More Music Doom

Two articles that confirm what I've already posted some time ago:

http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/obpost/pi_obpostid/39
which in turn references
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117444575607043728-DA_Xj6UYVkdAlYagcxinszyQOKE_20070420.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

Essentially, CD sales are beginning a death plumment, and artists who want to make a living from music will have to play live and sell merchandise to make a living. I wonder if live venues realise this yet? Will NZ culture change so that people go out and see bands 2-3 times every week instead? And then go out and hear DJs later in the night?

NZ band guy Blink reckons midweek band nights in NZ need to start early and finish early like they do in Aussie, so that people know they can go out and party on a school night and still get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Tatjna put me onto this rather cute article http://kimihia.org.nz/how/raving/ Apart from wondering about the innocence and trepidation with which some people approach the world, it contains this immortal line

The mark of being in a club or a rave is that the person playing the music has (at least) two turntables and spends a lot of time bent over them to get them mixed together without gaps between tracks. If there is a guy pulling out CDs and taking requests then you probably aren't in a rave.

Go the vinyl!

Strangely, vinyl could be a small exception to the plummeting sales of CDs and lukewarm digital music sales. I don't know what the actual figures are, but they probably aren't good. Those, like myself, who still prefer vinyl over CD/digital at least show that we support the artist/record label by purchasing their product.

I'm very suspicious of the number of people I see playing off CD these days. I do wonder how many CDJs actually pay for their music. I recall a minor wannabe DJ in Wellington a few years ago proudly telling me how many thousands of MP3s he had available for a set. Most of which he hadn't even listened to. All acquired without giving anything back to the artist who created them. I left him feeling angry and sick. Interestingly, he swopped to vinyl a while later. Maybe he realised he had no credibility.

With CDJs and tools like Tractor and Ableton Live becoming so much better in the last few years, it's no wonder some DJs are changing formats. It's purely for practical reasons - the weight of large numbers of tunes on vinyl versus MP3s, and those producing their own tunes choosing to play them out in digital format rather than putting them on acetate. Carl Cox reportedly played only off CD in NZ recently. Et tu Carl?

The challenge will be, with so much 'help', to separate out the good DJs from the merely blend-one-tune-into-another DJs. The DJs who push the boundaries, use the new features and create something unique that you can't get simply by queuing MP3s in Winamp. Mind you, whether their audience actually notices how innovative they are is another thing.

Most of the old school DJs I speak to still prefer vinyl for the playing experience. Hence Final Scratch, and the reportedly much superior Serato Scratch (a New Zealand product) will probably be the way I go MP3 wise, in order to retain that vinyl feel. I play CDs when I have to, but only on good CDJ setups like the Pioneer CDJ 1000s. The others are @!$#!.

Big ups to NZ Musician too, it's a damn good mag which has been slogging away for years and consistently publishes worthwhile stuff.

See also http://xhile.blogspot.com/2007/03/stealing-music.html and http://xhile.blogspot.com/2005/08/sounds-like-stealing-to-me.html




listening to Erik Prydz vs Pink Floyd : Proper Education (on vinyl)