Spent yesterday travelling down to Summerfieldayze with a friend Michael, who was nice enough to drive us down there and back. It was my first time at the event and to be honest, I wasn't impressed at all. The problems I have are this:
1) The venue is a total bitch to get to and from. I mean, really awkward and miles from anywhere. Can't park near it, have to wait for buses to ship you to somewhere near where you parked your car. Or you walk for twenty minutes. Just what you need at the start of the day in midday sunshine in the middle of summer. Genius.
2) Food is crap. I mean really crap. I paid $8.00 for some chicken and chips...all cold. I'd pay $10.00 if someone guaranteed me the food was at least hot. Or I could sit down and eat the thing. And it's the same food at every gig. I mean, German sausage? Who cares?
3) The mud. Sure, you can't do much about it when it's been raining for 10 days straight...but you can find enough matting to cover four stages...how about a bit more to at least make some paths about the place?
4) The line-up. Okay so I'm not down with all the dance music these days but lets look at the big names: David Guetto, Benny Benassi, De La Soul, New Young Pony Club - the event turns over nearly $2.5million in ticket sales (not including the Vodafone sponsorship) and that's the best they could do?
5) $9 for a Smirnoff Black? PLEASE. Wholesale price of a carton of Black is about $60. which says $6.5 profit per can. Sure they have to pay people to serve the stuff, but that's just madness.
6) De La Soul were good...but as a stage act? It could have been anyone up there. No show, no nothing. And a 70 minute set? Of which 10 minutes was intro...and another 10 was Joel TUrner.
It's the same with Big Day Out - there's 50,000 people going just to see Rage Against The Machine - and without them on the line-up the list looks pretty ordinary. Silverchair? They've just played the hell out of Australia three months ago so who cares?
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
A Prediction for 2008
"According to holiday numbers released by Neilsen Soundscan, physical album sales were down 21.4 percent from last year. The drop is the latest indication of the spectacular decline of the music industry’s ability to move albums.
Many in the industry will shake angry fists of blame at Online piracy, but, as Ars points out, the fact that Josh Groban’s “Noel” was the highest selling album of the year speaks volumes. In summary: the music industry needs to focus more on making better music and work on becoming more progressive so that it can better fulfill consumers’ tastes."
This appeared in a newsletter I subscribe to today and leads the way to one of my predictions for 2008 - less shit music.
It can't be long before the nails start getting hammered into the album format. A number of bands - Ash for one - have stopped releasing albums, and moved to a progressive single-by-single pattern for releasing their music. This does what the public have been screaming out for decades - it removes the necessity to pay for what is essentially 'filler'.
There are very few albums that you can genuinely say have a full line-up of top quality tracks - 'Nevermind' might be one you point to. BUt there have been far too many that have had the higher numbers on the track listing stuffed with mediocre rubbish in order to fill-up a CD.
Now its time for the consumer to fight/bite back....and hopefully this sort of movement will take with it the dire rubbish that is churned out by the Pop Idol franchises of this world...
Many in the industry will shake angry fists of blame at Online piracy, but, as Ars points out, the fact that Josh Groban’s “Noel” was the highest selling album of the year speaks volumes. In summary: the music industry needs to focus more on making better music and work on becoming more progressive so that it can better fulfill consumers’ tastes."
This appeared in a newsletter I subscribe to today and leads the way to one of my predictions for 2008 - less shit music.
It can't be long before the nails start getting hammered into the album format. A number of bands - Ash for one - have stopped releasing albums, and moved to a progressive single-by-single pattern for releasing their music. This does what the public have been screaming out for decades - it removes the necessity to pay for what is essentially 'filler'.
There are very few albums that you can genuinely say have a full line-up of top quality tracks - 'Nevermind' might be one you point to. BUt there have been far too many that have had the higher numbers on the track listing stuffed with mediocre rubbish in order to fill-up a CD.
Now its time for the consumer to fight/bite back....and hopefully this sort of movement will take with it the dire rubbish that is churned out by the Pop Idol franchises of this world...
