OFF: AI Staff Picks for Best of 2013

[mary sullivan]

A collection although it takes up space is always worth keeping, having the
tangible article is the best, and they haven't made downloads that even
sound as good as a real cd, I know, I'm guilty  of using them all the time,
given the choice I'll take the real deal.  $3 is more than reasonable for
quality music, (which I'm sure it is, having been there when Chris worked
with Carl and friends in the studio, a real fun time for me.  We did have a
nice little scene in Boston, fond memories, and thanks to Scott for
introducing us.  In fact, Carl, if you would, write me, and tell me where to
send the 3 dollars.  I may not have a lot of cash, to hear music made by a
friend is a very worthwhile cause.  
Dave's show along with Jerry, and Christian, to name the most known shows to
me are a nice way to get the music out there to all of us. No, there isn't a
lot of money in it, but that isn't what it's All about.  Music raises the
healing vibration of this world, and spreads information, it's easier than
being a wandering minstrel. 

Rock on,

Mary worked 

-----Original Message-----
From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET] On
Behalf Of Carl Edlund Anderson
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 10:37 AM
To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
Subject: Re: OFF: AI Staff Picks for Best of 2013

On 01 Jan 2014, at 12:30 , Keith Henderson <khenders64 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> Anyway, I hope all this great music isn't being simply lost in the 
> overwhelming scale of our global culture these days.  It seems there's
just way too much of everything for any one little thing to get noticed
much, although maybe it was always that way and it was just never possible
to become aware of what *wasn't* being noticed.  If that makes any damn
sense at all, which I'm sure it doesn't.

Actually, I think it makes pretty good sense -- and I think that's true well
beyond the little world of music making and listening.

> I hope also that bands that *are* being noticed to some degree, 
> actually see something tangible come about from their efforts.  I imagine
that making music of this sort will never make anybody any significant
amount of money (Carl's unsolicited $3 being a noteworthy exception), but it
would be nice if the bands could at least buy a new pedal or microphone or
something occasionally.  [...] So I am left with lots of streaming and
little buying, as some part of me even wonders if maintaining a "collection"
will even be necessary or have any advantage at all in a few years.
Spotify, Rhapsody, Bandcamp, and the like are starting to make me wonder if
"having music" even means anything anymore, if you know what I mean.  I
kinda hope at least the connection between the fans and artists can be
maintained, more than just clicking a "like" button or something.  I'm not
sure how this is gonna end up, does anybody?

I'm not quite sure that anybody does -- but does anybody, ever?

Firstly, I actually think this is a great time for music, in the sense that
the capacity to make music and/or listen to the results has perhaps never
been greater for a larger number of people -- and we can reasonably expect
(barring global demographic catastrophe, which we should not entirely rule
out!) that trend to continue.  There is a lot of good (and, of course, less
good) music being made all over the world and a lot of chances to find it
that simply didn't exist before.  There are numerous difficulties of various
kinds in terms of finding what you want and then being able to listen to it
readily (legal, technical, informational, etc.), but we shall see how all
that plays out.

Of course, the "music industry" as grew up in the '50s-'80s has been pretty
much trashed in consequence of things having changed faster than the
industry itself, but I think this is largely a situation of "oooo, when I
were a lad, things were diffr'nt!". 

For example, the idea of a collection" is largely an artifact of
recording/distribution technology that depends on physical media.
Obviously, before records existed, no one had "collections" -- except, one
supposes, of sheet music ... or of composers! (in the "collections" of rich
patrons? ;) ).  

I do think human nature will continue to lead people to want to display
their associations with artists they like: even if we all have all-streaming
access to all music all the time (which we do not; not yet, anyway), I might
still want to buy the merchandise associated with my artist, see the live
show with other fans, etc.  We already see touring and merchandise becoming
the major revenue streams for many artists (some version of the "Grateful
Dead model"?), and so a great deal is going to be about building
relationships with fans and generating senses of community that encourage
people to spend their increasingly limited and fragmented entertainment
budget of both time and money on that given artist.  In other words, if
Artist X (and their other fans) interacts with me through social media in
what I perceive to be a cool way, I will spend more time paying attention to
what they are doing and be more likely to spend money on music, videos,
T-shirts, fluffy slippers, concer!
 t tickets, etc. This has, to an extent, always been true -- but the ability
for people to interact in this way has vastly increased in speed and scale,
so it has become accordingly more important.

Nevertheless, I think we are some way off from all-streaming, all-the-time.
You can really only do that effectively with a good wi-fi connection, and
those are still relatively few and far between.  Streaming music through a
cellular phone network is just way too data-intensive at the moment; too
costly (for everyone). The day that this becomes the norm is perhaps coming,
but it is not yet today or tomorrow.

But, in any case, music is still being made and heard.  I can, in my spare
time, record music on my dodgy computer that sounds (with my artistic
limits!) _pretty_ good in comparison with what required state-of-the-art
facilities in the year of my birth. I can make that music available to a
large percentage of humanity at little to no cost. Yeah, lots of people can
do it better than I, and I can't make a living at it (though luckily I don't
need to), but that's still pretty amazing.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/