why I think I was drawn to it.
And like a lot of young kids I took on certain aspects of the whole “metal” lifestyle… long hair, dressing all in black, etc, which I think caused a lot of adults to assume there was something wrong with me or that I was always pissed off or something. And that just wasn’t the case. I really just thought it looked cool. Years later I realized I was wrong to some extent (I have some pictures of myself that definitely don’t look cool), but it was never about scaring people or making sure people knew I was depressed or something.
It’s probably different for everyone, and I’m sure there are kids who are drawn to it for different reasons than I was. But the point is that, on the whole, these are some really intelligent kids and it’s a shame that a lot of people just don’t see that. They’re assumed to be delinquents or potential murderers or whatever, instead of the potentially great musicians or artists (or whatever else) that they’ll probably be someday.
And just to make sure we’re not taking this all too seriously, take a minute to check out the discussion on Digg. It quickly devolved into the usual “metal vs. not metal” arguments you can find surrounding pretty much any band that uses a distortion pedal.
I decided to moderate (as the Genre Police) and try to help everyone separate their Korns from their Cradle of Filths. Just look for comments by “redivider” (if they haven’t been “dugg down” already). After a while they wouldn’t let me post any more comments but I got a few in there.
I just got done reading a great post over at the Lefsetz Letter that suggests that “piracy didn’t kill the major label business model, choice did,” and I’m inclined to agree.
Even as new technology is finally giving the power of choice back to the people, the major labels are quietly trying to keep their stranglehold on every viable distribution channel. They’re currently putting forward legislation that will effectively shut down all but the largest internet radio stations with new licensing fees that are out of reach for most internet broadcasters. They refuse to bring down the price of CDs and digital downloads, even though consumers, pretty much across the board, have expressed price as one of the major reasons they don’t buy more music.
What they don’t understand is that people really want more choices and we’ve reached a technological threshold where it’s going to be very difficult (if not impossible) to ever take it away from them.
In order for labels and artists to be successful, they need to give people what they want. Whether it’s DRM-free digital downloads, cheaper CDs or more selection on the radio, the customer now has the upper hand and won’t hesitate to get what they want from “alternative” sources if the majors refuse to play along.
I don’t really think that many people will continue to refuse to buy music as long as you give it to them in the formats they want and make it very easy to buy. Label executives are so busy worrying about ways to protect their content, they don’t realize that the only thing they’re protecting it from is actually being bought.
From the article:
Music production is cheap. And there’s no cap on the number of acts in the marketplace. Sure, hype is expensive, which is why most indie acts let their audience do the selling for them, which is now possible with new technologies. Furthermore, the more you market, the more you try to become ubiquitous, the more your core, the revenue-generating machine that you depend on day by day, gets turned off. Become a huge star, and you’re probably finished. Then again, if you grow organically over a decade, no one complains. But the point is you no longer need the major label as a bank, as a marketer, you don’t need that much money and your fans do so much of the work for you. How do the majors compete in this new landscape? Good question.
While none of us actually live in the city, when people ask where we’re from we just say Philadelphia. I’d imagine most bands do the same thing when they live in some small town 30 minutes outside of a big city. When you’re 3,000 miles from home it’s pretty unlikely that anyones heard of Doylestown.
Anyway, the point is we’re pretty much a Philly band. And there are a lot of really good rock bands from this city but ask anyone more than 100 miles away and all they can come up with is The Hooters and Hall and Oates. The Roots are also from Philly and I’m sure a lot of people know that, but as far as rock music goes we don’t have the best reputation.
I’m not exactly sure where I’m going with this… I just wanted an excuse to post some links to some good Philly bands that we know and felt like I should introduce it with something, but I’ll just get to the point:
Tapping the Vein
We’ve played with this band many times over the years and their singer, Heather Thompson is actually featured on our album Diatribe. They’re apparently working on a new album and hopefully we’ll be playing some more shows with them in the future. Recommended song: Numb (wait til it kicks in half way through…)
Jealousy Curve
These guys won the Zippo Hot Tour contest a couple of years ago and we had the pleasure of playing a show with them at The Silo in Reading, PA. Recommended song: Selfish Thing
Hail Social
I came across this band randomly so I don’t know much about them, but I really like their stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they’re from Philadelphia. You can actually download the song that got me turned on to them here, if you want to get the full experience. Recommended song: Objects in Mirror
North Star Infinite
The guitarist in this band is a Sinch fan and has been to more shows than almost anyone I can think of who’s not directly related to or dating a band member. And I’m not just including them here because of that. They’re a good band and you should check them out. Recommended song: Turning the Dial
Metroplex
I found these guys because they play a lot of shows with North Star Infinite. Don’t know much about them other than the fact that they always have really sweet flyers and they make some good music. Recommended song: This Is Not A Test
Not Alone
Our good friend Steve Zegray (aka Chinstrap and drum/video tech extraodinare) plays drums for this band, which is how I got to know them. Recommended song: In Angel’s Arms
Also, I want throw in a plug for a new band he’s in (along with Ribbles aka Rob Fisher). They’re called Domi and even though I haven’t heard any music yet, I’m sure it’ll be good. Recommended action: Email them and tell them to get their asses in the studio!
That should be enough for now. If you’re in a Philly band and we didn’t list you here, don’t worry… we don’t hate you. Your day will come.
