Some years ago I watched a documentary on the BBC which basically said that the situation was pretty much the same before LPs became more popular than the single in the late '60s ie the album format empowered singer-songwriters.
They did build a very convincing case I remember.
I'm not cool in the eyes of the older two since I have no interest in playing video games.
I believe that my "Can't Loop This" exists on a hard drive that's still in a box from the move out of Florida. A coworker who knew that I had been making music with Cakewalk brought in a Fruity Loops disc that he got for his son. We played with it for a while. This was during the MC Hammer sampling controversy, so we just sampled MC's can't touch this right off the radio.
The intent was to learn how to use Fruity Loops, not make any useful music, so it was pretty bad.
I had been using Cakewalk for MIDI sequencing. It did not do audio at the time, so sampling was not possible. The next version of Cakewalk had audio capability, so I never went back to Fruity Loops. I got a Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum card (44/16 on a 286 PC) when it came out and I was a mad man with a recording machine again.
Gibson killed Cakewalk a few years ago, so I switched to Ableton Live.
I still have one of those for the cassette tapes ..... and a special splicing tape that has already lost its color .....
Attachments
Seems the same to me as it has always been. When I first became musically aware in the 70's it was because I was scanning the dial and stumbled upon music that really spoke to me. It was like a flash of light in a sea of nothingness. I began to seek more music that spoke to me like this and I found it. But it always took effort. Sometimes less if I found a station that would play it consistently but that never seemed to last. Sometimes through going to shows and following artists I liked. Every once in a while it would percolate up and get airplay from the major radio stations but this was very rare. Through the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000, 10s and now 20s it has been the same.
Of course now it is even harder to find music that I enjoy since I no longer go to shows and clubs like I used to. But I still stumble upon music that I really like. So for me nothing has changed. Mainstream radio is and has always been a sea of awful. However there are artists out there making music that I want to hear if I make the effort to look.
Of course now it is even harder to find music that I enjoy since I no longer go to shows and clubs like I used to. But I still stumble upon music that I really like. So for me nothing has changed. Mainstream radio is and has always been a sea of awful. However there are artists out there making music that I want to hear if I make the effort to look.
Blockchains to rescue - decentralized service to connect artists directly with the audience. At least Audius is gaining some popularity Audius.org, Audius app , not sure if there are others doing the same. There is great promise in this new decentralized way of doing things, middle man is not needed 
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I've always thought this cartoon sums it up well The state of the music industry - The Oatmeal
Blockchains to rescue - decentralized service to connect artists directly with the audience. At least Audius is gaining some popularity Audius.org, Audius app , not sure if there are others doing the same. There is great promise in this new decentralized way of doing things, middle man is not needed
I will have to take a more in-depth look at this stuff....
The last part of that cartoon is now possible, and being used by a lot of independent music producers. Unfortunately there is a whole lot of useless trash that must be sifted through to find something you like. The problem today is how does an unknown new music producer get discovered by his potential audience?
That part of the problem hasn't changed much. Years ago a new producer needed to know someone, pay someone, or whatever, to get heard. Today it seems that one must learn how to "beat the Youtube algorithm." Unfortunately it is a moving target. There are services to get your music onto some streaming channels, but many of them are just as predatory as the "fat man with the cigar" was 50 years ago.
^ +1
The abundance of offers make discovering difficults.
I miss a lot records shop too: i was a (very) heavy customer when i was student and in my town probably one of the few people who bought something like 10/20 records a week each week ( cd and vinyl as i dj'ed too). I knew the owner and employes of the shop quite well and had special treatments ( allowed to unpack their orders with them to preselect my dope... talk about an addict!). They knew my taste/preferences and make me discover a lot of artists at the time.
The shop closed early 2000 when i moved to Paris to start my carreer full time in music engineering. Since then i found no ways to have access to such a wide range of style as at that time even being part of the industry...
For the artist to be known/ go out of the pack require them to do things which aren't about music at all.
