I’ve compiled a selection of some of the most important music industry news of the past week, along with a few of my own thoughts. Let me know in the comments section if you think I’ve missed anything notable.

Music News from Around the Web

If you can’t make money selling records, and you can’t make money touring…

Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap is certainly not a nameless artist working for her big break. She has won a Novello award, a Grammy, and her music has been featured on a host of TV shows and film soundtracks including Garden State and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Still, with the majority of US venues being owned by a single monopoly (as well as similar issues in other parts of the world) and record sales hitting record lows, it has apparently become difficult to make ends meet for even relatively successful artists such as Heap. Read more at The Guardian.

We’re The Same We’re the Same We’re….

Not exactly music industry news, but applicable nonetheless. Look at all the band websites, MySpace or Bandcamp pages out there and it’s unfortunate how many of them look like carbon copies. In his most recent post, marketing mastermind Seth Godin advises companies (and bands) to build websites and online identities that actually communicate what is unique about them. In other words, don’t spend your energy trying to fit – spend your energy trying to stand out. Read more at Seth’s Blog.

Love Thy Hater: How to Learn and Profit from ‘Bad’ Feedback

Justin Boland of DIY hip-hop blog Audible Hype dropped this post yesterday. The headline says it all, but here are some of the choicest bits:

“This is a business, not a talent show.  That’s real simple but 90% of rappers will still complain about their skills getting slept on.”

“If you really thought you were the shit, you wouldn’t need to prove it.  Arrogance is actually not confidence, it’s insecurity.”

“So when I get this type of criticism, I ask for more detail: was it my mix, was the emcee wack, was the structure wrong, has it been done before, are the rhymes elementary, was the hook weak? I want to know these things. If enough people say them, I’ll learn from it. And overall it can help the listeners become better listener as well.”

The entire post is well worth a read. You can find it here: AudibleHype.com.

Record Sales Week Ending 5/23/10

Glee

Here are some excerpts from Bob Lefsetz’ weekly recap of the charts. Are the charts really a good way of measuring what’s going on in music? Of course not. Nevertheless, it is still interesting to see the numbers.

1. Glee: The Music, Vol. 3-Showstoppers Sales this week: 135,748 (Debut.)

“I’d love to tell you this album is crap.  A souvenir for mindless twits.  But instead I’m going to say it’s loaded with certified hits, and you can hear the joy in the performances.  Puts a smile on your face, makes you want to get up and do the Safety Dance yourself.”

2.  Black Keys “Brothers”Sales this week: 73,370 (Debut.)

“If you listen to the opening track of “Brothers”, “Everlasting Light”, you’ll reach for the skip button immediately if you’re not a fan.  You’ll think this music is made for people who are too hip for the room, who use bands as a badge of honor.  And you’d be right, “Brothers” is number one at the Music Monitor Network’s independent stores.”

"Are you as rich as me? Of course you're not!"

3. Justin Bieber “My World 2.0″Sales this week: 61,828. Percentage change: +2. Weeks on: 9. Cume: 1,104,631.

“It’s laden with the sound effects of Top Forty radio.  Yup, all the tracks sound alike, with the synthetic drums, the heavy bottom, the focus on rhythm. That’s what it takes to win on Top Forty.”

4. Damian Marley & NAS  “Distant Relatives” Sales this week: 57,285. (Debut)

“At first this sounds just one step away from being an SNL skit. Imagine rap and reggae meeting…  Is this a marriage we were truly waiting for?”

5. Lady Antebellum “Need You Now” Sales this week: 46,013. Percentage change: -15. Weeks on: 17. Cume: 2,126,068.

“There’s nothing new about Lady Antebellum, but they do the old so well.  This is barely country, there’s just occasional Nashville instrumentation to make sure it’s safe for country airplay.  This is as mainstream as it gets today.  And isn’t it funny it’s outselling all the hits on Top Forty.”

Read more at Lefsetz Letter.

More trouble in paradise

German collection society GEMA was involved in a ‘heavy case of fraud.’ According to reports, 10 members and 2 employees reported live events all across Germany that never actually took place. The members were paid royalties by GEMA for the fake performances. Billboard’s report doesn’t indicate which members were involved in the scam, only that the acts involved were mostly ‘popular music’ but also that ‘no prominent GEMA members [were] among the accused.’

According to Billboard ‘GEMA represents the copyrights of more than 60,000 members (composers, lyricists, and music publishers), and GEMA also represents over 1 million copyright owners all over the world. Worldwide, it is one of the largest societies for authors of music works.’ Read more at Billboard.biz.

More Music Industry Headlines:

Apple is said to Face Inquiry about Online Music Tactics from New York Times.
Supreme Court Rules Pirate Bay Must Stay Blocked from TorrentFreak.
Musicians and Health Insurance: Taking the Pulse from HypeBot.

Photo Credits: Lee Jordan, Kerosene Photography

Hope and Social at the 'Come Dine with Us' event.

