HOW TO SAVE THE RECORDING INDUSTRY PART 4: Conclusions

I love music. Most of the time. I love pop music, classical music, music made with vocal chords, music made with electricity, music created with ancient instruments, music hardly made...music you can mime to, you can dance to, can cry to and can take you to places you've never been or haven't been to for a long time. Music, as a time machine.  Even when I hate music, I love hating it, be it the Mercury Music Prize's annual masturbation ceremony to the tabloid media's (i.e. the N.M.E) Oasis soap opera. I love 'not getting' whichever sub-genre of dubstep is popular this week. I love being snobby and being shameless about music that's naff. There's love everywhere. Passion as well. Not everyone has it. I love how this record excites me, for example...

And this was what this series has been about essentially. Passion. Optimism. Wanting the best for music, cherishing how it makes us feel and not allowing the future to fuck it up.  In this final episode I will share a few of my passions with you, since this series is really about music, and I'll try and conclude on what could/should be done to save and refine the industry. It may be gullible of me, and I don't have figures and statistics to back me up. I leave that to those who do but...it can work. Here's another record for you. I don't listen to these guys enough. When I do, this is one favourite.



I started this series just wanting to express, in my own pompous, obnoxious way, what was on my mind, what was worrying me about it, what I did or didn't understand. It couldn't have been me just getting old and bitter, could it? What else was happening? Was there a drop in quality? Were sales so bad? Why? File-sharing alone can't have contributed to popular culture's devaluation of music could it? I understand that quality is subjective but a casual look at The Top Tens of the past decades really tells you a lot about our culture, history and, I guess, our technology and future. So I wanted to assess, at least try and assess, what else was going on. To be honest I haven't researched the shit out of these areas beyond engaging in forum debate, reading the odd newspaper/online article and deciding some of it made sense and some of it sounded like bullshit.   So, over the course of my feature what conclusions have I reached or rather, what solutions do I have? Answers following the next record...

SOME PROPOSALS

1. INVESTMENT

More investment is needed in retail outlets that sell recorded music, especially independent record shops. Record 'store' Day, or whatever it's called shouldn't just be a one day event every year. More record companies and artists should promote and support more independent record shop only releases, or put one format of their music out at every indie venue (if they haven't already). Hell, can't even concert venues, if they have the room, carve out a mini record shop selling CD's, vinyls and exclusives of the acts that are playing, that they book, etc?  If music venues are struggling, let's invest in them as well. Open its doors every night to give opportunities to artists who don't have hype or promoters behind them. 'Merch' stalls are all very well but they can be a bit disappointing and over-expensive. Venues support artists, artists support venues. Invest in manufacturing record players, music playing devices. Don't assume Apple has the monopoly. 'Um...gee, where will this investment come from, Smirnov?' Well in the short term it can come from anywhere, rich people, rich artists, big and small record companies, businesses, the BBC (who we pay for) and many sectors. Then the funding will eventually come from the consumers. But the support must come from...

2. THE MEDIA/QUALITY/VALUE

Music does sell. Many artists have lucrative careers. The music itself isn't necessarily genre-defying, innovative stuff. It's quite banal mostly but, but, it is supported by the media. It's promoted. It's used for trailers, put onto playlists and has programmes/features dedicated to its artists. Most of them are rubbish of course but the records and downloads sell millions. I often wonder why, for example Radio 1 or ITV don't focus their energies and resources on promoting not just more forward-thinking music but the culture and passion of music consumption. As it stands Radio 1 seems to exist to feed and manufacture the frenzy for US-lead processed Guetta/Pitbull/sub-N-Dubz-Black Eyes Peas shite and pander to X Factor banality, under the guise of railing against it...seemingly at the expense of better things. Seriously if you had a choice would you play Black Eyed Peas or say...this...



You might be clever and say, 'hmm why not both?' Radio 1/X-Factor apologists/young producer/ probably say 'We give people what they want!' To both observations- bollocks. You don't have to play both records. Just play and promote music that doesn't sound like it's made for the brainless, and actually means something. You decide what the public want. You always did. You more or less make and break careers. Choices! You don't have to be cheap and easy. It's no less cheaper or easier to support quality in music and to enhance its value. The public has lost respect for music because, it appears, the media has. If the media isn't promoting banal or piss poor voices it's like a Primrose Hill style column. You can't win! Let's just let Jools Holland have it. His show Later... seems to have the right balance. It isn't boring and it isn't cool.

In my fantasy Radio 1 would be taken over by BBC 6 music. Radio 1 would exist in a CBeebies type of netherworld playing stuff for tots and mentally challenged adults, while 6 Music (now called Radio 1), once you've shaved and toned down a few guest presenters (No names, Guy), would slowy introduce Captain Beefheart, Aphex Twin, Rustie, Fucked Up, Fuck Buttons, Aeroplane and The Advisory Circle into its daytime slots/playlists. There'd be no reason for this boring stuff like 'Get Nirvana' to No.1 every bloody year as Erik Satie or Can would be sitting pretty. In my dream, by law, the major television channels would have a dedicated show which wasn't geared towards making money from stupid phone-in votes. They would take the novel step of actually promoting and supporting new music/music videos and eventually, I hope, record and CD manufacturers would spring up everywhere. The industry would feel valued again. Everyone would have self-respect. Even single artwork would look beautiful or suitable and not be a token of 'will this do?' cheap and smug, generic vomit. We'd have a society that would no longer grow up being influenced to make music that sounds like a soundtrack to updating your Facebook status. Phew! Here's another record...



