Why I want Google to be my record company (and you do, too)

The music business as we formerly knew it was predicated on two basic legs: monopolizing the physical distribution structure (and by proxy, maintaining content exclusivity), and an information asymmetry between the record companies and the artists.

This asymmetry took its most insidious form in the famous "double books" that film and music companies used to keep (before corporatisation and Sarbanes-Oxley), allowing companies to misrepresent sales and distribution statistics, thus denying musicians a lot of their due income.

A decade ago, Michael Robertson's MP3.com tried to level this playing field by providing a means of distribution (mp3's) in addition to hyperaccurate sales and play statistics. This gave artists their first real glimpse at the relationships between listeners/buyers and artists' personal income.

Most record labels today simply do not exist: they are "paper" companies that are nothing more than a legal entity created for the purpose of easing the burdens of transferring ownership of musical works.

From an artist/producer perspective, the ideal record company will offer the following:

1. Access to global markets
2. Seamless integration of multiple platforms (mobile, web browsers, ???)
3. Detailed tracking, reporting and statistical analysis (Analytics for your songs)
4. Tracking of public opinion (Google Alerts)
5. Turnkey retail (Google Checkout)
6. Personal/professional network management (LinkedIn)
7. Facilitate collaboration (Google Wave)
8. Targeted marketing (AdSense/AdWords)

Apple has done quite well positioning itself in this space, especially given they've also put a hardware platform into the market, too. Although I personally see the iPhone as a transient platform, it has certainly demonstrated the power of "flat" distribution *and* an ability to open markets for music producers.

But the iPhone (and its near-term competitors) are "now" technologies. The future, in my current view, is hardware independent, and its in our interests as creatives to align ourselves with open frameworks that share this philosophy.

The current major media companies, however, demand exclusivity, which in turn forms the basis for our current conundrum: balancing exclusivity with the need to participate in open systems. It will be up to individual producers to choose how they want to interact with these new markets and technologies, and oodles of good datasets will make it easier to make the right choice.

I want Google to be my record company for these reasons:

1. Google (theoretically) isn't motivated to lie to me about traffic stats,
2. Google has no interest in *not* paying me,
3. Google's interest is in facilitating the highest volume of transactions possible (good for me),
4. Thus, Google's interested in matching my offerings to consumers at the highest possible granularity (good for me)
5. Google's platform independence means I can seamlessly offer digital files across hardware, anywhere on the globe, via any channel.

You want Google to be my record company for these reasons:

1. Ease of legitimate purchase. One-click purchase from web-search results means listeners don't have to set up profiles on multiple services (eMusic, iTunes, Amazon, etc).
2. No DRM.
3. All offerings as single selections - no requirement to purchase an entire album.

Photos by Alek Buznik and quack1701.

Pink Floyd: Great Gig...if you can get it

Singer Clare Torry talks about the "happy accident" that resulted in one of the greatest vocal solos in pop music.

Worth it for her last few sentences. The takeaway for producers is this: it can really pay to hire professionals.

Production Music Disasters: Winkers

Imagine: It's 1992. You've been up for 14 hours straight editing footage of winking eyes and female asses. The "director" (and his dealer, the "producer") have requested some background music that's "edgy and hip", but also free. So you flip through a few music library CD's you impulse-purchased when you were at The Wherehouse getting the latest Night Ranger. You open the first jewel case you find, "Techno Loops for Porn". Music that was destined to accompany actual nudity and graphic sex is instead drawing potential....victims....into a trancelike state until they want..no..NEED...to have eyes literally staring out their ass.

The persistent sting of defeat

Up till now, I'd considered my expectations to be clearly in the bounds of reason. For example, it seemed reasonable to expect a $200-300 piece of equipment to perform what I think to be the most elementary of tasks: bringing two channels of audio into the same world. In my case, a keyboard and microphone.

From a historical perspective, this really isn't new. Ever since Tom Dowd put his mind to it, mixing together distinct sources of audio has been, well....trivial. It's feature #1 on practically any audio (mixing) device.

But for the producers of digital audio interfaces, this is apparently a Whole New World.

My experience with this began almost two(!) years ago, when I noticed a correlation between my audio interface losing digital sync and the throwing of a nearby lightswitch. Over that time (again, based on the assumption that the interface product was designed/functioning correctly, that my problems were mine alone...) I have replaced UPS units 3 times, replaced wall switches, fuses in the fusebox, purchased gold-tipped, insulated cabling, multiple stage power filtering, and finally, am working through a series of different brands of audio interface.

