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The Current Music Blog: January 4, 2007 Archive

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Eternal Recurrences hits The Buffering Stream, 1/4

Posted at 8:33 AM on January 4, 2007 by Hans Eisenbeis

  • Our list-crazy British friends are back at it: The second-best new group of 2006.

  • The pot interviews the kettle: Beeb talks to Garrison Keillor about the power of radio. Roight!

  • New indie studio sessions are recorded and posted at Daytrotter.

  • Modest Mouse is streaming a new single here.

  • List-O-Mat: Here are a few Of Montreal's favorite things.

    • Oxymoron of the day, courtesy of Sony BMG

    Posted at 12:39 PM on January 4, 2007 by Hans Eisenbeis (12 Comments)

    Picture 7One of the things that is really impeding the development of great music-related podcasting is, well... actually it's four things. The major recording labels. They have been dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age, and they have been—until today—firmly against licensing any form of music that is not controlled under digital rights management (DRM). From a listener's point of view, this has serious ramifications: Like you can't transfer iTunes purchases to your MP3 player, or import legally purchased music into your Garage Band project. Your favorite radio station has a heck of a time getting legal rights to play music on a podcast.

    But now Sony BMG has announced a willingness to experiment with licensing some of their music to podcasters.

    Sony BMG's actions seem to indicate that the company is willing to do some cautious risk-taking in hopes that the podcasts will spur customer interest in buying more music, and other labels are sure to keep an eye on Sony's success.

    Did you catch that? Cautious risk-taking. That should rank right up there with jumbo shrimp, fake astro-turf, and military intelligence.

    Apparently someone under the age of 50 finally broke into the boardroom with the news that wider exposure means higher sales... it's the same argument that has kept used CD and record stores operating for 50 years, despite the fact that it's a "gray market" that does not pay original artists or their labels a red cent.

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    Death in the afternoon: The record store

    Posted at 4:50 PM on January 4, 2007 by Hans Eisenbeis (5 Comments)


    The numbers from last year's record sales are out, and the news is interesting, to say the least. As everyone knows by now, album sales are in steep decline, but digital sales are way up. Like Viagra up. While most online sales appear to be downloadable singles, the beancounters say that a block of ten downloads equals one album. Anyway, 588 million albums were sold in 2006 (down 6 percent), while 582 million digital tracks changed hands (up 65 percent).

    Variety magazine had some interesting conclusions about these numbers:

    Good news: Sales were spread around many different artists. Bad news: The bar for a "hit" is reduced and in many cases the return on investment for a label is smaller.

    We agree that the "democratization" of music sales is a good thing. (You paying attention, ASCAP and BMI?) But the "bar" being set lower on "hits" and the eroding profit margins for labels? Uh, we're missing something here. How is that bad news?

    But the most troubling news is this:

    Disney's "High School Musical" soundtrack was the year's top seller at 3.7 million units, but in the 15 years SoundScan has been keeping sales figures, it is the lowest total for the year's chart-topper.

    "High School Musical"—Wha?

    Anyone else ever heard of this, or are we just retarded?


    Photo (CC) By illustir

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