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
The Future Of Brisbane Radio?
I'm going to write down the name of eight bands/artists here:
Pink
Gwen Stefani
Plain White Ts
Snow Patrol
Jack Johnson
Silverchair
Evermore
Missy Higgins
And now I'm going to write down the name of 4 Brisbane radio stations
Nova 106.9
B105
Triple M
97.3
Can anyone guess the connection?
Irrespective of whether you live in Brisbane, Australia, or another city somewhere around the world, the link that all the bands feature on rotation at all of the stations will be a familiar story.
All of the stations claim to position themselves for a different market and a different demographic, but the stark reality is that within core listening times, they are all clones of each other.
Sure, the music offerings aren't exactly the same - Triple M concentrate on delivering more of a 'rock' angle (although they did play Fat Boy Slim the other day), Nova offer a more 'youth' direction (which means house, R&B and hip-hop) and 97.3 flog the 80s to death too (which is something Triple M also make a play with), but the problem is, there are a number of artists on rotation on all stations.
Take for example the Plain White T's and their song 'Hey Delilah'. As an acoustic ballad the song fits into any demographic and any station. Put it in the middle of a song by Pink and say, Silverchair, at 11am, have a random announcer doing competition phone ins for free tickets to see the local sports team and you could be listening to any station in Brisbane...or any station in the world.
So, what's the problem? If listeners are still tuning in, where's the issue?
The issue is a similar problem that the recording industry faced back in the late 1990s. Technology and listening patterns were starting to change, and they weren't preparing for those changes. And by the time everyone realised what had happened, iTunes had swallowed up massive market share, effectively controlling the market to such an extent that the record companies couldn't afford NOT to be iTunes, leaving Apple to dictate the pricing, distribution and promotion of a song.
The internet has an estimated 100,000 audio streams. Brisbane has half a dozen major radio stations. What happens when the average car driver suddenly gets access to those 100,000 audio streams? Sure, people driving cars will still want news, traffic reports and so on. But imagine one of those audio streams JUST delivering traffic reports for your city?
Here's the scenario:
You get into your car at 7am. As you're pulling out of the driveway, you have the audio stream for traffic reports on for 5 minutes. You then flick it to the news audio stream - maybe some days you listen to the national, some days the state, some days the international streams - for another 5 minutes. Then for the final 20 minutes into work, you select a pop music stream.
No adverts, no DJs, no inane banter, no thickie phone-ins. Glorious, eh?
But who pays for it? How is it funded? Audio streams don't come for free.
Of course not, but lets look at another scenario for a moment. I pay $90 a month for my Broadband. Telstra approach me and offer me for another $30 a month, not only wireless broadband for my car, but also offer to install the receiver and equipment needed to not only listen to those audio streams in my car, but also for the kids in the back-seat to watch YouTube, the wife to check out our destination on Whereis.com.au and for us to upload Google Street Maps to check we're heading in the right direction.
Radio is no longer a part of the equation.
I had a similar conversation with someone from Channel 10 the other day about how, with TV moving closer and closer to being under total control of the consumer, advertisers continue to survive?
THe solution is simple: subscription. Charge me $100 a month and remove my adverts. Charge me $60 a month and drop bite-sized ads in the shows - twenty second ad every, say, 10 minutes. Charge me $30 a month, drop more ads in. Give it to me for free and make me watch all the ads.
How about this model:
Desperate Housewives Season 8 With No Ads: Download for $200
Desperate Housewives Season 8 with Fast Forward Ads: Download for $180
Desperate Housewives Season 8 with Locked Ads: Download for $140
Desperate Housewives Season 8 with Locked Ads & Promo Slots: Download for $100
Which would you pick? The point is...there's a choice.
Back to the original problem of the radio stations. Is there a solution? Maybe, maybe not. Myabe I'm just too fickle in my music tastes to really embrace any commercial music station, but the point is, unless they act now and work out the next step for their industry, they'll end up like the record companies, scratching their heads and wondering how they lost control of what they had.