And to shift priority in how to give access to their production: Ola Englund (Six Feet Under) made a nice video during a Thomann conference about it, worth a look as what he describe is true for what i've seen:
Ola Englund | New Solar Guitars | live @ Thomann Music - YouTube
For those who won't take a look at it: no more albums format as no (potential) customers will bother with that ( especially true in metal where there is thousand of albums released each weeks!) but constant out of singles, invasion of social media whatever content you feed into. Just a way to be viewed, known and remembered...
A total paradigm shift from the area i was active in.
And not as easy as it seems. Even if most musicians are egotic and doesn't mind to expose themself to public it needs to be thought about and it is almost a fulltime job. Very disturbing to many people as it ask constant attention and it is not 'fun' to do as a job.
And then industry predators to deal with after that if you are lucky to be drafted by them.
Tuff times for 'green' artists.
Peoples already in place doesn't really need that however, and from what i've seen there is a handfull of musicians doing most jobs/ composing for known artists and labels. Always the same guys playing on most albums... nothing new as Billshurv described about the 'wrecking crew'. But for most of the one i've seen they deserve it ( really GOOD musicians able to deliver what is needed to a track in 2 takes. Really impressive to the frustrated musician i was.).
The abundance of offers make discovering difficults.
I miss a lot records shop too: i was a (very) heavy customer when i was student and in my town probably one of the few people who bought something like 10/20 records a week each week ( cd and vinyl as i dj'ed too). I knew the owner and employes of the shop quite well and had special treatments ( allowed to unpack their orders with them to preselect my dope... talk about an addict!). They knew my taste/preferences and make me discover a lot of artists at the time.
The shop closed early 2000 when i moved to Paris to start my carreer full time in music engineering. Since then i found no ways to have access to such a wide range of style as at that time even being part of the industry...
For the artist to be known/ go out of the pack require them to do things which aren't about music at all.
And to shift priority in how to give access to their production: Ola Englund (Six Feet Under) made a nice video during a Thomann conference about it, worth a look as what he describe is true for what i've seen:
Ola Englund | New Solar Guitars | live @ Thomann Music - YouTube
For those who won't take a look at it: no more albums format as no (potential) customers will bother with that ( especially true in metal where there is thousand of albums released each weeks!) but constant out of singles, invasion of social media whatever content you feed into. Just a way to be viewed, known and remembered...
A total paradigm shift from the area i was active in.
And not as easy as it seems. Even if most musicians are egotic and doesn't mind to expose themself to public it needs to be thought about and it is almost a fulltime job. Very disturbing to many people as it ask constant attention and it is not 'fun' to do as a job.
And then industry predators to deal with after that if you are lucky to be drafted by them.
Tuff times for 'green' artists.
Peoples already in place doesn't really need that however, and from what i've seen there is a handfull of musicians doing most jobs/ composing for known artists and labels. Always the same guys playing on most albums... nothing new as Billshurv described about the 'wrecking crew'. But for most of the one i've seen they deserve it ( really GOOD musicians able to deliver what is needed to a track in 2 takes. Really impressive to the frustrated musician i was.).
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We are lucky to have the 9pm - 10pm slot on BBC Radio 2.
Monday - blues
Tuesday - Jazz
Wednesday - Folk
Thursday - Country & Americana.
Once I was old enough to realize that LZ were basically playing folk & blues at volume 11 my musical taste broadened considerably.
Since BBC Top of the Pops ended in 2006 I have no clue as to who is in the hit parade, I'm not greatly bothered although it would be nice to have some awareness.
Monday - blues
Tuesday - Jazz
Wednesday - Folk
Thursday - Country & Americana.
Once I was old enough to realize that LZ were basically playing folk & blues at volume 11 my musical taste broadened considerably.
Since BBC Top of the Pops ended in 2006 I have no clue as to who is in the hit parade, I'm not greatly bothered although it would be nice to have some awareness.
I've found this true to a great extent. It never totally went away (Burt Bacharach and Diane Warren succeeding Jerome Kern and Cole Porter), and gets energy from shows like American Idol.
