Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: You've gotta hand it to Steve

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  • Nobody Important,

    an album in Wal-mart or the like is still around $10-12 and a iTunes album (average tracks 15) is just under $15.....and you get a CD to do what you like with.
    Now if they made the iTunes album $7.

    and that's the kicker right there .... you pay as much for a downloaded album as you would a CD. And the record companies are claiming they're being hard done by? What do they actually do for their (rather large) share of the pie anymore? Aside from lobby governments for protection?
    As someone else noted earlier - imagine downloading an album for $2 ... sales would skyrocket.

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report

  • Nobody Important,

    oh yeh, and thanks for the link to the Dawn Raid story (just back from OS so I missed the weekend papers). In that story it said:

    The brothers [Adeaze] were no longer managed by Dawn Raid but Tupa'i said he was trying to find out if they were still contracted to the label.

    No doubt Mr Grigg can clarify this, but I'd imagine if the companies were wound up the artists would become free agents? Small compensation if they're owed money by DawnRaid unfortunately.
    and has anyone told Mr Grigg he got nary a mention in the piece **60 Minutes**__ did on Pauly's 'comeback' last month? I doubt it screened in Bali. (and hence I doubt he cares)__

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    as I know better than most, you can't run a record label on fumes. Only two NZ hip hop albums have ever really sold any real quantities and sadly neither are on Dawn Raid. It's also not smart to go on TV and boast about how much money you've made...

    Indeed. They had three #1 singles and several more Top 10, but that just means they got a lot of radioplay.

    But I thought the clothing and studio businesses and the Boost Mobile sponsorships were providing the income to support the business. Clearly not.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • rodgerd,

    but my plan for the future is to rip a master to something lossless like FLAC and then transcode to a compressed format, prolly Ogg, as required.

    Yeah, what he said. I've started playing with re-ripping my CDs to FLACs. I had been doing 192 kbps MP3s.

    Lossy audio compression as the future distribution of music makes me sad. I don't want to sound like one of those $100/m speaker cable nuts, because I'm not, but honestly, there's a lot of music where the difference between a CD and an MP3, Ogg, or AAC rip, even a good one, is glaringly obvious.

    (On the other hand, there are CDs I own where it wouldn't matter if it was 64kbps MP3s, because honestly, the recoridng is crap. Rammstein and my Carmina recording, I'm looking at you!)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    No doubt Mr Grigg can clarify this, but I'd imagine if the companies were wound up the artists would become free agents? Small compensation if they're owed money by DawnRaid unfortunately.

    It depends on the contract..most lawyers would insert a liquidation clause, but, and I may need a lawyer to back this as I might be wrong in 2007, in the past many contracts have gone as company assets to new owners, often the banks. Existing releases certainly usually do or are sold by the liquidators.

    nary a mention in the piece 60 Minutes did on Pauly's 'comeback' last month? I doubt it screened in Bali. (and hence I doubt he cares)

    Just the way I like it. I was actually interviewed by Haydn for it as a backgrounder but, no, I've not seen it however both Alan and Paul seemed happy with it. I'm working with Alan on other projects (just finished an album.....yes an album but not quite in the accepted seense...a band called The Others) right now.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hamboy,

    Which brings me to the sad part of the whole digital revolution...the impending death of the trawl through dirty boxes in the dark corners of a junk or opportunity shop for second hand gems.

    It'll be replaced by those gems you find when you are trawling though the download site.... looking for that song..... with the line in it..... by that band called..... damn I used to know their name.
    Most of the songs I've downloaded are ones I have stumbled across looking for something else.

    Perhaps we shouldn't make search engines too perfect. We will miss out on stumbling across all the interesting weirdness that is the internet.

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 162 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    It'll be replaced by those gems you find when you are trawling though the download site

    I think the joys of the MP3 blog have already taken us there. I was just feeling a brief twang of nostalgia for all those long gone junk shops in Dominion Road and Kingsland that I spent too many lecture hours in when I was at Uni.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Hamboy,

    I was just feeling a brief twang of nostalgia for all those long gone junk shops in Dominion Road and Kingsland that I spent too many lecture hours in when I was at Uni.

    Sitting in the office working (well pretending to), does that for me anyway.

    Hmmm, I sound like I'm selling palm oil. lol

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 162 posts Report

  • Nobody Important,

    I was just feeling a brief twang of nostalgia for...

    Anyone remember the name of that second hand record stall in the Bohemian market that lived in what is now the Bivouc Centre (I think) in the basement of the Whitcoulls building, on Queen Street? Was it the original Revival Records? Or Vinyl Exchange?

    I remember hatching a cunning plan to steal bulk records from The Record Warehouse across the road (almost) in Durham Street West. That building (and the Cinerama) are long gone now. As is The Cook St Market, where Mr Grigg DJ'ed upstairs at Diamond Lil's I believe?

    Oops, a bit off topic (I'm prone to that)

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    Indeed. They [Dawnraid] had three #1 singles and several more Top 10, but that just means they got a lot of radioplay.

    A couple of years ago I was trawling through the second-hand bins in Real Groovy's basement (back then they had separated out all the second-hand stuff). I decided to do a quick head count of second-hand NZ music.

    I remember there was heaps of Stellar's second album, The Magic Line, but I was most amazed to see maybe a dozen copies of Alphrisk's (one of the lesser-known Deceptikonz) solo CD "The Best Kept Secret" (too well kept, it seems). I didn't even know such an album existed.