The new music industries work in a very different way than the record business of the ’60′s. The precious 7 inch of plastic discs of that decade (when music demand far outstripped supply) were rare; clamoured for. Music lovers saved their pennies and tens of them would gather round a single radio to hear the charts. People flocked in droves to record shops to hear the latest discs and treated their vinyl with the cotton glove respect that’s reserved for the finest of diamonds. People Treasured Music.

Today’s music environment is very different. With 13 million bands on [cough - spit] Myspace alone, a growing live scene, thousands of pieces of music becoming available free online daily, and most all forms of recorded music being easily copy and shareable, we can’t consider Music itself to be the carrier of our currency. The Democratisation of Music means more supply of music, and that means that the expectation is that it sells for less. What’s more, music is copyable, shareable, reproducable and even if only say 4% of the bands on Myspace are any good, that’s over half a million bands to compete with.

So, what can we sell?

If we can all now make, distribute and sell music, to succeed we’ve got to differentiate ourselves from the crowd & give people something they can’t get elsewhere. If we can give people something that isn’t repeatable and isn’t copyable then all the better. So, what’s unique and not copyable? A feeling, or an experience. We have a saying in Hope and Social. Have Fun, Make Art. It’s become part of our ethos. If it’s not fun we don’t do it; and if it sounds fun we should probably ask others to get involved. It may not be the same for your tribe, but for Hope and Social the currency we deal in is “Fun”.

3 Course Meal in a Crypt

Come Dine With Us

With the “Make Art, Have Fun” mantra resounding in our communal larynx, we took a demo of a song that sounds vaguely like French supermarket music, added the germ of an idea that a cheese and wine night could be fun and multiplied that by the effervescent mind of the brilliant Ben Denison‘s.

What we we came up with was a great way to galvanise our close fans, to get them involved in making art with us, to have a lot of fun and to raise money to fund our music making. We invited our fans to our home, the studio we’ve recorded all our albums to date in (and the venue for the Crypt Gig last year). We promised to cook great food, to have the band wait on, and play at our guests tables and finally, once everyone was suitably relaxed drunk, record a song together. We named it “Come Dine With Us” and we invited people by song.

The Event

We’ve already blogged about the amazing people who helped us pull all this together, but to see them in action is something else. A picture says a thousand words and all that:

Hope & Social • Come Dine With Us [Behind-the-scenes] from 3B Media on Vimeo.

We turned our studio into a French Bistro for the evening, we served a 3 course gourmet French meal to 70 people, the band waited tables, played at people’s tables, silent auctioned one-off items and recorded a song with our good people.

Offer Value

Our (initially flummoxed) drummer Gary Stewart (who joined us this past year) said, “I don’t understand… so you just think stuff up that you want to do, and people pay for you to do it?” and quite simply the answer is yes. When we do special events, we do our best to ensure that we give value to those who care enough to attend. We price it as something we could afford to do. Through this we’ve built relationships with our fans which enables us to sell unique events such as our Crypt gig last year and Come Dine With Us as far more than a standard gig.

People buy into our events because they know it will not only be a good time, but also that we’re not trying to bleed as much profit out of them as maybe we could. All our standard releases are Pay What You Want. People know we’re not in the game of ripping people off. Most importantly though, people know we’ll include them in the night and as in the case of our recent Come Dine With Us event, we might well make a song with ‘em for our album.

The Wine Bottle Orchestra

The Song

James Hamilton wrote a wine bottle orchestra part, we tuned 50 wine bottles, asked guests to bring an instrument of their choice and we made art. We recorded the song live along with our fans singing, blowing, clanking, banging and singing along. As Ed Waring said in his recent blog:

“Eurospin is not my favourite song on the album but it’s kinda my favourite bit on the album. Watch the amazing video below. You got to love the amazement on our faces that it’s working and the fact that the crowd just make it look so easy…”

Hope & Social • Eurospin from 3B Media on Vimeo.

… additionally however, the story of how we made this song has helped us reach many new fans.

The Footprint

More from 'Come Dine with Us'

The response to the event and the concept of the event has been amazing. In advance the twitter and facebook communities were rife with activity around the event, and by turning our guests into band members on the record itself, they became the evangelists for our record.

It’s not by accident that the tools we use to sell and promote our work online include the option to share. There’s the 3B Media videos, and the bandcamp music which can be easily embedded on most websites. Bandcamp also has the transformative “Post to twitter” and “Post to Facebook” direct links and through the stats package we can see this appearing daily in people’s posts. There are new blogs sprouting up about the event, and through selling more Fun we can reach out to even more new people.

The music industry has changed, however if you know your band and if you know your tribe you can give them something they can’t get anywhere else. Find that thing and that‘s your currency!

Theremins used to be innovative.

Innovation is important. It elevates a product beyond simple retail and causes it to become a catalyst for change in the marketplace and culture. Innovation is also notoriously elusive. Today’s stroke of genius could be tomorrow’s old news. Worse, that first-to-market concept you’ve been hustling to get out the door could be short-circuited by the company down the street. The brief shelf-life of an innovative product is simply not enough to build a business on.

Music is no different. Breaking a “brand new sound” is not easy to do. Most listeners find anything too far outside the norm to be at best challenging, or at worst offensive to their ear. New sounds usually take time to bleed into the mainstream. The listening public gradually becomes accustomed to them as they buzz around their periphery, like messages quietly played on a loop while they sleep.

