Tag Archives: YouTube

Music, My Stories

Twenty Years

1993 vs. 2013 – What Has Changed in Twenty Years?

An old teacher of mine showed me a photo of my school year from 1993. There I am in the back row with the long hair, a beard and a stoner look. How things have changed?

Then, my only ambition was to get my driver’s licence, finish high school (to make my parents happy) and to be in a band (to make me happy). Now, ambition is replaced by duty. I have a duty to my family to ensure that I keep my job, I pay the bills and keep all the wheels turning in my family life.

Then, all I wanted to do was party hard. Now, all I want to do is take some R&R. However life is too short to spend it alone. That is why I choose to do everything with my wife and kids. Eventually my kids will start doing their own thing, so while they are young, I am going to enjoy doing as much things with them as possible.

Then, all I wanted to do was write cool music. Now, I still write music. Instead of picking up the guitar and pressing record on the 4 track, I switch on my laptop, open up Guitar Pro and I start writing. I don’t even touch the guitar.

Then, I wrote a song each day (lyrics and basic chords) in a diary. Now, I still do the same. In this case, I write lyrics only and then eventually I get around to writing music to them via the computer.

Then, the way music was consumed was undergoing a transformation. The CD was becoming popular as a delivery system, so people started re-purchasing their vinyl and tape collections on CD. Now, the way music is consumed is undergoing a radical transformation. People buy MP3’s, people stream and people share. The labels still try and push the CD as it makes them the most money, however people are now selecting what they like.

Then, radio was popular. Today, YouTube is popular. Internet radio is making inroads and traditional radio is struggling for listeners.

Then, hard rock music was killed off by the record labels who jumped ship onto the grunge / alternative rock bandwagon. Now, hard rock music is back, stronger than ever. The labels are still jumping ship, this time focusing on the pop market and songs written by committees. Then when an independent artist starts selling big numbers, the labels jump ship again to find other like artists.

Then, MTV was king. Now YouTube is king. The entertainment industry screams piracy and calls for more legislation, while the biggest sharing site, YouTube remains untouched. Why? The RIAA and its labels are now making money from the ad revenue on YouTube, so it is okay.

Then, to discover new music, we needed to rely on a knowledgeable record store operator, gatekeepers, radio and expensive import magazines. Now, we just use Google, YouTube, Bandcamp, Sound Cloud, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, blogs and many more.

Then, all the hard rock /metal bands started to release live albums, cover albums and B – sides. Metallica released Binge and Purge, Guns N Roses released The Spaghetti Incident, Def Leppard released Retro-Active, Iron Maiden (lost Bruce Dickinson in 1993) released A Real Dead One, A Real Live One and Live in Donnington. Now Metallica are still releasing live albums, via their own bootleg soundboard recordings, Def Leppard are doing a run of dates in Las Vegas, Iron Maiden are still out there touring, with Bruce Dickinson back on vocals and a version of Guns N Roses still exists.

Then, Rage Against The Machine at a Lollapalooza concert used their entire 14-minute set to protest their single “Killing in the Name” being banned from radio. With only guitar feedback for sound, the group appears on stage naked with the letters “PMRC” painted on their chests and electrical duct tape over their mouths. Now, everyone wants to be loved, wants to be liked. No one wants to be hated. No one stands up for what they believe in.

Then, we only had a home phone. Now, we have smart mobile phones. We are connected 24/7.

The biggest change has been the rise of technology. The rock stars of 2013 are the tech heads.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

The Evolution of Burnside

I’m listening to an album from a band called Burnside. The album is called Evolution and it was released in December, 2012. I really like it and I recommend it.

I need to know more. So I go straight to Google. I type in Burnside.

I get all these results about Uniting Care, the city of Burnside, the Burnside Public School and all these other results that do not deal with music. Not a good start.

So I change the search words to “Burnside Band” and the website, http://www.burnsideband.com is the first one that comes up. That is better. However I would have expected the Facebook and Twitter accounts to come up as well.

So I change the search words to be, “Burnside Band Facebook” and it comes up, however it is not the first one. Anyway, I go onto the Facebook page, and I see that they have an album launch happening soon. I am confused. The album came out in December 2012. An album launch six months later is a bit weird. 

This is why the idea of the album fails in this day and age, especially if you are a band starting off. Evolution is a great album, one of the best I have heard in the last few years, and it is in my top 10 of releases for 2012. So how does a band, that recorded a great album get it out to the people, without disappearing.