And Pink won't care...she'll still be being streamed into cars...
Pink
Gwen Stefani
Plain White Ts
Snow Patrol
Jack Johnson
Silverchair
Evermore
Missy Higgins
And now I'm going to write down the name of 4 Brisbane radio stations
Nova 106.9
B105
Triple M
97.3
Can anyone guess the connection?
Irrespective of whether you live in Brisbane, Australia, or another city somewhere around the world, the link that all the bands feature on rotation at all of the stations will be a familiar story.
All of the stations claim to position themselves for a different market and a different demographic, but the stark reality is that within core listening times, they are all clones of each other.
Sure, the music offerings aren't exactly the same - Triple M concentrate on delivering more of a 'rock' angle (although they did play Fat Boy Slim the other day), Nova offer a more 'youth' direction (which means house, R&B and hip-hop) and 97.3 flog the 80s to death too (which is something Triple M also make a play with), but the problem is, there are a number of artists on rotation on all stations.
Take for example the Plain White T's and their song 'Hey Delilah'. As an acoustic ballad the song fits into any demographic and any station. Put it in the middle of a song by Pink and say, Silverchair, at 11am, have a random announcer doing competition phone ins for free tickets to see the local sports team and you could be listening to any station in Brisbane...or any station in the world.
So, what's the problem? If listeners are still tuning in, where's the issue?
The issue is a similar problem that the recording industry faced back in the late 1990s. Technology and listening patterns were starting to change, and they weren't preparing for those changes. And by the time everyone realised what had happened, iTunes had swallowed up massive market share, effectively controlling the market to such an extent that the record companies couldn't afford NOT to be iTunes, leaving Apple to dictate the pricing, distribution and promotion of a song.
The internet has an estimated 100,000 audio streams. Brisbane has half a dozen major radio stations. What happens when the average car driver suddenly gets access to those 100,000 audio streams? Sure, people driving cars will still want news, traffic reports and so on. But imagine one of those audio streams JUST delivering traffic reports for your city?
Here's the scenario:
You get into your car at 7am. As you're pulling out of the driveway, you have the audio stream for traffic reports on for 5 minutes. You then flick it to the news audio stream - maybe some days you listen to the national, some days the state, some days the international streams - for another 5 minutes. Then for the final 20 minutes into work, you select a pop music stream.
No adverts, no DJs, no inane banter, no thickie phone-ins. Glorious, eh?
But who pays for it? How is it funded? Audio streams don't come for free.
Of course not, but lets look at another scenario for a moment. I pay $90 a month for my Broadband. Telstra approach me and offer me for another $30 a month, not only wireless broadband for my car, but also offer to install the receiver and equipment needed to not only listen to those audio streams in my car, but also for the kids in the back-seat to watch YouTube, the wife to check out our destination on Whereis.com.au and for us to upload Google Street Maps to check we're heading in the right direction.
Radio is no longer a part of the equation.
I had a similar conversation with someone from Channel 10 the other day about how, with TV moving closer and closer to being under total control of the consumer, advertisers continue to survive?
THe solution is simple: subscription. Charge me $100 a month and remove my adverts. Charge me $60 a month and drop bite-sized ads in the shows - twenty second ad every, say, 10 minutes. Charge me $30 a month, drop more ads in. Give it to me for free and make me watch all the ads.
How about this model:
Desperate Housewives Season 8 With No Ads: Download for $200
Desperate Housewives Season 8 with Fast Forward Ads: Download for $180
Desperate Housewives Season 8 with Locked Ads: Download for $140
Desperate Housewives Season 8 with Locked Ads & Promo Slots: Download for $100
Which would you pick? The point is...there's a choice.
Back to the original problem of the radio stations. Is there a solution? Maybe, maybe not. Myabe I'm just too fickle in my music tastes to really embrace any commercial music station, but the point is, unless they act now and work out the next step for their industry, they'll end up like the record companies, scratching their heads and wondering how they lost control of what they had.
