Record Industry Blues

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

6 Music's demise makes me sad

I missed out on the pirate radio revolution of the 60s and the whole radio licence expansion fight led by Xfm and Virgin Radio back in the 90s.

However, I will always remember my first taste of 6 Music, the BBC's digital only bridge between radios 1 and 2. There was just something intangibly cool about the station. It wasn't the way they wore their indie cred on their sleeve, leaving the rubbish one hit wonders of modern pap for radio 1 and the safe somewhat twee pop for radio 2.

I always found 6 Music to be that cool older brother who always had the best records and the cool friends - someone to aspire to. Unlike Radio 1 who was this far away from an ASBO and radio 2 who'd nodded off before dinner with slippers on and pipe in hand.

6 Music would never get the listeners it's siblings got, for the main reason that DAB is still an exclusive club. Sure it's available on the net and through various television systems, but there's a LOT of entertainment competition when you're at your PC or plonked in front of your telly.

The Beeb have always been able to forge in new directions that more commercial ventures wouldn't be able to dare, and in some avenues (iPlayer) they've hit paydirt.

I still believe there's life left in 6 Music, and I tune in from time to time on my PC, as I never did get dabbed up.

If it does die, I will be saddened, as if I had my way Radio 1 would have been for the guillotine around the time of John Peel's (the last surviving reason to tune in) passing.

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Men at Work lose plagiarism case

Image via Wikipedia

Men at Work may need to get back to work to pay their legal bills.

The big news today is that Scottish Aussie pop combo Men At Work have been found guilty of plagiarism and a federal court in Sydney ordered compensation to be paid. The old school-exam style crime pertains to their 1981 pop anthem "Down Under" which depicts a backpacker's travels around the world.

The song, seen in some countries as the only hit of a one hit wonder is synonymous with Aussie pride and is played at any event mildly connected to Australia - the closing of the Syndney Olympics, the unofficial anthem of the Australian team that won the Americas Cup in 1983, an iconic Qantas ad and Australia Day celebrations on any given year.

The passage in despute is the famous flute line that runs throughout the song. It has been deemed this is a direct lift of the children's song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree," written by Marion Sinclair in 1934.

Music copyright lawyer Stephen Digby told ABC Online he was surprised by the court's decision. "I think it could have gone either way but my initial reaction was always that this was going to be a very hard case for (publisher) Larrikin to win," he said.

With a win in the bag for Larrikin, a court hearing is to take place later this month to determine exactly how much of the royalties for the song Men At Work songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert will have to pay back, as well as and record companies Sony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Songs Australia. The figure bandied about at the moment is 40-60%.

Let's hope Vegemite don't come calling for unlicenced use of a brand name.

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Spotify's related artists

Image via Wikipedia

Spotify have been in the news a lot this week. From founder Daniel E's news that Twitter is their biggest traffic source, to the announcement today about a newly rolled out related artist feature.

According to an article on Tech Crunch, Spotify have been working on a recommendation engine to let you discover new music while listening to your favourite acts. This would act as a replacement for the short, rather static list of related artists that appeared on the artist page. According to Tech Crunch, the recommendation engine is "powered by an algorithm that cross-references data collected over millions of user listening hours, not dissimilar it seems to Last.fm’s ’scrobbling’ of tracks".

Whether the feature will spur you to on to discover any amazing new finds is still up for debate. A quick perusal of the new system finds me on the Pet Shop Boys page contemplating listening to their related artist Brummie metal Gods "Judas Priest" (maybe it's the gay connection they're going for).

Clearly, though, there's still quite a bit of work to do before I'm actually discovering new RELEVANT music using this feature.

Thursday, 7 January 2010

Classic album cover stamps out today

Royal Mail have released their latest themed postage-stamp sets today - Classic Album Covers. Ten record sleeves in all, this collection spans mainly rock and several decades.

With releases like this there's always going to be debate, and I'll start it off by asking why Pink Floyd's "Division Bell" was included over "Dark Side of the Moon" and why Coldplay is here at all. Also, where is Duran Duran's "Rio"? Patrick Nagel did some amazing popart in his time and the Rio cover is his most notable work.

The other covers are what you'd expect: Blur's "Parklife", New Order's "Power, Corruption and Lies", Rolling Stones' "Let it Bleed", The Clash's "London Calling", Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells", Led Zeppelin's "IV", Primal Scream's "Screamadelica" and David Bowie's seminal 1972 masterpiece "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars".

It's interesting seeing these classic covers this small. It echoes the argument of music artwork when CDs became popular and the 12" x 12" piece of art for a record was shrunk down to fit a 5" CD. Now they quite literally are postage-stamp size.

The cost varies for the set depending on how extravagent you want to be (Presentation Pack, Stamp Cards, Prestige Stamp Book, Souvenir Sheet or Cover), and you can find them all on the Royal Mail site. A collection featuring all the permutations can be had for a little over £12.

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Seven and the ragged Duran Duran announcement

Cover of Seven and the Ragged Tiger

Hot on the heels of the two disc reissue of Duran Duran's Rio, the band announced today that Seven and the Ragged Tiger is get a similar treatment. Coming March 2010, it may not be released in time for Christmas, but for fans this news is an awesome Christmas present.