Sometimes a band is good enough, and lasts long enough, to cash in on this build-up of auditory equity. More often it’s another act that happens to enter the scene at the just the right time. They may seem to come out of nowhere, but if you look closely you’ll probably find the forerunners whose shoulders these new radio (internet?) darlings are standing on.

Is that a bad thing? Maybe for the pretentious scenesters who know the truth. My band-mates and I always shunned those tipping-point bands that stumbled serendipitously into the breakthrough. They got all the glory, but we knew they were reaping what others had sown.

For everyone else, no. It’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing because it’s necessary for the introduction of new music into the mainstream. The mainstream and the underground have a symbiotic relationship. One feeds off the other.

Counting on Innovation to Cut Through the Noise

When a new band forms and gathers for the first time in their drummer’s basement they may talk about how they’ll rise above the sea of new music and make their mark. Inevitably one of the members will suggest that all they have to do is “write something totally new that no one’s ever heard before.” Then people will have to notice them. It’ll probably be the guitarist. And while his speech may be compelling, that band will be making a serious mistake if they take his word for it.

I already laid out the challenges of innovation-as-a-business-model in the paragraphs above. The way I see it, they leave our imaginary example band with two primary options. They can adopt innovation as their ‘signature’ and strive to reinvent the wheel with each new project. Or, they can try to make a big splash with something way out there and ride that wave as far as it will take them. If you take each of these paths you’ll see that neither is a great option.

1. Innovation as a Signature

Do you really think you can put out album after album, song after song and keep breaking the mold? I’m not saying that it hasn’t happened, but I think we can all agree that this is a tall order. Take for example some of the most well known musical innovators of the past decades: Radiohead. Radiohead released Kid A, then gradually drifted back toward their earlier rock focused writing. They haven’t lost what they gained with Kid A, but they haven’t repeated the feat either.

2. Innovation as Conversation Starter

Gaining exposure through the release of something new and out there is a little like getting struck by lightening. You never really know when it’s going to happen, and while there are things that you can do to greatly increase your chances, there still has to be a storm already brewing overhead.

For those who do make waves with something innovative are usually prime candidates for the classic ‘sophomore slump.’ If you can’t get lightening to strike twice you’d better put out something that doesn’t stray too far from the once-revolutionary formula you pioneered the first time or you’ll have some disappointed fans. Not to mention the Pitchforks of the world who live for those moments when promising new bands fall from grace.

And did I mention that just about every new band out there is trying to do the exact same thing?

What Role Should Innovation Play?

I’m not suggesting that innovation is not important to an artist or business. Nothing could be further from the truth. Art in particular is revitalized by innovative works. Innovation is what keeps art forms alive. However, what keeps artists alive is longevity. Longevity is built from many disciplines, innovation being only one of them.  It requires insight into promotion and public relations. A solid business model that creates opportunities for consistent revenue and has room to change with shortening market cycles. A well-defined vision and a plan to see it through.

Most of all what long-lasting success demands is authenticity. The greatest skill an artist can learn is to create in their own voice. When innovation is given a disproportionate focus the most common casualty is authenticity. Some of the greatest songs ever written have been simple and traditional. Even in rock and roll. Write music that you’re passionate about and listeners will get it. You will succeed or fail based on your own merits and your own personality. And best of all, you’ll never run out of material.

Lady Gaga's dress probably cost more than her payout for 1 million plays on Spotify.

When Pandora and Last.fm arrived on the scene and Spotify was still just a twinkle in Daniel Ek’s eye, many independent artists and fans looked to online music streaming as a new beginning. These services promised a more democratic approach to music discovery than traditional radio and offered the chance to wash away the stains of payola and corruption that have marred broadcast industry for decades. Now, even as the RIAA is poised to drive the last stake into terrestrial radio, the future of streaming as a viable revenue source for artists is not looking as bright as it once did.

Spotify, for all the media coverage it receives, is still fairly new. New enough that until about midway through 2009 very few people had any concrete numbers to discuss regarding the artists’ share of royalties. When the checks finally did begin to arrive at least one Swedish artist expressed outrage at the amount, saying that he had “earned as much in six months as a BUSKER could earn in a day.”

Even artists at the top of the international charts are feeling stiffed by their cut. Lady Gaga has sold over 4 million albums and enjoys the fruits of pervasive rotation on radio stations across the world. She is certainly not hurting for cash. Yet, according to TorrentFreak, this is no thanks to Spotify:

Lady Gaga’s track “Poker Face” was one of the most popular tracks during a five month period on Spotify and was played more than a million times. So how much money does she get paid by STIM (the Swedish Performing Rights Society) for this massive achievement?

SEK 1150 – that’s around $167 or roughly 113 Euros.

One-hundred and sixty-seven dollars. Lady Gaga probably couldn’t buy a pair of shoes for that amount. Where is all the money going?

Well, that question assumes that money is being made and right now there isn’t much indication that this is the case. As I’ve written before, Spotify continues to struggle to convert users to premium subscriptions. Spotify’s current model depends on these subscriptions because ads can’t float the platform alone. This concern has led the major labels to the delay Spotify’s US launch (which was scheduled to take place last week.)

