Firstly, I would like to “publish” a short essay that recently struck a chord with me. It was written by my brother Emmanuel Rizzi, a contributor to Cornell University’s The Diplomacist blog.
Here goes:
Why the Music-Artist envies the Literature-Artist
What luck has the Literature-Artist to have an individual spectatorship! The form of literature precludes reading en masse – it is an isolating form that requires the undistracted focus of its reader. It thus takes for granted the reader’s attention and is delivered to the reader’s most vulnerable state. Though the average reader may certainly not be attuned to the author’s subtleties of artistry, he is nonetheless reached at his most vulnerable, his most open — the medium gets the best out of each reader.
What difference with music! The free-flowing, amorphous and drifting form of the medium means that it may — and usually is (prior to 20th century advent of recording, must) — be heard and experienced en masse; the form imposes no barrier: it will reach the enlightened listener as readily as the benighted one. In fact, it has a tendency to often reach the unwilling listener! Music requires no singular focus of the listener, who is free to attend to any and all mental or physical activities while hearing the music. It is the rare listener who makes himself vulnerable — for this reason the medium seldom gets the best out of each listener.
It is serious music’s curse (but the blessing of popular music).
In my mind, Emmanuel’s words ring oh so true. It would be hard, even foolish, to argue otherwise. The appreciation of music has always depended on a reliable attention span, one that is being challenged more than ever in today’s musical landscape.
As of late, I seem to have hit a crisis… I am listening to less and less music, sometimes none at all for weeks at a time. I am inspired by less and less music, and when a song does get my attention, it is rarely for its whole duration. How can this be? I have always had a voracious appetite for music discovery, a boundless open mind for all sounds regardless of genre, and an enthusiasm for active listening rarely matched by my peers. Could this be the “old” me?
Music is now more readily available, more accessible, more plentiful, and on top of that, cheaper than it has ever been. Recording and self-releasing music have greatly profited from the advent of modern technology making it easier than ever to get one’s music “out there.” So why is it I am struggling so much to feel enthusiastic about music today? Could it be that my precious attention span has been eroded by an over-saturation of music? Am I suffering from option anxiety? Perhaps.
Music is everywhere. It’s stored on my phone. It’s on Spotify on my phone. It’s on YouTube on my phone. It’s on Shazam on my phone. It’s on Deezer on my phone. Between all of them I can listen to pretty much every single piece of music I ever want to, and at any given time. And I can connect this to various sound systems wherever I may be, at home, in the office, in my studio… but the sad thing is, I don’t. And I blame the mass availability of music for the sad state of affairs that my music appreciation has become.
I am not going to go on about how the rise of digital has killed off the culture behind owning a physical piece of music and the pleasures associated with it. Too much has already been said on the topic, and in fact I am not one to dwell on the past. The decline of physical as the leading format has always just been a matter of time. The future is now here, technology and hence the music business continue to evolve, and I am happy to be an active part of these changes, both as an artist and as a professional within the industry. But going back to Emmanuel’s essay — there are very few filters left. We get bombarded by an onslaught of music left and right on a daily basis and picking and choosing (i.e. focusing) has become increasingly difficult. Not to mention the competition created by our daily lives’ distractions. Our attention spans have spun out of control. Too much information, too little time.
As is rather clear, this has taken its toll on me personally. I haven’t dealt with it as well as some. But I remain optimistic. The music world is in a constant state of flux and I am sure that my listening habits of old will come back, somehow some way, either through further changes in our industry or perhaps through some further adaptation on my part. Either way, I am excited to find out.
iTunes 11 is here! With a complete redesign of both the iTunes player and the iTunes store, we wanted to point out some great new features that you can use to optimize your listening and shopping experience.
First, let’s start with the player itself. You will notice when you first open iTunes 11 that there is no longer a sidebar, which has been replaced with either more browsing space on an album level or has been turned into a browse by artist/genre area. Now — if you weren’t quite ready to give up that sidebar, DO NOT FRET! You can still access it by clicking on the “View” drop-down and selecting “Show Sidebar.”
A few more big changes you will notice with the player are focused around the album view. Apple’s new album artwork layout offers a great way to quickly browse through your albums while still being able to enjoy all of your colorful album artwork. When clicking on any album, an ‘expanded view’ will appear. Not only does this expanded view show you the tracks of that specific album, but if you click the ‘In the Store’ button on the upper-right corner it will also show you Top Songs, Top Albums, and Recommended Songs [from other artists], all of which you can purchase right from your music library. How’s that for some intuitive up-sell!
Gone are the days of the unknown queue when using iTunes ‘Up Next’ feature. This functionality allows you to access a full list of upcoming and previously played tracks by clicking this button 
in the Now Playing window. You can also click the arrow button next to any track and either place the track at the front of your queue by selecting ‘Play Next,’ or simply add it to your queue by selecting ‘Add to Up Next.’
