Comments on: Music Like Software

By: Rob Middleton

Rob Middleton — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:42:00 +0000

I see the old “Anthony Herron idea factory” has been working again.

I like this as a concept and I am all for more band/fan interaction of this kind, but agree with Nick’s point about it maybe diluting the final product.

But the stems/remix idea is what excites me more about this, it’s a brilliant way of getting fan interaction and I for one would like to see more of it around. There are a hell of a lot of so called “bedroom producers” around these days, albeit with varying degrees of skill, and sometimes a re-working of a well known or popular track is there chance to reach a bigger audience and to go onto bigger and better things.

By: Nick Peters

Nick Peters — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:21:36 +0000

I think this is a good idea for new / development acts but not necessarily for more established artists.

As long as current marketing models prevail releasing works in progress is probably going to be perceived as diluting the impact of the finished release. I know some bands (The Raconteurs spring to mind, admittedly not the most forward thinking of bands) are very careful about playing unreleased material live for this very reason.

As you point out saturation could be a problem too.

Having said that the model is interesting. I know as a fan I’ll seek out different permutations of tracks I like – generally remixes rather than demos – and would be interested in a subscription service to both favourite artists and favourite remixers.

By: Anthony Herron

Anthony Herron — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:35:53 +0000

Has anyone made up anymore “Music like……” concepts? Think I might start a Twitter game with it!

By: Anthony Herron

Anthony Herron — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:33:44 +0000

It sounds ace Andy, please do let us know how it goes…

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:29:17 +0000

Hi Anthony,
This is indeed an interesting concept. We actually did something similar with Uniform Motion last year.
Every couple of weeks, the band recorded a new song, shot a live video in the recording studio and designed an interactive comic strip. The rough versions of the songs were uploaded to the website as streamable MP3’s, the videos were edited and posted to vimeo and embedded in the webpage, and the flash based comic strip was a fully integrated part of the site (our own development). So the fans could discover the album in several different ways, and watch it grow throughout the project.
At the end of the ’series’, the album was mixed and mastered and we just released a CD/DVD with a 54 page comic booklet. Within the next month or so, we’ll be releasing an iPhone app. (My message is probably making sense now!) The iTunes App store is the perfect place for your concept. Instead of downloading an album on iTunes, you download an app, which is updated every now and then. The app approach also gives you the possibility to hook in Youtube videos, and other content.
The only question is whether Apple would allow record labels to do this.
i’ll have the answer to that question pretty soon!

Cheers,

Andy

By: Mr Trick

Mr Trick — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:25:43 +0000

Its definitely an interesting concept, but at a time where DRM is being struggled with and the majority of labels & artists arguably can’t wrap their heads around digital concepts in their most basic forms, I’d argue its something that would be near impossible to realise. If you were rebuilding the way music is consumed on a very fundamental level, you might be able to get something like this happening. However the fundamental shift that is required in technology, formats etc etc is so massive that it would only work with mass adoption.

Plus, as Jack says above, I suspect this would be something that would only work for established artists where people actually care to hear the demos etc. For others, it would struggle as people will not want to buy in.

Definitely an interesting concept though!

By: Anthony Herron

Anthony Herron — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:06:49 +0000

@Martin thank you

@Jack thanks for your comment, I do read your blog and have duly added it to my blogroll to the right

The idea would be to actually reduce costs due to an influx of consumer viral marketing and definitely not hit the press until the release is finalised as you would with any record.

Your point about it working more for established bands more than newer bands is of course right. But there are local bands I love and people who are still playing to a few people in pubs who have demos I love listening to, I believe that once you have the interest of a consumer, its a lot easier. It’s not really supposed to be a method to drastically help break an act, more like building a community, having some of the work do itself and perhaps even having a more commercially focused finished product.

Thank you for your thoughts.

By: Jack PoP

Jack PoP — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:53:11 +0000

It’s an interesting concept Anthony – and one I think could work well with huge artists ie Radiohead/NiN – whose fans are passionate, motivated and keen to spread word of mouth about their heros.

Coming from an indie label point of view though (and one which i think applies to lower level major label artists as well)is getting the buy in from fans of less ’super-hyped bands’.

While I want to own a single/ EP/ album of say… For arguments sake – Tellison – I’m not sure I, or the vast majority of their fans (im sure there would be a few who would mind), would want to own all the demos leading up to that.

The only way i personally could be persuaded to purchase is if i was getting physical, limited edition stuff through – that would send my ‘indie cool points’ through the roof

I guess it does mean you can get 2 or 3 waves of press aorund the release, and advocates already talking about it way pre-release – but there’s costs involved, and you’d have to make sure people continue to care….

In short – an interesting concept, and good post – but I’m not sure it would work for all x

lv Jack PoP

By: Martin Freeman

Martin Freeman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:29:09 +0000

Really intelligent way of looking at it objectively, like the idea, would like to see something like this in practise. Another great blog post Anthony