These (Music) Podcasts Could be Your Life

 

I have always been drawn to audio over visual presentations, in part because I prefer the mental imagery generated by the voices, music, and sounds in my head. 

I was asked to provide some podcast favorites around music criticism in two recent social discussions.  This list does not focus on podcasts that play music or streaming shows I tend to be a bit fanatical about (i.e., Bagel Radio, Rock n’ Roll Manifesto, Tommy Unit Live!, Hair Metal Mix Tape)

What are your favorite podcasts on Music?

Pazz & Jop (with a nod to the ole' Village Voice annual music roundup)

Sound Opinions

• Two legendary music critics discuss new releases &  interview musicians from all shades of genres. 

Strong Songs 

• host breaks down new and classic songs & discusses techniques and tools of songwriting.

Broken Record 

• Started by Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell, the show has insightful interviews. 

Hit Parade 

• Somewhat like a Decoder Ring (another fave of mine), the show combines elements to deconstruct and laud songs that have topped the charts and our brains. 

Switched on Pop

• Hosted by a Musicologist and a Songwriter, the show is Similar to Hit Parade with a heavier interview element. 

Introspection and Tunes

A Deeper Listen 

• From the fabulous Seattle-based, listener-sponsored KEXP, this podcast explores the meaning and stories behind songs from multiple genres. 

Bizarre Albums (& singles)

• Tony Thaxton, drummer for Motion City Soundtrack & Don’t Stop or We’ll Die explores the strange, odd, and outright weird albums that make us simultaneously laugh and take inspiration. 

My Favorite Album-with Jeremy Dylan

• Interviews with musicians, songwriters, and producers about what inspires them, the craft, and what keeps them passionate. 

James Aster’s Perfect Sounds 

• Actor, Comedian, and genuine music lover James Aster shares his guest music perspectives and spends each episode trying to convince them that 2016 was the most significant year in music ever. 

Three Track Podcast 

• Comedian and all-around renaissance man Gabriel Ebulue has guests pick any three tracks and dig deep into their cultural significance and why they are so emotionally tied to them. 

History of Rock Music in 500 Songs

• It is a remarkable breakdown of where rock has come from, how it evolved/ branched, and whether it will continue to influence the future. 

A to Z of Psychedelia ( on BBC Radio 6)

• BBC Radio 6 is doing what it does best: exploring a genre with music, interviews, and backstories that put you right ‘on-stage’ with the movement. 

 

Down the Rabbit Hole (Tech, Technology, and Culture of Recording Music)

Recording Rockstars 

• An award-winning recording engineer dives deep into the magic of making music in the studio. The show is full of brilliant discussions and brimming with advice, tips, and tricks. 

Working Class Audio

• After losing a studio during tough times, Matt Boudreau started the podcast to work through his feelings and reconnect to the art. His interviews are incisive, intriguing, and intelligent, giving us a window into many top engineers' personalities, work ethic, and inspiration.

TapeOp

Hosted by the Editor of TapeOp magazine, it combines the storytelling essentials and technology that produce beautiful music across genres. 

Hanging Out With Audiophiles 

• HOWA delves into the songs & the technology, techniques, and inspirations required to make “...make things sound right.”

The Sadness of Sound

The Sadness of Sound

A meditation on the state of sound in our lives and ruminations on fixing it.

Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends, unless some dull and favorable hand will whisper music to my weary spirit. - Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3.

Alright, this may come off as a bit of ‘much ado about nothing’ to some, but the state of sound all around us is frustratingly bad and only getting worse. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by a cacophony of noise that distracts and dulls the senses; like the ever-present background radiation of the universe, we have come to accept, however begrudgingly, its intrusive presence. 

An international parasite seems to have wormed its way into our heads, hearts, and souls, dragging down our expectations like Jacob Marley’s chains. In 1991, Karlheinz Brandenburg opened Pandora’s box by successfully converting Suzanne Vegas’ Tom’s Diner into the digital domain(as an MP3), bringing us the blessed curse of quantity over quality.

The Meh! Of Mediocrity 

The remarkable achievement of digitizing music has fulfilled its promise to ‘democratize’ access to songs from around the world, breaking new bands and saving niche artists from obscurity. The technology requires balancing file size and sound quality, compressing data where possible while providing good enough delivery. The palpable joy of carrying hundreds of complete discographies in a pocket comes at the cost of losing many rich elements that add depth and lushness.  

