submitter: record companies? Suck it, your days are numbered

Well, he doesn't quite say this, but there are more alternatives for artists to distribute their product. Interestingly, he really doesn't address widespread filesharing, where artists get no money at all. Some artists are happy to have their music shared to increase their popularity and to become bigger concert draws, where they make most of their money. Metallica started out that way, and changed. Grateful Dead ultimately encouraged recording/trading their shows to the point where they became known as a "legendary" live band.

Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa
Fa-Fa-Fa- Fine article.

submitter: Oh, and record companies? Suck it, your days are numbered

would that this were true.

And Jill Sobule came up with another method: Asking fans to fund the recording, with PBS-style rewards for incremental giving.

Big donations got you a concert in your living room. (pops)

Over forty pointed people
In the perfect pointed steeple
Looked to see the lucky number
Yes the wonder of the Tundra
Had come up to fame and fortune
Singing his tune, my tune, your tune
Wooing daughters of the gifted
On the carpets of the courtrooms
While the tickets were expensive
The show was quite relentless in the square.

Of course, not everyone is as smart as those nerdy Radiohead boys. Pete Doherty probably should not be handed the steering wheel.

He's funny, too.

There is danger but they will not see
If they're blind then it's blind that they'd rather be

Executive Summary:

1) It's a business.
2) They just want to make money and don't care about 'art'.
3) Royalties are the main source of an artist's income.
4) Get off my lawn.

And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Digital distribution is pretty much free. It's no cheaper per unit to distribute a million copies than a hundred.

Those two sentences say different things.

At a similar per-unit rate it costs a lot more to distribute a million copies than a hundred. There's a site that got linked to from Fark and friends often enough to make the owner buy a more expensive hosting plan. No more dollars per hit -- maybe less -- but more dollars in total.

The chart showing where the money goes looks similar to where the money goes for books. Author gets about 10% -- usually a bit less, sometimes more. Retailer used to get 40% of cover price, now tries to discount and take 20% of cover price or 25% of sale price.

Great article. Should have been here when it was published.

Fraggler: There is danger but they will not see
If they're blind then it's blind that they'd rather be

Nice. Might even actually qualify as "obscure" -- the holy grail of Fark.com.

Everybody in the USA
hates their stupid neighbour.

StormDawg: Nice. Might even actually qualify as "obscure" -- the holy grail of Fark.com.

That's "They are in love", right? Not too obscure in a discussion of David Byrne...

......I just like jamming.

They're also making a album worth paying for, which David Byrne hasn't done in 20+ years.

I don't pay for dl anyway. I want a hard copy and best available audio quality if I'm paying.

Anaxphone: Not too obscure in a discussion of David Byrne...

No, but pretty obscure in an absolute sense.

DistendedPendulusFrenulum: Over forty pointed people
In the perfect pointed steeple
Looked to see the lucky number
Yes the wonder of the Tundra
Had come up to fame and fortune
Singing his tune, my tune, your tune
Wooing daughters of the gifted
On the carpets of the courtrooms
While the tickets were expensive
The show was quite relentless in the square.

Ha
Ha
Isn't life a circus?

(shop steward, shop shop steward)

/Quiet Sun FTW

Any questions?

dmax:

DistendedPendulusFrenulum: Over forty pointed people
In the perfect pointed steeple
Looked to see the lucky number
Yes the wonder of the Tundra
Had come up to fame and fortune
Singing his tune, my tune, your tune
Wooing daughters of the gifted
On the carpets of the courtrooms
While the tickets were expensive
The show was quite relentless in the square.

Ha
Ha
Isn't life a circus?

(shop steward, shop shop steward)


...but will you retail crummy cosmetics?

I was only earlier this evening discussing with a friend about how Here Come The Warm Jets is the penultimate nitrous rock album of all time. It's like the holy grail in that respect...

I remember hearing that fiery furnaces cover quite a while ago. it's cool. Widow City is one of my favorite albums of recent memory and it was great to hear Byrne's version.

FTFA: I play an instrument (not always well).

Ha, Mr. Modesty. He's a great rhythm guitarist.

barneyfifesbullet: I want a hard copy and best available audio quality if I'm paying.

Oh god, a thousand times THIS. Unless you're listening to music through those crappy little earbuds or in a noisy car roaring down the highway, your 128k mp3s will pale in comparison to the clarity, dimensionality, and precision (I refuse to use the term "warmth" because it's too subjective to argue about) of higher bitrates or lossless formats. As someone who's trying to make a living in some aspect of music production, it saddens me that fidelity is no longer in fashion. I do NOT want to work in any industry where the product needs not to be "good" but only "good enough".

And another thing: unless you know there is something wrong with what you're hearing, don't fark with the EQs on your stereos and Ipods. It's the job of the engineers, producers, mixing engineers, and especially the mastering engineers to get everything just right so you don't have to. The instant you, the listener, touch a button marked "Bass" or "Treble" or "1K" or "Rock" or "Jazz" you are insulting everyone who worked on the record.