Spotify founder Daniel Ek

“We think Spotify is a great service but they’re going to have to convince us they can convert enough people from free to paid subscriptions to make it worth our while,” one label revealed in a recent Finacial Times piece. “As an ad-supported service the economics don’t work at all.”

The labels are able to have this kind of influence over what Spotify can and can’t do in part because the 4 majors own about 18% of the company. Sony BMG bought the largest chunk - 5.8% – for 2,935 Euros, while EMI received the smallest – 1.9% – for the measly sum of 980 Euros. In other words, Spotify sold any hopes for a more indie-friendly alternative for a grand total of 8318 Euros.

The Guardian.uk discussed the labels involvement in Spotify back in August and came to the same conclusion:

On Spotify, it seems, artists are not equal. There are indie labels that, as opposed to the majors and Merlin members, receive no advance, receive no minimum per stream and only get a 50% share of ad revenue on a pro-rata basis (which so far has amounted to next to nothing). Incidentally, when I asked a Spotify rep if they would feature music by unsigned artists the way We7 does, he said no, but that all they would need to do was to sign up to a label and they’d get on the site.

No label, no Spotify. If you are on an indie label you can get on the service but don’t count on seeing any revenue. With Lady Gaga only earning about $1 for every 6,000 plays I can only imagine what the indies are receiving with significantly less favorable deals.

Looks like the independent music community’s hopes that the death of traditional radio and the rise of online streaming would usher in a new era of equality were premature. On a more positive note, the space is still very young and the kinks are being ironed out. Unfortunately, artists not getting paid is a pretty big kink.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Here’s a good article from PaidContent that explains a bit more about the numbers involved in this story, including a response from Spotify:

Spotify told us in a statement that any STIM payment “would only represent a fraction” of the money that goes to rights holders from the service. The company stresses that it pays “not only collecting societies, but also publishers and the record company to play their music.” It also argues that the $167 is from “way before we’d established ourselves as a music service and built up a large user base.”

The article also talks more about how the labels’ get a double piece of the streaming revenue pie, and how that affects the artists’ share.

Also, in response to some comments on Twitter – the royalty payments are obviously only a piece of the puzzle. An artists strategy should be focused on gaining exposure and driving revenue in a variety of ways. Making songs available for streaming could go a long way toward boosting that exposure. No doubt Lady Gaga’s 1 million plays influenced her 20 million downloads and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

However, the point of this post is that online streaming has the potential to do things differently than traditional radio. Yet based on early evidence it looks like it is already falling into the same old practices, with the labels finding ways to ensure that they receive more than their fair share.

Death Cab for Cutie

The other day I was listening to one of the college radio stations here in Chicago and heard an old Death Cab for Cutie track. The song took me on a brief time warp back a few years to when the only people who knew that name were the indie-kids who accidentally stumbled on the band in some dimly-lit venue in Seattle. I remember how big a deal it was when they went on tour with Pedro the Lion. The big time!

That all changed of course when the eardrums of an entire generation of teeny-boppers were invaded by Benjamin Gibbard’s distinctive croon. Death Cab was propelled from localized indie-rock esteem to international stardom. The album peaked at 95 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold shortly thereafter.

The success of Transatlanticism sparked an avalanche of indie-rock favorites showing up on popular TV shows and movies. Bands like the Shins were relative unknowns until their music was featured in the film Garden State. Music directors suddenly became some of the most influential new tastemakers in town.

The ‘Lateralization’ of Market Cycles

TV wasn’t the originator of this mass migration of underground music to the mainstream – Death Cab and the others were simply riding a cycle that has been around since the advent of rock and roll. A new scene pops up locally, gains traction regionally and eventually has the potential to blossom into a national trend. When a popular TV show suddenly declares something cool that was previously just for indie kids or geeks, that can be enough to tip the scales and complete the cycle. The national trend that began in some faceless kid’s garage is the new mainstream.

Of course, at the end of the cycle a void is left in the underground. Some new sound or style has to emerge to provide an alternative to mainstream music and culture. Historically that has always happened pretty quickly. Look at the electro movement of the early 00′s.

Market cycles like this tend to follow distribution cycles. The faster that new albums are produced, manufactured and released the faster a particular flavor of music is likely to reach maximum exposure and grow stale.

In the digital age the distribution cycle of music has been flattened. Little Jimmy can stream a cool album on Last.fm, record something just like it, and release his new-ish creation unto the world in a matter of weeks. Multiply that by the number of artists and would-be artists with access to cheap recording software and you can probably see where I’m going with this.

The Freelance Whales

The flattening of music’s distribution cycle has created an environment where new sounds and styles come and go much more quickly than ever before. For example, I was stoked a couple of weeks ago to discover a promising unsigned band called Freelance Whales only to read yesterday that they are already one of Stereogum’s ‘Bands to Watch!’

