Longing for the day ...

Popularity and diversity

Found an interesting article that argues that too much diversity can make people jaded about choice. I think this is spot on, and it's why a lot of the hyperbolic suggestions about the Internet providing venue for lots of alternative music and art to suddenly become popular was utter bollocks.

This blogger is referring to Satellite radio programming, which provides 70 channels of music he could listen to. After a brief period of experimentation, he now limits himself to a few that he know work for him. This is a "media consumer" behaviour that is repeated time and again around the world. In fact, it's not limited to media - pick a product and you see it happen there, too.

See, people like journalists, radio programmers and their ilk because they reduce the need to make choices. I don't want to know wverything that's going on in my world - just the interesting bits. Hence, the work of a journalist as "gatekeeper" is important. Similarly, listening to the radio is grewat because it provides a variety of music without me having to get up and decide what I want to hear. Sometimes it's great to hear something that I wouldn't have put on if given the choice.

However, that's not to say that the Internet hasn't been a breath of fresh air in terms of choice. The big record companies have, for too long, limited the choices too narrowly because that limits their risk (and maximises their profits) in the marketplace. From a music fan's point of view, not good.

Take my two favourite radio stations MMMFM and 97.3FM, for example. Triple M is part of the Austereo network - very uch in the lap of the majors - and plays lots of classic rock, a bit of pop ... pretty mainstream stuff. I like 97.3 because they play a LOT more music and less ads, talkative show hosts, "humour" and so on. They play up the variety of music they play - but it's pretty much mainstream pop and a bit painful at times.

So, I tend to switch between the two. But Triple M have just run "The Essential 2005 Countdown" in which they played 2005 songs nominated by listeners as "essential". Now THAT was a breath of fresh air. Some songs I hadn't heard for ages, some I'd rather not hear again for a while - but plenty of programmed variety. and they seem to be making a concerted effort to keep playing things people don't hear everywhere else (every so often).

On the other hand, 97.3 plays a reasonable variety during the day - not too many repeats - but the same set day after day! I think it's on a two-week roster. Listen on Monday and you can pretty much predict what you're going to hear for teh rest of the week. This gets very frustrating and makes me change back to the talkative hosts.

The point of this rant, I guess, is that people make these choices all the time. There are plenty of other stations in Brisbane that I could listen to but usually don't. Normally, that's because I pretty much get what I want from one of those two stations and am not sure what I'll get from the others.

I just wish they's play my tunes ...

Lies, damn lies and the music industry

Finally, some respectable research has pointed out the utter bollocks that ARIA has been sprouting about music sales figures in Australia. I almost gagged on the contradiction between the sales figures and the spin when they were released, and it's good to see someone has done a more rigorous analysis of the deception.

Of course, this myopic attitude is simply leading more people like Bun' Ber E and myself to bypass the traditional music-industry channels and seek distribution via the truly independent, worldwide distribution systems that the Internet has made possible. We do so without fear of peer-to-peer exchanges or CD ripping because the economics of our production is so different.

Releasing music through "iTunes and other pay-per download sites has been a great call for Bun' Ber E. I suspect it will be for many other "independent" artists. I certainly intend to use it for my releases.

What's really extraordinary, though, is that, following a single press release campaign via the web, Bun' Ber E's second release has attracted attention from radio stations across the US (www.kfok.org, CA; Will-FM, IL; KREV-LP 104.7 FM, CO; www.wuftfm.org, FL; www.kmud.org, CA; and WORT 89.9 FM, WI), in Japan and in Germany. Now, I would have thought that that kind of public response would indicate a certain market that could be hit quite profitably (especially given that our European iTunes sales are more than double those in the US) but are the record comanies interested? No!

Make no mistake, these are not speculative requests for the CDs. These are all responses from radio stations that have heard the music (thanks also to the power of the web) and think their audiences will like it. But the closest we've gotten to a record company is that MRA Entertainment, a local company with global distribution, commissioned us to make a generic recording of "Pipes and Drums of Scotland" - which has sold well all over the world. Are they interested in our other releases? They said they'd "listen to it" and the silence has been deafening.

