Music Banter

I mentioned the Ten Tracks Project in a previous post, and said I should really say more about this. It’s a fantastic initiative, one of those interesting new ways for a fucked music industry to somehow connect and reinvigorate a music-buying audience.

Here’s what they do: they’ve convinced record companies to offer us monthly bundles of ten tracks for a quid. That’s ten pence a song. Not bad, eh?

Everyone knows the situation the music industry’s in- thanks to the internet, last.fm, spotify, myspace, youtube and a million other legal-and-otherwise portals, no-one’s buying music. Interestingly, a lot of really good music is still being made. I have to say, I feel that my local music scene is getting better and better, and friends of mine across the UK are saying exactly the same thing.

It’s also true that more and more bands are keeping their musical projects in the realm of hobby, not career. That’s often a pragmatic decision, more than anything else. After all, how is anyone going to make any money doing this?

Here’s one way; make the music you offer, cheaper. And that’s what they’ve done here.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but the truth is that the cost of production has gone down. People aren’t buying physical copies of albums any more, because they feel like a rip-off. No-one who knows anything about the way the internet works thinks that £12.99 or whatever a CD costs these days (see, I don’t even KNOW!) is a fair price. As a result, no-one buys anything at all.

Well, this is a way forward. It’s something of a win-win situation- the record companies get to package new artists they want to push along with bigger and more established names, we get to hear new music which we may or may not like, and we get a lot of it for a decent price. The artists benefit, too- we’d only be downloading their tracks for free, otherwise, if we heard them at all. It also fills an interesting loop that something Spotify misses- it’s easier to find new music this way, as that’s what a record company wants to push your way. I’m fine with that- I can live with the fact that a record company wants its artists to be heard. I want to hear them too, as long as it’s not a rip-off, and they’re not being forced down my throat through advertising.

The end result is, I’ve just downloaded 15 tracks for less than the price of a pint. Record companies have put new music in front of an enthusiastic listener without paying out for adverts in the NME, bribing and schmoozing their way onto some radio playlist or other, or anything else.

I’ll listen to these tracks. If I like the bands, I might buy more of them. If I don’t, well, they already got some cash from me. Now, what am I? Nothing, really. Just one person. But when this grows, well, the sky’s the limit, isn’t it?

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.