Similar to the Rio reissue, Seven mops up loads of tracks released around the time of the original album release. In this case, it also includes the tracks around the "Is There Something I Should Know?" single campaign, that actually featured on the re-issue of the debut album.

The EXCELLENT news portion however is that the limited edition release with be three discs. The third disc is a DVD of "As The Lights Go Down". This has been requested from fans since Duran Duran product originally appeared on DVD back in the day. For the uninitiated, it's basically the band's concert movie "Arena" without the movie bit.

The DVD is fleshed out with era videos (including the 17 minute movie version of "New Moon on Monday" which was previously an Easter egg on the "Greatest" DVD) as well as clips of the band on top of the pops.

This is truly setting out to be an awesome release for fans, and with the Arcadia reissue booked, and a Mark Ronson produced album almost ready, 2010 is shaping up to an awesome year.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger limited edition 3 disc set tracklisting

CD 1:
Original album
1. The Reflex (5.28)
2. New Moon On Monday (4.18)
3. (I’m Looking For) Cracks In The Pavement (3.39)
4. I Take The Dice (3.15)
5. Of Crime And Passion (3.50)
6. Union Of The Snake (4.20)
7. Shadows On Your Side (4.03)
8. Tiger Tiger (3.20)
9. The Seventh Stranger (5.23)

CD 2:
Non album singles and B-sides
1. Is There Something I Should Know? (4.11)
2. Faith In This Colour (4.07)
3. Faith In This Colour (alternate slow mix) (4.06)
4. Secret Oktober (2.45)
5. Tiger Tiger (Ian Little remix) (3.25)
6. The Reflex (single version) (4.25)
7. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (Live) (4.54)
8. New Religion (live at the LA Forum 9/2/84) (4.52) Tape no: 48375
9. The Reflex (live at the LA Forum 9/2/84) (5.52) Tape no: "

Mixes
10. Is There Something I Should Know? (Monster Mix) (6.40)
11. Union Of The Snake (Monkey Mix) (6.21)
12. New Moon On Monday (Dance Mix) (5.59)
13. The Reflex (Dance Mix) (6.35)

DVD:
As The Lights Go Down
Intro: Tiger Tiger (1.26)
Is There Something I Should Know? (4.41)
Hungry Like the Wolf (4.03)
Union of the Snake (4.12)
New Religion (5.34)
Save a Prayer 20.11
Rio
The Seventh Stranger (5.00)
The Chauffeur (5.19)
Planet Earth (4.35)
Careless Memories (4.23)
Girls On Film (6.16)

The videos
Is There Something I Should Know?
Union Of The Snake
New Moon On Monday (E.P Version)
The Reflex

Bonus video
New Moon On Monday (movie version) (17.27)

Top Of The Pops performances
Is There Something I Should Know? 23/3/83
The Reflex 26/4/84

Friday, 4 December 2009

Vinny Vero's Pet Shop Boys Christmas gift

NYC DJ and remixer Vinny Vero was recently commissioned by EMI to do some remixes for Pet Shop Boys' "Beautiful People." As he mentions on his blog, due to time constraints it was never going to happen.

With it looking less and less likely that EMI are going to release his efforts commercially, Mr Vero has decided to post the three mixes he's done on his blog, as a Christmas present for his fans.

These tracks are top quality. In his blog he discusses his idea of Pet Shop Boys remixes that stand the test of time, the ones that retain a majority of the song. The single and club mixes he's created thus stick to that ethos. The third mix is a mash up between "Beautiful people" and A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray". Aptly titled "Beautiful voodoo" it works remarkably well.

On top of the Christmas present download, Vero's also written a passionate entry about Pet Shop Boys in general, touching on his work with them in the 90s, remixing the US only single "To Step Aside", and touching on the incredibly inept way EMI marketed the Boys' latest album "Yes," including the decision to not release "Did you see me coming?" as a summer single, and have third single "Beautiful people" be German only.

It's a great post if you're looking for top quality free music, and it's a great post if you're looking for a good read.

iTunes friendly download (30MB)
FLAC (110MB)

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Royalties and the Unrecouped

Tim Quirk, ex of the 90s band Too Much Joy has recently posted a blog about the luaghable royalties his band recently were awarded for digital play back by their label Warner Music.

It makes for compelling reading, not only about the lackadaisical inner working of the recording industry, but also about life as a member of an "unrecouped" band (one that never earned enough to pay back their advance, thus aren't entitled to any payout from the label), $10,000 accountancy errors and fiscal irregularities and how an industry so rife with inner turmoil can actually take the public to task for piracy.

It may be a longish read, but it's a worthwhile read.

Again, the only reason Quirk actually got his royalty statement is because he now works for Rhapsody and knows what they pay the labels for digital streaming. I guess he was curious how much HE would actually get out of the deal.

In recent weeks Lady Gaga was in the press complaining about her Spotify royalty payments. The fact that Quirk released three albums and still hasn't made enough to be considered a recoupable artist, I imagine Gaga is lucky to get anything.