Opinion News

The Young and the Digitally Restless

Source: HypeBot
July 27, 2012

Guest post by Michael San Pascual. A new, technologically capable generation of music listeners is approaching adulthood. These former MySpacers are evolving into sophisticated music consumers with new and challenging expectations. They have heightened demands for mobility and social connectivity; they value the freedom to actively seek music, and also the choice to passively discover it. They don't acknowledge the monetary value of songs like they do trading cards, but instead collect them like seashells, freely and effortlessly. They do so ...

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A Casual Scam: The Truth About Pre-Sale Tickets

Source: HypeBot
July 26, 2012

Guest post by artist manager and booking agent Justin Herring. December 2005, the band I was playing in was offered a show at this venue in Tampa called The Masquerade. It was the venue in Tampa. I saw all my idols there growing up. Slayer, Down, Superjoint Ritual, Fear Factory, Cannibal Corpse, GWAR, Clutch, Lamb of God, Machine Head, Amon Amarth, Vader, Kreator. When I say I saw every metal band that came through the area while I was a kid... ...

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Text of Robert Plant, Pete Townsend and Brian May Letter Calling On Google, Isps to Fight Piracy

Source: HypeBot
July 26, 2012

Robert Plant, Pete Townshend, Brian May, Elton John, Simon Cowell and six other UK musicians and music industry leaders have signed a letter addressed to Prime Minister David Cameron demanding that he fully implement the Digital Economy Act 2010, anti-piracy legislation which passed in 2010.  The letter also called on ISP and search engines, online advertisers to “play their part in protecting consumers and creators from illegal sites." Full text of the letter:     Sir, As the world's focus turns to ...

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Two Inane Suggestions for Compensating Artists Online

Source: HypeBot
July 25, 2012

Guest post by Krzysztof 'Faza' Wiszniewski. This post was originally published at TheCynicalMusician.com. The problem with hardcore geeks (meaning here people who know about computers, as opposed to the other kind1) is while they are superhumanly knowledgable about their own area of expertise, they appear to be endearingly ignorant about everything else - humans especially. It should therefore come as no surprise that when one comes out with suggesting a solution to an essentially human problem, the results are staggeringly ...

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A Killer, Sustainable, Industry Saving Music Service is Possible

Source: HypeBot
July 24, 2012

Guest post by Joey Flores, co-founder of Earbits,com, an online radio platform that help labels, artists and promoters acquire fans and market music and live events. I was having a chat yesterday with Kyle Bylin of Live Nation Labs, talking about the various music services, what they lack, what they have, and what we'd both want out of a music service. Then at some point last night, I started dreaming up the perfect music service. Here's what I came up ...

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The Role of the Local Promoter vs. the Local Band

Source: HypeBot
July 20, 2012

Guest post by Lance Tobin (@ltliveboston) who runs a musician-based tax accounting firm and is an independent concert promoter in Boston. One of the most advantageous relationships an artist or band can have is with a promoter. At the local level, there seems to be a mystery as to what exactly the promoter does. “Does the promoter promote? Shouldn't the promoter be responsible for bringing all the people if I'm putting everything into the music end?" These questions resemble those ...

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Life, Law and All That Jazz: Using the Art of Improvisation in the Courtroom

Source: Michael Ricci
July 20, 2012

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is one of my desert island, all-time favorite records. I have the album cover for Sketches of Spain framed on my bedroom wall. I played baritone saxophone in my high school jazz band, and if I could learn any skill with the simple press of a button — Matrix-style — I would become the next Thelonius Monk.

For me, though, jazz is more than just a style of music. Jazz improvisation has always struck me ...

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A Whole New World: The Evolution of Mobile Music

Source: HypeBot
July 19, 2012

When I got my first Walkman CD player, it completely changed the way I listened to music. I could listen to the songs I loved whenever I wanted, and it felt like they were being played for me personally. Mundane tasks suddenly became an excuse to listen to music. As a result, they went by faster and became more enjoyable. This feeling was—and still is—quite unlike anything else I have experienced. With your Walkman, you had to carry around a ...

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