The Future of Music

 

It may seem from reading most popular press that the battle over copyright revolves around the RIAA’s mp3 police and poor teenagers being sued but that isn’t the case. A respected number of academics, lawyers and media experts are debating the future of music and the way technology changes and commercial adaptation will create a new future. Illegal copying and downloading is on the increase and must be stopped is the headline!. Opinions on the rights and wrongs abound and everyone can see the arguments and counter arguments. They are well set out in a recent guide. A published paper called, “Music Survival Guide - from NARAS” offers a detailed analysis of the problem and some solutions

People are constructively addressing the problems although it is the RIAA who grab the headlines with their litigation..

“7 Music Survival Tips - (from the Guide)

#1: Educate to Eradicate Piracy
“Unaware of the large number of people who collaborate to make a record, many consumers have turned to illegal file sharing as a response to the high price of music, believing that they are not hurting all of the 'rich' musicians. They simply do not understand the ramifications of their actions.”

#2: Make Music Retail Therapy
“Sometimes when you go to a record store, you bump into a record. You bump into people that may hip you up to records. It’s a whole other experience. And we need that journey. It’s important that as artists we take time to dig, to see the roots of where everything is coming from so that we can offer it to the fans, and they all can offer it to the next generation.”

#3: Declare a Music/Tech Truce
“Simply put, the industry does not make it easy for consumers to purchase and use digital music online legally, while piracy delivers what companies hold back. Digital music is a vital force in the industry and technology needs to be properly embraced to provide ease of use to consumers.”

#4: Commit to Artist Development
“If the music industry wants to win back the financial loyalty of fans lost to illegal means of obtaining music, the major labels should work with artists to cultivate their talent, rather than casting an artist aside after a commercially unsuccessful release.”

#5: Embrace New Music Avenues
“If the music industry hopes to survive, it must embrace the new face of musical community to reach out to potentially dedicated fans. Labels as well as artists should take the time to interact online with their fans in the interest of developing an artist-fan relationship that will entice fans to support artists monetarily as well.”

#6: Offer What Piracy Doesn’t
“So how can companies drive illegal file sharers to legal Web sites? This is something many are struggling to figure out, and there is not one clear answer or solution. However, if legitimate Web sites and online companies want to continue to grow, they must offer what piracy cannot.”

#7: Make Music a Priority
“More people are discovering more new music–and a greater variety of music–than ever before. There are tremendous challenges facing traditional music businesses, but for artists and fans this is an incredibly exciting time. One day, we will look back on this period in music history as a kind of Internet adolescence—a confusing, sometimes awkward transition that in the end leaves us stronger, smarter…and a little less innocent.”

Get a copy of the complete guide here and check out their very informative site "Whats the Download".

These may contain some debatable statements……but are part of a growing consensus.

Check out more new concepts on music use at The Future of Music to explore the emerging concepts of ‘global licenses’ or ‘music pools’ amongst other ideas

Four Seasons fans have long debated the qualities of various mixes on the various re-issues….but not as much as the Beatles fans and their great debate. The options exist to remix and share experimental mixes but this is a breach of copyright albeit in a small group of some 320 dedicated fans based on the yahoo ValliSeasons e-group. You’ll find this group on an island off the coast in the Bay  of Angst on this recent internet map.!Click the map to see.

But there is a new way and Wired have sought to pioneer it…

At root, sharing and stealing music start from the same impulse: Cribbing is creation. Building on what other musicians have done - with or without their blessing or collaboration - is what it takes to make new music, music that will delight and sustain people. That, after all, is why it's called making music (playing music is something else altogether). Elvis Presley, that pioneer of appropriation, put it best: "Fair exchange bears no robbery, and the whole world will know that it's true. If you wanna be hugged, well, you gotta hug me too."

In the interest of more fair exchange, we present The Wired CD.

