Who's downloaded it? (yes, its legal). What do you think? I'm just listening to song 1.

 

i havent listened to it or DL'd it but this is a perfect time for a rant.

What they have done is stupid. They may not need $ at this point in their carrer but they are forgetting the MILLONS of dollars they have made in the past and the MILLIONS of dollars EMI spent to make them those millions.

The music industry is hurting enough as it is. It will only change when music has completely been de-valued. IE you can't sell a cd, or even a download.

wow that was a short rant... a couple of my enginner friends and i talked about his for about 4 hours on monday night.

 

radio head hasn't had a good cd since ok computer.

 

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking when I saw this thread title.

 

I thought record companies are like banks for bands: they hand out record deals (i.e. loans) hoping that the band will make a tidy profit for them in return. The money the record company spends on studio time, management, advertising, etc. is recouped not only by album sales but by concert tickets, merch, etc. In fact, I believe most bands make a negligible amount of profit from CD/digital download sales alone, thus serving as the impetus for well established bands to release their music to the masses for free. In other words, why not spread your music to as many people as possible if you're not going to make that much $$ anyway? A new fan of your music might just buy a shirt and go to your concert. Merch and concert ticket sales continue to be the real source of income for bands.

It doesn't surprise me that record companies are freaking out over the ease of music distribution and making records. With the internet, distribution of high quality (as in recording quality) music is as trivial as clicking a button. With the advancement of digital recording, you no longer need to spend a crap load of money on fancy studio time to make a quality recording. Basically, the role of a record company is diminishing. However, the internet and digital recording are here to stay and record companies need to figure out how to work with these realities.

The music industry needs to change with the times. Music isn't getting devalued when it becomes free. That's like saying the news you read online is devalued because you don't spend $0.35 on a newspaper anymore.

-someone who has never bought a song from iTunes and still buys CDs

 

id be very careful with that statement. Technology doesnt make good records at all. People do. One thing is for sure is that people arent spending time working on records anymore. They think that they can just fix it in the computer and call it a day. thus why most of the new music/bands suck.

the role of the record company is diminishing. so is the role of producers, and engineers etc. Bands need someone to guide them along in the process so they can make a good record. If noone is willing to pay anything for the records the bands wont be able to make a living or even enough $ to cover their expenses at gig etc.

Most bands make crap from downloads. I tunes takes a huge chunk (80%) at most and less depending on the arrangemt with the label. Most indepedant bands that have music on i tunes have it put up there by a 3rd party who takes even more.

needless to say the labels are trying to adapt to the new dist system. But what this does it keep them from spending money to go find new music and put it out there.

glad to see that someone else still buys cd's.

 

I haven't downloaded it, I'm just planning on buying it (in actual CD form, weird). If you haven't listened to Thom York's albums you should download a few songs, not that much different than the Radiohead albums, but hey he's pretty talented.

Really? Kid A and Amnesiac were pretty much awesome, but hey to each their own, right?

 

Absolutely. You still need someone with good ears who knows how to record and engineer music. The point I was trying to make earlier is that the recording equipment itself is more accessible to the every day Joe (or band). Bands recording in their home studio is not uncommon these days, and frankly, I think that can yield better results. Why? Because they're not constrained by the studio clock which used to tick away $$$ with every passing hour.

I don't necessarily agree with this statement. Yes, digital recording and editing can help sloppy artists sound perfect on a record. But I'd argue that its not sloppiness that dictates whether new music/bands suck or not, unless you're judging suckiness based on a band's live vs. recorded performance. To me, a band sucks if I don't like their music, and that's completely subjective. I might think a band sucks because I don't like the way the vocalist sounds, or because the band sounds like a copy cat of some other band, or because the production quality of the record is crappy, or possibly because they're ********* in person. But that's a whole other topic.


Yes, you still need people other than the band to make good records and to help bands go on tour. But you're missing my point. I'm almost positive that bands and record companies get most of their money from concert sales and merch and not from the sales of CDs or digital downloads. CD sales may add to the bottom line of the record company's balance sheet, but I think it means very little to the band. And at the end of the day, its band's making the music, not the record company. So I'm all favor of whatever helps bands.

Well, what if bands didn't need record labels anymore to get their music out to people and to successfully tour and sell merch? Why not support music from the artist's point of view instead of the record label? That's the point I've been trying to make.

Bleh, I'm bored at work in case you can't tell.

 

how did you DL it?

 

Has anyone actually downloaded the album?

Any opinions so far?

 

haha arent we all...

i agree with you and myself is well. there are so many factors that play into making a good record, label or none. On the other hand to put on a "real" tour you need to front about 2 million dollars. Most bands that dont have label support at this point have no way of doing that. Maybe that will bring on new business models. i judge suckiness based upon this:

if you suck on stage, you suck. If your record is good, or great and you suck on stage, you still suck, but the RECORD is good. People often ask me what my favorite band is, i say i dont have one. I have several favorite records though.


also, if you didnt know, i work in the record industry. Im a mixing engineer and deal with this whole digital/analog home studio/pro studio/indie/signed thing all the time.

The problem with the home studio stuff is always the quality. people who record themselves rarely know the proper way to do most of the recording, plus they should be focused on playing rather then the techie side of things. So you get a bad sound, or a bad performance. not to mention they never understand the importance of a good signal path or good analog to digital conversion.

what this translates to: Later, when they figure out that it sound like ****, they call me and go to a pro studio to attempt to "fix it in the mix" which, despite the fact that it would be a great thing to be able to do, is near impossible. this is depressing. Being off the clock is great, BUT its sad when people have spent hours, days and week crafting their song, only to yeild a mediocre result beacuse the technical side wasn't up to par.

lord knows i hate record labels too. i would love to see bands be able to not get dicked by "the man". THe A&R guys are always asses and dont know squat about music. that has caused a bunch of great bands to split up, quit or just be pushed around before their record even comes out.

i just hope that the consumer doesnt drive it to the point that music is no longer a commidity worth buying. That seems to be the road that is being traveled down.

 

I completely agree with you. I am guilty of pathetic home recordings myself and have a lot of respect for what people like you do, especially if you're good enough to do it for a living. I will be the first to admit that I am a jackass when it comes to mic'ing amps and especially drums, mixing tracks, recording, etc. Hell, I can barely work Pro Tools Free. But there are great musicians who are also savvy in audio engineering, and I know they CAN get by with their home or local indie recording studio. I never meant to devalue the role of audio engineers or even producers in the album creation process. I was only trying to say that you no longer need a record company to give you lots of $$$ to get a quality recording because digital recording hardware and software is becoming more accessible each day.


We'll see if it ever gets to that point. I'm sure bands and record companies will find new ways of selling stuff, music or not.
One band (Ash, from the UK) has already decided to stop making albums in the traditional sense and will only release digital downloads of "singles" as they write songs. That's kind of a neat way of doing things, and one which I believe will also help remove a band's dependency on their label.

 

yes there are, and they know what to do and use from working in the big rooms, or have a good close engineer buddy, and they also use the same gear/mics thats in all the big expensive studios.

I have a couple clients I work with that own some crazy stuff.