Further question for Brock

[M Holmes]

ANDREW GARIBALDI writes:

> Honestly - you're all behaving like mebers of Parliament!!!

Heahw! Heahw!

> This is all giving mwe some insight as to how Brock must feel with his
> merry band of men.

Now there's a though: have 'em all on in Robin Hood garb - Blake's Seven
style!

> > In an effort to get back to reality, I note that the comment on the
> Brock Q > & A session has been lacking - no reactions anyone? For my
> part, it would > appear that Dave Brock is not stuck in the '70's,
> like some people, and that > he still has a vision of Hawkwind
> progressing into the future, albeit > perhaps not what many of you out
> thwere particulalry want but for which he > hopes you will give him
> the time of day.

Sure. What I've been wondering is why Hawkwind aren't moving to the Net
in a much bigger way. It's pretty clear to those who follow tech and
economics (well OK, most people don't think economics is recreational
reading) that a big effect of the Web is disintermediation of certain
business functions. It's clear that it's already hitting book
distributors, pornography distributors and stockbrokers very hard
indeed. All of them have either had to drop prices, improve service, get
online, or go out of business. This is also starting to hit the music
business, particularly with the rise of Napster and it's more anarchic
descendents, and the biz is going to have to react in much the same ways
as those above. Just as publishers could market directly to book buyers
via the web (which is why I suspect Amazon are concentrating cash on
warehousing and delivery infrastructure) and disintermediate bookstores,
bands can disintermediate a lot of the music business and deliver
directly to fans with a mimimum of distribution effort via the web.

What's left for the biz in the end may simply be promotion, tour
organisation, and a review service so that people knwo what they want to
hear.

Given Hawkwind's history fighting crap from the music business and
current cashflow problems, perhaps Facing The Future would be to embrace
the tech and kick the music business in the goolies at the same time.

FoFP