Random link jumping. Came up with some different and interesting artists and whatnot to look into.
Audrey Napoleon :: Random producer who does stuff. Some of it is pretty neat. It is a bit more dance-pop than I usually look into.
Brendan Canning :: Finally got a stream of the new album (in link) and it sounds pretty cool. Also, he started another label, thus the not being released on Arts & Crafts.
Dream Affair :: I keep checking in with this band every so often just to see what is new. 80's Goth, today!
Beliefs :: I'm on a bit of a dream-pop thing. These guys are pretty cool.
CST Sampler :: Constellation Records did a sampler a little while ago. Worth poking around on, if you are looking for something obscure. I'm not a fan of the full 40 whatever minuets, but to each their own.
I hope something in that list brings you a great feeling.
I'm off to do something that is very similar to this list, except I'm not going to tell anyone about it.
Also, I'M GOING TO ICELAND. BYE.
-J
Showing posts with label important. Show all posts
Showing posts with label important. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Saturday, 18 May 2013
12) Feeling Lucky?
So let us talk about sales of audio mediums and why the music industry is not going anywhere any time soon. I will try to keep my reasons and such, though opinion based, as unbiased and as educated as I can. Please keep in mind that my opinions for stating the reasons for changes in the industry are based on sales and opinions working at a used CD shop in Cambridge and should be seen as an idea or argument. Do not use this blog as any sort of absolute fact on anything, but especially this piece. The charts the actual numbers come from will be linked at the end.
The thing that gets brought up oh-so-often at my cash counter is "isn't the music industry dying?" and "why not just download everything?" Well, the easy reply to the downloading idea is that it is still illegal most places and most websites do not want to get caught in the crossfire. When people bring up places like iTunes and (legal) Napster, opinions and feelings often become thrown around as fact.
The first point I would like to make is that the music industry would not bother if it was not profitable. It is far too early in the year to have any sort of fair comparison to last years numbers, so let us pretend it is closer to January. Physical sales are down from a sudden peak in the year prior and digital sales are spiking from a very low 2011. Physical medium sales are still 80 million units outselling digital distribution. Now, would those sales go to digital if there was not an option for physical sale? I have a couple of customers who come to our store from the country who can barely get internet access. Would these people be able to switch to digital? Obviously not. Now, I am aware that the few customers I mention is not enough to even make the industry bat an eyelash, so I'm going to bring up some census information! YAY CANADIAN CENCUS!
A study done in 2010 shows that 1 in 5 Canadians do not have internet access (so just over 6.8 million Canadians). With Canadian physical purchasing sitting at 20.5 million last year and digital sitting just over 10 million, and assuming we go by the idea that 0.9 albums sell per person, would mean a decrease in sales by 6.12 million albums. The average price of a new CD at my work is approximately $15 dollars. This would mean a loss of 91.8 million dollars in revenue. Now factor in people like me: I do not download albums from iTunes unless I have to and I never purchase one off songs because the album is what is important to me. When you compile all the numbers, it will cost the music industry less to press CDs than they will loose in total sales.
Signs that the physical age will be on its way out? Price hikes would be one, and rarity of mainstream albums being another. I feel as though we would see Wal*Mart stop carrying CDs long before HMV went out of business, but we might see random pop albums all of a sudden become very difficult to find. Though I can no longer find the information on the actual situation, who remembers the Warner snafu? Warner went through some huge reconstruction thing at the corporate level and threw their distribution of music into the strangest tither. Customers would be able to find some WMG merchandise at my store, but not at the HMV in the mall behind us. Kitchener would be the only city in all Ontario to have Lykki Li, for instance. It was awkward to explain the situation to those who were just looking for that new release and it seemed to get fixed out of nowhere. There were a couple of us who started speculating a digital only push in cities. If it was an experiment, the consequence was the loss of thousands of sales..
What about vinyl? At one time is was viewed as the dominant source for quality of sound. People still spend tens of thousands of dollars getting setups and rooms for perfect acoustics. Audiophiles will always be around for every medium, but vinyl was always viewed as the "purists" form. This grand resurgence has been great for people who just prefer the sound and feel but did not want to give a million and one reasons every time a friend came by. It has now become accepted as just another medium to a huge part of the market and, with sales increasing in double digit percents every year, that market has become bigger and bigger. We now have Record Store Day with sale numbers that almost double every year. I personally do not think that vinyl will ever be the dominant form of music distribution ever again, but what a fantastic decade for vinyl to come back!