And Pink won't care...she'll still be being streamed into cars...
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Signs Of A Struggle?
Back in 2005 Mattafix, the alternative hip-hop group from London, released their 'Signs Of A Struggle' album to critical acclaim, with the first single from the album 'Big City Life' rocketing up the charts across the globe.
The first single was so promising, and coupled with a performance at Parklife in 2006, I decided about a year ago, to go and buy the album.
I found it in HMV for the bargain price of $17.99, and didn't hesitate to take it to the counter for purchase.
Except on the way to counter I read the back of the album - and found the heavy-handed DRM warning and protection taking up half the space on the reverse CD sleeve. From a band who warned us 'don't let the system get you down', seem to have subscribed to that exact system in order to protect their music.
Mattafix: Not Iron Maiden
I don't have any problem with people protecting their music, but as Apple have finally come to realise with their DRM-free downloads, it is almost impossible to stop people copying and sharing tracks.
When I was making my own mix tapes, I had no comprehension that what I was doing was wrong, and if anyone else had pointed it out to me, I doubt I would have cared one way or another. Frankly if I want to listen to Iron Maiden, Whitesnake and Guns n'Roses tracks all alongside each other, then I've bought the music and I'll do what I want with it. (They were all available on 'Mixtape: Metal #4' - available from all good bootleggers)
Mix Tapes: Jail Time
Anyway, the point of this is that after seeing Mattafix with a new single out, I finally decided to buy Mattafix's old album some two years late via iTunes for $17.99. And of course, because it's $17.99 instead of $16.99, that means one thing - it's released DRM rights-free. I can download and copy it a hundred times to my heart's content.
Perhaps Mattafix had original had the decision made for them by 'the system'? Maybe they realised the irony that whilst they may have been perceived to be protecting their music by one section of the music society, many others thought that with their first commercial release, they had succumbed to commercial greed? Maybe they haven't even given it much thought at all?
Still, I'm $17.99 shorter, half-way through the album and trying to decide if it was money well spent...
The first single was so promising, and coupled with a performance at Parklife in 2006, I decided about a year ago, to go and buy the album.
I found it in HMV for the bargain price of $17.99, and didn't hesitate to take it to the counter for purchase.
Except on the way to counter I read the back of the album - and found the heavy-handed DRM warning and protection taking up half the space on the reverse CD sleeve. From a band who warned us 'don't let the system get you down', seem to have subscribed to that exact system in order to protect their music.
Mattafix: Not Iron Maiden
I don't have any problem with people protecting their music, but as Apple have finally come to realise with their DRM-free downloads, it is almost impossible to stop people copying and sharing tracks.
When I was making my own mix tapes, I had no comprehension that what I was doing was wrong, and if anyone else had pointed it out to me, I doubt I would have cared one way or another. Frankly if I want to listen to Iron Maiden, Whitesnake and Guns n'Roses tracks all alongside each other, then I've bought the music and I'll do what I want with it. (They were all available on 'Mixtape: Metal #4' - available from all good bootleggers)
Mix Tapes: Jail Time
Anyway, the point of this is that after seeing Mattafix with a new single out, I finally decided to buy Mattafix's old album some two years late via iTunes for $17.99. And of course, because it's $17.99 instead of $16.99, that means one thing - it's released DRM rights-free. I can download and copy it a hundred times to my heart's content.
Perhaps Mattafix had original had the decision made for them by 'the system'? Maybe they realised the irony that whilst they may have been perceived to be protecting their music by one section of the music society, many others thought that with their first commercial release, they had succumbed to commercial greed? Maybe they haven't even given it much thought at all?
Still, I'm $17.99 shorter, half-way through the album and trying to decide if it was money well spent...
Thursday, September 20, 2007
It's a Girl Thing...
