Longing for the day ...

Podcasting

I just spent today listing my podcast in as many places as possible, including this one, which asked me to publish this bit of code here:

My Odeo Channel (odeo/a0359c902d0ff2f1)

Of course, there are lots of other sites that list the damn thing, and I'm going to have to publish it on the side of every page as well ... or something. But right now I'm over this whole experience and want to do something else, so I'll do more podcasting tomorrow ...

Most predictable ARIAs ever ...

Well, I predicted the winners of all but two ARIAS last night. I missed Gotye, mainly because I knew nothing about him - never heard his music and had only heard his name in connection with his nomination; and Sarah Blasko, about whom I really know very little, though I like the song. I also think it's curious that Gotye won the award for a remix compilation of his work. What does THAT say about the mindset of the judges? Is this portent of things to come? Not sure what to make of it ...

But what does it say about the strength of the Australian music industry when most of the nominees and nearly all of the winners were the usual suspects? Where was the unexpected? The depth of talent on show? So many acts received multiple nominations that I have to question where the rest of the industry is. If that's all we have to offer (which I know it isn't) then we don't have a lot to offer, do we? And, as Ben Lee and Delta pointed out, that was without them having anything eligible ...neither were the Veronicas. Next year's cupboard is looking even bearer ...

It was great to see Nick Cave honoured. I'm not a fan but I can see that a lot of other people are and that's enough to put him in that elite company. His longevity and influence are just incredible ... and his demeanor in accepting the award for the other people with whom he worked is a wake-up call for a lot of young egos in the industry. I also loved John Butler's contribution to the social awareness of the evening - and that closing number with Keith Urban was just incendiary. I'd love to get a copy of that - real music played by real musos with passion. That's what it's all about.

It's great to see Aussie music being recognised. I'd accept an ARIA any time ....

Music files may be abundant, but listener value and attention are still scarce.

Just came across this Techdirt article, in which Mike discusses the economics of abundance and therefore the virtues for an artist/band of making music available for free. This is an example of slightly muddled and mistaken thinking but before I show why, I wanna get a coupla things straight.

1) Yes, there can be benefits to giving away recordings. But, as Mike puts it rather succinctly: "Giving stuff away for free needs to be part of a complete business model that recognizes the economic realities." Don't assume that giving recordings away will necessarily get you anywhere.

2) The belief that music should be free and that if it's not people are perfectly justified in ripping it off is a blight on society and must be stamped out (not that it ever will be). I'm all for the cyberpunk ideal and breaking down barriers to progress, but I believe in those things because I think they make for a more reasonable set of conditions for mutual benefit and development. Stealing music, just like stealing bread, cars or life savings, is not being more reasonable. It is being completely one-sided and depriving the other party of the opportunity to renegotiate. If you don't like the price, send a signal by not buying - it has the same effect on the seller but retains your moral rectitude.

Having set that straight, there are a couple of points I take issue with in Mike's article. The first is his quote from Jefferson regarding an idea: "Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it". This refers to what economists call a "non-rivalrous" good. One person having or using it does not prevent another from having or using it. The best example of a non-rivalrous good is air - anyone can breathe it without preventing another from breathing it. However, anyone who's lived in a polluted city like, say Tokyo, LA or Beijing will know that not even air is perfectly non-rivalrous. One person's "use" of the air can make that air unbreathable to other people. Similar limits apply to roads, trains, mail, etc. In any real case there are limits to non-rivalry.

Where this causes problems with respect to ideas, however, is in assuming that each use of an idea is identical - or at least equivalent. Jefferson, like Newton and Einstein, was subsequently proved slightly wrong. One of the problems with ideas, modern psychology tells us, is that no two people have the same ones and, as any teacher will tell you, transferring an idea from one head to another is an imprecise and frustrating process (sometimes that’s a good thing). This is largely because everyone has a previously collected set of idea into which they must fit the new idea - and sometimes it doesn't fit at all. As the saying goes "a little knowledge is dangerous". The more complex the idea, the more difficult is its transferral from one to another.

