2009 April | creative deconstruction

First Gig is all about Who you Know – On MySpace

Posted on 06. Apr, 2009 by refe.

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I was talking with an artist this weekend about his career, and he told me about some of the trouble he’d been having getting that first gig. Although he had previously been part of a band that played out on a regular basis, it has been a few years and most of his connections have [...]

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Cable on its way to Becoming Obsolete

Posted on 02. Apr, 2009 by refe.

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The cable industry’s annual trade convention is going on this week, and the big topic of discussion this year is the Internet. According to yesterday’s article in the Chicago Tribune, Cable has watched the Music and Newspaper industries struggle to adapt to the digital world, and there has been a lot of talk about how [...]

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The First Major Record Label Blog Ever

Posted on 02. Apr, 2009 by refe.

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EMI has now become the first major record label in the world to develop a company blog. Not a joke.This just amazes me. What year is it? 2009? This is just another example of how far behind the times the recording industry really is. The music and entertainment industries should be out in the forefront [...]

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Bands offer Pay What You Want Merchandise

Posted on 02. Apr, 2009 by refe.

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One of my favorite blogs posted about a few bands who have taken a ‘Pay what you want’ approach to selling merchandise. Radiohead was the first high-profile act to use this model when they offered their In Rainbows album to be downloaded with an open price tag from the band’s website, and since then many [...]

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YouTube Blocks Music Videos in Germany

Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by refe.

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Google recently blocked all music videos from YouTube users in the UK, and now it looks like it has done the same in Germany. In both cases the deal breaker was royalty fees that Google deemed unacceptably high. Google’s contract with GEMA – the German royalty collection agency - expired last Thursday and GEMA is requiring royalty [...]

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The Darknet and the Web Apocalypse

Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by refe.

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The Chicago Tribune ran an article a couple of days ago by music critic Greg Kot. In it Kot talks about the way that the ‘Darknet’ – closed networks where users engage in illegal file sharing – may cause the government to impose tyrannical restrictions on the Internet in order to protect copyrighted materials. Kot [...]

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Is the Album Dead?

Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by refe.

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I have often heard people say that the Album has become an unintended casualty of the post-iTunes era. I have tended to agree. It used to be a sign of greatness when a band was able to craft a cohesive album that was more than a simple collection of songs. Now, listeners pick and choose [...]