Anyone who’s anyone knows that things aren’t what they used to be. Record company revenues are down, downloading and file-sharing is off the charts, and I don’t know anyone who’s been in a Virgin Megastore or read a copy of the NME in the last two years. Maybe I’m getting old. Or maybe things have changed.
In a lot of ways, the music industry as we once knew it just doesn’t exist any more, and a lot of this is to do with the explosion of the Internet, and the multitude of ways people now have to discover new music. Let’s list just a few, shall we? Spotify. Pitchfork. Limewire. Stereogum, Itunes. Youtube. Last.FM. Pandora. Myspace. Pirate Bay. There’s ten, and I’m sure that as you read this you’re smiling to yourself about the ones I missed. That’s how fast the internet is- more and more sources of free music, some legal and some not, are showing up online, seemingly by the day. The bizarre thing is that the music industry doesn’t seem to know what the hell to do about it. sometimes they sue, sometimes they put copy protection onto CDs, sometimes they get politicians like Peter Mandelsson to announce strong-arm tactics and threats to disconnect internet file-sharers from the internet. These approaches are a little wild and varied, but what they have in common is that they won’t work.
Journalists seem a little confused, too- they’ve lost their position of privilege, and are often hearing music at the same time as the army of bloggers and enthusiasts online. Some print journalists are keeping pace, and are writing great things, but you’ll get the same on the blogs. It must be a frightening time to be a journalist.
There are some people who seem to know what they’re doing, though, and it’s mainly the musicians themselves. As I type this, I’m listening to album by Them Crooked Vultures the new Josh Homme/Dave Grohl/John-Paul Jones supergroup.
It’s noisy, vibrant, joyously capturing the musical personalities of these three musicians, blending them into something entirely new, and exciting. It’s like Queens of The Stone Age jamming with Nirvana and Led Zeppelin, (because that’s exactly what it is!) and I love it.
It’s not commercially available yet. You can’t pay for it, except to pre-order. You can listen to it for free, however. Yesterday, I got an email telling me they were streaming their album online. On Youtube. The whole thing.
This is nothing new, of course. It’s not even surprising. Radiohead did it with Kid A, a couple of years ago.
Think about it, though, and imagine having this way of experiencing John Paul Jones’ first supergroup. Imagine if you could have listened to Led Zeppelin’s first album at the same time as journalists and DJs, back in 1969. Imagine if you could discuss it with thousands of other people instantly, as you explored a startling new music together. Imagine the excitement!
That’s where we are, brothers and sisters. Welcome to the brave new world.