Comments on: MP3 Blogs: “Killing Music With Love”

By: Trackback

Trackback — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:07:09 +0000

Popmatters examines the history of hip hop on television. The Idaho Statesman interviews Grace Potter. Your songwriting on this latest CD is story-driven. On the last track, “Big White Gate,” you talk about being a bad mom, having had three children with three different men. …

By: coolfer

coolfer — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:11:02 +0000

i'm sure most everybody who has downloaded a song or album from an illegal source has anecdotal evidence that that at least one download resulted in a purchase. it's the single least rational argument in the download era, but people feel justified in making it. (rule of thumb: using anecdotal evidence to prove a point usually doesn't work because it ignores too much data. saying "i bought a concert ticket once because of a download" ignores all of the other outcomes from all the other downloads.) what about all the *other* downloads that *did not* result in a purchase? those matter as well because they may have (probably did, my guess) resulted in fewer purchases.

i know a lot of people who equate "try before you buy" with downloading songs and living with them for a while. they need to spend *a lot* of time with those songs. me? five seconds of a myspace stream counts as a trial. i know in a very short amount of time if i want to buy something.

labels try to offer the "try before you buy" by giving out a free song or two, streaming music at the label site and streaming music at the artist's myspace page (if you can stand the d.r.m.). there are plenty of opportunities to sample music. the moral here, as i see it, is that "sample" means different things to different people. some need half a song once. some need an entire album for a few weeks. (and let's be honest...some just want a lot of free music. period. they don't buy much and they never get off the couch to attend concerts.)

with subscription services (rhapsody, zune, napster) or social sites (e.g. imeem, last.fm) labels and artists get paid while you sample. good for artists. music blogs have a lot of music not found on those services/sites, and the music is readily available and free. good for users.

something between the two would be great for those who love music blogs. if people really want to sample before they buy, the sampling should be monetized. i see no legal way to do this at the current time (an ISP tax is so, so unlikely) so those (few) consumers with a nagging conscious may want to voluntarily shift to other forms of discovery. that's a tough switch to make. while imeem is pretty cool, it can't replace a well-curated music blog.

there's a risk, though, for labels. if sites/services that allow sampling become much better, far more easy to use, etc., sampling will simply replace purchasing (similar to how satellite radio acts as a substitute for cd purchases for many of its users).

By: worldsfair

worldsfair — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 07:53:28 +0000

the biggest threat to small and medium indie labels are small and medium indie labels themselves. at least major labels acknowledge they are selling COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS and do what must be done, no matter how unpopular, to try to make economically smart moves... meanwhile, thousands of indie labels proliferate, releasing dozens of thousands of shitty little releases from bands that the music buying public really is not interested in and yet the indie labels continue to persist in putting out the music because of their supposedly "INDEPENDENT" prerogative.

there needs to be a line drawn in the sand between music as a hobby and music as a career. And about 99% of folks thinking their making music their career need to wake up, smell the coffee and stick to the day job folks

By: noamjamski

noamjamski — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 06:17:40 +0000

If the evidence we have is that the internet is killing Ozzy and middling indie bands, I would say we are coming out ahead.

By: SuperUnison

SuperUnison — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:45:41 +0000

@Paperboy 2000: Probably when the cover ("self policing" by way of agreeing to a terms of use disclaimer) fails in court, which seems unlikeley (after all, any 16 year old who can add "2" to the year they were born can still see porn). Full album blogs are tits though. Shareminer/ megaupload/google hack makes it even easier. Besides, much as I think we're probably heading for an EP model, I like to judge albums as albums instead of as vehichles for singles/hype/show promotion (though they do those things too).

By: biggy1000

biggy1000 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:42:45 +0000

I think it is ironic when labels like DFA, who would not be nearly as popular as they are now without all the attention blogs have given them over the years start complaining about mp3 blogs once they get more mainstream acceptance.

By: Paperboy 2000

Paperboy 2000 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:39:37 +0000

Also: does anyone know DFA's deal with EMI? Is it P&D? or just D?

Mmmm....letters.

By: Paperboy 2000

Paperboy 2000 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:32:16 +0000

I don't think the ones that are giving out a song or two are hurting anything. If I ran a label that did lots of singles like DFA, then yeah...I think it'd definitely make a dent.

Question: does anyone know if DFA's publicist(s) sends out mp3 links?

And: what's worse to me is the ever-increasing prevalence of full album mp3 blogs. When does Rapidshare get sued?

By: SuperUnison

SuperUnison — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:28:32 +0000

While I won’t go into all the reasons 12″ singles are irrelevant to me (Hell, why they’re probably irrelevant to anybody but DJs.) I will say that I stole “Sound of Silver” (to use an example pertinent to the article) from a megaupload thread and listened to it for a week before I bought the CD. I doubt I would have gotten into that record (which has emotionally moved me in ways I didn’t anticipate that what is, ostensibly, a dance record could) if I didn’t have the option of hearing it at my complete convenience before spending money on it.

By: SomeSound-MostlyFury

SomeSound-MostlyFury — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:15:35 +0000

damn you, whatz-new!