Popular musicians such as Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly had already begun to empower the singer/songwriter but the album format tended to seal the deal. Especially with talented and prolific writers eg The Beatles, Dylan, Lightfoot, Wilson arriving about the same time.
There's a good clip of Frank Zappa describing his view of the change from the 60s to the 80s. The 60s with an old cigar-chomping guy saying, "I don't know what it is but maybe the kids will buy it," to the 80s with some young guy that knows exactly what you should be listening to.
You hit the nail on the head- if there is still a music industry- it's nothing like it was when I was a kid. Back then, radio was king. We had the radio on all day everyday in the summer, and the radio was playing when we got home from school. If there was a song we liked, we spent our money on records.
With the internet, there used to be 10,000 hours of music uploaded on YouTube alone. How do you sift through that? The music services service only themselves. Young artists have to pay (meaning mom and pop pay) for these services and it's all based on how many times people listen to somebody's music. You can have all kinds of talent, a great singing voice, but if people ain't clicking on your music uploaded to the interweb, you don't make any money. You got to get a job driving for Uber or Lyft if you have a car, play at live venues on the weekend or go stand on the corner on Colorado Blvd with your hat in front of you. Otherwise, you pay some crappy venue so you can perform in front of people, or sell a certain number of tickets before a show and hope you can have a couple hundred people show up so you can eat for a couple days.
If you're "lucky," some jerk will want you to sign a contract and pay them a fee to tour, travel from crap hole town to town in an old RV/bus that breaks down in nowheresville, pay the $27 you made from last night for an Uber ride to the airport to get home owing more money than when you started out.
But, you do it for the love of music, for all the countless thousands of hours of your life that you've spent writing songs, practicing your instrument. Take that times thousands of people who are living like this all over the world and tell me that there aren't any good musicians anymore. There isn't a music industry anymore. There aren't any honest managers, producers, whatever you want to call it. Because some people aren't just making music to make money, they do it because music is all they are about, and the music is the only thing they are about.
The music industry isn't sick- there is no music industry.
I was just watching the latest episode of this new TV show "This Is Pop" (it's all now pay TV/cable/Internet TV - there's still traditional network and local TV but the only network show I can name is SNL):
https://www.netflix.com/title/81050786
The latest episode is "Auto-Tune." One producer said (not an exact quote) "decades ago it was hard to find people who could actually sing. Now with Auto-Tune you only need to find people who look good."
https://www.netflix.com/title/81050786
The latest episode is "Auto-Tune." One producer said (not an exact quote) "decades ago it was hard to find people who could actually sing. Now with Auto-Tune you only need to find people who look good."
I started playing keyboards in northern working mens clubs in the 70's. Brilliant times, going onstage to back an artist, playing music you have never seen before; you soon learn to sightread.
Fabulous atmosphere for entertainers to hone their craft, and a lot of them did big time.
In the 90's Karaoke appeared, and the club committies thought "we can still have entertainment, without paying for live music". Audiences voted with their feet and this wonderful industry dissapeared overnight.
Fabulous atmosphere for entertainers to hone their craft, and a lot of them did big time.
In the 90's Karaoke appeared, and the club committies thought "we can still have entertainment, without paying for live music". Audiences voted with their feet and this wonderful industry dissapeared overnight.
Radio Caroline - really got up the nose of the Establishment. Factories, yes the Brits still made things in the 60s and into the 70s'. PA systems used to play music all day, whole productions lines would be singing.
In the 60s' and 70s' pubs gave a start to many bands and singers. I remember going to Shoreham to listen to Leo Sayer. Musicians would turn up to someone's bedsit and great music would be made - what I would have given to have the gear to record a lot of what I heard.
Working 'on the line' bricklaying, someone would start singing rock or folk, sometimes it was so good that all work would stop to listen. Working at street level a beautiful girl would walk by and someone would do a Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman, it always got a smile.
