An audience of two

Wednesday March 22, 2006

An end to music piracy
I was reading an article on software and music piracy in Canada. It's a nice piece that effectively condenses every argument I've ever made on the subject. Coincidentally I also found an article on Wikipedia about the Long Tail. Basically, you can make just as much money by selling a million different songs than you can by selling the same song a million times. Even more in fact; because in order to sell that same song a million times you'll inevitably have to spend a lot of money advertising and promoting it.

The problem is that the music industry is still obsessed with the left hand side of the sales graph. A single iPod could contain the entire playlists of your typical American radio stations. The industry spends millions trying to create the next Coldplay or Madonna, but there's potentially a larger amount of money to be made simply by selling - cheaply - the songs that a million artists are recording in their bedrooms and garages.

You no longer need a fancy storefront and big advertising. Here at Sun, Paul Lamere is working on a project called Search Inside The Music that aims to quantify similarities in music. Forget Amazon's often ridiculed "People who bought this also bought" section that frequently made highly inappropriate recommendations, this is a concept that will allow you to find completely new artists who would otherwise have remained anonymous in the world of Sony, Clear Channel and Tower Records.

And then hopefully buy them for 10c a song. Permalink | | | | Comments [0]
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Thursday January 05, 2006

Bye Bye KCNL
KOME went away some time in 1998 after about 28 years of broadcasting and the movie FM.

KSJO died 14 months ago after some 36 years of broadcasting. Now it's a Spanish station called La Preciosa.

And now KCNL has gone. I turn on the radio on the way to work - again, it's suddenly all spanish music. It's now La Romantica.

KCNL was just a clone of Live 105. They had near identical playlists - some time ago I bitched about switching from one to the other because I was sick of a particular song only to find that the other station was playing it. Both of them had suddenly rediscovered Bush's excellent album Sixteen Stone from 10 years ago and were playing it to death. It wasn't much of a choice, but it was a choice.

These days my iPod can hold more songs than the average station's playlist. I've now got the radio programmed with 107.7 The Bone (Metallica, Led Zeppelin and not much else), 98.5 KUFX (nothing recorded in the last 20 years), KFOG (good selection, but too mellow) or Live 105 (the aforementioned iPod). I think Clear Channel are in league with Sirius and XM, trying to persuade me to buy a satellite radio.

Incidentally I got John Peel's posthumous autobiography "Margrave Of The Marshes" for Christmas. I've only read the first few chapters, but it's an interesting read. Goodbye Mr. Ravenscroft. We need you now more than ever.

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Friday June 10, 2005

I just saw Kasabian
Last night I went to see Kasabian play live at a free concert in "the city". What a great show. I haven't been to such a small venue in donkey's years. I made it there for 7PM thanks to surprisingly light traffic. There was already what looked like a couple of hundred people waiting in line, and at least as many more appeared after I arrived. An hour later I managed to get one of the last five tickets :o

If you haven't heard the Kasabian album I highly recommend it. Basically it's the 80s Madchester sound revamped 20 years later (20 years! Holy cr@p! God I'm old. I was one of the oldest people there.) They sound like a cross between Muse and the Stone Roses. They played for about 75 minutes straight, did the whole album plus at least 4 tracks I haven't heard before.

My neck and legs ache this morning. Permalink | | | | Comments [0]
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Thursday November 04, 2004

Downloadable music again.
While hunting for more information about the German band Rammstein I stumbled across a network of downloadable music sites in Russia. They claim that they have licenced the music but whether they have or not isn't really the point. The point is that they are charging 10 cents per download. Now for that price I very much doubt that they are paying royalties to the artist and record company, especially given that I saw a few bootleg recordings on offer, but my guess is that they are making money. I firmly believe that it should be possible to run a legal download site, pay royalties to the artists and still turn a profit for around 25 cents per song. Permalink | | | | Comments [0]
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Friday September 17, 2004

Music and the Internet - Who is stealing from whom?
Last Friday I went to see Keane play at Bimbo's. Great gig; I've never been to Bimbo's before. I just wish they'd played longer. But I digress.

I hadn't bought the album yet; I'd checked it out and planned to get a copy on the night and try to get it signed by the band. (Which I did). That CD cost me just $10 (total). A bargain; I think I paid about $15 when I saw Starsailor. Ten bucks. Eleven tracks. A pressed, uncompressed CD. Liner notes. Pictures. Jewel case. Shipping. Warehousing. Profits all round. TEN BUCKS.

Now on certain legal music download sites, compressed versions of those same 11 tracks would have cost me $10.89. And yet I still hear that MP3 traders are killing the industry, that music download sites aren't making money, that iTunes is basically there to boost iPod sales. So where the hell is the money going? Because I'm prepared to bet that the artist doesn't get a higher percentage.

Let's take a closer look at that CD. Eleven tracks I said. As the boys in the band pointed out, the UK release has 12 tracks - On A Day Like Today being the extra track. They apologised as they played it (and even advised the audience to go and download it). But why is it missing? Is it because the UK retailers charge £9.99 ($18) for the same CDs? And how about Japan - How much do consumers there get charged for their extended 14+ track version? $58!? Sheesh.

Anyway, go see Keane and pick up a copy of Hopes and Fears. Then go download the tracks like On A Day Like Today and Snowed Under that should have been on it, but aren't.

Footnote: Thanks Raj for the tip on how to get rid of the accented A when I type £! Permalink | | | | Comments [0]
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Friday September 03, 2004

iPods and multiple computers.
I've had an iPod since May - and I love it. But I've just discovered something that really stinks - You can't easily use one iPod with two computers
It seems that it can only be associated with one computer at a time. If you connect it to a different box it will kindly offer to wipe its contents and replace them with the music from your new machine. What's the point in that?
It wouldn't sting so much if I hadn't just had so much hassle finding a FireWire card that works. Stay clear of I/O Flex (aka Koutech) cards. Permalink | | | | Comments [2]
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Playlist
In the car I've been listening to Muse - Hullabaloo the live disc and The Darkness - Permission To Land. Glam Rock is back, baby!

Muse are definitely one of the hottest bands around at the moment. Serious guitar rock; Radiohead meets Metallica. The track Stockholm Syndrome (from Absolution) has been compared favourably to Bohemian Rhapsody.

Also on the iPod is Keane - Hopes And Fears. A new band from Britain, very much in the Coldplay mould. They are playing at Bimbo's in San Francisco on September 10th - get your tickets now! Permalink | | | | Comments [0]
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