Before I wrap up, I would like to mention song sales. This is a fairly new idea, since singles from the days of old always came bundled with a couple of perks. When you purchase a song from iTunes at a dollar, 30 cents goes to Apple and 60 cents to the distributer. The total number of songs sold in 2012 was 1336 million. The cost for an indi artist to upload a song to iTunes using TuneCore is $9.99 per year. With these numbers, I am having a very hard time why anyone thinks the music industry is hurting.
Website used and not tagged already :
This article had a nice collection of charts with all the sale information from 2012 and 2011. Very informative and just kind of cool to read over.
During the writing of this, I was enjoying 2 records: Do Make Say Think Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Both seminal albums in their genres and two of my favourite albums of all time. Please, as music fans, check into these.
The thing that gets brought up oh-so-often at my cash counter is "isn't the music industry dying?" and "why not just download everything?" Well, the easy reply to the downloading idea is that it is still illegal most places and most websites do not want to get caught in the crossfire. When people bring up places like iTunes and (legal) Napster, opinions and feelings often become thrown around as fact.
The first point I would like to make is that the music industry would not bother if it was not profitable. It is far too early in the year to have any sort of fair comparison to last years numbers, so let us pretend it is closer to January. Physical sales are down from a sudden peak in the year prior and digital sales are spiking from a very low 2011. Physical medium sales are still 80 million units outselling digital distribution. Now, would those sales go to digital if there was not an option for physical sale? I have a couple of customers who come to our store from the country who can barely get internet access. Would these people be able to switch to digital? Obviously not. Now, I am aware that the few customers I mention is not enough to even make the industry bat an eyelash, so I'm going to bring up some census information! YAY CANADIAN CENCUS!
A study done in 2010 shows that 1 in 5 Canadians do not have internet access (so just over 6.8 million Canadians). With Canadian physical purchasing sitting at 20.5 million last year and digital sitting just over 10 million, and assuming we go by the idea that 0.9 albums sell per person, would mean a decrease in sales by 6.12 million albums. The average price of a new CD at my work is approximately $15 dollars. This would mean a loss of 91.8 million dollars in revenue. Now factor in people like me: I do not download albums from iTunes unless I have to and I never purchase one off songs because the album is what is important to me. When you compile all the numbers, it will cost the music industry less to press CDs than they will loose in total sales.
Signs that the physical age will be on its way out? Price hikes would be one, and rarity of mainstream albums being another. I feel as though we would see Wal*Mart stop carrying CDs long before HMV went out of business, but we might see random pop albums all of a sudden become very difficult to find. Though I can no longer find the information on the actual situation, who remembers the Warner snafu? Warner went through some huge reconstruction thing at the corporate level and threw their distribution of music into the strangest tither. Customers would be able to find some WMG merchandise at my store, but not at the HMV in the mall behind us. Kitchener would be the only city in all Ontario to have Lykki Li, for instance. It was awkward to explain the situation to those who were just looking for that new release and it seemed to get fixed out of nowhere. There were a couple of us who started speculating a digital only push in cities. If it was an experiment, the consequence was the loss of thousands of sales..
What about vinyl? At one time is was viewed as the dominant source for quality of sound. People still spend tens of thousands of dollars getting setups and rooms for perfect acoustics. Audiophiles will always be around for every medium, but vinyl was always viewed as the "purists" form. This grand resurgence has been great for people who just prefer the sound and feel but did not want to give a million and one reasons every time a friend came by. It has now become accepted as just another medium to a huge part of the market and, with sales increasing in double digit percents every year, that market has become bigger and bigger. We now have Record Store Day with sale numbers that almost double every year. I personally do not think that vinyl will ever be the dominant form of music distribution ever again, but what a fantastic decade for vinyl to come back!
Before I wrap up, I would like to mention song sales. This is a fairly new idea, since singles from the days of old always came bundled with a couple of perks. When you purchase a song from iTunes at a dollar, 30 cents goes to Apple and 60 cents to the distributer. The total number of songs sold in 2012 was 1336 million. The cost for an indi artist to upload a song to iTunes using TuneCore is $9.99 per year. With these numbers, I am having a very hard time why anyone thinks the music industry is hurting.