“Trends aren’t transmitted hierarchically, as they used to be,” explained Martin Raymond, co-founder of The Future Laboratory, in a recent interview with the Independent. “They’re now transmitted laterally and collaboratively via the internet. You once had a series of gatekeepers in the adoption of a trend: the innovator, the early adopter, the late adopter, the early mainstream, the late mainstream, and finally the conservative. But now it goes straight from the innovator to the mainstream.”

What does this mean for underground music?

Well, it means that there isn’t any, really. Everybody knows everything everyone else knows, thanks to the real-time web and social media platforms like Twitter. To quote the Independent article again, “If a global scenester starts wearing their underpants around their neck in Sao Paolo tomorrow, by next week boxer shorts would be sold out in Berlin.”

I can see two possible side effects of the obsoletion of the underground. The ‘laterilization’ of trends may force more frequent innovations. In order to stay ahead of the curve artists will have to operate in a constant state of mold-breaking and envelope pushing. These innovations will likely be incremental – even marginal at times – but consistent.

Alternately, innovation may actually be stifled by the constant and almost instantaneous recycling of previous musical styles and trends. We’re already seeing this quite a bit. Instead of coming up with something truly new or groundbreaking, artists will take a little from here, a little from there and pass it off as fresh and new.

There’s a fine line between incremental innovation and “pick-and-mix” recycling, but I would argue that the latter is a poor substitute for the former. Real innovation – however minor – represents progress. Recycling by nature represents a gradual degradation of meaning, perhaps even leading eventually to regression.

Can the underground be stopped?

It remains to be seen if the internet will be enough to kill underground music or render it obsolete. I’m hopeful that it won’t. I believe that it’s in the nature of an artist to look for alternatives. There will always be those who want more than the status quo, even if it’s a constantly moving target. The same dissatisfaction that led Kurt Cobain to reject the theatrical hair-bands of the 80′s will eventually lead us to something new again.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can simply sit still and wait for someone else to do it for us.

What do you think? Does music need an underground or is the underground already dead?

Summer is coming to an end and the big releases are cranking up. This week brings us several highly anticipated releases, as well as one or two that I am personally excited about.

As far as big name acts go, Pearl Jam’s Backspacer drops this week, the band’s first album since cutting ties with Sony Records. And it doesn’t get much bigger than U2′s I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight which hits this week as well.

Indie-folk ‘supergroup’ Monsters of Folk unveil their first self-titled collaborative effort. The band consists of Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes and M. Ward.

One new release that I am particularly excited about is the new one from the Icelandic group Müm, called Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know. I’ve been a big fan of Müm since Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK way back in 2000. Make sure to give Sing Along a listen.

Also coming this week is Castanet’s spaced-out folk epic Texas Rose, The Thaw and the Beasts. Check out the full review I posted last week.

The complete list is below with affiliate links to purchase straight from iTunes or Amazon (depending on availability at the time of posting.) You’ll notice that this list only includes major label acts – this is simply because I don’t have the time to track down each and every new independent release. If you are an independent artist or record label and would like your upcoming releases included on this weekly list please contact me.

September 22 Releases

Alice Donut – Ten Glorious Animals
The Almighty Defenders – The Almighty Defenders (vinyl)
Amy Millan – Masters of the Burial (vinyl)
Basement Jaxx – Scars
Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty (remastered with bonus disc) (vinyl)
The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love
Brand New – Daisy
Brother Ali – Us
Castanets – Texas Rose, The Thaw & The Beasts (vinyl)
David Gray – Draw the Line (deluxe edition)
Early Day Miners – Treatment (vinyl)
Five Finger Death Punch – War Is The Answer
Geoff Muldaur – Texas Sheiks
Guy Clark – Somedays The Song Writes You
Hallelujah the Hills – Colonial Drones
Hornet Leg – Ribbon of Fear (vinyl)
Insomnium – Across the Dark
Islands – Vapours
J Dilla – Jay Stay Paid (vinyl)
John Fahey – Twilight on Prince Georges Avenue: Essential Recordings
Joshua James – Build Me This
Julie Peel – Near the Sun
LCD Soundsystem – 45:33 Remixes
Le Loup – Family (vinyl)
Lisa Germano – Magic Neighbor
Los Lobos – Los Lobos Goes Disney
Mae – (m)orning
Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much (special edition)
Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk
Mum – Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know
Noisettes – Wild Young Hearts (vinyl)
One Eskimo – One Eskimo
Owen – New Leaves (vinyl)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Higher Than The Stars EP (vinyl)
Pastels/Tenniscoats – Two Sunsets
Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Rain Machine – Rain Machine
Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
Rollercoaster Project – Revenge
Rose Melberg – Homeade Ship (vinyl)
Rufus Wainwright – Milwaukee at Last!!!
Sea Wolf – White Water, White Bloom (vinyl)
Sean Kingston – Tomorrow
Sissy Wish – Beauties Never Die
Spiral Beach – The Only Really Thing
Times New Viking – Born Again Revisited (vinyl)
To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie – Marlone
Tom Brosseau – Posthumous Success
Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead (vinyl)
U2 – I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
Vic Chesnutt – At the Cut
Volcano Choir – Unmap (vinyl)
Vowels – The Pattern Prism
Wallpaper – Doodoo Face (vinyl)
WHY? – Eskimo Snow
Yura Yura Teikoku – Hollow Me/ Beautiful

The Fireside Bowl before a show

As a music listener, what is the most important factor that determines whether or not you like a particular song, or album, or artist? The last couple of posts I’ve published have produced quite a few comments that seem to consider innovation to be the litmus test. That doesn’t surprise me at all, and I’d probably give the same answer. But why? Why is innovation so important? Can’t a piece of music be judged by more practical standards like arrangements, instrumentation, recording quality, etc.?

