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Re: <nettime> Where Music Will Be Coming From - Kevin Kelly
-- Songs are cheap; what's expensive are the indexable, searchable, official
lyrics.
.... now if only electronica wasn't all instrumental it could hope to make
money too...
-- On auction sites, music lovers buy and sell active playlists, which
arrange hundreds of songs in creative sequences. The lists are templates that
reorder songs on your own disc.
.... but why stop there? you could buy & sell creative grocery lists while
you're at it...
-- You subscribe to a private record label whose agents troll the bars,
filtering out the garbage, and send you the best underground music based on
your own preferences.
.... you know, this always puzzled me; is there really anyone on earth whose
preferences actually coincide with anything that claims to be "based on
your own preferences"?
-- The most popular band in the world produces only very good ''jingles,''
just as some of the best directors today produce only very good commercials.
.... & it sure looks like we're not about to get rid of either.
-- The catalog of all musical titles makes more money than any of the record
companies.
.... knowing how much money the record companies make, that's a scary
thought in itself.
-- A generator box breeds background music tailored to your personal tastes;
the music is supplied by third-party companies that buy the original songs
from the artists.
.... the concept of that has been invented a while ago... it's not so far
of auto-illustrator, for example, except for music (& there is, in fact, a
music plugin for auto-i.) at any rate, more likely the team of programmers
who worked on the generative engine will end up with the paycheck. though
if there are actual performers, they might be entitled to a little bit of
royalties, who knows...
-- Because you like to remix dance tunes, you buy the versions of songs that
are remix-ready in all 24 tracks.
.... now, that would be the postmodern equivalent of guitar tablatures or
something.
-- You'll pay your favorite band to stream you its concert as it is playing
it, even though you could wait and copy it at no cost later.
.... & in a few years, nobody bothers to go to live shows anymore, the band
finds out it's really only playing for an audience of webcams, so they sack
their drummer & become a studio band like everybody else.
-- The varieties of musical styles explode. They increase faster than we can
name them, so a musical Dewey Decimal System is applied to each work to aid
in categorizing it.
.... & yet for years & years the mp3.com promo song of the week is
invariably trance.
-- For a small fee, the producers of your favorite musician will tweak her
performance to exquisitely match the acoustics of your living room.
.... which doesn't matter as the acoustic subtleties are constantly
outweighed by the combined hums of the computer fan, hard drive & CD player.
-- So many amateur remixed versions of a hit tune are circulating on the Net
that it's worth $5 to you to buy an authenticated official version.
.... only to be smacked by the realization that the authenticated official
version was probably made with the same software the amateur remixers use.
-- For bands that tour, giving away their music becomes a form of cheap
advertising. The more free copies that are passed around, the more tickets
they sell.
.... & eventually, they should give free tickets & simply sell their own
bodies for profit.
-- Musicians with the highest status are those who have a 24-hour Net channel
devoted to streaming only their music.
.... & listeners with the least taste actually listen to these channels all day.
-- Royalty-free stock music (like stock photography), available for any use,
takes off with the invention of a great music search engine, which makes it
possible to find music ''similar to this music'' in mood, tempo and sound.
.... in how many decades do you expect this to be done?
-- The best-selling item for most musicians is the ''whole package deal,''
which contains video clips, liner notes, segregated musical tracks, reviews,
ads and artwork -- all stored on a well-designed artifact in limited editions.
.... how can it be both a limited edition artifact & a best-selling item?
-- Despite the fact that with some effort you can freely download the song
you think you want in a format you think will work for your system, most
people choose to go to a reliable retailer online and use the retailer's
wonderful search tools and expert testimonials to purchase what they want
because it is simply easier and a better experience all around.
.... i thought i wanted acid mother temple, but AOL said i wanted nelly furtado.
In the end, the future of music is simple: more choices. As the
possibilities of music expand, so do our own.
mr. kelly, your future still sounds pretty much like top 40 radio to
me. there is no adaptation to technology, rather a generalized overtaking
of artist's rights & royalties without very much plan of compensation. in
mr. kelly's world there are a very few companies that turn in an
extraordinary profit & a flurry of consumers with tastes vapid enough that
they can be detected by "preference engines". but hey, we're artists, we
do it for the love & we're kind of stupid too.
have a nice day
~ david