When it comes to something as complex as artistic expression, as opposed to the sequence of ones and zeros that make up a digital file, the transfer is almost never perfect. While digital files may be perfectly reproducible (see my next point about that), music is not. The greatest art is ambiguous, and this is why it survives: it makes us question, debate and reconsider our lives and our place in the world. It does not supply answers, it asks questions, allowing us to find our own answers. This point lies at the core of why many of the arguments from those who talk up the virtues of "music like water" and treating music as a utility or paying for it via flat taxes or fees attached to digital player sales are just plain wrong: they assume that the value each consumer holds for each song, as with each digital file, is identical. It is not. In terms of their value to listeners, digital files are not songs, or games, or movies. They are merely the electronic embodiment of one version of them. To use the two interchangeably is to miss the entire point of human experience.

So when Mike says to "Redefine the market: the benefit is musical enjoyment" he is quite correct. But he is wrong in the next line - "the music itself" is NOT infinite. The value of the music, as opposed to the vehicle for the recording's distribution, lies in the experience of the listener - whether at a live show, or on the radio driving to work, at the time of a first kiss, watching a poignant moment on a favourite movie, or the birth of a child ... whatever. Even if you send me a copy of your favourite new song discovery, I may not attach the same value to it that you do, simply because of our mindsets at the time of discovery. And its value in an exchange between artist and fan lies in the relationship between those two, which does not necessarily lie in any particular song (or digital file). Radiohead understood this, and although many people (myself included) downloaded the album for free on a "try before you buy" basis, many others paid them handsomely. I have no doubt that they have more than recouped the costs of production.

The next point I want to object to is the use of the word "infinite" when talking about the economics of "abundance". Abundant and infinite are NOT the same thing. "Non-scarce" is closer to "abundant" than "infinite". And in any case, infinite does not exist, it can only ever be approached. Many web servers have crashed because of excess demand while attempting to distribute "infinite" digital goods - rendering them instantly finite as far as consumers are concerned. There are limits to bandwidth and many other factors involved in supply of digital goods. It is simply incorrect to refer to the goods as infinite.

Finally, releasing the "infinite good" does NOT necessarily increase marketsize. This is a well-documented furphy. The best it can hope to do is increase the potential marketsize, and many other activities will achieve the same thing. This is because in an abundant digital economy, marketsize is limited by attention scarcity. This is NOT a new condition for indies. Prince and Radiohead used this to great effect; their stunts garnered them huge amounts of attention. But it was not the giving away of the music they benefited from, it was the attention raised because of the novelty of that approach. Had Radiohead posted their new album as free streams for people to listen to before deciding to buy, they would have provided me with the same service and access - but would not have solved the attention scarcity problem because that's been done plenty of times before. Now that that novelty has been realised, it will not work so well again for them or for anyone else. Incidentally, Prince did NOT give his CD away - he sold it in bulk to a newspaper for more than he probably would have made at retail. He's a smart lad. On the other hand, the poster child for online music business, Jonathan Coulton, does NOT give his digital files away for free (though he's probably not about to sue file-swappers for copying it). Every posting of music on his site links to a pay-for download (one of them is the "pay what you like" site, SongSlide), and you can listen to the streams for free.

If you don't find some way to tell people that the music is available, and find some way to make it relate favourably to their lives, you will gain nothing. This has been the experience of many artists - myself included - whose music has been available for free for months and whose marketsize remains negligible and unsustainable. Similarly, making the music available will make no difference if it is bad. In fact, it may deter people from coming to shows and buying merchandise – such is the double-edged sword of attention.

The upshot of all of this is that what indies need to be discussing is the best means for overcoming attention scarcity, not devaluing music recordings by implying that giving them away is necessarily beneficial. As Bob Leftsetz points out, finding ways to overcome attention scarcity is one of the great assets that the major labels and big players retain. Giving away recordings without addressing the attention scarcity problem is playing back into the hands of "those who refuse to give up their old business models". The only way for indies to compete is to optimise all of their revenue streams, not compromise one in the hope of catching up with another.

