RouteNote Blog http://routenote.com/blog The World of Music Licensing and Distribution Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:30:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 routenotebloghttp://feedburner.google.com MoneySupermarket and Opinium examine Spotify’s effect on Piracy http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/MadUFkSm7wg/ http://routenote.com/blog/moneysupermarket-and-opinium-examine-spotifys-effect-on-piracy/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:30:41 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1932 In the aftermath of the MORI poll about music piracy, consumer advice site Moneysupermarket have commissioned their own piece of research, conducted by Opinium research in an online poll of 2,319 British adults between Friday 5th June and Tuesday 9th June 2009. The full resutls aren’t available online, but here’s MS’s take on the results:

Napster and LimeWire have been havens for illegal downloaders in the past, but the introduction of Spotify*, a free music download site, is curbing the habits of illegal downloaders.

* 30 per cent of under twenties admit to illegal downloading
* Spotify encourages two in three Brits to curb their illegal downloading habits

Almost two thirds (62 per cent) of those who admit to illegally downloading, say using Spotify has encouraged them to reduce the amount they download illegally or kick the habit altogether.

The survey** from the leading price comparison website moneysupermarket.com on downloading and streaming also showed that one in eight Brits (12 per cent) admit to download illegally in the past six months.

Illegal downloading is worst amongst men (16 per cent compared to 9 per cent of women) and the younger generation, with 30 per cent of those under 20 admitting to illegal downloading.

James Parker, broadband manager at moneysupermarket.com, said: “The number of people looking for unlimited broadband packages is rising, which is an indicator that downloading and streaming are becoming a bigger part of online behavior.

“Downloading music used to be mainly associated with illegal sites such as the old Napster, but now over a quarter (27 per cent) of people say they go to a digital source as first port of call; usually iTunes or Amazon.

“With Spotify joining the ranks of legal music sites, illegal downloading seems set to become much less popular. With the new Spotify iPhone application and the new ‘Monkey’ tariff from Orange, which allows users to stream music from the orange site as part of the tariff, it will be interesting to see how these new mobile music services take-off. Streaming music for free or for a reasonable fee whilst on the move could spell the end for illegal downloading and could even send the CD the way of the mini-disc and cassette tape.”

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/moneysupermarket-and-opinium-examine-spotifys-effect-on-piracy/feed/ 0 http://routenote.com/blog/moneysupermarket-and-opinium-examine-spotifys-effect-on-piracy/ Industry Contact Twitter Lists http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/xQZwSLtXljI/ http://routenote.com/blog/industry-contact-twitter-lists/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:15:00 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1911 Moby? Is that you?In an adjunct to my vociferous defence of Twitter and it’s web 2.0 cousins in that John Taylor post, I thought readers might be interested in a Twitter contact list that Bruce Houghton of Hypebot (a music industry news site) is putting together. Keep yourself informed, and pester decision makers in the industry to help you out. You can do this even more easily by downloading Tweetdeck, a little program that lets you find out who’s talking about certain search terms (your band’s name for instance), and different groups of people that you’re following.

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/industry-contact-twitter-lists/feed/ 0 http://routenote.com/blog/industry-contact-twitter-lists/ Duran Duran’s John Taylor vs. The Twitterati http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/XSm1ENWOBoU/ http://routenote.com/blog/duran-durans-john-taylor-vs-the-twitterati/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:57:59 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1901 Duran_DuranMr. Taylor spoke at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles – for our English chums), and gave the opinion that

“When artists today are asked to Twitter their every thought, their every action, to record on video their every breath, their every performance, I believe they’re diluting their creative powers, their creative potency and the durability of their work. And in the long run I believe they’re also diluting the magical power and the magnetic attraction that they can or will ever have over their audience.”