Check out the new design of the Mini Player by clicking the button on the upper-right of your player. You will notice that the player is much sleeker in design, only displaying the track name, artist name, and album artwork. Hover your mouse for Play/Pause, Forward, Back, and Volume Control. And notice that you can now also access ‘Up Next’ and search your library right from the Mini Player.
There have also been some big changes to the iTunes Store. Toggle from your iTunes Library to the store by clicking the ‘iTunes Store’ button on the upper-right of your player. This will take you to a fresh new redesign with bigger showcases, sliding bricks and all around bigger album artwork.
One functionality that iTunes has added to the store is each artist now has a dedicated page. This will contain a Collection page, which showcases all of that artist’s Albums, Songs, Music Videos and Movies along with other artists that listeners have bought. The Artist Info section allows you to browse through the artist’s biography, influencers, followers and contemporaries. Some artists also have a Gallery option, which allow you to view a variety of high-resolution photos from their career.
All of these features make for a robust new store and player. I am sure there is more in store for iTunes in 2013. What do you surmise is coming?
Check out the Apple website for a demo video and more information on these new features.
It’s no news that to a large extent, digital music has hurt the industry. Free downloads instead of buying CD have generated declining revenues for labels over the past 15 years. Yet in the meantime, online music has become a booming business – and there is no shortage of ideas…
There is light on the horizon for the music industry – digital light. Since MP3 files were introduced in the market, people have jumped on the opportunity to get free music from Internet piracy sites. Now, (legal) online music is experiencing a boom, which is compensating for the drop in CD sales. Of course, Internet technology plays an increasingly important role.
The drivers of innovation are not record companies or publishers, they are online companies with innovative ideas. As an example, I have selected 4 German companies with a great business model:
There are many more start-ups preparing to make their way into the industry, and not only in Germany! So music owners can look forward to a bright and innovative future.
Among the cornucopia (yes, I just made a Hunger Games reference) of announcements made at SXSW was one by the streaming platform Rdio. What it unveiled was a completely new design by Wilson Miner that promises a faster, simpler and more social listening experience.
Not that Rdio wasn’t awesome already… Free to use and easy to share with friends, the digital music service is one of the best streaming services out there right now. Not only does Rdio think as a consumer (no ads, embeddable playlists, ease of discovery), it also listens to what they want. That’s what this slew of changes is all about: getting the listener what it asked for.
Here’s what you’ll find in the new and improved version:
As of last week, the new Rdio is available to all subscribers and is currently available in the US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal and Denmark. If you’re not a subscriber, you’ll have to wait a few more weeks – or get a subscription if you want to skip the line! For more info, check out Rdio’s press release or watch the snazzy preview below:
The Orchard's VP of Strategy Prashant Bahadur at the CMJ conference
One Billion Mobile Phones in China, and My Music Is Not On Them.
That was the title of last Tuesday’s CMJ conference featuring The Orchard’s VP of Strategy Prashant Bahadur, alongside other music experts Robert Singerman and Thomas Reemer from 88tc88, Eric de Fontenay, founder of Musicdish China and Jeffrey Liebenson, an Entertainment Lawyer at Liebenson Law.
In a packed medium-sized room at the NYU Kimmel Center, these men discussed the current situation regarding the flow of international music to China. As the title of the conference indicates, China has the potential to provide a large market of eager consumers to international musicians and labels – but in order to succeed, you need a plan.
According to Robert Singerman, 98% of all music consumed in China is local music. That leaves only 2% for international music, and most of that is K-Pop. There are many roadblocks and challenges to getting your music across those borders, not least of which is government censorship. Getting your music approved by the Chinese government is a long and tedious process involving translation of lyrics, approval of content and so on. Because of this strong government involvement and censorship, many Chinese have never even heard of The Beatles!
But this is slowly changing as China has begun to cooperate with international labels. The Baidu law suit against music piracy, which resulted in Baidu striking licensing deals with three major record labels, certainly encouraged this. (Baidu previously allowed users to directly search for MP3s on its search engine.) Companies like 88tc88 and MusicDish China are facilitating the process and have been successfully releasing music in China for about 12 months.
The Orchard has been aware of China’s potential for a few years now and has been trying to break into China’s music industry since 2004. According to Prashant Bahadur, we may have been a little too early then. That said, he is confident that the industry is now “moving in the right direction” and argued 3 key points to that effect:
The conclusion is that though it is too early to put a figure on potential profit for the coming years, we are confident that we will succeed in monetizing at least a portion of music for 2012, and more in years to come. Watch Prashant Bahadur’s segment below, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
