Global Jukebox creates awareness and access to music across the globe
Fred McDowell: "You've Got to Move" 1959
The Rollings Stones: "You've Got to Move" live 1976
Although the ability to digitalize music has been common place for the past decade, we are now able to experience new music we otherwise would have never heard. Alan Lomax spent his life collecting music across the globe from small villages and disparate countries in what is described as “the most local and non commercialized music.” With his passing, the Global Jukebox project run by the Association for Cultural Equality, has been digitalizing his works in Music, Dance and Speech creating their own independent record label.
What is significant about this reproduction is the ability for artists to access new beats and backgrounds while creating awareness and preservation of the arts for these smaller communities across the globe. Examples of this are already prevalent with Bruce Springsteen’s new album “Wrecking Ball” and The Rolling Stones cover of “You’ve Got to Move” from the original recordings by Lomax of guitarist Fred McDowell from 1959. Through this initiative, the ACE will be giving access to the original communities as well as royalties to heirs of the original recordings which will help increase production of music in these cultures. Google has also been in talks with the ACE to maintain these recordings with a website dedicated to saving endangered languages.
Piracy drops in Sweden after Spotify becomes a popular choice
This article referenced a survey which noted that since 2009, the number of people who pirated music in Sweden dropped by 25% after a large interest in Spotify took off. Spotify is a file sharing program which allows users to save music in their personal libraries and share playlists with others. I found this article interesting due to the current attempts by the music industry to change legislation in order to more severely persecute file-sharers. It seems as though the current model of the music industry needs to adapt to the new ways people are consuming music. Spotify changed the way people could listen to songs by giving them a legal way to do so and as a result piracy declined. Perhaps the current music industry should compromise and lower the costs of recorded music, rather than raising the penalties for sharing files.
Is Spotify Destroying or Preserving the Music Industry?
With the recent rise in technology over the years, the music industry has been greatly impacted. There is a clear need to keep up with the times in order to still gain profit when distributing music. Similarly to the decline in newspaper sales, very few people are purchasing albums nowadays. Different online forums have been created to distribute, purchase, share, or stream music. In particular, Spotify, MOG, and Rdio are online sources that offer these services. There is much debate about whether or not the sites actually benefit the music industry. These sites are based off of a subscription fee that one would pay per month that goes to the site, then the record label, then the artist. However, there is a discrepancy over how much profit actually makes it back to the artist in the end. Certain artists such as Coldplay, Adele, and The Black Keys have requested to ban their music from these sites. Patrick Karney, drummer of The Black Keys, explained that these type of deals are “more fair” for the label than it is for the artist. Others argue that these sites still bring in more revenue to the artist than if these sites didn’t exist at all. “The average American spends only 17 dollars a year on music” an indie record executive told The Verge. If you get people to spend ten dollars a month on music, that brings in more money than 17 dollars a year. However, it is hard to delegate and proportion out the money. Over this process, money gets “lost” and handed out in unequal terms, which frustrates artists to say the least. I find this story relevant because it discusses the debate over whether the rise in technology benefits or hurts different organizations, which is a huge issue. Are these sites created to strictly cater to the consumer’s needs (which hurt the artist in the end) or do they bring in more profit for the artist? It also represents society’s struggle to adapt and keep up with these evolving technology.
Online radio company, Pandora, has teamed up with Pepsi this year for the 2012 Grammy Awards. Along with featured, branded, “Grammy” stations available for streaming through Pandora, they have created an online web series with Pepsi. The series features each of the nominees for “Best New Artist”. It is interesting to see how far online radio has come. They are now able to team up with one of the most prominent parts of the music industry. With the Grammy’s and global soda company, Pepsi, acknowledging Pandora in such a huge way, the music industry is clearly demonstrating the way in which radio is headed. Pandora is a freemium website, where you can choose whether to experience ads while listening for free, or listen add-free for a fee. People wondered for a long time how they actually made money, but it is quickly becoming clear, and you can tell they know what kind of business they are getting in to.