While I agree that a lot of the glamour that the bands of yesteryear had (even the grimy, anti-glamour punks had a kind of anti-heroic superhuman mystique) I don’t think that accessibility necessarily devalues a band’s efforts. The megastars of today have carefully managed social network strategies with ghost-tweeters and myspace account managers making sure that fans feel like they are in touch with Brittany’s every motion, and more deeply connected because of that. Even bands lower down the tree can have a rapport with their fans, speak to them personally and instantly, inform them of new gigs, new tracks, new merch or whatever it might be, and get their opinions and feedback just as quickly and intimately. It’s a lot of work, but the relationship between fan and musician is a symbiosis, one that will be continually closer as Web 2.0 channels become more ubiquitous. Perhaps there is something to be regretted in the gradual demise of the ivory tower rock star (watch out for the falling TV’s), but as long as musicians can remember not to air their dirty laundry in public, blog when they’re drunk, and take advantage of the interest and support of their fans I think the closer relationship is a good thing.

Taylor also bemoaned the way that the internet has made so much of yesterday’s culture available that it tends to draw attention away from new musicians’ work.

“…The availability and accessibility of music on the internet today is truly incredible, and I applaud anything that can inspire interest or curiosity in anyone. But this also means that those of us who before would have been looking towards the current culture for inspiration are now often to be found [...] in various backwaters of older music. This relative lack of need for current, innovative culture can cause, has caused, is causing – maybe – the innovative culture to slow down, much as an assembly line in Detroit slows down and lay-offs have to be made when the demand for a new model recedes.

Mods I couldn’t agree less with this negative take on the provision of access to the musical genius of yesteryear. I can appreciate how unique, cool and fad-struck the teenaged guitarist music have felt when Roxy Music strutted onto the Top of The Pops stage, how much that music and glamour defined a generation, and how much of a defocussing there has been since then, but greater choice does in fact equal greater freedom. The enforced cultural desert that he describes in the rest of his speech may have made individual discoveries more rare and exciting, but the freedom to roam and browse through the whole history of recorded music allows the new generation to decide for itself what is good and fascinating – the globalisation of music splits us all into niche groups; the zeitgeist has splintered, and the mods and rockers are now a thousand different sub-cultures, but those groups are more intimate and tighter knit than the superculture used to be, and will become more so as technology allows them to communicate more and faster. In fact this reintroduction of yesterday’s music is pushing a resurgence of creativity in old genres – funk labels like Daptone, reinventions of Acid and conceptual jazz from bands like Polar Bear and Led Bib, whole swathes of Chiptune stuff as people realise how great the soundtracks to the computer games of the 80’s were… This isn’t even taking into consideration that there are more musicians alive and producing today than in any other period of history, given how global population has expanded to this point in time, and all those people are better connected than ever before; what is true is that the stars of today now have to compete with yesterday’s geniuses as well as their peers for attention. Rant over.And Rockers

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/duran-durans-john-taylor-vs-the-twitterati/feed/ 1 http://routenote.com/blog/duran-durans-john-taylor-vs-the-twitterati/ Hot Chip Announce New Album http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/MWTa1DIef-M/ http://routenote.com/blog/hot-chip-announce-new-album/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:09:31 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1928 Hot Chip“One Life Stand” will be the band’s 4th full studio album for release on the 8th of February : they made the announcement on their Facebook  page today, and will be streaming a new track shortly. Check up with them ’soon’ for a tracklisting.

‘One Life Stand’ is a full-blooded leap into the unknown, an album that is awash with Hot Chip’s trademark creative bravery and a searing emotional intensity from first track to last. Indeed, ‘One Life Stand’ is by far and away Hot Chip’s most complete body of work to date, an album that is more cohesive and more soulful than 2007’s ambidextrous ‘Made In The Dark’ and more ambitious than 2005’s Mercury nominated and Grammy award nominated ’The Warning’, ‘One Life Stand’ is an album that establishes Hot Chip as one of the most relevant and creative bands of our era.

