Sesame Street Rules!

Gearwire tracked this little nugget down.  Herbie plus a Fairlight.  What's not to love.

Pictures of the Lemur at S.L.U.G.

Here are some pics from the November Seattle (Ableton)Live users group.
Ari Zucker was giving a demo of the Lemur and Dexter from www.jazzmutant.com
As you may have seen in the previous video mO has been creating some new patches for the Lemur in his lab. There is more to be seen with the Lemur so stay tuned we'll be updating you with more video.

2007! The year the fat lady sang?

You know the recording industry is starting to bottom out when MTV (one of the most out of touch entities on the planet) does a 3 part series on the death of the industry. There has been much discussion lately about whether the recording industry is truly dead or if it is in metamorphosis or some mix of both. Yeah the industry is changing but who wins and who loses?

On the one hand, yes, there are more ways for artists to "get their music out there" but my question is can people expect to actually make a living doing music anymore? Especially with the increasing white noise in the indie arena. I think the jury is out on that one. Over the past 6 or 7 years, more and more high profile artists have been turning to alternative platforms to get their music out there such as music licensing for TV, Video games, etc. What concerns me about this a little is that these areas have been the domain for indie artists for a long time. With the majors stepping in, I'm seeing indie guys getting squeezed out more and more. Yeah, there are still some of us hanging in there but it's definitely becoming quite a challenge. It's getting harder to sell someone on using your beats if they have Timbaland's agent on the other line. Also, I've noticed that the amount these companies are willing to pay an indie artist seems to be continuously in decline. (For the record, this is just my personal observation.) So an already crowded sector is becoming completely over populated.

In the traditional music arena (CD's, touring, etc.) the consensus seems to be just give your music away and make it up by touring but who pays for those tours. Sure it's a no brainer for people like Madonna, Trent, and Thom but who will support those with less of a household name? What about songwriters, composers, lyricists and others where touring in not an option? I can honestly say that I've never really wanted to be a "rock star" but I don't think it's too crazy an idea to try to make a living doing this wonderful thing called making music. In one sense these are exciting times and I love a good mystery. On the other hand are indie artists gonna lose access to our traditional revenue streams because major label artists are moving into the neighborhood? Kinda like the condo phenomenon that's happening in Seattle and other cities across the planet.

So where does that leave us? I guess just scratching our heads. Everyone at every level of the biz is simply just trying to figure out checkmate. I do have to say though at least for the first time we are all starting to have an honest and serious discussion on the matter. Hopefully something sticks.

Heh, I didn't see that rant coming. Here are those links:

Part 1: The Year The Music Industry Broke

Part 2: What Makes A Star These Days?

Part 3: The Future: What will the music industry be like in a year? Five years?