I have been consulting a great deal with people and the artists I work with about the massive changes in the music industry lately. It is long overdue that I make an official blog post about it.
But how do you sum up what equates to declaring the death of gravity to a physicist in a short blog entry? It’s a challenge, however, now we know enough to confidently make some bold statements about where the music industry is going and I will very briefly summarize them here:

• The music industry is moving away from corporations and back to the artist/musician where it should be (this is a very good thing for you, the artist, but more rights and control means more work and responsibility)
• Giving music away for free and digital downloading doesn’t hurt music sales, it is in fact the only way music is purchased, and essentially has been for a long time. (The myth that downloading is hurting sales is propaganda that corporations have spread in attempt to retain control they are losing over the music industry – see first point)
• Music as an emotional commodity has become about building and selling relationships, NOT selling a product. Build a strong following and fans will support you in all your efforts. This will soon become a philosophy for all business in the near future in my opinion.
• The Internet now fully into it’s web 2.0 phase is the way that artists can independently build a strong business without corporations or other companies due to it’s many resources. (This is covered in detail in Andrew Dubbers’ free eBook which I blogged about here, and links to some of these can be found in my blogroll/links page
• Blogging and social networking is one of the most important ways to accomplish the above and embrace the new music industry and start building your audience.

So these are some pretty drastic changes, I mean, telling artists they need to give their music away in order to sell it when they have been told that is stealing and will cost them sales? Well, I have started to do it myself as mentioned here, and many professionals, industry experts and artists have proven these points to not only be true, but very successful, artists like Jonathan Coultan. He may not be famous enough for you to know him, but he’s an independent artist making a living from his music using these very techniques. There are articles about it all over the internet. Major artists like radiohead have been starting to make changes as well, selling their music by donation, and a lot of people not only think they’re crazy, fellow artists think they are ruining the music industry. But those people haven’t studied the proven facts about where music is going.

I have been researching this for some time now, particularly for a course I teach at a local college as part of the full time music program. I also offer artists consulting on effectively using these techniques. I don’t have all the answers because no one does yet, things are still changing and progressing. But I can see where things are going, and it is a good thing.

For many years now, I have been trying to move toward a completely paperless world.
This is hard in a world that loves paper. Many people love paper because it’s tactile and they can feel it and see it. Not me. I hate little pieces of paper all over the place, and trying to organize and make sense of it all. I got a phone many years ago that allows me to write everything in it. All my notes are digital, I can sync the phone to the computer and vice versa, and all these notes can be modified and organized digitally and archived. I can copy and paste, and edit without having to re type things.

So that is just in terms of notes and general use of paper, it goes far beyond the unnecessary use of trees. I’m not even going to get into purchase receipts, 3 words: tax time nightmare.

But there is another use of paper that annoys me to no end: Checks. The whole idea of writing, sending and depositing paper checks for business transactions seems to me so 20th century. It is the only reason I use a bank machine. I am even thinking of giving clients incentives to use electronic means of payment, and attaching links (to my now electronic invoices) to pay electronically. I know big businesses won’t go for this in the near future.
Would you use electronic methods of payment if you got 1% off your bill? I would love to get your feedback on this. Paypal and similar tools are very easy to use, even if you don’t have an account.

So if you use paypal, please let me know I would love to pay you this way, and I would do it for free!

Do I want the world to progress faster than it is ready to? Maybe, it’s all about simplifying life for me, is that so wrong?

Lately I’ve been making a lot of dark and intense non music related posts on here. What can I say, we’re living in the middle of the decline of the old world order… So here’s something more music and sound related!

There is lot’s of great new music and audio software out now, and I need to update in order to use the new version of my multi track host software (It uses multiple ‘plug in’ softwares that run within the main application to expand on it’s capabilities)

One of the most exciting is the new audio restoration software from iZotope, ‘RX’.
There has been a lot of amazing audio software that has blown my mind over the last 10 years, but this is something else – it can remove background sounds from audio without destroying the sound you want! Like removing a car beep from an interview, or filling in bits of sound that is missing from a recording! That’s right, it analyzes audio nearby the missing chunk and fills in the missing data. Like science fiction, but it’s real.