First of all, not every innovation has to be the genre-busting, game-changing capital ‘I’ Innovation of Kid A, Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper. If every decade has one defining sound, then every two or three decades have that kind of true Innovation. So, while that is certainly a goal worth striving for, we’d run out of music if we disregarded every track that fell short.

Thankfully, even innovation on a smaller scale can be enough to catch a listener’s attention and create a memorable experience.

I remember all of the pretentious conversations my early band mates and I used to have at shows. We could always find something wrong with the other acts (it was hard being perfect.) Yet despite trying desperately not to be, there were a few times when we were genuinely impressed.

One Thursday night my drummer Mike and I went to the now-defunct Chicago institution the Fireside Bowl [pictured top]. I don’t even remember who we had originally come to see. Appleseed Cast, maybe? It’s irrelevant because second band to perform that night overshadowed everything that came on before or after. Our interest was first piqued during the transition when there only appeared to be two members in the band. A tall, lanky drummer and a blonde woman busy setting up a Hammond B52. Looking around, everyone else seemed to watching the stage, too. “What the hell is this?” somebody said too loudly.

The drummer counted in the first song with his sticks over his head, and the room was hit with a wall of thick, analog sound from the organ. The man and the woman sang together for most of the first song. It sounded as if they had taken music from the NES and added drums and tight pop harmonies. They spent the entire time staring deep into each other’s eyes.

My first thought? This is ridiculous. It was just too different from the moody, guitar driven indie rock I was used to. Yet, by the time they had finished their fourth song Mike and I were completely hooked. Who were these guys and where do we get their CD?

Mates Of State performing

The band was Mates Of State [pictured left], and I did end up buying their CD, My Solo Project. They’ve since gone on to find a decent amount of success. And while Mates of State’s music may not be groundbreaking, I still remember the fun of being challenged by something new. I was even willing to overlook some of the flaws that might have been more glaring if they were just rehashing something that had been done dozens of times before.

There were other bands experimenting with new sounds and styles – Anathallo comes to mind. The Dirty Projectors and The Fiery Furnaces more recently. I’m sure you could all name dozens of better examples (please don’t, unless you just can’t help yourself!) The point is simply that while this kind of smaller-scale innovation happens a lot more often than it’s elusive, better-looking cousin Innovation, it can still have a profound effect on the listener. A visit to the local indie-rock dive is transformed into a memory still fresh several years later.

What about quality? Innovation is great, but what if something is just put together really, really well? Quality is certainly important. Your music can be Beethoven’s 9th, but if you cut a trashy recording nobody’s likely to listen. Again, not everybody has to reinvent the wheel.

Yet, in many ways the world doesn’t seem to care as much about quality as it used to. We live in a society where a video shot on someone’s phone can get hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. It’s grainy, the sound is terrible but fewer and fewer people seem to mind. This isn’t completely new to the music industry – look at the punk movement. For many the attitude was what was important, who cares what it sounded like?

The bottom line is that you can be successful without innovation, but in order to be great you have to be willing to push the envelope. The average music fan will go to about a dozen shows this year. They’ll probably remember two. Many of those acts will put on a good show, but the ones that will imprint themselves on the minds of their audiences are the ones who have taken the time to explore new possiblities.

What do you think? Do you agree, disagree? What is important to you when searching for new music?

Woodstock 1969

I received this email yesterday from David Sherbow in response to a comment I left on a post he had written. I felt like his perspective was worth sharing, so I’ve included his message in its entirety:

Subj: An Old Man’s Perspective

Refe -

Thank you for your comment. I believe that you are one of the more insightful bloggers of your generation.  Let me say this.

Since Napster, the music business I grew up with has basically imploded and through its own stupidity and greed has charted a course for almost certain self destruction.  In case you haven’t read it, take a look at Steve Knopper’s brilliant tome, “The Appetite for Self Destruction” which gives a chapter and verse description of the breakdown of the music business since the advent of the CD in 1979. Technology and change has brought us enormous amounts of user generated music, its easy distribution and a music world that is wrought with extreme fragmentation. I agree with you that these changes have brought a certain amount of opportunity to a group of people that prior to 1999 would never have even been on the music map. For those who enjoy this increased popularity, it is a new day and the new music business is working for them.