The answer is the fans. The fans need to be sharing the songs on their Facebook accounts, on their twitter accounts or blogs. Once upon a time there was an old way. Bands and new music where broken by radio and the press. Theses outlets are obsolete today. The fans are the new way. They are the new press. They are the new radio.

Burnside have over 7000 likes on Facebook. It’s time to mobilise these fans. The fans need to share. The band needs to record themselves playing some of the songs acoustically and put them on YouTube and then get fans to share those YouTube clips. It’s not about the sales anymore, it’s about remaining relevant and in the public eye. That is the battle.

Burnside are from an area called Penrith, Australia, which is about 70 minutes away from where I live. This is typical of Australia, where talented bands fail to escape the local area. I only live 90 minutes away and I have never heard of them. They formed in 2009, however the members Grant O’Hara (Vocals, Guitar, Bass), Sheldon Wharton (Vocals, Guitar, Bass) and David Rice (Guitar, Bass) have been in other bands prior.

Their bio has them comparing themselves to Birds of Tokyo. Why? They are way better than Birds of Tokyo. Silverchair is also mentioned. Evolution is an album that Silverchair wished they could make. Foo Fighters is another reference. Foo Fighters are renowned for releasing albums with four to five great songs and the remainder is seen as pure filler. Evolution is an album that has no filler.

Be sure to check out Remember When.  If you like Everything from Lifehouse, you would like this song.

The combination of The Battle moving into With A Gun is brilliant.  The strings over the distorted guitars sounds grand.

Lost The Will is modern rock in the vein of Shinedown.

Will I Find You There reminds me of The Calling.  The Last Time is the best song that Daughtry hasn’t written.

What You’ve Become merges brilliant piano playing with distorted guitars.  Its melodic and haunting at the same time.

Through My Veins, has that AC/DC, Long Way To The Top vibe.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Imagine Dragons – It’s Time and Demons

It’s Time and Demons are two songs that are just stuck in my head.  They are catchy as hell.  They have enough of the rock in them to get my attention and keep it. The vocals are unique enough to have me interested. This is why I love music.  A great song can come from left field.  The rookie that no one gives a chance, has come to play.  

Yes, I am a bit behind in hearing their music as some of the songs on the album are from 2010 EP releases, however good music will always come to the top.  It is the signal in the noise.  Once you find it, you latch on to it and ride it to the top.

The fans of the band have made this happen.  The actual album is still moving 30,000 units each week in the U.S., however that pales in comparison to the digital sales of It’s Time and Radioactive. Both songs are numbering in the millions for downloads.

YouTube lists Radioactive with 36,671,318 views and It’s Time with 30,431,235 views.  How come the RIAA isn’t complaining about piracy here.

Spotify lists Radioactive with 93,914,273 streams and It’s Time with 46,974,864 views.

The other songs are doing high numbers as well.  This is the key today, to keep people coming back, over and over again.  Imagine Dragons are doing that.  Spotify is proof of that.

 

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Derivative Works, Music, Stupidity

Why do creators still follow the old way?

I just listened to the new Megadeth album.  Apart from the opener, Kingmaker and the cover, Cold Sweat from Thin Lizzy, I don’t really like it.  For me to say that, is a big thing.  If anything, you can call me a Mustaine Fanboy. I still cop flack for liking Risk.

The idea of the album has evolved since Megadeth released Killing Is My Business in 1985.  In this day and age, the fans want more.  Our time is valuable.  TV shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead can take us away from listening to music.  Gaming can also limit our time.  We live in a world of choice.  If something is not good enough, we just move on.  It could be another band, a movie, a TV show, a game, a book, a magazine, a holiday and so on.

I still purchased the physical CD of Super Collider, so that I can have it as part of my Megadeth collection, however I cannot recommend it.  I wish I could.  What disappoint’s me is that Chris Broderick is still utilised purely for his lead breaks.  Is that all he is capable off?  I don’t think so, however that is how it remains in Megadeth.  Dave Mustaine is the riff meister.  He is the songwriter, however in this case, I believe that the songwriter of the band has gone missing.  It’s not a bad album and it’s not a good album.

Going back to the meaning of the post.  Why did Megadeth and Dave Mustaine follow the old way?  He could have recorded and released more frequently and still toured behind Gigantour?

For example, he could have recorded and released Kingmaker one month and then released Cold Sweat from Thin Lizzy the next month.  During that two month period, the band could have fine tuned the other songs, written better ones or just kept them as the same, if the initial songs connected with the fans.

