> From: "ceccles_ca" <ecclesreinson@...>
> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:51:23 -0000
> Don Tillman wrote:
>
> > Listen to what's out there; there's very little new music of
> > any substance worth getting excited about.
>
> I think that there's still a lot of great new music out there,
> but it's very hard to find.
Why exactly do you think that there's a lot of great new music out
there if it's so very hard to find?
I mean, if great music is so hard to find, than you've got a huge
number of potential musicians out there without the inspiration to
develop their talents.
> All of the alternative FM radio stations and DJ's have
> disappeared. Radio stations (that aren't classic rock) are
> currently playing The Killers, Green Day and My Chemical Romance
> until we all want to barf.
Right. The good news is that while the old music channels have died,
new music channels are opening up. FM radio, as we know it, is
basically dead, and FM radio has never had so much competition, and
that competition is all growing. Satellite radio, interweb radio, an
iPod in shuffle mode, iTunes, podcasts, etc.
At the same time, with FM radio dying, FM radio stations are going to
have an incentive to try alternative business strategies ("What are
you saying, Smithers? You mean, maybe we should *not* be playing crap
all day long?"). Or they'll be sold off to music lovers who can pull
of something better. Witness San Jose's KFOX FM now has a radio show
dedicated to progressive rock music, and it's on 6 nights a week. No
shit, man.
> > it's really hard to name a single recent musician who's made a
> > serious statement on their instrument.
>
> True. They are still out there but they are hidden under piles
> of shit. We didn't need to hunt and dig for it in the past. The
> good non-mainstream stuff WAS easy to find at the store. The
> competition for shelf-space in the stores is part of the problem.
> With DVD's, video and computer games, tons of old classic rock
> CD's, there's NO space for any slow selling new music CD's.
Actually no, the competition for shelf space is no longer an issue.
With Tower Records, Warehouse Records and others going out of
business, shelf space is just not on the map.
Shelf space is being replaced by interweb distribution channels. And
there's this recent economic theory called The Long Tail that shows
that a business can be just as successful selling obscure music as
selling Madonna. Check out this posting in my blog:
Don's Blog, February 19, 2006 -- Check out The Long Tail
http://www.till.com/blog/archives/2006/02/check_out_the_l.html
Amazon, CDWarehouse, iTunes and the others are all doing just fine.
And they have effectively infinite shelf space.
> If it's not on the radio and it's not in the stores, then how do
> you find it? Searching through piles of shit on the internet?
Well... yeah. Interweb-based operations can be very efficent about
recommending similar products. The Amazon "customers who bought this
also bought..." feature, the lists feature, various bulletin boards,
etc.
So yeah, the music industry has been sucking badly, and going downhill
for decades. But right now it's also turning around. We have the
potential of a huge renaissance both artistically and for business
opportunities.
-- Don
--
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California
don@...
http://www.till.com