A wheel off of the bandwagon?
February 10, 2010 at 8:09 pm | Posted in music | 1 CommentTags: cd sales, far, free music, hard-fi, james blunt, jason mraz, la roux, michael buble, muse, nickelback, piracy, regina spektor, rilo kiley, seaside rendezvous, spotify, the enemy, the resistance, warner
The Spotify backlash has begun (and no, I’m not just talking about the possible ill-effects of having slyly installed Spotify onto my university network profile.)
Okay, so technically it began back when La Roux’s album was removed from the streaming service’s free entry-level accounts. But, at the time, this seemed like a minor blip. Plus, La Roux tracks are so ridiculously radio-shagging that you didn’t even need Spotify to be assaulted from all angles by a horrifically screechy ’80s throwback. Sadly.
Now, though, Warner have announced that they plan to stop their artists’ music from streaming on Spotify, LAST.FM and We7 Thankfully, this is at present only going to affect future deals.
In some ways, it wouldn’t be a terribly great loss: no more free access to James Blunt, Nickelback and Michael Buble wouldn’t cause me to lose any sleep. If I’m being honest, I’d not care about the likes of The Enemy, Hard-Fi or Jason Mraz, either.
Rilo Kiley, Muse and Regina Spektor, though? I’d care about that.
Warner chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr has defended his decision, saying: “Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry. The ‘get all your music you want for free, and then maybe with a few bells and whistles we can move you to a premium price strategy’, is not the kind of approach to business that we will be supporting in the future.”
Granted, free services such as Spotify aren’t turning over the kinds of profits that record companies have been used to in the past, but they’re certainly better than people downloading music for free. Well done, Warner: you’re basically inviting people to pirate some of your biggest artists’ future releases. Is that bullet hurting your foot?
Muse’s most recent album, The Resistance? I’ve not bought it. Regina Spektor’s Far? Again, no. I’m on a limited budget; I can’t afford to buy every album I want.
Muse’s seafront gigs in Teignmouth? I spent more than £40 on a ticket for that. Regina Spektor’s 2009 tour? Again, nearly £40 (and a trip to London). People are still paying for gig tickets, because they offer an experience which they can’t get anywhere else. CD sales may be falling, but cutting out free legal alternatives to piracy isn’t the answer: we’ve come too far for that.
I might not have paid for them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t adore tracks like these:
I see you shiver with antici…pation…
January 27, 2010 at 4:35 pm | Posted in music | 1 CommentTags: beggars group, downloading, ed o'brien, mp3, musicdna, piracy, radiohead, spotify, tommy boy
In quite possibly the most underwhelming musical development since Susan Boyle, a new digital music format has been unveiled. The not-particulartly snappily-titled ‘MusicDNA‘ format has been adopted by indie behemoth Beggars Group, US label Tommy Boy and, um, seemingly nobody else.
The format was developed by the same people – geniuses, arguably – who were behind the creation of the MP3. How it differs from their previous offering to the digital world, though, is in the added content which it allows: artwork, song lyrics, even Twitter feeds (which are publicly and freely available online, anyway). It’s also, apparently, likely to be more expensive than current MP3 downloads. Right.
It’s hoped that this will be the saviour of the music industry – which is, after all, either dead or dying (depending on who you believe). And it’s all your fault: you there, scanning the internet with your beady little eyes, feverishly clicking away on any free music you can get your mouse on. Or not, according to Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien.
But, I think, this new format completely misses the point. People who download music don’t neccessarily want to have artwork and lyrics with their music; they don’t care about these things. They just want free music; they could easily look at artwork and lyrics online. Or buy the CD, which would give them all these as well as a tangible copy of the music.
I can’t speak for everyone who downloads pirated music: I next to never do it myself, simply because Spotify is far less hassle, not to mention far more legal. But I do know that, if I care enough about an album, I’ll buy it. On CD, not MP3. And I can’t say that MusicDNA is likely to sway me away from this: if it costs more than an MP3 album, it’ll probably cost the same as a CD.
I do agree with Ed O’Brien when he says: “You’ve got to licence out more music – have more Spotifys, more websites selling more music. You’ve got to make it slightly cheaper to get music in order to compete with the peer-to-peers.”
I have no idea what’s going to save the music industry. I just suspect that this isn’t it.
Ed O’Brien doesn’t just talk sense:
What about you?
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