Comments on: david byrne tells record labels to embrace the mp3….

By: SXSW Magazine Interview with Dave Allen

SXSW Magazine Interview with Dave Allen — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:59:50 +0000

[...] changer. The labels blinked. Some musicians learned to use the web well and at SXSW in March 2007 David Byrne warned record labels that they must act very quickly and adapt much faster to the web’s promise. He predicted that [...]

By: The End of The Music Album as The Organizing Principle | pampelmoose Dave Allen of Gang of Four's Music and Media Blog

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:33:54 +0000

[...] Records The End of the CD and CD Retailers Puddlegum – Top 5 Reasons Why Vinyl Will Outlive CDs David Byrne Tells The Record Labels to Embrace The MP3 How Killing the CD Single Killed the Recording Industry How Bands Can Make More Money By Not [...]

By: Dave Allen

Dave Allen — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:03:18 +0000

@Mark,

SACD seemed to not take off for some reason…was it price? lack of good content? There’s more thoughts on this at this thread… http://www.pampelmoose.com/mspeaks/?p=1251

By: joshk

joshk — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:08:54 +0000

makes me wonder who controls the evolution of mp3 technology? anyone?

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:43:55 +0000

Because of the compression, Cd’s sucked, always did.My suggestion is to think outside of the box. When transistor radio came into being they provided cheap and portable ways of hearing music. A revolution in music both artistically as well as sonically happened at that time with multi tracking and the wide spread acceptance of “Hi-Fi”. Cheap mp3’s are the am radio of today. I say to hell with 16bit 44k technology that is over 30 years old. Let us embrace SACD. Better yet calling all artists! Wrap your brains around HD/Blu-Ray as the new cutting edge . Non compressed studio quality, multi channel surround, AND video. Imagine if Sgt. Pepper had the opportunity to be presented in such formats. The sky is the limit, if we creativity embrace what is now!

By: pampelmoose Dave Allen of Gang of Four’s Music and Media Blog » emi, new gang of four album, radiohead, london, media punditry

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:53:02 +0000

[...] I can only be honest with her; CDs will last a lot longer than most people (myself included) would like to admit, there are still a majority of folks out there who purchase CDs and digital sales are not covering the slide downward in music sales – I do agree with David Byrne though, the tipping point will be reached very soon and CD sales will slide more quickly as more people buy music as downloads. I had to quickly craft some sound bites, here they are – ‘People have access via the Internet to more music than ever and are buying more music, it’s just one song at a time unfortunately.’ ‘The music industry failed to give people what they wanted – easy and cheap access to single songs online, available for download without restrictive DRM.’ ‘Artists will continue to create, people will buy their music, the middleman has now been cut out.’ ‘Guy Hands says that he wants to have EMI Records be a more creative company. Considering that EMI’s roster is made up of 100% ‘creative people’ that’s an interesting statement.’ And so on. She got back to me, she was very happy. Job done. [...]

By: pampelmoose » Dave Allen of Gang of Four’s Music and Media Blog » post-radiohead

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:18:44 +0000

[...] Of course there is always a chance that once the element of the Radiohead new, new thing has worn off we will still be stuck debating what the future of music holds. Silicon Alley is suggesting that at retail things could get very bleak in 2008. They are saying that they’ve heard Walmart, Target and Best Buy will scale back heavily on the amount of sq ft they give over to CDs. Apparently the numbers being thrown around are in the 20% – 40% range. Everyone’s conclusion is the CD market is in permanent decline. And as Silicon Alley suggests, a cutback sets off a self-fulfilling prophecy: Retailers stock less music, so consumers have less to choose from, and then buy even less, causing retailers to stock even less. Of course this debate concerns only physical retail sales offline when someone says that customers “will buy even less.” Online the debate is different; given the opportunity that iTunes and the new Amazon download service bring, not to mention how much cool new music can be found in music blogs such as the Moose and 3Hive (and if you’re on a Mac then Peel is your best friend – it does it all for you.) At SXSW 2007 David Byrne made a prediction that – “digital sales would outstrip CD sales by 2012. He said that year will be the â€œtipping point,â€ much like the mid-to-late â€™80s when CDs overtook cassette sales. Once download sales became the norm, Byrne said, it will allow manufacturing and distribution costs to approach zero. â€œThat is a fact,â€ he said.” I am offering up late 2010 as the new tipping point. [...]

By: jonny

jonny — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 03:57:15 +0000

I’m looking at some of my vinyl right now and there is a distinct advantage in the artwork—the large glossy pics (unfolded and high res) and cool (large) booklets. the singing nun LP has color sketches and beautiful lyrics. broadway musical LPs always have cool pics. so I can’t cry for CD and it’s coming death—it’s not a pretty format graphically and jewel cases from the spice girls alone could fill god knows how many landfills.

with digital files it’s obvious that artwork will likely be replaced by animation and images and other goodies, employing lots or really nice graphic designers and making some kids seizure. rock and roll.