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/hot-chip-announce-new-album/feed/ 0 http://routenote.com/blog/hot-chip-announce-new-album/ Koalas and Uzis – A Manager’s Journey http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/XwM2w89jHxs/ http://routenote.com/blog/koalas-and-uzis-a-managers-journey/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:53:44 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1924 koalas and uzisI can’t tell you the pleasure it gives me to be able to write a post with Uzi toting Koalas in it. I sit opposite an Australian colleague in the RouteNote office, and ever since they beat us (England) in the four nations he’s been insufferable. Now I have a little more ammunition (pun unfortunately intended) for my long running Skippy-themed chain of banter with him. Sadly the fun is only skin deep as this post from Ian Roger’s personal blog is really interesting and will hopefully be useful to you, gentle reader. Mr. Rogers is the CEO of Topspin media, a company dedicated to accelerating independent bands out of the musical doldrums and getting them noticed online and in the traditional media. Until now, he’s not had the glorious experience of actually managing a band, but he’s personally adopted the ‘Get Busy’ Committee’ a rap outfit from LA (sadly not OZ), and is blogging about the positives and negatives of his experience trying to get them into the limelight. OK so this is nothing to do with mocking the Australians, but it does have a funny Koala in it… Look at him there!

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/koalas-and-uzis-a-managers-journey/feed/ 0 http://routenote.com/blog/koalas-and-uzis-a-managers-journey/ MadTracker – VST Plugin Resource http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/_6j5OIvcRRk/ http://routenote.com/blog/madtracker-vst-plugin-resource/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:40:07 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1919 I'll get you next time, Gadget... (+10pts if you can comment and tell me what that reference is from)All too frequently there comes a moment during the production of a track when you just can’t get the sound you’re looking for. You’ve played all the juice out of the package you’re using and you need a new toy to mess around with – unfortunately, most Plugins are rather expensive as inspiration. Fear not, gentle reader, a solution is at hand, provided by MadTracker: a directory of free, and downloadable plugins for various production platforms. Don’t spend a penny, just rifle through this little cornucopia of free goodness and see what you can find to get you moving again. Don’t thank us – we do it because we love you…

http://www.madtracker.org/plugins.php

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/madtracker-vst-plugin-resource/feed/ 0 http://routenote.com/blog/madtracker-vst-plugin-resource/ Plogue release Chipsounds – Old School Console Music Emulator http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/5ST87zK-tjA/ http://routenote.com/blog/plogue-release-chipsounds-old-school-console-music-emulator/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:11:35 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1916

Canadian company Plogue have built an emulator that replicates all the sound chips from first generation consoles from the Game Boy to the Neo Geo – harness the incredible power of the 80’s arcade!

The plugin reproduces the idiosyncrasies of the most sought-after classic sound chips, including their most well-known variations, as sonically accurate as possible without adding any non-authentic aliasing or DSP artifacts. Whether musicians are already versed into chiptune/chip music or just interested in those sounds, this is one unique instrument for them.

Research and analysis for this project has been made in house on Plogue’s large collection of cartridges, modified consoles and classic computers and also on the chips themselves using custom made circuit boards and low level 8 bit software code.

“The most authentic emulation of C64, Nes, Vic20, Gameboy, and Atari 2600 sound chips I’ve ever heard!” -8 Bit Weapon

“Quite simply put, it beats the s*** out of any other single chip emulation VST currently available.
chipsounds is a must-have for anyone who’s seriously interested in chip sounds but don’t have access to the real hardware.” – nitro2k01 (http://gameboygenius.8bitcollective.com)

Plogue chipsounds will be offered at an introductory price of 75$ until November 1. Listen to what can be produced here:

http://soundcloud.com/chipsounds/sets/chipsounds-ep

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/plogue-release-chipsounds-old-school-console-music-emulator/feed/ 0 http://routenote.com/blog/plogue-release-chipsounds-old-school-console-music-emulator/ Rock Band 3 To Teach People How To Actually Play Musical Instruments http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/3d3wk6cHhJk/ http://routenote.com/blog/rock-band-3-to-teach-people-how-to-actually-play-musical-instruments/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:18:08 +0000 Finchy http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1908 Beatles-Rock-Band-3

Harmonix who are the makers of The Beatles: Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Band Hero, DJ Hero and of course Rock Band are soon be releasing the new Rock Band 3. So far there has been a lot of talk that users are slowly getting a little bit bored of the games, because they cant see how Harmonix can beat The Beatles Rock Band game.

