8/5/10

As summer begins its peak its nice to see everybody and pretty much everything in full swing. Everybody, including me, is trying to do as much stuff as possible before the fall sets in and school starts up again. It's been a fairly productive summer so far for me musically and in most of my other endeavors. I still have much more to do but progress is being made. <moronalogue>

I've been thinking on how what would be the best way to release new music this day and age. Releasing in the digital format seems so impersonal and well...I don't know... cheap. I remember when I was quite a bit younger going out with my dad to Korvettes to pick up a new record. I was probably around 9-10 years old, just starting my album collection. I loved just picking up the record, be it Yes, Zeppelin, Tull, whoever and marveling at the artwork and design. I would be so psyched if it was a gatefold because I knew that when I got home I'd be able to remove the cellophane and open up the record to see what eye candy was inside. Even the record sleeves themselves had artwork and were an integral part of the whole package. Also pouring over the liner notes/lyrics hopefully to get insight of the band members and the vision that they had for the release. Back then there was no internet. There was only magazines and whatever the artist released. I think the absence of the 24/7 facebook twitter BS enabled a mystique to be formed about the band. As a 10 year old and a total Zeppelin fan I fell right into the whole mysticism and vibe of their music and the imagery that went along with it. The band Yes as well, with Roger Dean at the helm of their artwork and design. He created a certain mood and atmosphere in which the music was able to really take hold of your imagination. Try and do that with an mp3.

I remember going to my dad's apartment and marveling at his immense record collection. All the Beatles on vinyl (of which I snagged a few :-). Just piles and piles of records. I would look through them all and admire all the work that went into each one of these albums. And if one of the covers looked cool to me I would ask to listen to it or simply ask what kind of music it was. I was lucky to have grown up in a period where vinyl was kinda still around. I feel bad for the kids these days who weren't really exposed to the great vinyl medium. It seems that music has grown so disposable and devalued. The respect of the labor and time put into quality music has really been marginalized. I know that part of that is due to the industry itself. With manufactured stars and cookie cutter songwriting it seems that the days of artist development are long over. If you don't hit with your first CD you're done. There is so much great talent out there waiting to be heard that isn't affiliated with Disney or MTV or whoever. Hanna Montana? The Jonas Brothers? I obviously missed the boat on this one. I just don't see the draw. When you strip away all the glitz, sugarcoating, video bullshit all you have left is the music. I don't think I need so say any more. The other side of the coin is that all the great talent out there can attract a very decent following via the internet...which is good. Now in order for them to make money they somehow have to monetize their product...which is hard. You have to tour and sell merchandise...which is a gigantic pain in the ass. Hopefully you'll make money...hopefully. The days of recording a record and selling a million copies and then retiring are over.

I understand that "music" is a business as well as an artist's form of expression. In order for a business to be successful you need to make it profitable. These days with the major labels shitting the bed and people taking their careers into their own hands it seems that costs need to be reduced thus the packaging has seemed to take the biggest hit. (Maybe the best idea for me is to press a few hundred disks and let digital distribution take over after they're gone. I guess I could make the artwork downloadable so people can see what I see when I listen to the music. It just seems so detached and disjointed this way. You lose the impact of the whole sound/imagery thing, but I digress.)

Unfortunatley it seems that circumstances will take a huge role as to what the future of music distribution is going to be like. Also its not just music that is going to take a hit. Movies and books, games etc. Everything is already moving over to the world of downloading on to your computer screen, your Kindle and even your phone. At least the musicians aren't alone. The idea of "cloud computing" -

(Wiki says) Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid.

Cloud computing is a paradigm shift following the shift from mainframe to client–server in the early 1980s. Details are abstracted from the users, who no longer have need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.[1] Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources.

... is now coming down the road. I wonder how this will effect distribution of not just music but all media.

The idea of instant gratification is indeed a tempting one. But if one doesn't know what its like to wait for something good (a car ride home with your new record/game). Instant gratification will become the norm. We become spoiled. We lose perspective of how long something takes to be created. We lose respect of the process. We lose perspective on the love and attention a book or a piece of music gets during its gestation when we are able download it in a matter of seconds. I guess we are all victims of technology, for better or worse.

I guess I've reached that point in my life when I start to yell at those damn kids to get off my lawn and get those damn white things outta yer ears! At least I get to look at the wall of my studio and admire all eight of my Led Zeppelin records, framed and forever preserved for the pleasure of my optic nerves. </moronalogue>

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The new cd is going well. Solos are done for 5 songs! Been doing some test mixes. Starting to sound half way decent.

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Things at UMusic have been going well. I edited our first open mic video. check it out here!