Website used and not tagged already :
This article had a nice collection of charts with all the sale information from 2012 and 2011. Very informative and just kind of cool to read over.
During the writing of this, I was enjoying 2 records: Do Make Say Think Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Both seminal albums in their genres and two of my favourite albums of all time. Please, as music fans, check into these.
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
2) This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Creative outlets? Not a subscriber, though I hear they are nice. One could argue that a blog is a creative outlet but I haven't been posting long enough (or regular enough) to really notice any sort of creative relief. As of right now; I see blogging as a nice way to kill a few hours and to get some of the noise out of my head. Plus it gives me something to better myself at (Give me feedback). Some days I wish I had a way to express myself in a multitude of sensory pleasures, but I have far too many ideas without any clue as to how to express them. One day I'll figure it out.
Until then, here are a few friends of mine who are doing some amazing things with their talents.
My girlfriend Chelsea has really started to push her photography out into the world. She specializes in horror, gore & pin-up scenes. The thing I respect most about her work is that she is working with a micro budget and her friends. She is fantastic at direction and her angles she produces are unique and well lit. She comes at it the same way a director would a film. As a giant plus: I get to kill people in a good portion of her pictures! Always a good time. I'll post one of the murder-y pictures of me from a couple of weeks ago to keep things vain and to keep looking as arrogant as ever!!!! ^_^
I'm the one in the hazmat suit, in case you were wondering.
Luka Kelly (from here on in referred to as Luke and if she has an issue with it she can just hit me later) has been one of my best friends for a very long time. She has always made her own clothing as well as doing clothing designs for local bands. She used to run a screen printing company out of her basement, press buttons, web design, myspace layouts, web hosting, and so many other things, all before she graduated high school. Now that Luke is finally done fashion school and has since been pushing incredible stuff out onto the internet for your credit cards to purchase. Seriously, her stuff is incredible. Click the picture below for a link to her Etsy. The link beside her name is to her fantastic Blog. She has always been better at that stuff then me. I won't tell her that I'm jealous, but I think by now she must know.
OH: Forgot to mention she is the biggest Marvel/Spider-Man fan I have ever met and so much of her swag is related in some way. Fellow nerds: ENJOY! Fellow DC fans, respect and keep quiet. She's small, but seriously, her right hook is cruel.
Kevin & I used to play in a band together for a few years. All Cut Up was the first serious band I was in and let me experiment both musically and professionally. He is one of the most talented sound creators I have ever had the pleasure of working with and has always had a keen eye for all things fucked in day-to-day life. We stopped working together shortly after I joined the hardcore group The Twin back in 2009 due to time constraints and life moving forward. The last thing I did with Kevin directly was session work on the Livestalk & The Bodies album Eudaimonia, which was released in August 2011. I played on 3 tracks using a four-piece kit with one ride and hi-hats. The musicians who wound up filling the rest of that album humbled me in ways no one would ever understand. Kevin painted a piece of art that I still listen to most days. He now plays in several bands all over Hamilton and, from what I can tell, is playing a gig most nights at some club somewhere in the downtown core. Everything on his BandCamp pages is either free or way too cheap for what it is. Please go support him.
Oh Pat, what can't you do? This kid does so much work on so many different ideas that he keeps in that head of his that I can't even follow half of it (I do try, though). Pat and I have been jamming since 2007 and been playing shows since we started in the local scene. He has always been doing his solo acoustic stuff while fucking around with programs like Fruity Loops and ProTools to get his sound to one unique enough to stand some sort of time test. Everything he does is without an internet connection for tips or tricks for mixing. It is without any sort of training or preparation. Everything he does is DIY (or with some help from friends) and it seems to always get better and better. He is still one of my best friends and I hope some day we can collaborate on something else, even if it's just one track.
Now, let's drop this beat!
Seriously folks, I posted this because I didn't expect to see it on the same page as his acoustic stuff. Click the links and go check out his SoundCloud. It's full.
*****************************************************************
This blog was put together while not only listening to and reading the amazing things my friends have done, but also while spinning Portishead's self-titled release from 1997. Jazzy, classy, haunting, and beautiful.
