Music Industry News

Matmos on Unlikely Collaboration, and Embracing the Talents of Others

Source: We All Make Music
July 13, 2010

Matmos. Photo by AJ Farkas.

Drew Daniel and Martin “M.C." Schmidt, who comprise the electronic music duo Matmos, are not what you would consider classically trained musicians.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course (how many classically-trained pop musicians do you know?) and in this case, it doesn't really matter; Matmos's music, a mixture of bizarre samples (the noises of a plastic surgery operation, field recordings of Civil War-era songs, the movements of live snails), drum machines ...

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Adam Singer: Fighting the Future at Every Turn

Source: HypeBot
July 13, 2010

In response to post on on WSJ's All Things Digital blog by Kara Swisher, where she laments about a lack of business models for the entertainment industry in the digital age, PR strategist Adam Singer has written a great critique of her piece--that's worth the read and full of quotable lines.  He  finds it to be surprising that Kara “let herself get influenced by an industry that has been disrupted by technology, but refuses to change."  Here's an excerpt:

Tommy Silverman: "Hobbyists... Clutter the Music Environment with Crap."

Source: HypeBot
July 13, 2010

Over at Wired, there's an intriguing interview piece where the ever curious Eliot Van Buskirk talks with Tommy Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Records, about “What's Wrong With Music Biz."  As expected, there are some rather controversial things said in relation to what it means to “break" an artist in the music industry these days, and it leaves the reader to question whether or not Silverman's criteria match that of the emerging musical middle class dynamic. Silverman also shares his ...

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Inspiration is a Two-Way Street

Source: One Working Musician by Jason Parker
July 12, 2010

As I mentioned here I've recently started to share what I've learned about getting my music out to a wider audience with my good friend Katy Bourne. Truth be told, I've been sharing things in a piecemeal fashion with my friends, colleagues and anyone who asked for as long as I can remember. I've always loved talking about what we do, how we do it, and what works and what doesn't. But what I'm doing with Katy is more methodical ...

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Why Music Should Never Be Given Away for "Free"

Source: HypeBot
July 12, 2010

Over at our sister blog Music Think Tank, there are two new posts up.  One is from  Chris Bracco, editor of Tight Mix, on how to track the results of your attempts to get your music on blogs. The other, from Jon Ostrow, a co-founder of MicControl, is on the why music should never be given away for free.

From The Essay: [Giving music away] is only ideal for artists who have successfully converted people from fans to loyalists--those ...

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Glenn Peoples: The Freemium Debate

Source: HypeBot
July 12, 2010

In response to an article in the Guardian on Clay Shirky and his opinion on news paywalls, Glenn Peoples  over at Billboard has written a great summary of how the music industy's digital dilemma relates to that of the newspaper industry's.  As well, he frames the discussion around the freemium debate:

“One of the big questions in digital music today is whether or not free, ad-supported versions of services should exist alongside paid, ad-free versions. In a freemium model, free ...

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Better Than the Van Co-Founder Todd Hansen on How to Tour Smarter

Source: We All Make Music
July 12, 2010

Better Than The Van's Founders, Scott Miller & Todd Hansen

Have you ever played a show to ten people somewhere in the hostile uncivilized territories of the midwest, slept in this very same van, freezing your ass off, curled up somewhere between an amp and a herniated disc?

Better Than the Van co-founder Todd Hansen has. He's also slept in worse places on tour. “My first or second tour, we landed in a machine shop sleeping on concrete in ...

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Ladies First

Source: Indaba Music Artist in Residence with Greg Osby
July 12, 2010

Where are the Ladies?

I've been on a personal campaign for several months focusing on one subject in particular but not limited to that one subject exclusively. It's a common topic of discussion that I have with my students and friends which concerns an issue that plagues the music, not necessarily from the perspective of the performers (but then, again, perhaps it does...) and sometimes influences the choices that the musicians make in performance and programming. However, unlike many issues ...

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