At the end of the 80s' and into the 90s' there was a great music slot on BBC radio 2 - Late Junction, from 23-24.00 There were 2 women DJs - one Fiona Talkington a psuedo intellectual she played crap and I switched off and then there was this other - Verity Sharp. What a trailblazer this woman was, she turned me onto so much good music. The modern music of North Africa, Turkey, Indonesia, then she would slot in something really weird and different - she had no boundaries. Lots of Jazz from singers and bands I had never heard of.
One night she played a piece of traditional Japanese music from the 1850s' - Raindrops Falling On Washing Stones. I thought what bollocks this has to be - it wasn't it was exactly that. I had to listen on my brilliant little Sony FM radio with little in the ear cans as my wife sleeping beside me had to get up early for work.
When we moved to Spain in 2001 both TV and radio played excellent Jazz and on Galician TV there was a series of programmes that charted the history of Flamenca.
Here in France there is only one really good station and that plays mainly classical - France Music, the rest is Euro pop crap. So I gave away my special FM radio aerial.
I see these pop music videos and the women all dress like high class prostitutes, it's all formulaic and as for the rap/crap music and the awful garbage that passes for modern Reggae that the young listen to in France, so sad. One day I invited in some young guys to listen to real Reggae - blew them away. The first rapper was the best rapper - Linton Kwesi Johnson, check out Forces Of Victory - music for the Front Line.
Look at Glastonbury - it's all about money - £250 that yuppies pay to say 'I've been to Glastonbury'. I did see on French TV - ARTE a set from Jackson Browne, took me right back to the 70s'.
I will always love that number by Joni about a man playing a clarinet for free - but they passed his music by because they had never seen him on their TVs.
Does anybody sing these days - I do walking the dog along the GR-36 no one to listen except the birds, makes me feel young at heart, back on the line again.
In the 60s' and 70s' pubs gave a start to many bands and singers. I remember going to Shoreham to listen to Leo Sayer. Musicians would turn up to someone's bedsit and great music would be made - what I would have given to have the gear to record a lot of what I heard.
Working 'on the line' bricklaying, someone would start singing rock or folk, sometimes it was so good that all work would stop to listen. Working at street level a beautiful girl would walk by and someone would do a Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman, it always got a smile.
At the end of the 80s' and into the 90s' there was a great music slot on BBC radio 2 - Late Junction, from 23-24.00 There were 2 women DJs - one Fiona Talkington a psuedo intellectual she played crap and I switched off and then there was this other - Verity Sharp. What a trailblazer this woman was, she turned me onto so much good music. The modern music of North Africa, Turkey, Indonesia, then she would slot in something really weird and different - she had no boundaries. Lots of Jazz from singers and bands I had never heard of.
One night she played a piece of traditional Japanese music from the 1850s' - Raindrops Falling On Washing Stones. I thought what bollocks this has to be - it wasn't it was exactly that. I had to listen on my brilliant little Sony FM radio with little in the ear cans as my wife sleeping beside me had to get up early for work.
When we moved to Spain in 2001 both TV and radio played excellent Jazz and on Galician TV there was a series of programmes that charted the history of Flamenca.
Here in France there is only one really good station and that plays mainly classical - France Music, the rest is Euro pop crap. So I gave away my special FM radio aerial.
I see these pop music videos and the women all dress like high class prostitutes, it's all formulaic and as for the rap/crap music and the awful garbage that passes for modern Reggae that the young listen to in France, so sad. One day I invited in some young guys to listen to real Reggae - blew them away. The first rapper was the best rapper - Linton Kwesi Johnson, check out Forces Of Victory - music for the Front Line.
Look at Glastonbury - it's all about money - £250 that yuppies pay to say 'I've been to Glastonbury'. I did see on French TV - ARTE a set from Jackson Browne, took me right back to the 70s'.
I will always love that number by Joni about a man playing a clarinet for free - but they passed his music by because they had never seen him on their TVs.
Does anybody sing these days - I do walking the dog along the GR-36 no one to listen except the birds, makes me feel young at heart, back on the line again.