This is the same risk-averse myopia that has led to the phenomenon noted in the above article. Boring music, more restricted choice, lower sales - well, DUH!

Bring on the wonderful world of music via the world-wide web.

Late addendum:

Just found out that the sales figures for CDs continue to improve (a 1.6 percent rise or 817 million CDs) in the second half of 2004 - but not as much as those for digital downloads (the legal ones, that is - a 376 percent rise or 91.4 million digital tracks). So much for the theory that the pitiful few tracks that are ripped or swapped are denting the market. I'd have thought that competition like this would be far more significant.

BTW - these are US figures, so the argument that the Australian market is an aberration, which was included in the ARIA spin, does not hold either.

Of course, the major chain music stores - those that sell what the major record companies tell them to - all reported reductions in CD sales. Also, not surprisingly, stores that discounted prices did better - their market share grew ...

Well - DUH!!

Making something out of tragedy

I hope Adam Gilchrist is right.

If there's one good thing that has come out of the Asian Tsunami, it's the opportunity for the West, particularly the "Coalition of the Willing" to put some effort into making a third-world nation a genuinely better place. To win the hearts and minds of some who may dislike the self-interest and pompous piety of the "haves".

But doing so will not, I suspect, be accomplished with a short-term injection of "foreign aid" that helps rebuild the shattered infrastructure of the affected countries. Doing so will require a long-term compassionate involvement in rebuilding education facilities, teaching better farming practices, sharing some of the benefits of what we know and have invented - rebuilding lives. It's great to see some nations writing off old foreign aid debts, for example.

That means not just saying "You can have this technology/information/facility at our price" but saying "Here, try this for free - it worked for us". Only that kind of long-term relief and assistance will win the hearts and minds of potential third-world terrorists as well as filling their bellies and helping their quality of life. And only a sustained, long-term program of appropriate assistance will do - despit the impressive numbers, the orgasmic fundraising efforts are thus far only a catharsis for Western consciences.

Too many of the efforts Westerners put into third-world nations are inappropriate and half-assed. In Papua New Guinea I saw plenty of villages with a Rotary-funded building called a hospital; with great facilities for providing medical services. But none of these was stocked or staffed. The Rotary people came to PNG, built the building, got their pictures taken beside it, felt good about themselves and then walked away. A year later, the net benefit is negligible.

So I hope Gilly gets what he wanted: a program for Australians to help our neightbours that goes beyond the short-term efforts and really makes the world a sustainably better place. That would do more to win the "War on Terrorism" than the invasion of every potentially despotic nation on the planet.

Devastating Media Tsunami

Welcome to 2005.

I have to confess I'm not sure which I find more nauseating: the scenes of horror coming out of (mainly) Indonesia and Sri Lanka or the thinly-disguised orgy of self-interest that's dominating our media ever since. Simon Chapman makes a very valid point when he notes that, while it's icky to be seen to knock people who are donating funds to charitable causes, it's similarly icky to consider that some of those donations might be driven purely by a perceived opportunity to profit ... from the suffering of others.

As well as charity not needing to be seen, I'm not sure Channel Nine can justify the sickening self-promotion that they're indulging in. Ray Martin is starting to sound like Russel Coight ...

Similarly, I was sickened to watch and listen to our Prime Minister taking every opportunity to benefit from his involvement in today's cricket match. I mean, he needed to be there, do the toss, get his message out ... but the drivel that was braodcast when he was in the commentary box (I feel sorry for Jason Gillespie having to be a part of it) was nothing but self-serving dross. We didn't need that!

I realise that this is probably meant to make life easier for the Tsunami victims but ... it just feels icky when it should be making me proud. That's wrong.

Asian Tsunami

(This space left blank in silent respect for those who have lost everything)

Happy new year

Well, it's that time of year again. Having busted a gut in the lead-up to a New Year's Eve rock-out, I'm off to the farm for a week's holiday with the kids.

Plenty of exciting news to discuss when I return, and jobs to pursue.

It's all good right now.

(Condolences to those less fortunate.)