Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘music’

Israeli songstress Naomi Shemer passed away at age 74 last Saturday. And Israeli folk singer Arik Lavie succumbed to illness yesterday at age 77.

Both made contributions to the cultural tapestry of Israel, particularly in the 1960s. Their voices will be missed.

So Creed broke up. I guess the rest of the band got tired of Scott Stapp’s gorilla-sized ego. Oh well. They started off good but they’ve pretty much sucked since. I’m not gonna lose any sleep over this one.

When you’re selling water in the desert and it starts to pour, sorry dude, you’re outta business, better start selling umbrellas instead.

That’s marketing 101. Sometimes you have to rethink your business because of changes in demand, trends, or technological developments.

The major record companies haven’t seem to have caught on yet. Like the British, unwilling to see the pink sky indicating the sun setting on their empire, the record labels are reacting to online file swapping in a reactionary, defensive, scrambling way that’s sure to only alienate their market in hopes of hanging onto the disappearing role of a retail middleman for as long as possible.

So by suing hundreds of fans, the major labels are choking out their last gasp in trying to tell us that in order to have the privilege of listening to music, we must pay them billions of dollars a year to make it available to us.

Is online file-swapping stealing? Sure it is . . . from the artists. But the RIAA, which has launched the lawsuits, represents the largest record labels in the United States. These are the companies who have been ripping off artists for years, and have nice big fat legal departments mainly because they’ve been at the receiving end of so many lawsuits themselves. They convinced the musicians that they were absolutely essential if they wanted to get a record pressed, played, and purchased. And they convinced retailers and, ultimately, consumers, that it was their way or the highway.

Then along came the highway – the information superhighway, to borrow a bad cliché – and suddenly the demand end stopped needing the labels. The record buyers could be record freeloaders, thanks to a click of the mouse. And yeah, it was stealing and all, but it didn’t seem much different from taping a song off the radio, or a movie off TV with a VCR.

The artists, however, are still convinced that they need the labels, because what online file-swapping has yet to do is to set up an alternative business model that will make them any money. So they cling to the labels like life-preservers. Still, such a model will evolve. It’s bound to. Because any model that relies on something artificial like lawsuits to try to put the genie back in the bottle must be on its way out.

The artists are necessary in the business model because they create the music. The fans are necessary because they consume the music. But the labels? If we no longer need them to create and distribute the CDs, then they’ll need to find other uses (they’re still important in terms of artist promotion and building image and hype) or shut up and get out of the game. And don’t let the door hit ya on the way out.

Here’s a great way to get consumers to love ya: Sue them! If you’re the major record labels, apparently this makes perfect sense to you.

Live is coming to Montreal at the end of the month. Woohoo! Gotta get my tix.

Nearly half a million people are expected to descend on Toronto for the big Rolling Stones concert tomorrow. And they’re lining up already.

Also on the bill are the Guess Who, AC/DC, Rush, Blue Rodeo, the Tea Party, the Flaming Lips, Montrealers Sass Jordan and Sam Roberts, and . . . Justin Timberlake? (Yeah, seems a bit out of place doesn’t he? Can you picture all the 50+ concert-goers dancing to his brand of pop?)

Anyway, all of these bands for only $21.50 seems like a pretty decent deal, which is probably why they’re flocking from all directions and filling up Toronto’s hotels and restaurants, which have been standing pretty empty since the SARS epidemic.

All good news for Toronto. And a pretty spectacular music event if I do say so myself, even if it did cost the government a fortune and Ticketmaster is going to reap most of the profits. I’m sure it’ll be lots of fun.

But Justin Timberlake???

The new Live CD, Birds of Pray, and it’s awesome. Back to the band’s rock roots, with great songs and full of instant classics.

Well, except for the last track, an anti-war anthem called “What are we Fighting For?” that just makes me want to scream at Ed, hey, you’re fighting for the right to sing a song called “What are we Fighting For?”

Aside from that, though, it’s a top-quality CD. Highly recommended.

Initial reports that CHUM radio had pulled 20 anti-war songs off the playlists of one of its radio stations are false, much to my relief. When I first read the story, I couldn’t believe it . . . and apparently, neither could the station:

The original report claimed the banned songs included Give Peace A Chance by John Lennon, Soldier Boy by The Shirelles (a love song), Revolution by The Beatles and One Tin Soldier by The Original Caste.

“No songs have been banned on 1050 CHUM — none,” Brad Jones, the station’s program director, said yesterday. The station yesterday even played at least two of the purported banned songs, including Give Peace A Chance.

Rob Farina, program director of 104.5 CHUM-FM, said his station also has not banned any war- or peace-themed songs.

Jones said pulse24.com’s story was the result of a breakdown in communication during an interview between a pulse24.com reporter and CHUM-FM music director Barry Stewart. The reporter asked Stewart which war-themed songs were being pulled. Stewart thought the reporter meant pulled off the shelf for broadcast, whereas the reporter meant pulled from the playlist.

I’m certainly glad that the rumours turned out to be false. But the fact that the media was so willing to believe and publish the story in the first place raises an interesting question: where does the line get crossed? Being sensitive to controversy is one thing, but I could never condone all-out censorship, and neither could most people.

But while this report was false, reports that MTV Europe is practicing censorship unfortunately seem to be true:

MTV has banned music videos with war-related titles, lyrics or images, including Paul Hardcastle’s 19 and Outkast’s Bombs over Baghdad, for the duration of the conflict in Iraq.

The leading music channel will not show pop promos that feature “war, soldiers, war planes, bombs, missiles, riots and social unrest, executions and other obviously sensitive material”, according to an internal memo seen by MediaGuardian.co.uk.

[ . . . ]

“MTV, like many other broadcasters, feels content should reflect audience sensitivities at this time of war,” an MTV spokeswoman said.

“Any changes to playlists are only a temporary measure,” she added.

I sincerely hope that this policy is reconsidered. After all, isn’t freedom of expression one of the things we’re fighting for?

Lenny Kravitz recorded a song to express his anti-war views. And Damian Penny has the lyrics – or a version thereof. Hysterical!

Went to an amazing Bon Jovi concert last night.

I’ve always been a little bit of a closet Bon Jovi fan . . . it’s one of those guilty pleasures, like eating raw chocolate chip cookie dough. I’m one of the only people I know who not only owns, but actually listens to These Days. My copy of Crossroad is almost entirely worn out, and my Keep The Faith CD isn’t far behind.

The concert itself was great – the Goo Goo Dolls played an incredible opening set that was practically worth the ticket price on its own, and Bon Jovi’s music is tailor-made for large arenas. Of course, with such a large repertoire of hits, disappointments were almost a guarantee. Notably absent from last night’s setlist were such hits as Keep The Faith, Bed of Roses, Blaze of Glory, and the song that turned me into a huge fan at age fifteen: Always. Among others. The band played for two hours and squeezing in all their great songs would have taken at least twice that.

No political commentary, though. Just rock n’ roll. Gotta appreciate that.