The overwhelming ubiquity of MP3, originally seen as a tool to level the playing field, dulls our senses with mediocre audio and takes the soul out of sound. The MP3 foundation agrees, officially killing off professional licensing in 2017, stating: “The codecs of the AAC family, for example, are included in billions of devices today and provide excellent sound quality at low bit rates.”

Cut Throat Communication 

 So, here we are, conditioned to accept that ‘just good enough’ is more than adequate. Live events folks like to throw around the phrase ‘good enough for rock n’ roll,’ but this is a great misnomer. From symphonic metal to lo-fi grindcore and punk, the sound generated is carefully crafted. Why do we accept the sub-par sound in our daily lives, especially in business communications?

 

During the pandemic years of remote work, universal distance learning, and streaming presentations, audio quality was clearly an afterthought, even when we realized that the situation was to be a marathon. It is possible that many saw investment in upgraded hardware as a temporary hiccup and not as a wise use of company money. Yet, the situation was terrible for years prior. 

I am an avid listener to Bloomberg radio, not that I have any real money to invest, but the socio-economic ramifications of market changes fascinate me. As such, I get to hear a ton of earnings calls from companies large and small, and boy, howdy are they terrible. The sound is akin to kids shrieking over tin cans connected by a fishing line; in reality, two guys are shouting into a speakerphone.

 While some put money behind comprehensive conference systems, why is there resistance to one-on-one or huddle rooms?

The Curse of Audiophiles

Various attempts have been made to inspire a popular uprising by consumers, playing off ingrained cultural desires for the latest and best and one-upping their friends. So far, the results have been lackluster. Star-backed platforms like Neil Young’s (now defunct) Pono and Jay-Z-fronted TIDAL have made inroads with a niche demographic—generally wealthy status-conscious men. Surveys and polls show that most music listeners put availability over audiophile aspirations, at least regarding the cost of file formats.   

There is an oft-told joke about modern vinyl fans: What attracts them to the format is its expense and difficulty in making it work right. Comedic simplifications aside, there is no better example of the overwrought and avarice of so-called audiophiles than the now-defunct Rocky Mountain Audio Show. This yearly gathering of self-important audio mystics chanting over meteorite-sourced metal tweeters and rare wood cabinets smoothed by exotic virgins from lost islands has killed the better audio aspirations of the masses. 

Seriously, why would anyone think they can join the League of Better Sound when comment boards are filled with claims that crystal-infused slate platforms and naturally damping volcanic cones dramatically improve audio from a CD player? Add to this ‘essential components such as $1000 Streaming DACs, $8000 tube amplifiers, $20k speakers, and $600 hokum accessories- oh my! 

Seriously, while looking at the hope diamond is lovely, anyone insisting that to be truly fashionable, you must wear jewelry of equal value and ostentation is socially deaf and damages perceptions. Are we, as an industry, guilty of the same?

Making Presence A Priority 

We want our voices to be heard when we speak with a group of friends, on a conference call, or during a Zoom meeting. Ensuring everyone on a conference call is distinct should be a priority for everyone, not just the geeky AV folks. When properly punctuated, a voice imparts presence, giving ideas and statements a sense of authority and gravitas.

In order to change the mindset of just good enough to solid solutions, we need to provide clients with practical implementation without the Tiffinay boxes. Sometimes, this happens on a grand scale, an epiphany with angelic choir music. In reality, it takes baby steps, integrating higher-quality files, better headphones, and home entertainment. When people make better sound part of their everyday lives, they begin to demand it everywhere. 

How do you convince clients or yourself to pursue better sound daily? Or have we already stepped too far over the precipice?

This article was originally posted on AVNation.tv Features on February 24, 2024

Bang On Musical Brutalism and the Fallacy of Noble Savages

 

I am re-reading Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung - The collected essays of Lester Bangs, the literary master of rock music criticism. About a thousand words into 'The Clash, Part 1' I came across this masterful description of Punk. 

While skill and craft are essential, brutal conviction is not something that can be overlayed onto a musician, nor should there be a need to. Whether you find expression in classic rock, covers, or experimental lo-fi,  either your art is from the heart or you have accepted the role of snake-oil salesman.  

