Shattered dreams, broken hearts and disheartened fans; the end of a 12 month spiral downhill for Brighton based ‘Sound Atlas’. The 5-piece ‘love-child’ of Elbow and Rufus Wainwright were a pernicious part of the burgeoning South-East music scene in the years 2007/8; they were critically acclaimed by representatives from Sony and released a reasonably successful EP. So what takes an up and coming, talented band from heroes to zeroes, to in some cases; working in Caffe Nero’s?
It would be easy to blame the economic crisis, were the band just not making any money? This definitely seems to be a factor: the economy fails and they split. Speaking with some fans it would appear that this may have had some impact on them too, “£8 for a gig? You had to have been kidding. We had University fees to pay and drinks to buy”, says Max Blackburn, a stalwart Sound Atlas follower. Joe Nichols, Sound Atlas’ bass player, said, “[The money] was spent on recording time [...] [there wasn’t] anything worth it.”
Perhaps, then, we should blame listener apathy, weak distribution and misguided advertising? Again, it would seem not: walking down the South Lanes on a chilly Brighton afternoon there’s more flyers than pavement, there’s more scene kids than I’ve had hot dinners; Brighton is awash with boundless possibilities for up and comers. So what’s to blame?
Do we even need to ‘blame’ anything? A lot of publicity is geared towards fear-mongering and pre-emptive penances for music executives – this isn’t necessary. Whilst Sound Atlas act as a perfect synecdoche for the problems faced in the industry, fear not. Cash crisis, failing bands, stilted careers, shattered dreams, broken hearts, and disheartened fans? 21st Century natural selection.
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Just days after the landmark sentencing of the ‘Pirate Bay’, founders; the question of where illegal downloading is taking the music industry has never appeared more pernicious.
Craig Sullivan, 46, of Brighton: a music producer, manager and mentor, says there is a distinct paradox inherent in illegal downloads and legal sites, “[There’s] a democratisation of music, a realisation of musical feelings and direction... [but] a devaluing of intellectual property.”
This would appear to be the case with the modernisation of music. Broadband internet has opened up the opportunity for an excessive proliferation of music; programmes such as the revolutionary Spotify or last.fm - allowing users to access almost all artists wherever they are in the world.
Problems arise when the usefulness of these programmes is exploited: they were designed to give a sample of an artist but people simply are not buying the CD’s after hearing them online. Sullivan says that CD’s have lost their “rarity value” – people are no longer buying into artists – they “don’t have the time in a 24/7 world.”
On top of the problems with exploitation of internet sources, comes a general disenfranchisement with where the industry has ended up. Sullivan suggests that too often people are, “valuing worthlessness”. The music business, as with any industry, is driven mainly by a need for money and not the archaic and oft parodied realisation of self-fulfilment; and nowadays the money is made by the live shows. This is where the internet comes into play.
Bands need to spread their music to fund their live shows – to spread their music. It’s a self-perpetuating problem which cannot be separated from the importance of the internet. The impetus is changing – the new generations are saying that it is up to bands to make their albums good enough for them to want to buy them. No longer can a band’s success sit solely on the quality of their main single – the internet leads to complete analysis of their full back catalogue. In this sense, the internet can only be seen positively: driving competition in a crowded market.
A final criticism that many people have is that for too long the music industry has been reaping the rewards for re-sales; I own the White Album in three different formats and it was originally released a long time before I was born. Has the industry alienated and marginalised its main audience by raping the funds of teenagers and adults alike? Or were they entirely justified – trying to make sure artists were appreciated fully?
It’s an impossible task to decipher – there are myriad problems with all branches of the industry: illegal downloads stop bands from making money, legal downloads stop people from buying music, 24/7 society kills the rarity value of albums and the hypocrisy of the industry all culminate to make an already flailing industry dangerously close to the edge of the financial precipice. The only question that needs be asked: Is this CD good enough?
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‘And then there were none’ (ATTWN) are a five piece synth-pop band, hailing from New Hampshire, USA. Since their formation in 2003 the band had been gathering a lot of grass roots support from die-hard indie and emo fans across the globe, linking them for possible tours with mainstream, punk-rocking ‘Family Force 5’. At the end of 2006 they were signed to the relatively prestigious ‘Tooth and Nail’ records, which is a label specifically geared towards helping alternative artists; the label upholds its status as one of the largest independent labels in the US.
2009 is already shaping up to be a busy year for ‘ATTWN’; with campaigns for PETA, a member reshuffle and the release of their debut full-length album, ‘Who speaks for planet earth?’ The front man, Matt Rhoades, said, of the bands new album, “Metal bored me and I despise the negative acts at shows. (fighting, moshing, etc.)”, and although the album could quite easily be sequestered into a mainstream indie group, he claims, “I currently couldn't be happier of our change and look forward to growing even more in the future.”
ATTWN are perhaps one of the more contraversial Tooth and Nail bands to release an album this year: leftist leaflets are handed out at their gigs, fans are encouraged to attend rallies and help peta2 (save the seals) foundations. Rhoades says, “In terms of social ethics, we take a very strong stand point.”
Whilst their debut does not exactly reinvent the wheel it does come at a time which is pernicious to the advancement of independent music and production. With legal downloads being overwhelmed by illegal ones and problems with European distribution; ATTWN’s debut looks set to highlight the major problems with grass roots bands getting the recognition that their fans think they deserve.
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This month, iTunes have rolled out a new pricing across their iTunes stores, increasing prices by up to 30%. This comes at a time when legal downloading is worth around £2.5 billion, or 20% of the global music sales; compared to the 40 billion illegal downloads, which account for 95% of the music downloaded by the end of 2008. However, there has been an increase in both digital album downloads, up 32% on the previous year and hard-copy vinyl reached sales of almost 2 million. Both followers and industry insiders are questioning this latest marketing ploy by Apple.
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See. Serious.
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