Listen for yourself to the RX Restoration video demo or the audio demos on the right if you have less time.

This is amazing stuff, and I am adding it to my arsenal in case you or those you love want some miracles worked with your audio.

• Cost of war in Iraq to America, in its fifth year: More than $455 billion
  (of money borrowed from other countries, like China)
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-7017205,00.html
  
  
• Cost to cure hunger in Africa: $10 billion
  (One month budget of the Iraq war)

It’s a good day to start renouncing nationalism, America!

“… selfish souls, for the promotion of their own interests, have assigned boundaries and outlets and have, day by day, attached more importance to these, until this led to intense enmity, bloodshed and rapacity in subsequent centuries. In the same way this will continue indefinitely, and if this conception of patriotism remains limited within a certain circle, it will be the primary cause of the world’s destruction” – Abdu’l-Baha

It has gotten to the point where the things that happen in our tumultuous world don’t shock or surprise me anymore. Last week Bush not only mispronounced words while talking about children’s education, but he thinks Mandela is dead. No major surprise there.

But today when I learned about slavery being alive and well in the US, I actually was surprised. I’m not talking about getting an immigrant Mexican worker to fetch things, I’m talking about abducting people who have come from overseas and forcing them to do what they’re told for no pay. Real slavery.
Modern Day Slavery In The US

The shocking thing is that by simply buying food at large corporations like Macdonalds, we are supporting this! I’m not much of an activist because I don’t think that it solves the problem of individual moral bankruptcy that exists in the world. It’s a natural imbalance with a simple solution: If the greedy weren’t, those who are starving wouldn’t be. That’s how the world works, It’s a material problem that requires a spiritual solution, and that’s not the solution that is being utilized in the world.
But when you buy food at a resteraunt and don’t even realise that the company employs slaves because maybe they don’t even know, it makes it hard not to be unknowingly supporting this kind of injustice…

I mean, who has the time to track down and research every company and individual they are buying from? I’m not even going to start with that can of worms, I do what I can, and it costs me dearly, but I think it’s worth it. I guess that’s a good place to start, if it seems too cheap (Wal Mart) then it probably involves the violation of someone’s rights!

Here are some ways to do something about the slavery issue particularly, if you do want to act, from the man who wrote the book I first heard about this from: http://johnbowe.info/action.html

Or, if you prefer dealing with the root of a problem, not just using a band aid, here is a deeper explanation of how we need to change as individuals in order to solve these problems:
Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit

A lot of people are using facebook lately. It really has social networking down to a science, and I can’t tell you how many people tell me their addicted. And not just my 15 year old nephew, mom and dad are on their too (well, not mine, but you know what I mean…). That means more and more, facebook is being used professionally, and it has become much more important in your business and career to the point where smart employers are even checking out prospective hires on facebook to see if they are company material.

Here is a link to a useful article:
12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally:

I’ve added my own facebook link on my blogroll, but I have to limit my time on there… that thing is the ultimate time killer.

“All progress depends on the unreasonable man.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.
The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.”

– George Bernard Shaw

Some of you have seen this before, amazing stuff that is way beyond how I make music despite the fact that I use the latest commercially available technology and software. It’s called the ‘Reactable’ System from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona Spain. If you don’t understand the basic principles of how modern music is made, you will probably have no idea what you are seeing in these videos:

Basic Reactable Demo 01:
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Basic Reactable Demo 02:
[youtube MPG-LYoW27E nolink]

Live Performance with Reactable:
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Imagine having one of those in your home with some guests, now that’s my kind of party!

Progressive artists like Bjork are already starting to use this technology…

More Info here at the official website: http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/

Apparently my blog is blocked in China… God only knows why it would be, if you live in China, and your reading this, post and let me know.

This kind of thing seems to be intermittent, depending on where you live there.

I just posted a new massive page of amazing links that I use in my music business 2.0 class and that I often recommend to clients I am working with. Most of these links I have tested and or use myself, and they are some of the best resources I have found. So take advantage of my hours of research and enjoy!

Jarome’s recommended links for Multimedia,Music Business, and Web 2.0 applications