arts & crafts has been using digital downloads for future releases, including the new stars' album "in our bedroom after the war." it's well intentioned i'm sure, but all it means is that downloaders will get their hands on it a lot earlier than even the reviewers get it. it must be disheartening sometimes to be in the record business (jerry? anyone?)
you might also enjoy the new ep from emily haines and the soft skeleton. it's a lot more singer songwriter than her stuff in metric, less instrumentally driven than broken social scene. i'm continually surprised by how far she can stretch her voice, melodically. check out the new song "the bank" for an intriguing take on jazz chanteuse...ness.
don't forget municipal waste has a new album coming out at the end of the month. man, that doesn't fit with the rest of this post at all. but you know you love crossover thrash.
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3 comments:
False:
What Arts & Crafts are doing is calld adaptation. Records leak. Why does it happen? A lot of reasons; whenever a band finishes a record each member gets a copy of it. They maybe put it on their computer but then all of their good friends want to hear it. So maybe one of them makes a copy for a good frined and makes them promise they won't put it online. but that good friend shares it with one more friend...etc. by the time 10 people have heard it, its linked on every music blog on the internet.
So there are three options:
1)no one should recieve a copy of the record at all (in other words all recording and mastering and pressing is done in house by machines with security tighter than airports (I'm talking full body searches for all employees at the end of every day). This means no one at the label level, enginerring level, production level, booking level, marketing level or band level gets any advance copies at all. Impossible? Pretty much.
2)All cds are made with better coding so that ripping is impossible. Meaning MP3's (or AAC's) can only be download via iTunes or eMusic or something of that nature (this is the only way to get new CDs on the iPods that 500 million people own) and so also...a stupid solution.
3)Do nothing. (this is what has been done...more or less...save that Kelly Clarkson CD Breakaway and the Artic Monkeys first LP which were both unrippable...but seriously...the Artic Monkeys suck and I just bought the 4 good songs fromt he Kelly Clarkson record on iTunes anyway). Doing nothing results in records getting leaked sooner than ever thanks to evolving download blog technology and the ever expanding internet thing.
or
4)On an individual record label basis, say "fuck it", because literally days after it had been mastered, the new Stars record was already all over everyone's blog and iTunes for free so why not begin offering it as an MP3 album prior to the tangible record being printed and pressed? Cheaper distribution, the actual album wills till come out and anyone who is a true fan of the band can buy it on iTunes (which maybe they won't since they can get it for free) or if it doesn't suck (which it won't) they can just wait until it comes out as a tangible release or in some (rare) instances, do both. This type of instant gratification will probably eventually circulate in indie music and then the majors will catch on and pretty much all it will end up doing is making records available sooner after the artists actually record them (rather than 3 to 16 months later).
I applaud Arts and Crafts because they were willing to take a chance and give somethign a shot and I'm sure ti will end up paying off. Plus, if it doesn't work it will be because the music isn't good enough for people (who care about music...which...if you listen to Stars you probably aren't just doing it for commodity) to justify buying it rather than because people are thieves.
Also, Brand New is incredible and Joe Sloan's band broke up after one show.
(Nick's band wasn't offered any shows.)
It's definitely a horrible time to be in the record business. Hopefully the day will come soon when labels themselves are almost completely nonexistent and bands will, you know, actually get the profit from the money made on their music (a novel idea!). How that money will actually be made still seems up in the air.
However, if I had to specualte, I'd imagine that as distribution gets less and less resource-driven, the near future of the "record label" will be two things: one, as a kind of promotion machine for hugely commercial artists who needs to sell a million copies to break even, OR, two, to fund small batches of intentionally niche-based releases, especially vinyl, geared towards the music ubergeeks (like you see in the DIY hardcore scene.)
The problem is that the latter is inherently elitist (and it'd would never allow you to quit your "real job") but it's probably a neccesary reaction against the disposable nature of 99% of the music that is widely out there (and the current "download ten thousand songs and maybe you'll like three of them" system which robs us of a lot of the "music listening experience" that made us this way in the first place.)
ЎUf, me gustу! Tan clara y positiva.
Truden
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