    All that glitters, etc.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    As is The Cook St Market, where Mr Grigg DJ'ed upstairs at Diamond Lil's I believe?

    not quite Diamond Lil's...it was the Six Month Club, with messers Urlich & Phillips, but we shared the space, called The Ace of Clubs, owned by Phil Warren, RIP.

    The downstairs vinyl place was, I think Vinyl Exchange...Neville's Record Exchange was in St Kevin's Arcade.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Stephen Judd,

    Advice from Dick Dale

    ... and that's the reason why the system hates Dick Dale.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    From the Register via Bob Daktari's blog

    Free music has never looked so cheap

    For the major record labels, yesterday's deal between EMI and Apple doesn't herald a new beginning, but the beginning of the end.

    I'm not sure if I buy all it's logic but I do agree that Apple and EMI have made the online album less viable as a unit.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • merc,

    Dick Dale is the King of the Surf guitar, no question and he's right, 100% right. I've been in the grinder and it's funny because Jung was right,
    "The ego is always rewarded in cash."

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report

  • Stephen Judd,

    You'll be pleased to know, merc, that at my urging the Benka Borodovsky Bordello Band is performing [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misirlou|Misirlou].

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report

  • 3410,

    Simon says:

    Why did people buy The Wall or all those horrendous Dire Straits albums...because of the songs they liked on the radio.

    Not the best examples you could've given. I'll leave Dire Straights for now except to remember my late Grandpop's oft-repeated witticism: "You'd have to be in dire straights to listen to 'em", but The Wall is really a great example of a, like it or not, creatively very impressive album (and a long one at that), the enormous popularity of which had little to do with singles. I can think of 4 from that record, but only one made a very significant commercial splash.

    Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin are probably the best examples of incredibly popular and successful acts who for almost a decade prospered magnificently, despite issuing almost no singles at all. [Of course, you know all that. I'm just sayin'].

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • merc,

    That man, the large one with the ginger beard, he frightens me, and I no longer watch...anything, it's terrible.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    The Wall is really a great example of a, like it or not, creatively very impressive album...the enormous popularity of which had little to do with singles.

    Not true. It was only middling along in the US (and indeed NZ...I was working in a record shop at the time) until Brick in The Wall drove it into the mainstream and the album went ballistic, and the other tracks simply consolidated that on FM radio which was at its peak at the time. Airplay, and more airplay was what sold Floyd to the middle market which is where the numbers are.

    It's always about the song..about the airplay or the video play a song gets to take it out of the elite hardcore fanbase and into the bigger market. Dark Side of The Money was driven by Money, Wish You Were Here by Shine On. A record does not need to have physical singles released to utilize that exposure. Each Led Zeppelin album had a key track promo-ed to radio like (and I quote Wikipedia here) '"Stairway to Heaven", which became a massive album-oriented rock FM radio hit despite never being released as a single.' (and outside the UK they did release singles....Whole Lotta Love, Immigrant Song, Dyer Maker, Black Dog...I have a box set of all 10 Led Zep 45s released in the US...these being imported back to UK in some numbers). With Zep it was relatively easy since they did have a big fan base, but it was always driven by the key tracks on FM radio rather than the album itself, followed by the touring

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • 3410,

    Simon,

    On second thoughts, you're quite correct, as usual. I'm sure I had a salient point to make, but it just didn't happen this time...

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    On second thoughts, you're quite correct, as usual.

    I don't know if I want that burden :),. But your are right in that the Zep mythology is that they did it without singles. It's just stretching it a bit. A better analogy might have been the Beatles albums which were often single free in the UK, but, then, the Beatles being who they were, radio played the whole bloody things, without being asked. Of course in the US they released hundreds of the things without any reference to the band, and ripped the albums to pieces and banged horrendous effects all over what was left.

    I'm sure there is a pop / rock album that has worked without a key song...I just can't think of it

    I bought that live Led Zeppelin DVD a couple of weeks back in one of the dodgy shops here...that first disc is incredible...Live at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • 3410,

    I bought that live Led Zeppelin DVD a couple of weeks back in one of the dodgy shops here...that first disc is incredible...Live at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970

    True, dat. Though not in my top 5, I always suspected that their live legacy was somewhat sold short by SRTS. Nice to see that corrected. The '75 [?] show (Page: royal blue silk shirt; cream pleated pants - is that what they call "yacht rock"?) is pretty cool as well, in an ultimate decadence kind of way. His face actually appears to be melting!

    I guess my point regarding singles is that in some eras (up-to-mid-'60s, late '70s, now..., pre-'48*) singles felt like the culturally dominant format, and in others (late'60s-thru-mid-'70s, late '80s, etc.) the LP/CD was the thing "mattered".

    *joke.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    As a very young lad I saw Led Zep at Western Springs....pivotal moment in my life at the time. I have these memories of this massive stage setup pushing out this incredible noise, but looking at the photos later, it was like a bFm summer series system.

    And yes you are spot on with the singles thing...blame the rise of the album on Sgt Pepper/ Blonde on Blonde but the era you mention was the era of the FM radio explosion

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Nobody Important,

    Dark Side of The Money was driven by ...

    Have you been forgerting to use the preview button again!!

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    Have you been forgerting to use the preview button again!!

    my excuse is I'm terminally lazy I guess, I'm continually sending emails full of typos and missed words..I write and hit send...


    But I suspect I'm not the only one ;)

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Nobody Important,

    forgerting

    I don't know what's worse (actually I think I do):

    forgerting to use the preview button, or using it but still not picking up ones errors!

    aaaarrrgh!

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report

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