There is no need to follow the “spend six months creating and recording an album”, release it, watch it fade away from the minds of people’s within weeks and then go on tour of the world and hope that the tour will rekindle sales.

Don’t get me wrong, the above format still works for great albums.  Five Finger Death Punch released American Capitalist in October 2011, and it is still selling.  They got five singles out of it.  The fans spread it via social media.  They have a new album coming out in July and then another album scheduled for either a November 2013 or February 2014 release.  I really liked how Coheed and Cambria did the same thing with The Afterman releases and Stone Sour did the same with House of Gold and Bones.  The bands need to be here today, everyday.  If you are gone tomorrow, in this day and age, its game over.

Megadeth in this case didn’t have enough material for a great album, and that is all we have time for these days.  I still love the band, I will still purchase tickets to Gigantour if they bring it to Australia and I will be hoping that Megadeth return to writing great songs.

Keeping with the creators following the old way theme, there is an interview doing the rounds at Loudwire, with Shinedown singer Brent Smith.  Basically, back in April, Shinedown allowed their Facebook fans to vote on which songs the band should cover.  So after the results came in, the band went away and filmed themselves playing the cover songs.  They have no plans to sell the songs. All they want to do is release the video’s of them performing the cover songs on YouTube, so that they releasing content each week. However, they cannot release the songs due to licensing issues.

The licensing part of music, is the old way of thinking.  This the way it works in two sentences.  The creators write the songs and then sell the songs for a fee to a publisher.  The publisher then licences the songs to advertising, TV shows and collects monies for them.  In my view, Publishers should be all shot and buried.

If anything, Shinedown will bring more attention to the original versions of the songs they cover.  I know that I am keen to hear them do Nothing Else Matters from Metallica.

Shinedown is trying to do things the new way, releasing content more frequently.  Amaryllis came out in March, 2012.  It’s still in the minds of the public.  As at last week, it was sitting at 410,000 sold in the U.S. alone.  Now they are going to be involved with the Carnival of Madness Tour.  In between they also released the Warner Sound’s Live Room Sessions EP  and Brent Smith has been very vocal about getting fans to speak up and stand up for rock music via social media and the hashtag (#theriseofrockandroll).  They also have the covers YouTube clips up their sleeve.  

The game is changing every day. The old wayers’ need to get in bed with the new wayers’ and start thinking differently.  It’s not all about the initial pay-day on release day.  It’s about staying in the minds of the public and the fans.

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Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Adrenaline Mob and Mike Portnoy – Is He Serious?

Article

Is he serious?

From where I sit, this was a major misstep. Mike Portnoy isn’t a star in the sense of commanding multiple projects and making each one thrive on name alone. He’s a drummer. That’s it. Talented, relentless, precise, but a drummer first, not a solo brand.

It looks like the Portnoy philosophy goes something like this: start a band, convince yourself you’re the main songwriter, the driving force, maybe even a god in the room, and then spin up another band, and another, and another. When one starts to gain traction, walk away, schedules conflict, priorities shift. It’s a pattern. It’s ambitious, but it’s also scattershot. It’s not a strategy built to last.

Adrenaline Mob had legs. That band could have grown into something bigger. Flying Colors? Already stale. Winery Dogs? Lacks direction. Transatlantic? A cult following, yes, but niche, not career-sustaining.

Look at the chatter online. Facebook, YouTube, blogs, Twitter, the fans are speaking. And fans are everything now. They amplify a release, they create buzz, they breathe life into a project. When they start to shrug, disengage, move on, that’s when it all dies.

Portnoy’s peak came with Petrucci. That was the alignment that created Dream Theater’s defining moments. And walking away from that partnership was a gamble. He may not have meant to squander it, but when the chemistry that made the magic was gone, the results were inevitable. Because the truth is simple: the music isn’t about one drummer, it’s about the sum of the parts, and some parts carry more weight than others.

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Music

Eurovision 2013 and Roid Rage

I just watched semi final number 2 and I came across Eythor Ingi from Iceland.  He sang a ballad called I Am Alive.  The song is average, however his voice, his look and his name stuck in my head.

So what do I do?  I go on to YouTube and search for his name.  He is in a Deep Purple cover band and he covers Child In Time.  If you want to separate the vocalists from the wannabe’s, Child In Time is the song.