Best Musical Find of 2011- Charles Bradley

~From my Tumblr Blog~

 

Charles Bradley - ‘The Screaming Eagle of Soul’ - and his band the Extraordinaires, Best Musical Find of 2011

I posted this on the Audyssey’s Facebook site in response to a question about the best find of the year. Up until two weeks ago I would not have even known Charles Bradley’s name (i most likely would have thought someone meant to say former NBA player and odd ball personality Charles Barkley or band Narls Barkley ).

Charles Bradley’s performance on WNYC’s local music show ‘SoundCheck’ featured an interview and live performance with the man and his voice. It is just stunning. Breathtakingly so.

Forget that kid who backhanded Micheal Buble. CB is the real deal.

Take my advise - cue up this video, and crank it loud (yes, to 11 wise guy). If you have crappy speakers get a good pair of cans on your head, (I highly recommend Sony MDR-V6’s), and prepare to weep with joy.

Yeah, it’s that damn good.

Next: Go and Buy his album. He may very well blow out his voice before the end of next year - enjoy it while you can. The original Sound Check interview can be heard here.

 

8-bit Nostalgia and Miss September 63's Influence on Tactile Controls.

I love my wife’s new nano, the slickness of the interface, its ease of use and the fluid movement of pages on such a small screen is pretty darn cool.  I almost wish Apple would release a developer’s kit to add a control interface capability. Aww, com’on you know you agree, this would be the ultimate key fob.

Yet, am I alone in feeling that the new nano and even the iPad is well, soul-less? I am troubled- only somewhat mildly mind you (I DO work in the belly of the beast)- by the frictionless gloss of icons.  In fact, in the spirit of true disclosure I have to admit that I do not get surround sound, having compared it to overblown quad some years back on a pro AV forum on AOL.   I still, mostly, stand by that assessment today. 

Which brings me to my main point; I miss the tactile feel of a physical interface.  Perhaps it is simple nostalgia but I long for the clickty-clack-clunk of an 8-track tape, the solid mechanical ka-chunk of open reel tape decks, and the tactile feel and response of weighted gain knobs. I am not sure just why I love these knobs so much, the sheer pleasure of them in my hand – they just feel right, perfectly balanced in my fingers and against my palm.  I could make an innuendo here, which would be apt and very Miss September 63, but I think you get the gist.  So deep is my love for the classic high-end gain knob that I argued vehemently to include a version on a product, I was asked to do some preliminary concept work on. (I also wanted it to have a more ‘retro’ look with a maple or cherry wood front. Perhaps I do have too many vintage Playboys with their Cutty Shark ads).  The product got its gain knob but the front is basic black and silver.  

Additionally I tend to gravitate toward older looking games. I still watch in awe at the offerings G4 reviews and get that reflexive itch when I am near new game consoles but I am drawn by a greater gravitational pull – the text based Zork.  If you have ever played this game, you know what I am taking about.  It is a simple game really; it is a treasure hunt with fighting trolls, endless caverns, singing demons in hades and an abandoned dam.  All of this, and your action commands, are in text for which you have to draw maps if you are to get through it all.  It is work, hands on paper and brain imagining in 3 dimensions. Do you know the old saying, that things are far more provocative when a little is left to the imagination, yeah – Sophia Loren like.

So, why I am blathering on about all this? What point could I possibly be trying to make?  I really dig this video by HOLLERADO:

 The Video is a one shot, one chance to get it right, human analog of effects.  'There was a time when we made things with our hands'

 

 

 

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Be in my broadcast when this is over

Paul Sidney died a few weeks ago, in all likelihood you have never heard of him but if you are in anyway involved in community building, you need know about him.  Paul Sidney ran and was the voice of WLNG radio out of Sag Harbor Long Island.  WLNG is local as local radio can get. The station is a throwback to late 50’s style of operation where announcers add echo and heavy bottom EQ to their voices and the News is local, local and local.  Growing up in the Hamptons of Long Island it was it was impossible to not be influenced by the sound and programming of WLNG as it was everywhere and literally at every event.

You can read Paul's obituary here, it tells the tale of his coming over to WLNG, becoming its driving force and cult of personality. What it will not tell you is just how deeply he ingratiated himself and the radio station into the very fabric of the lives of those who listened to ‘LNG and even those who did not.  The comments section of the article will do that well enough.

