Music journalism in Australia

Mess and Noise have a well considered and passionate article online from Andrew Ramadge on the state of music journalism and music criticism in Australia. It takes as its stepping off point an article in Rolling Stone by Everett True (which I'm yet to read) and dissects the predicaments facing street press and the value of cultivating and supporting online music sites/blogs with an Australian bent:

"...the web has, or will very soon, become the major source of news for Australians. This month the Communications and Media Authority reported that the internet had surpassed newspapers, TV and radio as the nation's most trusted source of information. One of the biggest challenges that Australian music journalists face is ensuring that local music history doesn't get lost online – but it isn't the street press, or Rolling Stone, who are going to tackle it."

Read the full article and the ensuing discussion on Mess and Noise.

On Music

Rollo Grady, the music-news blog, has recently posted some great interviews on the music business. First up Seth Godin, respected online marketing entrepreneur/guru, discusses his thoughts on the changes in how we discover and consume pop music, being a successful artist or music business and tribe building.

"...music labels used to be in the business of grabbing shelf space, on the radio and in the record store. Now, the music industry needs to realign and be in the business of finding and connecting and leading groups of people who want to follow a musician and connect with the other people who want to do the same."

The full interview with Seth Godin is on Rollo Grady and hes interviewed aboutthe ideas in his book Tribes in Wired Magazine.

Also on Rollo Grady is an interview with the former longtime presenter of KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. Nick Harcourt discusses his new book Music Lust and how he was the first guy playing Coldplay in the USA. Ok, so don't hold that against him, its still an interesting chat.

"What I think is the album format is probably dead. People don’t listen to albums anymore. They just listen to songs and buy the songs they want. I think the world has to adapt to that because clearly that is how people are listening. The Internet had a lot to do with that. The iPod and MP3 players have an awful lot to do with the way people listen to music now."

Finally there's a really good chat with RCRD LBL's Peter Rojas, who I listen to every week presenting the GDGT podcast, which looks broadly at new technology and gadgets. Peter Rojas also started Gizmodo and Engadget. Yep, famous.

RCRD LBL itself is "a network of online record labels and blogs serving up fresh new music downloads and exclusive content." Its an incredible resource that is becoming an essential connection for people passionate about discovering new music. Peter Rojas talks to Rollo Grady about music blogs and the strategies that have made RCRL LBL such a success:

"You have to create something that people who really know what’s going on with music, those who are the most in touch and paying the most attention, are going to find credible and real. We can’t just throw a bunch of bands out there; its bands that we really believe in. The key is finding people with their ears to the ground, discovering great new music, kind of like A&R people."

And if you are interested in music criticism in Melbourne or Australia I'd suggest keeping an eye on Channel 31 in early March when Clem Bastow hosts Dancing About Architecture.

Small labels are winning

Great article on The Guardian this weekend on successful small labels like Rough Trade, XL and Domino in the UK and how they are staying true to their independent nature and finding success when many major labels are struggling in the face of the changing music business.

Once upon a time, the major labels were king. They swept up sales in their velvety cloaks, showered money from the heavens, and defined the way you and I bought music. Now they're shedding staff, dropping bands and losing their star names. Now the drivers of the record industry are small, maverick labels that define trends and launch careers. Some of them even sell records by the lorryload.

Read all about it here.

Brand Band

This interesting article on Advertising Age yesterday talks about the way bands are being used by (and using) corporate brands. Its a slippery fine line as Band of Horses found out, and fans tend to be quick with their squawks of "sell out!" But songs by Jet and Feist have been used in iPod ads, further boosting their burgeoning careers and doing little (well in Feist's case anyway) to hurt their appeal to longtime fans. In the article The Walkmen talk about how they sold their music to a car commercial to pay the bills...

"The Walkmen's Peter Bauer said his band did not expect a Saturn Ion commercial featuring their song "We've Been Had" a few years ago would further their career. Like many emerging artists on small, independent labels, the decision was made out of financial necessity. "We needed to take the money," the organ and bass player said. "If you don't need the money, why do it?"

But i start to get a funny stomach when i hear people, like the new CEO of EMI Guy Hands talking about funding artists records by corporate sponsorship.

Rolling Stone: "he plans to increasingly use corporate sponsors to defray the costs of producing and distributing music — Nordstrom, Victoria's Secret and the New York Daily News have all paid for the right to put their brand on music from EMI artists, including Joss Stone and the Spice Girls."

You can read the full article, and more on the EMI artists and their managers response. I'm not shedding a tear for the Spice Girls' lost integrity or anything that rash, but it presents an interesting (and predictable) example of the way the music biz is trying to deal with their current problems and flailing profits.

Ad Age also run an entire blog - Songs for Soap - dedicated to music branding and licensing issues. They're currently talking about ad agencies decending on SXSW, Ciara getting in bed with McDonalds and Keith Richards modelling for Louis Vuitton (with pictures by Annie Leibowitz).

Music Is Not In Trouble

But the music business IS in trouble.

"More people are listening to more music now, than at any time in the history of the world" says Seth Godin, and yet he thinks the music business has to face some stark realities about its future.

"Every single industry changes and, eventually, fades. Just because you made money doing something a certain way yesterday, there’s no reason to believe you’ll succeed at it tomorrow."

I've been reading and loving Seth's Blog for ages now. Its one of the most popular business and marketing related blogs on the web and he often throws around ideas about the future of the music biz too. He recently gave a lecture about this to music execs and you can read it in this PDF.

Seth's not the only person talking about this, but his ideas are funny, fascinating and refreshing, and you can participate in the debate here: http://www.squidoo.com/canthemusicbusinessbesaved