Jun 09
19
P2P Users are Actually Changing The Music
Music is changing. No longer is music just a few guys making
noise and girl out front trying to sing.
The University of East
Anglia in Norwich
UK now offers
some interesting new degrees.
Mathematics and Music, IT and Music, Computers and Music. (Download Pdf.)
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
When I was a lad, the only mathematics in music was the
drummers lead, 1, 2, 3, 4…….
Saturday afternoons on radio Windy used to be Wolfman Jacks
American Top 40 countdown.
Every kid in New Zealand
who listened to that show wanted to be as cool as the Wolfman.
Consequently if you asked any 14 year old what he wanted to
be when he grew up, the answer was almost always, “a DJ” and when it wasn’t,
the second most popular answer was a rock star.
My brother worked on the DJ thing and got Saturday gigs at
clubs (pubs). Me ? I became a wannabe rockstar and joined a Rock Band – Nephrite Jade as the bass guitarist. As I was the newest
member, I automatically got promoted to chief roady. That means I loaded the
van, unloaded the van and carried these humungous speakers around. (Probably
why I now have four foot long arms that drag on the ground as I walk.
)
But there was something else important. I was the only one
(after eleven years of classical violin tuition) that could actually read sheet
music. Sometimes the band would let fly
an impromptu solo break and I quickly wrote those down for posterity. I needn’t
have bothered. The other four band members had photographic music memories. If
they played something once, they could repeat it note for note weeks later
without any prompting from the score I had notated – which as I said they
couldn’t read anyway.
There was a Russian guy, two Maori guys a Pommie and I. We
were pretty hot stuff.
Our all time favourite request was “You’re Sixteen”; not I
suspect because our rendition was any better than the original artist, but
probably because Jerry, the Russian drummer used to have this incredibly long
tongue with which he did a Kiss imitation in the middle of his drum solo
break-out.
The girls in the audience loved it. Jerry got lucky, a lot.
Unfortunately, the band and I parted ways when they wanted
to move the band to Auckland. I had
to stay in Wellington.
That was my last foray into the popular music world as an
active public participant.
Interestingly enough in 1975, no-one ever came and tapped us
on the shoulder to say “Hey, you owe us a performance fee.” No-one ever demanded that we pay anyone for the mono music
cassettes (of our jam sessions) that we gave away to groupies.
And more interestingly, no-one ever accused us of “stealing”
the music from other artists. Everything we played with the exception of one
instrumental (that we improvised one day) was on the Top 40 charts. But
copyright just wasn’t an issue.
Kids came to pub, listened to our awful renditions of
popular artists, did a lot of underage drinking and then went home and brought
the 45 record the next day, because they had such a good time at the pub that
they wanted to be reminded of the event.
My wages at the time were $75.00 per week (semester break
office job) and a 45 record sold for 49 cents (a K-Tel “Top Hits” album was
worth a whopping $1.95). That means I
could buy 153 45’s with my wages and being in a band, I quite often bought a
dozen at a time so we could listen and decide if we wanted to add a song to our
repertoire.
In 2002, a CD single sold for $4.95 against the junior
average wage of $330.00 meaning that the purchasing power of the consumer had
reduced from 153 45’s per week in 1975 to now only 82.5 CD’s
Did people buy less music? Why?
Because consumers arn’t stupid. The CPI indexation on that
1975 45 rpm record through to 2002 was only $1.13, in other words, it should be possible to sell a 45 vinyl record in
2002 for $1.13 cents and don’t forget, 45’s had an “A” side and a “B” side. So
that should be 56 cents per song. Not
the 99 cents and up that iTunes wants to charge.
So users decided
like in any recession, they had to make some homegrown entertainment.
Enter the Mixer.
In the nineties, Sony, those purveyors of professional music
and video production hardware and software
introduced mixers on Laptops in the nineties; with of course the Sony
price tag.
In August, 2002 a new kind of mixer arrived via the Internet
and it was priced free.
Programmed by Mark Tolson, the Kramixer was available for
free with a just a little spyware included to allow the product to be
distributed for free.
Downloaded over 1,500,000 times worldwide.
The result?
The Remix. Buy one quality version of the song and start to
add-in the changes necessary to make it acceptable to ones own tastes thereby
making your own “B “ side..
Speed it up, insert loops, alter the pitch, add reverb,
tweak the frequency responses.
Yes I know remixes existed before 2002, but now we have the
remixes of the best songs by the most people. In other words, it would seem
that certain artists are remixed more by the P2P population than others.
We offer Ladyhawke as an example and will be watching her
new hit, “My Delerium” with a great deal of interest.
Currently we have found five remixes of her hit, but only 2 (non-fake) versions
of the non-remixed record label version.
The Original
Ladyhawke – My Delerium.mp3 3.73 MB
Ladyhawke – my delirium.mp3 3.88 MB
The Remixes
My Delerium – Ladyhawke- (Sunship Remix).mp3 6.69 MB
107-Ladyhawke-My Delirium (Jbag Hot Pop Remix).mp3 8.90 MB
Ladyhawke – My Delirium (Fan Death Remix).mp3 9.04 MB
Ladyhawke – My Delirium Sugardaddy Remix.mp3 3.99 MB
Ladyhawke – My Delerium.mp3 , 9.76 MB
The Video
Ladyhawke – My Delirium.avi ,127.77 MB Video
Ladyhawke – My Delirium.flv , 10.04 MB Video
Which is strange because the YouTube version which is a Rage
clip (carefully watch the left hand side of the screen at the beginning of the
clip and you can see the letters rage fading into the blinds),
has only had
131,000 hits and is still up on YouTube but is now replete with advertising.
Unfortunately the music industry hasn’t quite got it yet.
When I clicked on “Buy Song” I wasn’t offered the song, I
was offered a download of the iTunes program.
I didn’t want iTunes. I wanted to buy a legal mp3 version of
the song that I could have on my computer.
Unless the industry take advantage of YouTube user uploads and
specifically offer the RIGHT TRACK to download in a simple financial
transaction I’m afraid that maybe My Delerium won’t make it in the commercial
charts. But it, or at least it’s remix progeny are doing well on the P2P
charts.
Maybe YouTube could execute this exercise themselves and
actually make money from each video clip instead of having to pay a license
fee.
That would rapidly make YouTube the largest Music seller in
the world.
This article started by talking about the new trends in
education in relation to music.
I’m excited by the concept of mathematical principals being
applied to beat structure, frequency changes and possible integration with
synaptic activity via heartbeat monitors.
The music of the future will not be a static aural only
experience.
It is evolving, morphing into the physical part of our
universe, present with us 24/7 as a choice, and no longer the only available in
our cars, and popular venues.
With the birth of the consumer remix, we are seeing the
potential future of the music industry where the mood, tempo, pitch frequency
are tuned to each individual receptor.
The interesting thing is that it is rapidly evolving on the
P2P networks co-jointly with our academic institutions.
Why?
Because, the consumers who are prepared to spend a day of
their lives to do a fan remix, don’t really want to spend four weeks of their
lives to try and get legal permission to do so.
They get the urge to do a remix, when do they get it? Now!
The music industry needs to start adopting a supermarket
checkout mentality, with an appropriately priced and licensable product list.
And it needs to hold the international P2P Remix awards. Why ? Because todays P2P remixers/users are tomorrows customers and right now, I don't think they like the music industry very much.
There needs to be a process of rebuilding trust and a relationship that will benefit both sides of the equation.
The producers and the consumers.