Old Musical Dogs Learning New Internet Tricks

The Internet is the best thing ever to happen to music. It brought big music to its knees, made Susan Boyle a star, and finally gave me a reason to move all of those CDs into my garage.

I'm tired of the doom and gloom prophesying about the end of the music business. This is the beginning of a new musical world, my brothers and sisters. The only ones need be scared are the fat suits who bled generations of artists dry in order to get a ride on a Gulfstream and a check cashed with the sweat and blood of an musician taking a bus to his next gig where some drink tickets await him.

This is the Age of the Artist. In a world where equipment, distribution, and Paypal are in the hands of everyone, only talent will matter. The days of the middleman are (almost) over. Viva la revolucion de music.

Which artist has best adapted to the Internet? [Poll]

While the major record labels rearrange the chairs on the Titanic, musicians are getting in the water. Bands big and small are reinventing themselves, their music, and their relationship with their audience. They're using technology to break down the corporate wall that kept them from their fans. And while the world gets bigger and more fragmented, musicians and their fans have never been closer, thanks to them Googles and Internets. Here are five old dogs learning new tricks by taking it to the (virtual) street.

U2
I'll admit that I'm on the fence about U2 these days - at least musically. But, goddamn, they still inspire me with their battle to stay relevant in the computer age. In 2004, they were the first band to release a digital box set. "The Complete U2" was available only as a 446-song iTunes download. Savvy move. But the capper came last Sunday as U2 streamed their Rose Bowl concert live on YouTube - another first - to an estimated 7 million people. Next up: the first concert broadcast on Mars.

Pearl Jam
The Seattle band was one of the first to see the corporate music ship sinking. In 2000, they began claiming control over their musical destiny by releasing a series of "Official Bootlegs" from their Binaural Tour. Seventy-two were released in all. Pearl Jam has continued the series off and on ever since and last week announced a bootleg app for BlackBerry devices. Now, former grunge scenesters-turned-businessmen can get their live PJ fix on the way into their board meetings.

Beck
Ever the contrarian evangelist, Beck decided to form an old school record club for the Internet age. The concept is beautiful in its simplicity and anarchy. Beck and his buddies (including folks like Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale, MGMT, and Devendra Banhart) record an album and then post songs from the album weekly. It's a socialist record label: no hidden fees, no long term contracts, no penny. The first Record Club release was last June's "The Velvet Underground & Nico." Next up was "Songs of Leonard Cohen," posted in September. The releases are so good, it almost makes me miss my old Columbia House membership.

Radiohead

Radiohead is the id to U2's ego. The British band could own the world if they wanted. Instead, they opt for subverting it - and they use technology heavily to aid their mission. Their 2007 release was an exercise in musical populism. "In Rainbows" was released on the band's website as a digital download only. Nothing new there. The price listed on the home page? "It's up to you," were the instructions. I paid ten bucks.

EARLY INTERNET PIONEERS

David Bowie
David Bowie was first online. Perhaps not literally but first in a way that really mattered. In 1998, he became an Internet service provider by launching BowieNet. For $19.95 a month, members received a davidbowie.com email address, Internet service, a customizable home page, and a whopping 5MB of space to create content.

Two years later, BowieArt went live, providing virtual art exhibitions for thousands of emerging fine artists. Who better than the Thin White Duke to curate the Internet? For his pioneering work, Bowie received the 2007 Webby Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pete Townshend
It wasn't Al Gore who invented the Internet, it was Pete Townshend. He invented it in 1969 when he wrote his abandoned rock opera "Lifehouse" (portions salvaged for The Who's 1971 album "Who's Next" and later as a 2000 concept box set).

In the midst of the convoluted futuristic story was the Grid, a structure of tubes which provided people with all of the entertainment, food, and experiences they needed to survive. Over 40 years later, Townshend would launch The Lifehouse Method, a website where applicants could have an "electronic musical portrait" created for them based on data entered into system. I'm still waiting for mine. My favorite color is purple, and I like sushi. Someone? Anyone?

