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Riot Gear!: Internet Radio and the Sound Salvation
Remember how the internet was supposed to be a magic bullet to good bands passed over by major labels? It was the promise of direct distribution, control over your fate, and best of all, no jerk in a suit telling you how to rock and how to roll. Depending on the web tools you use, that still holds true unless revenue is your measuring stick. Suddenly lame looking MySpace is still a viable option, though it is in decline. Facebook lacks proper music-related tools but musicians are finding ways to make it happen, using sites like Reverb Nation, which tie in okay to the Facebook universe. But what about radio?
We lost terrestrial radio to corporate Clear Channel and their stupid Aerosmith fetish. Satellite Radio is an option, but don’t expect to break there if you are a new band. Internet radio—makes total sense—has an indie edge and a feel for the new and emerging generations of both listeners and musicians. In the land of internet radio, Europe’s Spotify is quite hot, and for good reason—it is like iTunes, only the songs stream from a server instead of your hard drive. That means songs are on demand and free (with ads, which you make go away for a few quid). On demand tune-age is something Slacker and Pandora and most of the others lack unless you go to the contaminated waters of peer-to-peer. Spotify is gearing up to launch in the States, and it will be big, no doubt. read more
Devendra Banhart and Fab Moretti Form Band, and Other News
Devendra Banhart, the ever-shifting musical presence that’s gone from Vetiver, to Rejoicing in the Hands, to Natalie Portman, to Megapuss, has announced yet another new project, this one called Permanent Adventure with Strokes drummer Fab Moretti on board (who also drummed with Megapuss). Of the project, Banhart said, “We wear helmets, and we have contact mics on the helmets. And we run at each other, and that’s the percussive element.” Obviously, he’s just being silly… but what a great visual. (Pitchfork)
Thom Yorke takes it upon himself to figure out what the hell’s been going on at the Copenhagen Climate Conference. (Daily Swarm)
Rage Against the Machine let the profanities fly on BBC, upsetting the presenter and forcing the station to publicly apologize to its listeners. (Spinner)
Pandora has just reached 40 millions registered users, and subsequently attracted more advertising dollars. (Hypebot)
Courtney Love lost custody of Frances Bean, and then Frances Bean in return filed a restraining order against her mother. Yikes. (Spinner)
Despite the members’ plenty busy side projects, Wolf Parade has a new album coming out in 2010. (Paste)
Lady Gagas’ tour open, Kid Cudi, is ditching the rest of their tour, citing a busy schedule. But then he announced his own tour dates that roughly match the dates of the joint tour. Huh. Apparently, he got a wallet thrown at him onstage in Vancouver, and ended up punching some dude in the audience. (Pitchfork)
Read more news after the jump.
The Slacker Surge
If cell phones have internet access, and internet radio has moved to the portable space (e.g. Pandora on iPhones, and the recent announcement of Slacker.com and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion [RIM] teaming up), how long before internet radio is just radio—radio like it should be—songs you want without a DJ ‘personality’ interrupting the vibe? It’s not like Clear Channel stations are live, so what’s the difference? Buffer times? I can live with that. Hey, isn’t this what satellite was supposed to deliver?
As I’ve stated before, I like Pandora, though have found it difficult to stay on any one internet station for very long. And I’ve always felt Pandora’s UI was clunky. I do, however, give them credit for some great content on their site in the way of videos about how music is played, produced, and categorized.
More and more I find myself being a late adopter—somewhere in the second wave, giving tribute to the first wave who’ve been sacrificed on the ‘too quick to market’ capitalist altar. The first wave plays a role in helping shape a product or technology’s trajectory, usually at the expense of frustration and high prices. The second wave misses out on influence, but we don’t mind—if we did we’d be in the first wave.
Will Pandora Go Public and Become the New Old Radio?
by: Jocelyn Hoppa
Much of Pandora’s recent resuscitation has come in the form of a very successful iPhone app. At the end of last year, they reported their first profitable quarter. And they’re now getting interest from investment bankers who are predicting the company could go public. Pandora’s aim going forward? To attain deals with makers of cars, televisions, and stereos, prospecting to make the internet radio station as universal as terrestrial radio, ahem, was. It seems their recent success is due in large part to nothing revolutionary, but sheer persistence; from years of not being able to pay their employees to weathering the dot-com bust, they’ve endured through it all. read more
by: Jocelyn Hoppa
published: March 9, 2010
in column: What Goes On
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