Don't ask how I got into look at this - but I stumbled across a MySpace profile (http://www.myspace.com/girlthing) last week for a band that has long since been defunct. Officially, the band 'Girl Thing' split in 2000 after one top ten single, and a half-arsed album release and lost millions of $$ for their record company RCA. The marketing was slick, albeit fairly generic and a repetative of the Spice Girl formula, but the second single off the album crashed and burned and RCA cut their losses and run while they still had some shreds of dignity left.
Girl Thing: Tanked
The interesting thing is how, 6 years on, the marketing machine still appears to be running for a product that has lost all of its wheels.
For a start, someone is still logging on - as the MySpace site records the last long in as today. Secondly, someone is still adding friends and until 2005, someone was writing blogs. Even other MySpacers are logging in and saying hello. The individual photos of band members all have dates of births attached to them.
Nostalgia perhaps? A crazy, obsessed fan? Maybe the writers of the songs use the site as a platform to demostrate their talents? But surely the marketing team can't be using this as testimonial?
But when you look through the blog, there's a great comment from someone who actually appeared to be behind the band - their vocal coach - who simply asks 'who set up this site'? Clearly those people close to the band have even less idea than anyone else.
The really amusing bits can be found when you read the 'biography' for the band. It may be tongue in cheek; they may mean this for real - but in the description of the band's sound, this phrase is immortal :
Please, please let me be in the room when Betty Boo meets Dr.Dre, Ice Cube and the rest of NWA....posh Kensington, West London, meets Compton, downtown LA. Brilliant.
Girl Thing: Tanked
The interesting thing is how, 6 years on, the marketing machine still appears to be running for a product that has lost all of its wheels.
For a start, someone is still logging on - as the MySpace site records the last long in as today. Secondly, someone is still adding friends and until 2005, someone was writing blogs. Even other MySpacers are logging in and saying hello. The individual photos of band members all have dates of births attached to them.
Nostalgia perhaps? A crazy, obsessed fan? Maybe the writers of the songs use the site as a platform to demostrate their talents? But surely the marketing team can't be using this as testimonial?
But when you look through the blog, there's a great comment from someone who actually appeared to be behind the band - their vocal coach - who simply asks 'who set up this site'? Clearly those people close to the band have even less idea than anyone else.
The really amusing bits can be found when you read the 'biography' for the band. It may be tongue in cheek; they may mean this for real - but in the description of the band's sound, this phrase is immortal :
"The Girl Thing sound crossed a Betty Boo-meets-NWA rap-style with the incessant bounce of melodic dance pop."
Please, please let me be in the room when Betty Boo meets Dr.Dre, Ice Cube and the rest of NWA....posh Kensington, West London, meets Compton, downtown LA. Brilliant.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Extract from Columbia Records Survey
Kids from Unis in America were all interviewed about music and here are some of the results....
“The kids all said that a) no one listens to the radio anymore, b) they mostly steal music, but they don’t consider it stealing, and c) they get most of their music from iTunes on their iPod. They told us that MySpace is over, it’s just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That’s how they hear about music, bands, everything.”
Radio, it would appear, is dead. Video finally got it.
“The kids all said that a) no one listens to the radio anymore, b) they mostly steal music, but they don’t consider it stealing, and c) they get most of their music from iTunes on their iPod. They told us that MySpace is over, it’s just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That’s how they hear about music, bands, everything.”
Radio, it would appear, is dead. Video finally got it.
iTunes loophole: Straight Edge Article Six
So the story goes something like this...
I downloaded a track from iTunes the other week. I think it was the Axwell track I mentioned earlier in another blog. There is no mention on the album that it is a mix album, although if you have half a brain, you'd realise it was. But I don't half a brain, so I downloaded it and of course, at the end of the track, it's still at full volume when the track cuts out. Sounds ridiculous.
So I told iTunes this, and to their credit, they gave me the $1.69 back without any argument and apologised about the 'poor quality of the track'.
iTunes: not iDiots
I replied saying 'it wasn't the quality, it was the fact that you've sold me an incomplete song and that your website is full of mis-information when mix CDs clearly aren't labelled as such.'
They thanked me and off we all went.