Global Jukebox creates awareness and access to music across the globe
Although the ability to digitalize music has been common place for the past decade, we are now able to experience new music we otherwise would have never heard. Alan Lomax spent his life collecting music across the globe from small villages and disparate countries in what is described as “the most local and non commercialized music.” With his passing, the Global Jukebox project run by the Association for Cultural Equality, has been digitalizing his works in Music, Dance and Speech creating their own independent record label.
What is significant about this reproduction is the ability for artists to access new beats and backgrounds while creating awareness and preservation of the arts for these smaller communities across the globe. Examples of this are already prevalent with Bruce Springsteen’s new album “Wrecking Ball” and The Rolling Stones cover of “You’ve Got to Move” from the original recordings by Lomax of guitarist Fred McDowell from 1959. Through this initiative, the ACE will be giving access to the original communities as well as royalties to heirs of the original recordings which will help increase production of music in these cultures. Google has also been in talks with the ACE to maintain these recordings with a website dedicated to saving endangered languages.
NY Times- Alan Lomax Global Jukebox
Cultural Equality-Global Jukebox
-Shara Hannah
Piracy drops in Sweden after Spotify becomes a popular choice
This article referenced a survey which noted that since 2009, the number of people who pirated music in Sweden dropped by 25% after a large interest in Spotify took off. Spotify is a file sharing program which allows users to save music in their personal libraries and share playlists with others. I found this article interesting due to the current attempts by the music industry to change legislation in order to more severely persecute file-sharers. It seems as though the current model of the music industry needs to adapt to the new ways people are consuming music. Spotify changed the way people could listen to songs by giving them a legal way to do so and as a result piracy declined. Perhaps the current music industry should compromise and lower the costs of recorded music, rather than raising the penalties for sharing files.
http://torrentfreak.com/music-piracy-continues-to-decline-thanks-to-spotify-110928/
-Jocelyn Lambert
Is Spotify Destroying or Preserving the Music Industry?
With the recent rise in technology over the years, the music industry has been greatly impacted. There is a clear need to keep up with the times in order to still gain profit when distributing music. Similarly to the decline in newspaper sales, very few people are purchasing albums nowadays. Different online forums have been created to distribute, purchase, share, or stream music. In particular, Spotify, MOG, and Rdio are online sources that offer these services. There is much debate about whether or not the sites actually benefit the music industry. These sites are based off of a subscription fee that one would pay per month that goes to the site, then the record label, then the artist. However, there is a discrepancy over how much profit actually makes it back to the artist in the end. Certain artists such as Coldplay, Adele, and The Black Keys have requested to ban their music from these sites. Patrick Karney, drummer of The Black Keys, explained that these type of deals are “more fair” for the label than it is for the artist. Others argue that these sites still bring in more revenue to the artist than if these sites didn’t exist at all. “The average American spends only 17 dollars a year on music” an indie record executive told The Verge. If you get people to spend ten dollars a month on music, that brings in more money than 17 dollars a year. However, it is hard to delegate and proportion out the money. Over this process, money gets “lost” and handed out in unequal terms, which frustrates artists to say the least. I find this story relevant because it discusses the debate over whether the rise in technology benefits or hurts different organizations, which is a huge issue. Are these sites created to strictly cater to the consumer’s needs (which hurt the artist in the end) or do they bring in more profit for the artist? It also represents society’s struggle to adapt and keep up with these evolving technology.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/26/2740981/debate-spotify-mog-rdio-kill-save-music-industry
-Lisa Gabbard
Pandora Finds Their Way into the 2012 Grammys
Online radio company, Pandora, has teamed up with Pepsi this year for the 2012 Grammy Awards. Along with featured, branded, “Grammy” stations available for streaming through Pandora, they have created an online web series with Pepsi. The series features each of the nominees for “Best New Artist”. It is interesting to see how far online radio has come. They are now able to team up with one of the most prominent parts of the music industry. With the Grammy’s and global soda company, Pepsi, acknowledging Pandora in such a huge way, the music industry is clearly demonstrating the way in which radio is headed. Pandora is a freemium website, where you can choose whether to experience ads while listening for free, or listen add-free for a fee. People wondered for a long time how they actually made money, but it is quickly becoming clear, and you can tell they know what kind of business they are getting in to.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/02/4233903/pandora-pepsi-and-the-recording.html
- Elaina Smith