He nails Ian Gillan.  Why did he do a ballad?  This guy has got some serious vocal chops. He never used them. The pressure to fit into a style, into a format.  When are people going to wake up. Uniqueness wins all the time.

At least Eythor lives up to his Thor viking name.  He doesn’t need steroids like Tim Lambesis from As I Lay Dying.  The latest on the hit man for hire saga is that the he was suffering from “roid rage” and that he “lost God”.  Fair enough, however I fail to see how that is a defense to organising a hitman.  I think it’s time that Lambesis takes responsibility for his actions.

Anyone heard the new Five Finger Death Punch song, Lift Me Up.  How similar is the vocal line in the verse to The Ultimate Sin from Ozzy.  It’s catchy.  It gets be head moving and it gets my foot tapping.

Rob Halford guests.  It seems to be that everyone is doing the same thing now, getting guest musicians and releasing two albums within 6 months of each other.  Coheed and Cambria did it, Stone Sour did it and now Five Finger Death Punch are doing it.

Finally, Bon Jovi pre-sales via Showbiz have not sold out as yet.  I went on line again and i can still purchase 4 platinum tickets.

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Copyright, Music, Piracy, Stupidity

Fans Rushing The Stage – Part 2 – Copyright As Censorship

It looks like the video I was linking too in this post, was taken down from YouTube, due to a copyright complaint filed by SME (Sony Music Entertainment).  This is wrong on so many levels.

For starters, there is no music playing on the footage.  So I am struggling to understand how this infringes on any copyright.

Next, Motley Crue is signed to their own label, Eleven Seven Music, and the distributors are Universal Music Group and RED Distribution, LLC which is a Sony Music Entertainment division that handles distribution for independent record labels.

Again, this is a very far reach from SME to say that they own the copyright to a fan filmed video, that first has no music in it and it is from a band that is on their own label and use a division of SME for distribution ONLY.

I see this as legacy industries using Copyright as Censorship.

What these legacy industries fail to understand is that the internet is a copy system.  Here it is again.

And again.

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Music

It’s A Changing Game

You Tube is going to paid subscriptions.  What does this say about the changing landscape of the entertainment business?

The old Pay TV business models need to really adjust their business models.

You Tube is a distribution system.  It is done over the internet.    For $2 a month you can subscribe to a channel.  Imagine if The Walking Dead is on that channel or Game of Thrones or your favorite sport televised live.  I would take up that offer, and stop paying my $600 Yearly Pay TV bill.  That is what people should be thinking about.  That is where it should be heading.

In Australia, as at December 2012, there are 2.3 million subscribers for Pay TV.  If all of those subscribers have the basic package and pay $600 a year, it comes close to $1.4 billion in revenue coming in for the year.  However, I believe that more money is to be made if people are able to choose the channels they want.  I know from September to February i will have the channel that plays The Walking Dead, and from March to June, i will have the channel that plays Game Of Thrones.  I love my sport, so i will have the channels that are relevant to those sports on all year round.

It’s a consumer world.  Give them all the choices.

Let them pick the channels, let them pick when they want to watch the next Game Of Thrones episode.  All the creators have to do is to make it and release it, let them watch it non stop for the week.  The era of the time slot is over.  That is an advertising relic.

Make it east to bill them and let them cancel when they want.  The old contract term doesn’t fit the modern day.

If fans decide that it is too expensive, they will find another way to get the content they desire.  Why would makers of content, want fans to go down that path?  Their job is to keep those fans in their circle and connect with them in other ways.

Look at Spotify.  They are bringing music to the masses.  Their search algorithms or music discovery algorithms are shit, but they are working on it.

Innovate or disappear.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Bon Jovi – We Got It Going On – Another classic song waiting to be discovered.

We Got It Going On

The best song on the 2007 album Lost Highway is We Got It Going On.  This song was written Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and country music hit songwriters, Kenny Alphin and John Rich.   It was produced by guitarist turned country music producer Dan Huff instead of John Shanks.  Dan is also the go to guy for country musicians if they want hit songs.

Is there anybody out there looking for a party? Yeah!!
Shake your money maker, baby smoke it if you got it.
We just wanna have some fun if you don’t wanna kiss this
Everybody raise your hands come on I need a witness.

