I have been talking for some time about the virtues of kickstarter funding for music recording projects. The indie album Move by Matt Phillips and the Philharmonic could not have been made without kickstarter funding. But the more I learn about the world of music kickstarters, the more I see …
How Long Is This Gonna Take? [TrustMeImAScientist]
How Long Is This Gonna Take? asks and answers one of the most important questions that any artist must consider before embarking on a recording project. The summary is pretty simple: while recording technology has dramatically lowered the cost of recording audio, there’s a lot more that goes into making …
Competition vs. Validation
When I decided to leave the certainty of multiple steady paychecks to start a new company, everybody I briefed thought there was no possible way it could succeed, and that gave me the confidence that I’d have no competition. The rest, as they say is history. But since that time, …
Glee? Not for me…
Last month after the buzz reached a fever pitch, I finally sat down to watch an episode of Glee. I have not watched it since, but I have been thinking about why not. I came across this blog posting, which begins: The fictional high school chorus at the center of …
Another sane voice against sheer loudness
I came across Jerry Tubb’s website TerraNovaMastering.com, which not only lists an impressive number of 5.1 surround credits, but also an encouraging statement against the Loudness Wars, quoting the full text of Joe Gross’s Everything Louder than Everything Else. Here’s the excerpt that explains the phenomenon (for those not yet …
The conservative (and generous) economics of Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry has become one of my heroes. His writings and ideas are among the most penetrating I have encountered in any living author, and he has a wonderful and luminous presence. He was featured on the Diane Rehm show earlier this year, and that conversation was selected for re-broadcast …
Jazz Music and Open Source Software
Who knew that Open Standards maven Andrew Updegrove was a jazz fan? He riffs: Jazz, of course, is open source all the way — it’s the ultimate freedom machine. Once you’ve grasped the melody line and basic chord structure of any song, you’re on your own, encouraged to take the …
Weathervane Music points to a new future
Weathervane Music is a non-profit, community supported production company, making music and video to support and advance the careers of amazing independent musicians. Unlike traditional for-profit production or record companies, the vast majority of proceeds from the recordings of this music go straight to the artists, which Weathervane Music selects. …
Who (or what) killed rock and roll?
Like the old man in Bring Out Your Dead scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail, rock and roll continues to protest that it’s not dead yet. But the number of ingrates willing to club it on the head, toss it on the cart, and wheel it out of town is …
Freedoms promised in 1976 may finally be realized
A posting on the WIRED magazine property Epicenter has some pretty exciting news about the Copyright Act of 1976, including the fact that a good-sized catalog of music will revert to the control of artists from the control of record labels. Unfortunately, the title of the article frames the story …