Label:Life

In the Oct. 25 edition of Billboard, noted music attorney Fred Goldring took the opportunity to give the industry some “tough love” in an opinion piece that maintains file sharing, as many already believe, is with us for good.

With true “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” spirit, Goldring lays out an eight-step “recovery program” for the music business (leaving room for four more?), insisting that the RIAA’s current “shock and awe” tactics are only counterproductive. Pointing the way to further exploration of “wide-ranging solutions, from digital tip jars to compulsory licenses,” Goldring’s central issue is a simple one: File sharing won’t be snuffed, so shouldn’t we try to harness it instead of snuff it?
Click the link for Goldring’s eight steps. www.hitsdailydouble.com

Berklee Press, the only publisher of music instruction books and videos based on the esteemed Berklee College of Music’s renowned teaching methods and curriculum, announced today the release of Getting Signed! An Insider’s Guide to the Recording Industry by George Howard, former Rykodisc president. Getting Signed! will be available in stores nationwide this coming Friday, October 31.

With today’s music and computer technology, almost anybody can record, produce, and press a CD—or even distribute their music online—so why would any band or musician still do everything they can to get signed to an “old style” record label? According to Howard, there will always be a need for a connected and well-funded machine to help get music distributed and played on radio and sold to the right outlets, which will in turn sell records (or CDs, or downloads) to the public. [more @ www.biz.yahoo.com]

Since Thomas A. Edison recorded the human voice in 1877, the music industry has grappled with the uncertainties wrought by new technologies.

“The form changes, but the issues – who owns the music, what rights pertain to artists, what rights pertain to the companies – these are issues that go way back into the 19th century,” said Larry Starr, professor of music history at the University of Washington in Seattle and co-author of “American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MTV” (Oxford University Press, 2002).

The initial race to create a low-cost way to record and play back sound resulted in a number of competing companies. Many wound up merging forces around the turn of the 20th century, forming a stronghold that for the most part has been the locus of industry power for a hundred years. The RCA Music Group, part of the BMG unit of Bertelsmann; the EMI Group; and the Columbia Records unit of Sony are among the current music companies that have long, historic roots in the business. [more @ www.marinij.com]

On November 3, 2003, at the Harvard Club in New York City, more than 80 senior executives from leading entertainment, media and publishing companies will gather to discuss the future of Internet commerce at the first executive conference focused on micropayments.

The conference, hosted by Peppercoin, a micropayments company that enables profitable, new business models for low-priced digital content and physical goods, will focus on the potential of micropayments in today’s business climate and how micropayments will fundamentally change business models in music, gaming and other industries. [more @ www.businesswire.com]

We are moving towards an era of software-based musical instruments, intelligent accompanists, and music as information, says Ray Kurzweil in highlights from his keynote speech at the 2003 Audio Engineering Society convention.

Music technology is about to be radically transformed. Communication bandwidths, the shrinking size of technology, our knowledge of the human brain, and human knowledge in general are all accelerating. Three-dimensional molecular computing will provide the hardware for human-level “strong” AI well before 2030.

The more important software insights will be gained in part from the reverse-engineering of the human brain, a process well under way. Once nonbiological intelligence matches the range and subtlety of human intelligence, it will necessarily soar past it because of the continuing acceleration of information-based technologies, as well as the ability of machines to instantly share their knowledge.

The impact of these developments will deeply affect all human endeavors, including music. Music will remain the communication of human emotion and insight through sound from musicians to their audience, but the concepts and process of music will be transformed once again. [more @ www.clubofamsterdam.com]

[For those who don’t know, Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, author and futurist, responsible for the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first text-to-speech synthesizer and the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments.- ED]

In John Hiatt’s “Perfectly Good Guitar,” he laments a rock star who ends a song by smashing the guitar he used to play it. His inspiration: former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.

But in the years since the death of Kurt Cobain and his groundbreaking band, Novoselic, 38, has gone from destroying guitars to “fixing our broken democracy.”

“I was part of a musical revolution,” Novoselic said recently. “So I guess I am starting a political one.”

Once a raging scarecrow of rock, he’s now a smooth, suited activist who reads The Nation, seeks to change the state voting system and, at 6-foot-7, has been towering over an array of political events. The other night, he co-hosted a fund-raiser for Seattle City Councilwoman Heidi Wills’ re-election campaign. And Thursday night, Novoselic will be at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture for the 30th anniversary reception for the Washington State Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG).

WashPIRG is thrilled to have Novoselic’s star power as it drums up support for a renewable clean-energy bill, among other things. [more @ www.seattletimes.com]

During a backstage interview with The Associated Press, Thom Yorke wriggled with delight as he explained that the band has just fulfilled its contract with Parlophone, a division of EMI Records.

“It’s always been album, album, album,” he says, adding that he believes the music business will be forced to change because the way people listen to music is changing.
“Things like iTunes and people splitting up tracks,” he says. “I kind of think that’s good. I listen to music on random all the time.”

With the freedom to do anything, Yorke says he’s unsure what the band will try next although it’s unlikely to pound out another album. EPs are more likely.

“The whole thing’s in their hands. I think it’s a band that’s always going to test the limits and try new things,” says Rob Gordon, vice president of global marketing at EMI, who added he’s confident the band’s relationship with his label will continue. [more @ www.cnn.com]

Microsoft Corp. is jumping into the portable media market, launching software for a new line of mobile devices designed to free digital content from a computer and play music, videos and photos on the go.
The software company announced its Portable Media Center on Monday, the same day Dell Inc. said it would begin selling a new Dell Digital Jukebox to play digital music.

Both gadgets are aimed at Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iPod digital music player.

The Microsoft devices will support both the company’s Window Media standard and the common MP3 format. Manufacturers such as iRiver International, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., SANYO Electric Co. Ltd. and ViewSonic Corp. have said they will build devices to run on the Microsoft software. [more @ www.abcnews.go.com]

Continuing its push into consumer electronics, Dell on Monday introduced a disk-drive-based MP3 player, and revealed details of a partnership with music download company Musicmatch.

The Dell Digital Jukebox music player, or “Dell DJ,” and accompanying software will be available through Dell’s online music store starting from Tuesday, according to the company. Dell says that the device, which comes with a capacity of either 15GB or 20GB, can play music continually for up to 16 hours.

The software, called “Dell Jukebox software powered by Musicmatch,” provides a graphical interface between a computer and the Dell DJ device, as well as access to Musicmatch Downloads, which is a service selling songs for 99 cents (58 pence). [more @ www.zdnet.co.uk]

Reggae Dub album, ‘Positive Intent Dubs’ by Arkology has sold out in Sweden,Italy and the Netherlands.

Skorpi, CEO of +VE Beat Productions said, ” Europe is fast becoming a lucrative market for our West London style of Reggae Dub. We were completely unprepared for the sales of the album and we are going to have to reprint the album to meet demand.” Reggae Dub has featured strongly in radioplay in the underground scene in the Netherlands and Sweden [And France and Germany -ED].

For further info contact www.yestudios.com