Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
A decent rant, amigo. ~Tim > [Original Message] > From: Stephen Goodman <spgoodman@earthlight.net> > To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> > Date: 2/18/2006 10:00:38 AM > Subject: Re: PAYOLA [was: HOUSE CONCERTS] > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bill Fox" <billyfox@soundscapes.us> > To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> > Sent: Saturday, 18 February, 2006 02:59 AM > Subject: PAYOLA [was: HOUSE CONCERTS] > > > > loop.pool wrote: > > > >> Things like this are never big money makers, they are labors of love and > >> very necessary labors of love as new and emerging > >> artistry is crowded out of this culture's venues. > > > > ...as evidenced by the report 20/20 did on Thursday night on Payola in > > radio. Still going strong. Still keeps all the airplay for the big > > budget labels, to hell with the rest of us. I have nothing against > > business and making a profit. In fact, I insist that musicians make a > > profit. But the Payola system is just greed; greed on the part of > > commercial radio and greed on the part of major labels not wanting to > > share the airwaves with little niche markets like where we loopers reside. > > Thank goodness for non-commercial FM radio and the internet. > > Warning! Rant follows! (some would say what else is new, eh?) > > Indeed! It's interesting to me - and a little discouraging at times - how > business deals that would otherwise be labeled "collusion", > "anti-competitive", or to use the actual legal phrase "in restraint of > trade", have been allowed to be made over the past 15 or so years. AOL > buying their only competitor CompuServe, for example, if not also their > assimilation act with Time-Warner. I'm sorry that 20/20 doesn't appear over > in the UK - but then such a program as described above would most likely be > ignored by the British TV-licensed public, who would be surprised that > anyone would object to payola, anti-competitive groups like Clear Channel, > or government control of the media. > > While I used to despair at the state of LA radio in the post-KROQ world, at > least there were occasional blips of independent radio before they were > bought up by Clear Channel and turned into a piece of the Big Tapioca > Machine. A listen to a range of stations in the UK - we've had various > groups of workmen in the house here since 2003 - makes one wish for more > than bloody revolution, frankly. UK radio is not much more than an > extension of the Sales departments of the Big Five, with exceptions like > Juice FM and a few rasta pirate stations that pop up only on Saturday night, > for instance... and one gets a strong impression that what is thought of > elsewhere as an entertainment medium is more of an employment medium. It is > as if a bunch of civil servants, middlemen, cigar-chompers and accountants > have thought up the idea to maintain a kind of funnel leading to the > Marketing Pipeline, in order to catch large numbers of aspiring or wannabe > acts, with the supposedly-best finding their way into the Pipeline. > > What does one get when you're on the consumer end of such a Pipeline? >An > awful lot of barely-infringingly-duplicated, tone-corrected rubbish that > sounds like there aren't any songwriters anymore, just performers of other > peoples' material (cut up, resampled, slightly rearranged to have a > over-bass hip-hop beat slapped on top of it). James Blunt? Are you kidding > me? What's darkly hilarious at times is that such pablum is played on-radio > in juxtaposition to Led Zeppelin, which even if you hate Zep still makes the > New Crop (er, Crap) sound even less interesting. On the depressing side it > presents a reality that doesn't exist - one where there are no more real > songwriters, just committees and promo execs that approve what you'll be > allowed to hear. > > Most of us on this list know there are songwriting musicians out there, and > that they either cannot bear the idea of dealing with the civil >servants, > middlemen, cigar-chompers and accountants, or believe that if they did so, > they'd just get pimped and robbed, and their material stolen and 'performed' > by one of the new breed of Tone Corrected Celebrities. Robert Fripp > recently said in his diary that he'd "rather be dragged around England by my > left testicle" than deal with record execs etc. > > The Internet is the Next Frontier. We all know this. The Big Five >never > anticipated CDs, CDs on computers, P2P, and they just barely got their > anti-competitive paws on DVDs. Unfortunately the DVD cat has also been out > of the bag for some time, and even non-moving-parts items like USB >drives > are out of their reach. There is a future for people like us, one that > still doesn't involve us crawling across some cigar-chomper's carpet just to > have the right to record our work. > > And now back to cleaning up after yesterday's workmen dust (Fripp calls his > 'workmen's pollen'), and clearing out my Mum-in-law's cupboards for the last > time. > > Happy Washington's Birthday too. Yipes. > Stephen Goodman > > * Cartoons about DVDs and Stuff > * http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack > * The Loop Of The Week since 1996! > * http://www.earthlight.net/Studios >