Posts by Simon Grigg
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old a story about crossing security, where they take away you nail clippers, then on the other side the first thing he saw was a place that sold nail clippers
The LCCT in Kuala Lumpur does exactly this, or at least it did last month.
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Part of the problem here is that the recording industry has gone about dealing with this problem in possibly the most arse-about-face way they could have conceived of. In reality the problem has very little to do with their customers doing anything wrong- they're problably consuming more music than they ever have before.
which is absolutely evident from the vitriol on the Herald site, much of it perhaps unreasonable, as in real terms the album is cheaper than ever (based on the RBNZ calculator the $12 1981 album should cost $42 in 2006).
But these people have absolutely alienated their customer base and complaining how poor the artists, whom these consumers have supported are, just aggravates the problem.
And it tends to avoid another key issue...whether the Radio / RIANZ / NZOA funding model creates artists without sustainable careers by promoting, via the broadcasters, acts whose only asset is a few radio friendly songs, without a real fan base. The regularity of the failure of second albums is perhaps an indicator to that.
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It'll be replaced by those gems you find when you are trawling though the download site
I think the joys of the MP3 blog have already taken us there. I was just feeling a brief twang of nostalgia for all those long gone junk shops in Dominion Road and Kingsland that I spent too many lecture hours in when I was at Uni.
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Or, I should say, the record industry (meaning the majors)...the recording industry in my experience is quite the opposite...hungry for ideas, technology and change
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Simon- the April fools may turn out to the people who who aren't thinking this laterally. It looked more like a sound business structure than most anything I've seen.
which I think was Bob Lefsetz's point and its one he makes in non April 1 posts quite often. He tends to ramble on a lot in his emails (and sometimes you get three a day) but amongst the rambles there is much truth and sense.
The Canute-ism of the recording industry is incredible sometimes.
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You can have a top 10 album in NZ with about 300 sales in a week these days.
somebody in the US last week was boasting that they'd hyped a track to number 59 in the NZ "rock" chart last week. I commented that all that meant was that someone had walked past the Cd in Real Groovy.
f it was a flat levy on all subscribers then that would have never worked, given that a lot of people don't actually ever download stuff (I know I don't. No, seriously!) and would not want to pay purely on principle.
yes, but as that April Fools thing did point out in its own way, legitimizing & monetising the P2P services with a levy is the a possible way forward (which terrifies the majors), or the eMusic model which is so very simple. Instead they persevere with iTunes, which is,despite its pre-eminence, not working for the companies...it's very little more than a pretty holding operation as physical sales (as Simon so rightly points out with his NZ figure..and thats on a good week) go over the precipice.....p2p downloads grew 47% last year in the US alone to some 5 billion tracks!
Already Soulseek has a voluntary subscription, if you pay $5 via Paypal you get priority queuing. What the uptake on that is I don't know. A $2 levy per month might seem like Universal's worst nightmare but its a step up from $0.
If the rumoured Amazon purchase of eMusic goes ahead then we have a very interesting new ballgame, combining as it does the physical and the digital on a global scale.
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No doubt Mr Grigg can clarify this, but I'd imagine if the companies were wound up the artists would become free agents? Small compensation if they're owed money by DawnRaid unfortunately.
It depends on the contract..most lawyers would insert a liquidation clause, but, and I may need a lawyer to back this as I might be wrong in 2007, in the past many contracts have gone as company assets to new owners, often the banks. Existing releases certainly usually do or are sold by the liquidators.
nary a mention in the piece 60 Minutes did on Pauly's 'comeback' last month? I doubt it screened in Bali. (and hence I doubt he cares)
Just the way I like it. I was actually interviewed by Haydn for it as a backgrounder but, no, I've not seen it however both Alan and Paul seemed happy with it. I'm working with Alan on other projects (just finished an album.....yes an album but not quite in the accepted seense...a band called The Others) right now.
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don't necessarily agree with Simon that albums are a thing of the past -- artists still want to release a unified collection of related works -- but it largely comes down to the way they are presented and sold.
No, you misunderstand me Andrew, I don't think they are a thing of the past, only in the pop market which never wanted them anyway. They were forced on the singles kids by record companies greedy for that extra sale. Mercury did it for us with How Bizarre in the US...number one airplay but no single available so we sold over a million albums, but nobody wanted the album, they wanted a song. And I think sales of full albums are destined to be reduced in any popular music market, be it rock or reggae or soul. 90% of customers are casual listens who want the hits and a couple of other songs, even in the likes of the alt market. Why did people buy The Wall or all those horrendous Dire Straits albums...because of the songs they liked on the radio. Why did Thriller sell 50 million copies..because it had six massive number ones and a TV campaign saying buy these singles together here. Most people want greatest hits albums and that's what the online market provides..one massive Thats What I Call Music album forever. Realistically, the discerning market that actually sees and wants albums as complete works is relatively small.
iTMS encourages album purchasing ('complete my album') I suspect there'll be something of a swing back around.
an album in Wal-mart or the like is still around $10-12 and a iTunes album (average tracks 15) is just under $15.....and you get a CD to do what you like with.
Now if they made the iTunes album $7.
Damn shame. And I'm surprised: I thought those guys were a lot sharper than that.
as I know better than most, you can't run a record label on fumes. Only two NZ hip hop albums have ever really sold any real quantities and sadly neither are on Dawn Raid. It's also not smart to go on TV and boast about how much money you've made...
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none of the kids I know rated Gnarls high enough to even download him, bless 'em.
somebody must have as it went to number one inthe UK on digital sales alone.
Which brings me to the sad part of the whole digital revolution...the impending death of the trawl through dirty boxes in the dark corners of a junk or opportunity shop for second hand gems. I cut my collecting teeth on 45s found in such a way (I still own boxes full of them)...finding a file at the end of a long tail doesn't quite have the same thrill as scoring a battered Elvis single on HMV, or that O'Jays with the non album B side.
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When the iPod has 85% of the portable player market?
only in the US I think (which is not the only target market for this since the release was in London with a very English band)