‘As CD sales plummet and famed shops close, brave entrepreneurs are trying to reinvent the model. Is it too late?’

‘One good indicator of this norm’s normalness? The main criticism you hear about this kind of record—even outweighing references to Starbucks and/or the bourgeoisie—is that it is just too dull to even bother producing any more complex indictment of it. These acts, intentionally or not, have won; they’ve taken a lower-sales, lower-budget version of the type of trip Sting once took, from a post-punk upstart to an adult staple.’

“The people complaining about the loss of these "non-mainstream" categories aren't really asking for a fair distribution of categories; they're asking for patronage. They're asking for the Recording Academy to act as a booster club and preservation society — to recognize and support these traditions as a special interest. Never mind that this is a kind of support new and fragile musical traditions don't get. Never mind that people in each of these genres are more than capable of recognizing their own achievements, and probably more effectively than the Academy does.”

An unsigned band's success story. Via TopSpin forum.

This success story is almost entirely the result of efforts by my friend Mike Pooley, who works at Mountain Apple Company and is about to go free-lance to offer his digital marketing services to the world! “These efforts are a great example of how an artist can capitalize on viral buzz. By linking to their free-download offer from the YouTube video, Mountain Apple Company harnessed the video’s exposure to increase their fan base. Their store is beautiful & well-designed, and their marketing efforts drove direct-to-fan sales around the globe.”

How music became ‘un-bundled’ from CDs as consumers downloaded the one or two songs they actually wanted, and how direct-to-fan sales have re-bundled that music into not just CDs but digital releases, vinyl, and every manner of special package imaginable. “As artists get their arms around all their rights and build direct relationships with their fans we’re seeing artists’ output RE-BUNDLED into higher value packages and average revenue per transaction greater than those delivered by the Compact Disc.”

I’m going to write about this post in a few days. “I don’t personally care much about finding ‘great unsigned bands;’ I am not in A&R or publicity. If I was going to spend all of my time focused on listening to the first four or five songs written by a series of unknown acts I would lose my mind, because I am increasingly interested in issues of style and craft that are usually lost on people who are just starting out. I’d rather have people at record labels deal with that and facilitate the process of making finished records. There’s a lot of great labels out there — if I’m going to find something new, I trust them more than anyone else other than my friends and colleagues.”

Too Much Joy’s Tim Quirk tells the story of his band’s jingle for Budweiser in the early 90s, and how he feels about bands and advertising then and since. A good companion to Matt LeMay’s ‘Art vs Content’ post from late 2010 (http://www.mbvmusic.com/2010/10/19/living-in-the-age-of-art-vs-content).

From the first EP to the soon-released LP, how it all happened.

‘Ian Roger’s presentation from New Music Seminar Los Angeles, February 2011.’ A great overview of how bands have used Topsin and online marketing to great success. Some good takeaways here: a) Don't sell anything until you have a few thousand people on your mailing list, b) Until that point, focus most of all on getting known, c) Do something small every week and something big every month, d) Communicate honestly and treat your fans well.

I may never get around to listening to this, but the idea is fantastic. "An article in the May 2010 issue of the magazine The Atlantic critiqued the current generation of young music fans for rampant copyright violation. In a small irony, the illustration used to decorate the article interpolated a detail of a preexisting work that appears to not yet be in the public domain. This notice isn’t intended as a criticism of the illustrator — quite the contrary; the illustration is excellent — but instead of the theoretical foundation of the article, which suggests a clear line between right and wrong where there is, in fact, significant ambiguity. I forwarded Traum’s image, and article it accompanied, to various musicians and asked them if they would record a piece of music that took Traum’s picture literally: use it as a score.”

A strong perspective on music culture, the music business, and the state of things today. "Had Sonic Youth not done what they did I don't know what would have happened—the alternative history game is kind of silly. But I think it cheapened music quite a bit. It made music culture kind of empty and ugly and was generally a kind of bad influence."

On the difficulty of preserving and reissuing classical hip-hop records. "The job that falls to those seeking to preserve hip-hop's past remains complex. Those doing the work need to know as much about copyright and contract law as they do about old Pete Rock B-sides, while a grounding in clinical psychology might help in dealing with the artists. It's a combination of specialisms few individuals possess, and it raises the question: just whose responsibility is it to curate the history of a culture?"

"Commercial concerns are both implicit and invisible in the consumption of content."

"'It sucks,' he says. 'It's no fault of any of the people in the industry, but music is not the main focus of my life. I never really planned on it being that way. When I meet people on the business end of this music-industry thing, they tend to really gross me out. I'm not trying to make money through this.'"

A followup to the article 'Do Fees Rationalize/Incentivize Communal-Culture Ecommerce?' checks in with actual musicians using the site, and finds that they're more or less unfazed by the change, and don't think it's evil by any means.

1. PR companies are liars and are out to fuck you. 2. Music blogs are run by human beings and should be treated thusly. 3. Make no concessions.

"To mark the publication of rock critic Rob Sheffield’s second book, an 'I Love the 80s'-style tribute to the music of his youth called Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, eMusic’s Michaelangelo Matos took a unique approach to the author interview: a jukebox jury in which music critics, rather than songs, were the focus of discussion."

Why Altered Zones, Pitchfork's new MP3 blog collective, is a destructive force toward artists. However: This isn't all Pitchfork's fault. An artist doesn't get on the internet without their own considerable effort. They don't have to react to coverage. Young people are inexperienced and I don't blame us for going for fame as soon as the slightest hint thereof beckons, but there's more to this than the idea that Pitchfork is trying to co-opt all the young rebels.

Touring by playing performances in people's homes. Free room and board, and it's actually profitable. Everybody wins. Problems with this are: can be noisy, and you'll need a PA if you're not an acoustic band.

The story of the Top 20 Hit that never was. Oh well, it's still one of the best.