 

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Comments

[yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah]

Not to rain on your utopia, but every single artist you mention became a household name via primarily major label promotion. Those established acts may benefit greatly from the elimination of the middle man, but for musicians who did not become superstars before file-sharing and myspace, the technology is a bit of a double-edged sword. Sure, you can record and promote more cheaply than ever, but not necessarily more effectively. New thriftily done recordings are generally unpleasantly overly compressed and the kind of promotion that could get one noticed is not exactly going to set an artist up for longevity (unless I missed it when Radiohead or Pearl Jam did their video of performing while on treadmills).

[Gasparilla]

Al Gore never said he "invented" the internet. He said that while he was in Congress he initiated bills that provided the seed money to greatly speed up the process.

[GrimAdventures]

I completely agree with basic idea here. However, one thing to take into consideration is the marketing factor. The only thing labels were even marginally useful for was marketing, especially for new artists. As it stands, established artists don't have to really worry about fans and potential fans finding them and their music. New artists will have to establish a marketing arm if they want to penetrate the market fast. Or new artists can rely on word of mouth if they want their growth to be more organic.
There's no right or wrong here, it's just that without a label to promote them, new artists will have to make up the slack. Some might say that the labels weren't that great at promoting artists that were not their most popular anyway. Of course, the internet not only makes music distribution easier, it could be used in really innovative ways to market the artist, ie., Facebook, Twitter, etc. But just remember people have to know you exist to friend you on Facebook.

[curiousasheck]

It's true. Selling your music is no different then selling Chocolate Chip Cookies. It should all be free.

[douglevitt]

Very insightful, Shawn. And a solid version of lemonade. The old model, you are right, was a kind of creative sharecropping.

[Indon]

Well, that's cool.

Personally, as a casual music listener, when the RIAA and all them started stepping up persecution of their own customers, I just, well, disconnected from the whole thing. Stopped buying music, stopped looking into going to concerts, anything.

I'm sticking with the music I have, and not buying from or otherwise becoming engaged in the industry, until the RIAA and record labels are dead.

It's good to know there'll be something for me to go back to.

[situationcritical]

Last year I was on a conference call with about 14 record label execs, a President, VPs, commissioners and producers - all screaming in my ear, and demanding more for no pay after I'd already gone far beyond the call of duty. After one heated comment from a VP at Universal Music Group, I responded by saying - "Listen carefully to this..." and I hung up the phone.

Thank God the internets brought these b-tards to their knees.

[edva]

Good one.

[Catfish1968]

you still worked for A&M while we in the underground music made our own records, distributed them, booked our own tours, and created a system that operated without the interference of the so-called major labels. You were still part of the problem.

[tompoe]

It's an exciting time for independent artists, for sure. Internet Archive (www.archive.org) has tens of thousands of concerts (most genres) for visitors and music lovers to download. A band that has a videographer, a web site administrator, and a fan club coordinator, can instantly reach a worldwide audience. Linux, or Open Source software provides all the digital tools needed to create music products that are as good as anything produced by major recording studios (the majors all use the same software we can download onto our computers).

A musician's fans are almost always individuals with talents that can contribute to the "team". I find it hard to imagine any artist, today, thinking they have to sell out to an obsolete business model. It takes 20,000 sales worldwide each year to provide an artist with a comfortable income from CD's alone. The Internet is the key, and artists are realizing this.

[JohnJeter]

Shawn - Join the chorus! Your piece starts out dead-on perfect, then you lost me listing the stars. Where the Digital Music Revolution begins and flourishes is Down Here in the trenches with Baby Bands that will become the stars of tomorrow, that play the small rooms today, thanks to filling iPods and all kinds of other devices with free MP3s, as fast as the Talent can deliver them!
As soon as the money-grubbers get out of the way and let the distributors - the promoters and the Internet - dissolve the distance between the Talent and the fan, life gets even better for the Talent.
The only problem that remains is ... where are the Tastemakers. Time was when Rolling Stone or Mother Jones or somebody else told us the Good Stuff. Now, who are the go-to folks for credibility? Every Artist is going to say she's good. Social networks are all we're going to have left to help Talent rise. If Promoters like LiveNation become a monopoly, fans once again will suffer, because that's not tastemaking, that's power, and fans and Talent went through all that garbage with the Record Labels.
So ... let's all figure out how to make the Talent and the Talent Buyer and the Fan connect, make the Credibility Circle tighten ... share the risks, share the rewards and share the future. Because we're going to be the only ones left in it.