xkcd: Tradition

xkcd: Tradition

Worth a look, IMHO.

Flavorwire � Awesome Infographic: The Geography of the Year in Music

Flavorwire � Awesome Infographic: The Geography of the Year in Music:

What does it all mean? That even in this brave new age of internet self-distribution and SoundCloud and unlimited online streaming, you’re much more likely to get heard if a) you’re American and b) you suck it up and go to scrounge a living in the big city in order to get your music heard.

via Google Reader.

The scale of the pop universe

The scale of the pop universe:
I’m always fascinated to see real concrete sales numbers attached to pop-culture artifacts that you actually pay for—books, movies, video games, music. So I thought the most interesting part of this NYT piece on Cee-Lo Green was this graf:

“Forget You,” released in August 2010, reached No. 2 and has sold 5.3 million downloads in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it the 12th most downloaded track of all time. (By comparison, Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” the top song of 2011, has sold 5.7 million.)

If you had asked me to guess how many times the top-selling track of 2011 had been downloaded—bigger than any Lady Gaga song—I would have guessed at least 10 million, maybe 20. Really, 5.7 million downloads for the top song—a song supported by a basically unfathomable media monsoon, by omnipresent playback on the radio, on TV, in real places like coffee shops and car dealerships—that ain’t so many.

So on one hand, it just makes me realize how truly fragmented music is these days.

On the other hand, it makes me realize how many of a pop song’s plays aren’t paid for by listeners like us. Rather, the song gets licensed, soundtracked, muzacked, and just generally rolled out across the walls of the world. That all drives downloads, sure, but I’ll bet it also accounts for a huge fraction of the total lifetime listens. And it distorts our instincts—it makes pop songs seem bigger than they are.

And on the third mutant hand, it makes me hopeful that we might build that bridge between Kickstarter and Louis CK-level success after all. If the absolute top of the scale—the speed of light and commerce—is 5.7 million, then suddenly the number of purchases and plays you might get through a smash-hit Kickstarter campaign (50,000? 0.01 RITDs?) seem pretty meaningful.
(reposted via Snarkmarket.)

your percussion based worries are over

your percussion based worries are over:

via Imminent Discursivity.

“Mahna Mahna”: How a ditty from a soft-core Italian movie became the Muppets’ catchiest tune. - Slate Magazine

“Mahna Mahna”: How a ditty from a soft-core Italian movie became the Muppets’ catchiest tune. - Slate Magazine

Music history.

Free Ride: Digital Parasites and the Fight for the Business of Culture | Brain Pickings

Free Ride: Digital Parasites and the Fight for the Business of Culture | Brain Pickings

Worth the time for creative to read, IMHO.

tumblr_lwhopg6deE1r66jcwo1_400.jpg (JPEG Image, 333x423 pixels)

tumblr_lwhopg6deE1r66jcwo1_400.jpg (JPEG Image, 333x423 pixels)

Walmart, you're doing Christmas right.

Walmart, you're doing Christmas right.: submitted by becuzimbrown to funny
[link] [86 comments]

Production Music Disasters #3: New Age Meat Processing

How does this happen? Does the producer think "Hmm, how do I bring a sanguine equilibrium to industrial meat processing? Oh, synthy 'new age' music - that'll do the trick!"

With its triplet-swing quantize, not quite in-time hand drumming, and meandering melody, this music track seems to have been originally composed for another genre featuring shots of naked meat, but some of you aren't old enough to visit that website yet.....

Brain Eno - Composers as Gardeners

Brain Eno - Composers as Gardeners: Brain Eno - Composers as Gardeners "My topic is the shift from 'architect' to 'gardener', where 'architect' stands for 'someone who carries a full picture of the work before it is made', to 'gardener' standing for 'someone who plants seeds and waits to see exactly what will come up'. I will argue that today's composer are more frequently 'gardeners' than 'architects' and, further, that the 'composer as architect' metaphor was a transitory historical blip."



Brian Eno quoted from Edge.org issue 11.10.11