In addition to music and local news WLNG features live call in shows such as "Swap n' Shop" -where people call in to trade a 1940’s fly wheel for a couch or someone looking to buy or swap for a full set of tools and toolbox.  While at times it can be nap inducing it also is a window into people’s lives, needs and character. Paul would not just help the caller to describe what they wanted to trade or relive themselves of but also would check on their status – he engaged them in conversation about the news of their neighborhood.  It was not radio it was community.

The radio station was among the first to have merchants record their own commercials, clearly not professional actors but direct and personal. The ads could be grating and awkward but then so were all the rest and yes, it was the person who owned the store. The ads always left  you feeling – ‘that’s Jim’s place, I should stop by and see how things are doing.

Having the mission to be local as local radio gets WLNG and Paul would travel to every possible event occurring on the east end of Long Island, eventually using two fully equipped remote trucks .  The remotes were Mr. Sidney’s glory and crowning achievement.  These over-sized airstream RV’s were literally at every store opening, town parade, fund raiser and carnival. The draw an ‘LNG remote could –(and still does I am told)- muster was phenomenal. It was not an event of note if the remote trucks were missing. Paul knew how to work a crowd, how to detail just enough to give listeners a good picture- keep them listening AND to attend the event.

In my mid to late teens I developed an overly impressive angst about my surroundings and began a lifelong quest to find new, interesting and thought provoking music and media. This local radio station was the epitome of all I wanted to get away from. In my rush to find something else, the remarkableness of Paul Sidney and WLNG was ignored. As a young person, grappling with defining a personal identity, you grew to loathe when parents put WLNG on, pronouncing it one of the seven signs of local lameness. Yet hearing the station was always comfortable, like going to the carnival with your younger brother- you would rather go alone, check out the girls and hang with friends. But he’s your brother and its okay. 

I left for NYC and its heady world of aggregating cultures and slick production values leaving the ‘farm report’ station behind me.  Imagine my shock when I attended an NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) tradeshow and one of the first things I see upon stepping on to the exhibit floor is Paul surrounded by a flock of people.  I nearly retained my youthful arrogance and rushed by thinking ‘what’s this goat doing here, intruding on my sanctuary?  Instead I stopped to see just what everyone was doing around Paul Sidney.  The questions were eager often hyperactive, asking just how such a small station could grab such large shares in the face of the conglomerates and city backed stations. Paul Sidney’s answers stuck me and started to chip away at my preconceived notions.

My thoughts wandered back to WLNG and Mr. Sidney as I started to get involved in hosting bulletin boards on BBS, AOL and later a few web communities in the early to mid 90s.  It always struck me that group chat rooms were, in effect, community halls- only broadcast. Many compared and still compare them to the days of CB radio popularity, complete with the snide disregard for the value of conversations it generated. The online community often overtly revels in the fact that they are community, ideas are shared and bonds forged. More often than not individuals or groups talk just to hear themselves but in the end fundamental value is created– community radio.  Social media now is, in part, the largest community radio project only the community is not a location but global and based on common interest. 

Next time you tweet an event, start a rolling discussion on FriendFreed or post ‘real-time’ photos to facebook, remember that you are utilizing a form once dominated by people who used radio to build and keep communities talking. We owe our current mass media social networking to men like Paul Sidney, they may not have fully understood the import and impact , they provided the framework for it to be successful.

  

Paul Sidney’s Über local radio is the model social media should pay attention to, all media is local, regardless of the physical location of the community. Those of us who take forward positions in the creation and application of social media groups need to remember the passion, investment and yes, love of the community Mr. Sidney exhibited.  I for one will miss his voice and although I rarely venture back to the Hamptons he and WLNG will always be the sound of The sound in my head.

 

 Edit: *added August 9, 2013 - Inspired by a Post on the 50th anniversary of WLNG in the Sag Harbor Experess 

 

As a Co-Founder and producer for the Pro Audio Visual community podcasting network AVNation.tv I find that I take Mr. Sidney's leadership and example to heart with every show and every episode we produce.  Love the medium, love the community - revel in every nuance.  

 

 

Neo Industrial Technorotic Aesthetic Death Trip.

Design, the facet of presentation which attracts the eye and stirs thelittle grey cells into action. I have long understood that I have an aesthetic which is somewhat off center with most of those around me. Yet, If I were to invite you to my second life abode the chill would soon settle into a yet unrecognized comfort; like sinking into the plush furniture of proper Victorian drawing room.