It reminded me of a time when I nearly threw my toys out the pram at HMV. I bought a CD in the bargain basement bin - not even I will reveal who the CD was by - and when I got home, I peeled the stickers off the front of the CD to find the words 'all or some of the tracks may have been re-recorded by one or more of the original artists.'
Yep. A bad karaoke CD. It was horrible and I was livid at HMV. 'Top dog for music' seemed like a bit of a joke. I almost went back and complained; I even thought about writing a letter - then I realised that would mean that more people, other than the cashier and myself, would know what I bought. It wasn't worth the chance that people I knew could find out.
So anyway this brings me in a roundabout way, to my point:
Straight Edge Article Six of The Theory Of Revolution: Be Honest
Bill Gates once said that your 'unhappiest customers are your greatest source of learning.' More and more of my purchases have moved from HMV to other retailers and online - a similar pattern to most of the general public - but I used to LOVE going to HMV and wandering around for hours. But once you've been cheated on a dodgy copy of Bucks Fizz's greatest hits (DAMN, SHIT, I didn't mean to say that...F**K I wish I could take that back), you feel totally betrayed.
Maybe I'm over-exaggeratting, but the Article should never be questioned. Be honest, and your customers and consumers will be honest with you.
I downloaded a track from iTunes the other week. I think it was the Axwell track I mentioned earlier in another blog. There is no mention on the album that it is a mix album, although if you have half a brain, you'd realise it was. But I don't half a brain, so I downloaded it and of course, at the end of the track, it's still at full volume when the track cuts out. Sounds ridiculous.
So I told iTunes this, and to their credit, they gave me the $1.69 back without any argument and apologised about the 'poor quality of the track'.
iTunes: not iDiots
I replied saying 'it wasn't the quality, it was the fact that you've sold me an incomplete song and that your website is full of mis-information when mix CDs clearly aren't labelled as such.'
They thanked me and off we all went.
It reminded me of a time when I nearly threw my toys out the pram at HMV. I bought a CD in the bargain basement bin - not even I will reveal who the CD was by - and when I got home, I peeled the stickers off the front of the CD to find the words 'all or some of the tracks may have been re-recorded by one or more of the original artists.'
Yep. A bad karaoke CD. It was horrible and I was livid at HMV. 'Top dog for music' seemed like a bit of a joke. I almost went back and complained; I even thought about writing a letter - then I realised that would mean that more people, other than the cashier and myself, would know what I bought. It wasn't worth the chance that people I knew could find out.
So anyway this brings me in a roundabout way, to my point:
Straight Edge Article Six of The Theory Of Revolution: Be Honest
Bill Gates once said that your 'unhappiest customers are your greatest source of learning.' More and more of my purchases have moved from HMV to other retailers and online - a similar pattern to most of the general public - but I used to LOVE going to HMV and wandering around for hours. But once you've been cheated on a dodgy copy of Bucks Fizz's greatest hits (DAMN, SHIT, I didn't mean to say that...F**K I wish I could take that back), you feel totally betrayed.
Maybe I'm over-exaggeratting, but the Article should never be questioned. Be honest, and your customers and consumers will be honest with you.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
The 13th Post: Welcome Mr. Billy Ocean
Better get this one out of the way as quickly as possible.
Been downloading music off iTunes today - rumours are iTunes is going to go wireless soon, which will mean you'll be able to download music anywhere there is a wireless network - and that iPods will be set-up to download the music themselves. Exciting stuff. Anyone hoping to catch-up and compete with Apple in this department has a LONG way to go...
I spent the morning downloading random tunes that I haven't heard for ages, or things that are sitting in the UK and US charts that Australia hasn't seen yet. I got the following:
'The Longest Time' - Billy Joel
'Tell Her About It' - Billy Joel
'When The GoinG Gets Tough' - Billy Ocean
'Get Out Of My Dreams' - Billy Ocean
'Carribean Queen' - Bill Ocean
And then one a more modern and less tragic note:
'With Every HEartbeat' - Robyn feat. Kleerup
'I Found You' - Axwell
Axwell: Not a twat
I made the mistake of buying the last one off a 'mix' CD on iTunes, which I should have realised means the song stops half-way through as it's mixed into the next song, which makes it sound ridiculous. I'm going to complain to iTunes and see if I can get a credit for it. Should be interesting to see what they say...