Home stereo EQs are made for flattening the response of speakers that might have a spike somewhere along the audio spectrum, and unless you know exactly where that spike is, you're like a virgin digging around in the folds of a fat girl's crotch trying to find her clitoris.

/not an audiophile

barneyfifesbullet: I don't pay for dl anyway. I want a hard copy and best available audio quality if I'm paying.

It's interesting that (legit) dl-ing and album costs about the same price as buying the (new) CD in a store (before sales tax). Why are you still paying for the plastic, the shipping and handling, and for the retail store's electricity, rent, and clerk's wages when you use none of their services by downloading?

Galaxy of Prawns And another thing: unless you know there is something wrong with what you're hearing, don't fark with the EQs on your stereos and Ipods. It's the job of the engineers, producers, mixing engineers, and especially the mastering engineers to get everything just right so you don't have to. The instant you, the listener, touch a button marked "Bass" or "Treble" or "1K" or "Rock" or "Jazz" you are insulting everyone who worked on the record.

Calm down, big guy. Sorry that hitting the bass boost on my $30 Ihome at my office is hurting the integrity of my Blink 182 albums. Maybe if they would master digital dl's differently than the vinyls I wouldn't have to piss on their masterpieces and get you so worked up you bring up deflowering fatties.

Galaxy of Prawns: your 128k mp3s will pale in comparison to the clarity, dimensionality, and precision (I refuse to use the term "warmth" because it's too subjective to argue about) of higher bitrates or lossless formats.

obvious tag on vacation?

Though I'm divided on paying for MP3s, I wouldn't count on the shiatty 128 kpbs bitrates on itunes being the norm forever.

as far as messing with the EQs: fark you, it's my music to dick around with.

Please be so kind as to remove the stick from your ass, Galaxy of Prawns.

The instant you, the listener, touch a button marked "Bass" or "Treble" or "1K" or "Rock" or "Jazz" you are insulting everyone who worked on the record.

I paid for the music and if I think there's too much treble or not enough bass, I'm going to make it sound like I want to. Do artists who sell their paintings in galleries insist on going to the buyer's home to choose what wall it gets hung on?

And you know what? Sometimes the people who worked on the record had no idea what they were doing. Gun Club's first album has absolutely no low end, with the bass somewhere way off in the background. It's still an amazing record that blows my mind every time I listen to it, but I love it so much more hearing it coming through my speakers with the bass boosted so I can experience each lovely note.

Sadly were it only true. About a week ago I met a friend in a affluent L.A. beach suburb for a couple drinks. Sitting behind me was some music industry douche. He was talking to a wanna be motion picture producer. He was explaining the music industry to his guy. It was straight up 1975 talk. I'm sure in his mind Fleetwood Mac was still the biggest band in the world. He was so clueless it was unbelievable to listen to. And I realized that these people (RIAA, Music Industry, etc) live in a bubble. For them to change is for them to abandon themselves and all they know. It isn't going to actually happen until they are retired, and hopefully the young douche bags that are working for them will step up. Of course like any kind of abusive situation, these things seem to regenerate themselves with every generation.

Galaxy of Prawns: And another thing: unless you know there is something wrong with what you're hearing, don't fark with the EQs on your stereos and Ipods. It's the job of the engineers, producers, mixing engineers, and especially the mastering engineers to get everything just right so you don't have to. The instant you, the listener, touch a button marked "Bass" or "Treble" or "1K" or "Rock" or "Jazz" you are insulting everyone who worked on the record.

What the hell are you talking about? There's not an engineer alive who think listeners have some more obligation not to customize the sound of an album, or that a home listening environment will ever come close to a studio mixing environment. Studio monitors don't have the same EQ response as commercial speakers, and headphones and automobile speakers aren't going to provide the same fidelity as home speakers. Hell, even hearing response is going to change from person to person - do you think a 40 year old is going to hear the same thing as a 20 year old?

I always listen to things with the stereo levels set to mid. Mid bass, mid treble. The volume is always a little less than a quarter of the way up. I think it's the way to go. If the engineer or mastering intended big bass or something, that's the way they envisioned the finished product. Appreciate that.

I find it hard to reconcile the thousand copies of my CD I had pressed. Sure, they serve as mementos or business cards, but in the end, I'm selling so many pulses of electricity packaged as "files" and floating on the ether.
I'm selling beautiful sounding nothing.
No one can ever again expect to confront the joy and allure of a full blown LP, with cover, liner notes, goodies, and all the character that made it worthwhile to simply wander the aisles of a record store in awe of the depth of design, sometimes right down to the shape of the final product.

Bavid Byrne sucks !

shanteyman: Bavid Byrne sucks !

Way late to the thread, and weak.

Troll-meter: 1/10

Wow, this article is from December of 07. A bit late to the party.