I bring this subject up from a find whilst I scrolled through my 300 news feeds in my Google reader, (love google reader), and came across a metal skull lamp in an article in Gizmodo. The writer of the article calls it “..the most terrifying table lamp…”.I call it beautiful. I want it, crave it.
If I could have my druthers I would have a ‘den’ which looked much like the ‘Closer’ video by NIN, this is what I would do if means were no object.
 
Growing up in Sag Harbor I was fascinated by the Victorian aesthetic and had ample opportunity to explore show homes which reproduced this, but it was too soft, too tranquil. Where, I asked were the drawing rooms of great explorers, whalers, and botanists?-(think about it, in order for someone to see and study a rare plant he would have to travel in harsh accommodations and face death by nature every moment. No rescue by GPS here. Darwin was a tough mother!). Everything had been sanitized by the local historical revisionists.

I left the semi isolated Sag Harbor to shack up with an artsy hipster in downtown NYC and found a world I only previously dreamed I could be part of. The girl and I soon parted but the stamp of what I was introduced to struck home, THIS is where I was supposed to be, this is what I had been searching for.

Concurrently I had just begun to understand and appreciate the Punk and hardcore movement in music when I met Pam and Marc. The Koch’s were uber NYC downtown rock hipsters via  Buffalo and close friends with one of the great unknown bands of the early 80s, The Splat Cats. Marc collected the ephemera of kitsch gothic ghoulishness. Their Ludlow street apartment was filled to the brim with records, comic books, videos, pop culture models, books of suspicious origins and early 19th century coffins-the ones with viewing windows on the cover. I still have several of the birthday cards given to me which consisted of heavily gilded photos of a specific coffin or groups of coffins. One birthday I was given the book Wisconsin Death Trip, a book I read nearly as often as I do Cyrano de Bergerac or  Foucault's Pendulum. The Koch’s home was not so much an education as a revelation, that central aesthetic which I had been searching now surrounded me each time I entered their home. I was introduced to the art of Joe Coleman, Joel Peter Witkin and innumerable bands of nearly every genre. It was a cross between Maxilla and Mandible and the Rembrant room at the Met.

Around the same time I chanced to meet Robin Ludwig, an artisan for whom the word itself is his being.  I met Robin through his daughter when I was in an Aveda show, I had very famous scissor hands cut my, then looong, hair and got a few products and bucks to boot.  Robin played gritty guitar, growled when he sang and created works of art out of metal with skilled delicate hands. Watching him work was nearly as intoxicating as the mead wine he brewed in the loft apartment they occupied smack dab in the heart of Chinatown.

This combination of old world craftsmanship and a full involvement of the modern drew me into a local high end audio store to drool over an early 80's retro tube amp placed in the front window, and to be promptly be escorted out by staff – “come back when you have money to spend kid!”.   The amp itself was evidently very good but the cost was for the art of the product, it called out and pulled you in with how it played with the light, its warmth and visual shimmer.

While I worked in recording studio and learned the in n’ outs of the main gear I was constantly drawn to theFocusrites, Joe Meek gear and theUREI LA-2A’s . The fascination was not just as moth to flame but a concerted study of the device and the names behind it.  The boxes spoke to me, called me in to learn not just about compression or EQ but about the early days of audio and the men who made or inspired these gleaming boxes; I also found out about their inspiration and obsessions.

So, you’ll excuse me as I mount this “…most terrifying…” lamp to a brushed aluminum stand shaped like a gothic fence rail and revel in its lineage of history, artisanal heritage and learning it encapsulates for me. 

I mean, once work's out there it's meant to be used. - Kathy Acker

I am a minimalist by nurture with regards to my physical space-(I like my art cluttered, my space sparse), as my family moved eight times before I was fifteen and each new place was totally rebuilt as we lived in it.  I shared a room with my sister more than I did not as walls were stripped down and rebuilt around us.  I remember the spackle dust most, not quite unlike animal hair; it tends to get onto and in everything no matter the preventative measures taken. Not having a lot of room for things you learned to keep tidy or lose all hope of finding something which would wind up buried in growing piles of clutter.  When my then girlfriend had first spent a few nights at my Spartan apartment and viewed my tightly folded and distinctly organized clothes she was convinced for months that I had either spent time in the military -(no, I did not) or might be a bit psychotic-(jury is still out) .  My Wife met me at a time during which I only wore black, every item of my wardrobe was black leave for one dark red 50’s shark skin sport jacket.  Wearing black had several advantages. It was hipster de rigueur for lower Manhattan, anything I wore would be back stage appropriate and everything could go in the same load of wash. When my then girlfriend –soon to be wife-and I decided to move in and ‘take the next step’ she needed a moving truck while I moved all I possessed in the back of a small van in one trip. Now I live with two kids under 5, my wife, 2 cats and a thousand toys – (I am convinced that the latter multiply overnight in some sick toy mating ritual\orgy) – and a secret part of me yearn’d for minimalist order of prior.