It is, in a sense, a concept album. But unlike Ziggy Stardust or OK Computer, the concept isn't in the music, though the songs are pretty great. It's in the fine print. All the songs come with a license that gives you permission to do more than just listen to them. You can swap them. You can sample them. You can use them to fuel your own creative impulses, without worrying that the copyright cops will beat down your door.

The licenses come from Creative Commons, the innovative nonprofit founded by Wired columnist and Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig. The songs on this CD use one of two Creative Commons licenses.The Noncommercial Sampling Plus license permits noncommercial file-sharing and noncommercial sampling. That means, first, that you can swap the songs on a peer-to-peer network (just don't sell them). And second, that you can sample from them, mash them up, use them to make something fresh - and then share that work, too (though again, you can't sell it)."

Catalogues like the Four Seasons set should be moving this way in time. The forthcoming 76 track CD box set will be analyzed by the fans as to how the mixes compare with the various previous releases we already have, as none of the songs are new to us…..but the debate now and in the future is about how we might prefer to hear them…its all in the mix. Fans have the ability to remix mono to stereo, remix the stereo sound stage or to add an analogue vibe to the hard digital sound. Some have the ability to create a completely new sound…like the Springfield UK mix of ‘I’m Beggin’ You’ which we have featured.

And after all, the Jersey Boys casts are re-creating the music in a different way for us all and this will continue as more and more college theatre groups tackle the show and the music too.

Whether it is part of the ‘sound pool’ or with Creative Commons licences the music is already being seen in a new way. This new release will set the baseline for the status of Four Seasons mixes. Waiting for the rest of the catalogue is not an option as life is too short and the workings of record releasing via CD too slow and ponderous. The remixes will roll and maybe future project may include…..The ‘Lost’ Box Set CD 4…. A set of the missed tracks not in the box set that the fans love so much. All remixed to give a warmer and balanced sound….or  the “The Beatles v Four Seasons  Digitally Enhanced” with that much valued double album combining remixes of both groups much criticized mono or early stereo mixes.  Maybe Bob Gaudio can grasp these concepts for ‘future music’ and make the leap of faith before the rest. At the core of it all should be a creative view of the musics future.

Now what about me putting those old VHS tapes onto DVD and uploading them to You Tube and maybe I should revisit the ‘Who Loves You’ and ‘Helicon’ albums to do a 70s Remixes CD!! Certainly I could have these done before the Partnership could produce them …..but unfortunately even though it would boost the profile of the group I wouldn’t be able to do it. I won’t be able to share the CD and the videos would be taken down within a week. But maybe these ‘Future of Music’ sites show that things really will change someday. Chameleon

 

Comments

[Casey Chameleon]

Well....we have provided a link to the cartoon image authors site.....and yes we believe the Springfield Remix was an inspiration for the Pilooski RE-EDIT.

Whichever mix anyone prefers is up to them. We love the song and the mixes. But EVERYONE hates the video. Produced by someone with no appreciation for the moody feel within the track or the context of its lyric. Quite appalling.

Casey

[Tom K]

By the way, have you heard Beggin' is actually being re-released in the UK as a single? It's remixed by a French DJ called Pilooski and I hope i'm not opening a can of worms here, but it's not dissimilar to the Springfield UK remix...

[Hazy Dave]

In a discussion of copyrights, it would be good form to to at least link to the site of the creator of the graphic image, Randall Munroe:

http://www.xkcd.com/c256.html

(I assume this is spreading all over the nets, and he didn't include his URL in the cartoon, so it's no big thing, but I see he is taking pre-orders for a poster version for those who aren't pirating the graphics all by themselves.)

[Ray Ricci]

I don't think we should expect anything different in the mixes of the 76 tracks vs what we already have. In one of your other posts you featured an engineer(George) who claims on the Spectropop site that the quality of what Rhino releases is sub to what he remembers as originally recorded. I would at least like to hear what he heard. Calello also claimed that they had to change studios during the Phillips era because of high distortion in the final mixes.

If only they had the facilities of Abbey Road and British electronics....that would make me a happy man!

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have these tracks converted to 5.1?