AROUND TOWN with David Farrell — Have music streaming services and their duplicate inventory of 30 million tracks turned the history of music into one oversized Muzak machine?
Item in point, from the June 30 edition of the Wall Street Journal: "Streaming means renting access to music rather than buying albums or MP3s. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet that might change what music you listen to. And like most buffets, what you’re eating may really not be worth the cost."
So, our future is in offering the entire history of recorded music as one supersized buffet that leaves the customer feeling short-changed?
The jargon for this gluttony is called "consumption", the commodity on offer is referred to as "product" and the scheduled release date for these items is referred to as the "drop" date.
It's unsettling to see a creative industry diminish its worth by enthusiastically wrapping itself in the parlance of ad agencies, dry goods companies, and the fast food industry.
Then again, it's sad that companies like Hipgnosis, and great critical journalism, no longer have a place in the new order.
Sadder still to see great empires — Atlantic, EMI, Blue Note, Island et al — pimped out like so much sandwich filler for corporations that think cool is an air conditioned workspace.
Recently some overly enthusiastic kid was pumped up in telling me how he loved the blues. His history extended way back, as far back as the Yardbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
He had heard about BB King, but only because his name was mentioned in a news report on a rock radio station that has a habit of playing white men's versions of old blues standards.
He had heard Muddy Waters' name, too, but that was the extent of his knowledge about the man who wrote a song that became the namesake of the Rolling Stones.
Can I blame the kid for his ignorance of history when his points of reference are Rock FMs that spit lists of a few hundred records, many by white boys who cribbed their commercial success from old blues masters?
You bet I can, because he lacks intellectual curiosity. Google telling me two plus two makes three doesn't mean it's so.
The kid needs to get a life and think for himself.
Many don't these days.
His mind has become brainwashed. His brain hijacked by Mad Men consumed by greed.
Maybe it's time to put an end to marketing music as drop-down buffet menu items.
Maybe it's time the all-you-can-eat consumption and the product line references get dicontinued.
Maybe it's time we showed some respect for a creative endeavor that differs from the manufacture of widgets, burgers, and earbuds.
Maybe it's time FM radio woke up and realized their jukebox doesn't matter anymore.
Maybe it's time I visited IKEA to see if the chain still carries Billy shelf units that store LPs and CDs.
Maybe it's time I pulled out a copy of Stop the World I Want To Get Off....and hit the repeat button.
PS: The sell points for music streaming are supposedly about curation, discovery, and engagement, but who has this time? I want a place where less means more. I'm overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. Give me ten tracks a year like "Moondance" and Joe Cocker's first album with Chris Stainton and I'm your new best friend. Give me 30 million tracks and an infinity of new releases and I'll tune out, turn off and go some place else.
IN YOUR NEWS TODAY
CMW is returning to the Sheraton Centre in May 2016.
Loose lips earlier suggested the hotel for this year's events was unavailable in 2016. Not so, says event topper Neill Dixon. May 4th – 14th are the dates for the festivals and music biz huddle, but the order of events has changed for the 34th annual.
Next year, the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards take place at the top, on Thursday, May 5th. The Canadian Radio Music Awards luncheon will rolls itself out on Friday the 6th, followed by the CHUM Fan Fest. Capping off the shindig are the Sirius XM’s annual Indie Awards on Saturday the 7th.
Next year's International Spotlight features the UK with an emphasis on Ireland.
JOHNNY REID was one of the 30 new Canadians sworn in at a citizenship ceremony at the Orangeville, ON legion on Canada Day (July 1st).
The Scottish-born country crossover crooner told a local reporter that he's always called himself a Canadian and “today is an opportunity for me to make it official.”
Reid chose to receive his citizenship in Orangeville, because he has a home in nearby Caledon. While he frequents his residence in Caledon, Reid lives in Tennessee with his wife and children.
With over a million album sales in Canada, the Lanark-born laddie's last studio album (excepting a Christmas LP in 2013) was Fire It Up in 2012. A new one, co-produced with Bob Ezrin, is scheduled for release in early 2016, and backed with a major cross-Canada tour.
IAN THORNLEY has taken his music publishing to ole. The Big Wreck frontman and principal songwriter has signed a global co-publishing deal with the Canadian rights management firm for his compositions from 2011 onward, when he signed with the Anthem Entertainment Group and reformed Big Wreck.
Among the key copyrights are "Albatross", "Wolves", "A Million Days" and songs he wrote or co-wrote on Big Wreck's 2014 Ghosts album. A Berklee grad, Thornley is currently working on a new record.
He will release Ghosts in Europe this summer through Spotlight Germany/Ferryhouse Productions.
THE BIG YIN returns to Canada for a nine city theatre tour October through November.
The Yin is Scottish comedian Billy Connolly's nickname, in case you wondered. NYC-based WestBeth Entertainment is promoting all dates that include Massey Hall, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Jubilee Auditoriums North and South, and Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
US MUSIC SALES in the first half of 2015 were relatively flat with album sales down 4 percent over the same period a year earlier.
Digital album track sales represented 46 percent of the category's overall sales.
Taylor Swift's 1989 album sold 1.3 million copies in the period to become the No. 1 best-seller. Drake's If Your Reading This It's Too Late sold 965,000 copies to place 2nd in the top 10 best-seller list. Sam Smith's In the Lonely Hour placed 3rd, selling 788,000 copies. Ed Sheeran's X and the various artists' Fifty Shades Of Grey OST tied with 763,000 copies.
When streaming equivalent albums (equating 1,500 streams from a single album as an LP sale) and track equivalent albums (equating 10 downloads from an album as an LP sale) are factored in, the mid-year chart looks like this:
1. Taylor Swift, 1989 (2,011,000 units)
2. Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (1,431,000)
3. Ed Sheeran, X (1,428,000)
4. Fifty Shades of Grey OST (1,402,000)
5. Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour (1,296,000)
6. Meghan Trainor, Title (1,209,000)
7. Furious 7 OST (971,000)
8. Maroon 5, V (966,000)
9. Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint (825,000)
10. Fall Out Boy, American Beauty / American Psycho
(813,000)
The top selling song of the six months was Mark Ronson’s "Uptown Funk" (feat Bruno Mars), with 4.88M digital sales.
FACEBOOK is pitching the major labels to license music videos for the site. According to Variety and Billboard, the initial pitch is for conduct a test run through the end of this year, with selected music videos — chosen by the labels — being presented in the main news feed of users. Variety reports the ad revenue split would mirror YouTube's — 45 percent to Facebook, 55 percent to rights holders.