I grew up in the three most significant periods of cultural change in American life over the past 50 years. First was the period from 1955-68 when post WWII America first started coming apart at the seems and baby boomers started to rebel against the All American image acceptable to my parents generation. Things changed soon after McCarthy fell in the mid 50′s and, in essence, parts of Texas and the deep south and its country, blues, and R&B music converged and rock and roll began to evolve. I got my first radio in 1957 for my 7th birthday and soon after became addicted to Top 40 radio then R&B radio.  Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Hank Williams, Sr.,, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison changed my world along with R&B groups like the Platters, 5 Satins, Smokey Robinson and Little Anthony and the Imperials and bluesmen like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf  and John Lee Hooker. No disrespect meant at all, but you are much too young to have been moved by such amazing forces of music that changed my life forever and moved millions of others like me in ways that today are unimaginable.

Then came the Vietnam War, free speech movement, civil rights movement, the drug culture and sexual freedom all heaped upon my generation.  Groups like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Who, Cream, Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin from England, The Beachboys, Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Doors, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan along with Otis Reading, James Brown, Temptations, Supremes, Four Tops and Aretha Franklin and many others changed the American music scene forever. Then there was Woodstock to bring it all together. It’s is impossible to understand how powerful this period was without living through the majesty of its immense political and cultural change.  Then the 70′s brought unbelievable heavy metal music and Disco. The 80′s brought Michael, Jackson, U2, Madonna and the 90′s brought grunge with Nirvana and Pearl Jam.  Every decade brought another group of artists that clearly articulated the feelings and moods of that generation.  People were toally swept up in the music.

Then came 1999 and Napster and over the next 10 years music became diluted, homogenous, and less than inspiring.  Today it is plentiful and ubiquitous. In my opinion, part of what truly makes music great from the days of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart to the present day, is the connection certain artists have been able to develop with the masses who then have a shared common experience they all can relate too.  It is this shared experience which takes music to another level. Its is something that your generations feels and sees in bits and pieces in between video games, surfing the Internet and Texting.  Music is ever present but it is no longer the focused force for change in our society. Music is still a part of everyone’s day to day life but it is no longer the focused cultural and political force it once was. A platinum artist is nothing more than a monetary designation that became the standard by which great bands were judged since Creedence Clearwater Revival was the first group to ship 1,000,000 albums in 1971.

Music has always evolved and changed without the help of the record business which has only been good at co-opting great talent and rarely developing it. I totally agree with you that it’s all cyclical and look forward to the next game changing music scenario.  We are a world of many niche artists and very few genuine original popular artists.  What American Idol continually tells me every year it maintains its immense popularity, is that is that the masses want artists to believe in and to connect with. So do I but I want them to be of substance, not manufactured by the remnants of the record hit making machine but instead I want my new music to emerge from the grass routes of the new American psyche motivated by meaningful cultural change.

I am by no means trying to say that my insight or love of music is deeper than yours or your generation. My perspective over 58 years is different than those in your generation.  I truly miss discovering and sharing music the way I used to.  I believe that eventually the Internet will develop a better mechanism for the discovery of popular music and I look forward to that day. I hope this wasn’t too much bullshit. You ought to call me sometime and personally share some of your thoughts.

David Sherbow

David is a music industry professional with over 40 years in the business. He has managed and booked major regional and national rock, r&b, and hip-hop artists, owned and operated a rock-n-roll booking agency, put out over 25 independent releases, made record deals and was head of promotion for WMG’s Asylum Records. Find out more about David at his blog or on Twitter.

Also check out yesterday’s post The Defining Sound of this Decade is… Undefined.

Lot’s of new releases this week including Blizten Trapper’s highly engaging Black River Killer, and Mew’s excessively titled No More Stories Are Told Today I’m Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories the World is Grey I’m Tired Let’s Wash Away.

Imogen Heap’s Ellipse officially launched this week with a deluxe edition that includes a bonus CD of instrumental tracks. If you want to try that one before you buy it, we’ve got it streaming here.

A few notable reissues were released this week as well, including Wilco’s Being There and Summerteeth, and Radiohead’s Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief and Kid A.

The complete list is below with affiliate links to purchase straight from iTunes or Amazon (depending on whether it’s physical or digital.) You’ll notice that this list only includes major label acts – this is simply because I don’t have the time to track down each and every new independent release. If you are an independent artist or record label and would like your upcoming releases included on this weekly list please contact me.

