Unsound: How Digital Delivery Changed Music

Here's an extended trailer for Unsound, a movie about how the Internet changed music. It's pretty interesting, and I agree with the facts of the movie, but not the general tone. If you know the history of music, you know that at every point along the way there's been something that's unfair, that's against artists, and that favors those who exploit the business, so what we're going through today is really no different than it ever was.

You can't just complain about how things have changed, because they're always changing. As soon as you get the hang of how everything is working, something new changes the paradigm. The difference is that it's happening faster than ever today so you can never get comfortable with what you know.

So watch this trailer because it's well done and interesting, but don't despair, because believe it or not, things are not as bad as the movie makes it out to be.


Unsound: extended trailer rough cut from Count Eldridge on Vimeo.

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Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

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The Demise Of The Electric Guitar In Music

There are times when a trend happens so fast that it’s just like being hit in the face with an ice cold towel, and then there are times when it’s so slow moving that you can feel something happening, but it takes a while before you realize that you’re totally immersed in something new. A little of both happened to me over the last week as it finally sunk in that mainstream pop music is now totally represented by the latest music trend. And guess what? The electric guitar, staple of modern music for more than 50 years, has no part in it.

In case you’re wondering, it’s electronic dance music (or EDM as we’ve grown to call it) that has totally blended with pop music to become the current background music of our lives. It’s now in every nook and cranny where the hippest music is played.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m in the music business up to my ears every day and I’m totally aware that EDM has become both a phenomenon and a giant money maker over the last three or four years in terms of live events. I’m also more than aware that over the last two years elements of EDM have permeated the Top 40 charts on the vast majority of hits. You have to be completely musically unconscious to not to have seen and heard that.

And I read the stats and watch the revenue numbers involving EDM, where you could see the big money of the major promoters and record labels making their moves to claim their territory over the last year. It’s usually a sign that a trend has peaked as the big brands move in to stake their claim and squeeze every last drop of financial juice out of the trend that they can, as seems to be happening at the moment. You read and absorb all this data, but sometimes it just doesn’t sink in. Needless to say I was unprepared for my recent mini-revelation. Read More On Forbes.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

4 Tricks When Hunting For A URL Name

Here's my take on a great article recently posted on the HostBaby blog about what to do if the URL name you really want is taken.

1. Go with ".com" if you can. You'll sacrifice traffic and search engine position with ".org," ".net," or any other extension.

2. Don't use a dash in between words. It's tempting, but people don't remember dashes and will just type in the word without it, so they won't reach your site as a result.

3. If the name you want is taken, look for a variation that's unique. If "theusigned.com" is taken, you can always go with "theunsignedband.com," "the unsignedmusic.com," theunsignedrock.com," or any number of others.

4. Don't buy names that end in anything other than a ".com" extension. Nobody wants to have someone be a predator and usurp your search engine rank and traffic by using a ".net" extension or the like, but Google has actually has stopped much of this from happening anyway with its latest search algorithm.

Makes finding the right URL a lot easier, right? Happy URL hunting!

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

The YouTube Music Awards: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

It looks like someone has listened to me and finally created the YouTube Music Awards. For those of you who read my Music 3.0 blog, I postulated that the time was right for these awards way back on Sept 10, 2012. YouTube announced last week that it would throw it’s first awards show on November 3^rd, with none other than Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Arcade Fire as the primary guests, with YouTube up and comers CZDA and violinist Lindsey Stirling also featured. The show will be broadcast (on YouTube naturally) live from Pier 36 in New York with Jason Schwartzman as the host, with as yet unannounced performances from Seoul and Moscow as well, nicely illustrating the global nature of the service.

Now I bet you just read that and thought, “Oh no, not another awards show,” and I wouldn’t blame you a bit for feeling that way. I can sympathize, but hear me out.

Television music award shows as we know them today are shams, with the judging based on loose criteria that seems to shift with the latest social media popularity trends. Let’s take a look at what we currently have.

MTV’s Video Music Awards? The channel doesn’t even play music videos anymore, so how are they qualified to award anything? The People’s Choice Awards? The final vote may be the people’s choice, but how about the nominations? Isn’t it interesting that you can name the nominees before they’re even nominated? Read more on Forbes.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.