As I have been thinking about this I came across an article on Gizmodo about a set of ‘one line’ furniture by Aykut Erol.  Perhaps as I have been tinkering with concepts of space and environmental influence (see ‘My God it’s full of Stars’ and ‘I Sing the Building Electric’) and my growing comfort with overstuffed plush-ness of Victorian drawing rooms, I had an immediate, and unexpected, repulsion to the images.  The first two images suit me just fine and echo the Pompideu or the Blue Man Group Tubulum.  The third picture just does me in as I instantly associate it with Edward Kienholz’s ‘ The State Hospital’ and get a real uneasy feeling at how similar the color and lighting are. Both are most certainly places I’d rather not be.

I also like my Radio (Terrestrial, Satellite or Streaming) to be bare bones and simple. Gob it up with excess chatter, nonsense bumpers or too many ads and I will not listen – or at least I will find ways to note the non music cycles and avoid the station at those times. I have no issue with stations generating revenue but make it something I have the option of pulling up. Make it flashy, intriguing, and compelling but do not interrupt my access to content. Now the RIAA is equating General radio broadcasts as “a form of piracy”. Essentially the RIAA is attempting to push legislation to enforce radio stations to pay royalties on every song played. The RIAA already wants streaming stations to pay fees based on a per song \ per user structure. In the end this just means stations will pay for the added fees by playing less music and inserting more ads.  Will any of these collected fees ever go to any of the artists RIAA claims to be ‘protecting?’ 

To be clear here I have never been a supporter of the Napsters of the Inter-tubes. My strong opinion is that if the artist wants to sell the music based on per item fee structure, then obtaining it any other way is stealing, period. You can disagree with the concept but it is how this artist has decided to do business. If you have strong feelings about this do not buy their ‘product’ and do not go to their shows, the market will dictate.  If you like the music enough then you must respect the wishes of the artist, otherwise have nothing to do with them. More artists are breaking –(or attempting to ) from their labels, how can major labels survive when mainstream artists like Josh Stone proclaim piracy to be ‘great'.
 
NPR has been running a great series on the arts and Internet in China. The second article in the series of three is a real eye opener for me. The article entitled ‘Internet helps liberate, Create Music in China’ discusses the duality of the internet’s ability to expose millions –(or be exposed yourself) to music in a society where piracy is rampant to the point of cultural. China may be the test model for where the west will be in 5 years. Chinese artists are struggling to make a living from their music where selling content is already considered worthless. An early answer is to provide file sharing as a collective by offering the tools and content, pooling resources and drawing users to each artist’s live events. The article also has a link to the independent collective site and tools mentioned in the article. The Site is in Chinese but is fairly intuitive to negotiate – (although many of the links pop up new browser session which can be a bit of a clutter).

I just have to ask, who says pirates are a bad thing? Think of the environment people!

I Sing the Building Electric

David  Byrne has performed several exhibition pieces around the world by playing (and letting attendees play) buildings. The instrument consists of hooking up an organ keyboard to servos and motors attached  to the structures of buildings (columns, beams, radiators, etc) .  

 

David Byrne has more videos of the set up and performances on his website

 The sound is somewhat ambient, moves like dada, and has at its heart the early punk ethos –‘a musician could not play it any better a person off the street…’

 

 

Internet Radio is dead, long live internet radio.