Ocean: Salty & Very Deep
And what is it with Billy Ocean? I realised after downloading them that all three songs I bought have sub-titles next to the main title of the song:
When The Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going)
Get Out Of My Dreams (Get Into My Car)
Carribean Queen (No More Love On The Run)
Maybe Mr. OCean was in two minds when he was thinking about a title for these songs? Maybe he was writing them with someone else, and they were arguing so much that this was the compromise? Maybe he suffered from an accute case of duel personality and each of the people in his head kept re-writing the titles?
He actually had an accute habit of it. Other songs included 'I Sleep So Much Better (In Someone Else's Bed)' and 'On The Run (Hold On Brother)' and 'Stop Me (If You've Heard It All Before)'.
The man was obsessed. Maybe his name wasn't Billy Ocean, but actually Billy (Ocean). Or maybe it was Billy Ocean (From Fyzabad In Trinidad)? Actually his real name was Leslie, so maybe some extreme 'your first name makes you sound like a GIRL' name-calling at school had left him with severe pyschological damage, causing him to name everything he created with specific and descriptive titles to avoid ANY confusion?
Still, I'm sure he was a nice man. According to Wikipedia he is now a teacher. I bet the students all write 'Leslie' in big letters on the blackboard before he comes in to class.
Been downloading music off iTunes today - rumours are iTunes is going to go wireless soon, which will mean you'll be able to download music anywhere there is a wireless network - and that iPods will be set-up to download the music themselves. Exciting stuff. Anyone hoping to catch-up and compete with Apple in this department has a LONG way to go...
I spent the morning downloading random tunes that I haven't heard for ages, or things that are sitting in the UK and US charts that Australia hasn't seen yet. I got the following:
'The Longest Time' - Billy Joel
'Tell Her About It' - Billy Joel
'When The GoinG Gets Tough' - Billy Ocean
'Get Out Of My Dreams' - Billy Ocean
'Carribean Queen' - Bill Ocean
And then one a more modern and less tragic note:
'With Every HEartbeat' - Robyn feat. Kleerup
'I Found You' - Axwell
Axwell: Not a twat
I made the mistake of buying the last one off a 'mix' CD on iTunes, which I should have realised means the song stops half-way through as it's mixed into the next song, which makes it sound ridiculous. I'm going to complain to iTunes and see if I can get a credit for it. Should be interesting to see what they say...
Ocean: Salty & Very Deep
And what is it with Billy Ocean? I realised after downloading them that all three songs I bought have sub-titles next to the main title of the song:
When The Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going)
Get Out Of My Dreams (Get Into My Car)
Carribean Queen (No More Love On The Run)
Maybe Mr. OCean was in two minds when he was thinking about a title for these songs? Maybe he was writing them with someone else, and they were arguing so much that this was the compromise? Maybe he suffered from an accute case of duel personality and each of the people in his head kept re-writing the titles?
He actually had an accute habit of it. Other songs included 'I Sleep So Much Better (In Someone Else's Bed)' and 'On The Run (Hold On Brother)' and 'Stop Me (If You've Heard It All Before)'.
The man was obsessed. Maybe his name wasn't Billy Ocean, but actually Billy (Ocean). Or maybe it was Billy Ocean (From Fyzabad In Trinidad)? Actually his real name was Leslie, so maybe some extreme 'your first name makes you sound like a GIRL' name-calling at school had left him with severe pyschological damage, causing him to name everything he created with specific and descriptive titles to avoid ANY confusion?
Still, I'm sure he was a nice man. According to Wikipedia he is now a teacher. I bet the students all write 'Leslie' in big letters on the blackboard before he comes in to class.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Chupa Chups no longer suck?