In each and every case, some minor design flaw (yes, flaws, Lexicon/M-Audio/EMU, et al) renders the unit essentially unusable in some capacity.

For the EMU, it's unusable because it's so sensitive to RF interference, it will drop sync when your neighbor turns on their dishwasher. Useless.

For the Lexicon OMEGA, it is incompatible with some models of HP laptops due to the underlying USB chipset. Useless.

And now M-Audio's Firewire SOLO, who's updated drivers actually *remove* the most useful feature of the unit^[1] (the ability to have both the mic input and SPDIF active AT THE SAME TIME!! [forehead]), will not sync SPDIF with an external unit when connected to a laptop. The reason they give? The laptop's firewire interface needs to have a Texas Instruments chipset to "function correctly."

Notice M-Audio's proposition: it's not their design - it's my laptop.

Bear in mind that all customer support is predicated on the assumption that the product (and associated parts) are functioning perfectly, and the end user is responsible for the proper functioning of peripherals, etc. Remember the Tier 1 Support mantra: update your drivers.

I'll concede that the design process for these devices are fraught with a million details, each one with their own consequences, and part of design is to determine the best possible set of circumstances (like chipsets, signal flow, etc, etc) for each product. But for users (like me), deferring the responsibility of researching and troubleshooting ("Please visit our support forums on our website for fast answers to the most common questions" chimes the unnaturally cheery voice for the umpteenth time...), and ultimately, the cost of finding out what devices are compatible with their individual setups, is a net time-sink, and ultimately, damaging to the manufacturer's brand.

It appears I'm finally at a point of resolution with my technology, but I'm sure this will be short lived. I fear sooner or later another "gotcha" will make itself apparent in some way, and I'll be back at troubleshooting and "figuring it out" instead of producing.

^[1] This issue seems to have been resolved by either rebooting the interface module or clicking the 'reset' button on the software control panel. Either way, it's a crapshoot as to whether or not the device will sync on contact or not. Lame.

This is the video submitted by Rio to the IOC for consideration as the host city for the 2016 Olympic Games.

I think this is very well produced, and I especially like how the music remains very much in the tradition of Brazilian music, does not stray into caricatures of contemporary styles, and remains positive, open, and upbeat the entire time. In a word: Inviting.

Brain Dump: Lexicon Omega and Sonar7

A number of support forums report issues with integrating a Lexicon Omega audio interface with Cakewalk's SONAR software. In many cases, users will see the playback bar moving, but will see no activity on track meters. Here are two reproducible issues that will result in that symptom:

1. The Lexicon Omega is connected to a USB 1.0 port (an error window will pop up with a message about channel bandwidth),
2. The ASIO latency is set to the fastest setting (in this case, move the slider bar one notch to the right)

Also common, the "Monitor Mix" knob - the one that looks just like every other knob on the face, (seriously, Lexicon designers - a different colored knob!!!1!eleven!) it needs to be turned all the way to the right.

This unit is apparently much less sensitive (than the EMU 04040 USB) to the RF interference generated when a lightswitch is turned on or off.

Brain Dump: RF and EMI interference in my studio

Continuing from my earlier posts about ongoing power issues in my studio causing my equipment to glitch out, specifically the SPDIF link dropping sync whenever a nearby lightswitch is toggled.

Turns out that practically every lightswitch causes an RF burst when toggled. One of the pieces of equipment (E-MU 0404 USB or Yamaha M08) is incredibly sensitive to this field, and will cause "jitter" or signal loss between the two units.

I know the problem is "in the air" because I've run the two units off a battery UPS and *still* have the glitch - it's not the connected wiring after all.

It appears that many manufacturers employ a ferrite bead to deflect the RF interference, although the Yamaha power supply clearly lacks this feature...not sure why.

Out of my many moods

Early this morning, for some inexplicable reason, I suddenly hear (in the way musicians 'hear' music even in total silence) a melody not repeated since my youth..

"..out of my many moods has grown....wanderingman..... catch me if you can.."

..accompanied by an absolutely haunting melody. Wondering if anyone else in the world has mentioned this band or recording, I query the mighty Google, and behold, blogger Cousin Mike has posted the album online.

This is one of the first records I actually remember listening to - to this day I can recall some of the melodies, chords, and harmonies, and the vinyl disc's distinctive green label with a prominent "Capitol Records" logo.

This is exceptional music.

Amazing Timelapse - Kachi Kalion

Timelapse Film - "Kachi-Kalion Trip" from Animi on Vimeo.

Just a wonderful brain cleanser. Enjoy.