Dhani Harrison, son of Beatles‘ George Harrison has let a little secret slip out as most musicians do during interviews, whether it’s on purpose or not.

According to an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Harrison (who also helped develop The Beatles: Rock Band) shared the fact that Rock Band 3 may be more than just a game to scratch the surface of the brain. Rock Band 3 may actually teach non-musicians how to play real instruments!

We’ve all played Guitar Hero before. They’re just a bunch of buttons you have to click in synchronization with what you see on the screen. Rock Band 3 will somehow go beyond that since Harrison states:

“I’m workin on [...] making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game. [...] Give me a couple years, it’s going to happen.”

This may also explain why Scott Guthrie told IGN that the Rock Band empire was in for some drastic changes:

“We aren’t standing still – we will keep moving into new areas and look at new technologies that our platform holder partners are also developing, such as Project Natal from Microsoft.”

Don’t expect a new tracklist to be your final news for Rock Band 3. If they actually pull this off, it might take a lot longer and be a lot harder.

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/rock-band-3-to-teach-people-how-to-actually-play-musical-instruments/feed/ 1 http://routenote.com/blog/rock-band-3-to-teach-people-how-to-actually-play-musical-instruments/ Electric Six Tour the UK http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/yxP-REU5MtU/ http://routenote.com/blog/electric-six-tour-the-uk/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:07:05 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1887 Since I only tipped you off on the Europe Tour of Europe when it was too late to catch them in the UK here’s some compensation for you: Electric Six, that swaggering love-stick of a band, balanced finely between The Eagles of Death Metal and The Scissor Sisters, seasoned with a pinch of TurboNegro, are doing a UK tour – dates here:

electric six tour dates

They’ve produced two of the most gloriously weird videos I’ve seen in the last decade, and an animated version of one of their songs drew me into a few wasted hours watching mind-pickling oddness on http://rathergood.com – if you’ve got some time to kill, look up Bill Oddie and Pavarotti on there.

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/electric-six-tour-the-uk/feed/ 0 http://routenote.com/blog/electric-six-tour-the-uk/ Marketing the Shirt Off Your Back http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/routenoteblog/~3/kQhqEOrsrwI/ http://routenote.com/blog/marketing-the-shirt-off-your-back/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:51:18 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=1896 Music Marketing dot Com have dropped a line about this guy’s not so novel scheme of selling space on his blog (and his shirt) for a given price every day. You send him a t-shirt, he wears it, and promotes your product for a day on his blog, with the first of Jan costing a dollar, and the 31st of Dec costing $365 ($66,795 in case you’re wondering). While I don’t recommend selling out in quite such a flagrant manner to any aspiring musicians, it does underline the power of brand presence. If you’re going to go to the trouble of organising a tour, getting yourself in front of thousands of people and making a spectacle of yourself, then you might as well take an appropriate sponsor along for the ride, and charge them for the privilege. Unless the idea completely repels you find someone who will benefit from being associated with your music (it could even be a charity if you’re concerned about the whole corporate whore thing) and get them to give you some shirts to wear and stickers for the van. They might even pay for that video camera you’ve been meaning to buy, so that you can get your performance and their logo up on youtube; it needn’t be a blatant thing – get your mate’s t-shirt printing company, or someone else local who has a real connection with your band to help you. Music is a business these days, and business is about relationships – look at sponsorships as a way to build them. This can be a two-way street as well – you can get exposure by them promoting the relationship through their own channels, and maybe even playing at their business events – don’t be afraid to look for ways to grow together with other businesses, especially those close to home or in your area of the market; safety pins and punk music, florists and hippie-folk, brylcreem and Rockabilly…

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