In perhaps one of THE most bizarre match-ups, Chupa Chups - those people of lolly fame - are offering a Tooheys Extra Dry 'UncharTED'-style prize experience for you to take your unsigned band from nothing to everything.
This confuses me a lot. Where are Chupa Chups taking this? The prize pack is a bad TED copy, but probably for any aspiring band, hardly a fame-breaking moment. All-in-all other than the average publicity, the band is winning 2000 pressings of an EP and a new guitar. Everyone forgets about the drummer.
And more importantly, where is the link between Chupa Chups and live music? The main area for purchase of Chupa Chups is the petrol station cash desk - the main area for unsigned live bands are dark and sweaty nightclubs. The distance is a stretch. Even if the primary aim of this promotion is to be some sort of Uncharted Lite, there's still a big gap to overcome. The winning band get to play at Odyssey NYE festival - what if they're not let in because they're underage??
This smacks of a comms company selling this to Chupa Chups as an innovative and great brand-building exercise - two things it will fail to be. Maybe it is purely a branding exercise, using the simple concept that bands will promote the site for you because they want to win. But how many will really try that hard for 2000 EPs and a one-off gig?
Whilst I haven't checked, it will be interesting to see if as part of this promotion Chupa Chups develop new and innovative ways of selling their lollies, or there is additional point of purchase in those venues where it sells well.
If they haven't done either of those, they've missed a massive trick. If they have, I could be eating my words. And their lollies.
This confuses me a lot. Where are Chupa Chups taking this? The prize pack is a bad TED copy, but probably for any aspiring band, hardly a fame-breaking moment. All-in-all other than the average publicity, the band is winning 2000 pressings of an EP and a new guitar. Everyone forgets about the drummer.
And more importantly, where is the link between Chupa Chups and live music? The main area for purchase of Chupa Chups is the petrol station cash desk - the main area for unsigned live bands are dark and sweaty nightclubs. The distance is a stretch. Even if the primary aim of this promotion is to be some sort of Uncharted Lite, there's still a big gap to overcome. The winning band get to play at Odyssey NYE festival - what if they're not let in because they're underage??
This smacks of a comms company selling this to Chupa Chups as an innovative and great brand-building exercise - two things it will fail to be. Maybe it is purely a branding exercise, using the simple concept that bands will promote the site for you because they want to win. But how many will really try that hard for 2000 EPs and a one-off gig?
Whilst I haven't checked, it will be interesting to see if as part of this promotion Chupa Chups develop new and innovative ways of selling their lollies, or there is additional point of purchase in those venues where it sells well.
If they haven't done either of those, they've missed a massive trick. If they have, I could be eating my words. And their lollies.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Crimes against music
I've blogged about this before but today I was watching Voyager on the Sci-Fi channel - the one where they find the planet that's made-up of nothing but ocean and Paris manages to get himself court-martialed and reduced in rank through the most tenuous of plot-lines - and during the show they ran a commercial for their other sci-fi shows. The travesty was that the theme being run over the commercial was The Only One's 'Another Girl, Another Planet' - one of my top three songs of all time.
Having Blink182 butcher it I thought would have been enough...but no, we had to find it being used in an advert. Still, at least they used the original version. If you've never heard the song, and it wouldn't surprise me if you hadn't, the video is below.
Incidently, Paris did 30 days in the brigg, during which he wrote a letter to his father, whose expectations Paris never seemed to live up to. We never found out what happened to the ocean planet. I'd imagine they never made it onto Leve 6 water restrictions.
Having Blink182 butcher it I thought would have been enough...but no, we had to find it being used in an advert. Still, at least they used the original version. If you've never heard the song, and it wouldn't surprise me if you hadn't, the video is below.
Incidently, Paris did 30 days in the brigg, during which he wrote a letter to his father, whose expectations Paris never seemed to live up to. We never found out what happened to the ocean planet. I'd imagine they never made it onto Leve 6 water restrictions.
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