MUSIC! The future looks…?

While conducting the interview we did with Tom Brown, the big boss man over at Lex Records (click here to read the article in full), among the fascinating amount of insight we were lucky to get from him, he did say something that was something of a frightening sum up of where the music industry could very well be heading , and the impact of emerging technologies on the industry:

Another thing to think about is where you can buy music now. Borders has stopped selling music, half of the indie stores in the country have shut down. That's all going, and whilst digital sales are taking off, they're not coming close to replacing physical sales. I think it's all going to change again when Spotify and similar services start to gain momentum, because that's going to be lead by technology. When people would be buying CDs in shops, it'll be irrelevant if you can just type it into a database and take any song in the world. Some point soon, the whole structure of funding independent labels is just going to disappear and no one knows what's going to replace it. So you've got to look at what you're investing money in and how you're going to make it work. It's definitely had a really generic impact on the process we've invested in and started work on. * Tom Brown, Lex Records

In truth, people either embrace these emerging trends, or shun them, so we thought it would be good to open up the floor to Team LF and see how we each interpreted this (scary/exciting) vision of the future…

Siobhan Rooney:

I'm nostalgic about the CD. Little can replace that teenage feeling of unearthing a £5 copy of ‘Nevermind’ in HMV and flicking through the sleeve lyrics, or admiring Storm Thorgerson's iconic artwork for Pink Floyd. So why haven't I bought one for years?

Music provides the soundtrack to our lives more than ever: iPods are as necessary as keys and wallets when stepping outside, and a lot more compact than a bulky discman and stack of plastic. However, just because the music isn't as tangible physically, it doesn't mean that owning it is any less important. Streaming services like Spotify are great at introducing you to an artist where a 10 second preview on iTunes isn't really sufficient, but if I like a song I'll buy it and not necessarily the whole CD it features on. If anything positive has emerged from downloading, it’s that it discourages
bands from making boring album filler tracks and let’s be honest, ‘Nevermind’ has a few.

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Hecuba - live review

Tristan Hanks:

When songs cost a mere 79p to download, it seems it will be difficult to make money out of selling music anymore. Tours are now where the money is and this is evident in the amount of high-profile gigs happening at the moment in places like the O2, where as many punters as possible are crammed together paying inflated ticket prices. This only benefits already established acts, and, at the rate smaller venues are closing, there will soon be nowhere to nurture new talent. Spotify and the like are great for previewing songs but it seems people aren't racing to pay a subscription when they can basically listen for free if they don't mind a few ads chucked in. Spotify has already been forced to stop letting people join the free version and now they have to be invited by existing Spotify users.

There has recently been a story going around that Lady GaGa earned a paltry $167 for a million downloads of 'Poker Face' on Spotify. This may be well off the actual amount but it does raise the issue of whether a career in music is feasible as a track costs more to make than the possible download returns. The only upside to this might be that the quality will rise and really good stuff will get the backing it deserves, but if a living can't be made then what's the point? The real point is that music is an artform and should really be done purely for love, unfortunately this is the real world and this will just lead to the dreadful prospect of popstars children making the music of the future. It will be niche genres and underground artists who will suffer the most, unless like Burial this year they adopt a burgeoning genre and smooth it down for the masses.

With X Factor types dominating both download and traditional charts, it will be difficult for anyone to break through without the financial backing that someone like Susan Boyle has. Also her CD has physically sold thousands because her target market are not ready for downloading just yet. The future could be bleak but like Punk, some of the best music is made at times of strife. So let's hope some genius creates a genuinely new sound, or someone assassinates Simon Cowell. Either way, music lovers win!

Lee Mortimer Interview

Beak - live review

Imran Mirza:

To me, Tom’s above comments are as scary as when Kyle Reese first outlined the apocalyptic machine-ruled future for Sarah Connor, but what makes me the most weary, is that I think the long-term victim of this will be … the album! The majority of people I know are happy to have everything on their iPod or MP3 player and to just randomly skip through it all, regardless of album, artists or genre. For some reason, I find myself – almost obsessively – having to listen to an album in its entirety. Every time. For me, any album is a journey – naturally some journeys are better than others, but an album is something I still look forward to. I often think that an album has really become something of a forgotten artform – not something forgotten by the artist, but by the consumer. We're now fully able to pick and choose songs, create our own digital playlists, delete ones we don't like, so it's completely understandable how it’s evolved to this, but naturally, the fear is that artists will strive to create great ‘singles’, as opposed to great ‘albums’, all in an effort to keep afloat in this business.

Further to that though, naturally these changes will hit the independent circuit far sooner and stronger than the majors, but we’re in a time now where consumers are far more knowledgeable about what they want to hear, and with the world wide web literally being beamed to your computer screen, it’s far more easier to discover new talent and for listeners to
take responsibility for they want to listen to.

Jose James Interview

Greg Boyer Interview

Daniel Collacott:
I can't agree enough with the above but for some disturbing reason I am going to OUT my tortured inner-geek in this article by revealing one of the biggest problems with the MP3. But before I don my padded body warmer and get into it, I just wanted to say how much I miss buying CDs - the artwork the limited editions, holographic cds and special imprints and all the novelty marketing carried out (like the Wildhearts providing you a free section of grass on one CD - and no not that type of GRASS although that is what I think was being represented) and remember those daft four CD single sets - where you bought the same single four times to complete the box set (all very slightly different radio edits and remixes that you didn't need)???

I still have hundreds of the CDs gathering dust but I find it hard to still buy even 10% of what I did in the 90s.

Anyway back to the geek bit - too many people are listening to low quality music ripped from the radio and internet sources, or just saved at a low bitrate in the first place, ya-see people don't tend to realise that even at 320kps a MP3 is not as a good quality as the same track on a CD (nor the vinyl before it) - yes you have FLAC lossless (for you cheeky Mac users) but the majority of tracks illegally downloaded out there sound like they're being played through a Gameboy (anything under 192kps is likely to be dire). But it's free right! So no-one cares, or it's only being played on an IPOD/IPHONE through terrible Apple headphones so it doesn't need to sound that great anyway. Don't get me wrong most legal downloads are passable, but the MP3 is still a dumbed down format however you look at it.

Right enough of that, ultimately musicians now work harder than ever to deliver something that people want and it really is us that benefit. Artists have to find many different ways of connecting with their fans, they actually have to get to know their 'customers' and realise that egotistical and diva-ish behaviour won't win them followers. The live show is now more important than ever, but I can't help feel that the gap between those who make money and those that don't is now even bigger than ever, even if it is easier to reach people and get your music heard. Let's face it the UK market is the most fickle ever and too much power is wielded by to few.

Finally it is not just music that is threatened by the growing digital age, films and very soon books will be under threat unless some form of control is imposed on internet users. Much as I love the internet and I love the free dissemenation of people's work, I am opposed to an age were we can all take what we want, when we want it. We need to support artists and the talent that is out there. Music, books and film are too important to our lives and whilst I don't think we should be turning everyone into millionaires I do defend the right for people to make a living out of their art.