Some sense from the other side

I am often amazed at the one-sidedness of discussion about free music. It always seems to reflect the view that bands, artists or record companies have been ripping consumers off for so long that therefore any steps taken to obtain music for free are quite justified and OK. But I don't subscribe to that view and never have .. and never will. As with all things, there needs to be a sense of balance about this sort of thing.

So I was pleasantly surprised to read an article in Puddlegum that sets out the case for the artist whose music is ripped off and given away without their permission. It's entitled "Our entitlement mentality" and some of the comments posted to it reflect exactly what it's about ... sadly.

Those commenters have completely missed the point, which is that creating the music is neither free nor easy, and the creators are entitled to some mechanism for recouping the costs of recording and promoting. To argue that they are dumb to sign a label deal of that kind is missing the point - if they put up their own money they'd be in exactly the same situation. It's also pointless to argue that they should aim to recoup costs from live performance, etc, because they are probably $50K in the hole before they start paying for touring costs, etc. For an indie band, that's a huge fiscal mountain to climb.

There is no way for consumers to argue that artists should not be entitled to some payment for their creativity. Whether it's by the Radiohead/Sheba model of "pay us what it's worth", or by iTunes revenues or whatever, the music cannot be assumed to be free by consumers - otherwise the relationship has swung too far back in favour of the listener/fan and away from the sustainability of the artist ...

Sadly, a generation of music listeners (I won't call them fans because that implies that they respect and support the artist) HAS grown up with the expectation that demanding free music is acceptable. That's the real travesty of this situation.

7 Stupid Mistakes

I found this yesterday. The e-book is not bad and you can get it free if you tell four other people about it. It's called "The 7 Stupid Mistakes People Make Trying To Get Into The Music Business" and it seems pretty accurate. It's only 20-odd pages long - I read it all in bed last night - but it's geared to make you think about what you're doing.

Like a lot of these things, it's light on detail and the "how-tos" of avoiding these mistakes, but it at least draws the reader's attention to what they are and points out the folly of the mistaken approach. It's based entirely on the authors' subjective reflection on their personal experience in one small part of the industry and it is, of course, designed to attract attention to its authors' consultancy services helping independent musos make their way in the world, so it's not really free.

But it's well worth the price of admission ...

Song contests

Coupla years ago a friend of mine won a major songwriting contest in Australia but, much to his frustration, told me that success didn't translate into better fortunes as a performer. Since I heard that story I have been wondering about the effectiveness of entering these competitions as a device for career development.

This year I entered fRETfEST, and made the semi-finals, but also entered three songs in the Q-Song Awards and got nothing. For the record, I have entered the "12 Good bars and True" in the International Songwriting Competition, and am planning to enter "Vital Signs" in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition. We'll soon see what, if any, advantage this gets me. It's certainly aiming high (I'm not holding my breath to win anything), but I figure the most important thing about entering these big competitions is to get your songs in front of the judges. The winner will be a fairly subjective selection, but I'm pretty sure having placed in the top ten and getting your songs noticed by people at this level in the industry can't be a bad thing. The prizes on offer would be nice, but the prize of getting my song recorded by a major artist is even better.

However, over at Hometracked, Des has reported on his experience and posted some thoughts about it. I think he's spot on, though his title is misleading in that he's not talking about songwriting so much as band performance. His experience is that his band performed live in front of judges, hence the emphasis on appearance, etc. I also doubt that this aspect is one that can be turned into a sustainable revenue stream, though the one-off winnings would be great and it gives you a reason to promote as well as a line in the band biog.

I also think the real virtues of these things are in giving your practices a focus and getting feedback on how you're doing - regardless of the result, always get as much feedback as you can from as many sources as possible!

Well done, Springboks.

At least the Webb Ellis Trophy is back in the southern Hemisphere where it belongs - albeit on the wrong side of the Indian Ocean ...

After Sunday morning's bore-fest I'd be surprised if the tournament won any new fans but it was, at least, a gripping contest because of the closeness of the sides. The English played tighter than they had all year and gave the 'Boks a few scares, but the South Africans seemed to always have their opponents' measure and were never really threatened. They wobbled a bit about 10 minutes into the second half but the English lost their composure in trying to take advantage and the Springboks regained theirs quite quickly.