3. CUT THIS SHIT! STOP THE HYPE! PLEASE STOP!

There is another challenge as well. There's too many artists like 'King Krule' or 'Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs' being hyped by the hipster press as radical, new voices, blah blah when they really aren't. I'm not suggesting that they shouldn't get support or airplay but the idea of hype is that often if the stuff being hyped really doesn't cross over or if it isn't much cop, or if it does cross over for a while before people drop it like a brick, it just makes those who have done the hyping lose credibility, thus devaluing music, taking respect out of it. There's a difference between hype and championing something you enjoy. In rare cases the hype may be justified but usually it isn't really. It really isn't. The sensible artists will ignore the hype. The daft ones will believe in it, and feel that they don't have to make so much of an effort, and then they'll fail to live up to the hype or have any longevity. You really can't win. No-one wins. It's fucked up.

The BBC Sound of...series is another example. It's essentially not about new artists. It's self-serving. It's about generating more listeners in the belief that they are serving the public interest. It's bollocks. Who takes it seriously, apart from Jessie J!? Always be suspicious about the term 'tastemakers'. It's bullshit. Yeah, some people have influence but do they have taste? Or class? I recall an interview with Talvin Singh, a couple of years after he won the Mercury Music Prize. He referred to himself as a tastemaker. He came across as deluded and a lonely figure. I have no idea what he's doing now or what he's influenced.  So trust your audience. You can't refine them, not really. You can educate them and inform them but telling them how 'cool' something is won't help anyone. Music isn't about being 'cool', no matter what advertisers will claim. It's about beats. Emotions. Meaning. But beats. Hype is not only demoralising but it's damaging.  Now another record...



4. RESPECT AND CULTURE

We have to value recorded music again. We lost respect somewhere down the line , partly because of the shit pushed onto us but also because we were told it was our fault that the industry is dying. Music feels more about being a soundtrack to fast food restaurants or whisky drinks. It's not a lifestyle. We need to rediscover the passion and romance one used to get going through the ritual of buying a record at an actual record shop, to taking it out of its sleeve and dropping it on the turntable. We have to learn to swoon again at sexy record players. And records, of course, and CD's and even high quality, high bitrate mp3's. But you don't get quite the same pleasure unpacking a .rare file as you do slipping 5" plastic into the CD tray or dropping 12"'s onto the slip mat. (Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a dick.) Let's listen to some more music and I'll elaborate a little.



It's no good now moaning about how it felt to buy the cassette of Tango In The Night by Fleetwood Mac or Very/Relentless  by Pet Shop Boys, without prior listening, having only read about the releases in the Melody Maker/Record Mirror/Smash Hits, or looking at the artwork and track-listing, imagining what it will sound like. The anticipation. No point now. But it would be great to get back to that. These feelings of anticipation really do seem to add value and respect to the music.  Finally...

5. THE FUTURE

The pop single, or the album as a whole, are kind of limited concepts now. It's cheaper to push digital downloads. It saves manufacturing costs as well. They might not actually sell much but it doesn't matter. To the mindset of the industry and subscription based models like Spotify (who are looking at things in the long term) it's all good. Bands and artists have a need to make music. Most know it won't sell anything or even get many plays. For some artists it isn't about the music but being 'hip'. Maybe singles and albums will disappear in twenty years, maybe another variation of the EP (Extended Play) record will evolve. Who knows? The industry isn't sustainable. Will music be owned or subscribed to? Will the same thing happen between Blu-Ray and a high definition digital alternative? Will everything be inside a cloud? For industry, it all depends what is the cheapest thing to sell and promote, which is why we could still make the recording industry last longer if we offer the above alternatives. It doesn't have to be cheap and devalued. If people used to buy music in their multi-millions and are capable of still doing so, there's no reason why we can't accept many other options. There's no reason why we have to compromise on quality. Imagination and quality costs nothing. So far. Let's have another video. And I'll wrap this series up...



And what of the music itself? Will there be strange new genres, like Crabstep or BugCore? DogRock? In 1975 Kraftwerk were the future of music but, you know, it still goes through fads...only the 80s fad is lasting longer than the 70s fad in the 90s. I'm not looking forward to the late 90s/early 2000s fad. Especially if it goes on for thirty years. There's a fad now for reforming of course. It probably forms part of the manifesto for new bands. 1. Form a band. 2. Release an album. 3. Split up. 4. Reform/tour. The internet has been a good playground however for discovering popular music from different cultures/time periods, for opening up old genres to new audiences, often obscure genres like library music. Perhaps the 'new' thing will be to be like composers of old. Music isn't 'officially' recorded and released but performed, maybe sold as sheet music. As we are told that the live circuit flourishes, perhaps music as a recorded medium will become so redundant, as it's replaced by unique performances. After all there'll come a time where people won't have the time to wade through everything new. Would this be a good thing or a bad thing? Or would we be saved from this from record shops of the future?