*****************************************************************
Are you interested in more independent goodness? If people wish, I can keep dropping "Friend Spots" now and again to keep everyone posted.
Until then, here are a few friends of mine who are doing some amazing things with their talents.
Chelsea Zimmerman :: Carapace Photography
For fans of Horror and all things Macabre.
My girlfriend Chelsea has really started to push her photography out into the world. She specializes in horror, gore & pin-up scenes. The thing I respect most about her work is that she is working with a micro budget and her friends. She is fantastic at direction and her angles she produces are unique and well lit. She comes at it the same way a director would a film. As a giant plus: I get to kill people in a good portion of her pictures! Always a good time. I'll post one of the murder-y pictures of me from a couple of weeks ago to keep things vain and to keep looking as arrogant as ever!!!! ^_^
I'm the one in the hazmat suit, in case you were wondering.
Luka (Luke) Kelly :: Hellhound Fashion
For nerds, fashion people, and people who like all things awesome.
Luka Kelly (from here on in referred to as Luke and if she has an issue with it she can just hit me later) has been one of my best friends for a very long time. She has always made her own clothing as well as doing clothing designs for local bands. She used to run a screen printing company out of her basement, press buttons, web design, myspace layouts, web hosting, and so many other things, all before she graduated high school. Now that Luke is finally done fashion school and has since been pushing incredible stuff out onto the internet for your credit cards to purchase. Seriously, her stuff is incredible. Click the picture below for a link to her Etsy. The link beside her name is to her fantastic Blog. She has always been better at that stuff then me. I won't tell her that I'm jealous, but I think by now she must know.
OH: Forgot to mention she is the biggest Marvel/Spider-Man fan I have ever met and so much of her swag is related in some way. Fellow nerds: ENJOY! Fellow DC fans, respect and keep quiet. She's small, but seriously, her right hook is cruel.
Kevin Fraser :: LIVESTALK
For fans of the ideas behind Sonic Youth, The Melvins and The Pixies
Kevin & I used to play in a band together for a few years. All Cut Up was the first serious band I was in and let me experiment both musically and professionally. He is one of the most talented sound creators I have ever had the pleasure of working with and has always had a keen eye for all things fucked in day-to-day life. We stopped working together shortly after I joined the hardcore group The Twin back in 2009 due to time constraints and life moving forward. The last thing I did with Kevin directly was session work on the Livestalk & The Bodies album Eudaimonia, which was released in August 2011. I played on 3 tracks using a four-piece kit with one ride and hi-hats. The musicians who wound up filling the rest of that album humbled me in ways no one would ever understand. Kevin painted a piece of art that I still listen to most days. He now plays in several bands all over Hamilton and, from what I can tell, is playing a gig most nights at some club somewhere in the downtown core. Everything on his BandCamp pages is either free or way too cheap for what it is. Please go support him.
There is so much other great stuff on the internet that Kevin has done. I am pretty sure I know less than I don't when it comes to his catalog.
Patrick Hussey :: Solo Work
For fans of Pop, Acoustic and Electro (but feel like there isn't enough crossover).
Oh Pat, what can't you do? This kid does so much work on so many different ideas that he keeps in that head of his that I can't even follow half of it (I do try, though). Pat and I have been jamming since 2007 and been playing shows since we started in the local scene. He has always been doing his solo acoustic stuff while fucking around with programs like Fruity Loops and ProTools to get his sound to one unique enough to stand some sort of time test. Everything he does is without an internet connection for tips or tricks for mixing. It is without any sort of training or preparation. Everything he does is DIY (or with some help from friends) and it seems to always get better and better. He is still one of my best friends and I hope some day we can collaborate on something else, even if it's just one track.
Now, let's drop this beat!
Seriously folks, I posted this because I didn't expect to see it on the same page as his acoustic stuff. Click the links and go check out his SoundCloud. It's full.
*****************************************************************
This blog was put together while not only listening to and reading the amazing things my friends have done, but also while spinning Portishead's self-titled release from 1997. Jazzy, classy, haunting, and beautiful.
*****************************************************************
Are you interested in more independent goodness? If people wish, I can keep dropping "Friend Spots" now and again to keep everyone posted.
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