 

I used to be what one could describe as a radio geek.  Living on the east end of Long Island your standard Realistic radio receiver would pick up signals from Connecticut, Rhode Island, NYC, New Jersey and sometimes ‘skips’ from as far away as Halifax  or  Harrisburg.  It helped that I lived on hill above town-one of the highest points in Sag Harbor.   I heard countless college and free form radio from all the listed above exposing me to the music and nomenclature of innumerable genres.  I built UHF amplifiers straight out of popular electronics or Radio Shack kits so I could tune in shows that I would not find locally.   I also nearly destroyed our families first VCR attempting to tap into its tuning section in an attempt to get better reception of WFMU.  You’ll recall that the early VCR’s used a series of tuning wheels to modulate the video out onto the TV channel – I learned so much by tinkering with it. Thankfully my mother never found out just how much I tinkered into that box, she would have been appalled at my opening such an expensive device.  In a very analog way I had my internet radio, just without the genre shaping Genome and Audioscrobble Pandora and Lastfm provide.  I pined for a shortwave receiver as I read articles about the stations in far flung parts of the world –or just the BBC- playing all sorts of music; alas I could never afford a decent one in high school.

I moved to NYC the summer high school ended and was both disappointed and intrigued.  Living on the top floor of a six floor walk up getting decent reception of WFMU, WSOU and a new find WNYU worked out fine with an ‘illegal’ antenna hook up on the roof. So I could hear the lone free form radio station much better and a new station came into my life which indeed opened my ears to the urban alternative rock movement. But that was it, aside from the few college stations or WBAI’s morning music-(I did love that Delphine Blue) broadcasting only at parts of the day- NYC radio was\is a wasteland.

This is why I fell so hard for early internet radio, it was brash, eclectic often shocking, sometimes dull and fidelity was a feature for a later date. It was just like to old days. Radio IO was my first and still my favorite.

Currently the number of internet ‘stations’ can be counted in the thousands but its mass cannot stop the rag tag collection from being washed out. Twice has published a report which shows internet radio is growing despite several forces which could in a perfect storm combine to wreck havoc like a tornado in a trailer park.  The article, based on findings from Soundexchange claims that the number of new stations registering with the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) increased by 400, although this is 100 less than the numbers from last year.  My question is just who is applying and why. 

Some evidence can be gleaned from Warner Bros recent decisionto pull out of its involvement with Lastfm, most likely to put its eggs in the MySpace streaming project.  The issue? royalties of course.  Warner Bros has been quite vocal about its desire to siphon off a share of the Ad revenues, not just from the main page but from the ancillary pages a user may go to whilst searching the artist. This is not a bad thing as it shows a traditional brick n’ mortar music company actively looking to compensate for the woeful sales of physical discs.  I am sure if WB could effectively set up its own streaming ‘radio’ and abandon the distribution model it would.  A number of labels \ artists are utilizing a single point of sale model already as evidenced by the fact that  AC\DC is just the latest in a line of artist to sell their CDs’   exclusively through Wall Mart.

  Why would an artist\label apparently limit distribution and technically expose the product to less folks?  - Control of margins and less expenditure on real world distribution.   How long before Label (X) only provides a song via Pandora or only on its own site?  Madness you say? Just another example of last gasp attempts by a limping to extinction record companies?   Answer me this, why are most record labels (such as Warner Bros \ Time Warner) are against the legislating for Net Neutrality?   Bandwidth equals access.   If the ISP’s get their wish media companies could purchase the lion’s share of bandwidth and elbow out the smaller niche players by having the playing field all to themselves.     Some have argued that the hoopla is much ado about very little, that the shakeout will leave a number of marginal players absorbed or destroyed but that in the end the independent music will find a way to get out there.  I counter, imagine you own a building in which your business resides, then one day someone tells you that a bigger competitor needs 85% of your space for stock storage.   Oh yeah, and you will have to move your sign and front door to the back and the street will be reduced to a one way dead end.  You may still get some of your dedicated existing clients but most new visitors will not even notice you.  Bandwidth.

Over the next few years the big question for installers or custom systems is just how and what are you going to install in your clients homes.  Most certainly there will always be the high client who will want-(or told) the Media System with ADA output cards but where will the content come from and can you tag a recurring income from it?  Is the newest dealership to be an offical provider of Warner Bros licensed receivers?  Will high end CE manufacturers  provide multi license players much in the way you can sell ‘radio’ receivers with built in Wifi  for  internet content  streaming? 

Can pirate radio exist in a world where radio is only online? Will we never see the likes of Mark Hunter (Hard Harry)   again?

 

I mean, we'd be as rich as the Stones if only we'd sold as many records as them.

Does digital media need a centralized distribution model?

For generations the large record companies not only offered access to the means of recording but more importantly to the vast distribution chain that put records into stores and on the radio. Napster added gasoline to an already smoldering fire. Just like the time your uncle Ron poured half a can of lighter fluid onto the charcoal grill, the resulting flare up took off more than a few eyebrows but should not have surprised anyone watching.