And what of policing the internet, making sure people pay for music? You know. It can be done. I've said before that people can be employed to visit torrents and file-sharing websites/services and take down illegal files. The question is, is the music still of good enough quality that people would want to buy it, if they can't get it for free? Or is this a cultural issue that can be ironed out? We'll see.

Thank you for reading, and for those who have been following these pieces. I'll leave you with a classic.

HOW TO SAVE THE RECORDING INDUSTRY PART 1: Record Shops

The recording industry will continue its slow decline for a few more decades yet. Music will exist to be archived, enjoyed, studied, mashed-up, dipped into, lauded, hated, remixed, repackaged, uploaded, downloaded and recorded. It'll survive somehow, if anything, if only by unconventional means. Probably.
I'm not an industry insider or an A&R person (although I feel I might as well be an A&R person, because I rarely make new discoveries from anything on the radio these days but by trawling blogs; services like Soundcloud,  Youtube, Last FM and anything else out there). My qualifications might be the same as yours. I'm a music lover, frustrated pop star and in theory an 'audiophile'. It's not nostalgia that's driving this piece but the present reality. Ironically this next section will begin with me placing my fingers in my ears and not so much as humming but fantasising.

Origami Vinyl, LA

I have many fantasies. This is one of them.
There are record shops everywhere.  As many as coffee shops (actually they could sell coffee too and tea). I would prefer if most of them were independent. Independent record shops each have their own identity, specialism subject, niche, whatever. They are little worlds you can get lost in. Lost in music, if you will.  They are record shops though. Which means they sell vinyl. Lots of them. They can still sell music on compact disc/mp3/cassettes, and mini-discs if they like. The emphasis should be on the pieces of plastic we also call 'records.'

In my fantasy (and in reality as it happens) vinyl is a luxury item. Not so much in terms of price per album/single but the whole idea and ritual from the packaging, purchasing to playing. However they will all be available in all these record shops which happen to be everywhere. In these record shops (which I hope are also very stylish and welcoming, designed to reflect ease of use, as well as looking quite fab, perhaps with milky, chocolate, coffee colours, and wooden panels) I want record players to be on sale. Maybe like the one above, but some affordable one's as well. I want them, along with the vinyls and compact discs, to be sold by staff who are friendly and not intimidating. They can have a personality, of course, but it's my fantasy and I don't want my shopping experience affected by someone who scowls and sniffs just because I happen to enjoy 'Martha, my dear' by The Beatles. Here's another picture of a stylish turntable.

I want decent record players, turntables, amps and speakers to be on sale. In my fantasy there will be demand and manufacturers will meet this demand because people are buying them, because they have been publicised and there are places to buy them, people who appreciate good sound quality and because, well, it's my fantasy and in my fantasy record buyers will treat music as a luxurious pastime, not something that's half-heartedly being piped into supermarkets. Consumers care about romance, packaging, presentation, supporting independent shops, the anticipation of the release date, going out to look for the album, seeing it on display, maybe hearing it being played in the shop, the journey home, taking the record out of the sleeve and carefully placing it onto the slip mat...turning the lights down...and hearing the sound of your favourite band/classic album pouring out of the speakers.

Seattle, 1944

My record shops will see the return of listening booths. You will be able to browse or have a coffee, read the wide range of music magazines and papers that will exist (as in my fantasy they won't fold because they'll be written by actual music fans that will engage young people as well, and not just exist as style/tabloid fodder like the N.M.E.). You could order a new sound system. There will be some on display although you may have to order one, safe in the knowledge that our experts will deliver, assemble and give you advice on caring for your new product. Record players will be held in such high esteem that buying one and inviting people over to listen to music would be similar to buying a television in 1953. They really should be small works of art, something that enhances your living space.

In this climate (my fantasy, and some small sections of reality) people care about the sound quality in music. They've grown tired/deaf  from compressed music, low bitrate, tinny, shitty, low quality mp3's that screech out of mobile phones, cheap speakers in clothes shops, hammered into your face in bars, pissed out of computer speakers and Christ knows what. Our customers are tired of remastered albums where the sound engineers, to compete with other bands and artists, just actually whack up the master track, rather than enhance, restore, preserve the space and dynamic range in each of the multi-tracks. In my fantasy world, my products will not be refugees of the Loudness War

In addition, in the UK we have a day once a year where some of our artists, in support of independent record shops, release limited edition vinyls. It's called 'Record Store Day' or something like that, although it should be known as 'Record Shop Day'. Anyway, it does quite well, gets a lot of support from the music press and radio. Now why can't it be like that every week? Better still why don't artists just make their stuff available (at least on one format) exclusively at record shops? Let the supermarkets sell pap. (Of course I know the answers. It's money, money, money) Still...

In Part 2, I'll look at Technology and Culture of the recording industry.