August 25th 2009

Alan Singley & Pants Machine – Feelin’ Citrus
Arctic Monkeys – Humbug (vinyl)
Asobi Seksu – Transparance (vinyl)
Beach Boys – Christmas Harmonies
Bela Fleck – Melody of Rhythm: Triple Concerto and Music for Trio
Biffy Clyro – That Golden Rule
Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer
The Bloody Beetroots – Romborama (vinyl)
Bob Dylan – The Best of Bob Dylan (Limited Edition “Collector’s Crate” with CD and T-shirt)
Bob Dylan – The Essential Bob Dylan (3 Disc set)
Cheap Trick – Sgt. Pepper Live (DVD)
Collective Soul – Collective Soul
Datarock – Red (vinyl)
David Mead – Almost and Always
Dolores O’Riordan – No Baggage
Felix Da Housecat – He Was King
Fun. – Aim and Ignite (vinyl)
Gospel Gossip – Dreamland (vinyl)
Hank Williams – The Unreleased Recordings (vinyl)
Imogen Heap – Ellipse (Limited Edition Bonus CD)
Jeff Healey – Songs from the Road
JET Shaka Rock
Kitty Daisy & Lewis – Kitty Daisy & Lewis
Matisyahu – Light (vinyl)
Ingrid Michaelson – Everybody
Merrimack – Grey Rigorism
Merzbow – 13 Japanese Birds, Vol. 8
Mew – No More Stories…
Patton Oswalt – My Weakness is Strong
The Postmarks – Memoirs at the End of the World (vinyl)
Radiohead – Amnesiac (collectors edition)
Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (collectors edition)
Radiohead – Kid A (collectors edition)
Reigning Sound – Love and Curses (vinyl)
Sally Shapiro – My Guilty Pleasure
Sadra Bernhard – Whatever it Takes
Science Fiction Corporation – Science Fiction Dance Party: Dance with Action (vinyl)
Sic Alps – L Mansion
Soulsavers – Broken
The Spider Bags – Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueller World (vinyl)
Still Life Still – Girls Come Too (vinyl)
Tim Buckley – Live at the Folklore Center, NYC – March 6th 1967
Vandaveer – Divide and Conquer
Various Artists – Taking Woodstock (soundtrack)
Wilco – Being There (2 LP, 1 CD reissue)
Wilco – Summerteeth (2 LP, 1 CD reissue)
Will Hoge – The Wreckage (vinyl)
YACHT – See Mystery Lights (vinyl)

There are a few solid new releases this week. Australia’s Temper Trap is one that I can definitely recommend that you check out (I think Australia may be taking over the world – or at least this blog recently!) The vinyl edition of The Cave Singers Welcome Joyis a solid offering, boasting melodic guitar-driven folk rock and Dylan-esque vocals. The Flaming Lips, Muse, Mew and Destroyer release vinyls today as well.

That’s just a small sampling, but the full list is certainly worth browsing. I’ve included it below with associate links taking you straight to iTunes or Amazon if you’d like to take a closer look or download. As always, please let me know your feedback. What quality new releases am I missing?

Not included on this list but worth mentioning is the new Radiohead track These Are My Twisted Words that’s been floating around the web. It was finally claimed and ‘released’ by the band yesterday. Imogen Heap offered up her much-anticipated new album Ellipse for free streaming from her website yesterday. She, of course, made the announcement on Twitter.

New Music Releases

65daysofstatic - Escape from New York
Accused - Curse of Martha Splatterhead
Adam Marsland - Go West
The Antlers - Hospice (vinyl reissue)
As Tall As Lions - You Can’t Take It With You (vinyl)
Blind Man’s Colour - Season’s Dreaming
Brendan Benson - My Old, Familiar Friend (vinyl)
Calvin Harris - Ready for the Weekend (bonus edition)
The Cave Singers - Welcome Joy (vinyl)
Choir of Young Believers - This Is For The White In Your Eyes
Christopher O’Riley - Out of My Hands
Church - Song Force Crystal
Delbert McClinton - Acquired Taste
Depedro: Depedro
Destroyer - Bay of Pigs EP (vinyl)
The Dimes - New England EP
Division Day - Visitation
Eric Copeland - Alien in a Garbage Dump
Farmer Dave Scher - Flash Forward to the Good Times
Fell - Incoherent Lullabies
Final - Reading All the Right Signals Wrong
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (2-LP vinyl with bonus CD)
GWAR - Lust in Space
Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh - Overloaded Ark
Hidden Cameras - Origin: Orphan
Jack Penate - Everything is New (vinyl)
Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall
Jeff Merchant - City Makes No Sound
Jeniferever - Choose a Bright Morning (reissue)
Jim Lauderdale - Could We Get Any Closer?
Joe Henry - Blood from Stars
Joey Degraw - Say Something Strong
Kasabian - Where Did All the Love Go?
Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke (vinyl)
Little Dragon - Machine Dreams
The Lovely Feathers - Fantasy of the Lot
Lynam - Tragic City Symphony
Mark Mallman - Invincible Criminal
Mew - No More Stories EP (vinyl)
Modest Mouse - No One’s First and You’re Next EP (vinyl)
Mount Eerie - Wind’s Poem
Mungolian Jetset - We Gave It All Away… Now We Are Taking It Back
Muse - Absolution (vinyl reissue)
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations (vinyl reissue)
Muse - Origin of Symmetry (vinyl reissue)
Muse - Showbiz (vinyl reissue)
Old Crow Medicine Show – Live at the Orange Peel and Tennessee Theatre(dvd)
Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans (vinyl)
Ramona Falls - Intuit
Richard Thompson - Walking on a Wire: Richard Thompson (1968-2009) (4-CD box set)
The Rolling Stones - Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones 1971-1993
Sic Alps – A Long Way Around To a Short Cut (2-LP vinyl)
Sister Hazel - Release
Six Organs of Admittance - Luminous Night (vinyl)
The Temper Trap - Conditions
Various Artists - Inglourious Basterds (soundtrack)
Various Artists - Mad Men: Music From The Series Vol. 2
Various Artists - Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music (5-LP box set)
Wonderwheel - Safe and Sorry
ZAZA - Cameo