As i ponder on a friday night here in Melbourne having trawled the internet for some good music to review i am increasingly getting to the point that music has reached a saturation point that a meaningful career is well out of the question and it leads me to ask myself ok well what next ? Where do we go from here.

With so many people following the hits by numbers policy and every man and his dog is on Myspace i believe the need for a completely new approach is upon us and i have to say i am pulling up the drawbridge to find this new approach for myself and my label.

Ironically Myspace as a site has in it the key to the future. Not saying that Myspace is all you need but I think that between Myspace and Gootube and your own website the building blocks for stardom is complete.

Traditional media won't break the story but they will retell it and move it a level. I'm sure this is a situation most on this board are agonising over. Is there safety in numbers ?
I think in a way there is. Youtube and Myspace have the blueprint we must build upon. Anyway I am keen to hear all your informed and wise words so can the usual suspects contribute.

JK (as always), Mart, Big End, GG, Grandpa Harley, Kev, Djones (ps my fellow poster from down under), etc

I think the sad thing we have all discovered from the free viewing sites is that there is not as much talent out there as we would have wished.
I don`t think this is any different to what it was allways like, but we of course have more available access to hearing it, instantly.
I recall a PR guy in the eighties trying to sell me his services because he had bought a "Fax Machine"(wow!), and could get my details on every A+R desk in the country!

There is a current internet saturation point, but I don`t think it`s any worse than the flood of cd`s and tapes that used to pile up.

The simple fact is, if you didn`t fancy the name of the act or the packaging on a demo product, it won`t get played.
The same can be said of Myspace sites, if it looks interesting, in walks your customer.

I was intrigued by an act which i think we all looked at this week, and guess what? No music on the site.
Less is often still more in a slow build up.

There must be a lot more talent out there than we know, but it does not mean they are good at computers.

Simply we have to get used to giving some things away for free. Video-clips, music-clips.

The good news is it's very cheap to produce these free things. You can use a mobile phone. Even better is if somebody else does it for you. Goes to the trouble of posting, telling their friends and all that.

Income for the higher level is music placement - movies,TV, games. There several levels of entry.

Below that is selling CDs, merchandise. Somewhere in between the two is doing gigs.

Everything else is the same as it ever was, the Internet didn't replace anything it added to it and a very fine addition it is too.

How much money we can make, more than we would have done without it.

Interestingly enough though, the internet seems to have had very little impact on live gig attendance at "showcase level".
This could be due to the fact that the information is so graphically and audibly displayed on Myspace and Gootube, that the thumbs down on a "buzz" act occurs earlier.
Does this make a case for streaming in lo-fi akin to the dreaded cassette tape, to make people think "hmmm there maybe something there but I can`t quite hear it?"

Mart wrote:

Does this make a case for streaming in lo-fi akin to the dreaded cassette tape, to make people think "hmmm there maybe something there but I can`t quite hear it?"

Very apt. Home pirate tapes did sell albums, lo-fi video can sell gigs.

If somebody is going to see the clip after a gig the quality is not an great issue. Their brain will add what's missing remembering the gig. If they're showing it to a friend, it's a gig they expect it to be a rough.

If they're looking for you then it's very cheap to put up something decent.

It's selling the next gig. Going out is a change from going on the Internet. The Internet is our friend.

Best of all is people enjoy listening to live music. It's been very popular for a very long time and it will see out the Internet.

PS. Flogging Molly (Arrived today), it was the video done by a fan that sold me CD.

DJKZ, I'd turn the question on its head (it's Friday, always a good time to think upsidedown).

Have the new media made it any easier to create a truly great song or act? Is what we are offering now inherently better than what was out there before?

I think the answer is largely: no. It's not necessarily worse - and it's certainly easier to create - but the stuff I hear around me is not inherently better than what was being produced in 1978 (with adaptations to the timeframe).

When I look at the people around me creating music, they have access to the charts in Australia and local charts in Tokyo. But they are not really using that information. They are still trying to push their stuff outwards, rather than trying to build on what is happening elsewhere.

So my proposal for the day is that what we are offering is not extraordinary, so is it surprising that people in Melbourne are not picking up on it?

Just something to think about for the weekend!

And DJ, here's my trashy plug of the day: trash.moonfruit.com

PS: Interesting thought about the lo-fi streaming and dreaded cassette tape.

Hi Michael and all in this thread.
The cassette theory arrived back to me after my partner just announced to me that she has got me a reel to reel player to go through the old master tapes.

The flaws on my original Walkman when I used to walk around listening to half finished works actively encouraged me to make it better, because the hiss and lo-fi was invading the listening space.
Now...
When I bought the two Springsteen digital cds in about 1994, they were too perfect.
Perhaps we have de-humanized ourselves, in making ourselves sound "perfect".

Here`s one for you Zoo

thanks for the invite to discuss. Here are my thoughts:
1. Lack of development.
2. Lack of development.
3. People too keen to give the music away too soon before the act has been fully developed.
4. Acts stuck in bedrooms not out there banging the boards in order to, ahem, "develop" their live act and build the following.
5. Too many acts on myspace saying "oh, look how many plays we've got," and being snotty with those who try to help them move to the next level. They need to put the mouse down and pick up their axe.

And so on ad nausium. Take the time to get the studio together, find the right acts, get the songs written and recorded and put the act out there live. Last October, I found two great singers. One is half way through recording the first album and I went to one of her shows three weeks ago. I needed a pass to get past the bouncers...sold out!! And the other act is well on the way. Am I going to release something yet? No. Why? Because they ain't ready yet, but they will be by next year. Slow burn promo, people working the message boards, using my press, radio and DJ contacts. They all add up. Leave the fast burns to the majors and those with the big budgets. If you try taking them on at their own game you WILL lose and you WILL get charged an arm and a leg in the process.

Come on down de-caf, I'm ready for you!!

There is another problem though Big End.

Any artist simply wants to be heard and what the internet has done is create a lack of patience for this to happen.
A recording is finished and uploaded, instantly seeking approval.
On a personal level, I try to send files of new mixes to people I respect, for their views, but it is far easier to upload to Myspace and send a bulk link as not everybody needs another 5 meg file, this brings us to a lot of material on the web that is underdeveloped.

The temptation for an act to put new stuff to thousands of peoples ears instantly is a paramount feature of what has happened to the industry.
I`m sure we all remember whole days taken out, by copying cassettes in real time and posting them.

There is a case for Myspace/YouTube etc , getting A+R, at some point, someone is going to have to say, not just, "you can be heard on this site" but instead "you can allways hear quality music on this site".

If they don`t watch out, the site will be full of Grandad and his Grandson singing Christmas Carols around a Bontempi organ with 12,000 views per day.
A future hit?
I think not.

Mart wrote:
...

There is a case for Myspace/YouTube etc , getting A+R, at some point, someone is going to have to say, not just, "you can be heard on this site" but instead "you can allways hear quality music on this site".

Now there's a thought for people running websites. Big End mentions development and development. What about quality control and quality control?

Good comments both.

"we wish you a Merry Christm..". Cut!

Quality control is an excellent point. I guess one of the hardest things to do is to decide whether or not it's a good record or a great one. I think JK pointed out that one must be sure that it's one with a bullet before running with the whole promo thing. He's right, of course, but I think being objective about it is the hardest thing in the world.