The first thing you hear is the swampy delta blues intro riff with the drums building.  It’s sleazy and sexual.  This is another song written purely for the concert experience.  It’s got that famous talk box that Sambora first used to optimal effect in Livin On A Prayer.   Come to the show, have a party, be a witness to the spectacle.  Kiss did a similar concept with Psycho Circus which i covered in my review of their show.  If you don’t want to kiss someone’s backside, get down to the show and have some fun.   I dig the reference to Shake Your Money Maker.  It reminds me of Black Crowes.  I am sure that wasn’t Jovi’s intention.    

I had mixed feelings when I heard the Lost Highway album.  As a hard core fan, I more or less purchase the albums without sampling.  The output from the 80’s and Keep The Faith keep me locked in and I really appreciated the box set 100,000,000 Fans Cant Be Wrong.  On the first run through, We Got It Going On stood out. 

This is my view on this whole Lost Highway saga, Who Says You Cant Go Home from Have A Nice Day worked as a smash single because there wasn’t an intention there that the song would earn millions in sales.  It was a sleeper hit single.  So Jon being the business man that he is, decided to make a whole album of country inspired rock.  This is where there is an intention to profit from the sleeper hit Who Says You Can’t Go Home.   When intention gets involved, the music comes across as clichéd and forced.  We Got It Going On, is the sleeper on this album.  It is country rock blues with a pop twinge at its best. 

We Got It Goin’ On
We’ll be banging and singing just like the rolling stones
We’re gonna shake up your sole, we’re gonna rattle your bones
‘Cause We Got It Goin’ On.
Ah ha ha. Ah ha ha. Yeah Yeah. Ah ha.

It’s a nice touch paying homage to the Rolling Stones.  I have been to concerts where I have walked out, all sore and stiff from the sound hitting the body.  I never got that from a Jovi concert, however I can relate to the lyric.  What is a concert song without the sing a long Ah ha ha?  Again this reminds me of Kiss’s Hide Your Heart.  The bit that comes in after the chorus.

You got a ticket to kick it, I wanna hear you scream now.
‘Cause tonight you got the right to let your hair down.
Everybody’s getting down, we’re getting down to business
Insane, freak train, you don’t wanna miss this.

They did a similar style song in One Wild Night from the Crush album.  It’s all about letting your hair down and leaving your worries and suburban life at the door.

Nikki Sixx sums it up with the lyrics from Primal Scream.
Primal scream & shout, Let that mother out
You just gotta say “hey”
Primal scream & shout, Oooh tear it out
You just gotta say

This is another song that deserves more rounds on a Jovi set list.  I saw that it ended up on the live at Madison Square Garden DVD and it worked well as a live song. 

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Music

PPCA (Phonographic Performance Company of Australia)states its an important win for artists

There is an article over at Computerworld about how the Federal Court of Australia “ruled that Internet simulcasts of radio programs are not broadcasts under the Copyright Act and therefore are not covered by existing licences granted to commercial radio stations.” 

The Federal Court believes that the a radio program transmitted from a “terrestrial transmitter is a different broadcasting service from the delivery of the same radio program using the internet.”

This is typical of the record labels still keeping one foot in the past and not moving with the present.  It is clear that the recording business survives by sales of recorded music.  Since recorded music revenues are not what they used to be compared to the glory years of the 90’s when everybody was re-purchasing their scratched LP’s or chewed up tapes onto CD, the labels have tried every lobbying/bribery trick in the book to get legislation passed that gives them back the control that the Internet has taken away.

Could this the labels secretly trying to kill off radio simulcasting so that the streaming services are all that remain, like Spotify, which the labels have a stake in.  As the Australian Copyright Council said, the decision “leaves open the possibility for new licences to be negotiated for content that is streamed by way of radio simulcast on the Internet.”

Based on the labels past experience, the labels will insist on a super high licence fees as they hate the current statutory cap on commercial radio who need to pay just one percent of their gross income.  Therefore i am sure the radio’s wont pay this new excessive rate and hence the labels will kill this promotional outlet.

“This is an important win for artists and labels whose music is used widely on the internet to help drive profits for Australia’s radio industry,” said PPCA CEO, Dan Rosen.

I wonder how many artists where signed up for this action.  I wonder how much of the new fees would go back to artists as the labels are renowned for their creative accounting practices.   And what artists are we talking about here, as most independent artists don’t get played on mainstream radio.

To me Radio should be the last thing up and coming artists should strive for.  PSY was broken by YouTube without any mainstream publicity.  He dropped Gangnam Style without publicity and the online world built it into the monster it became.  The mainstream channels just picked up the crumbs.

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