I would have loved to see a game in which a team with a bit more flare took on the 'Boks - say the All Blacks or the Wallabies. Even Argentina or Fiji would have provided better entertainment. Still, these tournaments are as much a test of you ability to maintain the right attitude off the field as they are about winning the battle on the day - and the Wallabies and All Blacks both proved unworthy.

Four more years, boys, and we'll try again. In the meantime, South Africa can enjoy a bit of Pommie-sledging and celebration. They need it.

Awesome election rap battle

A friend of mine posted this to Facebook, and I thought it was so brilliant I'd have to share it.

Have to find out more about these guys: The Axis of Awesome.But first, here's their election rap:

The murky aspects of life ...

Last night I caught an episode of House and then half of Life on Channel 10. I love House because most of the time it deals with those murky areas of life where what is good and pure and right is not so evident, and the characters have to probe their self-awareness and question what makes them who they are and why they do what they do. The characters who are unlikeable for in many ways but who nonetheless redeem themselves through their limited virtues. Life is shaping up the same. I'm not so keen on shows where everything is nice and neat and the good guy always does the right thing and wins. That's not how life works ...

Anyway, I particularly liked last night's episode because it took Dr House to a point where he did something radical to test his own beliefs (electrocuted himself), while simultaneously the show's puritan good guy, Foreman, found in his new environment that there's a down side to following your beliefs when you're mixed up with bureaucracy, which forced him to question his. Best line of the night came from the Hospital administrator right before she sacked Foreman after he had defied her and saved a patient's life: "You confused doing what's right with saving a life ... " or something like that.

Too much of Western society is bound up in rules that exist solely for the purpose of preventing people from having experiences that may or may not result in them being extremely uncomfortable - professionally, financially or personally - but it's those experiences that make life worth living. The pain reminds us that we're alive, and avoiding it at all cost means reducing life to mere existence. Only by experiencing the pain do we become aware of who we are, why we're here and what being here means.

And yes, sometimes we get that wrong and the pain becomes unendurable or the clouded judgment is incorrect. That inevitably leads to tragedy but the other aspect to that is that none of this happens purely to individuals - there's a lesson in everything for all of us. That's what the butterfly effect is all about and that's what separates great art from window dressing - great art and great entertainment take us to other places and bring us back with a better understanding of who we are.

That's why I love House so much - when they get it right ...

OK, OK, I now have Sonicbids ...

Despite my own better judgement, I have finally got around to signing up for a Sonicbids account for The Genre Benders. I have resisted this for a long time because I could not see the value proposition in it as working for me, but ... well, I wanted to enter "12 Good Bars and True" in the International Songwriting Competition - just to see what might happen - and Sonicbids was the best way to do it.

Looking through what's on the inside, I gotta say that I still don't see much value in it. There are not many opportunities in Australia and the fees for any that look reliable overseas are ... beyond my reach. I did enter the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, mainly to see what would happen. I'm not holding my breath to get in, though. Still, I guess if I'd never put myself forward, I have no chance ... and all that. Would be a lot of fun if I did.

We'll just have to see and, either way, it's good data ...

Hypebot's 100 Free & Affordable High & Low Tech Music Promotion Tips

I've been following this for a while now and there's some really good stuff in here. Handy, simple and cheap. Of course, not all of them will work for everyone and some of them will not work at all once everyone starts using them.

They address the artists' attitudes and expectations as well as purely practical tips, which is essential in anything in this field. If your attitude is wrong, the results will not come no matter how easy the tips you're given.

Still, it's a great idea and they want your ideas for the final 10 ...

Update: The full list of all 100 tips is now available on one page.

Jmag's best advice ...

Jmag, Triple J radio's print extension, has started publishing its "How to ... " section on a blog. I've not read many of these, but they seem to be packed with a bunch of great advice for indies on various aspects of getting where you want to go.

