i’m still in the states coaching the best game, currently staying with a lovely family in oklahoma for two weeks- then i’ll be going to sacremento, cal for 9 weeks more work – having a ball and learning plenty.

i’m back mid november and will arrange a meeting, if i can afford you- take care

Without meaning to put a downer on a very thorough, thoughtful and extremely well put together piece, here are my usual two pennies’ worth…

First off, DRM (Digital Rights Management) – something which the lady from eMusic alluded to in passing but which I feel is a central aspect of sharing and buying/selling music on the web and would have been well worth discussing. Consider Vista being rolled out with a built-in DRM system and Steve Jobs’ apparent about-turn on the issue [http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/]. There are huge questions being asked at the moment about what it means to own the music we buy (download or rip).

The other issue which came to mind is that of quality control. It’s something I’ve been debating with myself since the advent of software like Fruity Loops and Reason which make it all so easy for anyone to create fairly derivitive music. I’m all for anyone and everyone expressing the creativity (who am I to become the dictator of good taste?!) But it might have been worth raising the point that one of the crucial roles which record label structures have traditionally played is to help artists focus their creative endeavour (I can’t believe I’m writing this! Having myself been prey to the manipulative ways of A&R men….) I expect it’s not a disimilar debate to what must be going on in the publishing industry where self-publishing on the internet is threatening the role of the editor… i guess I’m just aware that having too much freedom can be just as dangerous to an artist as being creatively stiffled. And that a great editor (or positive record label guidance) can make an artist. Another way of thinking about this relates to your long tail theory. What impression are you making as an artist when you’re making all your demos, live gigs and home recordings available rather than deciding what’s actually worth releasing.

This issue of quality control is something which is especially important for the netlabel scene – my third and final ommission from your podcast. They provide an invaluable non-commercial model of distribution which allows artists to release their music within a context which retains all of the benefits of a record label. Mp3.com put a lot of people off ‘free’ music – as a free-for-all it was very hit and miss. But the usual prejudice of free music being free because it isn’t good enough to be commercial no longer holds true. Those who run netlabels generally hold strong standards in terms of content and quality. And just as with commercial labels, it’s on the basis of these standards that they build their reputations. It’s not unusual for artists to graduate from the netlabel scene (certainly in the electronica/ambient/dubstep genres) and would have been worth mentioning as a hotbed of new talent – for artists who don’t yet equate validity with financial gain.

DK