Revolutionising the music industry.... some time this week....
Everyone is entitled to my opinion...
I read a lot about the music industry. Blogs, news articles, letters, magazines... I seem to have a neverending appetite when it comes to music news.But there have been so many stories about the "future of the music industry" that I am starting to become a little bit blase' about the whole thing. One thing that I will bet on, is that tethered subscription based models just aren't going to cut it. Which is bad news for people such as Nokia and the like, but good news for consumers. The industry will just have to face up to the fact that the market is telling them how they want to consume music. The future, in actual fact, probably looks a lot like this.
You Can't Spell Star Without A&R
Years ago I was a judge at the National Campus Band competition. There was an act playing in one of the heats called Acquiesce. They had an odd looking lineup. I am pretty sure the bass player was, at the very least, a mature-age student. But their singer was fabulous. From memory they went on to win, and as in a lot of these cases, eventually broke up. I stayed in touch with the singer for a while although I never got around to catching one of her solo shows. My loss, really.
The singer was Sarah Blasko and I was really pleased when she scored herself a record deal years later. You all know the story... two gold albums under her belt, ARIA Awards, great shows...critics love her too. In all honesty, the first two albums didn't really catch my attention... I was off the radar there for a while. So it wasn't until her new album that I finally heard a real, true artist...something that was there in her original band but had not yet been captured. The album "As Day Follows Night" is quite simply stunning. Fair brings a tear to my eye...
This One Time... At Band Comp...
Speaking of band competitions, nothing strikes more fear into my heart than being asked to judge one. I learnt a long time ago that if you're going to be involved, make sure you only do the finals. Weeks of my life have been lost by agreeing to be a judge at band competition heats. And I am sorry to break it to you, but they are largely a waste of time. Well, they're certainly a waste of my time.
There have been competitions that I have judged where the organiser has disagreed with the judge's decision and gone on stage and announced who he decided were the winners. And high school comps where the local cool guys think they can be stars, but forget to learn something, like how to play. For some reason, from the late 90's onwards, every young band on Sydney's north shore decided that what they needed to be famous was to have a bass player that could play like Flea. I swear, if I hear one more sub-standard surf/rock/reggae/stoner band with a poppin' and clickin' bass player, someone is going to get hurt.
A good thing about the recession...
Admittedly, there aren't that many good things that come out of a recession. But less consipcuous consumption by over paid and under talented American rappers, would have to be one ofthem
No comment...
Finally... some stories just write themselves... I don't
know how I could comment on the following story that would make it any more
fascinating than it already is. And check out the forum comments underneath the
article. Only in America.
