Andy (The Importance of Being Andy) has addressed a topic near and dear to my heart, which i feel compelled to glom onto, (i.e. whore off of...), that being, 'what, my dear friend, is music worth to you'? What is a "reasonable" price for music, and to whom should we pay it? (My personal threshold is mostly based on directness of artist involvement...i.e. directly from the artist at an indie show, i won't even flinch about paying at or over retail, knowing where my $$$ is going...), where on I Tunes, i thought 99 cents was a nice round price point, but there subsequent price raising strategy leaves me less amused...(yes, price dropping too, but you can bet less so, considering the source).Not to mention, how do you consume? I think i can safely say that my family accounts for everything from wax cylinders to 78's to aluminum transcription discs to 45's to 8 tracks to albums/tapes/heavily encrypted files...virtually any format you can think of...but what's your preferred method of consumption these days, since we have so many options?
I am totally biased, so i'll recuse (or is that j'accuse) myself, save for some pithy observations, which would seem to be the whole point...
I just finished reading Steve Knopper's 'Appetite For Self Destruction', which makes a far greater case for the industry killing rampant arrogance and stupidity than i ever could...Essential companion to Chris Anderson's 'The Long Tail' in terms of analyzing the shifting paradigm, and worthy successor to Fred Goodman's 'Mansion On The Hill', or Frederic Dannen's 'Hit Men', (among others), as industry dissections.
I know have a permanent kink in my neck from the amount of times i shook my head reading this...let alone casting it aside into the fireplace screen, scaring the bejesus out of the dog...That being the literal approximation of Dorothy Parker's great gem...
(For her review of a novel by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Parker wrote "This is not a book to be cast aside lightly. It should be hurled with great force.")
Which is not to be misconstrued as a comparison, merely a sad attempt at humor.
Oh yeah, pithy observations...behold the discbox, ah sweet discbox, bringer of life. This of course, being the physical manifestation of Radiohead's great industry experiment of October 2007, 'In Rainbows'...in which the band with very little notice, dropped their new project on an unsuspecting, and very suddenly freaking out, audience. The choices were 1) pay what you wish for a download, or don't pay...since you will be underwritten wholly by the freaks, (c'est moi), who plump for option 2) the deluxe box set (which was worth all 40 pounds, thank you), or option 3) wait until Jan '08 for an actual domestic CD release. Everyone and their brother and Trent Reznor weighed in with their opinions, which can be parsed pretty easily on line...(i'm way too tired to google 'In Rainbows Pricing Debate', but that should keep your behind out of trouble for awhile), but for me it was just cool to see someone take a chance & shake things up.If i have a format of choice now, it's anyone who puts out an LP and includes a free download code, thereby allowing me convenience and pleasure in all their forms...This is a trend i saw with a number of releases in '08, (mostly Indie & punk rock), that hopefully will continue.
That the battle is now shaping up between ITunes and Walmart for the music industry is kind of sad...much as i am an Apple devotee (or long time sufferer, take your pick).
And finally, i couldn't get out of this without mentioning the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger.thing, that if nothing else, got congressional testimony out of Billy Corgan...hee hee!
Once again, my feelings will be pretty obvious, it's just morbidly fascinating to me to see who lines up on what side...