I recall seeing the circa 1999 and 2000 interviews with Chuck D of Public Enemy declaring the age of the major labels to be nigh. The promise, according to CD was of a limitless variety of music all directly from the artist at half the cost – if not free.  He got it right, the revolution is being downloaded. But just where do I find all these artists? How do I find what I want and get involved with other artists who may share similar genre? In many ways it has been a piecemeal process to find new music outside the standard web portal stores. (It is interesting to note the number of artists who recanted support once it was their music being ‘shared’ for free).

Sure, there is\was MySpace which started out a place for musicians to stake out a place on the web to directly connect with fans and build followings out of local shows. This network of fans could connect in this early version of a social network site to share their thoughts on the newest songs, the show last night and find others going to a local show. Prior to this fans of marginal or indie bands often communicated and ‘gathered’ via pen pal groups or through the pages of fanzines like Maximum Rock n’ Roll. MySapce provides some means of selling hard copies or downloads but unless the band page linked to other bands your ability to find new music was limited to what the labels put out or fans called out in the chat boards. In essence you had know where to go,  to go.

Today we have ‘intelligent’ streaming players who learn what your likes are and can build playlist(s) of ‘related bands’ based on your input – Pandora has the Genome, Last.fm has Audioscrobbler-(all provide links to purchase single MP3s or albums)..  Facebook provides the ability to give visitor’s music links and streaming video of the bands you like-(and purchase links). Bloggers can embed tools like StreamPad to share your favorite music. While the number of collective sites is growing, all are still struggling to stand out amongst the haze of information. Each has its set of fans who evangelize promises of providing the most comprehensive access through links and social networking. Even Amazon has long attempted provide outreach based on the ‘others who purchased ‘x’ also purchased….(Y & Z). In Truth none of these stand out clearly above all others.

iTunes has similar micro models like this but it is just a distribution point and not a label or content producer… yet. The record companies have only begrudgingly joined forces with Apple because it was the first model to provide some legal and protected means of establishing a foothold where the pirates reigned.  And for the most part it is still a lonely outpost of mainstream music sales. The labels have long bemoaned the margins provided by Apple and have fought – unsuccessfully – to pry more out of iTunes and to get a rise in prices.   

Ian Rogers at FISTFULAYEN has proposed an interesting restructuring which he hinges nothing less than the survival of labels.  IR’s proposal in a nut shell is to utilize the mature power tools of record companies, mainly –distribution, marketing as well as A&R. One large label would be broken down in to smaller outfits that focus on specific markets \ genres. The micro labels could develop larger market bands on which dozens or hundreds of like genre – (or cross gene)- bands could be hung or cross referenced upon.  Add in a centralized payment utility and any label could begin to compete with the market share iTunes has.

It could also shift a measure of control back to the suits. When we finally enter into a post net neutrality world, this power shift could mean influence on traffic and bandwidth toward their favor.  

But is it really necessary?  Can the decentralized direct artist to fan model provide an adequate income to survive if not flourish. In other words, is there a way provide income where a day job is not necessary?

Kevin Kelly seems to think so.  Mr. Kelly discusses the concept of ‘1000 True Fans’  on, one of his several blogs, the Technium http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php.  The basic concept is one where  an artist can make a comfortable living by tending to a 1000 fans who are dedicated to buying the music, subscribing to the blogs \fan club, buying the T-shirts and going to the shows. To earn a base income of $100,000 it would only take each True Fan spending $100 a year, which is a very manageable number. The gross number does not take into account overhead of servers, ISP and equipment but it is still a workable model.  Mr. Kelly also addresses this in his entry ‘The Case against 1000 True Fans’.   The main argument being that many are not looking to just survive but to sell platinum numbers of units. I have begun to believe that such aspirations immense rock n’ roll wealth are to be relegated to the stories of yore. As Gene Simmons so emphatically stated during his conversation on the Henry Rollins Show (IFC) ‘…its over, the industry has been killed by you (points at screen) downloading illegal copies of music… There are no more rock stars…”.

Having subscribed to Indie fanzines such as The Big TakeOver for years I tend to concur with the tongue, It is the niche market indie bands who will find solid ground of continued production and income, just not millions of dollars a year. Regardless it is now possible for artist to ‘live off the grid’ of major labels –or any label at all.

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