Comments on: Which have eyes, and see not: Musings about the music industry and The Because Effect

By: The Death of the Download?

The Death of the Download? — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:28:27 +0000

[...] written about this repeatedly over the years; if you’re interested, take a look at this or this or this. And while you’re at it, you should probably re-read Kevin Kelly’s [...]

By: Making Something Important Available Easily | iface thoughts

Making Something Important Available Easily | iface thoughts — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 14:32:04 +0000

[...] like open source takes its time to convince an industry. Music industry has slowly started to warm up to its benefits. Though software industry is one of the most explicit examples, it is going to take time for some [...]

By: Stephen Smoliar

Stephen Smoliar — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:12:28 +0000

JP, whatever I may have said about your understanding of music-as-practice in the past, I agree with you on this one and wonder if Simon has become more of an “industry player” and, as a consequence, less of a musician. Stravinsky said it best: Musicians (whatever the performing and composing styles may be) want their audiences to be GOOD LISTENERS in the setting of live performances.

http://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2007/09/doing-justice-to-composer.html

Being a good listener, like being a good anything-else, takes a certain amount of practice. It is virtually impossible to be a good listener the first time you hear anything, whether live or recorded. You need to build up a “familiarity base;” and doing that by listening to a recording is as good a way as any. I have always seen this as the logic behind Prince’s strategy, and I am now glad to see others buying into that logic.

http://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2007/07/taming-rachmaninoffs-monster.html

By: JP

JP — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:11:41 +0000

Interesting. Particularly the last answer. I would have said something different. “The most siginificant way to promote LIVE music today is actually to make RECORDED music abundant and freely available. By far.”

But then I’m not a musician, so what do I know?

By: David Hays

David Hays — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:06:55 +0000

Paul Simon discusses the music industry in a Yahoo! Finance interview. More on scarcity and abundancy.

Here’s a quick excerpt:

“Q: I assume that the Internet is the most important avenue to promote music today?”

A: Of course it’s important in order to get word-of-mouth going. But the most significant way to promote recorded music today is actually to perform it live. By far.

By: malcolm

malcolm — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:41:48 +0000

The because effect certainly works for Prince, Radiohead, U2 and Rolling Stones (who are probably the biggest “because of” of all given they sell few of their recent albums and make all their money from touring)

But it doesn’t work as well for Kate Bush, Robert Wyatt and Scott Walker who don’t tour are unlikely to make a killing from licensing their music for adverts and won’t make much money from selling Robert Wyatt branded wheelchairs.

There will of course be multiple revenue models. The “Because Effect” is one but the “Radiohead Model” is a likely other. DRM is in any case screaming the last scream of the dying elephant (and therefore still poses a danger) so as long as most people stay honest and pay we have no problems only opportunities.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:00:09 +0000

A well thought out post, something I’ve also been musing about here: http://blog.iclutton.com/2007/10/secret-of-radiohead-rainbows-business.html

By: Blog Feeds about Music » Archive » Which have eyes, and see not: Musings about the music industry and …

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 21:26:12 +0000

[...] You can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here [...]