Music/Record Biz Thread (2012)

Giselle

wasted 8 of her 9 lives.
For all the number-cruncher types like me-and interested parties- I thought it would be cool to start a thread where we could post articles and have discussions about the record and music industry-past, present, and future.

There really wasn't an appropriate thread for this topic, specifically, that I could find.

From Rolling Stone:
"9 Ways Musicians Actually Make Money Today"
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/9-ways-musicians-actually-make-money-today-20120828
 
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OK.

It's an obsolete model trying to cope with a culture it never was equipped to thrive in from the outset. It's trying to sell a product that has always been inherently intangible but which up until recently had to be conveyed and marketed through a specifically tangible medium. The product was the merchandise, not the contents. Now that's difficult because technology allows the consumer to circumvent such dependencies. In an effort to stop a speeding train, the record industry has tried to criminalize filesharing and deemed it "piracy" which doesn't really make any sense and is never going to because intellectual property is a very different animal from physical property. Filesharing (peer to peer, torrents, data host sites) have taken a huge bite out of the industry.
 
I honestly was trying to legitimately engage you in discussion, not kill anything.

I was kidding. Really. :straightface:

Your thoughts were, as I expected them to be on the subject,well thought out and well-founded.
I've enjoyed your comments on the vinyl "revival" in a different thread, so I was hoping you'd weigh in here.
 
I was kidding. Really. :straightface:

Your thoughts were, as I expected them to be on the subject, very well thought out and well-founded.
I've enjoyed your comments on the vinyl "revival" in a different thread, so I was hoping you'd weigh in here.

Yes I go back and forth on the vinyl thing. It's cool, but cool doesn't do it for me. Largely I think it's a pretense and a fad celebrated by kids who are too young to have experienced vinyl the first time around and they are trying to tap into a nostalgia they have not earned.

I don't doubt that there is superiority of sound if you have a top notch system and if the record stays spotless. Otherwise I see no real superiority in it. Things moved on for a reason; if vinyl had been so great it would have stayed around to begin with. You never heard people in 1996, or hell even 2006, clamoring to buy their music on records. Largely it appeals to hipsters and audiophiles and old people, none of which am I.

I think mainly though it's just a very obvious overcompensation for ten or twelve years where there's been no hard medium at all. A factory pressed CD vs a 320 rip vs a FLAC rip, if I was blind, I couldn't tell the difference. My stereo is not bad but it's not great, however I do have some very beautiful Bose headphones I got as a gift and I have listened to all mediums through them and I think I'd be lying if I said I noticed any difference.
 
I sold all my vinyl records back when I was twenty to get money to travel to Europe. I have some nostalgia for the ones I owned but would never start another collection again. They take up too much space. I'm starting to feel the same way about print books. I have twenty or so boxes of them in storage. Now I only buy digital books.

Anyhow, here is a good podcast (You can also just read the text instead of listening if you want.): Are Vinyl Recordings Better than Digital?
 
Yes I go back and forth on the vinyl thing. It's cool, but cool doesn't do it for me. Largely I think it's a pretense and a fad celebrated by kids who are too young to have experienced vinyl the first time around and they are trying to tap into a nostalgia they have not earned.

I don't doubt that there is superiority of sound if you have a top notch system and if the record stays spotless. Otherwise I see no real superiority in it. Things moved on for a reason; if vinyl had been so great it would have stayed around to begin with. You never heard people in 1996, or hell even 2006, clamoring to buy their music on records. Largely it appeals to hipsters and audiophiles and old people, none of which am I.

I think mainly though it's just a very obvious overcompensation for ten or twelve years where there's been no hard medium at all. A factory pressed CD vs a 320 rip vs a FLAC rip, if I was blind, I couldn't tell the difference. My stereo is not bad but it's not great, however I do have some very beautiful Bose headphones I got as a gift and I have listened to all mediums through them and I think I'd be lying if I said I noticed any difference.

My parents were quite old-fashioned, and I grew up in the late 1980's still listening to records. We didn't even own a CD player until the early 1990's.Having said that, I don't have a record player myself. I own exactly 4 vinyl records, though- 3 were gifts from a friend, and the fourth I got for $5 at a swap meet. I've listened to them at my Mom's house, and they're great, but mostly they just sit on my bookshelf.:o

I will admit that I love that there is a contingent of folks who are keeping vinyl alive as a serious thing, because in this super fast-paced world, to be able to slow down and enjoy a record is a real luxury. And, there is indeed really something cool about the album covers and the artwork. There's so much presence in them- much more than in a relatively tiny CD cover.

I'm definitely not an audiophile, although I am rather curious about the technical aspects of music, mixing, etc... I've never had the highest quality speakers or headphones or equipment-I still don't-but know what I like and what sounds good, and usually my CD's and MP3's are A-OK.

Anyhow, here is a good podcast "Are Vinyl Recordings Better than Digital?"

Thanks. I'll definitely check it out.
 
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This was in the Rolling Stone article. I wasn't too aware of bands selling full recordings of live gigs (although it makes sense), and I found it quite interesting.

Phish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Umphrey's McGee and the String Cheese Incident are some of the acts that sell their fans full recordings of the show they just heard. String Cheese, who charge $10 for MP3s or $15 for high-quality, lossless FLAC, sell about 500 to 1,000 downloads per gig.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/l...ant-concert-recordings-19691231#ixzz24u8lNoZ2
 
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