But, as with every bit of advice you receive, filter all of this. Some of it seems specific to Australia, some of it seems to be pushing particular barrows, and some of it seems like nonsense to me ...

And I still don't get why Jmag isn't available via RSS ... Jenny????

Not Radiohead, Regurgitator!

Like the sheep I can sometimes be, I defied my track record of finding Radiohead's music boring and art-wanky and downloaded the free new album. I paid nothing for it, on the promise that I'd send them something if it was as awesome as they are supposed to be. I think I got the price right!

I downloaded it this morning and played it at the first opportunity. Not only did it reinforce my view of Radiohead as the most over-rated and boring band in history, but it sheeted home to me how good Regurgitator's new album, which was next on my playlist, is. Full of hooks, interesting sounds and energy, but loaded with the same cheeky energy as their live show, which I caught as a showcase at the Big Sound conference. Even more lucky, I was given a free copy of both Regurgitator's and I Heart Hiroshima's new albums by their manager, Paul Curtis. (Curtis is a great guy and every Indie who meets him should use the opportunity to get inside that head - if you can. He's incredible the way he gets what he needs for his bands. learn from his approach!)

Both of these are Brissie bands and, while I found I Heart Hiroshima less than personally gratifying, I can see why a lot of people love their stuff and I can see a great future for them. This is the first Regurgitator album I've owned, despite sharing rehearsal space with them in the early '90s and watching a heap of their early shows. I just never quite got their vibe - until now. They have the same quirky energy that I think my music does ... perhaps it's a Brissie thing not to take it all too seriously.

Anyway, I love it and urge everyone to support the 'Gurge and ignore the bloated art-bombast of over-hyped Pommies ...

(More on their business approach, which IS interesting, later)

Update: people who disagree with me about Radiohead can be found here and here and, for the complete masochist in me, here. Seems I'm in the minority, but I'm happy to revisit the question in 20 years ...

Darn! Fell at the last hurdle.

Missed out on the fRETfEST final. I can't really argue with the people who made it in - they're all interesting - but there are a couple that I wonder what the judges see in them. I take comfort in the idea that very few of the great bands ever won a comp ... but I've learned a heap and met some great people.

I'm not too disappointed because I realised quite early that I'm a fish out of water in that company - singing straight pop in a folky singer-songwriter space. Some of those guys are really awesome and my tip to win it is Matt. He's got an amazing voice and an really great guitar technique. Best wishes to all of the contestants.

Of course, this frees me up a bit to do other tings that need to happen - like get gigs and make contact with fans.

Radiohead wrap

This came out of a discussion on MusicThoughts. There's heap of commentary about the new Radiohead approach to releasing albums but I think a lot of people are reading far too much into this. The strategy is transparent and ... well ... a no-brainer.

They have two main priorities: 1) recoup costs of making the album and 2) pre-promote it as much and as far as possible. Nothing new there - that's the eternal problem of new releases.

On 1), my bet is that they have budgeted to sell enough units of the high-price packages to recoup. Hard-core fans will lap it up and will support the band (I'm not a fan, BTW). Anything they make on lesser packages and DD is a bonus - hence the "what it's worth" approach. This is just differential pricing applied to music packages - nothing new here.

On 2), well it's gold. They've gotten world-wide attention for their album because of the strategy, not the album. I call this "third leg" marketing and they've done it brilliantly. The trouble is that it won't work next time because it's been done already - they will have to innovate again ... and the album had better be great because otherwise it won't live up to the hype and they'll fall victim to the same trap as the majors in recent years. Note, also that, having made a huge splash, they're now being "courted" by majors for the hard-copy release (http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003653086) - I hope that isn't seen as cynical and doesn't backfire. *Never* disappoint the music-buying public - especially the anti-label crowd.

As a result of 2) they will probably make a heap from merch, hard copies of the eventual release and touring but, as a strategy, that's not gonna help anyone else much. Nice idea, but use once and throw away. A bit like their records, IMHO - though I'll certainly give this one a listen.

But if, as Coolfer notes, this innovation has gotten people thinking long and hard about alternatives to the dominant paradigm, that wonderful and I'm all for it. bring on the evolution!

