First of all the very best to all of you. yeah i’m somewhat late and this blog isn’t very vivid but i’ll try to re animate it and at least pump some blood in it from time to time. Like every year, anyone pretending to have some taste in music published their favourite songs of the year. And most of the lists, like pitchforks have their point, I get bored by most of the artists and songs. I’ll probably always stay the one searching for anything what feels and sounds different. This is what drives me about music and of cause brings always differences with (former) co-workers in major labels. Its for me much more about creativity than about the music itself. It might be a bad thing from an audiophile perspective, but the search for creativity seems to be much more important to me.
So, to bring at least something up what is my opinion one of the most interesting acts this year ar Project Jenny Project Jan. There experimental attitude and sound ideas around electronic music really got my ear, but well, it might never stimulate yours.

Project Jenny Project Jan - 320

Project Jenny Project Jan - Fight Song

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I came across this excellent documentary about copyright. It has a with a good mixture of opinions, not biased to one side or another like many others. From the president of the MPAA to the guys who run piratbay, it gives the idea of copyright more substance. That’s something what shakes the entertainment industry

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Actually I thought having already posted this video but since I’ve watched some eopisodes of Gene’s show “Family Jewels” lately, I thought it might be worth posting it. He is dead on that very, very few music brands really understand how to capitalize their brandpower at a certain point. Just look at all the band shirt with all the boring as hell standart designs.

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Finally! At the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this February Doug Zongker found a way to explain and demonstrate to all of us the crucial steps to bring the music industry back in the game. It is such a simple, such a genious solution we never really though of. But with having such a clear strategy and scientific evidence how this revolution will take place… well, we are all save now! Hurray for the music biz!

Side note: To understand the concept you might have to have to take part in major record label’s meetings first…

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A quite interesting story is taking place over at the Hypebot blog. Bruce did in the last time some really good research and work on Emusic. Emusic is this kind of service, the future of the music industry probably will be. They offer unlimited songs as mp3 files without any MP3 protection. But no major label artists are available on Emusic. They got a quite large user base and the intention and idea of this service is definitely great.

The question is how Emusic and the labels are having a revenue share. Since there is no payment on a pay per song basis it’s a really tricky thing. And they try to keep this whole thing really secret. Since Bruce did some extensive coverage of their service he also did some estimations of their payment model (not based on fluff but royalty statements) and… got a not-that-nice email from Emusic :

“If you publish this, it will not force us into making these confidential terms public, and we would aggressively make the public aware that the story is not reported based on facts. “

If you ask me… quite a lame move. Is that the way they deal with bloggers if they don’t follow the hype-my-product route?

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Hello New York?!
Wake Up You F*ckers!!!
Jefferson Airplane played already in 1968 a rooftop concert in New York. It’s a 7 min long clip, ending with the obligatory police appearance. These guys played some sort of psycholdelic rock and actually still are around. This summer they are even scheduled at the The Today Show.

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This presentation of Nielsen Soundscan is really worth taking a look at. Since Soundscan has such strong influence and almost monopolistic position in our US music market, it might be definitely worth the time to give it a second look.
NARM Nielsen SoundScan Presentation
(found through Coolfer)

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The Zimmers are a really interesting concept coming from Britain. A filmmaker put together a lot of seniors and put a video project around it. Well, well it could just be another creative idea what so ever, but it is actually produced by Mike Hedges (U2, Dido, Cure), shot by Geoff Wonfor (Band Aid, Beatles Anthology), and it was recorded in the legendary Beatles studio 2.
The funny thing is, their “star” is Peter Oakley who already recived a big popularity boost some time ago on Youtube through his “Geriatric 1927″ videos. (Just reflections on his life and youtubers gone wild for it).
It’s cool to see such a project on it’s way to success, that it’s giving people some shine in their eyes. And well, let’s see how far they can push it in the charts. But the good thing is… at least their taget group aren’t bad internet peer-to-peer thieves hehe

Update: (as promised… links!) they got of cause MySpace and about Peter Oakley on Youtube.

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So kids, this is what you all triggered by buying ringtones…

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Paul Resnikoff at Digital Music News had a good posting, wrapping up some digital music news conferences during the last weeks.

Let’s start the quote machine:

“The whole competing with free thing is tricky, it works well in the water business but it’s hard everywhere else” Jason Flom, Capitol Music Group

“We are essentially a technophobic business” Andy Karp, Atlantic Records Group

(There is a) “systematic devaluation of music” Nick Gatfield, Island Records Group UK

Well said, and you might suspect these guys finally realized how deep they are in touble and finally found a way to come up with something like a plan, but you might get dissapointed. It is still like hanging up the “Mission Accomplished” sign over the door, but in the end no bold decisions were made, no groundbreaking deals were cleverly arranged. Nothing of that besides just some self-dependent humor. And the show goes on…

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