More of me in Philly

Again, from Rachel Rocks, a review and another photo ...

"HUGE came all the way from Australia to check out the IMC. When he performed, he came out wearing these funky pants, that made you think he’s a little crazy, but then he starts singing and you realize how cool he is. With all the “Ooooo! and Ahhhhh! he had the crowd doing I believe everyone was amazed by Huge. You barely walked down the hall till you heard his name being yelled. He was definitely a big hit at the conference."

Here's the other pic:

Vital Signs

This song came to me in two separate parts. The chorus woke me up about 2am one morning while I was enjoying a cuddle with my beloved wife and I starting thinking about how lucky I am to be in that position and how fragile relationships can be. The music came to me while I was practicing an arpeggiation pattern and moving it around different chord combinations as simply as I could. The parts came together over a period of ... weeks, I guess. The rest pretty much wrote itself once I had the basic ideas down.

The song debuted in my fRETfEST semi-final, October 2007, and seemed to go down well. Steve Dillon was there and said it was a good song and my best so far, so I thought I'd better post it ASAP and see what people think ... ??? You can listen to a stream here or download it (mp3, 5.4MB) here. I performed everything and it was recorded at QUT by Adam Howard and mixed, etc by me at home.

Vital Signs

Will we be lovers this afternoon?
Will I still see you after dawn?
I won't lie, I want to keep you near.
I can't believe you and I are here.

Let me lay my head on your chest. I want to hear your vital signs.
In the still of the night I need to know I'm alive.
Stay with me. Let our lives align.
Hold me close. Be forever mine.

Will we find happiness together?
Will we find peace between ourselves?
I won't lie and say the future's clear.
I can't believe you and I are here.

Let me lay my head on your chest. I want to hear your vital signs.
In the still of the night I need to know I'm alive.
Stay with me. Let our lives align.
Hold me close. Be forever mine.

Moonlight shines on you
A silver glow.
I feel your soul inside me.
Will we grow?
I can't say but this I testify.
All I know is I would like to try.

Let me lay my head on your chest. I want to hear your vital signs.
In the still of the night I need to know I'm alive.
Please don't lie. That's my deepest fear.
I want to believe our future's clear.
Stay with me. Watch our worlds entwine.
I want to believe you'll be forever mine.
Now hold me close and be forever mine.

*****************************************

Here's a video of me performing it at SNQ Presents, Kitty O'Shea's, in May 2010:

*****************************************

Please note: This song is APRA registered: Work ID GW35903985; ISWC T-060949628-7. You can copy, reproduce and distribute any part of these lyrics and chords for any non-commercial purpose as long as you acknowledge its source. I'm interested in your feedback, comments, suggestions. If you make something good out of it, let me know and I'll consider adding it to this site.

If you perform it or broadcast it for any purpose, please let APRA know.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

Well done, England.

It pains me to say it, but the Poms played very well last night and deserved their win. They wanted it more and played accordingly - the Wallabies were disjointed, distracted and never really in the match. They played too wide too early (as they did again Fiji and looked bad) and lacked discipline, which ultimately cost them the match.

A very disappointing end to a wasted opportunity for them. Just not good enough.

At least the All Blacks choked as well ... :-)

Four more years, boys ...

Well done, Melbourne!!

Never thought I'd cheers a Melbourne sporting success but I love it when anyone beats Manly. Awesome, boys - comprehensive and clinical.

They had to work for it, but they got there in the end and deserved their win.

Now, lose Brisbane next year! :-)

Through to the Semis!

Wow! I'm in the final 20 performers in fRETfEST. Given the competition I saw last Saturday, I'm blown away by that. They were all so good ... some amazing songs and great performances. Honoured to be in that company.

This is a great boost to my performers ego and songwriters soul. But I'm not sure how I'll manage to practice this week, since I'm off to the Big Sound conference for the next three days - all day and all evening ...

Also, I haven't worked up my second song properly yet. It's still a work in progress, so I'll have to get stuck into it today and for the rest of the week. And, of course, I have to promote, promote, promote ...